Gris in Quarantine
I was in undergrad when the Nintendo Switch was first released; I desperately wanted one but didn’t feel like I could allow myself that distraction from my classes. It wasn’t until the end of 2020 that I went and bought one (not in person, but through the wonders of online shopping). I’d spent most of the year in quarantine by that time, just like everyone else, and I had just started my classes up again. All of the excuses I used to give myself for not buying a Switch seemed paltry and pointless.
Marie Kondo says to keep only the things that spark joy. While I am not a minimalist and collect items like a raven, opening the box to see the whimsical Animal Crossing: New Horizons Switch nestled neatly in its packaging brought joy. Life is short, and you never know where the wind will take you (case in point: worldwide quarantine). If you can do something to make yourself happy, do it. In this case, it was a Nintendo Switch covered in raccoons and leaves for me. Pretty materialistic on the one hand, but we’re living through a worldwide quarantine, and I can safely amuse myself with it while not breaking quarantine.
Other than the prerequisite Animal Crossing: New Horizons game, I wasn’t exactly sure what other games to buy. So I went through and looked to see what games were on sale and bought different ones. And then I saw Gris.
The first time I heard about Nomada Studio’s Gris was actually in a throwaway line in a fanfiction (the author generously linked the game in the endnotes). I was curious to see what the game was and clicked on the link. The result was essentially me gasping in awe over the beautiful artwork and then filing it away in the back of my mind: I didn’t have a Switch then.
But, that was an issue that the newly-armed-with-a-Switch-Frankie didn’t have. So I dove in and spent the better part of a day crying over Gris while I played it. [A caveat: I most definitely have not finished Gris, platform games aren’t my strong suit, and I’ve been trapped (funnily enough) in the mind palace.]
The game’s name and the protagonist’s name translate from Spanish into “grey” in English, fittingly enough since the in-game world lacks color. All color has disappeared, and you have to find all the colors slowly. While bringing colors back to the world, and in that process bringing life back to the world, you find the fragments of Gris.
It’s a game of sorrow and of moving forward despite the grief that burdens you. Which, in the time we’re living in, is definitely something we can’t forget. Trapping ourselves in the race to get ahead — or even trapping ourselves within a box — isn’t the way forward. Sometimes, it’s not even that we have to rush forward, sometimes we just need a moment to breathe.
Sometimes, it’s okay to be stuck and just enjoy the scenery before you pick up steam again. We don’t always have to be running a thousand miles per hour and forgetting to live life. Right now, most of us probably feel like we’re stuck and aimless. I know that’s how I feel most of the time, like life is slipping past me, and no matter how many times I try to jump, I won’t be able to get past the abyss blocking my way. One of these days, I’ll get past that level.
