BENGALURU: The new year dawns with this irrational hope that everything in life will suddenly change for the better — a hope that the mistakes, and the sadness of the last year are suddenly washed away and there’s going to be an influx of fresh new and happy episodes coming our way. Even the objectively annoying events in the first few weeks of the new year would be converted into optimistic signs for the future. But what if there are some things, that sadly don’t change over midnight?
This week I played Grimm’s Hollow, a game that released last Halloween (Free to play, and available on the game’s website) — but a game that shouldn’t be one of those things that ‘stays back in 2019’.Grimm’s Hollow is a simple turn-based RPG with Lavender as the lead character. The very cute looking graphics and the associated soundtrack in the game is broken by the first and immediate revelation that Lavender is dead. She wakes up to find herself at a party with other skull-faced people in black robes who are celebrating her new employment as a reaper.
The game is filled with adorable puns related to the process of reaping. Lavender needs to keep her ‘willpower’ up to survive the fight, while reducing the ‘spirit energy’ of the ghost she confronts (while simultaneously reaping some for herself). Lavender can revive some of her will power by eating cookies or other such comfort food. The spirit energy she gains can help hone her skills (by going into her soul), it seems a little under used since the entire game ends in a few hours.
Soon, you might realise that this turn-based fight system with its puns is just a distraction from the serious storyline that discusses grief. The conversations revolve around the soul and afterlife. It’s reminiscent of a game called To The Moon, both of which are poignant. The thankfully small journey gives us closure by answering the questions ‘Where is Timmy’, ‘What happened to him’, and ‘Will Lavender pass on’?If the completion of a year is anything like the end of the game, then it’s right — maybe everything changes.