GRIS
Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2019 12:20 am
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.
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.