
Iyashikei: Japan’s Genre of “Healing Games” (2018) - Tomte
https://screentherapyblog.wordpress.com/2018/03/13/iyashikei/
======
munificent
Minecraft is so open-ended that it can be molded into almost any genre. But
the way I play fits entirely within this.

I play in survival mode mostly to make the world feel more grounded, but I
sleep every night and rarely explore caverns. The game is mostly me building
living spaces, mining for supplies, mapping the world, and collecting items.
It's really satisfying.

~~~
hadem
Out of curiosity, what do you mean by "mapping the world"? I haven't played
Minecraft in a very long time, but I thought there was a built in map of some
sort? I'd like to hear more as it sounds like we have similar play styles!

~~~
munificent
There are map items, but you have to carry them to the region in order for
them to get filled in.

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dan_quixote
Zelda: Breath of the Wild has strong elements of Iyashikei. I picked this up
recently after years of no video games. And I find myself just wandering
around marveling at the sights and sounds. I mostly avoid conflict while
performing the more ancillary quests. It's just so much more relaxing than the
platform/shooter games I grew up with.

~~~
ngold
Ive been goofing around in gta, by following traffic laws. Very relaxing, and
just observing the natural chaos and beautiful setting. Put some tunes on and
it reminds me of the old outrun games.

~~~
aasasd
Vid related:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Seu8feqxR0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Seu8feqxR0)

------
koonsolo
I'm making a tool to easily create your own RPG's. In true MVP sense, my old
version was missing combat. This didn't stop my users (mainly teenagers) to
create their own games, which of course were more or less 'Iyashikei' because
of this missing feature.

For example one of those games is Baby Quest, where you are a baby that can
explore the town ([https://rpgplayground.com/most-
played/](https://rpgplayground.com/most-played/)). You can find plenty more of
such games on my website.

But since I support combat now, most of the newer games are not like this
anymore, although there are exceptions.

My engine is [https://rpgplayground.com](https://rpgplayground.com)

~~~
ngold
That is pretty exciting stuff. Great link.

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haunter
>Iyashikei games, shows, and movies are “healing” because they help us
celebrate the ordinary parts of everyday life

I'm really not sold about the game part. Like Shenmue is pretty much the
quintessential ordinary life simulator but I'd not call it a iyashikei. Same
with Ni No Kuni and Yokai Watch. Sure for Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon but
once battle and fight involved then personally I think it's already another
genre. And people wouldn't call Pokemon a iyashikei either yet Yokai is 'just'
a more modern 'clone' of that

~~~
SkyBelow
>Sure for Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon

Does it even apply for those?

In Animal Crossing there are two battles, wasp and tarantulas. Both have
something at stake with both a win and loss condition.

In Harvest Moon you also have a battle against limits. Most of them don't have
any sort of enemy units, but you do have tasks and you are doing them in a
time limit where there is a failure condition (either running out of stamina
or time), and in some cases there can be a big cost to failure (especially
around harvesting crops right as the seasons change).

One game I think interesting to consider is Minecraft. There are three
different takes.

* Normal (with Easy and Hard included) which has enemy mobs you must fight against and environmental traps.

* Peaceful, where there are no enemy mobs but environmental traps still pose a risk (though less of one).

* Creative, where you are fully immune even to lava or falling.

Each step down is progressively more relaxing as it removes even more
conflicts from the equation. But even in creative, you can still have a
conflict with the game rules or within yourself (consider someone trying to
design some redstone contraption and getting frustrated that their design
isn't functioning correctly).

I'm drawn to thinking about the following web comic on conflict in literature
and how it parallels the different conflicts and battles that can occur in
games and how some of these might not be possible to remove.

[https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FWszluTZTpM/U310wQoCMWI/AAAAAAAAE...](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FWszluTZTpM/U310wQoCMWI/AAAAAAAAEQk/V-0w-hWjhvo/s1600/conflict-
blog.jpg)

~~~
ginko
> Both have something at stake with both a win and loss condition.

All that's at stake is you fainting and respawning in front of your house. The
only thing that's lost is your opportunity to catch the tarantula that time.

~~~
SkyBelow
But that opportunity is rare enough, at least for some (in my time playing
I've only seen two, though I did capture one so I don't need it for the
museum). It is also surprising enough of an occurrence that it can cause
stress. There are studies monitoring cortisol levels when a person hears their
phone make a normal noise (incoming call and incoming text). Those create a
noticeable spike in cortisol. While I haven't seen the same testing done for
Animal Crossing, I would expect the sound indicating wasp falling out of trees
does the same.

If one were to take pokemon, it would be reduced to much the same where the
penalty for loss is fainting and in rare cases losing a chance to catch a rare
pokemon.

Even if one were to take something like Path of Exile, any failure only costs
some amount of time to restore from that failure. Some cost more (a death on
hardcore can mean dozens of hours while a death on normal can be recovered in
minutes). In general, I think you can reduce most game conflicts/battles down
to a time cost in the case of failure, with a few games introducing horror as
the main alternative cost (any game where death involves a jump scare).

If I spend 3 hours looking for a tarantula and it wins, that is a cost of 3
hours compared to many games were losing a battle cost only a minute or two.

Dark Souls style games are another interesting look into this, as the first
death generally has low cost (you have to go pick up the dropped souls), but
if you die a second time before you pick them up, the cost is much heavier
(the souls dropped are permanently lost). I notice when playing that I am more
on edge when I'm trying to recover dropped souls than when I am not.

~~~
mcphage
> If I spend 3 hours looking for a tarantula and it wins, that is a cost of 3
> hours compared to many games were losing a battle cost only a minute or two.

Why just the tarantula, then? If you see a rare beetle on a stump, you can re-
interpret trying to catch it as a "battle" with a "winner" and a "loser".

~~~
SkyBelow
I think you are right. It is even less of a battle in some aspects, but at
least for very rare insects it can be more of a battle in that the cost of
messing up is higher.

When you break down a game into these many sorts of conflicts and see which
ones the player feels joy for winning and which ones the players struggle
against with no benefit even when they win, it hints at an interesting
framework to evaluate games by. It feels deconstructionist almost to the point
of absurdity, but so far I don't think it crosses that line.

------
naringas
I would classify "A short hike" [1] in this category.

it's a very nice game.

[1] [http://ashorthike.com/](http://ashorthike.com/)

~~~
cmehdy
I bought that following your post, and absolutely loved it. Thanks!

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ajmurmann
a few pieces of media that fit the bill really well and are available easily
in the West:

Attack of the Friday Monsters - it's a short 3DS game about children's fantasy
merging their small town reality with a TV show

Barakamon - anime about a calligrapher who gets banished to a small island in
the inland sea and comes to embrace rural life and playing with the local
children. (Pictured but not mentioned in the article)

Rilakkuma and Kaoru - Stop motion TV show on Netflix about a woman who lives
office lady life but also had two plush(?) bears and a chicken who live with
her. Very relaxing.

~~~
hex12648430
I'll add a few that I enjoy

Flying Witch - A witch goes to live in the countryside with her relatives as
part of her training. Lovely world-building.

Girls' Last Tour - Two girls on a journey through a gigantic post-apocalyptic
city. The setting is quite bleak but the story mostly focuses on how the main
characters are finding joy in their world.

Aria - The daily lives of apprentice gondoliers in Neo-Venezia, a replica of
Venice built on a terraformed Mars.

The manga and anime for all of these are available legally in English.
Unfortunately you may have to jump through some hoops if you want to acquire
their OSTs, which is a shame because they're all excellent.

~~~
cmehdy
You might also enjoy YKK (Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou)[0][1], particularly the
manga version, which was my introduction to the genre of slice-of-life years
before the Aria seasons (which are absolutely lovely and with a great OST
indeed)

Also a great guitar cover of Aria's "Rainbow"[2], most satisfying guitar tab
I've had the chance to learn too.

[0]
[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Manga/YokohamaKaidash...](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Manga/YokohamaKaidashiKikou)

[1] [http://www.mangareader.net/yokohama-kaidashi-
kikou](http://www.mangareader.net/yokohama-kaidashi-kikou)

[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hZ8uMRmRI0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hZ8uMRmRI0)

------
MaximumMadness
This reminds me of BBC's article[0] last month focusing on games as a form of
mediation. For many of us, gaming is an effective social platform and escape
tool during quarantine, but games have rarely been built with mindfulness at
the center from day one. Hopefully, we can get more titles in the genre.

[0][http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20200409-how-gaming-
became-...](http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20200409-how-gaming-became-a-
form-of-meditation)

------
billfruit
What might be western games of a similar bent, with a focus on soothing game
play:

-Stardew Valley

-My time at Portia

-Euro/American Truck Simulator

-Anno series

I personally find snooker/pool simulations very soothing.

~~~
ajmurmann
I actually stopped playing Stardew Valley because of the mining. At some point
to progress meaningfully you gotta mine. I found that part very stressful and
not fun, especially once you get to the mine in the desert.

~~~
Bukhmanizer
I actually liked the mining part of stardew best. I view pretty much all the
other parts as a way of supporting my mining habit.

~~~
ajmurmann
Given the mechanics, seeing mining as the main game isn't unreasonable. Most
progression hinges on it. Unfortunately I find the fighting part not well done
and quite punishing given how bad the gameplay of the fighting is.

All the fighting in the mines also makes it clearly not a experience that fits
the type of game we are discussing here.

------
hmhrex
I started playing this game called "It's literally just mowing"[1] and I would
say it's in this genre. I've been playing it a little bit each day and have my
found my stress level goes down when I do.

[1] [https://apps.apple.com/us/app/its-literally-just-
mowing/id14...](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/its-literally-just-
mowing/id1458309993)

~~~
partomniscient
Wow. We're pretty much at: "I wanna go on the"...

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0g4SCdox_pI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0g4SCdox_pI)

~~~
Igelau
There was another commenter talking about playing GTA and following traffic
laws. It's getting kind of worrisome in here.

------
hobs
It takes a little getting used to, but I would honestly say Kerbal Space
Program fits into this genre for me, its like adult legos.

I mostly just build different little planes and fly them around or stay in low
kerbin (earth) orbit and near the mun, but its just a very relaxing simple
game with as much complexity as you want to add.

~~~
dragontamer
I don't think KSP would fall under Iyashikei. It seems to me (I'm not Japanese
though) that Iyashikei is a celebration of normality.

"The Sims" and "Sim City" would fall under Iyashikei. But most people aren't
space astronauts. So KSP can't celebrate normalcy because you're pretending to
be something you're not.

Persona 5 has Iyashikei elements, as the main character interacts with day-to-
day school life. Even if there's an element of supernatural / battling
involved, there's an Iyashikei part of the game. Most people have been a
student at school. And that's the "celebration of normalcy" that Persona 5
brings forth.

> Japan loves making shows and games about childhood. Specifically about
> childhood summers spent catching bugs, fishing, going to festivals, sharing
> meals with family, and, of course, trips to the beach.

These things are present in "The Sims". But not KSP. If you watch a lot of
Iyashikei anime, you'll know what this article is going for. KSP doesn't seem
to be in that direction.

------
NikolaeVarius
In related news LSD - Dream Emulator is playable in english finally
[https://www.romhacking.net/translations/5523/](https://www.romhacking.net/translations/5523/)

------
benrmatthews
The Witness is a stress-free puzzler taking place in a relaxing Iyashikei
environment - and cross-platform now too:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Witness_(2016_video_game)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Witness_\(2016_video_game\))

------
DaveSapien
This is fantastic! I had no idea about Iyashikei as a genre, I knew it existed
but had no idea that it had a name. I am particularly happy about this as I am
just finishing my own Iyashikei game called Kanso. Does anyone know of any
good resources for Iyashikei? I'd like to dig deeper.

------
spinach
I played Ni no Kuni on DS and though it was beautiful it was much like any
other rpg with a main focus on battles, seems strange to include it here.

There is a similar genre in Western games (mostly indie) of these sorts of
types of games, filed under 'cozy'.

~~~
sirmarksalot
Especially considering how unforgiving the battles can be at times. The
slapdash "throw every mechanic in" gameplay design and stair-step leveling
curve makes for an ever-repeating swing between complete invulnerability and
intense frustration.

------
jrochkind1
These pictures all make me want to play these games REALLY BAD.

Anyone know the easiest way for a non-gamer without a console system in the
USA to get any of em, that might be figure-out-able for a non-Japanese
speaker?

~~~
dragontamer
Buy a console. Most of these games are widely available from game stores.

Animal Crossing is Nintendo's take on the genre, and is popular right now. For
PC gamers, Stardew Valley is English-native, but based on the Harvest Moon
series (which is almost certainly Iyashikei).

If you dial the stress up a bit, there's Yoshi Woolly world, and a few others
of that type. Its more traditional video game with dangers, but its low-stress
compared to most video games.

Don't confuse the static, hand-drawn artwork with the actual games. In my
experience, Iyashikei games are overly cartoony, and often low-polygon count,
to focus on the simplistic nature of the game. Its rare for this genre to
really blow me away with their graphics... but the simple cel-shaded cartoon
style (or low-poly style, in the case of Animal Crossing) gets the job done.

~~~
a_t48
For what it's worth, it's near impossible to buy a regular Switch at the
moment. You can occassionally get Switch Lites.

------
albran
Untitled Goose Game is, for me, a quintessential example of this genre.

[https://goose.game](https://goose.game)

------
jrhizor
This reminds me of Cloud, a 2005 game that let you arrange clouds in the sky
to solve puzzles. It was very relaxing to play.

~~~
markdeloura
Jenova Chen's game? Yes! Flower is another great relaxing game by him and his
team.

------
legel
The “downtime” of many RPGs (which perhaps not coincidentally are Japanese)
seems to fit this category beautifully. Think walking through towns aimlessly
talking to strangers in Final Fantasy VII and VIII, or playing with chickens
in Zelda Ocarina of Time.

------
teunispeters
A fun one introduced by relatives (yep, Saskatchewan farmers) Farming
Simulator: [https://www.farming-simulator.com/](https://www.farming-
simulator.com/)

------
zmix
You don't get healed by kitsch. You get healed by facing the issue and working
(out)/fighting hard.

~~~
noobermin
It depends on the situation. It's almost a teenage meme at this point but I
don't know how many problems in my professional life (for example, coding
problems) that I've solved just stopping work and taking a walk where my mind
is free to relax and then approach something anew. Just grinding all day
doesn't always work.

~~~
zmix
I agree. Though, what you are doing is no "kitsch". I'd rather call it
"getting off the hook". The "kitsch", for me, is those overly idyllic Japanese
anime characters and stereotypes.

------
Razengan
"Green The Planet" is a very good example that immediately came to my mind.

------
greggman3
Does (did) Farmville fit in this category?

~~~
Aeolun
Addictive Iyashikei? I don’t think so, but I’m not sure why I think that.

------
oknoorap
Can someone give me list of this genre?

~~~
dragontamer
In America at least, the term is mostly used for anime / manga that matches
the category. This is the first time I've seen the term applied to video
games. Most video games have conflict, and conflict is stress.

However, there are many video games that have Iyashikei elements. Even the
quintessential "save the world epic" Final Fantasy has Iyashikei elements.
With FF-VII Cloud Strife playing video games at the Golden Saucer, or FF-XV
having a road-trip with bros. Some of the most celebrated parts of the games
are Iyashikei, the low-stress parts of the game that were in-between the
battle sequences.

Leaving Square/Enix for a second... there's also Nintendo's "Fire Emblem"
series. The characters always talk about their personal life. And the player
plays matchmaker, trying to get different characters to talk with each other,
to discover their personalities. The most recent Fire Emblem: Three Houses,
has an entire School-simulator where you set up the curriculum of your
students.

Almost all Japanese stories seem to have a part where Iyashikei comes out to
destress the main character (and the player).

So the question is, are you interested in games with Iyashikei elements (which
IMO, includes almost all Japanese games worth talking about...), or are you
interested in games that solely are Iyashikei? The genre exists on a spectrum,
from games like Animal Crossing (mostly Iyashikei), to Atelier Sophie (More
Iyashikei than not), to Fire Emblem / Final Fantasy ("save the world" epic
plot lines, that visit Iyashikei at certain parts of the plot).

~~~
kipchak
I think the Yakuza series might be a good example of a game of the "with some
Iyashikei" category, while still having a solid core story and gameplay to
lure you in to karaoke and Mahjong.

Also I think Skyrim fits a similar bill, with most of what people enjoy
seemingly being the wandering around and taking in the world.

~~~
matheusmoreira
Yakuza series has great substories. It's easy to forget about the main story
and explore the city instead. The healing disappears precisely when the game
starts demanding stuff like high scores. It suddenly ceases to be a stress-
free experience when the player is required to achieve a 95% score in a
karaoke rhythm game.

------
dash2
Doki Doki Literature Club is a classic of the genre ;-D

~~~
koonsolo
Seems like the HN crowd loves irony ;)

