When you move to a new home and make a new friend, you never expect it to be a ghost. But that’s the least of your problems when regular life and the supernatural begin to clash. Navigating a complex life as a child when you feel no one understands you is tough. Even your ghostly companion can’t solve everything and causes problems of their own. Can you regain some normality in your life when everything seems to be spinning out of control?
Paper Ghost Stories: Third Eye Open takes a look at a young girl thrust into unfortunate circumstances. There’s a realistic look of how life would be impacted by anyone claiming to have supernatural experiences. The story is bittersweet and emotional while adding in some progressive values. The gameplay leaves a bit to be desired as instructions can be unclear. Navigation is also unclear, forcing you to walk around a lot. Despite the obvious flaws, there’s a powerful story in this game that you don’t want to miss.
Third Eye Open puts you in the shoes of Ting, a young six-year old girl. She’s just moved to a new house in Malaysia and is settling in with her mother and father. Ting quickly befriends a ghost named Xiu without knowing about her supernatural stance. As Ting grows up and meets new people, she quickly finds the supernatural interfering with her life. Ting must act before her regular life begins to crumble even more than it already is.
The story covers Ting’s life over five years, from the ages of six to eleven. Her life changes rapidly but not just because of childhood; her family slowly starts to unravel and supernatural influences begin rearing their head. Ting’s social life was never easy but it fractures due to the supernatural. At the core of it all is a young girl who wants friends, a loving family, and to do well in school.
One of the story’s strengths is how relatable it is if you grew up in Southeast Asia. Ting’s life is filled with struggles of trying to please her parents and make friends in school. It’s not easy and the pressures she faces are real. It’s easy to empathize with Ting as she struggles to deal with her father while her mother can’t do much. Seeing Ting try to make friends but struggle at school is something any introvert can relate to. However, that relatableness is a double-edged sword. There’s a heavy focus on Chinese culture as Ting’s family is Malaysian Chinese. Their cultural background is relevant to Ting’s problems and it can be hard to relate to. Venues like the Pasar Malam or the significance of bridge crossing are easy to miss. While Third Eye Open does its best to provide a glossary to prevent you from getting too lost, it’s not perfect.
Fortunately, the game does have some elements that any player could empathize with. Ting struggling to get along with her stubborn father is one of the key parts of the story. Even if you haven’t had such a parent, you can tell why Ting feels she has to solve problems on her own. Having your friends slowly lose their belief in you is masterfully shown in one scene near the end. These scenes are powerful and bring up emotions for anyone who’s been in those situations.
Third Eye Open also includes some progressive topics that you wouldn’t normally expect. Concepts like confronting your parents is not popular in Chinese culture, but it’s part of Ting’s growth. Even the presence of a gay couple isn’t easy in Malaysia but they are included in a scene. It’s great to see a game pushing boundaries especially in cultures where such behavior would normally be frowned upon.
Ting interacts with the world through a 2D paper art-style with some 3D elements. The 2D designs can be a bit jarring in the beginning as children seemingly make adult-like expressions. But as the characters get older, the facial expressions become more accurate. The 2D design is simple but it lets you focus on the story, which is the most important part. You can still feel the character’s emotions come through even if it isn’t animated like a cutscene. The only part where the 2D art style becomes a problem is when you must interact with the 3D locations. While several directions are clear, navigating the world is unnecessarily difficult. There are no directions and you must fumble your way around if you get lost. Sometimes you learn about an objective but the game doesn’t tell you how to reach it. That slows down the story and adds more frustration to what should be an immersive experience.
This can also occasionally result in unexpected problems that disrupt your game. For example, Ting often walks around with Xiu or other friends. But it’s possible for characters to get stuck at environmental objects without moving. You must go back to get them or the story doesn’t recognize your movement. While not gamebreaking, it is frustrating to have characters affected by the environment, leaving you to fix the problem.
The mini-games are diverse and well-thought out but run into the same problem as navigation. You often aren’t told what the instructions are or how to play properly. Quick-time events run into the same problem; you aren’t told you must react quickly. While it’s not hard to learn how to play, it feels like the instructions could be better presented. There are many mini-games in the story and not having instructions makes things harder than they need to be.
Despite the missed opportunities with the navigation and instructions, the story more than makes up for it. Even if you don’t have a cultural background, you can easily relate to Ting’s feelings and growth throughout her childhood. How she deals with it, and ultimately how the story ends, is something that you must see for yourself. If you need a horror story that’s easy to play, Paper Ghost Stories: Third Eye Open is hard to beat.
Victor reviewed Paper Ghost Stories: Third Eye Open on PC with a review code.
