The Unbearable Humanity of Inanimate Objects

Tetris Effect: Connected, Unpacking, and finding personhood without people

I don’t think it’s possible to prepare someone for the concept that a falling Tetrimino could make them cry.

Early on in Tetris Effect: Connected, the game presents itself via conventional expectations — familiar shapes fall, you spin or hold those shapes, you find where each one fits, and you clear lines. With every movement, spin, and hold, the pieces hum with musical notes that are synthesized to match the chord progression and beat of the tune playing in the background. The music itself is lovely, soothing, and hopeful. It plays out dramatically against a neon abyss of heightened color and pulsating graphical effect — wherever this is taking place, it is nowhere on Earth.

The song — played first and last, bookending the experience — gains new meaning with steady progression.

“I’m yours forever.
There is no end in sight for us,
Nothing could measure
The kind of strength inside our hearts.
It’s all connected.
We’re all together in this love,
Don’t you forget it.
We’re all connected in this.”