Ledge is a story-driven game about talking a suicidal man down a ledge.
It focuses more on the story behind the character, rather than depression as a topic and is indeed a strange melancholic, sad and lighthearted mix which comes together very well. It is very short, around 10 minutes.

The story itself is based on a short story (I could not find the short story itself for reference, only a summary). And while it follows it very closely, the execution of revealing bit by bit during the short play comes together very well-paced and fascinating. All characters involved have clear flaws, but you also have empathy for them in all situations. Not everyone is a saint.

Your protagonist in particular is not a particularily likeable person, which makes for a rather face-palming but also strangely amusing start into such a tough subject matter. (It was on the verge of being too much, but thankfully the game balances it out fairly quickly)
The game is not as much about depression leading to suicidal thoughts or encouragement of any sort.
It rather simply tells a story.


Sure you are.

There are bits on the ledge, and bits remembering - I particularily enjoyed the comments in that scenario keeping in mind that it is a story being told.
I appreciate that the creator did add an heads-up for anyone struggling with depression in the credits, and that the game is not reflecting much of it.

However, because it is focused on that story, there is only one dialogue path. There are many dialogue choices to choose from, but only few affect the ending.
Then there are technical oddities, like not being able to load the game starting out. Starting the game you are thrown right into the introduction which is lovely the first time - but wanting to see more dialogue choices, you will need to face this unskippable time barricade. It is especially annoying precisely because the game is so short. (just .. play it once and you are done.)
There are basically two sets of endings, and one you can get no credit screen or similar for - instead it resets the dialogue option you had before and if you step closer to the guy again you repeat your previous dialogue. Which is breaking the immersion and seems a little odd overall.



The graphics are lovely, clean and on-point. A few of the facesets have been reused in different colors, some of which do not reflect the sprite's hair or skin color (the purple haired girl comes to mind).
The background music consists of mostly sound effects and is used very well.

Overall, while few oddities did bring it down for me a bit, I greatly enjoyed this game. It's a compact package with on-point pacing, writing and an intriguing story underneath.