The GWJ Adventure Game Club - Game 3: RiME

Oh that’s awesome that you’ll be able to play together!
I’m a bit behind schedule, I wanted to stream it this weekend but my current priority is the GOTY. I’ll catch up soon, I promise! Can’t wait to read the spoilers!

My daughter and I are into the third chapter. I'll have to try and finish with her this month. For sure playing with my 5 year old is a blast on PC except lap gaming with her has become difficult due to she has become a giant compared to our fox games when she was 2 or 3.

I look forward to finishing up!

I just finished. I though it was a beautiful game with both the art style and music. I liked the puzzles. Sometimes that camera though!

I only had to look up how to solve one puzzle -

Spoiler:

The first time you have to stand on a pillar to add a shadow

I need to read up a bit more on discussions with the game because I did not wrap my head around everything just from playing.

I'm nearing the end of chapter 3.

Very much enjoying it so far, particularly the art style and music/sound. Puzzles have been good in a, completely stumped for a few minutes until everything clicks into place, kind of way.

I'm getting a lot of Papa & Yo and Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons vibes. Of the three Rime might be the most stylish but so far doesn't have anything like the depth of story or themes of those two.

I'm finished too. I loved the actual game, as I said before the art and sound where fantastic and the puzzles where enjoyable and had just a touch of challenge to them.

As for the story:

Spoiler:

I played this with my wife watching and by about the 3rd chapter we both agreed that the boy was dead. Even so, like most others, I don't think the ending fit with the rest of the game.

Outside of maybe chapter 4 where the depression theme is very clear and chapter 5, I'm not sure I could directly link any of the other chapters with their corresponding stages.

Gameplay wise the story also doesn't really work. I'm still not clear what I was actually doing in the game, was I the dad playing through the various stages of his own grief? Or the son working through some kind of purgatory? Either way, what did the different actions I took represent? What are the animals, towers, light puzzles, robots etc. representing?

Overall I really liked the game, and the ending was very touching, I'm just not sure they belong in the same package.

I've restarted after my kids saw the menu screen and wanted to play "the fox game" last weekend, and I think we're roughly halfway through. So pretty!

The boy is now has the Rime ps4 dynamic theme set up on his sub-account, tis charming.

I downloaded it from GamePass and will probably start in tonight. Looking forward to it!

Bubblefuzz wrote:

The boy is now has the Rime ps4 dynamic theme set up on his sub-account, tis charming.

Hmmmm I may have that... if it was free. I've dipped my toe back in and started to remember how everything works.

Higgledy wrote:
Bubblefuzz wrote:

The boy is now has the Rime ps4 dynamic theme set up on his sub-account, tis charming.

Hmmmm I may have that... if it was free. I've dipped my toe back in and started to remember how everything works.

It was freebie, aye.

Rime was one of those games I told myself I would get to eventually, but I never actually would have were it not for a thread like this. I really enjoyed it overall, so thanks for the incentive

As has been mentioned many times already, the game is bright and beautiful, but a bit messy technically. I was on a PS4 Pro. Sometimes the framerate was buttery smooth. At other times it dipped into the 20s or even teens.

The puzzles are relatively straightforward, but that's a positive for me. I tend to be quickly turned off by adventure games with overly complicated or obtuse puzzles that block progression.

I was quite moved by the ending and have spent some time thinking about it and how it relates to the rest of the game. It caused me to reflect on how some of the ideas conveyed in the game have been mirrored in my own life. Below are some thoughts on the story and some of the things ClockworkHouse, Stevintendo, and Aristophan mentioned in their spoiler tags.

Spoiler:

While I agree that the some of the actions you take in the game don't fully line up with the ending, I managed to connect enough of the dots to make make it feel mostly earned. As Aristophan mentioned, each chapter is revealed to be one of the five stages of grief when you finish the game.

Denial - The loss of his son is too overwhelming to acknowledge, so he doesn't. Playing with animals, exploration, and self discovery on a bright, beautiful island... this a preferable reality for his son. There are no clear objectives. You wander around and figure out how the world works. This is the unburdened childhood he wanted for his son.

Eventually, the shock wears off, and the father transitions to anger, but I'm still not sure how traversing the looming tower represents this transition.

Anger - The father is represented by the bird. He is lashing out at everyone and everything around him and trying to deflect blame for the loss of his son. One of the windmills is made of wood and sails. This is the father blaming the boat for falling apart. One of the windmills is in the ocean. This is the father blaming the sea for taking his son. The last windmill is filled with pictures of the boy. This is the father blaming the boy for being careless.

For each storm you summon, a windmill is destroyed, and one less scapegoat remains for the father's rage. This is not the boat's fault. This is not the sea's fault. This is not the boy's fault. With all three windmills destroyed, the father has no one left to blame but himself.

Edit: I should mention that I did replay this chapter once after finishing the game. I didn't make many of these connections the first time through.

Bargaining - Most of this chapter is spent trying to revive a giant mechanical being to lead the boy to a clear path forward. The process of awakening this mechanical represents praying (bargaining) to a higher power for guidance, for answers, for anything to move forward.

The shades become aggressive toward you in this chapter, but I'm not sure why. They were passive in the Anger chapter.

Depression - It rains non-stop in this section, and your vision is limited. Your mechanical companions begin sacrificing themselves to clear a path forward for you, but no matter how fast you run, you only get there to see the end of their sacrifice. This might represent how we often fail to notice those trying to help us when we're depressed.

You do get to see the full sacrifice of the mechanical companion that you summoned, and you are powerless to stop him. It clears a path for you to move on, yet you feel abandoned. Same for the fox.

As for why you become the shade and why the world is turned upside down, I'm still trying to work those out. Any thoughts?

Now that I know the ending, I'd like to revisit the game sometime in the future and see if I can connect the rest of the dots.

That's a solid response, Dyni. Thanks.

Ok I’ve managed to get myself back into a ‘small boy running around an island solving puzzles’ head space and have made it through another batch of puzzles. I wasn’t sure if I’d complete the game but now, being pretty close to the end, (if I’m reading the architecture right) I suspect l’ll get it finished.

I really should have aligned starting Rime with this thread, I will still get around to it even if its a late post. The art style looks great.

In my experience the art style grows on you. At first I was cynically thinking they were going for the ‘journey look’ but it goes beyond that with it’s own charm and atmosphere.

Finished Rime today.
It is so beautiful - that alone makes it worth trying it. But I didn't enjoy playing it that much. I was happy the puzzles were fairly simple. Not a fan of adventure games that assume the players have long-range mind reading skills directly targeted at the developers.
It just wasn't very interesting for most of the game, especially the middle part which dragged on a bit and felt somewhat disconnected. Thematically the first area and the last one (or second to last technically) felt strongest while going through them.

Also, great post Dyni. I kinda like the game more after reading that Didn't make those connections regarding 'chapter 2' at all.

I failed my savings throw against clicking spoilers, but only blame myself really. I only clicked Clocky's so I'll refrain from looking any further!

I've completed the first two chapters (which aren't really clearly labeled, I've basically arrived at a bunch of trees after spending a lot of time dodging some giant bird). I'm feeling a strong influence from Journey, but the game feels somewhat aimless, lacking in focus. We have no idea what's going on, what's driving your character. At least in Journey, I had the tug of going to look for the fallen star, here we're following a fox. Alright then! In fact, I'm quite disappointed that we don't see the fox as often as I'd hoped.

I'm not quite as enraptured as I'd hoped I'd be, but still invested enough to see it to the end!

It's interesting to me that so many people are using Journey as a touchstone for this. As near as I can tell, it's about one silent princess away from being an Ico clone. Have you all played that one? Am I just off my rocker to see them as similar?

ClockworkHouse wrote:

It's interesting to me that so many people are using Journey as a touchstone for this. As near as I can tell, it's about one silent princess away from being an Ico clone. Have you all played that one? Am I just off my rocker to see them as similar?

I haven't played Ico, so I appreciate the heads up that it's like RiME.

The closest comparison I could make is INSIDE, but even then I could probably list more differences than similarities.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

It's interesting to me that so many people are using Journey as a touchstone for this. As near as I can tell, it's about one silent princess away from being an Ico clone. Have you all played that one? Am I just off my rocker to see them as similar?

No, Ico and RiME do feel pretty similar to me as well. From my recollection, Journey had either no or very few puzzles (granted, I haven't played it in years), but both Ico and RiME have quite a few of them. In addition to a mute princess, Ico also had some simplistic combat, which is absent from RiME. For the better, in my opinion.

I haven't played Ico!! Maybe I should.

I tried Ico but i never really liked the "leading a passive young girl who is seemingly completely helpless and will just let shadow monsters drag her away if you do't defend her" thing it had going for it as it's central premise.

Checking in now, because while I plan to go back and finish...it's very unlikely I'll do so tonight. I kept putting it off, and then, like Eleima, when I was in it I didn't find it all that entrancing, and then I got very irritated by the first bit with the bird (probably shouldn't have tried when I was really tired), got through that, and hit a bit where I'm not sure where to go, which upgraded things to frustration. Also not a fan of "countdown timer" elements in puzzles. I can see Ico, in that it's a bit of an ur-text in this genre, but, yeah, lots of Journey, but without the focus, ethereal weirdness, and ruminations on the cycle of life and death, at least as far as I got. It was very pretty, and I bet if I was playing with or in the presence of someone else I'd have been much more compelled. Don't regret my time at all, just wasn't the home run I thought it might be.

Hey, no worries, SpaceP, you still have a month, and even then, I'm locking down any threads, anyhow.

Spoiler:

Not that I *could* even if I wanted to!

So I finished on Wednesday the 30th, but didn't get around to posting my thoughts, because I wanted to fully read the spoilers and get my thoughts in order, and then I got caught up with work and family stuff.

Anyhow, I'm pretty much in agreement with Clocky, Dyni, Stevintendo, and Aristophan, and others I might be forgetting (apologies!). I liked the aesthetic, I enjoyed the puzzles, but... Through most of the game, I had no sense of purpose, nothing to drive me forward, and that made it fall a bit flat for me. I'll spoiler the rest of my observations.

Spoiler:

So by the end of chapter one, I thought I was near the end, and wanted to get a sense of where I was, looked up a walkthrough, saw there were five chapters and I still had good chunks of gaming ahead of me.
And I saw the chapter names - Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance - so I knew the game's themes revolved around grief. Then I clicked Clocky's post and saw the kid was dead (I thought it might be the father).
Honestly, I'm not a fan. Child death is already a theme I struggle with, being a parent, and having kids that are different and more at risk (just this week, another non verbal ASD kid "escaped" from his carers at his specialized center, here in Paris, and he's been missing for ten days. We're all fearing the worst).
And I just didn't see the connection, I really thought it was a kid grieving for his father and not the other way around.
I knew the robot friends was supposed to be "Bargaining", but I just wasn't seeing it.
And in the end, when the father enters the kid's room, you're supposed to stop and reflect, but... the room was empty. Utterly empty. It felt hollow to me. Because I'd failed to pick up a single toy. I found a few keyholes, a couple of disc pieces, but not a single toy. So the room was completely bare, and that scene was not nearly as impactful. I'm actually chuckling at that.
I did shed a tear or two when he hugged the shade of his kid, before it vanishes. But that was more because of my own stuff, a recent death in the family, the disappearance of the other kid, and my own precious boys.

Ultimately, it's not a bad game, not by any stretch, because it's pretty, the soundtrack works beautifully, and there are some interesting puzzles, and designs. And I *am* glad I played it. But it's not a great game.

I am in the post burden area. I would agree with the non spioler assessment above. It has all the hallmarks of a great game but I feel disconnected. Or it is reminicient of some greats but needs something more.

Eleima wrote:
Spoiler:

Then I clicked Clocky's post and saw the kid was dead (I thought it might be the father).
Honestly, I'm not a fan. Child death is already a theme I struggle with, being a parent, and having kids that are different and more at risk (just this week, another non verbal ASD kid "escaped" from his carers at his specialized center, here in Paris, and he's been missing for ten days. We're all fearing the worst).

Thanks for sharing a little about your perspective Eleima. Maybe I should do the same:

Spoiler:

I have similar problems with the theme, especially when I feel like it's hasn't been handled with the sensitivity it deserves. My reactions undoubtedly come from the fact that we almost lost our eldest at birth, and he was left severely disabled, with a very short life expectancy. As it happens he's just had a scary couple of months too. So I guess that's going to leave me taking a very critical stance on the game.

When I got to kid's bedroom it actually did have a few toys, and I could see that I was supposed to have this touching moment, but instead I just turned straight around and walked out to move things along. I don't think the game did anything to earn that moment in the bedroom.

...

I'm really sorry to hear about that kid, Eleima. Has there been any news since?

Totally unrelated to the game and very unpleasant stuff in response to the above post:

Spoiler:

No, no news as of yet. Apparently, he’s been spotted several times in the Parisian metro, but nothing solid and he hasn’t been reunited with his family. It’s very concerning. Some reports have him hanging out with a young man who is “of interest” to the police. I fear he is being preyed on in the worst possible ways.

I wasn't really planning to play this, but I had some gaming time this weekend and was feeling burnt out on shooting and stabbing people, so I jumped into this on a whim. I played probably 45 minutes or so, and from seeing here that there are chapters in this, I would assume I must still be in the first chapter. I solved one set of puzzles, and am onto the next area, but got lightly stumped on what must be the second or third puzzle in that area and decided to take a break. But I think I will try to complete this by the end of the month if reports that this is a ~5 hour game are accurate. I do not enjoy the sort of very loosely implied story vibe I'm getting from this. With Limbo and Journey, two games that may be similar, it just made me confused about whether or not I truly understood what was happening. Although I suppose Brothers also used similar narrative techniques, and that game I came away with a pretty strong grasp of its events, so we'll see. I have managed to avoid clicking on all your spoiler tagged stuff...hopefully I will complete the game and better appreciate this discussion!

In general I enjoy ‘tip of the iceberg’ story telling where you are picking up bits of story and surmising the rest but that process wasn’t working for me in RIME. I feel like they didn’t communicate their story very well but then I didn’t complete it (I do know what the over arching story was.)

Over all I think I’d rather have continued solving puzzles in the bright, small Greek island atmosphere of the first area.

Is there ever anything to indicate how far into the game you are? When people have referred to chapters here, is that all just rough understanding of how many discrete sections of the game they are? I just completed a sequence where a mechanical bird-dragon thing was chasing me, seemingly allowing me to explore this desert area with these windmills now. I'm really curious to know how much of the game I have left...if it's a 5 hour game, as I've seen some say, I'd guess I'm around 2.5 hours in.

I started poking through the achievement list and was slightly disappointed to see there were things I probably could've done that I didn't know I could try to do. I'd noticed in an earlier area that there are a bunch of nests with eggs on them. I wondered if there was a benefit to stepping on them, so I took care to squish every nest I saw. I was surprised to see there's an achievement for completing that area without ever stepping on a nest. I correctly figured out there was a reward associated with those nests, but I just guessed in the wrong direction. Maybe I should've been able to guess that stepping on nests is kinda mean and therefore not likely to be rewarded.

I tried to get my 7-year old to play along with me on this, I thought it would be interesting to show her the puzzles, but she thought it was "creepy." Oh well.