GRIS

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Irennan
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GRIS

Post by Irennan »

I've recently played a game called GRIS (https://store.steampowered.com/app/683320/GRIS/). It's very short (3-4 hrs), but it's one of the most moving pieces of art I've ever experienced.

The game is about a little girl trying to overcome the pain of having lost her mother. The suffering has broken her to the point that she has lost all that was precious to her; her voice is gone (she used to sing), and she can't remeber her mother's face. She proceeds to journey into a world that is basically a reflection of her mind and memories, a place of beautiful yet broken nature and architecture; similarly, her mother appears as a ruined, damaged statue in the game.

Each area symbolizes a stage of grief, where she overcomes various obstacles and gathers precious memories of her mother. The colors, art (the game is essentially a giant, beautiful watercolor painting), the music (IMO, the music makes half of this game) and even the abilities that she gains are perfect to represent suffering and the way it's overcome. At the end of each area, the girl reaches the statue of her mom, which lifts her from the current stage of grief into the next, and whose face is more and more complete (as if the memory of her love was helping the daughter move forward). Over the course of the game, the child also evades an ink monster representing her own grief, until it's defeated at the end.

I won't say more about what happens, because it would be hard to describe, and because I dont want to spoiler more than I already have. However, the ending (when the grief is defeated) is just beautiful; I felt it *hard*, and left me crying (*a lot*). It's even more powerful if you collect all the mementos, and unlock the protagonist's childhood memory cutscene (it also explains why you need to collect little fireflies in the game in order to overcome certain obstacles, or to acquire new abilities). The ending alone is worth playing the game.
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Irennan
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Re: GRIS

Post by Irennan »

I also wonder if this isn't how Eilistraee can sometimes feel about her mother. Lolth is basically a different person from the Araushnee that she knew; perhaps, Eilistraee feels as if she couldn't remember anymore her mother's face and voice; perhaps she feels like she lost something big and precious, that Araushnee was gone and replaced by something that it's not her, and she wishes to find her again. In Eilistraee's case, rebuilding the memory of her mother would be akin to redeeming her.

I know that, in my setting, Eilistraee definitely feels like that towards her mother (or used to; things got far better for both, thanks in no small part to my players). There was a time when she felt completely lost without her mother (and due to what happened to her), but then, in my setting things went down very differently (for example, Araushnee was actually lost at some point), and Araushnee is a wildly different person.
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Shir'le E. Illios
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Re: GRIS

Post by Shir'le E. Illios »

I've heard of the game, yes, and seen some of it. Absolutely beautiful.

And also apparently has sexually suggestive content (no, not really, link it pretty much SFW).

Haven't played the game myself though. Already have quite a big backlog. ;)


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Irennan
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Re: GRIS

Post by Irennan »

Where the hell they saw sexual content is beyond me. Screw Facebook&Co and their censorship.
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Shir'le E. Illios
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Re: GRIS

Post by Shir'le E. Illios »

In fairness, it seems that they based it on a link included in Gris' marketing which led to a website showing some ads for other games from the same publisher, some of which are more sexually explicit. But still, to me that just shows how fucked up the whole thing is.


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Irennan
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Re: GRIS

Post by Irennan »

It's still blatant censorship to me, as you said, it's just fucked up and ridiculous.

Anyway, if you can find some time, I warmly recommend playing this--as I mentioned, it's really short, so it shouldn't take much away from your to-play list.
Mathematics is the art of giving the same name to different things.
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