![]() The book is frequently viewed as a metaphor for parenthood, with Victor being a negligent mother figure, abandoning his child - the Creature - after giving it life through his labors, and the troubled relationship that stems from his neglect. I mention that because that background bled into Frankenstein. Where the journeys of Lee & Clementine, Kratos & Atreus, and Joel & Ellie were exercises in bonding, this new crop is about exploring the complexities that stem from feelings of abandonment, uncertainty, absence - balanced alongside the more positive associations of family: safety, familiarity, assurance.įor context, Wollstonecraft passed away as a result of complications from childbirth after 11 days, and young Mary grew up the daughter of a distant stepmother while idolizing the legacy and work of her biological mother. They each speak to shared histories, which enables the characterization of the relationships to run deeper than those explored in the likes of Telltale’s The Walking Dead or God of War. Polly feels duty bound to find Ursula, even while she knows that finding her will be a bittersweet occasion due to their fraught relationship.Īcross these three stories, then, we see three different types of parent-child dynamics. For much of the game, that search is the driving force, and it’s bound up in complexity. No one knows where she went, so Polly’s quest to find her is based around investigation in both the “real” world and mythical realm of Reverie. The disappearance of Polly’s mother, Ursula, is unlike those of the two mentioned above in that it’s a complete mystery. Again, the missing mother is the inciting incident, resulting in protagonist Polly returning to her hometown and finding it not as she remembers. The other game that inspired these reflections is Don’t Nod’s latest, Harmony: The Fall of Reverie. There’s none of the teething issues or problematic intergenerational relationships that are so bound up in sad dad games. This single example shows a shift in the contexts of parenthood. In this, the game seems to apply a familiar sentiment of motherhood, that of protector, of salve, of someone you can rely on, even if only in memoriam. Venba’s missing mother is present in the game through a battered recipe book, which she turns to for comfort in a time of crisis. ![]() There’s no support network for her, and so, in a time of difficulty, she leans on the only thing she has left. The protagonist, Venba, is struggling to build a new life in a new country. ![]() One of them, Venba by Visai Games, was just a demo, so it’s hard to say the influence that element will have across the full game when it launches next week. ![]() In the past few weeks, I’ve come across three games that remove the sad dad from the center of the experience and place the missing mother there instead. But I wonder if their decline makes way for the rise of something both similar and different. As great as Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead, The Last of Us, and God of War are, they’re quite limited in how they use journey narratives and mostly conventional gameplay (or gameplay that has since become conventional) to explore the theme of parenthood. ![]() With the possible exception of the Max Payne remakes, I can’t think of a single major “sad dad” game on the horizon. ![]()
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