This is so absolutely beautiful. Just...the way you viscerally describe the pain of losing a parent, but the desperate attempts to piece together the facts and facets of them. The use of the devil and the magic really just hones everything in beautifully, and I am not ashamed to say I may have sobbed at the games end. Oohhh and the disconnect between the 'old' culture- the devil being surprised at you knowing bits of the language- and the 'new' culture- sharing the cigarettes, the bits where it states that the narrator is 'drowning in' English- never fails to hit me in the chest, especially as a first gen immigrant part of the Bangladeshi diaspora who is just pure Shit at their mother tongue, lol.
All in all, this is such a melancholy game and brings out all the Feels, but also manages to (at some points at least) enter into a territory of idk...comfort? Like, the last scene in my playthrough where the narrator heads into the kitchen after dismissing the devil and decides to eat something just really hits me in the chest- like yes, the grief is there. The grief will always be there. But you have to get going- you have to eat, and sleep, and dance and drink. There is no use for running after the devil, demanding answers about his and your fathers lost love. There is no time for "what ifs" or "has beens", no time to drown in them. You have to get up off of that balcony, put out your cigarette, and find something to eat.
The whole theme of trying to 'salvage' the past, trying to dredge up old wounds to further piece together the mystery of who your Baba was will never not endear me. This game was genuinely so amazing, and I will definitely have to do a replay soon!