What is EarthBound-Inspired Indie Game About Depression?

A running Twitter joke mocking the imagined overabundance of 2D RPGs and platformers that center on depression metaphors, with critics citing games like LISA: The Painful and OMORI as examples.

What does EarthBound-Inspired Indie Game About Depression mean?

Posts in this format mock a stock description of an indie RPG that uses depression as its main hook, so phrases like "quirky EarthBound-inspired RPG about depression" read as a cliché for the genre.

How do you use EarthBound-Inspired Indie Game About Depression?

Users typically caption a mocking summary of a fictional indie game or attach reaction images such as the Drake Helps Lil Yachty GIF or a Buzz Lightyear Clones template.

Is EarthBound-Inspired Indie Game About Depression still popular?

The debate peaked in January and February 2022 after the viral Drake and Buzz Lightyear posts, and jokes about it still circulate on Twitter and indie gaming meme accounts.

EarthBound-Inspired Indie Game About Depression

Q: Where did EarthBound-Inspired Indie Game About Depression come from?

Twitter user @TylerGlaiel posted one of the earliest documented versions on March 21, 2018, and the joke went viral after @Skapokon's July 8, 2021 tweet quoting a Nitro Rad OMORI review.

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Published October 24, 2026

"EarthBound-Inspired Indie Game About Depression" names a running Twitter joke mocking the glut of 2D RPGs and platformers that lean on depression metaphors, with critics and defenders arguing over whether the trope is actually that common. Earliest jokes trace to a March 2018 tweet by @TylerGlaiel, and by January 2022 the gripe had its own Drake Helps Lil Yachty GIF caption and Buzz Lightyear Clones templates circulating on Twitter.

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Overview

Posts in this family mostly mock an imaginary catalog entry for a quirky indie RPG, citing beats from games like LISA: The Painful, Night in the Woods, Celeste and OMORI as proof that the depression metaphor is now a cliché1 2. Captions often attack that fictional title directly, as in "the quirky EarthBound-inspired RPG about depression haha," so the joke lands on indie marketing tropes as much as on any specific game4.

Defenders flipped the format in early 2022, posting their own image macros arguing that few games actually fit the description and that titles like Undertale got swept in incorrectly5. The result was a nested joke: memes mocking indie games about depression, memes mocking those memes, and sincere defenses sitting side by side on the same timeline.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Twitter

Date

2018

EarthBound, the 1994 Super NES RPG, is often credited as the aesthetic template for 2D indie games like Undertale, LISA: The Painful and OMORI10. Jokes targeting those successors for leaning too heavily on depression metaphors circulated on Twitter at least by March 21, 2018, when @TylerGlaiel posted one of the earliest known examples1. Follow-up gripes from @docsquiddy in July 20192 and @headfallsoff that December9 carried the complaint into 2020.

How It Spread

YouTuber Nitro Rad opened his January 29, 2021 OMORI review by addressing the "indie games about depression" complaint directly, and that clip later became raw material for the format's first viral boost3. On July 8, 2021, @Skapokon attached the Nitro Rad clip to a tweet reading "Every time I see memes about 'THE QUIRKY EARTHBOUND-INSPIRED RPG ABOUT DEPRESSION HAHA' I just think back to this," which drew more than 109,200 views and 9,200 likes within seven months4. Nine days later, @brycecarringto5 posted a shitpost captioned "this is the only quirky earthbound inspired rpg i'll ever play" that reached roughly 42,200 views and 4,700 likes6.

A second viral spike began on December 28, 2021 when @CaptionsEv reposted a Drake Helps Lil Yachty GIF caption aimed at indie games about depression, which gathered over 6,800 retweets and 47,000 likes in a month7. On January 7, 2022, @mask_bastard tweeted a Buzz Lightyear Clones image targeting the same trope and logged roughly 840 retweets, 1,100 quote tweets and 7,500 likes before deleting it8. Those two posts set off counter-memes defending titles like Undertale and arguing that the trope is less common than critics claim5.

Timeline

2018-03-21

@TylerGlaiel posts one of the earliest documented jokes about indie games exploring depression.

2019-07-12

@docsquiddy tweets a widely shared gripe about the same trope.

2019-12-14

@headfallsoff posts another viral complaint about indie depression games.

2021-01-29

YouTuber Nitro Rad addresses the complaint directly in his OMORI review.

2021-07-08

@Skapokon's tweet quoting the Nitro Rad clip pushes the catchphrase "THE QUIRKY EARTHBOUND-INSPIRED RPG ABOUT DEPRESSION HAHA" into wider circulation.

2021-07-17

@brycecarringto5 posts a popular shitpost riffing on the format.

2021-12-28

@CaptionsEv reposts a Drake Helps Lil Yachty GIF caption mocking the trope, reigniting the debate.

2022-01-07

@mask_bastard tweets a Buzz Lightyear Clones image targeting the trope; it was later deleted.

How to Use This Meme

A typical post describes a fictional "quirky EarthBound-inspired RPG about depression" using stock features like pixel art, strange companions and heavy emotional metaphors, then attaches a reaction image. Common conventions include pairing the mocking caption with the Drake Helps Lil Yachty GIF7 or a Buzz Lightyear Clones layout8. Replies often include counter-memes defending real games like OMORI or Undertale from being lumped into the trope5.