Papo & Yo: A mirror of my childhood

The environment represents a child�s escape into imagination, full of fanciful details and opportunities for adventure. It�s also very quiet. Outside of the pleasing acoustic music playing in the background, the world itself is almost entirely mute. That's how I felt growing up: alone.

Where Papo and Quico play in South American favelas, I had the woods of Wisconsin...which also had a large number of frogs (Papo's substance-abuse substance) I would poke and prod. Soccer balls sat around with no one to kick them to. The woods -- though full of adventures waiting to be had -- all felt very lonely to me. I looked for something, but I never knew quite what I wanted to find.

While searching those woods, I sometimes needed my father to help me traverse an area. Just like in Papo & Yo, we relied on each other. At times, he would use his strength to help me up a tree. Other times, I tended to him when he passed out on our couch in our tiny trailer home, only for him to return later that night in another drunken rage. He might break a favorite toy that made me feel safe, just like Lula, protagonist Quico�s helpful robot toy. Sometimes my father just broke my dreams. I never knew what would happen that night.

In the end, Papo & Yo becomes about Quico vanquishing his monster. It�s what we all have to do when we grow up with an abusive parent.

I wonder what younger me would think about this game. I doubt I would've taken much interest in it, having already found a good home in role-plaing games and action-packed adventure games. But as an adult, it reminds me of important things, prompts me reflect on the hardships I grew up in, and makes me determined to never put my own children through those horrors.

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Louis Garcia12   

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