The Understanding of Night in the Woods

So… I finally played Night in the Woods.

You should go and play Night in the Woods before reading this, really. And perhaps a mild content 

warning if descriptions of mental illness will distress you.

Source

Mae hit really damn close to home for me. Like, almost uncomfortably close to home. I could talk about 

so much in this game. It just understands shit about life, and people, you know? But I want to… maybe 

get personal for a minute, and talk about Mae, or more specifically, Mae and mental health.

I’ve always been prone to dissociation (Detachment from your surroundings and emotions). Probably 

since I was fairly young, although I never realized what it was until much later in life. Hell, I do still go 

through episodes of it sometimes. Everything stops feeling real around you, and there’s just nothing to 

be done about it besides act or let it ride out. It’s always been a part of me, and honestly, likely always 

will in some way or another.

What I’m trying to say here is that this game understands it in a way, well, I’ve never seen any work do 

before.

Night in the Woods understands the detachment and isolation it brings. It’s nigh impossible for Mae to 

talk about this with people until she’s almost killed. You go the entire game not really understanding 

why she left college, why she’s having these nightmares, why she seems sociable and caring and at 

the same time standoffish and a loner. This stuff is hard to talk about. It’s embarrassing. It makes you 

vulnerable and exposed to discuss it. I’ve sat alone in bed many times wondering “what if people think 

I’m weird”, “what if they hate me”. Mae can’t articulate it. She’s afraid to. That’s an all too common 

occurrence, and the game understands this and carefully writes about it.

Night in the Woods understands the emotion this brings. Anger is a predominant one. Mae gets pissed 

off at people, pissed off at society, pissed off at herself. Why don’t people understand, why has the 

world as large thrown her to the side, why the fuck can’t she ask for help? It’s not fair, and it never was

fair. How are you supposed to explain this to people with no reference point? How are you supposed to 

expose yourself to a society that has kicked you while you’re down? How are you supposed to own up 

to your own mistakes without spiraling downwards?  It doesn’t always have answers for this. These 

are often questions simply bemoaning how terrible the world is towards people like Mae, like me, like 

so many people I know. Sometimes it all breaks, and Mae is left simply crying. Sometimes, she’s out 

of emotion to give. These are real and raw things that happen. And the greatest good in this game isn’t 

some solution to it all. It’s people that listen, and get it, and give you a shoulder to cry on and vent at.

And, well, to wrap it up: the game understands what these experiences are like. The one line that 

made me realize “no, this is real”, was Mae describing everything as “just shapes”. The world falls 

away. All sense of placement and what you think is steady and real falls away. Maybe the world turns 

into shapes and colours, for Mae. Maybe the world will start to feel like a toy set, or a stage in a play, 

where everything is a prop that doesn’t matter, for me. And what the hell are you supposed to do when 

your very emotions stop feeling real? Get some control, maybe. Maybe start kicking walls, throwing 

things. Try to speak but you can’t. Run away from any conversations, they all feel so fake anyway. 

Small things like a statue become terrifying. Maybe even be violent. Stop caring about the well being of 

your own body and hurt yourself. Beat the hell out of some kid with a baseball bat. Who cares. None of 

this matters to your head anymore. All that matters is control, trying to feel real, and survival.

...Night in the Woods understands this. It understands what it’s like to go through this. It knows how it 

looks to others, it knows how it feels in your head, it knows how hard it all is. Night in the Woods god 

damn gets it. It’s so rare that I ever see a work that approaches knowing what it’s like. It knows it’s not 

fair. It knows the impossibility of it all. And yet it also offers hope, a look into what can be, what we can 

work for. It’s filled with understanding, friendship, and love.

I’m glad I played Night in the Woods.