The Fire Nobody Started

A fire burns throughout the history of the western world. The light can be comforting… as long as you’re not in the way of the spreading flame. Can anything be done? Who knows? All you can do is bear witness.

Just enjoy the ride.

The Fire Nobody Started is a 2025 visual novel by Team SpitFire. You are riding a train where cars correlate to specific eras in western history. From the Industrial Age in England and immigration to the new world to the Cold War and its aftermath, you witness the story of a family lineage through history. One way or another, they get burned. And there’s nothing you can do about it. So it goes.

Going down the train, you encounter NPCs representing thoughts of their era, oftentimes rambling about the social upheavals going on. Suffragettes make themselves known, soon to be replaced by women following the Rosie the Riveter mindset when the era comes. Some NPCs scoff at them, and there’s frequently NPCs shrugging at or villifying progressive change, especially as the Red Scare rolls in. Others will philosophize about the emerging technologies of that time and what it can mean for humanity. A cautious hopefulness settles – as long as they aren’t the ones being affected by change.

The symbolic appearances of everyone makes it feel like they’re wojaks of the ideals and concepts they ramble about, but that’s not a bad thing. The game can be pretty creative in portraying ideas, especially with how the general art style shifts in accordance with the era the game’s in to copy the stylings of art in that era. I’m particularly biased toward the more abstract grotesqueries.

The most important NPCs are the protagonist family, who you could pick out through recurring motifs. They’re, say, the main attraction of the train trip. Engaging with them leads you further down the train cars and you witness their changes as history conducts itself around everyone. They frequently provide the only bits of simple puzzles, where you drag something provided by a different NPCs onto them to advance the overall story.

The story is interesting with how it approaches its protagonists. The first protagonist is a man born into wealth who’s cynical about the class divide and wants change – the countries he becomes acquainted with and a Great War throws a wrench into things, though. The second protagonist is his daughter that lacked the same advantages he started with, but she tries to carry his hopefulness in her own way and is victimized by the Red Scare. The final protagonist, her son, contrasts strongly with both of them as a cynical man that doesn’t hold the same ideals they did. He follows the trends of society and walks besides the tracks of the train of fate, being a proud patriot in America’s late 20th century wars.

And that doesn’t stop him from getting burned, either.

Their narratives show that no matter who you are, you could suffer in the grand scheme of life. Being swallowed up by a recession beyond your control, making yourself an enemy of the powers that be, being used up and neglected… suffering is a universal constant, in one way or another. The eras depicted in the train cars shows growth and expansion, but that doesn’t necessarily mean things get broadly better. Oppression of one group of people is minimized, but it just winds up getting transferred to a different group. There is always some sort of war happening, and while the form of that conflict changes, war remains a constant.

So it goes.

Playing The Fire Nobody Started was stressful. The conductor of the train may as well be the “nothing ever happens” wojak, because it shows how the same pains have been repeating in different forms throughout history. It feels right that this game was put out just last year because we’re currently in our own era of technological change and warring. I try not to think too much about it – not because I’m indifferent, but stress actually shuts my body down.

It’s a linear narrative, but you shouldn’t be surprised. The train’s only going in one direction, and as the game directly brings up the “people tied to a train track” problem, what could stop anyone else from getting hurt if the metaphorical train changes tracks?

…Though, it does question: why not do something about the cause of people being tied to the tracks?

…