Vampire Therapist Review
At first blush, the title Vampire Therapist sounds like the product of a random band name generator, juxtaposing random words like Uranium Bubblegum or Video Game Critic. Far from it. Vampire Therapist is a smart, entertaining, and, dare I say it, educational game about Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Oh, and what it means to be human, whether dead or undead.
Vampires Suck at Personal Growth
Vampire Therapist is best described as an interactive visual novel. Although there are some minigames here and there, most of the player’s input comes through making dialogue choices. While the game’s art style is excellent, the images are primarily static illustrations with subtle animations. Unlike many visual novels, Vampire Therapist has little fluff and filler.
You play as Samuel, an old cowboy who became a vampire in early 19th century America. After becoming undead, Sam went on a blood bender, biting and killing his way through the Old West before spending nearly a century communing with nature a la Thoreau. Full of new insights and regret, Sam decides to help his fellow vampires. Not with finding blood, but with emotional understanding and personal insight.
Realizing that good intentions aren’t enough, Sam heads to Europe to meet with Andromachos. “Andy” is an old school, “I vant to drink your blood”-accented vampire. Any is also thousands of years old. He’s wise to the ways of human emotional suffering and skilled in CBT. Andy takes on Sam both as a patient and mentor.
Please, Sit Down
The majority of Vampire Therapist consists of therapy sessions between Sam and Andy or between newly-minted therapist Sam and his patients. Sam (and the player) are introduced to a new CBT concept before using it to help diagnose patients or in self-reflection. Outside of therapy, Sam meets a wide range of NPCs that help flesh out the narrative.
Player input mostly consists of making choices that allow Sam to apply the correct concepts. It’s pretty low stakes, and the only penalty for messing up is a gentle reminder to try again. There are some achievements, for making all the right choices in a session, for example. The real reward, however, comes when the player applies the CBT concept to their own life and patterns of thinking and reacting.
There are some trigger warnings, and Vampire Therapist definitely earns its Mature rating. Not just for language or sexual content, but for frank discussions about self-harm, violence, abuse, addiction, and all manner of emotional distress, guilt, and suffering. In the context of therapy, none of it felt superficial or gratuitous. Occasionally, characters seemed at times too obviously written to highlight a concept.
So, What’s on Your Mind?
I’m sure professional therapists will have quibbles with the game’s renaming of concepts or paraphrasing CBT terms, but its application to actual behavior is solid. Unlike real therapy sessions, Sam and his patients get to the heart of issues pretty quickly. But, just like the real thing, it’s clear that the purpose of each session is to gain insight into mindless or destructive behavior caused by cognitive distortions and decades of misguided thinking. The vampire therapists Sam and Andy — like the best of their real-life counterparts — react to their patients’ issues with compassion and without judgment.
Like many visual novel-type games, Vampire Therapist would be a bit of a slog without voice acting. Happily, the voice work here is excellent and works hand-in-hand with the generally well-written dialogue. It can’t entirely avoid being pedagogic, but that goes with having a higher purpose than mere entertainment. It’s clear that Vampire Therapist respects the intelligence of its players.
Good intentions and overall excellence aside, Vampire Therapist isn’t flawless. There are some minor audio bugs and the minigames feel like irrelevant diversions. Plus, they’re just not very well done.
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.
***PC code provided by the publisher for review***
The Good
Very original theme and concept
Well written and acted
Solid therapeutic information
Attractive art
80
The Bad
Minor audio bugs
Triggering situations
Lame minigames
Over-simplified CBT ideas
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