dealing with the demons

Papo and Yo is and independent is a fantasy adventure game that tells a metaphorical story about the relationship between the games creator and writer, Vander Cabellero, and his alcoholic father as he was growing up. The game is not meant to be an autobiography but rather the interactions that happen between the Cabellero and his father as he remembers them. The young protagonist in the game named Quico, is the video game counterpart of Cabellero’s childhood self. As Quico roams the maze of streets in a Brazillian favela, he comes across a giant rhino horned beast named only Monster, that accompanies him on his adventure, the video game counterpart of the father. Although the monster is brutish and powerful he is not represented as villainous but rather pitiful at times. Cabellero speaking on behalf of the game says that he wanted this to not be a sob story but rather one about love that showed multiple aspects of the relationship for better or for worse. Monster is for the most part friendly and occasionally fatherly but when he ingests frogs, a habit he cannot control, he gets angry and is prone to hurt Quico. Quico knowing that it is not entirely the monsters fault that he is this way sets out to find a cure for Monster in hopes that he can help him stop eating frogs and stop getting out of control. The gameplay is all about restructuring the world via gears drawn on walls and the story is driven by pushing events into motion and seeing how they will play out between the pair. It is highly innovative and arguably a valid sentiment to consider when advocating that video games can be considered as mediums of higher art as devices that can be used to express the world through a symbolic interactive story.