Some video games are often popular because of psychedelic visuals. This is portrayed through some of the best design and art styles in the medium. Among these, a few often make their mark in history.
In the list below, we will be taking a look at a few of these video games, which are fondly remembered for their trippy art style.
Psychedelic Visuals In Video Games
Subnautica
This is an entry that everyone might not agree with. Subnautic does not directly lend to trippy visuals, but it can be considered psychedelic in nature. This is mainly due to how the game involves underwater exploration on an alien planet.
Aside from the obvious thalassophobia trigger, the game boasts some lush underwater visuals with several original flora and fauna designs. You play as a researcher who has crashed his spaceship in a remote planet, the majority of which is covered with ocean.
It’s your mission to figure out more about the planet so that you can find a way to make your escape. Subnautic got a sequel spinoff, which is equally great, and is getting a second game, which will add multiplayer modes.
Inscryption
We know that deck builders and card-based games are not everyone’s cup of tea. But the one we are talking about right now has been a game of the year nominee before. Beyond that, Inscryption is also very psychedelic in visuals.
Inscryption is a very vague game with little to no buildup to its story. You are just dropped off straight into the card game with rogue-like elements. The game is very simple to understand and can get addictive pretty quickly.
Developed by Daniel Mullins Games and published by the one and only, Digital Devolver. Inscription is a testament to how indie devs are using interesting and trippy visualizations in a sea of ultra-realistic AAA games.
Return Of The Obra Dinn
Okay, maybe we were stalling, and it didn’t really hit the convincing spots for a lot of readers. But this one will definitely do the job for a lot of you. Return Of The Obra Dinn is the title if you are looking for psychedelic visuals in your video game.
The game is designed by an artist named Lucas Pope, and he worked with 3909 LLC as the developers. He is someone who already had a foothold in the indie game scene with hits such as Papers Please, which won him awards.
Return Of The Obra Dinn is also an award-winning game, often noted for its incredible visuals. The game is a narrative-based adventure title set in 1807. It uses a “1-bit” monochromatic graphical art style similar to games from the old Mac computer era.
Hylics
What if you like psychedelic visuals in your games but none of the following game genres are of your taste? Well, fear not, there are plenty of fish in the sea. Do you like turn-based RPGs? What if they looked trippy as hell? Hylics is exactly that.
It is another game that was developed, designed, had its music composed, and published by a single artist, Mason Lindroth. Hylics uses stop motion, clay animation with posterized thresholds for visuals, which oozes style never before seen.
The has gotten a cult status among the niche JRPG fans in recent years. A sequel was released, which is equally good with weird character designs and environments. Almost as if a deconstruction of 90s JRPGs, visually.
Katamari Damacy
Once every decade, some incredible Japanese developer will come up with an idea so crazy that everyone will love it. That includes Katamari Damacy is one of those kinds of games.
By word of mouth, the game absolutely does not make sense, but those who play it are absolutely engrossed by the way it’s presented. It almost works like a psychedelic hallucinogen, not that it’s a downside.
Katamari Damacy is one of the best games to leave your brain behind, unless you really care about the deep lore of the Moon and the King of all Cosmos.
Psychonauts 2
The sequel to Psychonauts is something that fans of the series have been waiting for since the PlayStation 2 game. In 2021, their wishes were finally fulfilled with an amazing follow-up title. Still a shame that a lot of people have yet to experience this amazing title.
Psychonauts is a wild ride down psychedelic game designs, not solely in terms of visuals, but also quite literally. Because you get to play as a character who is tasked with the mission to stop everyone from using their psychic abilities for nefarious deeds.
Just like the original title, players get to control Raz, a young psychonaut who is still in training. You get to peek into the minds of various characters and find answers to what culminates in a mystery surrounding the psychonauts and your own history.
Outer Wilds
Aside from having some of the most psychedelic visuals ever in gaming history, Outer Wilds is also a must-play video game. It was released in 2019, developed by Mobius Digital, and published by Annapurna Interactive.
What if you are stuck in a time loop where you constantly see the world getting destroyed? Sounds frightening but trippy as well, right? Outer Wilds is just that. You, the player to explore our universe’s planetary system while being stuck in a 22-minute loop.
Outer Wilds has won several awards for its incredible visuals and storytelling and entices fans beyond the bubble of video games. It won the best game award at the 16th British Academy Games Awards.
PsiloSybil
Everyone is familiar with platformers; Nintendo has made sure the genre is widely known as one of the popular types of video games ever made. But what if this type of game, which demands precision platforming skills, was something that leaned heavily towards psychedelic visuals?
PsiloSybil is exactly that type of game. Heavily inspired by Naughty Dog’s iconic Crash Bandicoot platformer down to a tee. But still has its own identity and plot. It is developed by the indie creator bad_vertex.
You get to step into the shoes of Sybil, a mushroom who is quick on her feet. She must traverse across the incredible mushroom kingdom to defeat the Lord of Hogs.
LSD: Dream Emulator
We don’t think much needs to be said about this title; you can already guess why we are putting it here by the name. LSD: Dream Emulator is the game if you are looking for psychedelic visuals.
But it is also a game not known by many because it was a Japan-only release, for the PlayStation back in 1998. The game was created by Osamu Sato, a composer and photographer.
He had a very controversial opinion about video games and wanted to use the PlayStation medium to make his own contemporary interactive art. Thus, LSD: Dream Emulator was born, one of the trippiest as well as experimental video games ever.
Sayonara Wild Hearts
We believe one of the few genres of games that can do psychedelic visuals pretty well would be rhythm and dance games. But the genre really never got to explore much of that because most fans are usually engrossed in covering the difficulty aspects of rhythm games.
Sayonara Wild Hearts is a title that changes things up with its trippy and hallucinogenic visuals. It is a rhythm action game which released in 2019, developed by Simogo and Annapurna Interactive.
The story follows a young, heartbroken character who plays through a bunch of visually enticing levels accompanied by songs. Our job is to take care of the character and game sure they are able to avoid obstacles and reach the destination.
