Review: Refind Self: The Personality Test Game Is a Fascinating Time Sink

When it comes to a personality test, it honestly might be better to think of it as a game or hypothetical, rather than a reliable determination of who you are as a person. (Especially if you’re just doing so online.) Refind Self: The Personality Test Game leans into that by basically giving you a light slice-of-life experience following a grieving android coming to terms with recent events while also going about their day and considering what to do next.

Within the “world” of Lizardry and Playism’s Refind Self: The Personality Test Game, you are taking a test designed to help someone recover and determine who they are by playing through said game about the android. You’re warned that you can only take so many actions while exploring and interacting before your “heart is full,” which will then result in an assessment based on what you did and decisions you made. From there, you’re tossed into the life of an android who’s just lost the Doctor who acted as a parent to them and go about your day.

While this is a personality test of sorts, I think it is better to think of Refind Self: The Personality Test Game as a life sim that might be different each time you play it. The first time you go into it blind is probably when you’ll both get the most and least accurate assessment of who you might be, since you’re given no guidance beyond “live.” There are no instructions. Provided you didn’t look up details online, you won’t know what to expect. Also, since you likely won’t turn streamer mode on, you’ll be making decisions naturally and not considering the fact that the game is actually keeping track of how long it takes you to do certain things as part of the determinations as well.

The world of  Refind Self: The Personality Test Game is a homey and relatively peaceful one. After heading down from the hill, you can visit with other human and robotic inhabitants of the village. It is possible to investigate things, collect items, and shop. You’ll learn about possible tasks or activities, which you can take part in. So in a way, it really does feel like it could be an assessment of who you are. After all, there are a lot of choices as to what you might do.

As such, I found the second and third runs of Refind Self: The Personality Test Game were more satisfying than the first. During the second, I had a better idea of where everything was an knew what I hadn’t gotten around to the first time. So I had more of an idea what to expect and perhaps even felt like I enjoyed it more since I better understood what was possible. But in the third, I actually started working toward some of the potential “objectives” or activities that really feels like you’re supposed to be pushing yourself toward a certain way to get something done. Also, the more you play, the more you unlock and know about the game.

The execution also makes doing so something of a pleasure. Playism noted a playthrough can last about an hour, but it might even be shorter than that depending on what you do. It’s easy to go through and fun to explore. Not to mention it’s quite a pretty diversion, with fantastic spritework and a subdued color scheme that matches the tone of the experience perfectly. I ended up taking to playing it either between other games or before heading to bed each night to relax. I eventually felt like I wanted to go out of my way to earn personalities I hadn’t seen yet, just to get feedback on that mindset, get a look at the fun outfits, and see how to trigger that result.

Refind Self: The Personality Test Game may not be the best at accurately assessing who you are, but it is absolutely entertaining. I really liked the relax atmosphere and presentation. Plus, its length encourages you to return and see what you might discover and unlock next. It’s an enjoyable way to briefly spend some time thinking about your actions.

Refind Self: The Personality Test Game is available on the Nintendo Switch, PC and mobile devices.