Ease yourself into the Halloween season with a therapist who happens to be a vampire in Vampire Therapist

I am a huge fan of all things horror, from brooding and creepy to extreme gore that borders on parody, but sometimes during Halloween month, you have to ease your way in to the creepy vibe with positive self-talk and a little cognitive behavioral therapy. That’s where Vampire Therapist shines, by bridging the gap between smart, witty story and a ghoulishly good time.

Vampire Therapist is a visual novel that allows you, as the Vampire Therapist, to help your fellow nightwalkers sort out their emotions, using concepts from real-world cognitive behavioral therapy to help your new friends and yourself talk your way to a healthier mindset. Sam Walls was a wild west gunslinger, so a lot of these concepts and explanations are phrased with that in mind — the concept of “Hot Branding” in the game, for instance, is the idea that you’re giving someone a fixed label based on an extremely limited set of data, and Sam’s understanding will evolve via coaching with his mentor into the real world term labelling. He writes examples of both these concepts, and a few examples of how they might be applied in talk therapy, to a notebook you can peruse when you’re presented with a challenge.

You’ll encounter a few small minigames, but the core of gameplay is a visual novel choice-based format, so if you want tons of action and a little story, this likely won’t be the game for you. In terms of gameplay, it is very forgiving on your ability to be a therapist, though it may have been entertaining to just let Sam crash out after too many incorrect answers.

This game, like many scary games, has a Mature label. It isn’t a game for kids, both in the sense that this kind of narrative wouldn’t really appeal to them, but also the game discusses and explores topics that would be seen as adult. After all, it isn’t therapy if all you have to discuss is bunnies and rainbows. Obviously, as a vampire, the game also has a good amount of blood, violence, and some sexual themes, though it isn’t too explicit — though before the first act is over I’d already flirted with and sucked the blood of a character voiced by a German-accented Matthew Mercer, so if nothing else, that’s a mark in the wins column.

You can get Vampire Therapist on Steam or GOG. A demo is available. You can also purchase the Couples Therapy DLC.