Videogames that portray mental illness

I’ve occasionally seen threads about this and wanted to contribute my own. The game Fran Bow (it’s an indie point and click game-warning it is horror genre and for me personally was highly triggering just because of its relevance to my symptoms) to me just so intensely captured a lot of my experiences with mental illness. Not exactly in the physical portrayal of it (the character-a child- has very vivid visual hallucinations) but in the emotions attached and the nature of the evil side of her psychosis that torments her. I feel like I’ve never found a game or movie that so strongly portrayed the feeling of despair and helplessness that can come when you’re being constantly tormented by things that the world tells you isn’t real. Furthermore the game does a great job of blurring reality so much (ie constantly giving evidence that the whole experience is psychosis while also giving evidence that it may not be) that even the player can’t tell what is true and what isn’t and I think that was a good portrayal of how people with psychosis feel too.

It was a very good game in my opinion. It also delves a little bit into the history of mental illness treatment. I won’t go into it much to avoid spoiling.

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What did you play it on? I’d like to check it out!
It’d be nice to have a game (especially a horror game) that doesn’t portray mentally ill people as the monsters.

I’ve been wanting to play a game called Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. Seems badass and it’s about mental illness, she suffers from psychosis apparently.

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In fallout stealth boys give super mutants schizophrenia. The first bioshock has schizophrenic and psychopathic elements. Life is Strange doesn’t deal with it but its just fun. Im trying to think of other things with schizophrenic elements to it.

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In a part of the game Psychonauts you have to enter in the head of four people in an Asylum.
One is a paranoid schizophrenic, another one is bipolar, one thinks he is Napoleon and the last one had a big trauma.

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Now i want hellblade. Never heard of it till now

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Didn’t even think about bioshock. It’s literally my favorite game series ever. Even like it more then the skyrim series. I would recommend it to anyone.

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Yea everyone is either grandiose or completely psychotic in the first one. Remember Sander Cohen?

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I just saw the trailer and it looks sweet. Watched some YouTube videos of gameplay and it looks sooo amazing. Kinda looks like the girl from Horizon zero dawn but also influence from other games. I can’t wait to try it out.

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I was reading an article about hellblade and the way they convey the illness seems so cool.

Voices float in and out of the player’s speakers. They fill in the backstory, warn the player of danger, and give contradictory advice on what to do next.

During a melee brawl, one voice might tell you to dodge and another might tell you to block. They can warn you of impending danger only to turn, frightened, and see nothing.

But they’re still right half the time so you don’t follow their advice at your own peril.

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Now i really want it. Also the Arkham series deals with forms of psychosis. Scarecrow is basically spraying schizophrenia tear gas all over the city

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I decided I’m going to buy it when I get money next week. I’ll let you know how it is!

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Please do! I’m currently going through AC origins and battlefront 2. I just killed the crocodile in origins. And i still have to finish life is strange. And i want to reach level 100 and 200 hours on rainbow six siege. Haven’t played that in a while. Its not as fun solo

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Fran Bow looks like a good game, I’ll have to try it when I get some extra money.

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Dont starve portrays psychosis. Let your sanity drop the world warps into scary… and shadow monsters show up… distant and fleeting at first… but will attack when your sanity drops further… the only game ive played where sanity played a big enough roll to kill the player… most games dont factor sanity in much if at all…

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Doki doki literature club is about OCD, self harm, and one of the characters comes from an abusive household. I thought it was amazing, but certain people can be triggered by it.

That’s why there’s a big warning at the begining stating ‘individuals with anxiety or depression may not have a safe experience playing this game’

As for me, I have anxiety and depression, and also struggle with self harm. This game didn’t phase me at all. Even though, I’m not a scardy cat when it comes to gore, especially if it’s animated like a cute Japanese dating game.

It also breaks the fourth wall, which is cool as ■■■■.

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It is on steam! (For pc)

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I think another thing that really hit hard for me about it was that it specifically looks at mental illness from a child’s point of view. As someone who grew up with psychosis as a kid I identified with a lot of it. You want so much to just be a kid and live your life but you’re so terrified a lot of the time.

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Hmm sounds interesting will have to look into it, ive also had schizophrenia since childhood

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