Chicory: Self Doubt and Self-Belief
Gonna be honest, this entire piece is going to be a spoiler for Chicory. If you haven’t played the game, I recommend it. Please also know that Chicory covers themes of depression, self-doubt, and intrusive thoughts. It can be difficult at times, so take care of yourself while you play it.
Here are my non-spoiler thoughts about this game.
Chicory is a top-down adventure game where you go around getting to paint the world anew after something happens with the current Wielder. You play as a character whose job is to take care of Wielder Tower. She loves being able to help out there because she admires the current Wielder. But when something happens and she finds the Brush, her life takes on a new path. The rest of the game finds you traveling the world, helping folk and learning more about yourself.
Chicory is a game about discovering what you’re capable of and learning that you don’t have to set such high expectations for yourself. The painting mechanic means that each player’s world will be slightly different (which is brilliant, tbh). You also get to interact with a unique cast of characters that add their own flavor to the story. Pickle is a personal favorite of mine, shoutout to the homie.
Screenshot from Chicory's presskit
Chicory was one of my favorite games of last year. I was honestly hesitant to play it at first because I wasn’t sure that the mechanics would draw me in, but I’m glad that I gave it a shot. At its core, Chicory is a game about learning to believe in yourself. It’s about seeing outside of yourself to realize that people have their own struggles that you might not be aware of. It’s, I don’t know, a game about what it’s like being a creative person and trying to live up to the expectations that folk have of you.
Chicory frequently emotionally punched me.
Imagine, if you will, a character creation screen where you are asked what your favorite food is. Unknowingly, you answer “Pizza.” This becomes your character’s name for the rest of the game. (In doing some research for this piece, I learned that Pizza is also the default name for the main protagonist). I really played myself with that decision given that online folk mostly call me Pizza. Every time my lil character would get called out, I felt attacked.
Pizza really struggled throughout the game. They’re thrust into main character status at the beginning of the game when all of the color in the world suddenly vanishes and no one can get in touch with Chicory, the current Wielder and titular character. Up till this point, Pizza had been tasked with the upkeep of Wielder Tower, a job they loved because it meant that they were helping out Chicory. The game follows the adventures of Pizza as they try to help out everyone and do the best they can despite their lack of confidence in themself.
Pizza never thought that they were anyone important. That they were just there to support the folk that were doing incredible things. It was her role to make sure that the small things were taken care of so that other folk could thrive. She didn’t think that she was meant to make her own impact on the world. But she also sometimes got so lost in her own story that she wasn’t always able to see that other folk were struggling. It was frequently frustrating to watch Pizza interact with Chicory without her noticing that Chicory was drowning in her own thoughts.
Chicory was raised to be the next Wielder. There were high expectations for her and the way that she would paint the world. And people loved the work that Chicory did and were constantly impressed by the way that she changed the way they saw their surroundings.
Screenshot from Chicory's presskit
Chicory also never believed in herself. There was always something wrong with her art, always a stroke that was just too heavy or a color that was just too saturated. Nothing was ever perfect, and so everything felt like a failure.
I’ve been (and to an extent still am) both characters at different times in my life. Chicory (the game) was occasionally hard for me to play because it hit a little too close to home. I wanted Chicory to be able to see just a spark of what others saw in her and help her realize that she was more than the art that she was making. That she didn’t have to do everything perfectly just to be valued, heck even that she didn’t have to create something to be valued. I wanted Pizza to understand that they were more than just a support to other folk. That they had their own mark to make on the world. I wanted them to know that it was alright for them to have dreams of their own to pursue.
When I loaded up Chicory, I thought I was in for a cute game where I would run around solving puzzles and painting things. I didn’t know that I was going to experience something that would call me out so loudly and so often. I’m glad to have played it. It’s a good reminder that the folk that we look up to also struggle and that sometimes we have to take the risk and try out something we don’t feel prepared to do. With fun mechanics and a top-tier soundtrack, Chicory is well worth playing.
It was also very cool seeing the credits roll and watching the world that I’d been painting (or frequently not painting) scroll by. Don’t be like me, spend more time painting the world lol.
Seriously, Lena Raine did a phenomenal job with the OST. I listen to it so frequently and it might be my favorite OST of 2022, with Wielder Temple coming in the top spot.
