Amazing. Spiritual sequel to Knytt Underground (if you enjoyed that).
This game deserves a higher score, but I wanted to acknowledge some features which stood out for me as needing consideration; this is an incredibly talented studio, and I hope that they will build on their strengths for their next releases. Before continuing, it must be said that this game should be viewed in comparison to other sweet, yet emotionally complicated, and challenging-yet-simple platform games (a good example is Knytt Underground); this is what I downloaded it for, and this is the experience you get. If it weren’t for the features that stood out for me, GRIS would have easily been an essentially perfect experience; I love these kinds of games for their emotional depth and elegant and well-designed gameplay; I loved how GRIS felt vast and explorative, but always took you back to the central temple, and that each time we were guided to the next level. The emotional metaphors in the gameplay’s design felt real and complex, and the naming of levels after the five stages of grief added to the storytelling and its real word applicability. Finally, its character animation is some of the most (if not THE most) fluid, creative and beautiful I have ever seen; I am in love with your animation team. So, the minor details that detracted from the overall score for me included some of the world-building components that seemed inconsistent; the red birds, integral to the flight power-up, seemed to play too many functions, and seemed at odds with the game’s otherwise refined, yet powerful/functional design/gameplay. The associated power-up of wings/double-jump/gliding seemed totally secondary to the wonder of those three red birds in getting you to where you wanted to be. Perhaps if they were, instead, gusts of air, it would have emphasised the winged/gliding nature of the power-up/dress change and have helped keep things feeling consistent overall. Also, that those same red birds could be collected if found under water added to the confusion; perhaps they could have been replaced with bubbles; you get surrounded by/collect a bubble, and then float up until it pops (getting you to a higher platform). Both the gusts and the bubbles could have come from similar stylised cannons, if you wanted them to be visually connected. The yellow birds didn’t have this problem, because they seemed to fit the magic of the light-based heavenly realm; what they did was explainable in this context. The other feature that seemed incongruent were the trees; blocky trees I coul
