A canopy climbs so far past the clouds that no one in the village below has ever seen where it actually ends, and somewhere inside that trunk, letters from people who’ve already died are still finding their way to the ones who loved them. Upwards, Rain! The Post Office of Farewells sets that whole operation inside Mortem Post, the postal service hidden in the tree on the edge of the coastal village of Vitae, handling exactly that kind of mail. Rain works there as a novice courier still learning the ropes. When a shy, skittish girl named Mila keeps returning to ask about a letter from someone called Dandelion that never seems to arrive, Rain breaks protocol and takes her climbing through the post office’s inner workings to track it down.
Studio Élan, the small indie studio behind it, first built this world for their own 2024 Dandelion Set: Garden Variety game jam, helmed by the same creative leads behind their earlier release Twofold. That jam version later expanded into a full Complete Edition that launched on Steam the following July. That Complete Edition added fully illustrated side stories for each character, revamped and additional puzzles, a new interface, overhauled art, and full English voice acting on top of what the original jam version had. The free jam build stopped accepting new downloads once the Complete Edition arrived, so the fuller version is the only way to experience it now. Studio Élan’s other releases, Please Be Happy, Heart of the Woods, and National Park Girls among them, sit under the same broader focus on women-led, LGBT-plus stories, though this particular world stands entirely on its own.
Rain’s stamp collection carries most of the actual gameplay, letting me link words together in context-sensitive ways to talk my way past obstacles, sneak through sorting rooms, or slip on a disguise when the situation calls for it. What surprised me was how rarely any of that repeated itself, since a choose-your-own-adventure branch might show up right after a stealth sequence. That kept the puzzle half of the game from ever settling into a predictable rhythm, even across a fairly short runtime.
Rain’s whole personality runs on impulse, a courier who breaks rules first and worries about consequences later thanks to wings that never seem to keep her fully grounded. That makes her a strange but effective match for Mila’s careful, guarded reluctance to trust anyone with what she’s actually looking for. Watching Rain coax Mila a little further out of her shell with every obstacle they clear together gave their climb through the tree a shape closer to a friendship forming in real time than a scripted bonding arc.
The couriers Rain and Mila meet along the way carry real specificity of their own rather than filling space as generic obstacles. Mizore works as a gentle, botanist-minded courier who treats the tree’s overgrowth like something worth tending rather than clearing away. Neve plays the role of Rain’s teasing, capable older-sister figure despite having no actual relation to her, grounded quite literally by a missing wing that sets her apart from the rest of her winged coworkers. Caile rounds out the trio as a harsher, more demanding mentor whose bluntness still comes from somewhere thoughtful underneath it.
None of the writing tips into melodrama despite grief sitting at the center of everything, staying sincere without ever laying it on thick. Extras built into the game add real density beyond the main path too, a stack of short stories illustrated by a rotating cast of guest artists alongside a genuinely thorough in-game glossary that fleshes out how Mortem Post and its wider world actually function.
Every scene carries a dreamy, storybook quality, detailed and expressive character art set against backgrounds rendered in colors bright enough to make even a post office built into a giant tree feel inviting rather than eerie. Faces do a lot of the emotional heavy lifting too, expressive in a distinctly anime-influenced way that let small reactions land without needing extra dialogue to spell them out.
Full English voice acting carries the whole script, Beth Pierce as Rain and Mel Valentine as Mila anchoring the two leads, with William Maloy, Elissa Park, and Vyn Vox rounding out Mizore, Neve, and Caile respectively. Sound effects get used constantly and convincingly too, footsteps and rustling paper and creaking wood all doing real work to sell the tree’s cluttered interior. The score itself stays modest in size given how short the game runs, and it sells separately as its own soundtrack release. It knows exactly when to show up, though, and the closing theme, Onwards, Upwards, closes things out on exactly the right note without overstaying its welcome.
Mila’s missing letter ends up meaning more than either of them expected once the search actually resolves, and I won’t say what that resolution actually is beyond how carefully the game earns it. What stuck with me wasn’t the mystery itself so much as watching two characters learn to trust each other with something neither wanted to say out loud, a slower, quieter kind of payoff than most stories built around grief tend to reach for.
The world hasn’t stopped growing since release either. A webcomic called The Scattered Letters of Vitae started serialization after the Steam launch, picking up after the game’s own ending. A DLC story focused on a new pair of characters was announced for later release too, alongside a dedicated series website carrying new prose stories. Steam itself added trading card support after launch as well, letting players collect badges, animated avatars, and profile backgrounds tied to Vitae. Steam Deck support isn’t there yet, worth knowing going in, though a built-in one-button accessibility mode covers players who need it on other setups.
Verdict
Rain and Mila’s mismatched friendship is what actually carries Upwards, Rain! The Post Office of Farewells, turning a premise built for gentle melancholy into something warmer than expected once every puzzle they solve together starts pulling double duty as character work. The storybook art and a fully named, distinctly performed voice cast give a short story real staying power, and the stamp-based puzzles never once felt like filler standing between me and the next scene. This is a small, sincere world I wished had given me more time in it before the credits rolled.
