Vampire Therapist
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Critic Reviews for Vampire Therapist
In the end, though, Vampire Therapist is every bit as compelling as the name would lead you to expect. Sam is a wonderful protagonist, the writing is well-balanced between humour and pathos, and it does a great job telling disparate stories that have full arcs. The commitment to depicting CBT faithfully could go further, but it remains an impressive effort. Overall, this is bloody good stuff.
In recent years, therapy, meditation, and other mental health practices have gone from being stigmatized to being accepted as routine or even necessary. That said, the techniques of therapy are still often misunderstood or shrouded in mystery. In addition to being an engaging and thoroughly entertaining — if sometimes emotionally challenging — game, Vampire Therapist casts light on several widely used CBT techniques. Players are almost guaranteed to walk away with insights into their behavior and thinking and hopefully be more open to seeking guidance from a living, probably non-vampire therapist.
Even the undead have problems... help them work through their issues and you might even work through some of your own.
Vampire Therapist manages to make the rather dry concepts of cognitive behavioral therapy interesting by linking them to interesting characters. I like how the sessions develop and how the game adds new concepts and asks players to find the best ways to use them. The voice acting is good enough to paper over some small issues with the writing.
Innovative, memorable, and well-written, Vampire Therapist is easy to recommend to visual novel fans and anyone interested in cognitive behavioural therapy.
Vampire Therapist may be about vampires, but there's something we can all learn from the journey of supernatural therapy.
Overall, Vampire Therapy can be a fantastic tool for those wishing to learn more about cognitive distortions and how to better control their own thoughts. The ideas are never presented in a harsh manner, with a gentle tone always being held by Andromachos. Players need to be wary of their own personal triggers that the game can hit upon, and pay attention to how they are feeling throughout their time with Sam, and not be afraid to step away and have some quiet introspection when needed. Truthfully, the game would benefit from a subtle warning appearing before certain themes are presented, and perhaps the opportunity to skip past them.
Vampire Therapist is very well-intentioned and the writing is engaging. You can see that the solo developer who makes up Little Bat Games had his idea (which works very well, it should be noted) and invested in it with care. This is quite evident in the positive finish of the character art, in the protagonist's diary, in the theoretical background presented by the story and even in the voice acting of the characters. Unfortunately, this is a product that fails to deliver solid performance, which was hampered by a bad business decision — not opting for early access. Still, it's worth keeping an eye on the progress of the updates until the visual novel reaches its maturity.
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