A very well-written story game about generational trauma, resisting authority, and family (among other things).
Iris grows up with a mom and dad and has a semi-strained relationship (as many families do). Her mother is overbearing and harsh, her father is calm and too easy-going, and Iris kinda pushes them off. Her mother has flashbacks to marrying her husband and traveling away from Hong Kong to start a new life, and her grandmother basically cuts her mother off because she doesn't agree with her decision for moving or husband. Her mother is also harsh to her husband despite the husband seeming to care for the family a lot. The moment that got me the most in the game was near the end when Iris asks her mom what got her through everything, and she just answered "Pa" (your father). Wow. Shows that behind the bickering and frustration, we do love each other deep down and miss what was.
The sci-fi part is that aliens came to the world and inflicted a pandemic that killed off most of humanity. Humans created 50 underwater centers to stay away from the virus and use Iris to create clones since Iris was immune.
Due to their testing, Iris killed them all and started her own "family" of clones. The youngest clone pushed back and tried to create her own clone, so Iris took away their immunity and exiled them basically.
Youngest became The Principal and started cloning herself to send the best clones to Iris to make her happy. You play as the watcher and find out about Iris's violence and go and kill her. Principal takes you and sets up an authoritarian government.
By the end, you have to decide what parts of the past you're keeping with you and what parts you're letting go. I'd say the game's "true ending" to forgive those who wronged you (Principal) but stay away from violence as a mechanism to get what you need was pretty great.
The gripes: The hub world is CONFUSING and I hate navigating it. I wasted so much time trying to find checkpoints. Could have been way better. Also walking around to every point seemed to waste time sometimes.
Voice acting was incredible, overall a great game!