Plot

Gris is a hopeful young girl lost in her own world, dealing with a painful experience in her life. Her journey through sorrow is manifested in her dress, which grants new abilities to better navigate her faded reality.

The game follows a girl named Gris, who wakes up in the palm of a crumbling statue of a woman. She attempts to sing out, but quickly becomes choked up and the statue's hands crumble, dropping her to the colourless earth below. After landing, she continues walking forward and discovers a number of strange structures that seem to be powered by mysterious points of light resembling stars. Gris can collect these lights to gain new abilities, such as turning into a heavy block of stone, and creating new pathways made of constellations. After reaching a central tower, Gris can travel to four new locations to collect lights and restore colour back to her world at statues resembling the broken one from the beginning of the story. These areas include a desert filled with windmills, a lush forest, underwater caverns, and a world with buildings made of light. Along the way she encounters various living beings, some of which help her on her journey, as well as an inky black monster which manifests as large creatures that threaten to consume her. The final power Gris obtains is the ability to sing again, which brings life to various plants and mechanical animals. In addition, hints throughout the story via other statues similar to the first reveal that the woman that Gris constantly grieves in front of is her late mother. Gris eventually collects enough stars to form a constellation path to the heavens, but the final pathway is blocked by the creature, who morphs into a monstrous form of herself and swallows her whole. She wakes up in an ocean of toxic black sludge and swims to the surface. As she climbs a tower rising out of the ocean, the creature tries to pull her back. However, Gris begins singing and her mother's statue begins to reform itself through the power of her voice. Just as she is completely consumed by the black oil, the statue of Gris's mother comes alive and begins singing as well, banishing the creature and the sea of despair. Encouraged by her mother's song, Gris continues to sing and the duet fully restores the world back to its beauty and colour. Gris and her mother tearfully embrace, with Gris giving a farewell kiss and she climbs the final constellation path into the light and the unknown, having accepted her mother's death and moving forward with the knowledge of her mother's love still being with her. If all mementos are collected, Gris's childhood is revealed in a secret room. It is nighttime. A child Gris is in the meadows with her mother. Gris's mother encloses a firefly between her hands then releases it to fly around child Gris. Then under the bright full moon child Gris and her mother embrace.