RileyHisbert

So, I’m going to put this review under a click-bar. That’s because I think that this story is better to go into blind. While a lot can be interpreted early on, I’m glad I played this with no previous context.

    Papo & Yo

    4 hours playtime, 6 of 10 achievements (60%)

    More

    Papo & Yo is a story about an abused child of an alcoholic father. Whether that abuse is mental, physical, or both, I am not sure. The game is spent going on a journey to try and ‘fix’ the monster (that is his father), his precious toy, Lula, coming to life to assist him. Chalk opened up magic doorways, allowing for travel and puzzle solving.
    Overall, I liked the game. I had issues with a few of the puzzles, and don’t really feel the need to go back and complete the achievements. One of them can’t even be done until the game is beaten once and the other would require a complete replay of the game. So, yeah.
    On to my interpretation:
    Quilo is abused by his father, and this is the world he escapes to. His toy is special to him, because it ‘protects’ him. It seems that perhaps the alcoholism started after his mother died in a car crash? I’m not 100% sure. Quilo still loves his father, though. He wants to fix him. However, he learned along the journey that that’s not something that you can do. You can’t fix someone else, it’s up to them. The ending is kind of foggy to me, but it seems as though he allows for his father to collapse into his alcoholism and die? Either way, he likely moves on and realizes that he doesn’t need his father’s love, he just needs to be free from him.

Overall, I do recommend this game :)

Trent

I really liked this game, enough to go back and get the achievements I’d missed (which basically required a second playthrough). There were a couple of frustrating parts, but a lot of fun overall. I played it with my kids who were five at the time. They didn’t know it was a game about an alcoholic father. We just called it “the monster game.”

RileyHisbert

It’s definitely a good game. I can see myself doing another play one day, just not right afterwards.