Arise: A Simple Story follows an old man through the afterlife as he relives memories with his partner.

It’s a bittersweet, wordless story that will punch your gut when you least expect it. The game solely depends on visuals to tell the story so the player is immersed from beginning to end. Set some tissues aside and have a comfort snack in reach because this story will move you to tears.

Arise takes place in a fictional viking-esque afterlife following the journey of an old man who has just died. The player traverses different levels and solves puzzles to unlock memories about a man’s life that he lived with his wife. This can be achieved in a single-player setting or with local co-op. Arise is the first game developed by Piccolo Studio and was released in December 2019. The studio indicates that Arise was inspired by the team’s personal lives and hopes to tell a story that will strike a chord with players.

Boy, how they succeeded.

As a trigger warning to readers: Arise contains themes of grief and the death of an infant. Although I have not experienced this in my own life, the depiction in the game hit me like a freight train. Piccolo Studio did a marvelous job capturing moments of grief, mourning, and healing.

GRAPHICS & VISUALS 10/10

Arise has a fun and beautiful level design. I was blown away by the unique environments and how each shaped the various puzzles. I loved how the graphics and environments represented a part of Old Man’s life with his wife: from meeting each other as children to falling in love, to tragedy, to healing, and then to death. The journey beautifully illustrates the mood for each memory as the player travels along each path.

The graphics in Arise are 3D rendered and the player has little control over the camera. The player interacts with the world by changing the landscape by altering time. My favorite level involved jumping across sunflowers while moving the sun across the sky to change the direction the flowers faced. This unique mechanic allowed Piccolo Studio to play with light, shadow, and color to make for a fun graphical experience.

MUSIC & SOUND QUALITY 9/10

Like the graphics, the music suggested what the player might encounter. The composer for the music soundtrack is David Garcia Diaz who did a masterful job to capture the tone of each level through sound. He has also worked on Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice and RiME.

I also enjoyed the use of sound effects when jumping on certain objects which added more depth to each level. One of the levels, which I will refer to as the “womb”, echoed heartbeats every time the player jumped on a particular platform. One aspect I found slightly distracting was the Old Man's grunts, particularly when falling from high places. The difference between “oof I’m hurt” and “oof I’m dead” was small. This was such a small distraction from the overall beauty of the game however and may have just been a unique experience for me.

It’s clear that Piccolo Studio invested in the sound design to provide that extra gut punch of emotions for all of the happy and sad moments.

GAMEPLAY 9/10

As I mentioned earlier, the gameplay is focused on changing the world around you to solve puzzles. Once I got used to the controls this was one of the most fun puzzle games I have played in a while. I loved that, aside from solving puzzles, the game encouraged exploration to find bonus memories throughout the level. I loved going the extra mile or finding alternate routes just to locate them.

Oftentimes, the jumping mechanics seemed to change level-to-level. There were some parts the Old Man could jump really far and then other parts where the jumps were shorter. This made gameplay challenging in the sense it was very hard to gauge the power of the jump. There is one level that requires jumping across lily pads and if they weren’t almost touching the Old Man would fall in and restart the player at the last checkpoint. This contrasts with a different level that involved jumping across gaps in rocks when I would think to myself “there’s no way I’ll make that but here we go” and be surprised when the jump succeeded.

STORY & CHARACTERS 10/10

The only two characters the player sees are the Old Man and his wife. There is no dialogue to tell the story. Only pictures and body language through the Old Man for the player to piece together his life.

It’s such a moving story about two people falling and staying in love despite the tragedy that befalls them.

You’ll miss out on a lot of their love story if you don’t seek out the extra memories hidden in the levels. These hidden memories are full of beautiful art depicting beautiful moments between two people which I would argue are crucial in order to get the most out of this game.

My motivation to learn their entire history is probably why this game hit me with a meteor of feels. As mentioned in the trigger warning at the beginning of this article, half of the game is dedicated to depicting the pain of child loss. The Old Man's emotion is palpable as you move through these levels and help his wife heal. Piccolo Studio expertly utilized still images of statues to represent the powerful emotions behind each scene for the characters.

Knowing the game is set in the afterlife, I expected sadness from the beginning. But absolutely nothing could have prepared me for the mid and end game. The story is so beautifully set up with young love that you expect them to start a family and be happy. Their child's stillbirth upends that expectation.

Before this happens, the player travels through what I imagine was the womb, watching a flower grow in the distance, symbolizing life developing. When the Old Man reaches the end, the flower blooms and immediately wilts, launching the Old Man into a level showing him and his wife cremating their child on a pyre. This level is full of fire, ash, and regret depicting scenes of what should have been turning to flame in front of him all while dodging his inner demons. I had to take a break after this to process what I had seen.

Levels after this are focused on healing and finding joy in the little things again until the game sees both characters to old age. There is another heavy level in which the Old Man takes care of his sick wife until she passes. After this level, the player is taken to a snowy mountaintop where his wife’s spirit is waiting for him. The game ends with him turning into a stone statue alongside her holding their baby.

I bawled like a baby as the credits rolled. Stories like these are why I adore video games as a storytelling medium because you go along the journey as the character. Their life briefly becomes yours.

OVERALL 9.6/10

I cannot recommend this game enough to anyone who loves good storytelling. You will feel transported to this world for the few hours of gameplay that it takes to finish this game. Arise will make you laugh, cry, rejoice, and cry again. It is truly something you don’t want to pass up.

Arise: A Simple Story was released on Steam on December 3, 2019. v1.0.4 was launched on April 28, 2022, and is available now on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch. The version of Arise: A Simple Story (Definitive Edition) reviewed was on the Nintendo Switch. The reviewer purchased the game at full retail price.