Trophies for Mental Health III

[Sylvanticore]

I'll sign myself up for this event again, no idea what I'll do for the event just yet but I'll look through my list of games

 

Edit:

 

I've been looking through my games and honestly was beginning to wonder if I'll even find anything! So I looked through a couple of posts from the last two years and have come up with some ideas of what I may try and do this year.

 

Alan Wake Remastered: Alan Wake himself suffers from depression and insomina thanks to his writers block causing him to lash out at people, even his own wife before she disappears. I don't remember the story that well but once I've played it again I'm sure I'll have more things to say.

 

Bugsnax: While the game does look like a colourful and fluffy game full of collecting bugs to eat it has a lot of characters who deal with mental health issues, Filbo for example is one character who tries his best but never feels like he is good enough and during the story you see Eggabell being able to get out of bed some times because he feels useless and unable to help, a clear sign of depression....I should know.

 

Cyberpunk 2077: Okay here me out on this one okay?

Spoiler

Not long into the game your best friend dies in your arms taking it's toll on V but also you find out that V is also infected thanks to the Biochip he/she implanted in themselves, this chip is killing them and during scenes in the game you can tell in V's voice that they are losing the will to fight and just want to give up. One of the endings even includes V sitting on a rooftop with a gun in their hand before ending their life. There is also the fact that cyberpsychosis is a form of mental illness.

 

Final Fantasy 7: If you know of FF7 then you already know the reasons, many of the characters suffer from some state of mental illness, Cloud, Vincent and others, this game has a lot of mental issue tones.

 

With that out of the way I got thinking about the 2nd part of this event, I have a few ideas.

 

Cult of the Lamb: Planting crops and harvesting, feeding your followers, fishing at the docks.

Monster Hunter World: Harvesting, Fishing, Mining.

Far Cry 3: Gathering, Driving, Swimming, Flying

 

just a few items!

 

Edited April 25, 2023 by Sylvanticore

[Beyondthegrave07]

43 minutes ago, kindajustin said:

I apologize for not including recommendations in my first post, but it was late last night and I honestly can't really think of too many games that would be good examples off my trophy list. I'll throw down some that might apply though.

The MISSING: JJ Macfield and the Island of Memories: Explaining in detail how this game tackles mental health issues would at least partially spoil the ending so I don't want to do that. But it's a pretty easy platformer adventure game with an excellent story. It's a short game that can probably be completed in a day or two if you're quick, but is ultimately not really worth it's full asking price. If you see it on sale or have PS+ extra, it's a great game to play, especially for an event like this.

 

It Takes Two: The main characters have a child who blames herself for her parents' divorce, which highlights what kind of mental struggles kids go through when parents separate. But it's not really deeply explored or a main part of the game or anything. Game can only be played in co-op, just a heads up to people.

 

Atelier Ryza 1: One of the main characters has an alcoholic, abusive father who is regularly causing minor trouble around town which bears both emotional and physical consequences for his son. But again, I'm not sure if the relativity minor presence of these issues makes it a good choice for this event.

 

Other than that, other people have already made a lot of good recommendations that I might have mentioned. That's all I got.

No problem at all!

 

I've really been impressed with the lists so far, and really enjoyed seeing people go the extra mile to explain why it's a good choice so a BIG THANK YOU to anyone who has recommended games. 

 

Personally, my hopes were that it'll bring a little more participation this year and make the event more approachable. Can't tell if it has really made much of a difference or not so far, but at least everyone seems to be enjoying recommending games.

[GT__Jedi]

As usual, count me in to this fantastic event!  I plan on playing and finishing Shady Part of Me as one of my games for the event.

 

As far as selecting games from my profile for others to consider, I suggest:

 

Shady Part of Me

Chicory

Last Day of June

Heavy Rain

Limbo

Inside

 

[Beyondthegrave07]

OP should be updated for all participants as of now.

[Taruta13]

As someone who is suffering through mental illness(I have been diagnosed with ADHD and am autistic), I can relate to this event, but as much as I would love to participate, I don't know what sort of game I could do... I guess Ni No Kuni if that fits. I dropped it out of Spring Backlog 2023. What about Hogwarts Legacy? I'm sure there are several characters there who have mental issues... *shrug* Just throwing stuff out, I'm recovering from a head cold and still not 100% and am busy rushing to get the last trophy on Disgaea 4 Complete+. ?

[willythom88]

I'd love to do this.

 

So recommendations, I'd say:

 

Gravity Ghost 

Lost Words: Beyond the Pages 

What Remains of Edith Finch

 

My game for the month will be either Limbo or Spiritfarer.

[MissShake]

I'm in! I'll be back to edit this post with some recommendations, I plan on being extra and writing a lot about the choices I pick

 

1) The Caligula Effect 2: This game is literally all about struggles with mental health. Every main character has their own struggles with their mental health, and it's what leads them to the events of the game. There are too many examples to list here, and many of them are spoilers, but I promise that it's a great choice for an event like this! I personally don't recommend the first game for this particular event because I would say that while it does have some characters with mental health struggles that it handled well, it also has some incredibly mean spirited jokes about characters with mental health problems.

 

2) Life is Strange True Colors: The main character Alex can feel the emotions of others, and this allows her to see into their psyche. Many of the characters the player interacts with, including Alex, are struggling with grief/depression in particular. I would say this is the most underrated Life is Strange game too, so I give it a heavy recommend for this event.

 

3) Arcade Spirits The New Challengers: A good chunk of the love interests for this game have their own mental health struggles, but I particularly remember Domino having a particularly tough mental state that gets explored rather respectfully. This one comes with a trigger warning though:

Spoiler

there is one scene that revolves around an attempted suicide, so this game might not be for you if that's a struggle you are currently dealing with.

 

4) Oxenfree: Another game with an excellent look into loss and how it affects others, plus I remember someone having social anxiety issues. (I don't remember exactly who though, I played this like five years ago.)

 

5) Boyfriend Dungeon: I recently replayed this, and I'd say it's a near perfect fit for this event. The player character has social anxiety problems, and your main villain does as well. What makes this one particularly interesting is how they compare and contrast how the different methods of dealing with others change the way others see them. That's not even including the large group of romanceable characters that have their own personal issues that could fit into this event!

 

I also just started I Was A Teenage Exocolonist, and I'm getting the vibe that it may fit for this event, but since I'm still not that far in I won't recommend it quite yet!

Okay so I wrote way less than I expected to, but there lol

Edited April 25, 2023 by MissShake

[reaperveteran86]

I would like to join.

My games would be Sea of Solitude and/or Fuga: Melodies of Steel.

Sea  of Solitude: I never played it before, but from the title I would think that it is about loneliness/isolation and I saw it as a  recomendation in another post.

Fuga: Melodies of Steel: I played the Demo.

Spoiler

It`s about a group of children in a WW2 like scenario that gets on board of a tank with a super weapon. This super weapon is powered through souls and in order to function one of the kids must sacrifice itself which leafs the other kids in a shock that let the enemy kill them. Then the time rewinds just before the sacrifice and you get the chance to defeat the enemy with or without the super weapon (and the consequences for using it).

The game has a status/moral system and from what I read they can get depressed and  fearful which lowers their function in battle.

Recommendations:

- Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth: The reason would be a bit of a spoiler, therefore I can only say, that the game`s story plays after the anime and that Deedlit is in a somewhat similar position as the titular heroine in the manga Frieren.

- Blair Witch: The protagonist has PTSD and it isn`t clear, how much of the things he sees are real or hallucinations.

- Bear With Me: Again a (massive) spoiler, but in this one the trophy list is odd (the DLC is the main list with the platinum and the main game unlocks only DLC trophies).

- Tokyo Dark: Remembrance: A VN about a female detective, that tries to close the case of her murdered partner. Decisions that the player make affect her mental state.

- Maitetsu: Pure Station: The protagonist has a childhood trauma, because he lost his entire family through a train crash (which may or may not had something to do with the main heroine - I only have played through the main route at the moment so I`m not entirely sure).

- The First Tree: The Developer used this game to cope withh the death of his father.

 

[Violino]

I've done the past two 'Trophies for Mental Health' challenges and I think it would be rude to not complete the trilogy so count me in again.

 

This year I plan on doing The Last of Us Part 1 and for the bonus one, thinking of Life is Strange Remastered as you have photography (photography is used as the collectibles to be fair but it is optional and an extra activity outside) or Cyberpunk 2077 since there are occasions that involve swimming (might be a stretch but worth seeing if it counts lol).

 

As for recommendations,

• Any Life is Strange
• Rainswept
• Concrete Genie
• They may not count but I feel like either one of the Gravity Rush games might work.

[Beyondthegrave07]

1 hour ago, Violino said:

They may not count but I feel like either one of the Gravity Rush games might work.

I think it would have to be well-explained to work, but I wouldn't discount them completely for the event as they probably do.

 

I haven't played GR2, but I played GR1 and can't think of anything blatantly obvious off the top of my head other than maybe the abandoned children that live isolated from the city, but it's been a long time since I played it. It may be a better pick than I think.

[Starrk_01]

I'll be joining and matching the donation that @Beyondthegrave07 is making. I already have my mental health game in mind (Death Stranding) but still need to figure out the bonus game. I guess I could do Yakuza 5 but I'm nowhere close to getting the plat for that game.

 

Here are some games that might work for the mental health game (including the couple I've done in past events). Also sorry for repeats:

 

TINY TINA'S ASSAULT ON DRAGON KEEP: A WONDERLANDS ONE-SHOT ADVENTURE

Ikenfell

Concrete Genie

Last of Us

Celeste

Gris

[DrBloodmoney]

Think I've decided that I'll be playing this for the event:

 

Season: Letter to the Future

 

 

Not sure yet if it will feel applicable for the main event once I get into it... but at the very least, it will certainly work for the bonus badge!

[Beyondthegrave07]

I will likely finish 13 Sentinels and Tales of Arise in May so those 2 games should work for either.

 

However, I might try to find something more rare for one of them so we can increase the donation pool a little. Unfortunately though, May looks like it's going to be a busy month for me so I may not get the opportunity to finish something else.

[GT__Jedi]

Hopefully I won't have to do Tractor or Lawnmower simulator for my outdoor activity....

[MattPieti]

I'm not interested in participating myself, but for anyone who is, I strongly recommend Omori. In fact, I would actually suggest playing it without the guide and just watching out for the following:

Spoiler

 

Two missable bosses:

1. In the prologue after climbing a large ladder, explore the space town until you find an optional boss before continuing the story.
2. When you arrive at Sprout Mole Village, save. There's a way to instantly defeat an optional boss without fighting it. It'll be pretty obvious if it happens, so if it does, just load your save and don't do what you did.

Saving for multiple endings:

 

Every time you wake up as Sunny (or whatever you name him), excluding the very first time where you give him a name, you can make a separate save. If you really want to watch out for missables, you can check the guide for a list of tasks to do on the Sunny route. But honestly, I'd still recommend just playing through it blind and speedrunning a cleanup playthrough with the guide when you're done.

 

It's a great game with a great soundtrack and it's probably the best job I've ever seen a fictional story do of tackling mental health issues.

[Taruta13]

While this is not a release title, Mega Man Star Force 1 would be a great game for this event as the main character deals with depression. I saw a video saying that they should make Star Force the next Mega Man legacy collection.

Edited April 30, 2023 by Taruta13

[Jeanolt]

Thanks everyone for the recommendations! Even if you join late, don't forget to recommend new games, so those that are in the fence can discover something new to join. It doesn't matter if it was mentioned before, as Grave said your recommendations will be taken into account to make the badges.

 

@Darling Baphomet I understand you point, and I always agree with you. But I feel this is no place for that. Grave is running the only event that contributes to society and the people that spend their time talking negatively in the site, as you can see, aren't participating.

Even those that haven't suffered of any mental health condition, have probably seen someone close suffering. It's ok for them to participate even if they aren't part of our "little club" that takes pills daily lol, let's just take it easy : )

Edited April 30, 2023 by Jeanoltt

[Briste]

I just wanted to mention an excellent bonus badge game would be Walden, a game. The game is about Henry David Thoreau spending a year living in the wilderness. It's relatively short and does have a couple buggy trophies, but there's an excellent guide on the site and seems like it was made for the bonus theme.

[Taruta13]

On 4/24/2023 at 2:59 AM, Darling Baphomet said:

Honestly, as someone who struggled with mental health issues for a significant part of her life, "mental health awareness" is borderline offensive. It usually ends up consisting of a bunch of neurotypicals circlejerking about how sympathetic they are to the poor mentally ills without ever actually consulting people with mental health issues. Ironically, little to no effort is put into actually uplifting the voices of people who have actually dealt with mental health issues. We are treated as objects and or problems even during a month supposedly dedicated to us. The last two years, I didn't bother saying anything, but given recent events and the atrocious state of this forum this one feels particularly bitter.

 

Look, I understand how you feel. I have mental health issues that make me unemployable and unwilling to get a job. (Social Security pays me handsomely every month if I do not work a job, so the best thing I can do is stream for Patreon, and I am terribly shy and hate my voice so even with a good mic and face cam I can't stream even if everyone loves me, even more so as I would get peer pressured into being a content creator, and I feel inferior to everyone, so I don't risk streaming, so I'm living paycheck to paycheck, which is not a great way to live. Also, I have never even kissed a girl because every girl I tried to hit on had a boyfriend so I gave up on romance and sex at the age of 28. )

 

But the problem is that people who have mental issues refuse to treat them because they won't admit they are sick in the head and get help, meaning they fall into worse and worse issues. I think the only reason I am not in an insane ward now is because my family has a history of medical professionalism(with my mom having worked in a hospital early in my life and my sister becoming a nurse) so they know what's up. I've been through a group home and several psych programs and now, while my current lifestyle is not ideal for a normal person, it's comfy for me and I've learned to live with my mental issues rather than fight them.

 

The more serious cases, however, are treated as monsters because their actions do not help them. When I lived in a group home, there was this one guy who was so badly messed up that he targeted me and became screaming bloody murder when I was around, and I actually pulled a knife on him! I didn't hurt him, I just brandished a chef's knife in self-defense, think he was going to lunge like a wild lion, but I scared him and the matrons were mad at me. I do understand his brain is wired funny but it is very difficult to convince me that he wasn't going to sink his teeth into my neck with rage the way he acted.

 

I know that this post is going to get me in trouble and start a flame war, but I had to get this off my chest. I understand that we shouldn't treat mental health issues as pariahs, but it's very hard NOT to do so, especially with some of the people who act so sporadically it's like they are those animatronics in Five Nights at Freddy's.

[Beyondthegrave07]

Event has begun btw.

 

Late sign ups are fine. Please just post before completing your game and be sure to read the OP on the requirements. 

[Breakingthegreen]

Since I've got no arguable games on the go at the moment, I'll be using previous badge alumni, Gris which will actually be by first go through the game, hope it's as good as people have said. 

 

For the bonus, hopefully I'll just pick that up along the way.

[Cassylvania]

Classic me played a Life is Strange game...and platinumed it on April 30. Back to square one, I guess.

 

Pretty sure I did the same thing last year.

[Beyondthegrave07]

Btw, with such low participation this year, I will donate money for both games completed. Not just the more rare one.

 

If people just suddenly flood the thread and join, I will stay with the commitment. 

[Sylvanticore]

So I need to ask people's opinion about a game I was thinking of using, recently I picked up Dredge and have been enjoying the game but it has a lot of creepy tones due to the nature of the game, some characters are suffering from grief because of the death of a loved ones who ask you to find an item of theirs so that they can move on be at peace with their passing. The game also has a mechanic where if you go out at night to fish your mental state becomes more deteriorated caused things that shouldn't be there to become visable, eyes appearing on your screen and being attacked by monsters a lot more.

 

However one major reason I ask is also because of this, WARNING SPOILER INCOMING, DO NOT READ UNLESS WANT TO BE SPOILED.

 

Spoiler

During the game you will find notes written by your character's wife set before the game at first they started off with her sounding happy that they were to be married as well as how their honeymoon was going, however a few notes in they start to become less positive with her stating in one that she feels she is becoming overly needy since he doesn't take her with him when he works on the boat but still retains some positivity.

 

The notes then talk about the crew of the ship making a discovery of a casket, after it was opened and her husband looked into it she claimed that when he looked back at her she could see the void in his eyes. Till this point all of the messages had been given dates of when they had been written but the last two notes were not and seem to act like it's been years since she had last seen her husband but still writes in hope he would reply to her. The last note seems to before her before she she threw herself into the ocean, the note reading:

 

My Darling,

I have found you at last.

When you left I was scattered to the winds. But now... I feel almost whole again.

There is just one thing left to do.

Throw me back.

 

Here is a link to all the notes in game Dredge notes

 

Up next is basically the plot of the game AND the endings so really MASSIVE SPOILERS (from Wikipedia)

 

Spoiler

This is basically from Wikipedia.

 

A Fisherman sails to the coastal town of Greater Marrow, situated in a distant archipelago, to take up a job offer to be the town's local angler. While the job is normal enough, the Fisherman soon begins to notice strange phenomena, especially at night where he encounters strange mist, rocks that suddenly appear out of nowhere, ghost ships, hostile wildlife, sea monsters, and the feeling of being watched. In addition, as he sails around the archipelago, he begins to find and pick up messages in bottles, which are diary entries written by a newlywed wife known only as J.J. as she recounts how she first arrived in the archipelago with her husband, who she witnessed dredging up a mysterious casket from the sea floor, which he subsequently opened and released some sort of supernatural power. After awakening a creature in the depths, it destroyed their boat, killing his wife, and stranding himself and the old mayor on a small island.

The Fisherman then encounters a man called the Collector, who lives alone on an isolated island mansion. The Collector tasks the Fisherman with exploring the other islands of the archipelago and the ancient ruins they hide to recover a number of relics. The Collector also uses a special book called the Book of the Deep to grant the Fisherman supernatural powers that he can use on his expeditions. Once the Fisherman collects all of the relics, he can either choose to hand them over to the Collector or withhold them.

• If the Fisherman hands over the relics, the Collector reveals that he is J.J.'s husband, who recovered the Book of the Deep from the casket and discovered a ritual that could resurrect J.J. He had the Fisherman gather the relics, all personal items of J.J.'s, because they are required for the ritual. The Fisherman takes the Collector to the part of the ocean where J.J. had drowned herself, and performs the ritual by throwing the collected relics overboard. The ritual successfully resurrects J.J., but also awakens a massive eldritch beast which destroys Greater Marrow and presumably the rest of the world.
• If the Fisherman withholds the relics, he confronts the Collector and finds out to his shock that the Collector is a figment of his own imagination, being an avatar of his own repressed memories and guilt over J.J.'s death. Rather than follow the Collector's bidding, the Fisherman heads out to sea and throws the Book of the Deep into the ocean, resulting in him and his boat being swallowed by a massive sea monster.

 

(Hello! I'm back)

With this it shows that your own character is suffering with the guilty of his wife's death and wants to set things right with the Good ending since with throwing the book into the ocean it clears the fog around the islands and (hopefully) puts an end to all the weird shit going on in the sea!

 

 

I would like people's opinions about it and if it's a straight up HELL NO! that is fine, I was playing it anyway so will be finished with or without being used for the event!

[DatZoolander]

On 4/24/2023 at 0:59 AM, Darling Baphomet said:

It's a bit ironic to see a moderator on a forum notorious for its refusal to do anything about rampant bigotry host an event for mental health.

Seriously, get over yourself.  Many of us have friends or family that have struggled with mental health issues, and you preaching your views in a game forum is shallow and pathetic.  There are members here that use gaming or the forums to reconnect with people and society, and I applaud @Beyondthegrave07for hosting an event that educates and brings this problem to our attention. Do I donate to charities such as this?  Yes, but I don't feel the need to post that or pat myself on the back.

 

I am definitely interested in joining the event, and will be playing Last Day in June which deals with loss and perception.

 

As far as suggesting games from my backlog, that would be:

 

Oxenfree: Surrealism and loss

Inside: Terror and confinement

Here They Lie: Psychological Limits

Journey: Death, loss, rebirth