If love exists in the ability to make another person happy, how can someone who can’t make anyone happy truly be in love?

This question was posed by one of October 2016’s PlayStation Plus titles on the PS Vita, Actual Sunlight. Built in RPG Maker, the game is, at its base elements, grim, pessimistic and depressing; by that same token, though, it is possibly the most raw and realistic depiction of depression in the entire medium. The game follows the tale of Evan Winter, and the monotony of his every day life working a miserable job and coming home every day to an empty silent apartment, his abject failure to accomplish anything that he wanted to do, even something as simple as getting married and starting a family before he turned 30, and how all of these things compound into his every day struggle with the self-imposed question of “Go to the roof and jump off?” New information is presented via conversations with other characters, Evan’s inner thoughts, and stories, triggered by interactions with objects and other characters, making it much more visual novel than traditional RPG, despite the engine.

Visuals: The in-game graphics, are of course, standard fare for RPG Maker games–however, the art that the game cuts away to is absolutely astounding, and more than makes up for that.

Story: The story is phenomenal. I’ve played games in the past with implications of a suicidal protagonist, Wolfenstein: The New Order immediately jumps to mind, but never done as outright and maturely as Actual Sunlight. This game literally has a warning when you boot it about the content inside, asking the player if they want to continue on into the game proper. Five minutes into the game you get a letter from the developer telling you, the player to not treat the game as if it is about you and to not take Evan’s pessimistic point of view as your own. The stories presented by Evan’s interactions are all interesting and provide more insight into Evan as a person and how he feels about himself, the other characters around him and how he believes those people feel about him.

Gameplay: Again, as to be expected for an RPG Maker game. There’s not much going in the means of gameplay, especially considering that the most integral part of a game made in RPG Maker, battles, is absent, and thematically wouldn’t be appropriate for the story being told.

Replay Value: The game’s biggest success is also its biggest failing. The story is only about an hour in length and the climax is a figurative punch in the stomach, one that loses its sting after the first time.All things considered, Actual Sunlight was a welcome surprise in last month’s PS+ lineup, an excellent change of pace as it pertains to the depiction of mental illness in video games, and well worth the $5 on Steam or Playstation Network.