what can i say? i have anxiety and this was a really good game
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
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
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.
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.
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!!!!