To understand Fidelio: Alice's Odyssey , one must first travel to Brussels in the early 1990s. Developer Tristan Ravel, a former surrealist painter turned coder, envisioned a rebuttal to the sanitized Disney version of Lewis Carroll. "Alice is not a child falling down a rabbit hole," Ravel said in a rare 1996 interview. "She is a woman falling into the machinery of patriarchy. Fidelio is the key to her cage."

Players navigate spaces that defy Euclidean geometry. Staircases loop infinitely, oceans hang suspended in the sky, and massive Gothic cathedrals seamlessly dissolve into minimalist digital grids.

The environments frequently evoke feelings of confinement—resembling stylized asylums, labyrinthine archives, and locked vaults.

The narrative does not shy away from complex psychological themes. It treats its subject matter with care and artistic integrity. Memory and Identity

At first glance, it may seem that Beethoven's "Fidelio" and Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" have little in common. One is an opera rooted in the classical tradition, while the other is a work of fantasy literature. However, upon closer inspection, it becomes apparent that both works share a common thread - the journey of the protagonist. In "Fidelio," Leonore embarks on a perilous journey to rescue her husband, while in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," Alice navigates a strange and unpredictable world.

While Bill is out experiencing real, often disappointing encounters, Alice is dreaming. Her description of her dream—where she is being "shamed" and laughing at Bill—is arguably more visceral and "real" than Bill’s actual experiences.

The game posits that our memories can serve as both a sanctuary and a cell. Alice’s journey highlights how the mind distorts traumatic events to protect itself, and the painful necessity of dismantling those defenses to find true healing. The Illusion of Control

Fidelio: Alice's Odyssey is not a comfortable game. It is a splinter under the fingernail of the adventure genre. It asks a question that most media avoids: What happens to Alice when there is no Wonderland, only a house with no exit, and the only tool you have is a false identity?

Critics from Spirituality & Practice and Eye for Film praise the film for its "rounded portrait" of a passionate woman making difficult, often messy choices.

Alice’s world is upended when she leaves Felix behind to take a job as a mechanic on an aging freighter, the Fidelio . This is no ordinary assignment. Upon arriving, she discovers that the ship's captain, Gaël (Melvil Poupaud), is her first great love, a man from her past who still ignites a strong passion within her.