RiME Review: Teaching How to Make Peace with Death

This game is one of the most anticipated games in 2023 because it features a very beautiful world illustration design. The combination of lighting, objects, time all feels very real.

The story of the game’s development itself is quite unique. Initially, Tequila Works developed it specifically for Xbox Live Arcade and Windows 8 exclusive titles, then offered it to Microsoft.

But the development proposal was rejected because it didn’t match the features multiplayer And social gaming that Xbox Live Arcade emphasizes. Until finally RiME instead joins Sony and will enter into their PS4 exclusive title.

This game stole the attention at Gamescom 2013 during the PlayStation indie game session. However, despite the long development time, RiMe never released. Fortunately, publishers Greybox and Six Foot finally collaborated to ensure RiME was released to the market.

Finally, in 2023 Tequila Works managed to acquire RiME back from Sony after the previous lack of development. RiME itself is played in view third person.

This game tells about the character that you will play, namely a boy who is stranded on a mysterious island with a giant tower in the middle. Your task is to explore the entire island guided by an orange fox.

As you play, you will encounter a mysterious man in a red robe. However, every time you chase him, you will never get the chance to reveal who this figure is.

You can do many things, from running, climbing, carrying objects, and pushing or pulling larger objects to solve existing puzzles. You can also scream or sing to make statues around locations glow or open doors for a limited time.

During the game, you will try to remember how you got stranded on the island. As time goes by, you will realize that the boy and his father were at sea when a storm hit and his father fell into the sea.

The boy tried to save him but could only hold on to a part of the red robe. The little boy wears this cloth to remember his father and takes it to the central tower.

As you climb the tower, you will come across additional areas each individually representing the five stages of grief. Finally when you reach the top of the tower, you will see the departure of the fox that accompanied you from the start.

You’ll return to the central tower and find that it’s now upside down inside and climbing back up towards the island at the start of the story.

At the end of the story, you will realize that the story of this game actually comes from the perspective of the father who tells about his son who was lost at sea. The island and the tower he explored were part of his own mind that arose to refuse to lose his son.

His father imagined when his son had returned to him by going to the boy’s room, checking all his toys, and as he turned to leave, he saw a vision of his son with a red sheet appearing on the bed.

Consciously, he hugged his son who immediately disappeared and left a red cloth in his hand. The father finally went to the window and removed the cloth, to accept the loss of the child.

There are 5 levels in the game, viz Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, And acceptance. The design of this level takes reference from the Kübler-Ross model known as the “Five Stages of Grief”.

This model was first introduced by Swiss-American psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in her 1969 book On Death and Dying. This model describes the development of emotional states experienced by terminally ill patients after diagnosis ranging from denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

Kevin Sardà Pérez as Designer really knows how to represent writing ideas storyline provided by Rob Yescombe and Raúl Rubio Munárriz as Writers. At the beginning of the story, you will assume that it is the boy who has lost his father, but vice versa.

As time goes by, you are made aware that the game’s storyline describes the emotional process faced by the father in accepting the loss of his son in the ocean.

On the first level Denialyou will find that the father is still in the stage of denial that the more believing in a false reality is better still believing that his son is not lost.

You will play as a boy character looking for a man in a red robe everywhere. At the end of the story will appear cutscene that the red cape belonged to his father who disappeared in a storm while sailing.

On the second level angryyou are challenged to survive the attack of a giant bird by taking cover under a black cloud that must be released in every place.

cutscenes at the end of the level it becomes clear that it is in fact the missing boy and the father admits that the denial cannot continue. He got frustrated and kept saying how could this happen to me and why did this happen.

On the third level Bargaining, the father is still negotiating involving hope. He made a compromise in order to avoid the cause of this sadness. On the fourth level depressionthe father will be faced with despair to admit that his son is dead.

On the fifth level acceptance, the father is aware that death is an inevitable future that can befall loved ones even to his own child.

RiME is a game with jigsaw puzzles developed by Tequila Works. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in May 2023, and for Nintendo Switch in November 2023.