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As humans, we love to label anything and everything – this includes ourselves. Personality type fads come and go, ranging from zodiac signs, to the Myers-Briggs, to something as silly as what Pokémon type are you? Regardless if you genuinely believe in these boxed-in temperaments, it is all in good fun. They may even be a useful tool to some degree.
Finding out one’s personality through a video game however is unique and rather impressive. A game that keeps track of every little thing you do, even as miniscule as how many metal scraps you pick up, what colors you choose to paint a sheep picture, and how long it takes you to move to an undiscovered location.
Developed by Lizardry and published by PLAYISM, Refind Self: The Personality Test Game is an interactive 2D explorative adventure that will micro-analyze every single choice and action you make. While it is experimenting with you, there is an underlying current of lore that players should piece together, making for an alluring playthrough.
Released on November 13th, 2023, Refind Self can be played on Steam and the Nintendo Switch.
Love, death, and Androids
To my surprise, not only does the short and sweet Refind Self have a story element to it, but a fairly complicated one at that.
Players take control of a wind-up robot named Utsuwa (which can be manually changed), who looks and acts awfully human . . . or at least is trying to by understanding the human heart. Utsuwa was created by the mysterious Dr. Kusunoki by using powerful emotional, self-aware AI that can continue to learn. The Doctor, now deceased, appears to have created tens of hundreds of humanlike androids inhabiting this island the player is on, with no other humans around. Players will not know much at the beginning, but will begin to unravel more depending upon the places you travel to and the choices you make.
Certain actions will trigger flashback cutscenes of Utsuwa and the Doctor, based around their dialogue questioning the nature of humanity and the nature of their own relationship; and as the story progresses, you will discover more about the Doctor’s loneliness, pessimism, and foreboding plans for the future.
It is almost impossible to unveil the full “truth” in a single playthrough. I missed out on a lot of lore during my first attempt, as I was super concerned about picking up and touching everything that I saw, which filled my heart meter up fast. I did not even make it to half of the possible buildings and characters I could have encountered. However, Refind Self is not meant to be played only once. To get the full extent of the story, and to fully complete the game’s analysis of your personality, players must complete the game a full three times. Do not worry – each attempt takes about 60 minutes max, so the work is highly achievable and definitely worth it.
Just follow your heart
Utsuwa has this heart meter at the top left part of the screen that will slowly climb to 100%. Once you hit this percentage, your playthrough will end after one final action. The entire time you are playing, the game is analyzing every little thing that you do. To have a fully enjoyable experience, do not look up walkthroughs; do not worry about what you are doing; simply just play! Refind Self will not be pressuring you to go anywhere or hurry along – you do whatever you want to do. I highly recommend not reading up on the 23 personality types beforehand either, as humans tend to try to morph themselves into what they think they should be. Go in blind!
The player’s heart meter will incrementally increase by doing literally anything. Picking up a flower will increase the percentage by one. Doing a minigame might make it go up by 10%. Control of the main character will be cut off once the gauge hits 100%.
After your first playthrough, the game will reveal your dominant, secondary, and tertiary personalities. The game will unveil your “hidden personality” after the second attempt. If it is the same as your dominant personality, it could mean that these traits are an insanely strong part of your character. If it is different than your dominant result, this personality means that these traits lie dormant within you, and according to the game, serves “like a kind of hidden flavor or spice.” Finally, the last playthrough will show your “most distant” personality. This will be the one you scored the least on, or the qualities you may lack.
Playing subsequent times will not affect your personality results.
Who am I?
For example, my dominant result was “the researcher,” which makes total sense. As I stated, I just had to look at everything, read anything, and ask a whole lot of “what?” questions on my first attempt. This allowed me to gain knowledge but it severely hindered my progress! My “most distant” personality was “the philosopher.” This is kind of funny to me, because this means that I don’t take time to contemplate my decisions . . . which yeah, true, I absolutely did not do this during my playthrough. All of my choices were based on gut reactions because that is typically how I play games (for better or for worse)!
Each action you take will add points or detract points from certain attributes: morals, passion, daring, judgement, and methods. I scored the highest in passion, which resulted in a personality under the passion category (there are four personalities per attribute).
Players are able to see all the major and minor actions you took per playthrough, and how common they are compared to other people’s choices. You are able to directly compare personalities with someone you know that has played Refind Self, or random people over the internet. This mechanic was super fun, and it is almost startling to see the amount of variation in everyone’s experience. I sat on a bench for over 10 seconds, but a stranger may have never sat down at all. I played the cafe game, but a stranger might have gambled at the casino instead.
The world is your oyster
Refind Self is a simple game: players will walk around and interact with people and objects. You can accrue money by trading gold scraps, pull up your inventory to see what items you picked up, and play a surplus of minigames. For example, talking to the robotic barista at the cafe and agreeing to help her will result in a quick minigame, where players complete customer orders while maintaining a profit margin. There is also a sheep painting game, gambling, a 2D shooter, and more, in which some side games are actually relevant to the plot.
Without spoiling anything, after your personality gets analyzed, there is a final ending sequence that transforms into RPG-style combat. The shift is jarring, but works pretty well. Utsuwa’s combat abilities will mostly depend on the personality results you get, which is uniquely fascinating. I failed the fight during my first attempt but subsequently succeeded. You do not have to win, but the ending will slightly alter depending upon this fight and several other small things.
Come along with me
Refind Self works excellently as a short title, because playing through it multiple times is always exciting. The game is much larger than you may expect: I had a very different experience every attempt. As each playthrough occurs, players will gather more memories of Utsuwa and the Doctor, uncovering the latter’s true intentions as well as the complex, questionable nature of her relationship with you. The third playthrough results in a special end segment with the Doctor running tests on Utsuwa, and the way it plays out is subject to change based on your choices. My ending was bittersweet, and that is all I will say.
Overall, the plot is a little confusing at times, but the whole point of Refind Self is to learn more about you!
New age of pixel art
The visual and sound design of Refind Self is very Undertale-esq in my opinion. Refind Self is more anime-like, but includes that simple, 2D pixel art charm that looks great even for the modern era. There is an underlying eeriness with the design, I believe, which gives off an atmosphere of self-questioning and existentialism, which the game is intentionally trying to convey.
The music is soft, melancholic, yet curious, kind of like certain explorative areas in Undertale. It fits in well, but certainly makes me feel a bit somber, knowing that time will run out for my character. The music, paired with the game’s muted color scheme of deep greys and pale yellows and pinks – almost sepia – seems dull but is somehow quite captivating.
A small part of me wishes to customize the physical appearance Utsuwa for a more personable experience. Then again, this female android has already been embedded in the plot. Utsuwa is not necessarily you.
Final thoughts
Refind Self: The Personality Test Game is positively unusual with high re-playability. While having a somewhat confusing plot line that can be difficult to fully make sense of without tens of playthroughs, trying to put the puzzle together is exhilarating enough, with the player being able to define the Doctor’s relations with Utsuwa and your identity as a mortem-focused robot. The sad thing is, nothing can stop Utsuwa from her ultimate death, because this is the one thing you as a player cannot choose to avoid. Utsuwa does not want her clockwork motor wound up. She just . . . doesn’t. She believes that the Doctor is dead, and therefore she wants herself to naturally expire in a human way. Mortality cannot be avoided.
Certain choices have left me satisfied, like being able to refuse to look at your personality results prematurely, or denying/accepting to cheat the system and lessen your heart meter by a giant percentage. Perhaps the results are not accurate for everyone, but it was on point with me.
If you chose to play Refind Self, which I highly recommend, just keep in mind the black sheep. Touch them, do not touch them, destroy them . . . then again, is it up to you or Utsuwa?