How Gris Deals With Loss

[@robync2728]

Ehhhhhhhhhh I'm so glad to see you did it! I loved the game, and plan on doing my own analysis on it! I am still currently disecting art and animation on Neva! I was particularly empathetic to the feeling of being confused during the game, and also that something wasn't sitting well with me. Like... playing the game came with this level of part interest, part apathy about the journey and the world. I later realised for myself that grief is a complex and VERY non-linear experience. In actuality, you don't go through the stages in a neat line of progression, you end of going in and out of each, sometimes being in two or more at once. Which, I believe, was incredibly well done with the world aesthetic and how each colour comes to co-exist up until the point where Gris is roaming the 'Celestial Palace' I believe a 'dark night of the soul' very beautifully depicted. With denial, there is apathy and lack of interest, and the world is flat and very uninteresting. As life if when one has suffered loss. We don't want to get out of this nothing state because it means we will have to eventually confront the reality of something and experience how we feel. And feelings like resentment, loathing, despair, are none we want to experience. But as each new colour is introduced, we have to experience new emotions. Unpleasant, but they come with parts that we appreciate, maybe no in the moment. We see the critters, and the nature, and people start coming into our life. If we connect, surely we can replace the loss with someone new? But there are no people to bargain with when we enter depression. We withdraw and our emotions are the deep waters where we can't tell up or down... and despair, unlike anger (which is a very healthy and productive emotion as it gets us motivated to do something) is one of those few emotions that are consuming. It eats us alive from the inside, sheds no light, and we can't see the monsters of our own psyche but we sense them there. Acceptance doesn't mean being okay with or happy about what has happened. But now we can see, love and appreciate the beauty of the one who we never wanted to lose. It is so bitterly heartbreaking to come to terms that the one you hold dear has left you, and you will carry the pain of their memory forever, but it is equally important to remember that everything wonderful and worthwhile about them is still held in this world because you loved them. Gris was a testament to the journey one must persist through. Because even though you will not have your loved one back, the wold is brighter and beautiful with their loving memories in our minds. Rather to experience the pain and learn to live and remember the beauty of a life, than to succumb to the nothingness that apathy pulls us into, and the light that our loved on brought into this world is gone for good. I LOVED your take on this game, and I agree with a lot of it! Some games on my to play list include: - Blasphemous 1 and 2 - Palia (I HIGHLY RECOMEND THIS, it's a cozy game but the lore omg. I think you might really enjoy the world building and history of this world) - Ori is always a good one - Copy Cat by a Spoonful of wonder is a game I am also analysing as market research for my own project. - Children of Morta - Haven - Katana Zero is another I highly recommend - Planet of Lana is a side scroller, like Ori in that it has phenomenal music, art and story telling I haven't seen too many of your videos so I am not sure which you have or not, But hopefully this helps sparks the brain juices

[@MindofMayne]

thank you for the comment once again! this game was as good as you said it would be! definitely loved the experience and i’m excited to see what else Nomada has in store. And i can’t wait to see your neva and gris project once it’s done. i’ll be sure to tune in whenever that happens. and thank you for game suggestions! i’ll write these down and will be sure to give them a try. Thank you! 🙏🏽

[@pepijn6713]

Hi Mayne, Thank you for making this video! This video was exactly the video I was searching for. Very recently my mother passed away. I had heard that Gris was about grief and loss so I wanted to give it a try. The way you described the colour themes and five stages of grief in Gris was helpful and informative, thank you! Gris visualises the wide range of emotions that comes with grieving. It is playing a beautiful painting in which you can discover new things which each playthrough. Yesterday I finished it for the first time and I definitely will play it in the future. I also want to share some of my thoughts about the game: In the first part of the game I really like the music Perseverance song in addition with the intense organ and choir sounds and then it goes back to the piano. Gameplaywise it is coupled with the storms in the desert. To me, it signifies that grief and its emotions come in waves. Or as the famous Flemish clinical psychologist Manu Keirse stated: “The most characteristic feature of grief is that you don’t experience these intense emotions all the time. On the contrary, they are temporary and intense pangs of pain, periods of intense fear or psychological pain.” I liked the way Gris handled the intermingling and mixing of colours. Indeed, the five stages of grief are not set in stone, discrete and clear steps you take. It all blends. My eye felt on this detail when, after going through some chapters and returning to the main hub area, you see traces of clear red and green. And it all builds up towards to acceptance phase. Through most of the game I felt quite disoriented. Normally in games like Zelda for example you have very clear knowledge on where you are on the map and where you probably need to go. With Gris is was more like this: "Okay, I guess we are here now" or "Okay, sure I will now go this way.” Intentionally or not by the game studio to me it reflects the unpredictability of the way you feel in a grieving process. Fun fact: Gris means Gray in French and Spanish. further establishing the importance of colour. When Gris is being completely swallowed up by the black goo in the ending cutscene to me it is signifying the inevitability and necessity to go through these stages of grief all the way to the literal breakthrough in the ending cutscene. Furthermore, that the breakthrough/acceptance is also inevitable (!), that the will sun shine again, when you accept all the emotions and face the loss head on. And in that way you are always on the path of healing even if you are in the midst of anger, depression or fear. I want to share some other quotes by Manu Keirse which I found striking and helpful. “Do not suppress constructive emotions like sadness and anger. If you bury these necessary feelings, they will resurface later in a destructive way. You cannot take shortcuts in a grieving process.” “you cannot go around the pain, nor over it, nor under it. The only way is to go straight through it.” “Surviving grief also means: going through the pain.” “The period of grief has a beginning, middle and end. It is important to keep in mind at the beginning that grief will end. It is nature’s way to get through it, even if at times you may not believe it. You must often tell yourself that there will come a time when you will be able to love life again” Regarding the last quote, it is not returning to your “old life” it is integrating the loss in a healthy way. In Flemish/Dutch we have quite a beautiful way of phrasing it: Grieving is not “verwerken” it is “verweven”. Verwerken means processing. Verweven means weaving. The delicate act of carefully incorporating the loss with all the emotions that comes with grieving. If you want to play/analyse more games related to the five stages of grief I can recommend “RiME” by Tequila Works. The game is a 3D puzzle platformer. Sidenote: Do not play it on the Nintendo Switch, when I played it there their were some technical difficulties. The game was released in 2017 so maybe the fixed it. I saw on your KZbin channel that you also made another video about dealing with grief. I don't no the details of your life but I wish you all the best Mayne in the things that you are going through. And keep doing what you are passionate about, don't give up! With me you have a new subscriber :) All the best! Pepijn

[@MindofMayne]

i’m sorry for your loss. i couldn’t imagine dealing with that sort of pain losing someone close to you like that. i wish you all the best in that regard. but thank you for worrying about me but i am doing well! i just like analyzing games with alot of meaning, and Gris along with other games i’ve played this recent year seem to follow in that same direction. i love the quotes you gave here, very insightful information and if i was aware of these i would have definitely added them to my video but i love the discussion part about these type of things as like i said in my video, it’s all up to interpretation for these types of situations. and amazing insight on the zelda portion, you’re right. in those games you are very much aware of where you are and you’re objective. as where in Gris, it’s abundantly clear that you don’t know. confusion is just apart of grieving as the other stages. But thank you. i’m glad i was insightful to someone out there. i love the discussion around things likes this, and i appreciate the support. this is a hobby for me but people like you definitely make me fall more in love with making content. and i’ll be sure to check the game out! Sounds interesting and i haven’t heard before. will definitely be checking it out, and i’ll play it on the ps5 lol. But thank you and i hope you’re doing well in this rough time of your life. i hope my video gave you a bit of help in your own journey.

[@pepijn6713]

@@MindofMayne Thank you for your kind words! And glad to hear you are doing well :) And good choice to play RiME on the PS5 haha