A hand-painted narrative adventure about memory and distance. Small in scope, enormous in feeling — the indie highlight of the year.
There is a category of game that is less about winning than about being present, and Paper Lanterns belongs to its finest tier. Across four or five hours it tells a story about memory and the distances between people, and it does so with a restraint that never tips into sentimentality.
Every frame looks hand-painted because it is, and the soundtrack — sparse, acoustic, patient — does as much narrative work as the script. There is little in the way of conventional challenge, and that is entirely the point. This is a game to sit inside rather than conquer, and it is the finest indie release we have covered this year.
