Page - 171 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 06/01

Far-reaching consequences might follow from the protagonist’s interaction with apparently mundane items such as a comb or a pair of scissors. Accordingly, each episode offers between 30 and 35 possible endings. The ending will depend on the degree of respect a player shows a particular pamali and the extent of the player’s interference with the spirits. Finally, Pamali is not so much about mythical creatures or ghosts from Indone- sian folk traditions as about how to (or more or less how not to) act in their pres- ence. Accordingly, Michael Audish, in his review of Pamali, asserted that the game was basically a “ghost etiquette simulator”.5 Although this slightly ironic statement rings true to a certain point, I would argue that this view is somewhat reductionist. Certainly, a major issue of the game is that the developers’ ambitions to grant the player maximum options in gameplay severely threaten the game’s entertainment value. If one reads all hints with care, acts properly towards the supernatural and simply attempts to be respectful (e.g. by not making any foul comments, not throw- ing talismans in the trash), next to nothing happens. The ghosts will only appear if the protagonist behaves in a blasphemous and rude way. Thus, the player will likely disregard various pamali on purpose, in order to provoke the potential consequenc- es, which was probably not the intention of the developers. In other words, as Holly Green from Paste Magazine put it, the game “teaches you Indonesian custom by 5 Audish 2019. Fig. 4: Some objects must be handled with particular caution or the player could anger the spirits. Screenshot, Pamali: Indonesian Folklore Horror (StoryTale Studios, 2018). 170 | Kathrin Trattner www.jrfm.eu 2019, 6/1, 166–171