A few months back, Sony held one of its random “State of Play” streams that didn’t really contain a lot of info. With The Last of Us Part II being the main draw (and then getting its release delayed a month later), there weren’t a whole lot of surprises contained in the 20-ish minute stream. That is, except for one very gorgeous looking indie title.
Called Arise: A Simple Story, it was the only truly out-of-nowhere announcement during the stream. Looking to draw inspiration from thatgamecompany’s Journey, many viewers were in love with the striking visuals and emotional soundtrack. Just where exactly was this game hiding all this time?
Now that we’re closer to release, developer Piccolo Studio has been giving publications a chance to play the game, and the results are certainly special. Maybe Arise doesn’t rewrite the book on how to craft a puzzle-platformer, but the dedication to making this an emotional rollercoaster ride has paid off well.
Game director Alexis Corominas gave me a general overview of the goal the studio is shooting for with Arise. While a lot of what he said can be found on Sony’s blog from the announcement, his enthusiasm for the game was infectious. Arise’s subtitle can almost be read as a mission statement. This is a game that doesn’t have a lick of dialogue but is able to convey a story through interaction and clever direction. This all stems from a desire to capture emotions that are inherent to every human (i.e. simple storytelling).
The game begins with the funeral of an unnamed protagonist. As Corominas described, this idea came about from the studio’s wish to craft a protagonist different from the norm. Many games feature a young adventurer with a bright future in front of them. For Arise, everything the character and player will go through is in retrospect, looking back on a life well-lived.
This angle came from the developer’s own personal experience. For Corominas and his fellow co-founder, Jordi Ministral, they are both in mid-life now and have slightly less time in their futures. They came to a crossroads in their career where the company they previously founded stop being enjoyable to them and they reminisced about what from their pasts made brought them joy. Wanting to not waste their futures toiling away in comfortable security, the two disbanded their marketing firm and set off to establish a game company and live out their childhood dream.
With that in mind, the focus of Arise’s plot makes sense. This man has no more time, so he can only look backward to what he’s lived. While the main game will start with a tutorial level that contains some heavy emotional beats, the demo I played began on the second level. Set to the backdrop of a forest in mid-autumn, I was seemingly following a kite to return to some children while getting to grips with the game’s platforming elements.
It may be old hat to some, but Arise follows a formula similar to Jonathan Blow’s indie masterpiece Braid. You’ll encounter a specific mechanic, the game will iterate on it a bunch, and then you’ll move on to something new. The unique wrinkle that Arise brings to the fold is time manipulation.
The right joystick is dedicated solely to turning time back or moving things forward. This forest level would see the sunrise and set while scrubbing through time, though other levels are teased to take place “over the course of many months” or “in a fraction of a second,” as Corominas said.
Levels aren’t direct recreations of what the protagonist has seen, but more thematic matches for what he has lived in his own life. Wishing to cover the wide spectrum of life’s mundanity, Arise will hit upon things such as friendship, a first kiss, arguments, and even loss and regret. It is weighty material, though all wonderfully brought to life by a colorful and charming art style.
Getting back to this forest, the main mechanic in the level was that of throwing a grappling hook onto a bee and reversing/forwarding time to travel distances. Giant snails also needed to be jumped on with the same time manipulation being the answer. It was a little basic, but the excellent soundtrack by David Garcia (known for his work in Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice) provided a beautiful atmosphere to everything.
Towards the end, the level tasked me with shifting around time to make flowers face the sun. Arise doesn’t feature direct camera control, so it can sometimes be a little tricky to gauge distance. You can tilt the camera up and down, but that’s the only control you’re given. The idea is that the game will follow your character in a more guided fashion, leading to a cinematic telling of this person’s journey.
Corominas described how his wife loves watching him play games, but isn’t exactly skilled enough to play them herself. From there, a special co-op mode was created to accommodate such players. In co-op, player one will control the main character while player two takes care of all time-related gimmicks.
After traversing through the forest, I was able to proceed to the third level and was greeted with a much darker tone. Arise’s 10 levels will all feature individual themes and styles that are completely different from one another. This particular area was set on a mountain that was being torn asunder from an earthquake. It was symbolic of the story going on with this level’s particular characters, which unfolds through collectibles in each environment.
I didn’t get too much time with this area, but it showcased yet more creative uses of Arise’s time mechanics. It seems that Piccolo won’t be rehashing the same ideas ad-nauseum for the final product, which should lend itself to some devious puzzles.
Arise is currently slated for release on PC (via Epic Games Store), PS4, and Xbox One on December 3, 2019. It will retail for $19.99 and is said to be about five to six hours long.
