The Path: Psychological Horror In The Woods

if there's one word that I've heard people use to describe the past time and time again It's haunting I feel like this game has haunted me for years constantly in the back of my mind and preoccupying my thoughts not only is it a beautiful and obscure game that no one ever talks about but it's pure psychological horror not relying on jump scares or super graphic imagery but instead a terrifyingly dark atmosphere and frightening implications released in 2009 by controversial indie game Studio tale of Tales the path is a psychological horror art game which retells a grim version of Little Red Riding Hood set in modern times in it you can choose from six girls ranging in age from 9 to 19 as their mother since they're not one by one to travel down the forest path to Grandmother's House spooky hijinks ensue as passionate as I am about this game I've always wondered why no horror or video game essay YouTubers have ever covered it considering the popularity of games like Silent Hill rule of rose and omori and even horror series like the Walton files the path is pretty similar not just because it's a horror aim but because it's packed with symbolism and metaphor and creepy imagery and is overall really ripe for discussion so I figured if no one's gonna make this video I'll do it myself damn it obscure where horror from the 2000s I just can't quit you before we begin I just want to let you guys know that this game does deal with some pretty heavy topics nothing graphic is shown in the game and this content mainly comes in the form of subtext and implication and sort of things that you can extrapolate from the story yourself but I'm still going to give a warning for General dark topics again it's nothing graphic whatsoever and most of it is just implied through imagery and text and sort of metaphor but we're going to be touching on those topics and mathematic and story sense with that all out of the way let's take a deep dive into tale of Tales the path before we get into things I just want to give a huge thank you to warm people for sponsoring this video if you've been on my channel before you know that I've worked with warm people quite a few times now and that's because they're really cool in the stuff they make is amazing warm people is a small business passionate about spooky and playfully dark Vibes and they're very quickly growing now I've talked before about warm people's amazing Sherpa blankets which I literally still use daily and they're woven blankets which you can see behind me but they've actually recently branched out into enamel pens and hoodies they've released three hoodies and 10 hole enamel pins all with original and super aesthetic designs I'm wearing the soul collector hoodie right now the design is awesome and it's screen printed on so the design is super clear bright and high quality the hoodie itself is super comfortable and thick with the soft material both inside and out for those cold winter months the enamel pins come in a huge range of really cool designs I got the good boy and the coffin pen because you know look at him he's so cute and spooky these pins are very high quality they have nice shiny plating and sturdy back so they're a perfect addition to your jacket Bag pin board or any other place you want to show them off I've said it before and I'll say it again warm people is a super cool brand the stuff they make is really up my alley I love the aesthetic it's all super high quality and they're just really lovely down to earth and kind people if you want to check out their wide range of blanket socks hoodies and enamel pins head to warmpeople.co and use code Izzy for 20 off your order that's Izzy for 20 off also follow warm people on Instagram to stay updated on their new releases thank you so much as always to warn people for sponsoring this video as I said they're super cool this stuff is awesome so definitely go check them out and uh let's get back into a deep dive of the path foreign [Music] okay so we can't really talk about the path without talking about the brilliant yet very controversial game Studio behind it tale of tales tale of tales or tot is an indie game development Studio comprised of auria Harvey and Michael salmon founded in 2003 the studio began producing art in the form of video games often featuring unconventional gameplay non-linear storylines in heavily stylized artistic elements the studio was hugely Innovative and a Pioneer in the field of video games as art both Oreo and Michael trained and worked as artists before they began experimenting with video games and this is pretty evident in the stuff that they make take for example their Infamous unity game the graveyard both mocked and praised for its pretentious artsiness in it you walk this old lady to a bench sit her down and then leave I'm kidding obviously that's just the free trial version and there's more in the full version of course if you pay six dollars for the full version there's a chance you've returned that the old lady might die yeah that's literally the only difference and people [ __ ] hated not actually a game more like an old woman dying at the cemetery while a French song plays simulator these guys are seriously charging five dollars for this garbage when you look at the store Page you're not watching a trailer that's the full walkthrough because that's literally all you can do you walk in a straight line sit on a bench listen to a song with subtitles on and walk the [ __ ] out game over they should give you five euros instead of charging you five euros to participate in this experience I've played this game for hundreds of hours and it just never gets old poetry art experience I do like that there are game developers out there that are experimenting with new things but charging gullible consumers money to play what is essentially a postcard where you have to press the forward key for a few seconds to see it all is just dishonest and greedy this is not a game some might consider it art I consider it a money grab the graveyard was not the first or last game by tale of tales to be criticized and labeled as a lazy walking simulator made by two Art School snobs most of tot's games are considered to be more like interactive art experiences folks focusing more on the art atmosphere and music than the mechanics or gameplay my first experience with tot was during my 13 year old I have to play every single MMO and virtual world that exists phase which is how I stumbled upon the endless Forest young me was like hell yeah cooling memo where I can customize a deer and run around a forest and go on adventures only to find out that the endless Forest is this weird multiplayer art experience wander aimlessly around a forest engage in boring activities like sleeping under a tree or swimming in a pond and don't talk to anyone else because there's no chat system kid me was both creeped out by the forest and the weird mandir and disappointed that this wasn't like a 3D Animal Jam kind of deal so I noped out pretty quick all of their subsequent games face similar criticism but it wasn't till the release of their game sunset in 2015 when [ __ ] really hit the fan see tale of tales existed for so long making these small experimental titles because they had funding from the Belgian Government funding had started to run dry so for the first time tale of Tails had to Chef into full commercial development and they desperately needed a hit they studied AAA Video game titles and added quote conventional controls a 3X structure and well-defined activities to appeal to the gaming masses they had funded the game through Kickstarter but ended up going 40 000 of a budget investing in PR and marketing for the game and then after all of that research and investment and after finally bending to the will of Reddit Gamers Sunset was a commercial failure it only sold 4 000 copies in its first month nowhere near enough to break even and was so heavily and harshly criticized that it single-handedly caused tale of tales to stop making games and of course have an absolutely nuclear meltdown on Twitter hahaha I'm so free look at me I can say [ __ ] games [ __ ] Gamers [ __ ] the game industry die die die die and rotten hell tongue Emoji perfect goodbye Gamers may you die in the same Agony that you caused to thousands of defenseless virtual creatures I too feel the same way about game is all joking aside and while their rant wasn't their proudest moment I'm not trying to paint them out as if like everybody hated them they've garnered a lot of criticism and critique over the years because of their unconventional games but they're also widely celebrated and praised their work inspired some of the greats including the Stanley Parable The Vanishing of Ethan Carter and even Uncharted when they shut down plenty of influential game studios and developers and communities came together to mourn the loss of a truly pioneering pair of artists in the game that we'll be discussing today the path stood out as their biggest hit and one of their only games to receive widespread Acclaim and even Ghana kind of a fan base before we do a deep dive into the game itself I have a spoiler warning with a few caveats the path is an art game conveying an underlying story and themes through dialogue and imagery and a lot of it comes from your own imagination and interpretation you'll spend about 99 of your time walking around a forest collecting items and the developers had been very open about making the game slow on purpose personally I love it and I think you will too I feel like subtle psychological horror experiences and walking Sims but if you're looking for an action-packed video game you probably won't enjoy it here's the second catch the game is very old and very janky there are bugs Galore in this game and while they're pretty funny they can be kind of annoying also this game is notoriously hard to run and both times I've downloaded it I had issues getting it to work and both times they were like separate issues which was weird PS if you install it and it keeps freezing and closing on the title screen download the newest version of DirectX I wish someone had told me that before it's been four hours trying to get it to work so those are my qualifiers if this game interests you and you're willing to spend ten dollars and jump through a couple of Hoops to get it working I really really highly recommend it if walking Sims or slower paced games aren't really your speed and you just want the story and Analysis then this video is for you either way spoiler warning for the rest of the video with all of that out of the way let's move on to the game itself and its basic plot before doing a deep dive into the story that it's trying to tell foreign [Music] the path by tale of tales is a psychological horror art game walking simulator based on the fairy tale Red Riding Hood the game opens in a small and very red apartment inhabited by six girls Robin rose Ginger Ruby Carmen and Scarlett and you get to pick who you want to play as instead of a tutorial or some kind of introductory cut scene you get one simple instruction go to Grandmother's house and stay on the path they also include a helpful map thanks at this point all you have to do is walk or run down the path to Grandmother's house as the day gradually turns to evening once you arrive at the house and enter the game switches from third person controls to an on-rails first person camera you can look around slightly and move forward by pressing any key which will move you in a short burst so be prepared to spam the any key you travel through Grandma's vaguely creepy house into her super creepy room with a life-size stuffed wolf sitting there and a portrait of whichever girl you picked you sit on the bed next to your terrifying grandma and the game ends at this point you get a ranked score of your run and you'll get a fail yeah yeah sorry to all the overachievers out there but if you follow the game's instructions you get an F that's because to experience the actual game you have to go off the path while the path is bright sunny and safe the forest is dark foggy and creepy the music is ominous creepy sound effects are abundant and once you leave the path good luck finding it again buddy because you literally can't once you go out of view of the path it disappears off the map forever and is replaced with an endless looping Forest so now you're stuck in a murder forest with who knows what lurking around now what well the only thing that you can do now is explore the forest and find the various items scattered throughout when a girl stumbles upon an item she'll usually either interact with it or it'll prompt some written dialogue about what she thinks of it there are 36 item slots in the inventory the top 18 slots are items that multiple characters can find in their playthroughs in the bottom 18 slots are for unique items that unlock special rooms and Grandma's house at the end each girl gets three of these unique items and they're the most important things to find in the game because those special rooms at the end are pretty important to this story we'll put a pin in there for now and return to these rooms in a little bit more detail later on traversing through the forest can actually be pretty tricky and slow since when you start running the camera pulls back to a top-down view the music becomes more ominous and the screen begins to darken this is to emulate the feeling of being lost in a forest and running with blind panic which is super cool but it does make finding items annoyingly difficult it's one of those very tale of tales things where it adds a lot to the atmosphere but in a practical sense it's not very user-friendly maybe it's not meant to be though you'll also notice a lot of these glowing flowers scattered throughout the forest as well there's no Prize or reward for collecting them all but they're usually found near items of interest and up to collecting around six of them an item for a place you haven't been will appear on the screen fun fact there are 144 of them because six characters times 24 hours equals the time span that the game takes place over AKA 144 hours that was actually the original game title before they decided on the path and originally they actually plan to have 144 characters in the game obviously that idea got scrapped another thing you'll note as I'm playing the footage in the background is that a mysterious girl wearing a white dress referred to as the girl in white will often approach you in the forest playing clapping games cartwheeling hiding intense and generally playing around if you approach her she'll take you by the hand and lead you back to the path where she'll hug you and watch to make sure you don't go back into the forest it's notable that if you stand still for a long time your character will stop standing confidently and begin to look frightened or even cry stand like this for long enough and the girl in light will come to you and Lead You Back by the way be prepared to jump in your seat when you're soaking up the Ambiance of this creepy ass forest and suddenly a figure starts sprinting out of nowhere though most of the forest is a gray mess of fog trees and foliage making it incredibly easy to get lost and go in circles there are actually six unique locations within the abandoned playground the campsite the field of flowers the Misty Lake the old cemetery and the ruined theater and it's in these strange out of place locations that each girl meets her wolf it is Little Red Riding Hood after all and true through to the fairy tale each character in The Path has her own personalized wolf from a fleshy Cloud creature to a Charming young man to an actual werewolf again we'll put a pin in it after each girl interacts with her wolf and ominous cutscene will play before the screen goes black and cuts to their crumpled bodies in front of Grandma's house thankfully they do get up but they look injured and in pain as they slowly stagger towards the house the section only lasts a few minutes at most but it's one of the creepiest parts of a game I've ever played just the the imagery here is just so creepy once inside the house and assuming that you found all three unique items you travel through what is essentially each girl's personal hell with extremely disorientating unnatural and creepy imagery from impossible room layouts to floods and storms to moving walls and objects the game turns the boring if not slightly creepy on Rao's house section into trippy nightmare fuel once you reach the final room you get knocked to the ground everything goes dark and an assortment of creepy abstract images flash on screen relating to the character and their fate at the hands of the wolf you then get a grade and good luck getting higher than a b because I've played this like three times through and have never come close to an A and I've never seen any screenshots of anyone getting an A and I don't even know if it's possible the good news though is that your run was a success congratulations back at the apartment the girl you just played as will be missing and you can proceed to play through the rest of the characters once all six riding hoods are gone you can play an epilogue as the girl in white who has no dialogue and nothing to say about any of the items she can't however they access all sex areas in the forest find the path by herself without it noping out of existence and also it's raining for some reason this section does have story significance but in a more practical sense it's a good time to pick up any items you missed during your playthrough and collect the rest of the flowers if you like pointless Collectibles once the girl in white reaches the house you'll go through each girl's final room before entering Grandma's bedroom with a lovely little portrait hanging up there and Fade to Black back in the apartment stands the girl in white now covered in blood before all of the girls gradually come back inside the room and resume their usual places and that's the path so what okay I know that was a lot and there's obviously some sort of weird abstract storytelling going on here well some people interpret the story quite literally as sex Red Riding hoods getting lost in the woods and falling victim to magical wolves I think knowing Tales of tales is a bit more to this story on the path's official website grandmothershouse.net it claims that the path is a game about growing up and this is supported by the developers themselves writing in an interview the six girls represent different stages and the process of a girl growing up which is one of the main themes of Little Red Riding Hood we are also fascinated by young women by children growing up in general while youth is being celebrated as the height of human existence by our Western Society the process of growing up remains a very difficult and painful one which makes it rather hard to really be envious of Youth the path offers players a chance to revisit that time of insecurity of not being in control of your own thoughts and feelings and an opportunity to compare those thoughts and emotions to their own current state of mind and heart in simple terms each girl represents a stage of life from 9 to 19 and each wolf represents a painful or tough experience that they have to go through while growing up with that basic premise in mind let's go through each girl and her playthrough to analyze her story and where it fits into this Theory I'd like to note here that while the developers very clearly had stories and themes in mind for the game and each of the characters they've also purposely made it very open-ended and open to interpretation I'm obviously going to be talking about my theories and how I see the game but I hope that as you watch along you can form your own theories and contribute to the conversation as well with all of that out of the way let's begin foreign [Music] is nine years old a very Lively child she enjoys playing in the forest only on the path of course mother tells her never to go into the woods she never says why Robin thinks there may be fun things to play with in the forest she sometimes hears the creaking sound of what seems to be a swing or the howl of a wolf in the distance Robin likes wolves they're her favorite kind of animal Robin also known as kid red is the youngest sister and by far the most faithful depiction of Little Red Riding Hood like most nine-year-old she loves animals exploring nature and playing with friends and she has a very innocent and childlike view of the world Robin's wolf is found at the old abandoned Cemetery decorated with crumbly headstones and null dead tree and six freshly dug Graves not ominous at all or anything Robin's wolf is unique in that it's an actual literal wolf or rather a werewolf man thing when Robin approaches the wolf instead of running for her life she jumps on his back causing it to growl ferociously and try to shake her off finally it stops running and stands on its hind legs carrying a limp Robin to the top of the hill wear a house and we Fade to Black once Robin wakes up on the path and makes her way into Grandma's house we're treated to the quite the mess all the furniture is tipped over and messed up and the doors and walls are covered in scratch marks and prints upstairs the walls seem to be patterned with either Hair slash fur or blood stains and we walk past a large overturned baby crib with a bird's nest and eggs inside up ahead passed a wall with a rocking chair on top sit five chairs with balloons tied to them and presents under them with a birthday cake in the corner and a full moon peeking through the Skylight we reached the final room which depicts a large full moon shining onto an open grave with a beard propped up in front of it now I've heard a lot of people say that this is a bloody bed but on closer inspection I actually think this is a bed with a body taped to it when Robin Falls in we get images of her face with slashes on top close-ups of the wolf's teeth Robin's legs elongated and warped in the wolf ripping Robin's Red Hood Robin's wolf represents learning about death and mortality at a young age all of her dialogue in the forest shows us that she has this very childlike sanitized view of the world she finds bullets pretty she likes digging in graves because it's fun to play in the dirt and most importantly she adores wolves and wants to play with one she talks about wanting to play with a big and cuddly thing and remarks wolves are just dogs but werewolves are like people bullets Graves and wolves are things that adults will typically associate with danger but at Robin's young age she can't really see this similarly upon arriving at the graveyard she comments people die it's hard to imagine for a kid like me they die and we put them in the ground like flowers also as a side note the locations where each wolf is found can tell us a lot and the fact that Robin's wolf is literally found at a graveyard makes it pretty clear that her story revolves around death in that same graveyard upon finding a dead baby bird that fell out of the Nashi remarks a young dead bird not me in the first quote Robin Compares bearing the dead to planting flowers yet another very naive and childlike comparison in the second we see that she's unable to understand or sympathize for the bird because it isn't her in the real world a lot of young kids act like this they've been taught by about the concept of death but have no way of comprehending understanding or sympathizing with it because that well it's a heavy concept for a kid more specifically to the story I believe that Robin approached a dog or wolf thinking that it was an innocent and cuddly creature but was seriously hurt causing her to realize her own mortality and have to come to terms with the idea of death this animal attack theory is supported by developer auria Harvey who wrote on the path development blog quote he sort of passively wanders around Robin is more aggressive than he is as Robin sneaks up on him forgetting that though he may be cuddly he has thoughts and feelings and may not like having a little girl ride him like an animal circling back to the graveyard the dead Robin is not only very on the nose foreshadowing to human Robin's fate but as reference later in the house when we see a nest of birds eggs in a baby's crib the nest and egg imagery combined with the crib seemed to symbolize her innocence and young age which is contrasted with the rocking chair and the open grave in the final room the themes of life and death are frequently contrasted in Robin's playthrough which makes sense as she's now having to come to term with these Concepts obviously there's plenty of werewolf imagery and the house from the tipped over Furniture to the full moon to the scratches and the blood on the walls and doors but the devs themselves wrote on their development blogs sometimes scratches on a door are just scratches on a door so I think these are just literal representations of Robin's wolf as for the taped up bed in the final room I think this could symbolize Robin becoming bedridden from the attack or injury which is supported by the weird shot of her legs being all warped it's possible that the attack left her seriously injured and physically unable to move hence the constricting red tape in the shape of a body but that's just my interpretation and maybe that's just a rage the sisters and their wolves all represent different life stages and various tough life lessons that we may learn along the way since Robin's so young it makes sense that her entire Arc is basically just about coming to terms with the concept of death since that's something that all kids have to go through foreign [Music] for her age but there is a certain area of Innocence about her that is charming and disconcerting at the same time barely a teenager Rose is a live and she's discovering the world around her with fresh eyes and all is beautiful the wind in the trees the birds and the air the flowers along the path Rose is taking it in voraciously so much so that she will defend even Nature's smallest creatures against anyone who might wish them harm but who will protect Sweet Rose herself when she's lured off the path with the promise of unearthly bliss of light and abundance where no sun will ever shine you're just a little girl Rose just a fragile little girl Rose also known as innocent red is 11 years old and very passionate about nature and animals she sees life as beautiful and seems to have this very poetic dreamy view about life Rose's wolf is found in the misty Lake a huge mass of rainy swamp plant covered in a thick Mist after she gets in a very dodgy looking robot and Rose out into the lake she finds her wolf in the form of this nightmarish fleshy Cloud man he begins spinning around and Rose fascinated and awestruck said stands up to meet him she begins to float as they spin around before we Fade to Black Rose wakes up looking not so great and makes her way into Grandma's house inside the house it's raining and thundering and the first unique room comes in the form of a bright red bathroom which begins to stretch on as we make our way through it there's a disc with a bird cage hanging over and a long hallway of doors which begins to flood with dirty water we then submerged in a flooded Greenhouse filled with plants before entering a very blinding white hallway to the final room the final room contains pieces of a broken bed flying around in a tornado with mist filling the room we'll lift it up spun around a bit and then we're out the final images contain depictions of the cloud wolf Rose's arm a bunch of roses and a weird unnatural pose and the whatever this is I'm gonna be honest I really struggle with Rose's story more than any of the other girls and when I've seen other people doing their own interpretations they're all very different and mixed so she's definitely the most contentious of the sisters I believe that Rose's wolf represents learning about the dangers of the world okay so I know know that sounds pretty much identical to Robin's whole thing but let me explain while Robin's Ark is about learning about the concept of death as a young child I think Rosa's Ark is about learning that the world isn't always a beautiful and kind place and life can often be chaotic and cruel as we venture through the forest as Rose we see that she's very responsible and has a very strong set of morals always determined to do the right thing when inspecting the wine she hopes that her grandmother doesn't drink too much when inspecting the Nash she takes it so no one will get hurt and she frequently talks about animals and wanting to protect them basically she's the goodest of the good seeing Beauty and everything and believing that the world is inherently a good and kind place in this way she sees the world kind of in black and white and the best example of this is when she finds a dead Robin she says the poor thing what evil Powers tormented this creature Rose sees this dead bird and thinks that this could only be the doing of some evil malevolent power rather than the fact that animals die all the time she's not used to seeing the world as a complex mix of good and bad and fair and unfair instead seeing things plain only as either good or evil themes of Innocence versus maturity are also really common in Rose's story in the blurb she's praised as being mature for her age she speaks in dresses like a wise old soul and even Ginger makes a comment on the Grandmother's House website about how old Rose seems I think a lot of kids are told at a young age that they're really intelligent or mature for their age and they end up internalizing that and then growing up and realizing that they didn't actually know [ __ ] despite how often everyone talks about Rose being mature or old she's shown to be extremely naive when finding a dirty hypodermic needle in the forest she says somebody is sick where are they now perhaps they need their medicine when finding treasure which Scarlet later says is obviously fake she claims she's going to give it to those in need she sees this creepy Misty swamp Lake and makes an enthusiastic comment about welcoming the clouds onto Earth before getting in a ramshackle boat and rolling out there like a dingus her blurb even makes two comments reiterating how she's just a little girl it's clear that while Rose and the adults around her might think that she's wise and responsible at the end of the day she's just an 11 year old kid instead of seeing a misty rainy swamp in a very unsafe boat is a potential danger or safety hazard she sees them as being beautiful and an exciting opportunity for adventure trusting that the world will be good and won't harm her her wolf in Canada is about learning that the opposite is true that the world and specifically nature can be chaotic and violent more specifically to her story I think that it played out more or less like it did in the game maybe she went out onto a lake or a swamp in bad weather conditions and nearly drowned bringing her to the sobering realization that nature and animals and life itself can be chaotic this is sort of reinforced by the theme of water throughout her run from the swamp itself to items like the bathtub and well to the thunder and rain flooding Grandma's house I think the flooded Greenhouse room is meant to represent how her very idyllic and peaceful view of Nature has been turned upside down by this new realization my theories stopped there though because as for the rest of Rose's house I have no idea the long bathroom hallway no idea the disc in bird cage no idea the huge checkered room lined with doors no idea some people have proposed the idea that Rose's Arc is about religion or spirituality considering how often she brings up floating or flying in that one comment about evil Powers even Rose's blurb is filled with kind of weird spiritual sounding descriptions I can definitely see those connections but I'm still pretty much unsure about her whole Arc so I'd be interested to hear what you guys think [Music] Ginger isn't one for sticking to paths running around in the fields climbing gnarly old trees playing Wild games with abandoned toys collecting Pebbles and hitting things with sticks the idea of growing up doesn't hold much appeal who want to give up their childhood but Ginger is 13 the end is near she's a fresh flower of the field in her own way very independent a loner actually and completely absorbed in the game she thinks of as life will she Bloom before she wilts will she ever learn should she Ginger also known as tomboy red is 13 and by far the most adventurous of the six girls Ginger's wolf appears in the field of flowers and uncharacteristically bright and sunny patch of foliage with a scarecrows and power lines and a bunch of crows hanging around the wolf comes in the form of a girl that looks identical to the girl in white but is wearing a red dress instead she approaches Ginger from behind covering her eyes and the two start chasing each other the girl in red Falls over and brings Ginger down with her where they lie together and we fade to black ginger wakes up in front of Grandma's ass and makes her way inside where we're greeted with a very Silent Hill two-ish aesthetic the floor and windows are covered in rusted red chain link giving a very industrial feel and black hair is strung all over the living room upstairs we continue past more here before shrinking down in the bedroom and going under the bed where we can see a dead bird a bunch of toy army soldiers and a toy dinosaur as we emerge we see a seesaw before the walls go absolutely bananas if we enter the hallway to the final room the final room is huge and bathed in the color red with bloody mattresses lining the walls barbed wire stretching across the floor and Raven feathers falling from the ceiling or I don't know Crow feathers peacock feathers they're blue they're blue feathers Ginger's final images flash by including an image of the girl in red with barbed wire overlaying her hands gingers clench knees with barbed wire over them Ginger's warped neck a close-up of the girl in red and Ginger's flailing arms insane now Ginger's path can be read in quite a different number of ways unlike most of the other wolves the girl in red doesn't look creepy or dangerous and Ginger's encounter is the only one framed in a very positive positive light the field of flowers is beautiful and brightly lit and the two girls seem to be having fun playing together so why does ginger then wake up in a mess in front of Grandma's house well Ginger's wolf represents Womanhood and the physical changes that come with growing into a young woman more specifically stuff like periods I know that sounds really weird but let me go over a few key points in grandmother's house the final room is literally covered in blood-stained mattresses and the recurring theme of barbed wire and Industrial rust might be trying to convey how uncomfortable Ginger feels in her changing body or just how painful periods are in general one of the final images is of Ginger's knees clinched with barbed wire overlaid on top reinforcing this period imagery there's also Ginger's Wolf the girl in red no not that girl in red if the girl in white represents innocence and Purity by trying to lead the girls back to the path the girl in red represents the opposite her dress is bright red and her ponytails are flipped upwards almost to look like horns in the field of flowers she sneaks up on Ginger from behind and surprises her much like how puberty itself can be an unexpected and wanted surprise for a 13 year old like ginger the field of flowers itself is important as when discussing a girl growing up people often say like she's flowering into a young woman or whatever since each of the wolf locations is so carefully chosen for each girl I think the flowers in connection with Ginger's whole Arc of growing up was intentional and Grandma's house the comparison between the girl and white and the girl in red is drawn again when we see two beds placed next to each other one white and one red now I could be wrong but I feel like the girl in white represents innocence in therefore childhood and the girl in red represents the opposite now I am quite wary about using words like innocence and Purity in this video because sometimes those words are used to kind of devalue women or insist that they have to be like virtuous or whatever but in this video I'm kind of trying to use it in a way to convey that the girls are naive and kind of sheltered from their realities of the world and kind of innocent in the sense that they haven't really gone through a lot of Life Experiences yet just because Ginger starts to go through puberty doesn't mean that she's lost her innocence or she's become the opposite of innocent but I think think the white and red go paraloves and more to suggest that she's beginning the transition from one lifestate to the other from child to teenager to adult there's also the theme of masculinity versus femininity and this is a very interesting theme that's pretty ripe for discussion in terms of the entering puberty Theory gingers cleared the stain and avoidance of anything feminine seems to imply that she isn't ready to accept her femininity or becoming a woman she dresses and acts more stereotypically boyish than her sister's likes playing rough and explosions in doubt and there are lots of toys found in the bedroom that are more associated with boys stereotypically the girl in red herself is pretty feminine to contrast with ginger so her wolf encounter could represent her coming to terms with femininity or Womanhood however many people instead interpret ginger as transgender and struggling with her identity due to her apparent struggle to identify or accept her assigned gender the final cut scene in the girl in red have also led many people to believe that alongside Ginger's struggle with growing up she's struggling with her sexuality honestly I think these are both great readings which I definitely see and her story doesn't have to just be about one thing questions about sexuality and gender go hand in hand with puberty so it's entirely possible that she's struggling with all of these things at once and her wolf represents Coming to Terms or beginning to accept these aspects of herself [Music] the other girls call her goth it's one way of killing people stereotyping them putting them in a box and throwing it away but there's more to Ruby than meets the eye a young lady by now 15 years of age life has opened up to her as a rotting flower of corruption she can see through it all but remains an enigma herself when asked about how leg brace Ruby says she's in pain but she doesn't specify where it hurts Ruby does not long for death she takes a perverse pleasure in observing the extreme decay of adult Society but what will happen when she ceases to be a witness and becomes a participant instead Ruby known as goth red is 15 and the fan favorite character I think she might be the devil of his favorite character too both being the first character they created for the game and the literal poster child for it Ruby is the stereotypical depressed goth with a pessimistic outlook on life and a fascination with death and Decay Ruby's wolf is found at the abandoned playground in the form of charming wolf a young man with blonde hair dressed all in black when we first meet him he's dragging a very suspicious looking rug across the playground on and when Ruby interacts with him he offers her a cigarette she shally accepts coughing at first before becoming more accustomed to it we faded black as they sit together on the playground bench smoking with the sound of a car engine playing in the background Ruby wakes up in front of grandmother's house in a very unnatural position with her leg breast blending into the bridge so much that it almost looks like she just has one leg once we get inside Grandma's house we see that the entire place is glowing in neon colors and I've gone over this footage like 20 times and I'm not 100 sure but I think those are bear cans under the table there's also a knife on the table and beer cans in the fridge upstairs the room is filled with black smoke and the unmistakable sound of a car engine as we enter a stretching neon blue hallway filled with school lockers which flips sideways we then enter through a door into a huge school gymnasium with car tire marks all over the walls we enter into a bird cage which swings wildly around and crashes down onto the gym floor also nice touch the school sports team is called The Wolves we see a crash car fuming before entering a smoky hallway filled with engine parts and Machinery which then begins to rumble like a car engine in the final room we see the walls of speckle with a rotten dark red and black color a large sheet of metal overhead rumbles like a car and a bed sits on a carousel with a huge piece of metal splitting it in two Ruby's final images contain depictions of her face shattered like a porcelain doll her body laying on the ground Charming Wolf's arm and a picture of her body with all but her leg brace obscured there is like a lot going on on Ruby's story but I think her wolf represents self-destructive behavior and mental health more specifically depression I think Ruby was suffering from depression for many years and because she didn't care about her own well-being she ended up falling in with a bad crowd and engaging in self-destructive Behavior like drinking and drugs this culminated in a car crash which left her disabled and spiraling into an even deeper pit of depression so let's look at Ruby's Wolf the Charming wolf is a symbol of self-destructive behavior when we first see him he's dragging a body in a rug foreshadowing how the self-destructive Behavior will be the death of her if she doesn't change her ways he also gives her a cigarette which is significant for a number of reasons earlier in the game Ruby remarks on wanting to try cigarettes since they shorten your life and in the final images before her death we see Charming Wolf's face and arm overlaid with images of cells evoking cancer imagery that smoke-filling Grandma's house may not just be from a car but maybe a cigarette him offering her a cigarette is just another way of showing how she's engaging in harmful behavior that may eventually get her killed Charming wolf also works well as a representation of peer pressure and falling in with the bad crowd or maybe more specifically falling in with a bad boy his name is charming wolf after all and he seems to be able to charm her into trying a cigarette when she initially shies away from it on the developer blog Aura Harvey wrote quote I don't think it was the first time he and Ruby met at the playground either another important theme and probably the most prominent imagery throughout her playthrough is the theme of cars and Ruby's injury one of Ruby's most recognizable features is her Stark black leg brace which she wears on one leg and seems to limp on and Grandma's house the gym is filled with swerving tire tracks and a crashed car and the hallway is lined with engine parts and smoke which rumbles as if it were in a car Ruby can also interact with a rusted car in the forest saying quote engines and Friends turn them on turn them off Life Death are they so different she also Compares men to motorcycles writing quote men are like motorcycles you just drive them where you want to be and then let somebody else take care of them coming back to Charming wolf as a representation of harmful behavior and peer pressure he seems to be heavily connected to this car imagery that motorcycle comment in particular is interesting because auria Harvey wrote that when creating Charming wolf she could Envision everything about him including the red car he drove and the Motorcycle he rode this basically confirms to us that Ruby's near fatal car crash occurred specifically in this boy's car and that she's directly referencing him and her motorcycle comment Grayson at the path of pens WordPress blog noted that this messy scribble overlaying Charming wolf actually depicts two cars racing through the night and it's hard to tell but I kinda see it like with the two cars and the trees and the moon right there this might be a depend section of the night of Ruby's accident when she was in the car with charming Wolf the theme of school-related trauma comes up frequently in Grandma's house where we see a large school sports gym possibly a place of anxiety for Ruby due to her disability there's also the school hallway filled with lockers which begins to stretch on infinitely and turn sideways conveying that school is a scary and unnatural place for her it's clear that she feels like an outsider and different from the other girls at school and it's possible that anxiety relating to school and being a teenager in general led to her depression when finding the hypodermic needle in the forest Ruby says I'll take the path of needles any day some of the earliest surviving interpretations of Little Red Riding Hood have the storyline where the girl has to pick between the path of pins and the path of needles back then pens were used by children as basically cheap toys and young women were sent away to train as seamstresses as a mark of maturity and Womanhood so in this case not only is Ruby enthusiastic about using a dirty Forest needle filled with God knows what but she suddenly foreshadowing her wolf encounter by saying that she'll take the path of needles a symbol for becoming more mature through experience and hardship in the playground Ruby remarks this such beauty and Decay rust is Lovelier than paint I doubt old age would happen to me pointing to the fact that she believes her life will be short and doesn't seem to care there's also a fairly graphic description when she inspects the knife item which I won't read out loud but it suggests that despite her sarcastic and almost Darkly humorous comments she genuinely is suffering with these kinds of thoughts it's also worth noting that despite being the most cynical and hardened of the sisters Ruby is the only girl who start crying when standing alone in the forest for too long showing her fragile emotional state part of her struggle seems to be navigating the limbo between childhood and adulthood riding on her live Journal blog quote why do grown-ups think young people should be happy and cheerful and what our children say under 10's always so damn happy about I possess knowledge that they don't yet and their older people seem to have forgotten with knowledge comes Sadness the sun is shining can you believe it but it's not like the Happy yellow Sunday kid's sister always draws it's an evil sharp and bright Sun like I imagine would shine after global nuclear destruction this shows her pessimistic Outlook and reinforces how she feels like an outsider not young enough to be blissfully ignorant of the dark aspects of life but not old enough to cope with them essentially she feels alienated and misunderstood like many teenagers her age do to some Ruby's story up she felt like an outsider and struggled with her mental health leading her into a depression she stopped caring about her own well-being or the well-being of others taking on an extremely pessimistic view of the world she met a bad boy who encouraged this Reckless Behavior and introduced her to cigarettes alcohol and maybe even drugs and eventually got her into a car accident she obviously has a lot of Trauma from this given how often the theme of cars and car accidents show up were Ruby's specific wolf encounter represents though is more of a mystery to me her accepting the cigarette seems to suggest that she's embracing the darkness so to speak and will continue to ramp up this self-destructive Behavior but with all of the other girls their wolves can either be interpreted to be experiences that they learn and grow from or just tough periods in their life so her wolf could just represent depression in general I'm really interested to hear your guys interpretations for Ruby since in particular her playthrough is filled with tons of different symbolism and lots of different interpretations [Music] 17. a glorious age for a girl having lived her childhood body behind she enjoys parading the new Carmen she's fully aware of the heads that turn when she passes by she'll give them a little bit extra to look at too a shake of the hips a wink of the eye but no more Carmen fancies herself a femme fatale perhaps but inside she knows that all she wants is a little bit of attention from a warm and handsome man perhaps who can keep her safe hold her tight with a strength that approaches violence he doesn't need to be as wild as she is but it wouldn't hurt Carmen also known as the well let's just call her pretty red because you know she's 17. it's a stereotypical party girl always on the lookout for a good time and enjoying her Newfound maturity or at least what she thinks is maturity Carmen's wolf is found in the Campsite in the form of a middle-aged Woodsman hacking down trees with an ax yeah this guy in the middle of the woods is totally trustworthy interestingly in the campsite Carmen can't open the door to the shed since it's locked but in Ginger's playthrough she's able to open it and see that there's what I think is some kind of match interest propped up against the wall when Carmen approaches The Woodsman she takes his hat and when she sits down at the fire he sits next to her and hands her a beer the scene Fades to Black on the two of them sitting together drinking Carmen wakes up in a heap and when she gets up she holds her hands behind her neck as if it's in pain inside Grandma's house the ceiling fan is replaced by a rusted blade a hat and a can of beer sit in the fridge and a large x much like the ones found on the woodsman's trees are marked on the door taking a staircase down we arrive in a concrete room with a dirty pool of water with six chairs sitting at the bottom and a cut down tree stump in front of the pool sits five mattresses with a chair on top within into a spiraling wooden tunnel upwards with x's on the walls and uh some very uncomfortable moaning noises which are referred to like this in the game files so yeah after this we enter onto the ceiling of the pool room and see from above the entire pool has a giant X marked on it we enter back into the wooden tunnel where the sounds are getting louder and trees begin to flood in obscuring our view at the end of the tunnel we're greeted with a giant creepy deer head with glowing eyes and two sets of axes mounted on the wall on either side in the room below lays a rolled up carpet a giant saw slashing through the wall and a hallway blazing with fire the final room is bathed in a warm orange light and depicts Grandma's bed with a giant tree piercing through on one side and leaves falling to the ground the final images depict Carmen crawling on the ground with fiery scribb was overlaid on top an up close image of her mouth with blood-like scribbles coming out of it her face with a giant X painted on it and a picture of The Woodsman about to swing his ax Fade to Black by that description I think you can get the picture and comments is by far the most on the nose and obvious story Carmen's wolf represents a negative particular experience most of Carmen's Forest dialogue references love lust and relationships such as when she finds the knife and talks about carving some hearts and initials into a tree when she interacts with the treasure and talks about finding a wealthy husband to marry or when she sits by the fire and says quote the Warm Glow caresses my skin peels me layer by Leia until I am pure for you sometimes her dialogue is overtly suggestive such as when she interacts with the bathtub and remarks a little bit of soap and a lot of warm and wet never alone anymore or when she drinks a can of beer and says fresh out and warm ends spinning head and bubbling blood the most interesting piece of dialogue in my opinion is when she reaches the campsite where her wolf is located and says the man who would save us is the Destroyer but the tenderness of giving in can defeat any power this is also featured on her grandmother's house website page so it's obviously an important dialogue and I'm not 100 on the meaning of this but it could be referencing the borderline Violent Men that she apparently gets mixed up with according to her up and come and seeing them as saviors who swoop her off her feet but end up being destructive forces in her life the imagery in the house while primarily Cottage in Woodsman themed is pretty suggestive too with mattresses and beds and some very uh Freudian symbolism it's clear that Carmen enjoys innocently flirting and receiving attention and there's nothing at all wrong with that but in her story it seems that things progressed past flirting and became a very negative experience it's been argued over whether this was consensual or not since Carmen is described as a very outgoing and flirty character who comes onto the woodsmen not the other way around but I feel pretty uncomfortable with this interpretation The Woodsman is specifically shown to be balding and likely middle age she's a minor there's beer involved and since this game is about trauma and negative experiences during adolescence I think we can come to a pretty scary conclusion well I love this game I do find this particular storyline to be a little bit problematic for lack of a better word the game frames all of the experiences that these girls go through as painful but necessary to grow and develop and for me this brings true for every character except Carmen there's been a lot of discussion in recent years of the Trope commonly accepted idea that assault makes women stronger and how it's very harmful and untrue and I tend to agree it's not that I don't think a very high number of young women go through this and I do think it fits in with the other wolves but I don't really agree with the way that it's implied to be a necessary evil for Carmen to learn and grow from but that's just my interpretation and maybe I'm just viewing it all wrong I don't know I'd be interested to hear what you guys think about it thank you [Music] foreign is the oldest of the six the firstborn and a family with an invisible mother quite a responsibility one that she faces with determination and a sense of Duty and pride she is 19 years of age she should probably be enjoying what's left of her youth but with five younger sisters one more unruly than the other somebody needs to maintain order and stability not that Scarlett doesn't wish to share the burden or a moment of silence a moment of quiet understanding with a soul mate a moment of true togetherness her loneliness is a secret she will take to the Grave sooner than she may expect finally we reach Scarlett the oldest of the Red Sisters at 19. she's known as Stern red and lives up to that by being the responsible one who looks after her sisters it's reference that their mother isn't around very often so it's up to Scarlett to be the mother figure for her sisters and because of this she's more strict straight laced and serious Scarlet's wolf is found in the ruined theater a huge sheltered stage with a piano surrounded by Broken seats and a large decorative the pole thing I don't know how to describe what this is is it a light a light stand Scarlet's wolf appears as a figure with long white hair and a long black cloak known as the Fey wolf if Scarlet approaches the piano and plays the Fey wolf will come up to her and appear to Mentor her on the piano as the curtain closes the forest becomes a sickly green color and we Fade to Black a Scarlet wakes up in front of Grandma's house she staggers up almost appearing as if her arm is hurt before slowly making her way inside the inside of Grandma's house is bathed in that sickly green light and all the furniture is covered up by either white cloth or plastic all of the items in the kitchen including the painting on the wall the cupboards and even the fridge are missing with dark outlines on the wall showing where they once stood upstairs the floor is covered in rows of jars and as we pass behind more covered Furniture we move into a long stretching room filled with empty bookcases along the walls and stacks of books on the floor the Next Room contains a variety of floating instruments and a piano where we begin to float up and are gently placed in a white-tailed hallway the final room is green and covered in thick mist and we see a stage curtain rising up as stage lights shine onto it behind the curtains we can see some sort of blue object which I believe is meant to be Grandma's beard but like covered up with plastic Scarlet Falls over and we get her final images the FAE wolf instructor with long claw like nails a close-up of Scarlet's eyes with inverted colors and strings slash wires coming out of her eyes a creepy black and white close-up of the Fey wolf and Scarlet's body with strings holding her limbs up Scarlet's wolf represents having to give up on your dreams and take responsibility at a young age Scala had dreams of being a musician and experiencing the world but had to give up on those dreams to become a surrogate mother for her five younger sisters due to their absent mother sadly there are many kids and teenagers out there who don't get to have a childhood and instead have to start acting as responsible adults at a young age just to look after their families and I think this is what Scarlet's story arc reflects with her younger sister being just nine years old it'll be at least eight or nine years until all of her sisters have grown up and become independent not only has she been forced to stop pursuing her dreams but she's also been forced to suppress her and hired her own personality and Desires in order to be strong for her siblings there are lots of different themes to unpack and Scarlet's story so let's go over them firstly there's the theme of cleanliness and domestic house duties as we've discussed each girl gets three unique items that unlock special rooms in grandma's house and for scarlet these items are a clothesline a giant spider web and a television in my mind these are all domestic items like how you'd sweep up a cobweb or do the laundry or turn off the TV after your rambunctious sisters have been up watching all night when interacting with the knife she immediately relates it to chopping vegetables reinforcing this theme of domestic house duties Scarlet seems to be obsessed with cleanliness when sitting out in the forest she remarks I don't understand people who think nature is lovely it's messy and it smells and it makes you get lost there are also quotes like I wish I had time to clean up this mess and get dirty to be clean no light without Darkness a tear and a smile one of Scarlet's most notable and interesting quotes and the one featured on her grandmother's house page is when she entered x with the cobweb item the Panic that consumes you is the fear of order this quote alongside the fact that she remarks on Grandma's wine by saying you can use it in moderation to ease anxiety and the fact that obsessive cleanliness and Order are prevalent themes in her story give me big OCD Vibes it resonated a lot with me personally but I'm not 100 sure that this was intended and I think these ocd-like Tendencies may just be symptoms of a childhood spent basically running a household either way it's clear that while Scarlett is a very Stern diligent and responsible parent figure she's not really happy this leads us on to the theme of Art and music from The Music Room in Grandma's house to the theater and the piano being where she meets her wolf to the final room in Grandma's house being a huge stage with spotlight's music is very important to Scarlett she comments quite often on Art and music as she goes through the forest becoming excited when she finds a record in talking about silencing Madness to sing for thee wow that was an impressive Voice break upon entering the theater where her wolf awaits she remarks art is within ability of humanity is expressed I could not live in a world without it this comment is pretty ironic given the fact that her whole Arc seems to be about realizing that her dreams of being a musician can't come true and she's now facing a dreary domestic life without art the last theme I want to touch on for scarlet is loneliness I actually didn't originally pick up on this theme in my original interpretation but there's way too many references to it both in and out of the game for it to just be a coincidence her blurb literally states that she wants to share her burdens with a soulmate and that the secret of her loneliness is something she'll take to her grave one of her quotes reads a serenade in the woods somebody is playing my song Long slim fingers gently caressing the keys of me this is combined with the fact that on the Grandmother's House website Carmen writes quote Scala X all grown up and stuff but I know she only thinks of one thing this all suggests that deep down Scarlet is a deeply unfulfilled and desperately lonely person not only having to shelve her dreams of being independent and following her dreams but having to hide and suppress her desires for companion and ship she can't share these very normal adult feelings with her young sisters and it's doubtful that she has any friends outside of her family upon finding a creepy mask at the theater she comments everybody hides their true face that's probably for the best for most of her adolescent life Scarlett has been wearing a mask and putting on a brave face for her sisters unable to show who she truly is and what she truly wants this is reinforced by her final images in grandmother's house where it looks like she's a puppet on a string and basically feels like her life isn't hers and she's unable to live her truth Scarlet's wolf is called the Fey wolf and in folklore Faye a mischievous Forest dwelling spirits who are known for their deception and trickery in this way I think Scarlet's wolf ironically represents all the things that she can't have the theater stage represents the career or even education she wanted the piano represents her passion for art and music and the Fey wolf represents some kind of music tutor or even romantic interest the curtain closes on the scene and it turns a very sickly green a reflection of the Fey Wolf's trickery and how the seemingly perfect scene is all just an unachievable fantasy for scarlet now to be honest that's a very Downer interpretation it's entirely possible that this is just how Scarlet feels in the moment and maybe her wolf is just that very young adult thing of feeling like her life is over and your dreams will never come true maybe in reality she'll eventually be able to balance her life and start pursuing her dreams or at least things that she's personally interested in whether you think that Scarlet's wolf is just a temporary teenage Funk or a depressing end to all of her hopes and dreams you can't deny that I've been talking about this character for way too long at this point now that we've finally covered all sex girls let's move on to the general themes of the game foreign [Music] so it seems like everything is tied up in a neat little bow the path is about growing up each girl represents a different stage of life and each wolf encounter represents either something she went through or a troubled period during her life case closed right well not really because there are still tons of questions who's the girl in white who's grandma what even is the path why does this weird Shrine thing keep popping up randomly throughout my playthroughs in unexpected places okay I actually don't know the answer to that last one but let's try and go over some of the wider themes of the path and how all of these loose elements tie into the story so let's talk about the titular path itself the path itself is brightly lit surrounded by flowers and has a very melodic and comforting song playing which is actually called the safe song the game instructs you to stay on the path but if you do you fail why well this is gonna sound very pretentious and faux into lecture but I think the path represents life and Grandma's house represents old age and death yes I know that sounds like something from like r slash I'm 14 and this is deep but here me out you start at the beginning of the path and the bright Sunshine as a young girl and as you travel down the path the sky begins to turn purple which could be a reference to entering your Twilight Year's aka the last years of your life Grandma's house itself with its dull gray color and cold empty appearance as well as Grandma's very sickly in bedridden appearance represents the final years of life and eventually death if you stay on the comfortable known and safe path you don't get to experience anything interesting if you live your life in fear of making mistakes or taking risks you'll live a boring and fulfilling life and before you know it you'll be like Grandma on Death Star regretting the fact that you wasted your life Carmen even Echoes this idea when interacting with the grave in the forest remarking life is such a terrible waste the forest itself is an on the nose reference to wandering off the beaten path essentially breaking the rules failing in life and making mistakes the girls in the story can't mature or grow as people if they stay on the path and blindly obey all the rules and though going into the woods means going through painful experiences those experiences are part of life and grow going up the girl in white symbolizes innocence she plays and skips around cartwheels hides behind trees and holds the girl's hands all very childlike and innocent behavior and combine with her pure white dress I think the symbolism of innocence is pretty obvious she's constantly trying to lead the girls back to the safety of the path in an attempt to keep them safe from the dangers of the world however as we know going straight to Grandmother's house results in a failure as the girls didn't take any risks or grow as people while she obviously represents innocence as a concept she could also represent well-intentioned friends or family who want to protect the girls from the harsh realities of the world but must eventually let them make their own mistakes the game seems pretty clear in its idea that pain and hardship whether that be physical emotional mental or spiritual is necessary for growth whether that's something that you personally believe is up to you but it seems to be the intended moral of the game in terms of the epilogue where you play as the girl in white this represents the girl's innocence and naivety being damaged after she travels through all six final rooms in Grandma's house representing six different dramatic experiences at six different stages of life she emerges into the Red Apartment covered in blood to me the fact that her pure white dress is now covered in red as clear symbolism that they're once naive and childlike worldview has been put through the ringer it's important to note that the girl in white is still there though yeah she's a little bit worse for wear but despite what they've gone through a bit of their past self Still Remains as the girl in white leaves and all of the girls fled back in it's showing us that despite the tough things they've been through they all came out okay in the end changed forever as people but ultimately Having learned and grown from The Experience now grandma is a whole other can of beans we only ever see the grandma when we go down the path or through the forest without meeting our Wharf which in this whole metaphor is an event that makes us learn and grow if the path represents life and Grandma's house represents old age and death it stands to reason that Grandma herself embodies these themes when we sit with her it's hard to even tell if she's alive with her pale skin and stiff bedridden appearance so it makes sense that she's basically just a visual representation of death and a life wasted Sorry Grandma there's been speculation that all six girls in the events that they went through were just representations of the grandma at various stages of her young life and she's Reminiscing on them as She lays in her deathbed I really like this Theory and I think it's really cool but auria Harvey has somewhat disputed this quote the different personalities of the characters somewhat fought the attempt to see them as six ages of the same person but that would still seem like a very plausible reading some have theorized that the girl in white as her actual granddaughter but how that relates to her saving the girls off the path and becoming bloody after the epilogue I'm not sure still a pretty interesting Theory conflicting ideas and themes are really prevalent throughout this game life and death is contrasted heavily and Robin's playthrough cleanliness and dirtiness for scarlet Beauty and Decay for Ruby even the place where Ruby's wolf is found the playground is a conflicting idea it's a small children's playground but decaying and covered in Rust this in and of itself could be seen as a representation of childhood and adulthood old age at odds with each other not only are all of these ideas meant to make the player feel like they're in the girl's shoes growing up and experiencing confusing conflicting feelings but they also make the game feel a lot less black and white because you know obviously growing up isn't really black and white there is a lot of childhood imagery in the path and often it's presented as very warped and wrong the two-headed teddy bear the upside down baby crib the infinite stretch of school lockers turning sideways the decaying children's playground in the middle of the forest I think these are all meant to represent how for these six girls going through the motions of puberty growing up is a scary idea for Robin she's nine and not concerned with growing up at all but suddenly has to think about her own mortality for Rose everyone comments on how mature she is but she comes to realize that no matter how mature she thinks she is she isn't prepared for the harsh realities of the world for ginger it's more literal and her body changing is what scares her like many teenagers Ruby seems to have a lot of anxiety relating to school and is struggling with her own mental health Carmen seems to believe that she's mature and knows what she wants but it turns out that she isn't ready Scarlett is ready to move on from her childhood and become her own individual but feels trapped the game frames childhood as weird and scary because in reality growing up can be weird and scary [Music] okay before we wrap everything up let me quickly rant about how beautiful the path is I've actually seen a lot of reviews calling the graphics of the path clunky and primitive but in my opinion it's honestly one of the most beautiful games I've ever played I could literally Rave about how this game looks all day the developers wanted to achieve a PlayStation 2 look with their game and I think they really hit the nail on the head but they also added so much more to it when interacting with objects or walking around the forest images and text overlay the screen inspired by the glitches and discolorations that occur with photography and film The Game design itself is a master class and minimalist game design featuring no on-screen health bars buttons or indicators the only information you get comes in the form of small scribbly Doodles that appear at the sides of the screen and direct you towards locations of Interest the white swell show with a girl in white is the paw print show where the wolf is in the black peacock pattern show where the houses if you're able to access the path when you run not only does the camera pull back and darken to emulate the feeling of running in a panic but the music becomes distorted and metallic scraping sounds and growling can be heard if you start for too long in grandmother's house the screen similarly darkens and small Doodles of various objects begin flashing on the screen accompanied by growling one thing I absolutely love about the path is its use of color a lot of horror games rely on very dark muted colors to make the game creepy and Atmospheric but the path does the opposite the forest itself is dark and gray but once you enter a special location the lighting completely changes becoming overly saturated and bright the graveyard bathed in harsh red light the theater brightly lit and sunny the campsite warm and inviting before turning Stark black and purple grandmother's house is filled with color too from Ruby's neon House of nightmares to calm and sunny and warmly lit Cottage to Rosa's blinding White House of the I don't know fog I like how the game shows that horror doesn't have to be just dark rooms and creepy forests horror can be just as effective and bright neon colors especially when those colors are used perfectly to convey the story The developers wear their influences on their sleeve and draw from a huge number of Inspirations if you stop and look at the tree branches in the forest they actually Baroque style patterns same with the light stand in the theater and there's a lot of Baroque and Renaissance inspiration in grandmother's house Rose's bathroom is basically a copy of The Shining bathroom and Robin's attic is a copy of this shot from the Holy Mountain the art style of the girls themselves was heavily inspired by fukuede and ginger in particular was inspired by Matilda from Leon the Professional it's also super admirable that despite having a very small team the animations for all of the girls are just so subtle and hand crafted just by observing how they interact with things or even just stand still we can tell so much about each of their characters it's all of these things the beautiful lighting and color design the subtle animations and the heavily stylized overlays camera angles and scribbles that make the world of the path so beautiful and ominous all of these elements also make for great footage and screenshots like the path is the perfect example of the saying every frame a painting the how small the team was and how limited their resources were I genuinely only think the path is one of the most unique looking and beautiful games out there [Music] the path is a great game for many reasons but my favorite thing about it is how vague and open to interpretation it is I know not everyone is a fan of these figure out the story yourself games but for people like me who can't get enough of analysis videos and love these kinds of metaphorical symbolic stories because of all the theories you can come up with the path is perfect as Oreo Harvey wrote imagination is a vital skill any player needs to have and use I also love the game because of how weirdly relatable it is the developers specifically stated that they made this game with the female experience in mind and that's pretty obvious with all the themes but I think this game can be relatable to anyone even if you don't identify as female childhood and growing up are Universal experiences and maybe you relate to one or more of the red sisters and their struggles I know that I found myself identifying a lot with some of the characters and themes in this game and it's rare to see a game tackle such a wide variety of heavy subjects with such nuance and realism as I mentioned though the game definitely doesn't always hit the mark and there are a few Concepts and themes which feel a bit on the nose or outdated but for a relatively cheap and small indie project from 2009 it's understandable the path is a clear labor of love and the inspiration artistic Brilliance and passion is very clear to see I've said like 20 times in this video that I want to hear people's interpretations and to chime in and that's because I'm genuinely interested like this game is ripe for discussion regardless of how you feel about tale of tales or the path itself you can't deny that they took a huge risk and made something they were genuinely passionate about and that's more than you can say for a lot of mainstream games these days no offense to Ubisoft or whatever to sum it up the path is a very cool old game about the highs and lows of college football I mean growing up and it's a game that I'm so glad I could share with you all today thank you guys so much for watching I really appreciate it um I know that this video is quite different to the things I usually do um it's more of sort of an analysis or Theory thing and it's a lot of my personal opinion and views on it which is a little bit different from what I usually do but um I really enjoyed making that video on lunar game and Max 2019 which are both very like obscure kind of horror web things so I feel like the path kind of fit the brief in that regard and hopefully this is something that you guys are interested in and enjoyed I don't know if this is something that people are interested in or are going to enjoy but you know sometimes you gotta just let loose and talk about something you're really passionate about for like four hours straight but yeah thank you guys so much for watching if you did watch it all the way through thank you so much yeah thank you for supporting me thank you for watching my stuff and I hope to see you in the next one bye a huge thank you to my Garfield overlords over on patreon read myth Joe Bradshaw Brianna Robinson cantillas estrium Vortex dozo blint Helm hamburger hand Jesse Chisholm kimono my gyro Sheriff whiskey Sophie Skinner the fabul librarian Tyson messy Pendragon agaraphan Finley group Gunderson John Leach Palm Xavier araujo lady cerebellum Charlie B Simon Jordan Nielsen Dana home Gardener boysenberry switchblade shsl sunsun chicory Doug tribazande Samsung account and and Ginkgo Fox thank you guys so much for supporting me it means the world to me if you want to join these guys over on patreon head to the link in the description and I really hope to see you guys next time bye [Music] foreign

Channel: Izzzyzzz

Views: 1,471,819

Keywords: The Path, Tale of Tales, Analysis

Id: 6MoNp4qEXK4

Length: 67min 54sec (4074 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 04 2021