Reviews of the best indie games and horror games

How Fish is Made – A Horror Game About Choice and Doubt

How Fish is Made is a short narrative horror game where you make your way through the world as a fish who has to make a difficult choice. You are constantly questioned about which side you are on, up or down? However what is up or down is never explained, or why it is important. Some fish believe they know up is the answer, but others are also certain down is the right one. From the beginning if you have a choice in mind, you are reaffirmed and then made doubtful through the entire journey.

How Fish is Made Explained

How Fish is Made Parasite Dance Intro
Spectacular

I can’t think of a good way to fully describe what message How Fish is Made is trying to send. It kind of reminds me of Nightslink which presents more questions than answers. The closest answer I have is that it’s a game about making a hard choice, when being doubted and pressured by others.

Then being unable to find a clear answer among the chaos. We’re in a fish factory, and seeming have made our way to a place maybe we shouldn’t be.

There’s a lot of fish to talk to, and I did enjoy the casual chats. They all have their own unique takes on which direction you should go. Then there’s others who found themselves in a weird or a horrifying situation. Such as the poor fish stuck in the gear which was blocking a door… Sorry buddy, you’re in the way and I’m moving on.

Then there’s the fish with a tongue eating parasite. Pretty gross, but this was my favorite part of the game. The parasite is joyful and hilarious. He goes on to sing you a song with a cue tip cane and a nice looking getup. He leaves you with your own tongue parasite after though, little snake.

How Fish is Made Ending – Up or Down?

No matter what, you choosing the up or down dialogues does not effect the ending. Only which actual direction you take gives you a certain ending. So in the end do your choices matter at all? Does it matter if you were resilient and stuck with up or down no matter what? I think that would be the most difficult thing to do in a game like this.

The Wise One of Fish

The game frames it as the most important choice of you life and you only get one shot at it. It feels like a life or death choice the way it’s constantly brought up, and with so many fish panicking about it. There is no good ending though. You either end up in a sandwich, or become a part of an amalgamation of what seems to be a deformed fish blob being.

Closing Thoughts

The entire experience of How Fish is Made is oddly tense and dark. It’s one of the best PS1 style horror games of all time though. It kept me interested in what every fish had to say, and why the choice of up and down mattered so much. I would highly recommend playing through, and deciding some things for yourself. Maybe you’ll find some way to explain at least some of this game.

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