‘The Sun Shines Over Us’ Is A Tender Tale About Mental Health  — Game Review

The Sun Shines Over Us is an award-winning visual novel that dives into the lives and minds of high school students. Play as Mentari, a victim of bullying who just transferred schools and is trying to recover from her traumatic past. Help her make choices through her school life and experience life-changing events that will affect her future.

Developed by: Eternal Dream, Niji Games

Played on: Steam

Length: 6-8 hours


From Indonesian indie studios Eternal Dream and Niji Games comes a visual novel that explores the social, mental, and emotional issues faced by modern teenagers. Released late last year, The Sun Shines Over Us follows Mentari, a transfer student and former bullying victim who is trying to start fresh in a new school, while the traumatic memories from her previous school continue to haunt her.

It’s not uncommon for mental health to take center stage in video games today, but this one takes a realistic and empathy-driven approach that grabs my attention. Right from the first chapter, the game doesn’t shy away from showing you the realities of Mentari’s experience, from her intrusive thoughts to the sudden panic attacks. But this is only the first step in her healing journey, which we follow throughout the rest of the game.

The Sun Shines Over Us features 15 main chapters, 1 bonus chapter, and over 100,000 words, allowing us to experience Mentari’s healing journey in its full breadth. Unlike your typical visual novel, this story focuses on empowering the player’s own healing journey, and there are no bad endings out of the six endings in the game. The game even goes the extra mile to explain the significance of certain decisions or milestones in her progress, holding our hand as it walks us through her journey as well as our own.

Through a large supporting cast of 15 characters, the game manages to show us more than just Mentari’s perspective on mental health. From her classmates to her parental figures, we get a glimpse into their own challenges, as well as the seen and unseen dynamics in Mentari’s support system. On that note, there are three side characters who play a big role in the third act: the quiet and studious Alvin, the genius school delinquent Alex, and the student council president Aditya.

Out of the six endings, there are two endings (one Natural Ending and one Good Ending) for each of our three male leads. Despite the typical dating sim setup, the game doesn’t generally focus on romance, leaving the implied romance up to personal interpretation. Instead, it highlights the importance of platonic relationships in Mentari’s journey regardless of gender. Considering the serious subject matter of the game, I found this approach to be refreshing and the hints of romance enough to satiate those who are looking for it.

As a fast reader, one full playthrough of the game takes around six hours to complete, but there are plenty of beautiful CG to collect from different characters and choices throughout the game. However, the game doesn’t have a chapter checkpoint system, so if you’re gunning for multiple routes, we suggest creating plenty of save states. There’s also a few rough patches in terms of audio balancing, so we’d advise to keep the audio low in general.


Verdict: Gives You Something To Think About

The Sun Shines Over Us is a wholesome visual novel that handles its mental health themes with a lot of care. Although its story isn’t groundbreaking, its empathy-driven narrative seems to come from a place that is close to the writer’s heart. For those looking for a heartwarming visual novel experience, definitely give this one a try.

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