Review: Desta: The Memories Between - Dreamy Dodgeball That's Surprisingly Emotional

Balls well that ends well.

There’s an approach to relationship counselling where there’s a ball, and whoever is holding the ball gets to speak. Having said your piece, you toss the ball to another person and they get their chance to express themselves without interruption. But here’s an idea: what if you just threw the ball as hard as you could at the other person’s face? Okay, let’s tone it down a little: a friendly game of dodgeball in the safe space of a dream. Add a roguelike twist of turn-based, team-based strategy and you have Desta: The Memories Between.

Desta is the latest offering from Ustwo Games, creators of, among other things, 2014 mobile hit Monument Valley and 2021’s peaceful camera-and-scrapbook game Alba: A Wildlife Adventure. Originally launching in 2022 as a Netflix game and now arriving on Switch in an enhanced and expanded form (although minus touch support), it tells the story of Desta, who is returning to the family home in preparation for it to be sold. Desta lost their father sometime before and didn’t leave things in a positive place with their mum. The anxiety about facing their mother needs to be unpicked in a dream space, letting an imagined conversation play out so that Desta can face the real-life situation constructively. However, the journey to that conversation is full of old friends, and it turns out Desta didn’t leave things sitting tidily with any of them when they went away. Exploring your feelings in dream dodgeball, you must work through tricky conversations compassionately, all while enjoying a bit of semi-violent sport.

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