Mae dropped out of college and moved back home. She doesn’t know why, really. She hangs out with her old friends. She notices things. She tries to be fine. Night in the Woods is one of the most accurately observed games about a kind of quiet unravelling, and it’s also very funny, often at the same time.
I played it during a period of my life where I was technically fine but didn’t feel fine, and this game put words to that gap better than anything else I’d encountered. It didn’t fix the gap. It just named it. That was enough.
What it is
An adventure game about a twenty-something cat who moves back to her small hometown and tries to figure out what happened to her. You talk to friends, explore the town, play in a band, and slowly piece together why everything feels slightly off. The writing is exceptional. The characters feel like people you know. It takes about eight to ten hours.
Available on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox.
Why it helps when you’re running on empty
Night in the Woods takes feeling seriously. It’s funny, weird, and specific about anxiety, friendship, and the gap between who you are and who you thought you’d be. It doesn’t offer solutions. It offers recognition. If any of that resonates, and it probably does, you’ll know. That knowing is the point.
For when you’ve got capacity for something honest and a bit weird. This is the one.
