This came out of nowhere as a cheap and easy way to hit 15 completions this month, so the last thing I expected was for it to genuinely improve my mood. Very sweet and entertaining look at something that should only be trivialised in the way that it is here. I like it :)
A very hilarious and heartfelt game with some really cute art. It made me laugh and feel more at peace with myself in half an hour than most games twenty times as long and thats pretty neat
Anxiety at the earliest inconvenience: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E22xtpRUYAA7f7w.jpg
I feel like our daring protagonist would be the type to mispell "ayo" as "mayo" just to be a quirky individual y'feel me, and then Anxiety would call her a "mayo monkey" and booom he just invented a new slur, wouldn't that be pretty funny? But it's neither here nor there.
I feel like our daring protagonist would be the type to mispell "ayo" as "mayo" just to be a quirky individual y'feel me, and then Anxiety would call her a "mayo monkey" and booom he just invented a new slur, wouldn't that be pretty funny? But it's neither here nor there.
THE BREAD WILL KILL YOU
A fantastic brief little experience. The game is available on a browser for free and I absolutely recommend it.
It talks of mental health issues and helped me when I was in a wrong spot in my life. It's visually gorgeous, the animation is eye-candy, the art style is lovely, the musics are incredible.
You'll finish it in around an hour or two.
It talks of mental health issues and helped me when I was in a wrong spot in my life. It's visually gorgeous, the animation is eye-candy, the art style is lovely, the musics are incredible.
You'll finish it in around an hour or two.
I'm not usually a big fan of cutesy mental illness metaphors like this, they ring a bit hollow for me and while I appreciate how they help other people, they don't do much for me. However, as someone who does like to think of my struggles with mental illness as a wild, frightened animal, this speaks to that. Plus free projects with good art are always nice.
i wish my anxiety was in the form of a cute animal
This review contains spoilers
yeah man exactly
honestly this didn't read as a cutesy "baby's first anxiety" metaphor to me i'm not sure what people are talking about. this seemed way more to me like a fond and endeared simplification of the topic from someone with lots of experience, for the sake of making an interactive story out of it.
i do have my own issues with the metaphor. like, i dislike many interpretations of mental illness that characterize it as a separate entity that acts completely separately to you rather than a part of you that cannot exist without the rest of you. however, i think that this is a unique case, because while the "anxiety wolf" type of art has rubbed off on me wrong before, the way the wolf is characterized here as having a history alongside the main character lends credence to the idea that the two are inseparable and that the situation is nobody's fault now. i like that.
moreso than that, i really appreciate the decision to make the wolf the player character. i don't think i've ever seen a take on this metaphor where you are directly asked to put yourself into the shoes of the anxiety monster. it's a really cool subversion of the idea and in my opinion a really effective way to immediately force the player to reassess how they feel about the anxiety in question. like, it's not just for shock or something that you're asked to pick the answers that would scare you the most, to play as your own anxiety, it's specifically so that you'll be in the headspace for the final act, wherein our main characters reconcile and come to understand eachother. i don't see that very often and it was really refreshing.
i think this also happened to align well with my own experience with anxiety. anxiety is not new to me by any means and i'm not just starting out in healing, but i saw a lot of my own experience reflected in this. i thought the second party was the best part. i don't know if it occurs in all playthroughs, but it did in mine. having a chapter where the wolf is the one in the right and using that to illustrate the experience of doing something you know you shouldn't and are afraid to do just to prove the fear wrong was impressive. i genuinely got a little misty-eyed saying "thank you" to the wolf for the first time, because i remembered how it felt to thank my panic disorder for the first time. to just say "that was really unnecessary and painful. but thank you for being so concerned." felt like lifting a weight off of my own chest, and i felt that for our protag, too. maybe my opinion is skewed by this fact, but with the game being so intentionally personal to its player, i'm going to cut myself some slack for it this time.
all in all, i liked it a lot. it reminded me of my own experiences in a way i thought was fun and nice, and used its admittedly common metaphor in a way that i didn't find obnoxious. which is a breath of fresh air. good game
honestly this didn't read as a cutesy "baby's first anxiety" metaphor to me i'm not sure what people are talking about. this seemed way more to me like a fond and endeared simplification of the topic from someone with lots of experience, for the sake of making an interactive story out of it.
i do have my own issues with the metaphor. like, i dislike many interpretations of mental illness that characterize it as a separate entity that acts completely separately to you rather than a part of you that cannot exist without the rest of you. however, i think that this is a unique case, because while the "anxiety wolf" type of art has rubbed off on me wrong before, the way the wolf is characterized here as having a history alongside the main character lends credence to the idea that the two are inseparable and that the situation is nobody's fault now. i like that.
moreso than that, i really appreciate the decision to make the wolf the player character. i don't think i've ever seen a take on this metaphor where you are directly asked to put yourself into the shoes of the anxiety monster. it's a really cool subversion of the idea and in my opinion a really effective way to immediately force the player to reassess how they feel about the anxiety in question. like, it's not just for shock or something that you're asked to pick the answers that would scare you the most, to play as your own anxiety, it's specifically so that you'll be in the headspace for the final act, wherein our main characters reconcile and come to understand eachother. i don't see that very often and it was really refreshing.
i think this also happened to align well with my own experience with anxiety. anxiety is not new to me by any means and i'm not just starting out in healing, but i saw a lot of my own experience reflected in this. i thought the second party was the best part. i don't know if it occurs in all playthroughs, but it did in mine. having a chapter where the wolf is the one in the right and using that to illustrate the experience of doing something you know you shouldn't and are afraid to do just to prove the fear wrong was impressive. i genuinely got a little misty-eyed saying "thank you" to the wolf for the first time, because i remembered how it felt to thank my panic disorder for the first time. to just say "that was really unnecessary and painful. but thank you for being so concerned." felt like lifting a weight off of my own chest, and i felt that for our protag, too. maybe my opinion is skewed by this fact, but with the game being so intentionally personal to its player, i'm going to cut myself some slack for it this time.
all in all, i liked it a lot. it reminded me of my own experiences in a way i thought was fun and nice, and used its admittedly common metaphor in a way that i didn't find obnoxious. which is a breath of fresh air. good game
This game is a cute little entertaining attempt at showing what anxiety is like, and how dealing with it can be difficult, as well as how trying to fight it with the wrong ways can lead you down the wrong paths.
Someone else here said in the reviews that the way the anxiety monster is portrayed, you can tell the creator behind this game has been dealing with anxiety for a long time; I felt that, too.
It's a long, arduous trek of going back and forth with your issues in your head, trying to reason with it and work it out. The anxiety wolf and the human felt connected, synonymous. You, as the player, getting to play as the anxiety instead of the person affected by anxiety was a cool idea too.
But Adventures with Anxiety, as charming as it is, doesn't properly show just how frustrating, agonising and scary living with something like this can be.
And at times, it feels almost patronising in its dialogue, which kind of pains me to say given how you can tell the creator tried their best with this game to make something small but full of personality.
But despite all this, I can forgive it.
If it sets out be a small experimental project about anxiety, then that's all it can be, and maybe doesn't have to be anything more.
Someone else here said in the reviews that the way the anxiety monster is portrayed, you can tell the creator behind this game has been dealing with anxiety for a long time; I felt that, too.
It's a long, arduous trek of going back and forth with your issues in your head, trying to reason with it and work it out. The anxiety wolf and the human felt connected, synonymous. You, as the player, getting to play as the anxiety instead of the person affected by anxiety was a cool idea too.
But Adventures with Anxiety, as charming as it is, doesn't properly show just how frustrating, agonising and scary living with something like this can be.
And at times, it feels almost patronising in its dialogue, which kind of pains me to say given how you can tell the creator tried their best with this game to make something small but full of personality.
But despite all this, I can forgive it.
If it sets out be a small experimental project about anxiety, then that's all it can be, and maybe doesn't have to be anything more.
i wish the comedy writing in this was funnier to me or less prevalent because other than that this is very good, especially for a free 30 minute long web game. ymmv of course though, i presume that most people who would play this game off the pitch and presentation are going to like this brand of comedy a lot more than i do. still quite good and emotionally resonant though, def worth a play
really cute and well-animated approach to anxiety feels weird to say but yah a more light-hearted approach to the topic with some very relatable scenes
I really liked this one!! I like how funny it is and how anxiety is depicted but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t take it seriously. also I like the anxiety wolf it’s very cute. play for urself. Also fuck psych2go. stupid bitchass “uwu mental health introvert > extrovert” type shit. why don’t you be a introvert and FUCK O
what can i say? i have anxiety and this was a really good game
jogo fofinho, que envolve ansiedade, pães brancos e algumas amizades que podem te trazer pro lixo
Un juego pequeñito que acabó sorprendiéndome más de lo que esperaba
Me: "Everyone having to deal with their own personifications of anxiety, in which you can talk to and argue, despite having the odds stacked heavily against you, is a fascinating concept, despite the fact that I wish no one would feel this way, which is specially messed up when in this story, the player themselves is said animal that refuses to go away"
Also me: PLEASE can my anxiety animal be a bird??? I want a bird one!!! Like an owl, maybe!!!! Instead of woofing, she goes "HOOT HOOT HOOT HOOT" while flapping her wings!!!!
Also me: PLEASE can my anxiety animal be a bird??? I want a bird one!!! Like an owl, maybe!!!! Instead of woofing, she goes "HOOT HOOT HOOT HOOT" while flapping her wings!!!!
i was NOT expecting this slick art direction the animations of the big bad anxiety wolf are outstanding i was in awe at how many different expressions poses and moves were put into a 20 min free game
cool game though sometimes funny sometimes cheesy but still this is me irl frfr
cool game though sometimes funny sometimes cheesy but still this is me irl frfr
my homie did the soundtrack for this and it rules -w-
I definitely didn't expect to be confronted with such a relatable and mature game, capable of so accurately depicting anxiety disorders and the stressful thoughts they carry along without becoming too discomforting or overly trivializing the theme.
This game was a wonderful surprise, and I can say that I felt genuinely understood and accepted in certain difficulties of mine, in a way that I have rarely found even in more complex and ambitious projects.
I'd like to say a lot more because it's a game where you can tell there was really an excellent process of study and understanding behind it, both on a scientific and personal level, but right now I just feel very grateful and hope it will be enjoyed by as many people as possible.
This game was a wonderful surprise, and I can say that I felt genuinely understood and accepted in certain difficulties of mine, in a way that I have rarely found even in more complex and ambitious projects.
I'd like to say a lot more because it's a game where you can tell there was really an excellent process of study and understanding behind it, both on a scientific and personal level, but right now I just feel very grateful and hope it will be enjoyed by as many people as possible.
Was recommended to play this after going through a really hard phase. Anxiety is something I've lived with for my entire life, and sometimes you gotta do wonders to avoid having it control your entire life. This game doesn't want to "cure" your anxiety, but rather help you understand it and make it easier for you to live with it. Sometimes, it's fine to be afraid, and you shouldn't be afraid of being afraid.
I appreciate what it's aiming to do and I know it's helped other folks conceptualize their anxiety differently, but for me it just felt...condescending, I guess? My anxiety makes me want to explode because I'm a uniquely horrific person, it isn't a quirky Pokémon parody. I just tend to find the cutesying of this shit annoying and patronizing; I'm not a neurospicy forever-child, I'm a grown adult with a host of diseases that want me dead. Maybe part of the problem is that I've been in therapy and doing really difficult work on my anxiety and trauma for years, and this definitely feels more like it's built for people without that base under them. Maybe I'm just tired of the self-infantilization that swallows so much of online discussions of mental illness.
Different takes on this stuff are going to work for different people and what matters is that it aids healing, so I don't think the game is capital-B Bad for not working with my particular combination of problems and attitudes; if this metaphor works for somebody, then I think that's great. I appreciate the developer's work here and can support that, even if the actual game didn't work for me at all. I can see this being a useful entry-level take on mental health and communicating with your mental illnesses for people who haven't done much work in this space before.
I DID love and appreciate the focus on how technically true anti-psych stuff can just become a way to avoid the work of recovery and justify self-harm, but that was about the only part that worked for me personally.
Different takes on this stuff are going to work for different people and what matters is that it aids healing, so I don't think the game is capital-B Bad for not working with my particular combination of problems and attitudes; if this metaphor works for somebody, then I think that's great. I appreciate the developer's work here and can support that, even if the actual game didn't work for me at all. I can see this being a useful entry-level take on mental health and communicating with your mental illnesses for people who haven't done much work in this space before.
I DID love and appreciate the focus on how technically true anti-psych stuff can just become a way to avoid the work of recovery and justify self-harm, but that was about the only part that worked for me personally.
really fun short game, mountains of interactions, please play this game if you haven't it's free and is super short
Although the writing can be cringe, it has great animation and is more emotionally resonant in 20 minutes than many games manage in 20 hours. Its depiction of anxiety is also extremely accurate, and the moral of the story is seriously helpful.
Rápido y muy divertido, como es de esperar de Nicky Case, este juego te deja una enseñanza muy grande.
Trata los miedos humanos con una elocuencia muy buena y realmente ayuda a pintar el cuadro de como se siente tener un "problema de ansiedad".
El mensaje final es muy bonito y te hace sentir identificado toda la "aventura". Tranquilamente podría ser una serie de animación muy buena, yo la vería.
Trata los miedos humanos con una elocuencia muy buena y realmente ayuda a pintar el cuadro de como se siente tener un "problema de ansiedad".
El mensaje final es muy bonito y te hace sentir identificado toda la "aventura". Tranquilamente podría ser una serie de animación muy buena, yo la vería.
Had some cheesy moments, but a lot of the comedy worked quite well. Probably one of the only pieces of media I've seen that has actually portrayed anxiety in a tasteful and meaningful way, so thank you Nicky Case! :)
I remember playing this at a time when I was like super feeling anxiety and just wanting to get some sort of grips on those feelings, and I guess this really works in terms of just like showing a game that precisely contextualises feelings like that. It's like, anxiety is useful given proportion and I like how this shows the sides of it with the sort of decision making or lack thereof with anxiety either being this all consuming thing or something you're numb to and ignore. Some pretty cute and nice looking visuals in this as well. Anxiety is depicted both as a cloak and a barking wolf who either alerts you to danger or is annoying and exists within some sort of malleable combination of both being misunderstood and not entirely understanding itself.
rigolo
For every one in the discord call, an emotional punch right throught their souls.
For me, a really solid comedy!
For me, a really solid comedy!
This review contains spoilers
Looks like this is another about how anxiety is overbearing. Kind of expected...
Hey look that redhead girl is talking to us, what is she giving us...
Oh.
Oh no.
Hey look that redhead girl is talking to us, what is she giving us...
Oh.
Oh no.
If only anxiety was this easy to tame and was this darn cute.