Trophies for Mental Health II

[Han_the_Dragon]

Well, I need a few comments on the following games, since it's likely that I will be playing 1 of them for the event.. (please keep spoilers to the minimum essential to make me see if the games would qualify or not, since I'm keeping myself in the dark about those games as much as possible..)

 

Order is somewhat my preference..

 

- Ys IX

- Persona 4 Golden (I have the NA copy to stack, but 1 month isn't likely enough for me to platinum it..).

- Valkyria Chronicles 4

- SMT Nocturne

- Valkyria Revolution 

- Trails of Cold Steel 1

- Detroit

 

(Actually going by what I need for other events, Detroit should be my 1st pick, since I need Rare platinums for now...).

 

I'm also currently working on Star Ocean 5, but I don't see how it would fit the event..

 

Thanks!

Edited May 2, 2022 by Han_the_Dragon

[ThunderJ6]

If you don't mind a late-ish entrant, I'd love to join and finally get Life is Strange: Before the Storm off my backlog after, what, five-or-so years of it staring me in the face on my XMB!

[Jens]

Sooo... we will try! This year there isn't such a thing as a guarantee for getting a game done in the time frame, but we'll give it a shot. We're currently playing Danganronpa 2 and it would be a decent fit, just like the whole series kind of fits.

[Starrk_01]

I'll participate in the event. I'm going to be doing Ikenfell for my game. Not sure what to do on the 2nd game; will need to think on it.

 

Also I'll match the donation of whatever @Beyondthegrave07 is donating.

 

[s68sc]

Ehm first game for this event is done and it took almost one month... but i'm happy at least, also this is my 100th platinum

i honestly feel bad for every single characters in this game but in particular Hope and Sazh,

Spoiler

 I found the Hope's mother death, heart breaking because is still a "child" with only one parent even if he has a father, the mother didn't deserve that death and it was only Snow fault, Hope is a shy guy that doesn't have a good relationship with his father. the only thing that really makes him happy was his mother... and they took her away from him, it remind me of my father it was almost dead in a incident and i was crying a lot in that period, i was lucky enough that he still alive but i spent almost 2 month without him and my mental health and self esteem was really degrading...

 

Sazh is father that saw the death of his child (kinda of) so i feel like that he was a completely useless human being, it didn't protect his child because of the bad things that Vanille and Fang did, they tecnically transformed Sazh's child into a Fal'cie...

 

Edited May 3, 2022 by s68sc

[Jeanolt]

Thank you for doing this again❤️ I made my account last year just to enter the event so I'll join!. I don't know exactly which game this time but it could be either Gris or This War of Mine, which I bought because of the war.

Edited May 3, 2022 by Jeanoltt

[MattbluePT]

Well, count me in again this year.

Nice to see the event returning and keep the awareness of this important matter!

[SP71Q]

On 30/04/2022 at 5:10 AM, Beyondthegrave07 said:

I'm down for this. Hope more people join!

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice & Life Is Strange: Before the Storm are my picks ?

Edited May 3, 2022 by SP71Q

[MAUSZX]

I don't know if I will participate since I don't know what games applied that I haven't played aside of Gris.

 

That said I have and advice for everyone.

Last day of june.

Lost ember 

Those games are super touching and there are some touches of some mental.health things specially grief.

 

 

 

[Beyondthegrave07]

I will submit my first game that I finished yesterday...

 

The Last of Us 2

Uncommon (28.75%)

 

This game is very story-heavy and unfortunately, I can't really talk about the mental health aspect of it without getting really spoilery so keep reading at your own risk.

 

Spoiler

Okay, brave few who decided to read on. The game really goes in two directions. Ellie's story and Abby's story. Ellie is one of the protagonists of the first game who's world gets flipped on its head when her father figure, Joel dies early in the game. He dies a really, really brutal and traumatic death that clearly affects Ellie through the game. You especially see it towards the end of the game when she is at her own farm and has a sudden panic attack and begins to scream and freak out almost out of nowhere. It's pretty clear that this was put in the game as a CLEAR indicator that she suffers from PTSD. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD is when someone has intense, disturbing flashbacks or nightmares around a traumatic event that happened in their life. This is usually only associated with military veterans, but this is very much something that can happen to anyone who goes through a traumatic experience, similar to Ellie. The interesting part in all of this is that Ellie's side is her story of her coping with Joel's death and getting over her depression and PTSD. One notable thing she does is play guitar to help through the game and the ending scene is her returning to the farm to play guitar one last time and reliving a pleasant memory of Joel to signify that she's finally through the grieving process and is starting to get over her PTSD.

 

Now, let's move on to Abby. She is the killer of Joel, and you end up playing as her for about half of the game. She plays an important part in this story being the reason why Ellie is going through all this grieving, depression, and PTSD. However, I'm no doctor, nor do I pretend to be one on TV, but Abby also shows some signs of PTSD as well through several nightmares she has through the game reliving her parents deaths (being killed by Joel in the first game) or seeing others she cares for (Lev and Yara) die in her dreams. I think this was 100% done on purpose to show parallels between Ellie and Abby and to mix up the player's definition of what's right or good (Ellie) and what is evil and bad (Abby). Abby also clearly feels the weight and guilt of killing Joel in my opinion which is why she let's Ellie and others live despite everything that happens in the story. I'm not exactly sure what the parallel is supposed to be in regards to Abby coping the loss of her parents (I think maybe hers was just a less severe case), but I think it will be interesting moving forward to see how her mental health is doing by the next game.

 

Anyways, that's all I really got. I think there's a lot to dive into in regards to all of the character's mental health living in a shitty apocalyptical world, but hey, this is enough for now.

 

Edited May 8, 2022 by Beyondthegrave07

[Jeanolt]

36 minutes ago, Beyondthegrave07 said:

I will submit my first game that I finished yesterday...

 

The Last of Us 2

Uncommon (28.75%)

 

This game is very story-heavy and unfortunately, I can't really talk about the mental health aspect of it without getting really spoilery so keep reading at your own risk.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Okay, brave few who decided to read on. The game really goes in two directions. Ellie's story and Abby's story. Ellie is one of the protagonists of the first character who's world gets flipped on its head when her father figure, Joel dies early in the game. He dies a really, really brutal and traumatic death that clearly affects Ellie through the game. You especially see it towards the end of the game when she is at her own farm and has a sudden panic attack and begins to scream and freak out almost out of nowhere. It's pretty clear that this was put in the game as a CLEAR indicator that she suffers from PTSD. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD is when someone has intense, disturbing flashbacks or nightmares around a traumatic event that happened in their life. This is usually only associated with military veterans, but this is very much something that can happen to anyone who goes through a traumatic experience, similar to Ellie. The interesting part in all of this is that Ellie's side is her story of her coping with Joel's death and getting over her depression and PTSD. One notable thing she does is play guitar to help through the game and the ending scene is her returning to the farm to play guitar one last time and reliving a pleasant memory of Joel to signify that she's finally through the grieving process and is starting to get over her PTSD.

 

Now, let's move on to Abby. She is the killer of Joel, and you end up playing as her for about half of the game. She plays an important part in this story being the reason why Ellie is going through all this grieving, depression, and PTSD. However, I'm no doctor, nor do I pretend to be one on TV, but Abby also shows some signs of PTSD as well through several nightmares she has through the game reliving her parents deaths (being killed by Joel in the first game) or seeing others she cares for (Lev and Yara) die in her dreams. I think this was 100% done on purpose to show parallels between Ellie and Abby and to mix up the player's definition of what's right or good (Ellie) and what is evil and bad (Abby). Abby also clearly feels the weight and guilt of killing Joel in my opinion which is why she let's Ellie and others live despite everything that happens in the story. I'm not exactly sure what the parallel is supposed to be in regards to Abby coping the loss of her parents (I think maybe hers was just a less severe case), but I think it will be interesting moving forward to see how her mental health is doing by the next game.

 

Anyways, that's all I really got. I think there's a lot to dive into in regards to all of the character's mental health living in a shitty apocalyptical world, but hey, this is enough for now.

 

Lovely game, there's hardly better options if you don't count indie games. I always loved this aspect of the game, the same in Part I with Sarah and Joel's special relationship.

[Violino]

Did it last year and enjoyed it, so I’m up for round 2 on this!

[Crispy_Oglop]

I got my games set up and ready to go for the event, took me a bit longer to figure some out than I thought but here we go:

1. Soma
2. Night in the Woods
3. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

I'll update for each one as I 100% them, looking forward to seeing everyone's thoughts and experiences with their games  

[Quixotesque]

 

I finished Bloodborne, and here goes my ideas on the mental subject, specially related to the idea of madness.

 

Spoiler

Bloodborne is a video game based on the imagery and themes of H.P. Lovecraft's literature. Therefore, I think it is appropriate to talk in broad strokes about his literature, what defines it at the level of thematic and formal elements, including its psychological relationship.
Lovecraft's main themes are the unknown, the obsession with knowledge, whether through science or religion, and the consequences of that knowledge, which usually leads to madness, being the foundational elements of a subgenre that Lovecraft himself helped to develop: cosmic horror. It consists, for the most part, of stories centered on individuals trying to rationally investigate anomalous phenomena or the possibility of the existence of beings beyond the earth. These types of stories begin with a rational scientific conjecture and, little by little, build an atmosphere close to reality, but which leaves the door open to the fantastic. In the end, rationality breaks down and gives way to the terrifying truth of how insignificant humanity is in the grand scheme of the universe. This idea alone can lead to madness.
Insanity is palpable in Bloodborne in the very mechanics of rationality, with Byrgenwerth's school being the representation of that lust for knowledge and how it drives its students to madness.
In short, in Lovecraft's own words "The true supernatural tale goes beyond psychological or atrocious stories. There must be an atmosphere of uneasiness and fear in the face of unknown and alien forces, based on the abolition of natural laws."

 

 

[GothGirlMaxine]

 

I actually finished this about a week ago but I wanted to take some time to reflect on the overall experience, especially as I had to stop playing the game a couple of months ago, but I'd still recommend it to people as a short but sweet adventure. (Spoilers below!)

 

Spoiler

Last Day Of June is a short but emotional experience that really makes you think about the events that can possibly lead to the event the game revolves around, being a car accident involving Carl & June. June passes away, and the story gives different scenarios as to how that event can be avoided. Based on that alone, the game revolves around death and loss of loved ones, as well as the mental and emotional issues that stem from occurrences like this. Losing loved ones is inevitable, but to lose someone in such a horrific way doesn't bear thinking about when put into a real life scenario. Furthermore, the game does present different choices from various people who can be involved in causing the accident. For example, a boy's football stumbling into the road and the car swerving to miss the ball. 

 

In short, Last Day Of June is one of the few games that has made me emotional, but it did so in a way that made me feel like it's a normal reaction. I had to take some time away from this game due to personal reasons but I'm glad I got round to finishing this little gem in the end. It's one of the few games that has impacted me, but considering especially that I bought this on sale at some point, it was certainly worth the money and time. 

 

[DrBloodmoney]

Hello Chaps and Chapelle's (is that right? no? never mind...)

 

Putting up my entry for the main event, with a game destined to be disparaged or ignored by a lot of more challenge-seeking / rarity-conscious trophy hunters (and won't be worth a huge amount, @Beyondthegrave07, as the rarity is "common as muck" ?), but one that I think has a lot of merit, and in some ways actually births a new genre of gaming!  

 

The Longest Road on Earth

 

Thought I'd stick up my game review from my Super Scientific Ranking thread first, and add a little at the end looking at the Mental Health aspects specifically ?

 

 

 

Game Review:

 

 

A genuine curiosity from Spanish developer Brainwash Gang, The Longest Road on Earth couples a series of shot vignettes of the daily lives of various lonely characters rendered in simplistic greyscale pixel-art, with a stultifyingly good alt/indie original soundtrack, to result in a game experience quite unlike virtually any I have previously come across.

 

The Longest Road on Earth is a short game, focussed on music primarily, but that's not to say there isn't emotional beats that get hit. Far from it in fact. While actual physical input to the game is shockingly minimal - pretty much exclusively walking from one thing to another or clicking to look at things - the player who engages with the game is likely to feel drained by the end. The tole taken here is not physical, but emotional, and I think it does a really great job exercising the player's heartstrings, even as their thumbs are taking it easy.
The characters in the game are anthropomorphised animals, but their emotions, lives and wistful loneliness are all too human. Loneliness is not a subject tackled too often in games, and so when it is tackled here - and so well - it cuts quite deeply.

 

The basic bones of the narrative are 4 short pastiches of life at different stages and the various ways loneliness can be experienced. These are loosely strung together via a wraparound container narrative of an old man (well, an old crocodile actually,) seemingly working in some kind of second hand store, who sparks the catalyst for each story by touching different items in the store.

Each vignette touches on loneliness in its own way. Whether it's the small country mouse, who's life is idyllic, yet she has no one to share her quiet moments with, the city rat who loves the piano, but is all but invisible in his day job, the bear who works and office job for a shipping company, and the pigeon who works the freighters, living parallel lives of quiet loneliness toiling for the same company, or the young moose, being cared for by his protective, but emotionally inattentive parents... each looks at how life can seemingly churn all around some people, yet never quite touch upon them in a meaningful way.

 

These vignettes are rendered in fairly simplistic pixel-art style, in shades of grey, though it's surprising how much of the tone of the game is worked through this simple art-style. The game is not going to win any graphical competition, but the sweet-yet-wistful tone actually benefits a fair bit from the lack of realistic graphics - plenty of detail is able to be discerned, and the developer does a lot with a limited tool set. That the game is in greyscale really helps the tone too - it's rare that I would argue for a greyscale colour palette being more effective, but here, I think the game would lose some of its impact in colour.

 

The music is really centre stage in The Longest Road on Earth. So much so, in fact, that I genuinely think the game is not getting enough credit for what it represents. Generally, the game seems to have a favourable critical response as an art-house-indie narrative game, but actually, I think what it does is more fundamental. 
Essentially, The Longest Road on Earth has created a new genre within gaming. 

 

We've had "Games as Games" obviously, and on the more emotive side of gaming, the past two decades have seen "Games as novels", (visual novels,) "Games as Choose-Your-Own-Adventure", (Telltale etc.,) "Games as Experiences" (Gone Home, Dear Esther etc,) and we've even had "Games as Meditation", (Everything, Proteusetc.) 
I don't think we've ever had "Game as Music Video," though... until now.
That is the feeling evoked here. 

 

Because the narrative is told in un-dialogued, text-free vignettes, and because all emotional context is implied, and shown via more rudimentary pixel-art on the anthropomorphic characters, the visuals tend to work as tone pieces more than anything. They convey little direct narrative, but evoke emotion very strongly - much like a music video will. 
The result flips the usual videogame dichotomy between audio and visual on its head - rather than the visual and interactive elements being the driving force, and the audio supporting them, here Beícoli's music is very much in the driver's seat, and the visual and minimal interactive elements work in service to that.

 

That is something quite unique in The Longest Road on Earth, and it works very well - simply because the music is so good. Make no mistake, more than virtually any other game, this one would fall apart if that were not true. 

That music - all by Beícoli, is beautiful, varied, emotive and incredibly powerful at times. 
Beícoli appears to identify exclusively as a videogame music creator - a part of Brainwash Gang, rather than an independent musical artist in her own right - which is somewhat baffling to me, considering the quality of the soundtrack can easily sit alongside the albums of Cat Power, Ex:Re, Lovers, Lanterns on the Lake etc. 
I personally paused The Longest Road on Earth after only a few songs to add the album to my Spotify rotation, and with each track that played after that, it only cemented my decision to to so!
I'm actually in something of a quandary in terms of recommendations actually - part of me wants to encourage readers to check out the album on Spotify, as I'm confident anyone who does so will want to play the game... 
...but I also think that experiencing the album as it appears in game, with the visuals associated is likely to be most impactful if the music is brand new to the player. 

 

Overall, The Longest Road on Earth is a peculiar experience, virtually unique in the gaming landscape. It's a game about a subject rarely broached, yet universally felt, and its medium is used in a very unusual way.

The game is short, and lacking any real replay value beyond re-experiencing the emotional journey and the excellent music, but as a singular experience, (and one best consumed in a single session,) it achieves its goals and then some.

Of course, with such a high reliance on its musical score, a lot of the game's impact will be contingent on musical taste, however, as someone who very much likes that strain of thoughtful, deep-dark, female-led alt/indie music, I can attest that Beícoli's soundtrack works brilliantly - both in and out of the game, and will be a staple of my Spotify rotation from here on out.

 

 

 

Mental Health Aspects:

 

So as said above, the primary focus in The Longest Road on Earth is loneliness - and I think it does a damned good job, not only in showing it manifesting and affecting the characters in different ways, but also in normalising it, and simultaneously telling the player that feeling lonely or unseen is not only common, but that feeling sad about it isn't wrong.

 

Because all 5 characters in the game experience there own version of loneliness, it's highly unlikely that any player will not be able to personally identify with at least one of them.

Whether it's the the small country mouse, lonely because there's no-one living her life with her, the city rat who is all alone among the bustle of the city, the bear or the pigeon who both work for the same company without thanks or recognition, or maybe the young moose, who is always protected but never engaged with by his pleasant but distant parents.

 

More than that though, by having each vignette story be in the same style, and with the same (amazing) soundtrack by Beícoli, what the game does, is tell the player both "It's okay to feel lonely," and "see how others might be lonely too."

The message is one of solidarity in a way, as it shows that you might feel all alone at times, and look around and feel like you are the only one not swept up in the raucousness of the life you see around you - but all those other people have their own issues, and while thier experience might not be the same, they might be feeling just as disconnected or unwanted or unseen as you.

 

To me, that feels like a call for empathy and understanding - to recognise that people don't have to be alone to feel lonely - and that others are going through some of the same down feelings you have, even if their lives might seem totally different on the surface.

 

 

Perhaps not specifically addressing a mental illness per-se, however, I think the game does a great job of addressing an issue that is a huge element of Mental Wellness - and that can only be a good thing!

 

 

I'll leave with this lyric from the chorus from "The Human" - one of my favourite songs from the soundtrack:

 

 

"What if I am scared?

I'm just Human"

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 11, 2022 by DrBloodmoney

[Beyondthegrave07]

53 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Hello Chaps and Chapelle's (is that right? no? never mind...)

 

Putting up my entry for the main event, with a game destined to be disparaged or ignored by a lot of more challenge-seeking / rarity-conscious trophy hunters (and won't be worth a huge amount, @Beyondthegrave07, as the rarity is "common as muck" ), but one that I think has a lot of merit, and in some ways actually births a new genre of gaming!  

 

The Longest Road on Earth

 

Thought I'd stick up my game review from my Super Scientific Ranking thread first, and add a little at the end looking at the Mental Health aspects specifically 

 

 

 

Game Review:

 

 

A genuine curiosity from Spanish developer Brainwash Gang, The Longest Road on Earth couples a series of shot vignettes of the daily lives of various lonely characters rendered in simplistic greyscale pixel-art, with a stultifyingly good alt/indie original soundtrack, to result in a game experience quite unlike virtually any I have previously come across.

 

The Longest Road on Earth is a short game, focussed on music primarily, but that's not to say there isn't emotional beats that get hit. Far from it in fact. While actual physical input to the game is shockingly minimal - pretty much exclusively walking from one thing to another or clicking to look at things - the player who engages with the game is likely to feel drained by the end. The tole taken here is not physical, but emotional, and I think it does a really great job exercising the player's heartstrings, even as their thumbs are taking it easy.
The characters in the game are anthropomorphised animals, but their emotions, lives and wistful loneliness are all too human. Loneliness is not a subject tackled too often in games, and so when it is tackled here - and so well - it cuts quite deeply.

 

The basic bones of the narrative are 4 short pastiches of life at different stages and the various ways loneliness can be experienced. These are loosely strung together via a wraparound container narrative of an old man (well, an old crocodile actually,) seemingly working in some kind of second hand store, who sparks the catalyst for each story by touching different items in the store.

Each vignette touches on loneliness in its own way. Whether it's the small country mouse, who's life is idyllic, yet she has no one to share her quiet moments with, the city rat who loves the piano, but is all but invisible in his day job, the bear who works and office job for a shipping company, and the pigeon who works the freighters, living parallel lives of quiet loneliness toiling for the same company, or the young moose, being cared for by his protective, but emotionally inattentive parents... each looks at how life can seemingly churn all around some people, yet never quite touch upon them in a meaningful way.

 

These vignettes are rendered in fairly simplistic pixel-art style, in shades of grey, though it's surprising how much of the tone of the game is worked through this simple art-style. The game is not going to win any graphical competition, but the sweet-yet-wistful tone actually benefits a fair bit from the lack of realistic graphics - plenty of detail is able to be discerned, and the developer does a lot with a limited tool set. That the game is in greyscale really helps the tone too - it's rare that I would argue for a greyscale colour palette being more effective, but here, I think the game would lose some of its impact in colour.

 

The music is really centre stage in The Longest Road on Earth. So much so, in fact, that I genuinely think the game is not getting enough credit for what it represents. Generally, the game seems to have a favourable critical response as an art-house-indie narrative game, but actually, I think what it does is more fundamental. 
Essentially, The Longest Road on Earth has created a new genre within gaming. 

 

We've had "Games as Games" obviously, and on the more emotive side of gaming, the past two decades have seen "Games as novels", (visual novels,) "Games as Choose-Your-Own-Adventure", (Telltale etc.,) "Games as Experiences" (Gone Home, Dear Esther etc,) and we've even had "Games as Meditation", (Everything, Proteusetc.) 
I don't think we've ever had "Game as Music Video," though... until now.
That is the feeling evoked here. 

 

Because the narrative is told in un-dialogued, text-free vignettes, and because all emotional context is implied, and shown via more rudimentary pixel-art on the anthropomorphic characters, the visuals tend to work as tone pieces more than anything. They convey little direct narrative, but evoke emotion very strongly - much like a music video will. 
The result flips the usual videogame dichotomy between audio and visual on its head - rather than the visual and interactive elements being the driving force, and the audio supporting them, here Beícoli's music is very much in the driver's seat, and the visual and minimal interactive elements work in service to that.

 

That is something quite unique in The Longest Road on Earth, and it works very well - simply because the music is so good. Make no mistake, more than virtually any other game, this one would fall apart if that were not true. 

That music - all by Beícoli, is beautiful, varied, emotive and incredibly powerful at times. 
Beícoli appears to identify exclusively as a videogame music creator - a part of Brainwash Gang, rather than an independent musical artist in her own right - which is somewhat baffling to me, considering the quality of the soundtrack can easily sit alongside the albums of Cat Power, Ex:Re, Lovers, Lanterns on the Lake etc. 
I personally paused The Longest Road on Earth after only a few songs to add the album to my Spotify rotation, and with each track that played after that, it only cemented my decision to to so!
I'm actually in something of a quandary in terms of recommendations actually - part of me wants to encourage readers to check out the album on Spotify, as I'm confident anyone who does so will want to play the game... 
...but I also think that experiencing the album as it appears in game, with the visuals associated is likely to be most impactful if the music is brand new to the player. 

 

Overall, The Longest Road on Earth is a peculiar experience, virtually unique in the gaming landscape. It's a game about a subject rarely broached, yet universally felt, and its medium is used in a very unusual way.

The game is short, and lacking any real replay value beyond re-experiencing the emotional journey and the excellent music, but as a singular experience, (and one best consumed in a single session,) it achieves its goals and then some.

Of course, with such a high reliance on its musical score, a lot of the game's impact will be contingent on musical taste, however, as someone who very much likes that strain of thoughtful, deep-dark, female-led alt/indie music, I can attest that Beícoli's soundtrack works brilliantly - both in and out of the game, and will be a staple of my Spotify rotation from here on out.

 

 

 

Mental Health Aspects:

 

So as said above, the primary focus in The Longest Road on Earth is loneliness - and I think it does a damned good job, not only in showing it manifesting and affecting the characters in different ways, but also in normalising it, and simultaneously telling the player that feeling lonely or unseen is not only common, but that feeling sad about it isn't wrong.

 

Because all 5 characters in the game experience there own version of loneliness, it's highly unlikely that any player will not be able to personally identify with at least one of them.

Whether it's the the small country mouse, lonely because there's no-one living her life with her, the city rat who is all alone among the bustle of the city, the bear or the pigeon who both work for the same company without thanks or recognition, or maybe the young moose, who is always protected but never engaged with by his pleasant but distant parents.

 

More than that though, by having each vignette story be in the same style, and with the same (amazing) soundtrack by Beícoli, what the game does, is tell the player both "It's okay to feel lonely," and "see how others might be lonely too."

The message is one of solidarity in a way, as it shows that you might feel all alone at times, and look around and feel like you are the only one not swept up in the raucousness of the life you see around you - but all those other people have their own issues, and while thier experience might not be the same, they might be feeling just as disconnected or unwanted or unseen as you.

 

To me, that feels like a call for empathy and understanding - to recognise that people don't have to be alone to feel lonely - and that others are going through some of the same down feelings you have, even if their lives might seem totally different on the surface.

 

 

Perhaps not specifically addressing a mental illness per-se, however, I think the game does a great job of addressing an issue that is a huge element of Mental Wellness - and that can only be a good thing!

 

 

I'll leave with this lyric from the chorus from "The Human" - one of my favourite songs from the soundtrack:

 

 

"What if I am scared?

I'm just Human"

 

 

 

 

 

Still worth $2.14 and you can always redeem yourself with the bonus game. I take the higher donation amount between the two games played so if you play a 50% next, I'll donate $3 instead.

 

Btw, I DID find someone willing to create badges. Big thank you to @ixxiion for volunteering. We are scheming up some good idea for badges!

[DrBloodmoney]

3 minutes ago, Beyondthegrave07 said:

Still worth $2.14 and you can always redeem yourself with the bonus game. I take the higher donation amount between the two games played so if you play a 50% next, I'll donate $3 instead.

 

Nice - I'm having trouble finding one for that (it's a pretty specific premise)... but I'm not done trying yet! ?

[Sylvanticore]

For this event I went with a game I had only played a few times but during the time I had playing it before I came to realise that the main character suffered with Anxiety, Depression and Panic Attacks which you see a few times within the game itself and as I look at the cover art I can see one of the reasons for her panic attacks.

 

 

Spoiler

The game is a difficult platformer that has you played as Madeline, a woman who has decided to climb to the top of Mount Celeste, as soon as the first cutscene you can see that she is having mixed thoughts about actually climbing as she nervous about even starting the journey. Along the way she runs into a few different characters, an old woman who she thinks is crazy as well as Theo, a man who wants to climb the mountain to get more followers with his pictures.

 

Madeline's mental health issues start to affect her during her journey up the mountain as a much darker form of Madeline known as Badaline begins to follow her, trying to get her to turn around and forget about the whole thing, causes trouble for her a number of times and at one stage will outright attack her because Madeline is trying to get rid of her. Being a sufferer of mental health issues I started to think about these things during my time playing and watching the interactions between them and realsiing to myself that yeah... if all the negative thoughts I had turned into an actual person... they would be a jerk like that too me! It's sometimes very hard to pick yourself up when have kicked yourself far enough to the floor.

 

Madeline questions herself at times during the game and suffers from panic attacks in the game, seeing the effects they uses to show this in game felt haunting as I feel they captured this perfectly, last time I had one I felt the exact same way, lucky for her Theo is with her and helps her though it. I don't want to spoil the game much but late in the game when Madeline feels like she has completely failed she is actual to work with her darker side and though she is still concerned she is able to make her journey.

 

[Beyondthegrave07]

25 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

Nice - I'm having trouble finding one for that (it's a pretty specific premise)... but I'm not done trying yet! 

I could list a few more games in the OP if you think it'll help the wheels start turning. I think there's plenty of games that can fit, but the requirement pretty much eliminates a lot of themes (mythology, dungeon and dragons, games with very little narrative) and genres (puzzlers, classics/retro, arcade, fighting, etc). 

 

I wanted to make it a little more difficult this year as last year was probably too easy. 

Edited May 11, 2022 by Beyondthegrave07

[DrBloodmoney]

2 minutes ago, Beyondthegrave07 said:

I could list a few more games in the OP if you think it'll help the wheels start turning. I think there's plenty of games that can fit, but the requirement pretty much eliminates a lot of themes (mythology, dungeon and dragons, games with very little narrative) and genres (puzzlers, classics/retro, arcade, fighting, etc). 

 

I wanted to make it a little more difficult this year as last year was probably too easy. 

 

You know - I re-read the first post, and I think I misunderstood - I was trying to think of games that involved mass communication, and had a mental health element to it - but now I read it as the bonus badge is for just a game with mass communication media as a plot point / theme... ?

[TheBlaskar]

i often wonder what life would be like for those around me if I was gone so i just made a psychiatric appointment to help with my troubles. plus, my anxiety is so bad it gives me migraines that send me to the hospital, and I can't sleep for shit. idk maybe it's Dark Souls' fault. probably dark souls 2's fault haha. happy to see people bringing awareness to all of this and gaming in it's honor. best of luck and wishes to all participating

[Beyondthegrave07]

20 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

You know - I re-read the first post, and I think I misunderstood - I was trying to think of games that involved mass communication, and had a mental health element to it - but now I read it as the bonus badge is for just a game with mass communication media as a plot point / theme... 

Yeah, I mean, I'd even accept answers like, Spiderman, Danganronpa, Catherine, Destroy all humans, BioShock Infinite, and I even think you could make a very good argument for something like Hotline Miami or Hotline Miami 2, Undertale, Untitled Goose game (trophy for being on TV), or Burnout Paradise (radio DJ).

 

There's a lot of options out there... It's just hard to know if a game works until you play it and can identify it.

[Sylvanticore]

15 minutes ago, Beyondthegrave07 said:

Destroy all humans

 

Wait really? That's awesome! I was just looking through what games I have on my account and I saw that and thought I wonder if that could be done but wasn't sure. I just got done doing Celeste for my mental health game (posted already earlier today) and now I know that I'll get started right away

[Alantor32]

Gotta say, as someone who has autism, I don’t know if I have any games for mental health, but I am glad I found this thread.