Daydreams on the Moon

Image by evondue from Pixabay

Way back in 2018, I encountered this whimsically colored game through recommended video reviews on YT and the gameplay's focus really stuck with me enough that when I got my own gaming console last year, I went and looked for it again to this time gain the experience in actually playing this:

Even if in the end I opted to purchase it through Google's Playstore for the mobility of planning to play this anywhere, I did come to realize that it's a game best played using a controller-- which was thankfully compatible with my wireless one.

Disclaimer: GIFs and screenshots I used for this post are from my own days and hours of gameplay and the interpretation I've thought over from playing this sensory experience.

Despite its colorful undertones, Gris is actually a journey of going through the 5 stages of grief that firstly thrusts us in the downward spiral to greyish Denial:

This first stage is as brief as a grim situation that has yet to sink in, and we may even fancy ourselves to be alright and be able to leave this dreary place unscathed if we only go with the flow:

Until we can't help but slide into the reddish blaze of Anger that only seems to make this heaviness worse as we are weighed down further into the second stage:

After the gritty deluge of sandstorms, only here do the shadows of the past haunt us as we near the end of this heavy bleakness, but our overall journey is far from over:

We are then harshly forced out into the deceptively green stage of Bargaining, hope starts to bloom around us here as we make a friend and even show a lightness in our hops and jumps:

But like most cases when it comes to bargaining, these momentary bouts of freedom comes at a price as the shadows of the past come back to haunt us and hinder our quest into moving forward:

The shadow that haunts us...

And despite coming out from the third stage in one piece, the ordeal has worn us down enough to make the bluish cold of Depression seep in making us 'plop' further into despair and before we realize it, we are now literally swimming in a sea of tears:

The shadows here in the fourth stage are now abysmal which turn even worse as the darkness takes a form on its own, and only when we are ready to wade through our tears do we start to see the spots of light starting to pop back up in our life:

...the light that guides us back.

Now having found our voice as we enter the yellow lightness of Acceptance, we must then come to terms with the skewed perception we encountered from past woes and find our footing as we relearn to balance ourselves into finding ground:

On a side note, if we've been patient in gathering all the Mementos scattered all throughout the 5 stages, players get to unlock a Secret Scene through here and also earn it as an Achievement:

Continuing on from this fifth and last stage of grief, we are faced with the fact that we must lay our losses to rest and come to terms with the shadows that made our past hurt, before we can truly get to move on into the next stage of what life has for us.

"If tears could build a stairway and memories a lane, I'd walk right up to Heaven and bring you home again."

I gotta say after all these years, this game was actually worth the wait of me having to actually play this for myself, especially if one has gone through their own personal experience of loss-- moreso since I didn't exactly finish this in one sitting, playing this made me feel like I was slowly being guided to be at the right moment when I was ready for acceptance as well.

GIF from GIFER