Bramble: The Mountain King

Bramble: The Mountain King is a great cinematic platformer that presents a dark fairy tale punctuated by some striking imagery. Telling some macabre stories based on Nordic folklore, the game only falters when it makes these tales a bit disconnected from the protagonist’s journey.

The story begins when a boy named Olle wakes up from a nightmare in the middle of the night to find his older sister, Lillemor, gone. Olle decides to venture into the woods in search of her, but they both end up falling down a hill right into a world of fantasy full of wonderful creatures and terrifying monsters, which kidnap Lillemor.

The narrative is framed as a fairy tale, told by a female narrator that reveals Olle’s deepest fears and secret feelings (“Without his sister, he felt like the loneliest child in the world,” she says, hinting at how his quest may not be altruistic). There’s a book near the boy’s bed that tells the story of a girl who, once upon a time, got lost in the woods alone and perished: the clear parallel with the boy’s story not only reinforces this fairy-tale framing, but it is also effective in adding tension, suggesting the ending here could be the same if Olle doesn’t go after Lillemor.

The sense of urgency is also boosted by the characterization of the monsters themselves. One of the most effective elements in Bramble, after all, is the shift in tone that happens right after Olle’s sister is kidnapped. Until that moment, Olle’s stay in the fantasy land is marked by whimsy and wonder – his interaction with the environments is often playful, driven by curiosity, as Olle jumps from one giant mushroom to the next and tries to understand the rules of that place. In its first hour, Bramble’s world is colorful and inviting, as the siblings explore the woods and meet all kinds of friendly creatures, such as gnomes and crowned frogs. Olle even plays hide-and-seek with them and helps them farm.

The narrator tells that Lillemor loved adventure as much as Olle loved Lillemor and we can clearly see this distinction in how they behave, as we are always behind Lillemor, trying to catch up to her as she ventures forth into the woods without fear. When night falls, however, and a Troll comes to get her, the atmosphere suddenly changes. The most precious thing for Olle is taken away right in front of him, and he is left helpless in a dense forest, suddenly surrounded by the most unspeakable horrors.

The monsters in Bramble are violent and grotesque, posing a real danger to the characters: the friendly gnomes of the beginning are now torn apart by traps, cut into pieces by butchers, eaten by trolls, and even drowned in gore. These tiny whimsical creatures basically become the redshirts of the narrative, being the ones to perish to display the dangers of the world.

The shift in tone, then, is startling, as the game now leans heavily into the horror genre: one set piece even has Olle passing through a pool of gore, possibly drowning in it if a moving wave catches him before he reaches safety. Bramble doesn’t shy away from the darker side of fairy tales. On the contrary, the game fully embraces it: the trolls, for example, are monsters of horror stories, nerve-wracking and repulsive.

Bramble belongs to a genre called “cinematic platformer”: slower games that put the focus not on the act of jumping itself, but on the tone and story that envelops it. When Olle is exploring a gloomy cave, for example, the game is not interested in challenging the player with tricky jumps in the dark, but in using this darkness to build the horror atmosphere around the character.

Therefore, in the cavern, we hear a constant moan in the dark, from some unseen creature we fear we’ll eventually run into, we spot giant bats on the ceiling that stand menacingly still, and we notice the place is littered with cages, maybe foreshadowing Olle’s future. Eventually, we even realize that the darkness is hiding platforms from view. Some of them are crumbling, but take a while to fall because the point is to pass a sense of danger without actually challenging us with the platforms.

The fixed camera angles also allow the game more control over the framing of the action. As a result, there are some haunting scenes in Bramble, such as when Olle is marching through the thick waters of a swamp to save a baby and he must pass through a host of dark souls – the ghosts of unfortunate children who didn’t have a hero to save them. Or when Olle defeats a forest spirit and the framing of the action mirrors the shocking portrait we just saw in a history book: the portrait of a king driven by grief and bloodlust murdering a helpless witch.

This fantastical land Olle must traverse is haunted by its history. We often come across books that show the origin of the monsters and horrors we witness, contextualizing them as products of the cruel deeds of broken and desperate people. They are all told as fairy tales, with the same female narrator starting with something akin to “Long ago…”, except one found in a witch’s cabin by the swamp: here, the subversion of expectations adds a lot to the horror of the scene.

The only problem with the story is that these tales are often too disconnected from Olle’s journey, almost to the point of feeling randomly selected from Nordic folklore. Together, they all build the helplessness of his situation and make him feel feeble and small – turning his actions more courageous in the process – but individually they could have had more impact on his personal journey. Take as an example the moment when Olle kills the forest spirit: the framing of the scene paints him as the cruel king, condemning his action, but this doesn’t go anywhere, and the boy proceeds as if nothing reprehensible has happened.

Finally, we have to talk about Bramble’s boss fights. The first is called the Butcher, a troll that will cut Olle in half with one swing if we are not careful: death animations here are brutal but not overly so, as to shock but not glorify the violence. Fighting back is rarely an option in the game, we must usually dodge attacks and try to run away from the monsters in elaborate set-pieces – as is usual in the genre. Eventually, however, Olle gains access to a glowing energy ball that deals damage but, fortunately, combat remains restricted to a couple of boss encounters, as using the orb is not particularly exciting. What makes Bramble’s bosses stand out is either the gruesomeness of their set-pieces or the build-up to them, such as the encounter with a monstrous Pied Piper, who had been interacting with Olle without us knowing.

Leaning into the horror genre, Bramble: The Mountain King tells a dark fairy-tale packed full of imaginative scenes and set pieces: even with its flaws, it’s a memorable game.

November 29, 2023.