Today I wanted to elaborate on Grief Trigger’s design inspirations. I referenced Persona, Breath of the Wild, and Undertale to inform my game mechanic decisions.
Persona 3’s “Social Link” system was the primary reference point. Social Links enable players to learn about key characters’ backgrounds and goals in special dialogue sequences. After 10 interactions with that character the Social Link is maxed out, and you’ve got yourself a friend!
Grief Trigger’s story is one large Social Link. You learn about Azrael and his father’s relationship piece by piece through 6 short cinematics. I deviate from Persona 3 with a-linear progression, que Breath of the Wild (BOTW).
BOTW tells one story through flashbacks, and you can experience those flashbacks in any order (a-linear). I opt to tell six self-contained stories in Grief Trigger, so you may experience them in any order without lacking critical information. This prevents a “I’m missing something” moment that can happen in BOTW because the flashbacks build off each other.
Last is Undertale, which inspired the combat system. Undertale does a great job of unifying each fight’s aesthetics and mechanics. For example, when you fight a muscular horse…thing? you must dodge enormous flexing horse arms.
Instead of matching the monster’s aesthetics, I match the combat to the memory Azrael (you) is attempting to remember. Another example, during summer breaks Azrael had to work at his father’s office shredding old documents. The fight for that memory involves running from a giant shredder trying to eat him alive while you dodge the embers shooting out from it.
So, there you have it, how an unlikely trio of games resulted in Grief Trigger. Thank you for joining me!
