If I were to play this game when it was released in December 2018, I don’t think I would enjoy it as much since I was still in the grieving process of losing my mother in September that year. I couldn’t enjoy any games until almost a year later when I picked up the Cat Lady. These days I am fine; however, I still find myself with teary eyes whenever fond memories of my mother slip into my mind. So, you might think I would be emotional playing a game like Gris, which deals with the death of a love one. On the contrary, I find the game uplifting and beautiful. I enjoyed solving light puzzles; running in the forest; feeding a creature with apples; and swimming in the cold lake. It’s a game with a certain beauty that brings out the optimism in life. You see, death is natural but you will be okay.

In each stage, the colors represent different emotional stages one goes through: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Progressively the stage gets harder ( I could elaborate but this is a review not an analysis). There are several times I try to reach the hard-to-reach items (mementos), which are items that need to be collected to reveal a hidden cutscene on why the female protagonist is grieving. Some of the mementos can be completely missed in the first playthrough. Luckily, you can backtrack by selecting a chapter in the game. Speaking of checkpoints, they can be a bit bothersome because having to redo a puzzle can be quite annoying. There is one part toward the end of the game that frustrates me. I have to be precise about where to execute the jump button while being upside down to avoid the gravity from pulling me upward. It always takes me a minute to get through. The good thing though, once you familiarize yourself with the gaming mechanics, it’s not impossible to finish the game within 3 hours or less. I can see Speedrunner having fun with this game since there are some challenging obstacles but I definitely do not recommend this game as a coping mechanism to deal with a loss. It would only make the player more frustrated unless you are one of those people who process emotions through solving problems. Then this game might just be for you.

Here I will attach some of my favorite screenshots in no particular order. Of course, the game is so much better if you play it.

Sometimes, pictures do tell a better story than words. In this case, the game is beautifully well-crafted by the folks from Nomada Studio. When I saw the trailer back in 2018, the game’s vibrant colors reminded me so much of El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron, a game released in 2011 on the PlayStation3 and X-Box 360, but there is a newer remastered version released on Steam in 2021. Also, it looks like the game will be getting a release for the Nintendo Switch in April 2024, according to the sources online. Like Gris, the game focuses on atmosphere and colors. But I’ll stop here because this review is about Gris!