Expedition 33: Our Journey with Grief

The Gommage, as it is known in the game world, is a yearly event in which all individuals of a certain age (for instance, 33) dematerialize into flower petals, and then the countdown continues. In an effort to both uncover the cause of this catastrophe and stop it from ever happening again, you join the 33rd Expedition. In an effort to avoid spoiling what occurs throughout the game (as it is worthy of your time to play through), the player realizes that the very world you live in is imaginary. It is, in fact, the creation of an artist.

In this game world, painters, musicians, and writers create tangible products. Paintings are entire worlds you can step into, and songs are tangible things to be grasped and felt. Already the allegory is set. The world we live in is the world we make. The Gommage is time, and the very expedition you go on as the player is your journey with grief as a human. How loss and grief have been approached has differed greatly throughout human history and its various cultures. But it will always be a journey filled with trials and tribulations of their own kind. Challenges that can only be overcome with allies by your side (even if they are themselves imaginary).

Yet what Expedition 33 achieved was not simply a retelling of the process of grief, but rather an understanding of how it manifests in what we produce and the choices we make. Isolation vs connection, anger instead of sadness, absolution or condemnation. What you allow grief to do to you, you will let yourself do to others. Grief is pain that will be felt forever, as it is directly proportional to the level of love. The players are forced to come to terms with this notion through a range of decisions and situations the game presents to them. Suddenly, the entire narrative makes sense. The society you set out to save has already found its salvation in its ideology, “for those who come after.” The greatest way to honor the dead is to continue the work they started, or at the very least, not get lost in the loss. Our lives are not our own; we share them with loved ones, give them to passions, and dedicate them to those who come after.

If modern society could embrace this idea as wholeheartedly as the citizens of New Lumiere in the game, perhaps our pain could be diminished even a little. For within this ideology sits the notion that death is not the end, but a step, for those who come after. Yet as in the game, as in life, the choice is yours. How will you manage your grief and its associated journey?