When The Past Was Around similar games & best alternatives

When The Past Was Around - Trailer
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When The Past Was Around

PlayStation 4, Android, PC (Microsoft Windows), iOS, Mac, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch • 2020

Should you play it?

When the Past was Around is an adventure point-and-click puzzle game about love, moving on, letting go, and the joy and pain of everything in between.

What works

  • Beautiful hand-drawn art
  • Emotional and poignant story
  • Soothing and memorable soundtrack
  • Accessible yet thoughtful puzzles
  • Meaningful exploration of grief and healing

Things to keep in mind

  • Short gameplay length
  • Some puzzles can be too easy or slightly unclear
  • Repetitive soundtrack for some players
  • Limited replay value beyond achievements
  • Lack of explicit narrative clarity for some

What to play next

Top picks

Games that feels the closest overall

  • The Star Named EOS

  • Refind Self: The Personality Test Game

  • Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery

  • A Space for the Unbound

  • Leila

  • A Guidebook of Babel

Less intimate

Games that feels like When The Past Was Around but with less focus on close relationships

  • Landlord of the Woods

  • Rusty Lake: Roots

  • Puzzle Agent

  • Bad Dream: Coma

  • Cube Escape Collection

  • Birth

Less expressive

Games that feels like When The Past Was Around but with less self-expression and customization

  • Long Dream

  • Journal

  • Bear's Restaurant

  • When The Past Was Around - Prologue

  • The Little UNI

  • Perfect Tides

More fellowship-oriented

Games that feels like When The Past Was Around but with a stronger sense of community

  • A Taste of the Past

  • Dropsy

  • FixFox

  • Mr. Saitou

  • Rakuen

  • Newfound Courage

Choose your own criteria ->

From the same developer

From the same developer, ranked by motivational fit.

  • A Space for the Unbound

  • A Raven Monologue

  • TEST TEST TEST

  • She and the Light Bearer

  • Banyu Lintar Angin - Little Storm -

Similarity map

How to compare these games

Compare nearby games

Each card is a nearby game on the similarity map, compared with When The Past Was Around. Swipe sideways to move between games. Titles already listed in What to play next are left out.

  • Cover and title: open that game’s page.
  • What works / keep in mind: the same highlights as the desktop comparison panel.
  • Bars: the main motivational differences versus this game.
How to use the graph

Similarity map

Each dot is a game placed from its motivation profile relative to this page’s game. Direction shows which motivation differs most; distance along that axis shows how large the gap is.

  • Purple star: this page’s game at the centre — everything is relative to it.
  • Direction: each axis is a main motivational difference vs this game (e.g. more / less competitive).
  • Distance on an axis: how large that difference is (ring scales show +/− points).
  • Coloured chips: click to highlight games that mainly differ on that motivation; click again to reset.
  • Dotted line: link between this page’s game and the one selected for comparison.
  • Hover a dot to preview that game in the panel on the right; click to keep that comparison.
  • Scroll or double-click the chart to zoom.

How to read the map This is a polar difference map: direction = which motivation differs, and distance = how much (same units as the sidebar deltas).

Swipe to compare nearby games with When The Past Was Around. These titles are not in What to play next.

When The Past Was Around: A very typical example of its motivational profile. Motivations that often define this kind of title include Survival, Violence, Competition, Thrill. Here, the score leans higher than usual among comparable games on Intimacy. It leans lower than usual among comparable games on Thrill, Fellowship.

Last update: 21/08/2026