The theme of the game is exterminating spiders, and players are tasked with doing so through any means necessary. Despite being a game where confronting insects is unavoidable, Grounded seems to provide genuine assistance for those with arachnophobia.Īn action game from 2020 called Kill It With Fire also provides arachnophobia options. Beyond level 3, fangs are removed, then they are made more spherical, and the strongest setting turns them into two spheres with eyes attached, removing any resemblance of a spider. The first few settings remove more of the spiders’ legs as you move up, with level 3 removing all spider legs. This mode features a 6-step slider with 0 showing spiders as they were originally designed.

Within its accessibility features Grounded provides an Arachnophobia Safe Mode. And among the insects in the game, there are of course, spiders. The game features numerous insects that, while normally tiny, pose a strong threat to the microscopic children. Grounded is a survival game about children that have been shrunk down to the size of insects searching a backyard for a way to return to normal. One example of a game that has directly tackled arachnophobia is Grounded. If you want to topple your trauma, you have to fix your gaze directly on them, never looking away as you strike them down. When Miyazaki was asked, “Is there a way to unsee the Spider Hand enemies? I see them every time I close my eyes…,” he responded with, “What can I say to make up for this… I’m really very sorry…” He then advised, “I think making a conscious effort to unsee them is going to have an adverse effect. Fingercreepers are spider-like creatures that are made up of human fingers. While not directly related to the topic of arachnophobia, Elden Ring director Hidetaka Miyazaki talked about the game’s Spider Hand (Fingercreeper) enemies in an interview with Xbox Wire. However, there are also cases of developers showing concern for players that suffer from arachnophobia. You could say that spiders are a popular enemy in video games. People who suffer from arachnophobia tend to feel uneasy when in spaces spiders or spiderwebs may be found, with some even becoming panicked when near them. The developers have yet to give a response, but the discussion ended up being quite lively.Īrachnophobia is an extreme fear of spiders. Someone also mentioned that if the game supports mods, users can come up with their own solution. While some agreed with the idea, others brought up that V Rising has a gothic horror theme, so spiders should be represented as is. Because of this, the player suggested a mode for those who deal with various phobias. The player that made the suggestion brings up that their friend suffers from arachnophobia and was frightened by the boss character Ungora the Spider Queen. While in Early Access, the developers have been proactive about receiving feedback from players, with one player suggesting “Anti Phobia Modes” on the game’s Discord server. V Rising is a vampire-themed survival horror game that just entered Early Access on Steam this May and has already reached over one million sales. Nick Mosier based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 16:02 JST) Arachnophobia is such a common fear that having the ability to remove them from a game that is officially done by the developer is a sight to behold.Written by. I hope this becomes an ongoing trend moving forward. Before today, I had very little interest in playing Grounded even if there weren’t spiders in the game, but after hearing today’s news I’m going to jump in when the mode is available just to show my appreciation for what is being done here. I’ve written here before about my own dealing with arachnophobia in video games so it is incredibly great seeing big developers like Obsidian taking the initiative in making this kind of option a reality.

This is personally the best news I’ve heard in a very long time when it comes to accessibility in video games. Good news for you, – the team is implementing an arachnophobia mode to help with those who aren’t fans of spiders and still want to enjoy the game!

Grounded arachnophobia mode