A second chance at life, fun and love
I’m a sucker for a video game that explores romance, especially one that deviates from accepted norms of the medium.
This month, I fell in love with “Arise: A Simple Story,” the debut game from Barcelona, Spain-based Piccolo Studio. While it deals with more than matters of the heart, the core of the game chases the metaphorical sensations present in companionship. Life, it argues, is colored more by what we feel than what we see, even when what “Arise” presents us with are warming, folkloric fairy tale images.
In good times, high on being with another or the anticipation of the next rendezvous, we traverse among towering dandelions or soar in a bioluminescent waterway. But the forest can become imposing, an earthshaking danger where trees don’t inspire wonder but fear. Thus, “Arise” is a game built for reflection, a look back on our relationships and how they mold us.
There are challenges, but “Arise” keeps tying them back to our emotional state. In moments of celebration, we illuminate a cozy world full of glittery pink skies and glowing flowers. In times of loneliness, the universe closes in on us, forcing us to avoid the shadows or risk becoming one. While we play the same character throughout — a burly man we meet atop a ceremonial pyre in the game’s opening scenes — these contrasts in animation reminded me of “Fantasia,” where distinct, wordless environments combine to capture the full breadth of human experiences.
“Arise,” developed for PlayStation4, Xbox One and PCs, can be a little tricky at times. It brings some light video game puzzles — running, jumping, manipulating environments — to its tone of meditative exploration, but these didn’t distract from the themes. Each of its chapters is relatively short, and each offers a contrast in styles and music. Sometimes, a lone piano accompanies a snowy, overwhelming vista, and other times waltzing symphonic flourishes grace an enchanted water-based world in which we sail among glowing lotus flowers.
Better still: Each chapter requires a slightly tweaked play style. Throughout, the game give us the ability to fast-forward and rewind time — we meet our protagonist when he’s dead and looking back at a lived life, after all. Sometimes, we rearrange mountains and right a fallen tree. Other times, we spin and glide through rivers. And sometimes, we must pause seemingly harsh elements such as lightning to allow them to illuminate a path forward.