I tried on this one, I really did. This is a narrative-based game that largely fell flat for me, despite including a few elements that I normally enjoy. There are some important and relevant themes at work here: the decline of the American working class, suburban malaise, post-college ennui, etc. But the storytelling and mechanics surrounding these themes are frequently misguided in a way that dampened the entire experience.

The number one problem for me was my inability to connect with the protagonist. I get it, Mae is intended to be self-destructive and a bit vain. I just was missing the elements of the story that are supposed to make me feel any sympathy for her. Indeed, I think there were a number of times in the story when the developers were expecting me to feel something positive about Mae, and it just never landed. On the contrary, there were a few times in the story where Mae struck me as a toxic asshole more than anything (see: the scene where Mae and Bea go to the college bar in the city). I’ll readily admit that this objection is subjective, and clearly a lot of players empathized with Mae. She just didn’t work for me as a character, which really harmed my overall level of investment in the narrative.

What I think is less debatable (and more detrimental to the quality of the game) is that slow-as-molasses pacing and a dire lack of interesting gameplay mechanics are not part of a great recipe for success. The sense of not having anything to do is part of the story’s ethos, sure, but it’s a tough concept to sustain over an 8-10 hour game. There’s just not enough going on in the plot to justify the length of the game, so we just end up with a lot of dead time before anything occurs that’s actually relevant to the overall story. The developers clearly hoped that players would be willing to dawdle about and soak in the world they created, but the mechanical incentives for doing so just didn’t do it for me. There are a few mildly diverting minigames here, but otherwise there is very little going on gameplay-wise. I suppose that there’s technically platforming, but it’s perfunctory and thoroughly unnecessary. This ultimately ends up functioning as a walking simulator (which is fine) that has a few half-hearted attempts at adding actual gameplay (not so fine).

There are a few scenes in Night in the Woods that stuck with me. The relationship between Mae and her parents, for instance, is genuinely sweet and affecting. And bizarre cults are a trope that I will be always be down for. It’s just ended up being an hour or two of worthwhile content in a ten hour game that I otherwise found pretty boring.

A very good game. The music is sooooo good. Normally I don't pay much mind to music in games, but NitW's is so insanely good. The game is generally just really good, and my two biggest gripes are that I didn't personally care for probably 1/3 of the dialogue I encountered, and I felt there wasn't much of a point to the platforming. There weren't many rewards for platforming "challenges" (although the constellation stuff was really enjoyable and the music was incredible). The dialogue was good in that it felt like a real group of friends, but my main issue was simply that they don't talk like the kind of friends I keep for the most part so it felt a little grating for the characters to be the ZOMG!!! type at times.

For me, Gris was simply the right game at the right time. I picked it up near Christmas in 2018, at one of my lowest points, and I fell in love with it from its starting scene. It's watercolour palette and the use of the orchestra alongside the main voices and sparing use of organs stole me away, and I haven't looked back.

A lot of these reviews on this site critique its mechanical depth and how one dimensional it can be at times, but would it really have made it better? The fundamental misunderstanding, I feel, is that this isn't a platformer with nice music and art, it's designed to be centred around the synthesis of the art and music into a singular sublime experience - the platforming is simply a way to move through that. When I see the discussion on this subject, I ask myself "would this game be better with something like Celeste's focus on execution?" and I find myself always coming to a resounding no; a complex mechanical system would take focus away from what I think the game was supposed to truly be about.

On the subject of this ostentatiously named "singular sublime experience", I think it is rather wonderful. I've never really had a game which made me feel quite as Gris does, without the use of any real characters to speak of. It's somewhat heavy handed messaging on the five stages of grief and working through depression by the titular Gris is all too familiar and while the story treads a beaten path, the way it was told is unique to this game, using almost exclusivley the soundtrack and the art to tell it. I adored this, and I can understand why it's divisive - you either love it or find it dull as hell.

Personally for me, Gris is a game I've kept close to my heart nearing 4 years. I replay it every now and again, just to hear the starting song (Gris, Pt 1) as the title card is unveiled, or Perseverance match with the sandstorms' heights, Unagi in underwater caverns (yes I know the names of the OST songs shut up). Its undoubtedly my favourite game, but by far not the best I've played.