History VideoGame / ThePath

* AllWomenAreLustful: [[spoiler:Carmen]]'s end. [[spoiler:She recklessly went and started to seduce her wolf, who just wanted to be left alone.]] At grandma's house, the strong implications of [[spoiler:Carmen ending up raped]] show that at the end, her wolf give her what he ''thought'' she wanted, though it ''wasn't'' what she wanted ''at all''.

* BeAWhoreToGetYourMan: Carmen seems to believe in this, but is ignorant of the obvious consequences of such a lifestyle. [[spoiler:While her wolf just wants to be left alone to chop his trees, ''she'' is the one making all the moves and seducing him.]]

* BlondGuysAreEvil: [[spoiler:Ruby's wolf]]
** If [[spoiler:Scarlet's wolf is male]], he is this, too.

If you wish to get the full experience out of the game, stop reading now and play it for yourself. Most of the fun is in not knowing what comes next. You can buy it [[http://tale-of-tales.com/ThePath/ here]]. The game is also available on {{Steam}} [[http://store.steampowered.com/app/27000/ here]].

''The Path'' is not really a game in the conventional sense, in that there are no enemies, no points, no levels, no bosses, and the goals are vague at best; in fact, the only thing that resembles a game in this is a grading system that grades you on how far you traveled and how many items you've collected along the way, though the creators tell you to disregard it. ''The Path'' is [[ArtGame more of an experience]], a combination of atmosphere and ambiguous storytelling to create a sense of real emotion rarely found in other things. That being said, it is certainly not for everyone. The game, though short, is slow and borders on repetitive. It is not for the impatient. And with its subtle references to violence and sex, it is ''definitely'' [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids not for kids]].

* AlienGeometries: Both the forest and Grandmother's house.

Six sisters are tasked with delivering a basket of bread and wine to their bedridden grandmother who lives in the middle of the forest at the end of a dirt path. One at a time, each girl is sent with only two instructions: go to Grandmother's house and stay on the path. [[LittleRedRidingHood Sound familiar?]]

In this dark retelling of the classic tale, you take control of one of the red girls as you lead them into the woods, and although advised to stay on the path, nothing prevents you from exploring the forest, collecting flowers, chasing animals and exploring abandoned locations. Though be warned, you are not the only one in the forest. This is, after all, an adaptation of the story of LittleRedRidingHood, and at any given time, you may run into the wolf...

* {{Grimmification}}: LittleRedRidingHood darkened and modernized.
* GrowingUpSucks: [[spoiler:A common interpretation of the game. The [[LittleRedRidingHood original story]] has been interpreted by some to be about puberty. In the case of each girl, they more or less are taught a "life lesson" by their wolf before they reach Grandma's house. And at the end of their "path" (or life) [[WeAreAsMayflies lies nothing but death]]. So hence, in each case, the girl is more or less losing their childhood innocence; Carmen loses it in the most obvious way, but Robin learns about death (she meets her wolf in a cemetery and has thoughts that are very much not at ease with the nature of death).]]

* ColourfulThemeNaming: The names of all six girls are associated with the color red.

* {{Expy}}: Several. Ginger is modeled after a young NataliePortman, Rose's hair is a variant on [[SerialExperimentsLain Lain's hair]], and Ruby bears a striking resemblance to ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}'s'' Lydia.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Early working progress clips [[http://tale-of-tales.com/ThePath/blog/2010/03/21/2-early-protoypes/ showed there was originally]] going to be some kind of dancing game included involving the wolves.
** One of the early ideas was to make Rose and Ginger twins.

* ShrugOfGod: In [[http://tale-of-tales.com/ThePath/blog/2010/03/27/the-making-of-cloud-wolf/ the creators' discussion on Rose's wolf]], they explain that they have no idea who or what he is, not even Rose. But she ''aspires'' to know.

* {{Foil}} The Girl In Red to The Girl In White, [[http://tale-of-tales.com/ThePath/blog/2010/03/24/the-making-of-girl-in-whitered-wolf/ according to this]].

* CharacterSelectForcing: The piano appears on the map for Ruby. However, she cannot interact with it, and must defer it to Scarlet.

* AbandonedPlayground: This is the place you found [[spoiler:Ruby]]'s Wolf.

* AllWomenAreLustful: [[spoiler:Carmen]]'s end. [[spoiler:She recklessly went and started to seduce her wolf, who just wanted to be left alone.]] At grandma's house, the strong impliments of [[spoiler:Carmen ending up raped]] show that at the end her wolf give her what he ''thought'' she wanted, though it ''wasn't'' what she wanted ''at all''.
* AllThereInTheManual: All six girls have their own [=LiveJournal=] page. And the official website details information otherwise unmentioned in-game. Such as the characters ages.

* BaldOfEvil: [[spoiler: Carmen's wolf]]

** If [[spoiler: Scarlet's wolf is male]], he is this, too.

* CameraScrew: Normally the camera follows you from behind, but at certain parts in the forest, the camera will jump to a fixed point, changing the controls from "forward is where the camera faces" to "forward is where the girl is facing". Also, when you run for a few seconds, the camera pans back, giving you a limited view of what's ahead.

* ColorMotif: All of the girls are associated with red (obviously), white and black. Some of them have different colors for the finale. [[spoiler:Scarlet's wolf and her version of Grandmother's House are green instead: it's the direct opposite of red, often associated with TheFairFolk, and one of the rooms is a backstage area, which is called a "green room".]]

* EldritchLocation: Grandma's house, if you unlock the secret rooms. In case of Ginger's version, you see Grandma's room through blinds, but somehow double-back while moving in the same direction.

* EyeScream: During the sequence of flashing images after [[spoiler: Scarlet's]] "death" in Grandma's house, her eyes appear to be bleeding, and their image is juxtaposed against the image of her wolf's long fingernails.
* FanDisservice: The Grandma's house in Carmen's ending. [[spoiler: As she walks through it, we hear orgasmic female moans which overlap with ''the sound of a chainsaw'']].

* TheFairFolk: [[spoiler: Scarlett's wolf seems to be this, as it is named "Fey wolf"]]

* GameplayGrading: At the end of every run through it will give you a completely superfluous letter grade, based on items collected.

** If you run towards grandma's house, it becomes night time. If you run from the house back to the paved road, it returns to daytime (even in the post-wolf portion but that takes a while).

* GrannyClassic: If the girl's livejournals are good indicators, Grandmother is your classic old lady figure. She even gave Robin her treasured red hooded coat.

* HartmanHips: Carmen

* JigsawPuzzlePlot: Mostly delivered via poetry (what the girls are thinking), brief cutscenes, heavy symbolism and images flashing across the screen for a quarter of a second.

* KnightInSourArmor: Scarlet's journal seems to indicate that she is quite the pessimist. Only talking about the end of the world, and how uncivilized people are these days. Despite this, she still seems to remain dedicated to obeying rules blindly. ''The panic that consumes you is the fear of order.''
* LastNoteNightmare: The ending to the song "Forest Theme". In the last two minutes it suddenly shifts from soothing singing (though see LyricalDissonance below) to a harsh and raspy voice screeching "And I will eat you". Also the in-game version of "Girl In Red", which ends with a static scratchy noise that almost sounds like screams that slowly overpowers the rest of the music.

* LooksLikeSheIsEnjoyingIt: In Grandmother's house for [[spoiler:Carmen]] there are the sounds of saws and chopping, as well as someone moaning. It's either the sound of Grandmother in pain or [[spoiler:Carmen mid-coitus - consensual or not.]]

* MenAreUncultured: Scarlett thinks so, anyways.

* NatureHero: Ginger, who loves the forest so much that she has no qualms abandoning her nine year old sister at Grandma's house so she can play in the forest alone.

* OminousFog: All around the woods. There's also a lake surrounded by even denser fog. [[spoiler:Rose's wolf is an enigmatic humanoid like shape cover in dense fog, wandering over the lake.]]

* ParentalFavoritism: If you are good and obedient and go straight to grandma's house she'll have a single framed picture of your character hanging over her bed. This also applies if you wander into the forest but don't meet the wolf.
* PlayableEpilogue: The demo for The Path, "Prologue" looks more like it takes place after the game. All of the landmarks are dark and pillars of smoke are everywhere, with ash falling from the sky, and strange marks on the ground.

* RefusalOfTheCall: At any time a character can choose to go back home instead of visiting grandma. Behind the starting point is a phone used to call for a pickup, but you can also use the menu to return. Attempting to run back to the city will simply teleport you one map-length toward the house.

* ScaryBlackMan: Though it's hard to tell in-game, [[http://tale-of-tales.com/ThePath/blog/2010/03/23/the-making-of-woodsman-wolf/ The woodsman]] is black.

* ShrugOfGod: In [[http://tale-of-tales.com/ThePath/blog/2010/03/27/the-making-of-cloud-wolf/ the creators discussion on Rose's wolf]], they explain that they have no idea who or what he is, not even Rose. But she ''aspires'' to know.

* TheTease: Carmen loves the attention she gets from men and often tease them to get it. She doesn't go beyong that though.

** And even then, with all the warnings that you can only complete the game by straying from the path, if you stay on the path and do what you're told multiple times, [[AntiFrustrationFeatures you can access the map whenever you want so you dont get lost.]] The game is a master of mixed messages.

* [[spoiler: WolfMan / OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: Robin's wolf.]]

* YellowBrickRoad: Subverted, see ViolationOfCommonSense.

* LadyInRed: All of the girls have some bit of red in their outfit. [[spoiler: The girl in white receives her red colors after the epilogue.]]

* AllWomenAreLustful: [[spoiler:Carmen]]'s end. [[spoiler:She recklessly went and started to seduce her wolf, who just wanted to be left alone.]] At grandma's house, the strong impliments of [[spoiler:Carmen ending raped]] show that at the end her wolf give her what he ''thought'' she wanted, though it ''wasn't'' what she wanted ''at all''.

* AllWomenAreLustful: [[spoiler:Carmen]]'s end could be a deconstruction. [[spoiler:She recklessly went and started to seduce her wolf, who just wanted to be left alone.]] At grandma's house, the strong impliments of [[spoiler:Carmen ending raped]] show that at the end her wolf give her what he ''thought'' she wanted, though it ''wasn't'' what she wanted ''at all''.

* BigBadassWolf: Of the wolves, Robin's wolf is in a scary animal form. She grabs the back of the wolf during the encounter.

* DeathByIrony: [[spoiler:A popular theory is that each wolf represents what each girl wants.]]
** [[spoiler:This is almost certainly true. WordOfGod says that each wolf represents temptation as much as it does death.]]

* VisualInnuendo: [[spoiler:After each girl's encounter with their wolf, they wake up with body language that suggests... ahem... [[IsThatWhatTheyreCallingItNow rough treatment]]; they move sluggishly and limp across the bridge to Grandma's in a torrent of rain. Also, at least two of the wolf encounters seem somewhat sexualized. Carmen essentially seduces her wolf.]]

* DeadPanSnarker: Ruby seems to be this. “A scarecrow. And no birds. Efficient! Wish I had one to keep the idiots away.”
* DeathSeeker: Arguably, Ruby. Which, we guess, doubles as...
** [[spoiler: BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor]]
** Averted: WordOfGod notes that [[http://taleoftales.com/ThePath/gallery.html she doesn't really want to die]], she just seems to like being gloomy and morbid.

** Ruby claims to (she talks about how men are disposable after you get what you want, by [[MakeOutPoint a car]]). Evidence suggests that she's really more into [[spoiler:[[AllGirlsWantBadBoys dangerous guys]]] instead, though.

* ColourMotif: All of the girls are associated with red (obviously), white and black. Some of them have different colors for the finale. [[spoiler:Scarlet's wolf and her version of Grandmother's House are green instead: it's the direct opposite of red, often associated with TheFairFolk, and one of the rooms is a backstage area, which is called a "green room".]]

The Path is not really a game in the conventional sense, in that there are no enemies, no points, no levels, no bosses, and the goals are vague at best; in fact, the only thing that resembles a game in this is a grading system that grades you on how far you traveled and how many items you've collected along the way, though the creators tell you to disregard it. The Path is more of an experience, a combination of atmosphere and ambiguous storytelling to create a sense of real emotion rarely found in other things. That being said, it is certainly not for everyone. The game, though short, is slow and borders on repetitive. It is not for the impatient. And with its subtle references to violence and sex, it is ''definitely'' [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids not for kids]].

* MagicalNegro: The girl in white. Maybe even literally. If you encounter her after straying from the path, she will guide back out of the forest. If you stand still and away from objects long enough, your character will act helpless and the girl in white will be drawn to your aid.

* AllWomenAreLustful: [[spoiler:Carmen]]'s end could be a deconstruction. [[spoiler:She recklessly went and started seduce her wolf, who just wanted to be left alone.]] At grandma's house, the strong impliments of [[spoiler:Carmen ending raped]] show that at the end her wolf give her what he ''thought'' she wanted, though it ''wasn't'' what she wanted ''at all''.

* [[spoiler: WolfMan / OurWerewolvesAreDiffernt: spoiler:Robin's wolf.]]

* WolfMan: [[spoiler:Robin's wolf.]]