Emotional Video Games That Help With Mental Health

Our society has long shunned video games because it incites violence or worsens your mental health because it doesn’t actually solve anything. But recent studies show otherwise – there is a positive correlation between video games and mental health and those who play video games are more likely to feel comfortable and confident sharing their experiences in person or online. Depression and anxiety are just some of the things we face every day and video games enable us to relieve ourselves from that.

Video games help us immensely through music, wordage and colorful animations. Here are some games that not only leave you shedding a tear but alleviate the pain of depression and anxiety.

The Last Campfire

Developed in 2020 by Hello Games, a UK-based company that created LostWinds and No Man’s Sky, The Last Campfire is an adventure puzzle game that follows a lost ember who embarks on a journey not only to find its way home but to find meaning in its path doing so. The objective of the game is to aid your fellow embers across their journey by reigniting their spark of hope inside them and those embers will gather at a huge campfire where a ghost presides over them, marking the game complete after you’ve collected all the lost embers. 

The narration and musical tones of the game are somber. The use of language is melancholic but meaningful in the sense that all hope is not lost. There are various symbolisms in relation to depression such as the fellow embers who haven’t been awakened yet convey feelings of hopelessness, something that is a prevalent trait in depression as well as the campfire ghost foreshadowing the fact that depression is always there in the background, despite happy times. The Last Campfire does a great job invoking not only invoking these emotions but to know that hope is always there, even if you feel like it’s not.

Dark Souls

Released by Bandai Namco in 2011 by developer FromSoftware Inc., Dark Souls is an action RPG game where you play the Chosen Dead, a hero who’s predestined to die if you make one wrong move. As a result of this, the enemies you fought will respawn and your experience points are forever lost (in the game, this is called being Hollow). Keeping this in mind, you make sure every move counts as you move your way through Lordran, a dying kingdom and learn the significance behind your death and others along the way.

Though Dark Souls is a brutal game, you might wonder why this game reminisces with depression. The game isn’t just about making sure you don’t die but about survival and perseverance. The creators made sure to let players know that depression is hard – very hard. The notes of depression lie in the number of times you die, which portrays the notion that death is a result of depression, but that’s not the case for this game. It becomes apparent that death doesn’t matter, but living and pushing through does. 

Sea of Solitude

Made by EA with its PC version in 2019 – later in 2021 with the Switch – Sea of Solitude sets the scene with its protagonist, Kay, a young woman exploring a semi-submerged city where she faces bizarre creatures who are actually humans who’ve become these creatures when they became too lonely. The main idea of this game is to make sure Kay overcomes her own loneliness so that she doesn’t become a monster herself.

The atmospheric visuals and carefully selected color saturations of this game were not only beautiful but hinted at the emotional feel of the game, which shed the light on loneliness, depression and anxiety. The fear of going forward is something that is common among those with depression and anxiety because it feels like you’re not sure where to go and if you do, you don’t know what to do. Sea of Solitude creator Cornelia Geppert made the game due to her own personal experience and that resonated with players worldwide and she’s glad to be a part of the gaming industry that’s “not afraid anymore to talk about more serious things”.

Mental health is a serious topic no one should shy away from. It can range from depression and anxiety to eating disorders – all of which no one should be judged for and it’s hard to ask for help with the fear of being belittled or not being understood. With video games, it’s easier to do this and it aids in gender identity and personal growth while being fun and rewarding. The message is these games as well as others such as Celeste, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice and Night in the Woods express the importance of mental health and to signify that what you’re feeling is valid and important.