At first, its easy to simply accept that the flowers represent the main characters’ lives. This strange symbiotic relationship between human and flower also plays into another of the game’s major themes: the fallibility of individual perception. In this way, they are very much like the rest of the art in the gallery, as art itself can be seen as the deepest and most vulnerable type of human expression. So rather than simply measuring the characters’ vitality, the roses are physical manifestations of their lives, both beautiful and vulnerable. It’s possible to heal by restoring the roses, but once the rose has been destroyed, there’s no saving the person connected to it. The roses drop petals when Ib and Garry are injured and Ib and Garry are injured when the roses drop petals. The roses in Ib are especially interesting because they’re not solely life meters but externalizations of the characters’ lives. Instead, the characters’ life meters are made an integral part of the game’s narrative and themes. Many people have already discussed the significance of the flowers’ colors (Ib red, Garry blue, and Mary yellow), but what I want to focus on in this post is why roses? Why anything more complex than a simple hit point system? Obviously, the in-game justification is that Ib would quickly become excessively frustrating if it only relied on insta-death. Ib and Garry, the unlucky people trapped within the alternate gallery, each come across a single rose (Mary’s rose is, of course, another discussion entirely) that both measures and represents their lives. One of the most interesting concepts in Ib is its unique approach to the life system. More, the deeply compelling characters and unique setting, a dark and twisted art gallery, set the stage for a number of fascinating ideas. It’s a brilliant little adventure that manages to create a believable fairy tale atmosphere without relying on overused fairy tale tropes.
IB THE GAME GARRY ART FREE
So, what’s on the docket today? Well, I spent much of last weekeend playing the free indie horror game Ib. This way, I can deeply explore a specific topic rather than try covering too much ground at once. Therefore, despite my natural tendency toward long-winded blowhardism, I want to start writing shorter posts at more regular intervals. I still need to finish up that post on consequence in video game relationships, but with school and work starting up soon, longer posts like that will take more time.