Do you remember the first ten minutes of the movie Up? Well, Arise: A Simple Story is essentially the game version of that, and it's just as emotionally potent. It begins with our hero's body being burned in a Viking-style funeral pyre (which makes this the second game in one week that I’ve played 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:that involves ritual🌜istic corpse burning), and while you might think that would mark the end of the story, it's actually the beginning of something rather beautiful.
This is a game that has a very thoughtful, somber, and hopeful take on what may happen after we die, looking back on a life full of happy and painful memories. Arise: A Simple Story is a misleading title, because this is a﷽ very complicated game about a very complicated subject, and it manages to create a version of the aft♉erlife that’s absolutely magical.
A Stroll Down Memory Lane
As previously stated, the character we play as is quite deceased as we load in. He&rs🍸quo;s an old, whi♌te-bearded man who despite his age looks like he could easily take down a bear using nothing but his hands. After the pyre, he mysteriously awakes on a snowy hilltop and begins reliving memories from his life, which often involve a beautiful woman who he will share the bulk of his existence with.
It’s pretty impressive how Arise manages to get us so invested in characters without really telling anything about them. There’s no dialogue, the characters have no real facial features, 💃and everything is told using statues of the main characters in various poses, as well as collectible drawings that fill in the blanks even further. Yet, through the animation of our old hero and the environments he remembers, we see the major moments of his life and how they shaped him as a person. It all feels like something Pixar might have made into a short film, only expanded into a wonderful little game. Needless to say, there may have been some mild eye-watering during pivotal moments.
There's So Much Platforming To Do In Heaven
At first, I assumed that Arise would be like a standard walking simulator where you’re drawn forward less by gameplay, but more by the need to unravel the narrative. However, at its core, it's actually more of a platformer. You gain the ability to rewind, fast-forward, or freeze time, which starts out feeling like a pretty easy to understand mechanic, but is soon used in many interesting ways.
You may have to rewind to get a giant bee in position so you can throw your grappling hook to use it to get across a gap. Or, you may need to jump on a sunflower that's out of reach, so you move time forward to make it so the sun is facing in a different direction, thus changing that sunflower’s orientation. The time manipulation is used so well to bypass various platforming challenges that it starts to feel like you’re solving a puzzle, and it makes reaching the next story revelation far more exciting than just inching forward on the control stick.
It doesn’t hurt that the levels are often staggeringly beautiful displays that make me wish we had a chance to explore this fa📖ntasy world in a less morbid adventure. You’ll ride on giant snails, use massive flowers to reach a romantic fountain, climb across crumbling mountains during an earthquake, etc. The level design can be incredible, and even though Arise has a rather simplistic art style, it is an undeniably picturesque game.
Then there’s the music that kicks the whimsy of Arise up to 11. It’s a bit cliched to say it reminded me of something Disney might make, but this music combined with these levels feels like it wouldn’t have been out of place showing up in Fantasia. It does a gr♉eat job of amping up the emotion of each memory to further increase the chance of you having a full sobbing breakd🧸own.
Ashes To Ashes
Arise is almost a perfect little experience, but I did feel like the later levels are where things start to lose some steam. While most of the early locations are pure eye candy, it gets a little muddy around the time you reach the level called “Ashes.” I thought the level design started to fall apart around this point, with some unclear jumps, lackluster scenery, and awkward paths to travel. Nothing was terrible enough to completely derail things, but the earlier levels are definitely where most of the game's wonder seems to be contained.
It's also worth mentioning that Arise doesn't pull any emotional punches. There's some super heavy subject matter here and things get pretty dark in the later stages. So, just be forewarned that everything in this game isn't all sunflowers and bumblebees.
What Dreams May Come
Arise: A Simple Story is one of the better narrative-heavy games I've played in a while, which is impressive considering that aside from the title itself, not a word is uttered throughout the adventure. Death is a pretty difficult topic to cover in a game, especially if it's your first game as a developer, but Piccolo Studio utilizes great platforming mechanics, level design, and environmental story-telling to craft a moving, heart-breaking journey that celebrates life even after it's over.
So bring a box of tissues and brace yourself for emotional impact, because Arise: A Simple Story is perhaps the most tearjerking game you'll play this year.
A PC copy of Arise: A Simple Story was provided to TheGamer for this review. Arise: A Simple Story is available on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Arise: A Simple Story is a charming platformer with a deep, sometimes bleak story. As an elderly tribesman recently pa༺ssed, you must navigate an afterlife full of his memories, completing puzzles that reflect his age and state of mind when they occurred.