The 2010's were the age of games that subverted expectations. Not necessarily expectations of quality, but rather of content. Games like Doki Doki Literature Club!, Undertale, and OneShot have gotten famous for on the surface seeming to be simple and fun experiences, but hiding beneath that veneer a deeper tale. Bugsnax is no different, although it tends to take a turn that not even the user-assigned "Psychological Horror" tag on Steam can prepare you for.

The premise is simple. You are an unnamed Journalist looking for a big break, so you venture off to the remote Snaktooth Island in hopes of documenting the discovery of the titular Bugsnax within it. While there you make conversation with the many different personalities that have also sought after Bugsnax for whatever reason, all on the heels of an intrepid explorer who has mysteriously vanished. The core gameplay loop that attracts players is collecting Bugsnax, and engaging in quests with the other islanders to uncover the greater mystery of the creatures' existence. Indeed that remains intact through almost the whole game but... something is off.

It's difficult to talk about the details of why because, as is typical with these kinds of games, explaining it spoils the experience. However I feel it necessary to do so in this case because how the story develops has had a large influence on what I think of the game as a whole.

The one thing you sense fairly quickly as you get to know the islanders is this great sort of tension in the air. Almost everyone has split up before you arrived, over disagreements that aren't yet obvious to you yet. However as you fulfill your quests and convince the people to rejoin the village in the center of the island, their animosities towards each other are revealed, and try as you might to help them all make amends it seems to be a fruitless endeavor.

Similar struggles appear in the side-quests when you try to help inhabitants with their own lives and issues. An example I'll give is with Wiggle: a rather melismatic singer desperate to prove she's not a one-hit wonder. You try various ideas to fuel her inspiration, including engaging in a fight with one of the "Legendary" bosses in an epic battle... but it's all to no avail. Her questline ends with her dejected and resigned to the fact that she may never be known for music that is truly meaningful to her. After it ends you get automatically warped back to your own hut in the village, which happens to be next to Wiggle's. I heard snoring noises from her hut that night. Given the context though, I thought she was crying.

This isn't unique to her. Every other Grumpus ends up in a depressive episode through their questlines and there is nothing you can do to snap them out of it. Chandlo has self-esteem issues and is left scared that he'll never be strong enough for his partner, Snorpy. Wambus and Gramble are devoted to farming and caring for the Bugsnax respectively, and shame themselves as failures when it doesn't work out. Floofty's experimentation on the Snax almost lead to them essentially taking their own life, but the real gutpunch actually came slightly earlier, when I discovered one of the video diaries belonging to the before-mentioned explorer Lizbert. In it, her assistant and partner Eggabell is directly being consoled through a depressive episode, and has to be convinced that her life still has worth.

That is the heart of Bugsnax. Not the creature collection, not even the ending which I haven't gotten to (although it certainly twists the knife), but rather an expose of a bunch of sad desperate people that can only spiral further into despair, with no real closure or remedy at the end of it.

If I had to describe this game in one word, it would be draining. The gameplay at first solid, only soured on me thanks to a story that emotionally debilitated me, while giving me barely anything for my troubles. Combine this with the fact that I initially came for Bugsnax with the seeming promise of a relaxed and cute experience? Let's just say it leaves me with a sick feeling in my stomach.