INTRO:
2012 was perhaps the zenith of the indie game surge of the early 2010s. Therefore, Papo & Yo debuted in a time where quite a lot of people would be lapping up this or that indie and more than likely to call it good.
2018 – this time of writing – is a different time. There had been a lot of indie me-too’s, enough to jade all but the most ardent of indie scene supporters. Papo & Yo would be showing its age by this time, but some of its charm would still shine through its crusted patina.
PREMISE:
Abusive parents – intentionally or otherwise – are a source of trauma with effects that would linger well into adulthood. It is this trauma that inspired Vander Caballero, who is the lead designer of the game, to make Papo & Yo, a story about a boy called Quico.
Quico is not a happy school-going kid. He has to habitually hide in a closet, just to keep away from a certain ‘monster’ that he has to live with. Quico has to do rather drastic things to stay away, like jumping through a shiny whirly portal that appeared in said closet. Apparently, the risk of ending up in a faraway and strangle place is a lesser danger than familiar terrors.
The aforementioned faraway and yet strangely familiar place has plenty of puzzle-based challenges for Quico to solve. There are also peculiar characters that veteran story-goers would recognize as reflections of people he knows and facets of his life.
MOVING ABOUT:
Papo & Yo is 3D game, and as expected of puzzle-solving games in 3D environments, there will be some platforming. Moving about is quite easy, as Quico is a spry kid and does not seem to tire at all in this surreal world that he is in.
Some objects in the environment has context-sensitive scripting, which makes Quico automatically do something when the player has him coming into contact with them. Chief of these are ladders, which Quico needs in order to move vertically upwards.
Quico has no problem moving vertically downwards though. Gravity may be in this world, but falling hazards are not. It is probably easier for the player to just have him plummet downwards rather than finding a way down – unless of course the player is looking for the macabre collectibles (more on this later).
CANNOT GRAB LEDGE:
Quico may be able to climb ladders and jump across a few metres, but he just cannot vault himself up onto a ledge above him, even if he can reach it with his hands. Perhaps he just lacks the upper-body strength to do so. Anyway, this means that even walls or fences at his chest height are no-goes. Considering the platforming that the player would be doing, this can seem limiting.
FALLING INTO DEEP WATERS OR OBLIVION:
There are places where there is deep water, or just a bottomless/fathomless oblivion. If Quico falls into these, he merely reappears elsewhere, or at where he was just before he dropped off. He gets all wet, which is understandable if he fell into deep waters, but he also gets wet when he reappears after falling into oblivion. (This is, of course, the developers just being lazy.)
MAGIC DRAWINGS:
The strange yet familiar world has glowing chalk drawings here and there, likely made by its (only) seemingly human yet magical inhabitant. The drawings that are the most significant to the gameplay are those of mechanical objects, such as doors, turnkeys, gears and retractable T-handles.
Quico can interact with the drawings, as if they are solid objects. The drawings in turn manipulate objects in the environment. The objects that they manipulate can be identified through tracing a chalk line that connects the drawings to these objects.
Depending on the current puzzle, the drawings may peel objects in the environment like a banana peel, have them sprout legs and move around, disappear into the aether or some other bizarre surreal thing.
In the case of the gear drawings, they are one-time only interactions; they disappear afterwards. Their appearance usually means that the player has to activate them first before anything else can be done. Ropes also work similarly, albeit Quico needs to yank on them. Likewise, door drawings are mandatory interactions, because they indicate where the player character needs to go to.
The turnkey drawings are binary toggles, most of the time. Otherwise, they are timed things; If there are many other drawings around the turnkeys, they are an indicator that this is the case. In this case, the other drawings dim as time rounds out. When it does, the turnkeys reset to their default position, causing the objects that they manipulate to reset too.
T-HANDLES:
Drawings of retractable T-handles are the most sophisticated of them, because the T-handles can be, at the least, retracted and depressed. Retracting them usually causes something in the environment to peel back or expand outwards. Depressing the handles causes the converse.
The peculiar thing here is that the player can control the extent of the retraction and depression. This is important in some puzzles, as the object in the environment may have to be manipulated such that its orientation happens to be convenient enough for the player character to move along its length and/or height.
Some T-handles also move along a drawing of a rail. This adds another direction of motion. More often than not, this is used to control large objects that can reach out to one of multiple other things in the environment.
SQUARES AND CIRCLES:
In addition to the aforementioned drawings, there are squares and circles on the ground. There are a few types of these, according to their functions. The first ones are simply places where Quico should be in order to trigger something. These are contrived though, and the developers know that; there are only a few of these. Some other squares and circles are places where the Monster has to be lured to; the Monster will be described later.
There are squares and circles that are tied to other drawings, such as the turnkeys and gears. These indicate magical locales, which are usually used to keep Monster in place while Quico goes somewhere to do something else.
LULA:
After the player has become familiar with the drawings, Lula is introduced. It is the personification of Quico’s toy robot. Like all toy robots in any kid’s imagination, it is capable of flying.
It clings onto Quico’s back most of the time, acting like a jetpack just so Quico can make jumps that are a bit further. Lula can also be sent after “Lula buttons”, which are drawings that only Lula can interact with. Like the other drawings, these control things in the environment, usually as toggles.
MONSTER:
The Monster is apparently someone that Quico both fears and cherish. Most of the time, the Monster is just a lazy lout, sleeping away and snoring loudly. At other times, it is just busy stuffing itself full with magic coconuts.
In a certain scenario where Quico is at risk of being harmed by environmental hazards, the Monster reaches out and saves him, somehow just in time. This particular scene, which appears to be the only one of its kind, makes it obvious that the Monster, self-centred as it is, is still looking out for Quico – when it is stable.
Anyway, it is in the player’s interest to know about the Monster’s habits, because these inform the player of the priorities that the Monster has. In turn, these priorities can be exploited to solve puzzles.
Piles of cardboard boxes around a wooden prop indicate a place where the Monster would sleep at. Whenever it sleeps, Quico can get onto its comically round belly and use it like a trampoline to leap up onto higher platforms. The direction that Quico is looking at is the direction of this leap, so the player will need to reorient both the camera and Quico.
Monster is huge, so it could not fit into places that Quico can. Monster cannot even use stairs. Like Quico, Monster cannot vault onto platforms that are (its) chest- or even waist-high. It cannot even jump. However, it can be lured onto platforms lower than it. (It does not have any falling animation, by the way.)
LURING MONSTER AROUND WITH FOOD:
If Monster is not sleeping or standing around looking stupid, then it is eating. Coconuts with shining sheens appear to be its only viable sustenance in the surreal world. Conveniently, it so happens that these fruits spawn continuously into this world at locations with lush vegetation. Watching Monster endlessly gorging itself on coconuts can be an amusing sight.
Monster is easily awakened by having Quico bring a coconut near him. If it knows that Quico is holding one, Monster ignores any other coconuts and goes after the one that Quico is holding. Indeed, this will be the primary means of getting Monster to go anywhere. The player will want to gauge where it would be when it picks up the coconut, however. It can be aggravating to watch Monster stop shy of a square that it has to be on because the player has not placed a coconut further enough into a square.
FROGS & MONSTER’S MADNESS:
Colourful oversized tree frogs appear in some places in the surreal world. They are really just minding their own business.
Monster, however, has acquired a taste for them. While a frog is in him, Monster turns into a fiery demon that is bent on hurting Quico and any of his friends. Quico cannot be killed, but Monster would toss him around and make it difficult for Quico to do anything. While it is in this state, Monster also happens to move faster than Quico could run. It should be obvious that Monster going mad is nothing but trouble.
Monster does not gain any additional mobility in this state, however. Quico can just move into places that Monster could not get through and stay away from it. The Monster is also not very good at turning around sharp corners. Indeed, these will be the means of working around its considerable movement speed, especially during the segments in which an angry Monster is the main hazard.
Of course, the player could just try to have Quico catch and splatter any frog onto a wall before Monster can get to it. Indeed, there are some scenarios where the player is rewarded for being this proactive by not having to deal with Monster going mad.
For better or worse, there is only ever one thing that the player could do in this scenario: find a “rotten” blue coconut that Monster somehow craves, even when it is raging mad. (It really has some substance abuse problems.) Eating the coconut knocks it out, reverting it to good ol’ problematic Monster. That said, Monster will always go for rotten coconuts first, even over frogs.
TUTORIAL & HINT BOXES:
Considering how bizarre some of the puzzles’ appearances are, it is perhaps understandable that some players would be at a loss of what to do if they are not already veterans of the puzzle game genre. Therefore, thankfully, there are some tutorials and hints that are literally strewn throughout the game in the form of cardboard boxes with question mark symbols.
Quico puts them over him. Somehow, the insides of the boxes are well-lit, illuminating the drawings on the internal faces. These drawings show instructions and/or hints on what the player needs to do.
LINEARITY:
Ultimately, Papo & Yo is a game with linear gameplay, as to be expected of an indie game that is more about telling a story than providing complex gameplay. For one, most – if not all – puzzles only ever have a single solution.
There are also a few flashback segments that inform the player of what happened in Quico’s real life, but these shoehorn the player character into a narrow irretraceable path. There could have been some puzzles with creepy or spooky themes in these segments, but an opportunity has been lost.
COLLECTIBLES:
Throughout the surreal world, there are creepy burlap dolls that are tied to wooden posts. These are often found out of the way, requiring the player to have Quico perform some serious platforming to get to them. The player does not get any notification that they have been found, however. Furthermore, it would appear that they are just for the sake of trophies/achievements.
VISUAL DESIGNS:
Papo & Yo is built with the Unreal Engine, specifically the one that Epic Games licensed out at affordable rates. It has shown some of its age over the years, such as sometimes muddy textures. Fortunately, Papo & Yo does not have the problems that are often associated with older Unreal Engine games, such as the hideous texture pop-ins that plagued games with earlier engines.
The main theme of the graphical designs in the game is the surroundings. The game takes place in what looks like a favela, or Brazilian Portugeusa for “slums”. Like real-world favela, the one in this game is built in a haphazard manner, often making use of as much verticality as possible with minimal to non-existent safety precautions. However, as mentioned earlier, there is no falling hazard.
The houses in the favela are understandably ugly. However, the otherwise demure landscape is broken up by vegetation and colourful graffiti.
That most favela homes are practically block-like units is used for some puzzles. These houses sprout chalk-drawing legs, making them look comical. One of the puzzles even has the player stacking and orienting them in outrageous ways, likely as a light-hearted mockery of real favela.
There are also some ancient Native American themes in the visuals, especially towards the end of the game. Painted faces are the most obvious signs of these.
Quico starts out with school-going clothes, as well as a decently-kept appearance. After the first scenario with frog-addled Monster, he loses most of his clothes and looks like a typical kid from the slums. This might be a metaphor of poverty or loss, but it would be a change that most players would notice (especially considering the almost-garish colour scheme of his school uniform).
Quico moves in mostly believable manners, though it is hard to take these seriously when he is running with a huge coconut over his head or hauling a nonchalant frogs around, its legs flailing all the way.
Monster looks just like a monster out of a child’s dream-nightmare. It is ugly, but no so hideous as to be unthinkably terrifying to a child. Indeed, it looks goofy most of the time, especially when it is sleeping and Quico is using its paunch as a launchpad. The only thing that is disturbing about the Monster is its peculiar head-shape.
Perhaps the most amusing visual designs in the game are those for the tutorial/hint cardboard boxes. When the player switches from one statement to another, Quico turns the cardboard boxes to see the other facings on their insides.
SOUND DESIGNS:
The most prominent sounds in the game are the musical tracks. Brian D’Oliveira composed them, and it so happens that this is his first foray into video game music, if his IMDb portfolio is to be believed. The music tracks have classic string instruments, but also South American, Asian and African instruments of ancient origins. The result is a collection of tracks that sound quite exotic, especially in the days of 2013.
There are voice-overs for some characters in Papo & Yo, but they are not in Portugeusa, or the Brazilian form. Rather, it is a mish-mash of South American languages and dialects. In cynical terms, the characters are merely uttering gibberish, with some ‘words’ being made consistent for the purpose of substituting pronouns and other basic elements of spoken language. Monster has utterances, but of course, most of them are grunts and roars.
Since the setting is a surreal world, the player can expect weird noises like musical flourishes that accompany puzzle solutions or audio cues. The structures in the fictitious favela rumble while emitting comical noises as they move about on chalk-drawn legs and wings. The player can also expect a lot of crackling noises associated with fire, though to elaborate on this would be a spoiler.
CLOSING WORDS:
In 2018, the days when indie games could just tell stories without having much of any gameplay are quite over. The audience is much more jaded, and backlash over socio-politico-cultural commentary in the video game scene has sapped a lot of enthusiasm for such games in all but the most ardent supporters of video games being expressions of art.
Fortunately, Papo & Yo was made by developers who know that gameplay is a core part of any game, even its main goal is to tell a story. At this time of writing, there had been plenty of indie games that tell heart-breaking stories similar to the one in this. However, it still stands out from the others for having puzzle-solving gameplay that may not be particularly challenging, but memorable enough for its surreal yet familiar qualities.