This game takes you on a slow walk, and opens your eyes to the mortality of people and how everything changes regardless of how much we remain the same.
Since it is a story-based game, there will be major spoilers ahead.
An Unusual Protagonist
We cannot talk about The Stillness of the Wind without discussing how rare our protagonist is. She’s an aged woman living a lonely life in the middle of a desert, tending to her farm animals and handful of crops. The only thing exciting in her life are the letters from her faraway settled family members, which are handed to her by a sweet old travelling merchant.
Talma receives letters from her brother, her daughter, her sister and other people from her village who have moved to the “big city”. Even when she’s alone in her everyday life, she has people writing to her and telling her tales of their own adventures. The travelling salesman also brings her news of his travels, as well as warnings to take care during the night. He also asks her this one specific question which comes full circle in the ending.
It’s a simple life for Talma, who is a simple person finding joy even in her solitude. This aspect is especially charming because no matter who we are now, we all would like to have an ordinary life in our old age.
Side Character Energy
Talma isn’t special. She’s an old woman and she can barely complete her tasks in the game. She’s extremely slow to maneuver and takes a long time to do the simplest of tasks. As people who have been accustomed to the fast pace of literally everything in today’s world, we will find it extremely frustrating to play as her. But that’s part of the experience of this game, because Talma has that side character energy, which isn’t essentially a bad thing.
Being the center of everything is a difficult position to fill, and Talma can barely make cheese without getting tired.
But that doesn’t stop her from being remembered by people she has known.
Despite being so far away from these people, they remember her enough that she receives a letter each day filled with happiness and remembrance, with just a hint of underlying troubles. That feels like more than enough — to be remembered in happy occasions.
It might feel like little since no one’s coming to visit Talma, but just knowing that these busy people take the time to remember her and to write her a letter is enough to show how much she is loved.
Something Cozy about Dying
I found this game in the cozy genre which sounds like a stretch since the game can get frustrating at times, despite the easy gameplay — something that other cozy games don’t have you feeling. But regardless of everything, the story and gameplay hit close to home without bothering that certain comfort level.
There’s a sublime beauty to how the themes of the game lead us to the acceptance of death and loss. Two things we are, generally, bad at accepting.
Talma’s health is declining which is hinted at through nightmares or hallucinations throughout the game, and when things turn for the worse everywhere — she can barely hold up.
Even the people in her life stop writing her letters after sending her horrible news one after the other. At this point in the game, it’s perfectly clear that Talma will not survive whatever is happening around her, but it’s not a sudden revelation. We come to realize this through a sequence each day. Every solution we can think of will be of no use because we cannot stop the inevitable from happening, even if we try our best.
Inevitability and the Inability to Change it
First, the goats disappear. Then the chickens. Then the well dries up. There’s a constant rain which turns everything a disturbing black.
The letters are all filled with horrible news, but there is worse happening to Talma.
There is nothing left for her to do at the farm. She cannot cook the remaining food she has since there is no firewood and soon the electricity cuts off as well. A terrible storm surrounds the farm and she sits in the silence of the inevitable that is descending upon her. She will die. And she will die alone.
I wondered why the game’s name sounded like such a downer, The Stillness of the Wind, and then I completed the game with tears in my eyes and realized.
At the beginning of the game, there are multiple sounds surrounding the farm as if enveloping it in a warm embrace. The sound of chickens and goats, and Talma’s hearty laughter paired with songbirds. It’s a rich experience of being surrounded with pleasant sounds, but somewhere down the line, they stop.
This is first mentioned by the travelling old man, who mentions how the birds have stopped singing.
Somehow, this becomes a pattern as everything becomes silent as days pass, until there is nothing but the quiet left, engulfing Talma and the farm.
When there is nothing, there is the wind. But in the last moments of Talma’s life, even the wind has left her, leaving her in a still state.
The game is incredible in showing everything in a subtlety which is overlooked if not paid close attention to. While I was focused on the frustrating slowness of Talma’s movements, everything changed around her.
It was never about farming and reading letters from Talma’s family. It was always about the way everything changes even when we remain the same.
Talma is the same as ever, as also mentioned in the letters. She is happy even in her solitude, and she enjoys looking after the farm which was passed down to her, while her siblings and her daughter went to succeed in the city. She stays the same, just like the farm stands like it always had, with memories of the past.
But life is ever-changing, and we cannot stop what we cannot control.
A Lonely Yet Fulfilling Life
Keeping all the sadness aside, the game’s message isn’t just about death and loss. That would’ve been such a typical take on such a thought-provoking game. It’s also about having no regrets.
Now, you might be wondering where I got that from, and it’s an easy answer: from a letter and the final words of the travelling salesman.
Hear me out now. Talma’s life is bound to her farm but she never shows any disinterest or remorse. She doesn’t feel like she has to tend to the farm. She does so out of her own accord and she enjoys it. She laughs while petting the goats; she works hard to tend to the crops; and she has to walk painstakingly slow to the well to get water that can only water five crops. That’s a decision, right there.
And she doesn’t regret it. Just like her sister doesn’t regret her decisions as she dies with a smile on her face. Even the travelling salesman doesn’t show any remorse when he last meets Talma. In fact, his dialogues made me weep like a child because there was no grief in his words. He was simply saying goodbye as if the world wasn’t ending around them.
So, yes, the game is about living a life you have no regrets over, even if your existence is bound to just one thing. We don’t need to be someone with power or incredible riches. Sometimes just having a few goats and chickens is enough. Of course, the goats and chickens are a metaphor. Don’t go out and buy animals on a whim, people.
I would know because I sold one of my goats to buy a Billy goat, and regretted it the very next day in the game. And then my goat and its baby disappeared, which had me feeling angry until the chickens went away too. I had so many regrets in the game.
Don’t be like me, folks. Don’t regret not doing the things you want to do. Eat all the cheese, and have a feast every night.
That’s a metaphor as well. Or is it?
I hope you enjoyed reading this piece on the 2019 cozy indie game The Stillness of the Wind. Feel free to watch this complete playthrough of the game. You can also find and support more of my work here on Medium. Thank you for reading!