Why I Cannot Love Graveyard Keeper

Graveyard Keeper is a very strange game, not just because of the premise, but also for the story and gameplay elements, such as exhuming bodies and the talking head; I won't lie, at first I was taken aback because I had expected something less... raw. When I read the name of the game and saw the icon, I was thinking something more along the lines of becoming Dampé from The Legend of Zelda — walking around a cemetery, taking care of the graves, looking out for spoopy ghosts…

Despite the fact that my first interactions with the game weren't ideal (I wasn't a fan of the idea of feeding the townspeople or myself human meat), Graveyard Keeper quickly grew on me. There was something very medieval about the game in a way others hadn't captured that well — it truly felt like I was in a small town way back when. I found myself humming along with the tune of the game and, soon enough, I was wrapped up in the loop of being the graveyard keeper. 

I could look beyond the weird cannibalism and body-exhuming, that was all in good fun... what I couldn't swallow, however, were the obvious anti-religion undertones. In fact, that's not even the right word as it wasn't implied — it was obvious. Everyone related to the church was a rotten, plump, and abusive arsehole. A lot of the characters in the game are disagreeable and that's fine, I appreciate characters having their own personalities. It's just not okay to make someone a complete jerk just because they happen to be religious. 

Don't get me wrong, I’m no nun, and out of all the adjectives in the world to describe me, "religious" is definitely not one of them. I fall neither in atheism nor religion, I do not believe or disbelieve — it kind of just rolls with my mood. As a person that has struggled with religion before, I can understand the apprehension towards it. And although my religious wife and I have had many a conversation about it, I still feel uncomfortable sometimes; yet, despite my stance, the portrayal still rubbed me the wrong way. 

It's a shame when games push their agendas like this. Unfortunately, the fact that the church in Graveyard Keeper was so rotten and corrupt began to slowly chip away at my interest. Mocking and attacking a person's religion in this way makes us no better than the religious people that hurt others based on their gender identity and sexuality. I wanted to remember Graveyard Keeper for its gameplay, music, and uniqueness... not because it made me so uncomfortable.