>>712951528
>The question the game asks about whether painted people are "real" is entirely about what it means for any of the characters to be "real".
The game barely at all even entertains the idea of if the painted people are "real" or not. It says, time after time, that they are. Clea and Verso would regularly come by and play with Francois and Esquie; Francois's grief turned rage at Clea's absence has all the conscious, emotional impact of painted Renoir's at having lost his family. Real Renoir addresses Verso and the others as real people. Gustave impacted Maelle no less after she received Alicia's memories. The painters are creators, wholly able to create beings that are fuller than they could imagine (Maelle brought back Sciel and Lune, who later showed they knew things about themselves Maelle did not).
Notice, too, how no character in the game has a shadow of an existential crises once the truth of the world is revealed. They all concern themselves only with revenge and bringing back their loved ones. Even Verso, a copy of a dead man, is only troubled for having lived so long, having seen so many deaths, having killed so many innocents. "I don't want this life" is an affirmation that he does have a life. What is on Verso's tombstone? Forever painted in our hearts. There is no distinction.
What it is about is endless cycles of grief. Verso burned alive to save Alicia, causing Aline to live in his portrait to avoid letting him go. Renoir doesn't want to lose her too, so goes after her, destroying the only piece of Verso left in the process and forever alienating Alicia and Aline, while Clea fights some ambiguous war that will only bring more destruction to them. The real question is: how does one overcome tragedy? As Monoco, to carry pieces of the dead into the future changed but resembling? to lash out, as Francois yearns for Clea? to avenge brutishly, as Maelle for Gustave, Clea for Verso? to annihilate all remnants of the past, as Renoir for Verso?
