A Critique of GRIS
A tale of depression and potential suicide with pallets of gorgeous colour.
Introduction
Almost a year ago (at the time of typing), ‘GRIS’ was released on 13 December 2018, which for those in the know, is a day before my birthday. I was hoping I would treat myself to the game, as a little birthday treat. I was terribly moved by its art style and thought it would be an interesting game to get my hands on. Unfortunately, it was only released on Nintendo Switch and PC at the time. I do not have a good gaming PC I don’t own a Switch. Come mid-2019, ‘GRIS’ was nominated for many a reward for its animation, gameplay and it’s music. It has been nominated for a couple of nominations for the 2019 Game Awards, which is weird to me, but who am I to argue?
On 28th November 2019, two days ago at the time of typing, Nomada Studios (the developers) announced that their debut game was now available on PS4. So, I was finally able to play this game and share my thoughts and opinions on ‘GRIS’, which is French for grey. This is worth remembering, as the game’s plot revolves around the colour grey.
NOTE: There will be some spoilers to the game, so if you wish to experience this game spoiler-free, I suggest leaving now. Consider this your warning folks!
The Blog Proper
Gameplay and Synopsis
‘GRIS’ has you control the silent eponymous protagonist, who wakes up in the palm of a crumbling statue of a woman. She attempts to sing but quickly becomes choked up by something, unable to finish her heartfelt song. The statue’s hands crumble, dropping her to the colourless earth below.
What I have just described is presented to the player in a gorgeous cutscene, the artistic direction resembling a beautifully simple animated Japanese watercolour painting, a style that I will have no shame in splattering all over this blog.
What I will say as one minor complaint, is that whilst the close-ups of Gris’ face is superbly drawn with beautiful animation, some of the more panned shots are not so pleasing to look at. Fortunately, it only happens only the once, and it is understandable why this is the case. There is a lot more going on the screen at this point. The statue falling apart is the main focus. Something else I don’t understand why Gris’ hands are as small as they are and disproportioned to the rest of her body.
But I digress. When you land, you begin to control Gris, moving her to the right. At first, she slowly drags her feet along, miserable and clearly depressed. Once she gets over herself, your mournful march picks up in pace, allowing you proper control over Gris on the beautifully painted 2D landscape, meaning that you can either walk left or right. No matter where you are, the colour’s on Gris’ dress, light reflections on her hair, with her dress/robe flowing elegantly in the wind. On occasion, you slide down ramps, which doesn’t have the most natural animation, which can be jarring when compared to how beautiful everything else is. Her walking animation resembles the motions of one dragging a desktop icon across the screen, which does not bode well for emission's sake. Gris can also jump, and later glide, which is mostly used in reaching slightly higher platforms as part of game progression and puzzle-solving, which I will describe momentarily.
Whilst it is never bluntly presented to the player with big clear fonts, it is clear when you have entered a new chapter, as they branch off from the game’s hub, which is some sort of temple building, one I thought resembled a mosque. In between what I’m calling the prologue and coda (a musical term for the ending/outro) there are four themed chapters. One chapter has Gris wade and slide her way across a bright red desert and weird windmill-esque structures (see above), unlocking and implementing a heavy cube form (which essentially involves Gris puffing out her dress in an adorable fashion). Another has Gris placed in a soothing green jungle, leading a cute creature with apples, before learning the ability to glide and propel herself into the air with the help of some red bird friends.
Not all of the creatures you find in ‘GRIS’ wish to help you, as you are constantly chased by a flock of black birds that morph into a much larger one, who screams and squawks horrific cries, pushing you about with large gusts of wind, generated from its inky wings. At a later chapter, the bird becomes a large eel that divides into two smaller eels that are trying to eat you. Some may be disappointed to discover that you are never in any real danger, as it is impossible to get hurt in this game. That being said, you have probably not been enticed by this game if you were expecting revolutionary combat or boss fights that require you to ‘git gud’ to defeat them.
At the mentioning of eels, you would be right to assume that a chapter of the game has Gris explore an underwater cavern. This may bring a sense of dread to some older gamers, as underwater levels in games, whether from ‘Super Mario 64’, ‘The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’ or ‘Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty’ are infamous for their quality drops in overall great games. I am pleased to report that ‘GRIS’ is not one of those games, as you unlock the ability to swim underwater without (conveniently) needing to breath (you couldn’t swim underwater at all up until this point). For the most part, Gris swims magnificently, with the occasional press of the X button allows her to dart forward, with a bit of extra momentum. I bring up the water level here because ‘GRIS’ will on many points, zoom out to allow the player to see the objects and buildings around you as either part of a narrative arc, or to help you navigate a section for a puzzle. One of these moments is found in the underwater section, as seen in the above screenshot.
Whilst the pan-out idea never bothered me in other puzzles before or after this, when this happened at that precise moment, I lost Gris. I had no idea where she was and found it difficult to navigate because of it, which I presume is part of the challenge of this section of the game. It is the one puzzle I did not enjoy. Otherwise, every second of this game was fun for me to play. Each puzzle was fairly balanced, granting me a sense of accomplishment upon completion none of which causing me to pull my hair out with frustration or think ‘this is too easy’. The game always provides just enough for in the surrounding environment and the four unlockable abilities to complete a puzzle to carry onto the next part of the game.
Synopsis and Perceived Themes (The Critique Proper)
I have discussed a lot of the overall gameplay, but have not talked much of the story. Besides what I have already talked about, there is not much story left.
As you progress and complete the game’s opening chapter and prologue, you learn through the visuals that one has to collect lights, that heavily resemble stars, and restore colour back to the world, encountering statues resembling the broken one from the opening cinematic. At the end of each chapter, the stars form a constellation in the sky, similar to the ones that will form bridges at various points for you to traverse in each chapter. The game ends with Gris travelling this bridge in the now starlit sky, after spending a good six hours restoring colour to the grey world and just surviving the embrace of the blackbird, who takes on a blank-faced, sinister version of Gris herself (see above screenshot). Here, Gris finally finds her voice and defeats her doppelganger, literally with the power of song (an aria to be pedantic, which is a wordless song, and not wanting to underplay the emotional power of this moment too much).
Whilst this sounds fairly straightforward, games of this nature tend to have more depth to them. ‘GRIS’ conveys far more than depression, and wish to elaborate on my thoughts.
First, let us explore how depression is portrayed in ‘GRIS’. Most obvious is the use of the colours grey, which are found on Gris, (herself, minus her blue hair) the statues of the crumbling women, often in insecure positions (holding themselves tightly not wanting to expose themselves, usually found kneeling or on their knees) and black, always found in creatures chasing you throughout the game, be it doppelganger, bird or eel.
White and black have been used to represent good and evil, light and darkness, peace and evil for many years, and are colours that will return constantly in the game (and this blog). One particularly famous example of the colour black to be associated with depression is the poem outside of ‘GRIS’ is The Black Dog by Dallas Nyberg, who uses as a black dog as a metaphor for growing, festering depression. Similarly, the late singer-songwriter Nick Drake wrote the song ‘Black Dog’ which refers to the poem and the idea of the black dog as a metaphor for depression and also isolation, both are themes explored within ‘GRIS’.
What is different in ‘GRIS’ are the animals represented and the language used to represent them. The dog/depression in the poem is implied to grow in size, slowly over time after years and years of neglect. The birds and eels in ‘GRIS’ are much faster in comparison and strike at unexpected moments. This depression of Gris is implied (to me at least) happened suddenly, so something traumatic had occurred to set it off, rather than a serious of smaller events building upon each other.
Why choose a blackbird and eel? I have my theories, to which I introduce the game’s provocative soundtrack by Berlinist. The chase sections (for lack of a better term) have their own dedicated cues for the animals that are very similar in arrangement and key (E minor). The piece of music that plays during the bird chase section is called ‘Karasu’, which is a reference to the Karasu-Tengu, a goblin, bird, man deity in Japanese culture. The Japanese word Karasu means raven, crow or simply blackbird. Ravens and crows have been used as indicators of death in media, partly due to the many ravens that make their home at The Tower of London, which was a grandiose execution palace.
As for the eel chase section, the cue that plays during this section is called ‘Unagi’, which is Japanese for eel. The only thing that I could come up with regarding the choice of Unagi outside of the game was its usage in the sitcom ‘Friends’, where it is falsely described as a form of karate. When one has achieved the state of Unagi, you can defend and prepare yourself from any danger at any given moment, which can be a message that ‘GRIS’ is wanting to convey to those going through depression, but I doubt this what they were going for.
What I feel is more likely is how eels bare a lot of resemblance to snakes, a creature representing deceit and lies, which dates back to the bible. Perhaps this creature represents the lies that Gris maybe telling herself, which were perhaps blaming herself for the death of the woman? Maybe it was her fault and she is trying to hide from it? With no exchange of dialogue, this (and so many other things in the game) are open to interpretation.
MUSICAL DIGRESSION: Whilst on the topic of the soundtrack for just a moment, I have to say that it is all incredibly moving with sublime solo cellos and female voices for the more intimate sections of the game, with full strings and choir for when Gris is crying in front of the statues. My one and only complaint is regarding the implementation of some of the earlier cues. It is rare for me to say this, but I felt there was too much music for the barren desert sections. Other than that, this soundtrack is incredibly moving.
The black flock of birds (and mass of inky blackness in general) in ‘GRIS’ is only introduced when Gris descends into a white room in the second chapter filled with greyed out statues, three of which are destroyable with the cube form I mentioned earlier. You are ejected from the room once you have performed a ground-pound on said statues three times, which implies anger from Gris. For the entirety of the game, she is now alone, as there are no other humanoid characters in the game other than her. In addition, her inability to sing (via the aforementioned choking sensation) presents the idea that Gris feels she is unable to speak to anyone about her problems. Her voice is heard with the statues, for the most part, so they must have been pretty important to Gris if Gris can only speak/sing to this woman.
This girl has lost someone that she relied heavily upon and had very strong feelings for. It would be a fair assumption to make that the woman was her mother as the statues are all much taller than Gris. It is also heavily implied that it is her mother should you watch the secret cutscene obtained after getting all the hidden mementoes.
When you destroy the statues in the white room in the second chapter, you gain a trophy/achievement called ‘Anger’ which fed nicely into the idea that Gris had indeed lost someone, angry that they are no longer there, angry they didn’t spend more time together. It pricked a light bulb moment in my mind in something I would attempt during a second playthrough. Five trophies/achievements in the game are named after The Five Stages of Grief, which are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. These are linked to significant portions of the story that are connected to these statues.
Depression is not the focus of the game, but death and the sadness/depression that comes with it.
I wish to focus on the last stage, acceptance. A dictionary definition of the word would probably be ‘a person’s assent to the reality of a situation, recognising a process or condition without attempting to change it or protest it’. In this state of mind, it would allow the body and soul to move forward with their life, as it is impossible to move on from such trauma. To understand this difference can either make or break an individual. Not understanding either of them would destroy someone. Someone like Gris.
Whilst one of the trophies in ‘GRIS’ is called acceptance, I do not believe that Gris does not accept what has happened. During the final chapter, she is finally swallowed by the black mass, which is a metaphor of succumbing to the darkness, being overwhelmed by her depression, her anger and her want to be with her mother again. The game ends with you defeating the mass, sure, but I do not believe this means she has overcome her negative emotions, especially when your final moments of ‘GRIS’ has you ascend the constellation path you have created, and walk into a blinding white light, presumably in the heavens. Gris has found peace in what I believe is her suicide.
Coda
‘GRIS’ is one of many artistic experimental games that takes inspiration from Thegamecompany’s ‘Journey’, which is evident when comparing the design of Gris and the wanderer from ‘Journey’, the two games’ desert areas and the fact that Austin Wintory, the composer for ‘Journey’, is included in the game’s credits’ ‘Special Thanks’ section. As such, some players may also see the ‘subtle’ connections and subconsciously expecting a ‘Journey’ clone as they are playing. I should know, as I stupidly felt the same as I played. I also feel that many players will have just interpreted ‘GRIS’ as a pretentious tale of a sad girl who wants to be less sad but becomes sadder, with no real sense of resolution, if you allow me to be crass for just a moment. It is very clear through the imagery that the game is conveying many a metaphor for enduring depression, and many will just leave it at that.
I enjoyed my first playthrough of ‘GRIS’, but I was left feeling a bit hollow, and not in a particularly good way, partly because of audio stuttering at the last cinematic, and partly because I felt it lacked the substance filled punch that I initially felt Nomada Studios was aiming for. It was only after I began thinking about why I felt hollow that I realised how successful ‘GRIS’ was in conveying its messages. Or at the very least, how I have interpreted the game’s themes. It was upon further reflection that I began to fully appreciate ‘GRIS’.
‘GRIS’ is a beautifully depressing experience, one that combines entertaining puzzles into an ethereal platformer. It presents a masterclass in evocative romanticism of depression and death, one that could only work in a videogame. Hopefully, you can come to your own insightful conclusions about ‘GRIS’ and be moved as just as I was.
Have you played ‘GRIS’? If so, what was your take on Gris’ outcome? Do you enjoy it? What do you think of the art?
Let’s start a conversation, people!
