Pine: Story of Loss (LudoNarraCon '24 Preview)
A short meditation on grief
Grief has been a common theme in games I’ve played lately, but each game has had an interesting and different take on the emotion. Grief during isolation in Fishbowl. Pushing through the grief but not wanting to really let go in Afterlove EP. In Pine: Story of Loss from Made Up Games and Fellow Traveller, it’s grief everywhere you look.
Alone in the forest glade where he made a home with his wife, a woodworker struggles to move on as his simple daily chores are interspersed by cherished memories of a past life. As each season changes, the woodworker must prepare for what’s to come. Tasks such as collecting water, thatching the roof, or planting crops each bring back vivid memories of his wife. Desperate to not let his wife go, the woodworker captures these moments in beautiful wood carvings. Yet, while each one is a promise to her memory, they soon become a dangerous obsession.
Divided into seasons, you’re a woodworker and you’ve recently lost your wife. It’s just you, you’re the only resident of the glade where the two of you made your home. The hand-drawn animation is gorgeously minimalistic, the beauty of the environment around you only highlights your grief as you slowly trudge through the forest or do your daily chores.
Your chores, whether it’s getting water for your garden, harvesting straw for your thatched roof, or vegetables from your garden, highlight how it feels to go through the motions in the aftermath of losing someone close to you.
Along the way, things happen, such as the well seemingly going (almost) dry, but you also have flashbacks of the good times. Building your garden beds and planting your first seeds with your wife. Finding a hair ribbon of hers and remembering watching her tie her hair up. Fastening a water bucket but with a musical interlude.
It’s interesting how gameplay matches up with flashbacks versus current moments. Current moments, where you’re going through the motions, are simple mouse movements and clicks, whereas during the flashbacks, there’s more of a variety in what you do. Overall, the demo left me thinking about my time with Arise: A Simple Story, and how it similarly took on grief and loneliness.
Pine: A Story of Loss will launch on Nintendo Switch, PC, and mobile in late 2024.
(Preview based on early access to the demo by Made Up Games and Fellow Traveller.)