What Remains of Edith Finch is an action adventure game developed by Giant Sparrow and published by Annapurna Interactive. It was released for Windows and Playstation 4 on April 25, 2017. The game was released on July 19, 2017 for Xbox One. The Nintendo Switch got the game on July 4, 2019. It was released for iOS on August 16, 2021.
Story
When the game starts, an unnamed character is on a ferry to Orcas Island. They have the journal of Edith Finch with them. As they sit and read it, you take control of Edith Finch. Edith is 17 years old in this story. She returns to her family home on Orcas Island for the first time in seven years. The last time she saw the place was her brother Lewis’ funeral. Everyone in her family dies an untimely death. She believes the family is cursed. Edith may be on to something, as she is the last surviving member of her family.
Odin Finch
Odin Finch was Edith’s great great grandfather. He was living in Norway when his wife Ingeborg and their newborn son Johann passed away. Odin believed the only way to get rid of the curse was to leave Norway, so he and his remaining family, Edith(or Edie, his daughter), her husband Sven, and their daughter Molly, decide to emigrate to America. They decide to take their house with them from Norway, but once offshore of the island, the house capsizes and Odin drowns. The family decide to build a new home on the island, with a family graveyard nearby. Edie eventually has more children with Sven, Barbara, Calvin, Sam, and Walter.
Molly Finch
Edie believed they avoided the curse once they reached the shore of the island. For a while they were safe. The curse did come back though. When Molly was ten years old, she was sent to bed without dinner one night. Molly wakes up hungry and cannot fall back asleep. She finds some things in her room to eat, first it was her gerbil’s food while looking for her Halloween candy. Unfortunately there was no candy, so she went to the bathroom and eats an entire tube of fluorinated toothpaste. Finally she goes to her window and finds some holly berries. She begins to hallucinate before falling sick. She died two days later.
Barbara Finch
Barbara was a child star. She loved performing and had dreams of going to Hollywood. On her 16th birthday, she heads down to the basement looking for her boyfriend, Rick. She finds his crutch at the bottom of the stairs and begins to worry. Looking around a basement, she sees someone wearing a bigfoot mask and uses the crutch as a weapon, making Rick show his face. The two argue and she throws Rick out. Later, she hears Walter yell upstairs. She grabs the crutch and goes to investigate, finding Walter gone. Soon she’s fighting off the Hookman killer who somehow got in her house. She’s able to get to Molly’s old room and get behind him before hitting him with the crutch. He falls to the ground below and she goes to check the body, but it’s not there. The doorbell rings and she answers it, only to find a surprise party. They are really part of the Hookman’s gang and end up killing and eating her, leaving only her ear.
Calvin Finch
After Barbara’s funeral Calvin decides to live his life how he wants, not being afraid of anything. He begins to love danger in fact. He dreamed of being able to fly, which is what he loved to pretend to do while on the swing outside. One day Edie calls her sons in for dinner, but he doesn’t listen, he just continues to play on the swing. At some point Calvin swung too high and let go of the swing, falling to his death in the ocean.
Sven Finch
When Sven married Edie, he decided to take her last name. When in Norway he and Edie had a daughter, Molly. Seven years later, their daughter Barbara was born. Three years after Molly passed away, Sven and Edie had twins, Sam and Calvin. Two years after the twins were born, they had their third son, Calvin. Sven had to be taken to the hospital on Barbara’s 16th birthday because he hit a saw table. Sven then had to go through the pain of losing Calvin. Two months after his 49th birthday, he dies in a construction accident while making a dragon for his son, Walter on his 12th birthday.
Walter Finch
Walter was the opposite of Calvin. Calvin decided to live life without fear, but Walter had immense fear. After Barbara’s death, Walter is terrified of the family curse. He constructed a bunker underneath the house and lived in it for 30 years. One day Walter has had enough, he decides it’s time for him to leave the bunker after 30 years. He takes a sledge hammer and smashes through a wall and walks outside to a train tunnel. Walking into the sun, he’s amazed by what he sees. He’s so amazed that he doesn’t see or hear the oncoming train.
Gregory Finch
Sam grew up, got married to a woman named Kay, and had three children, Dawn, Gus, and Gregory. Gregory was very imaginative, he saw things no one else saw. A month before his second birthday, Kay was trying to give Gregory a bath, but Sam kept calling her on the phone. She left Gregory in the tub which allowed him to turn on the water and unfortunately drowned.
Gus Finch
After Gregory’s death, grief stricken over the loss of their son, Sam and Kay divorce. Eventually Sam remarried an unnamed woman, but had no children with her. Gus hated that his parents divorced, but really hated the thought of his father remarrying. He hated it so much that he said he’d be dead before he’d see their wedding. On the day of their wedding, Gus was out flying a kite when a storm rolled in. With all the guests heading inside, Gus was left alone out there. The storm’s winds picked up and the tent took flight. It hit a nearby totem pole, crushing Gus.
Sam Finch
One day he takes his 15 year old daughter Dawn on a hunting trip. Having lost his two other children, he was desperate to connect with his third. Dawn is not as excited for the trip as her father is. She’d much rather read her book than hunt. Dawn spots a buck and photographs it, but Sam pressures her to shoot it. The two go over to get a picture of the deer, but Dawn realizes the deer isn’t dead. Sam won’t listen and as he grabs it’s antlers to pose it at the camera, the deer knocks him off the edge of a cliff.
Sanjay Kumar
After watching her father fall to his death, Dawn became cautious about the family curse. After her father died, Dawn and Edie became a lot closer. While doing disaster relief work in India, she fell in love with a man named Sanjay. After graduating college in America, she moved to India and began teaching english. A year later, they had their first son, Lewis. Four years later, they had a second son, Milton. Seven years after Milton was born, they had Edith. When Edith was three years old, there was an earthquake that killed Sanjay.
Milton Finch
After Sanjay’s death, Dawn and her three kids move back to their family home. Edie built a new wing for them to stay in. Dawn being more cautious than ever, decided to homeschool her children in order to keep them safe. At 11 years old, Milton was seen to be a prodigy. He was very artistic and very passionate about painting. One day Milton made a flipbook where he as the character, opens a black door with a gold knob and steps through it, closing the door. The family has no idea what happened to Milton, as they never saw him again.
Lewis Finch
After Milton’s death, Dawn searched for months for him. Eventually she sealed up all of the bedrooms of the deceased, making them shut off shrines. Edie installed peepholes in the doors to be able to see the shrines. Lewis was dealing with things in his own way. He became very depressed and started using marijuana and alcohol as a way to numb the pain. Eventually Dawn got him a job at the local cannery. Once he was sober, he began to realize how mundane his life was, so he’d zone out and day dream. The daydreaming soon became all Lewis did while working, to the point that he was on autopilot and forgetting to go home. He became severely depressed and kills himself as a result.
Edie Finch
After two of her children died, Dawn is determined to leave that house and the curse for good. Edie refuses to go and the two argue it out. Eventually Dawn gives up and takes her daughter and leave Edie in her house alone. That night Edie was drinking alcohol and the combination with her medication killed her.
Dawn Finch
Dawn didn’t want her family’s history known, so she hid as much of it as she could. She thought not telling her family the truth might keep them safe. Seven years after Edie’s death, Dawn dies to an undisclosed illness, leaving everything to 17 year old Edith Finch.
Edith Finch
Her mom never told Edith about the history of their family or the curse. Edith discovered the stories herself and documented them in her journal. She wrote about her own experiences in the journal as well. The journal is for her unborn child, in case she can never tell them the truth about their family.
Back in the present, we’re back as the person who started on the ferry. He’s in front of his mother’s grave and places flowers there. Edith died while in childbirth.
What happened to Milton Finch?
Milton’s story picks up in the Unfinished Swan where Milton has become a king. He would continue to paint and create kingdoms for his subjects. One day he painted a female version of himself, but she soon grew disinterested his lack of attention. He didn’t even notice that she was pregnant until she was five months along. The night before giving birth to their son, Monroe, the queen left him. This caused the king to become so sad that he stopped painting. Nine years would pass until he decided to create a monument of himself. Before the monument was finished, his powers failed him. He soon becomes trapped in a dream until his son shows up at the top of the statue. Milton gives the paint brush to his son Monroe, passing along his gift as well.
