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Be careful while you're exploring; what you discover along the way may change you.
RiME is an adventure Platform Game by Spanish developer Tequila Works. The game was released on May 26, 2017 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC and for the Nintendo Switch on November 14, 2017.

The game focuses on a boy who is shipwrecked on a mystical island and has to use his wits to traverse the terrain and the ruins left behind by a forgotten civilization. As he traverses the various game areas, he starts learning about what happened, where he may have come from, and who the mysterious hooded figure he sometimes spies in the distance may be. It turns into a quest to unlock the entire story and bring some closure.

Puzzles, adventure, drama, pathos, and even a cute little fox await. Enjoy the journey.


Rime provides examples of:

  • Actually Pretty Funny: The "Wrong Direction" achievement wants you to run towards the Bird and the "Patience" achievement wants you to run in the endless corridor for 3+ minutes.
  • After the End: The society or civilization that built the wonderful architecture is completely gone, their works collapsing and left derelict.
  • Alien Geometries: The third level includes corridors that are different depending on camera angle, a tall vertical shaft that you can climb up to return to the room you started from at the same vertical level, and doors that lead to different places depending on switches.
  • And You Were There: Getting the "Toyful Child" achievement shows that the Fox, Bird, Boar and Seagull were toys, the windmills were a pinwheel, and the Sentinels were a wind chime. And then there's of course both the red-hooded figure and the King, who are the father.
  • All Animals Are Dogs: The fox acts much like a dog.
  • Animal Companion: In the first area, the boy awakens an ethereal fox which periodically points the way forward and helps solve a few puzzles.
  • Arc Symbol: Two of them — spirals and keyholes. Both are emblematic of the main tower.
  • Beautiful Void: The island is very beautiful but it doesn't have a lot of people to interact with. There are animals though. Being something of a Spiritual Successor to the Trope Namer Myst, this is to be expected.
  • Bittersweet Ending: The boy reaches his goal, only to reveal he was Dead All Along. In reality, the boy and his father were on a boat one stormy night when the son fell into the ocean, lost at sea. In his home, the father opens his son's locked room for the first time since the accident. The boy's ghost appears to him and the two share a brief moment before the boy moves on to the afterlife. Though nothing can bring the boy back, his father has come to terms with what happened and can move on with his life.
  • Bizarrchitecture: In later levels, you can easily move down seemingly infinite corridors, or enter a room with a vertical shaft going upwards to another room, which turns out to be below it.
  • Bookends: The first and last major puzzles deal with activating a statue by finding four smaller statues linked to it. Also, the first one unlocks the fox, and the second one kills it.
  • Context-Sensitive Button: The button to activate the boy's voice will, depending on the situation: sing, yell, cry, or hiss like an angry spirit.
  • Dark Is Evil: In Chapter 3, the shades are trying to kill you, and lighting up an area destroys them (even if temporarily). However...
  • Dark Is Not Evil: In Chapter 2, creating the storms by releasing the menacingly black clouds is desirable, because it hurts and drives away the bird that is trying to get you.
  • The Ending Changes Everything: The boy was Dead All Along, and the whole game appears to be a highly metaphorical story the father is telling himself to deal with the grief — that his son actually survived, landed on an island, and the father's spirit is guiding him back home.
    • This is eventually confirmed once a player finishes the game as the chapters are named after the five stages of grief, from Denial (the nicest area) to Acceptance (in which the boy goes to the afterlife).
  • Fashionable Asymmetry: The boy's outfit is very asymmetrical, with a tunic that only goes over one shoulder and mismatched arm braces and sandals. This is probably because, at the time the boy died, he was wearing a red raincoat, and while he was falling overboard, his father tried to save him—but only managed to grab one of his raincoat sleeves that ended up torn off in the process, leaving his clothes asymmetrical.
  • Feeling Their Age: The Sentinels. The older ones are bent over and have visibly shaky legs. They all presumably broke down between Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 as only new ones can be seen after that.
  • Five-Second Foreshadowing: In Chapter 4, you see one Sentinel merge into a door to open it. Not long after, the same happens to the Sentinel that was helping you since Chapter 3.
  • Five Stages of Grief: The major sections of the game are designed and named for the five stages of grief, representing the boy's father grappling with his son's death.
    • Denial: The island in the beginning is lush, pleasant, mysterious and unthreatening. The boy encounters benign animals and befriends a helpful spirit fox, all of which are based on toys in his bedroom.
    • Anger: The second world is a harsh desert tormented by a monstrous bird, which steals the golden orb the boy needs to proceed. The area contains several windmills which hold captive stormclouds; the boy releases their fury to defeat the bird. There are also shades which appear sullen and fearful.
    • Bargaining: The boy needs the help of mechanical Sentries to proceed, which he gains by rebuilding their population through a chain-of-deals sequence. The shades are now active, trying to leech away his life force in a vain effort to restore themselves. While the bulk of the section has little to do with Bargaining, the cutscene after the section is completed has the boy watching his father fall off the boat and die, which is the reverse of what actually happened. This is the father trying to bargain for his son's life — "Take me instead!"
    • Depression: Everything is suffused with Grey Rain of Depression; the shades stand listlessly without motivation. The friends the boy has gained sacrifice themselves to help him proceed, including the fox that has been his guide since the beginning; the loss causes him to cross the Despair Event Horizon and become a shade himself.
    • Acceptance: The boy reaches the top of the tower and falls into the sky, leaving the world behind for good; his father lets go of the remaining scrap of his clothing, releasing it to the wind.
  • Forced Perspective: Some of the puzzles involve getting multiple objects to form an arch when viewed from a certain angle.
  • Foreshadowing: Plenty once you know what the ending is.
    • In Chapter 1 there is:
      • In the first sequence as the company credits show, one can see a lighthouse.
      • When the boy solves the Sphinx puzzle to reach the tower, two illustrations appear: a king crying at night in a desert and a red-cloaked boy sitting during the day at the beach. Except it's the father crying at the beach and the son isn't sitting at day at the beach, he is sitting underwater.
      • The Funeral Flowers achievement.
      • The boar that protects his piglets without budging. Also the fact that without your help, he will never get reunited with the sow and the other piglet.
      • When first entering the main staircase of the tower, the camera moves slowly upwards, showing each floor. Each floor has two statues next to the door, depicting the being(s) that serve as the focus of that chapter: the Fox, the Bird, the Sentinel and the Shadows. The camera angle hides the statues flanking the final doorway because seeing that they depict the Boy would give away that we aren't really playing as him.
    • In Chapter 2:
      • In the Underwater section, the only way to escape the bird is to duck under water, which leaves the boy in danger of drowning.
      • Unleashing a thunderstorm makes it impossible for the bird to grab the boy.
    • In Chapter 3:
      • While running in the endless corridor, the background music plays a short version of the Mother's Lullaby.
      • The King statue isn't sitting upright anymore. It is broken down, with one very realistic arm reaching out to something.
      • The first area has multiple diving sections. Extra spicy: if one wants the two collectables or the "Hold your breath" achievement, then the player might actually drown there.
      • The boy revives a tree, only to accidentally kill it right after.
      • When the new Sentinel finds the first awakened Sentinel, it is so distraught that it stops what it was originally doing and tries desperately to revive the other Sentinel.
      • The person with the red rain jacket falls from the boat and drowns.
    • In Chapter 4:
      • The King statue is now a normal man and he is crying.
      • One of the Sentinels falls off the path and "dies".
      • When the Sentinel the boy built is about to sacrifice itself to unlock the door, the boy tries to pull on its limb to keep it away. It doesn't work.
      • Solving the statue puzzle depicts the boy this time. It kills the fox who offers himself in the boy's place.
  • Gentle Giant: The sentinels are huge, benevolent machine-creatures.
  • Golden Ending: Finding all four White Shades means that the man's deceased wife appears in the ending alongside his deceased son. The Achievement "Sweet Memory" is then awarded.
  • Gotta Catch Them All: Exploring the game world reveals multiple types of collectibles: toys, outfits, musical conch shells, images detailing the backstory, and others. An Achievement is awarded for completing each collection. The common thread is that they are all the father has left of his deceased son and wife, and the Golden Ending is unlocked by finding all of the White Shades.
  • Grey Rain of Depression: Chapter 4 is a very gloomy, monochrome setting with rain constantly pouring from the sky. The chapter is even called "Depression".
  • Heroic Sacrifice:
    • Three of the Sentries allow themselves to be destroyed in order to open the doors that the boy needs to pass.
    • The fox expends the last of his spiritual energy helping the boy solve the second statue puzzle.
  • Highly Visible Landmark: The game is centered on a single gigantic tower, with the first section of the game spent trying to reach it.
  • Island of Mystery: The island has very striking ruins with no apparent explanation at the start of the game.
  • The Journey Through Death: The child protagonist is on a journey of this sort, with the various environs and challenges of the game often reflecting their death at storm-wracked sea. Although the ending suggests that it may not be literal: it may instead be the child's father imagining such a journey as part of grieving.
  • Kidnapping Bird of Prey: In the desert area, a large bird-like creature patrols and will grab the boy if he stays in the open too long.
  • Last of His Kind: Initially, there is one Sentry which is still able to be awakened. It provides instructions to create a new one, which in turn helps replenish the others.
  • Le Parkour: How the boy traverses most of the obstacles in the game.
  • Living Shadow: Throughout the game, you can encounter what appear to be humanoid shades or phantoms. Most are peaceful, but a few....
  • Magitek: By singing/shouting magic.
  • Manly Tears: The father, as he comes to grips with his immense loss, and probably you when you learn what has actually happened.
  • Meaningful Name: "Rime" is an allusion to "The Rime of The Ancient Mariner" — a poem which details a similar story of loss and grief on the ocean.
  • Mistaken for Granite: Chapter 3 has a mural that depicts a stone/salt statue turning into a shadow. Touching any of the statues in Chapter 2 makes them explode in black smoke and starting from Chapter 3, they literally turn into very upset Shadows.
    • Averted with the "Strange Statues". They just crumble to dust and the game gives no explanation of what they are and why they are different.
  • Moving Beyond Bereavement: The ending reveals that the boy's whole journey through the game was a fantasy of his father coming to terms with losing him in a seastorm.
  • Mysterious Stranger: There appears to be someone else on the island wearing an obscuring red cloak. It's the in-story avatar of the boy's father, trying to move on after the boy's death. More seldom seen is a stationary white figure which represents the soul of the boy's already deceased mother.
  • No Name Given: For any character at all.
  • Ontological Mystery: The game opens with the boy awakening on an island shore, and no other prompting as to who he is, how he got there, or what is happening.
  • Oxygenated Underwater Bubbles: The underwater part of Chapter 2 has these, and also the underwater caverns in Chapter 3. They appear on some kind of tube-like creatures, and are replenished a few seconds after being used, so you can spend arbitrary amount of time underwater if you don't get lost or stuck.
  • Oxygen Meter: There is no explicit meter to tell you how much time you have before you drown, instead the screen gets darker as your oxygen depletes.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: There is an achievement for passing the Shadows in Chapter 2 unnoticed. How to do that? Wear the sixth outfit which is the normal outfit, but in black with purple tentacle print.
  • Perspective Magic: A staple of the game's puzzles and mechanics. You can make doors, objects, and even paths by rearranging the 3D environment from a 2D perspective.
  • Robot Buddy: The Sentinel the boy makes is friendly, and the boy gets quite attached to it; unfortunately, it sacrifices itself when opening the final gate in the rainy island.
  • Ruins for Ruins' Sake: The island has what appears to be the ruins of some ancient civilization. However, neither the history of said civilization nor the function of the buildings are explored. Justified as it is all the fantasy of the father.
  • Scenery Porn: The island is colorful and has stunningly beautiful environments.
  • Skyward Scream: The Sentinel does this when it discovers that one of its friends is dead.
  • Spikes of Doom: In Chapter 3, there are occasionally spiky thorns blocking the way. They can be easily smashed by the Sentinels, though.
  • Spiritual Successor: An unidentified protagonist lands on an eerie, beautiful island. There is no prompting, so the only option is to start exploring and watch the story unfold by solving puzzles. Are we talking about Rime, or Myst?
    • A lot of people have also compared it to Journey (2012) due to the vast empty landscape, the epic music, the importance of light, the tip of a tall object as overarching goal (mountain vs tower) and the ending which the protagonist doesn't survive.
  • Tomato Surprise: The ending reveals the boy in this story is Dead All Along. Contrary to what the stock tale would have you believe, the depressing reality is that a person lost in a sea storm probably isn't coming back — barring a miracle or herculean endurance, most people who manage to wash up on a beach will be doing so as a corpse, if they wash up at all.
  • The Tower: The focal point of the game. The Tower itself is an almost mind-boggling huge structure which appears to connect various game environments.
  • Wham Shot: At the very end, when you see the father agonizing about unlocking his dead son's room, and realize that the boy was Dead All Along and the story is the father's way of dealing with immense grief.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Non-villainous example. The boy revives a tree with light and water, only to immediately kill it by removing its core. Chances are that the player doesn't even realize what's about to happen until it's too late.
  • You Wake Up on a Beach: This is how the game begins.


 
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RiME

There is a segment in the game where you get to knock down a group of black shades by pushing the golden ball toward them.

How well does it match the trope?

4.75 (4 votes)

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