Summary

• Grotto's unique premise, art direction, and animation make for a captivating opening, but the experience becomes confusing and frustrating as the story progresses.
• Discovering constellations in Grotto is rewarding and addicting, but using them to answer questions often feels like an inconsistent guessing game.
• Grotto's gameplay struggles to blend with its central idea, resulting in a guessing game that can be frustrating, despite the powerful story and themes it explores.

As the Soothsayer for the village of Grotto, the player must divine meaning from the stars in the form of constellations, none of which provide a clear idea as to what they mean or represent. So, when the people of Grotto come seeking advice and direction about the future of their community, there is ample room for misunderstanding. It's a fascinating and engaging premise that explores the shortfalls of language and how interpretation can bring ruin, but the execution of that premise often leaves the player feeling a little blue themselves.

While Grotto is making its PlayStation 5 debut, it has been available on Steam since October 2021. In the time since its release, it has earned "very positive" review status and for good reason. It's a title with a unique premise, provocative poetry, phenomenal art direction and animation, and a complex story that isn't afraid of being cruel. All of these things are true and make the opening two hours captivating, tense, and immersive; but it doesn't last. As the story progresses and players gain access to all the constellations and tools, the less clear everything becomes. While this is appropriate thematically and narratively, which may be enough for some, it makes the experience of playing very frustrating and confusing.

Becoming The Voice Of The Stars

Discover Constellations & Their Meaning With The Star Map

The story of Grotto unfolds as the denizens of the titular town come to the player seeking advice and guidance. As the soothsayer, whom the town views as both a stranger and an influential force, the player's only option for communication is to use the limited messages made available by the stars. These messages come in the form of constellations, of which there are a total of 24 that must be discovered by the player. This is the central gameplay mechanic in Grotto and while it is limited in scope, it's incredibly rewarding and addicting.

In order to discover a constellation, players must select a star and connect it to other stars to form lines or shapes; each of which requires a minimum of three stars. When two separate lines or shapes are paired with one another, sometimes connected and sometimes not, a constellation will form and be available to use. Once a constellation is discovered, it will be added to a wall in the soothsayer's cave which shows what it represents, as well as the shapes necessary to recreate it, because once used, the player must make it again to "refill" its spot.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of this system is that there are no hints as to what constellations are available or how to find them. The only thing indicating that a constellation is missing is having a blank space on the cave wall. To find what fills that spot, the player must experiment with lines and shapes until whatever is missing suddenly appears and finding those missing pieces is incredibly satisfying and rewarding. Using the constellations, however, is often not.

Meaning Is Lost In Translation

The Unpredictable Responses To Player Choice Fits Thematically But Is Frustrating To Play

One of the biggest challenges facing a game like Grotto is blending its gameplay and its central idea in a way that is fun and satisfying. The degree to which this game succeeds in blending those things will vary drastically from player to player. In the case of this review, Grotto exceeds in depicting the fickleness of communication but at the cost of satisfying gameplay, an issue that taints the latter hours of the game.

When attempting to pick a constellation for a given question, it often feels impossible to decide which would be "best" due to the inconsistent nature of the questions and the way the game interprets an answer. Some questions are open-ended and provide more room for choice, while others are so direct that they're basically asking yes or no questions that cannot be answered as such. There are some exceptions, such as when someone asks what color to dye their kerchief and knowing that the ivy constellation will likely result in picking green. This works because it's open to more than just two options, but that is not always the case.

It would be wrong to say that Grotto doesn't succeed in telling a fantastic story and representing its core theme through its gameplay, frustrating as it may be.

Additionally, there are scenarios later on that require the player to intervene in conflict. In one decision, the player is asked to decide if a group should attack the barn, the enemy leader's hut, or their crops. After picking the horse constellation, as it most closely aligned with a barn animal in both image and description, the NPC got mad and stormed off because it suggested they attack the stables; an answer that was never presented as an option and an area his side apparently owned. Another decision before that saw Grotto's chief asking how an NPC met early on should be punished, and the choice made somehow resulted in blinding the NPC despite the description and image never mentioning anything to do with sight or eyes.

As the game progressed, it seemed impossible to know how an answer would be perceived outside a few scenarios. It ultimately felt like a guessing game with choices that didn't actually matter much in the end, which whittled down the desire to see the story through despite being invested in the narrative itself. There are some attempts to alleviate the ambiguity by providing bones, an instrument, and a pipe over time that offer additional guidance, but they can only do so much to alleviate the frustration of the core system. It's a shame because the story is an exciting and unpredictable exploration of philosophy, conflict, and language.

A Town Of Caves, Fear, Fractured Realities

Utilizing Philosophy & Mysticism To Craft A Smart & Powerful Story

In Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave, a group of people are chained to the walls of a cave, where they watch shadows dance on the walls. They give names and meaning to these shadows, until they are freed and met with the reality that these shadows are created by a fire they didn’t know existed. Some venture to the mouth of the cave and see a world that is bright and alien. Some embrace this new world, while others retreat to the cave out of fear of accepting a reality that differed from what they knew. As the cave-dwelling soothsayer that seeks wisdom from the stars and fire to provide guidance to a town struggling with change and new ways of thinking, Grotto presents a unique perspective of this allegory in a way only a video game can.

While the core idea of this game is how people interpret ideas in vastly different and unpredictable ways, the reason this issue exists at all is because of the overwhelming fear of change. While the player may reside in the literal cave, the town of Grotto lives in the allegorical one. The cruelty of this story, rife with betrayal and heartbreak, only exists because half the town is scared to alter their existing way of life, brutal as it is, to explore a new way of living and viewing the world. The reason these people find such different meaning in the words presented by the player isn't due to some ambiguous, unknowable nature of words, but because they are looking for meaning that aligns with what they believe. While not as in-depth or experimental as something like NieR Automata's storytelling, a game known for its exploration of philosophy, it's still a fantastic representation of an unfortunately common part of the human experience; but the way that translates into gameplay won't be as engaging to some players as it could have been.

Final Thoughts & Review Score

3.5/5

Grotto leaves a lot of conflicting feelings. It tells an incredible story that clearly understands the ideas it's trying to convey and uses clever mechanics to make it all feel tangible. The downside is that the ambiguous nature of each constellation and the inconsistency of each character's questions can leave one feeling like they never really understood the game and just made guesses most of the time, thus removing the impact and, at worst, engagement in an otherwise powerful story.

Despite that, it would be wrong to say that Grotto doesn't succeed in telling a fantastic story and representing its core theme through its gameplay, frustrating as it may be. For anyone that has yet to play this game but is interested in its philosophy and ideas, definitely give it a shot because even though the gameplay didn't resonate in this review, it did for a great number of players and is a risk worth taking.

Grotto is available now for PlayStation 5 and PC via Steam. Screen Rant was provided with a PlayStation 5 digital for the purpose of this review.