Grief Trigger Review

Grief Trigger is a game by the indie developer Indignation LLC that explores the theme of loss. I thought that Grief Trigger seemed like an interesting game, and I am a sucker for some angst. So, I thought, “Hey, why not give this a go?”

The game starts with an opening cutscene, and I have to admit, the voice acting was fairly decent; however, I was a little bit unimpressed with the lack of subtitles. It was difficult at times to hear over the soundtrack, which, admittedly, did not help me make sense of what was going on here.

I don’t think Grief Trigger took the time to connect me to Azrael, our protagonist. I don’t know much about him outside of the fact that his dad died two years ago. You need to collect your memories, but it’s hard to feel anything when you’re thrown into the deep end. I didn’t even know his age! But I do know he was haunted by a golden ghost.

I don’t actually know what the golden ghost is doing in this game. But it seems to be trying to emulate Persona, as when you go to fight ANTs (which are a type of negative feeling), Azrael tends to point his fingers at his head in a gun shape.

It also uses a time progression system, which in my opinion, doesn’t actually have much of an effect on the plot. In fact, after finally completing the tennis bullet hell, the game crashed immediately after the cutscene. Not even the Task Manager could save me from that. That wasn’t the only time that it went weird on me, as at one point after a cutscene, when I returned to my bedroom, it was completely dark. I can only assume this was a glitch, as it didn’t happen the next day.

After having to restart the game after it crashed, I wasn’t too thrilled to be playing the same level again. Sure, I knew the tips and tricks, but I was hardly having the time of my life. The time it took for me to complete that level was around seven minutes and 30 seconds, according to my phone’s stopwatch. While it doesn’t seem like a long time, it feels like it depends on each level.

You have to battle these ANTs by looking at where they move on a grid map and attacking where they are going to go. See, the ANTs look like a formation of giant boulders, and you need to time when each one will move around the grid. Once you’re used to it, it’s easy to guess where the rocks will be for you to attack them. Then, you have to dodge everything they throw at you, or else the ANT will restore its health as you lose yours. This, then, goes on repeatedly until a timer runs out because it turns out that if you don’t defeat it in a specific time frame, you’ll still win so long as you survive each stage.

Each ANT has a different type of puzzle that you have to work out to ensure you don’t lose health. However, some of these puzzles made no sense. Upon entering one level, I had to collect coins and then go to persuade a monster to join me. I was asked questions that, by all accounts, made no sense to the story. I was asked “How many seconds would it take me to go from one side of the map to another?” and “How many buildings were in the right corner?” The answer to the latter question was apparently nine, despite that being the number of buildings on the left side of the map.

I wouldn’t mind the puzzles so much if they had a solvable answer. However, each puzzle is essentially a case of trial and error. I found no joy in doing these, but you need to survive a certain number of phases to pass. Unfortunately, with each puzzle getting more challenging, I quickly became frustrated.

I’m not saying that all the puzzles are bad. The type-matching one that took place in a trading card was actually pretty fun. However, the other puzzles were more frustrating than anything. One of them solely depended on the D-Pad, and I would like to say that playing it with my Xbox controller was a colossal nightmare. This puzzle required me to go through a maze, and if I hit the wall, I would get damaged. Now, if you’ve ever used an Xbox D-Pad, you’ll know that they’re not exactly great for intricate manoeuvres.

With this in mind, this is not a game that relies on skill. It’s a battle of attrition, and whoever gives up first is the loser. I can’t even say that as a bullet hell that this was a fun game because half the levels didn’t even rely on your skills at dodging.

While I appreciate that a lot of time and effort went into making this game, it ultimately feels like it’s trying too hard to be something it’s not. The personal story doesn’t match the frustrating gameplay, and it’s like they wanted to make a game that had depth, but the world itself felt empty, as outside of the ANTs, you can’t interact with anyone — not even the soulless NPCs who gather in each location.

Ultimately, I got so frustrated with the gameplay and the bugs that I didn’t enjoy it, and even my interest in the story couldn’t keep me playing. I usually try my hardest to give all games the benefit of the doubt. But I can’t help but feel that more effort went into voice acting and animating the cutscenes than into making it a fun game.