The most controversial game I have ever played. Not only among random internet discourse, but between all of my friends who have played it. You either love this game or dislike it, there’s rarely an inbetween. I do understand the disdain for Psycholonials but I have a vastly different interpretation of it compared to other people.
To start with, Zhen is my favorite character of all time. Like, easily. It’s kind of difficult to describe what it is I like about this character because most of my love and appreciation stems from personal connection but I feel like the way her character is framed throughout the story is wonderful. The gradual shift in her mindset is done in an especially interesting way because while the narrative bias exists, it’s also broken by Abby at times making for a really interesting unsure narrative. It’s done for a purpose, coming to a climax right near the end where Zhen gets her big character moment of realization. She is a textbook narcissist and only truly comes to terms with this and its consequences during the ending.
Zhen directly shows that the problem with cancel culture (primarily those who partake in it) is that they have an unhealthy obsession with chasing after others in a way that is unhealthy to everyone, and can almost be likened to a form of twisted love. In the case of a Joqueline, it literally is. It showcases how parasocial hatred for someone consumes you, because after the hunt dies down, the only person who will fill that void in you is the next person you decide to hunt.
Generally speaking I am someone who likes really long games and shows and whatnot because I feel that there’s always so much content within them but Psycholonials is generally really short, taking me 6 hours, I think. The music of Psycholonials is perfectly suited to the atmosphere of each scene they accompany, elevating them to a level that text and visuals alone are unable to. Zhen is the focus of Psycholonials and Psycholonials is mostly just a character study of her and that’s okay. Abby is also in the story with her own concise character but she is mostly used in favor of Zhen’s character and being her guide of morality. Abby is like a reinforcer of the themes of the game, which I think actually works here. Usually I would consider a character existing as a theme device first as a bad thing but there are exceptions like Hody Jones from One Piece that strike me as good. I’m kinda just saying shit here so feel free to disregard if none of this makes sense, writing a Psycholonials essay is difficult!
My interpretation of Psycholonials is that it primarily highlights individualism over collectivism. Zhen created jubilitism, this is true, but Zhen is used with this context to highlight how political collectivism can be incredibly harmful if the fires are stoked enough, and that having a concrete leader doesn't actually affect anything except for giving a movement a figurehead.
The ending of Psycholonials shows Zhen's strong regret for creating the jubilite movement at all, because at the end of the day, it's harmful! harmful to everyone. harmful to zhen, harmful to abby, harmful to the world, harmful to the elites that jubilitism combats as a whole. The world is fucked up. We know this, and Psycholonials is directly stating that the world being fucked up is okay, and you can find peace and happiness in spite of that, through both individualism and strong relationships. Psycholonials is basically just about accepting how deeply rooted the world's problems are, and prioritizing your own happiness not through ignorance, but through acceptance. Zhen is merely a figurehead of one of the most uncontrollable aspects of movements like this, that being how quickly they get out of hand and consume you. This is shown directly through her character. She is, again, a narcissist, and while she technically is the leader of the movement, as soon as she steps down it doesn’t matter, and the movement is just as strong as it was to begin with.
Psycholonials is a love story. It is a love story between two people, and it is a story that shows you that no matter how fucked up the world is, you can still find peace. That is something special, I think.