# EarthBound-Inspired Indie Game About Depression "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. ## Origin EarthBound, the 1994 Super NES RPG, is often credited as the aesthetic template for 2D indie games like Undertale, LISA: The Painful and OMORI[10]. 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 examples[1]. Follow-up gripes from @docsquiddy in July 2019[2] and @headfallsoff that December[9] carried the complaint into 2020. - **Platform:** Twitter - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2018 ## 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 cliché[1][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 game[4]. 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 incorrectly[5]. 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. ## How to Use 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 GIF[7] or a Buzz Lightyear Clones layout[8]. Replies often include counter-memes defending real games like OMORI or Undertale from being lumped into the trope[5]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### 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[4]. ### Where did EarthBound-Inspired Indie Game About Depression come from? Twitter user @TylerGlaiel posted one of the earliest documented versions on March 21, 2018[1], and the joke went viral after @Skapokon's July 8, 2021 tweet quoting a Nitro Rad OMORI review[4]. ### 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[4]. ### 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[7] or a Buzz Lightyear Clones template[8]. ### Is EarthBound-Inspired Indie Game About Depression still popular? The debate peaked in January and February 2022 after the viral Drake[7] and Buzz Lightyear posts[8], and jokes about it still circulate on Twitter and indie gaming meme accounts. ## References 1. [https://twitter.com/TylerGlaiel/status/976656542773665792]() 2. [https://twitter.com/docsquiddy/status/1149883916054085632]() 3. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aJRzf6YTYQ]() 4. [https://twitter.com/Skapokon/status/1413178505324646412]() 5. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/earthbound-inspired-indie-game-about-depression]() 6. [https://twitter.com/brycecarringto5/status/1416425557429047300]() 7. [https://twitter.com/CaptionsEv/status/1475874192859942916]() 8. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220111150718/https://twitter.com/mask_bastard/status/1479682702815154176]() 9. [https://twitter.com/headfallsoff/status/1205894332907167746]() 10. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EarthBound]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/earthbound-inspired-indie-game-about-depression Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library