The Path (No Spoilers, please)

[figmentPez]

The Path

This was just added to Gametap today. I saw a review of this a while back, and was intrigued, so I started playing.

Good grief, this isn't a game, but it is... and it's good... maybe... WHAT JUST HAPPENED? It's beautiful and I want to keep playing... but I can't take anymore right now, it's so freaking trippy. It's more art than game, and the controls are simple and slow, but it just sucked me right in. I think I played for more than half an hour and it felt like 10 minutes.

The Path is sort of an altered retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. You choose one of six girls, and the game sets you on the straight path to grandmother's house. You're given instructions to go there, and not to leave the path, and then told how to move. If you walk right to Grandmother's... you fail. It's really about exploring the setting, and seeing what happens. There isn't any combat, doesn't seem to be any puzzles, you just explore and try and experience the story.

:bush: I think I like this game. I've only finished the first chapter, though, and it's a real mind trip. I think it's going to be slightly different for everyone who plays it.

 

[Fun Size]

I'll avoid spoilers and all, but if this is the game I read about, it sounded like a really cool idea that went decidedly wrong somewhere.

 

[Chibibar]

hmm.. there is the demo (prologue) I might have to install this when I get home and give it a shot.

 

[Fun Size]

Interesting. I've gone over a few new reviews, and I seem to be thinking of something else. This one sounds like a winner. Please do report your findings.

 

[Chronos[Ha-G]]

Well, considering that everyone else I've heard who's played it/reviewed it has hated it for one reason or another (extremely slow pacing (like, unbearably slow - even for something where you're supposed to just wander around), pointless game design/decisions, and the fact that you're supposed to "win" the game by [spoiler:3kc9b7jl]getting your young girl raped and then killed - and then repeat that for every other girl you can use[/spoiler:3kc9b7jl]), I've pretty much made my decision about whether I'll ever play it.

I'm not trying to rain on the parade - I just haven't heard a single good thing from anyone about this game, outside of this thread.

 

[Fun Size]

I actually read a couple of positive reviews. I'd be curious to check it out if I had the time.

 

[figmentPez]

](extremely slow pacing (like, unbearably slow - even for something where you're supposed to just wander around), pointless game design/decisions,

Yeah, the control is very very slow at points, however, the game hasn't felt slow to me. However, the control can be frustrating at times. There are points where the game takes away your ability to run, with no indication you can't run except for it not responding. There are also times when the game takes over completely, or all buttons do the same thing. However, aside from the locking of the run command, I haven't seen anything I'd consider pointless.

 

I'm interested in this game, for sure. But from what I understand it's more of an artistic experiment than a real game.

 

[AshburnerX]

I'm interested in this game, for sure. But from what I understand it's more of an artistic experiment than a real game.

Basically this, though it's pretty cool if you like that sort of thing.

Also, only one of the chapters is about [spoiler:14gomlwu]Rape[/spoiler:14gomlwu]... and even then it's not "explicit", only implied. It's more about portraying various kinds of "wolves" [spoiler:14gomlwu](read: Dangers/Life Experiences)[/spoiler:14gomlwu] at different stages of life. It's actually kinda thought provoking.

They are working on another game at the moment too.

 

[Raemon777]

I played the demo, and really wanted to like it, but found it just WAY to slow to enjoy, and the camera was terrible (you can only see in front of you when you're walking, when you run it did a weird thing where it tipped straight down so I had no idea where I was going).

It also bugged me that even though the theme of the game is supposed to be about temptation and how we handle it, there was nothing tempting about the woods at all. Why would you want to go there in the first place? It was a good idea that just wasn't executed as professionally as it could have been. Maybe the full game was more worthwhile, I dunno.

I think to make it work better, the path should have been a little more twisted. As it is, you just walk in a straight line for 30 seconds, and the forest doesn't look any more interesting. Having a longer pathway that passed near interesting stuff in the woods would have been better.

 

[AshburnerX]

It also bugged me that even though the theme of the game is supposed to be about temptation and how we handle it, there was nothing tempting about the woods at all. Why would you want to go there in the first place? It was a good idea that just wasn't executed as professionally as it could have been. Maybe the full game was more worthwhile, I dunno.

Because your a kid and your not supposed to go into the woods BECAUSE of it's dangers? That would have been very tempting for me as a kid.

 

[Raemon777]

I realize that, but it felt very forced to me in the context of the game. I don't automatically enter the mindset of a 12 year old girl when I start playing a game about a 12 year old girl. It takes a while (longer than the 30 seconds it took to walk to Grandma's house) to adjust to that, and it takes more than the game telling me I should pretend I'm a 12 year old girl.

When I played the game, I went and picked a few flowers, got bored and wandered around for a while solely because I felt obligated to appreciate the "artsiness" of the game. I didn't find the "wolf" character for about an hour and if I hadn't read a bunch of awesome reviews of the game I would never had bothered. The woods needed more than just flowers and a single random encounter to keep me interested in it.

 

[figmentPez]

I realize that, but it felt very forced to me in the context of the game. I don't automatically enter the mindset of a 12 year old girl when I start playing a game about a 12 year old girl. It takes a while (longer than the 30 seconds it took to walk to Grandma's house) to adjust to that, and it takes more than the game telling me I should pretend I'm a 12 year old girl.

When I played the game, I went and picked a few flowers, got bored and wandered around for a while solely because I felt obligated to appreciate the "artsiness" of the game. I didn't find the "wolf" character for about an hour and if I hadn't read a bunch of awesome reviews of the game I would never had bothered. The woods needed more than just flowers and a single random encounter to keep me interested in it.

There was a lot more than flowers and a single random encounter when I played. There were all sorts of objects to interact with. Music playing. Sounds playing. Things to interact with. Bits of poety. Funky visuals popping in and out. It was quite an experience.

Edit: Oh, you only played the demo. I'm sorry, I was talking about the full game. The demo is supposed to give an idea about the atmosphere of the game, not the content. It says as much on Tale of Tales's site.

 

[Raemon777]

Ah. I think they'd have been better served if the demo had enough stuff to be interesting.

 

[Le Quack]

Do not play this game. Its sickening.

 

[figmentPez]

Do not play this game. Its sickening.

Sickening in what way? Motion sickness type nausea? Siezure inducing strobe light queasiness? Slasher film gore-porn blech? Morality violating revulsion?

 

[Pojodan]

Do not play this game. Its sickening.

Sickening in what way? Motion sickness type nausea? Siezure inducing strobe light queasiness? Slasher film gore-porn blech? Morality violating revulsion?

[spoiler:22oph9nd]I think it's more the implications of a wolf raping an underage girl sort of sickening.[/spoiler:22oph9nd]

 

[AshburnerX]

Do not play this game. Its sickening.

Sickening in what way? Motion sickness type nausea? Siezure inducing strobe light queasiness? Slasher film gore-porn blech? Morality violating revulsion?

[spoiler:g7dpbmfz]I think it's more the implications of a wolf raping an underage girl sort of sickening.[/spoiler:g7dpbmfz]

The "wolf" that Ruby meets is just an [spoiler:g7dpbmfz]older guy who offers her a cigarette[/spoiler:g7dpbmfz]. Yes, it is implied that he's dangerous [spoiler:g7dpbmfz](you meet him as he's dragging something in a carpet away)[/spoiler:g7dpbmfz] and yes, it can be interpreted that Ruby [spoiler:g7dpbmfz]is raped by him[/spoiler:g7dpbmfz]. However, nothing is concrete as this is an artistic game and most of the fun comes from one's interpretation of the art. There is no definite way or ultimate truth in each of the girls "ravagings" and most of them have to deal with something the one learns while growing up.

 

[Pojodan]

Sounds like there's a lot of misinterpreted information flying around about this game.

 

[figmentPez]

Sounds like there's a lot of misinterpreted information flying around about this game.

It's easy for me to see why. The game is very abstract and stylized. In the single chapter (of six) I've played so far, there is no voice acting, and little text (which is snippets of poetry, mostly, and none of it dialogue). The scenes are ambiguous and unclear. I'm not even sure anything happened to the girl I was playing, beyond a panic attack. What I saw could be interpreted multiple different ways. [spoiler:1f44gnrz]Among the things I saw were a graveyard, a wheelchair, some medicine, and the girl talked about missing people and being missed. Then she got into a boat and met the "wolf" there who was a figure in a swirling cloud who appeared to have wounds all over his body. In thinking about it, it seems more likely that this was about the trauma of loosing a loved one to sickness or accident, than it was about a girl being raped in the swamp.[/spoiler:1f44gnrz]