The gaming industry can be accused of chasing trends a little too often, and for the most part you'd be right. It wasn't long after Fortnite Battle Royale blasted that there were BR games everywhere. It wasn't long after Monitoring that hero shooters appeared everywhere. And the same can be said for roguelike games, soulslike games and basically every popular genre in the last ten years. It's not just the genre where studios sometimes agree, but also in the stories they tell.
There are a bunch of games out there about revenge – I'm not entirely sure what they're about. If I had a dollar for every time a developer said they were inspired by the world shutting down during the covid-19 pandemic, which is totally understandable, I could probably retire. And while this could be boiled down to some form of groupthink or trend chasing, art is always a reflection of the world around it. And so I find it interesting that recent video game releases, including some of the highest rated games of 2026 so far, are focused on healing.
Life is Strange: Reunion Review – A Butterfly with Very Big Wings
Life is Strange: Reunion manages to step up to the plate and pick up the ball that its predecessor, Double Exposure, had dropped.
These stories of healing come from a struggling industry. It's not even April yet, and already there have been 13 studio closings and an estimated total of 3,000 layoffs. These totals follow 10,500 projected layoffs in 2023, 14,600 in 2024, and 5,300 in 2025. I can't imagine any developer feeling safe and secure in their career right now, not while PlayStation is shutting down studios like Bluepoint and Epic Games Fortnite developer. That, however it manifests in these individuals and the world around them, is a lot of pain.
Many stories that came out of the pandemic were about the need for socialization, connection and friendship, and you can easily trace the isolating impact of the pandemic to the rise of the friendlop genre. Likewise, it seems that these dismissals (to say nothing of the general state of the world that creates them) have led to stories that so many people need right now: that healing is possible, that healing can happen, that healing is not a disservice to others. Such stories, at such a time, are a line of communication to the players. What is received at the other end, well, that is entirely up to them. But there's no denying how healing is such a sharp focus in so many 2026 video games, for reasons tied to the state of the industry and the world.
SPOILERS AHEAD — SEE SUBHEADING AND SKIP SECTION IF NECESSARY
Resident Evil Requiem's Leon Kennedy Makes Good With Himself (Spoilers)
During my first playthrough of Resident Evil RequiemI was frustrated with how Leon handled his Raccoon City syndrome. He dies from the start, but he hardly seems to care. But in retrospect, it makes sense. Over Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 4and Resident Evil 6Leon has never known safety. Resident Evil 4 underlines his desperate need to save Ashley despite repeated losses, while RE6 continuing the cycle, forcing him to kill the president and immediately move on to saving the world. He's survived everything thrown at him, but decades of violence, loss, and failure—especially in Raccoon City—have hardened him. The result is that someone is so worn down that they no longer value their own life or especially survive this illness.
RE9 takes him back to Raccoon City, the source of that trauma, and makes it clear that his PTSD still defines him. His apology to Kendo's daughter and his comments about how he can't make a difference show how deeply it still affects him, so much so that his illness becomes a physical aspect of his ongoing trauma. Leon's journey in Requiem is about facing the past that still haunts him, with Hunk and the Tyrant as manifestations of it. RE RequiemThe two endings reflect his struggle: in one, he fails to heal, dies, and perpetuates that cycle himself. While Elpis heals him physically, choosing not to destroy it represents a chance to break the traumatic cycle. It's not a complete cure, sure, but Requiem hints at hope with Leon's marriage. He has a home, something waiting for him, someone who can accept his hurt and help him heal further.
Pokopia symbolizes the literal act of healing (SPOILERS)
Pokopia is a cozy game about finding Pokemon and restoring ruined regions of Kanto to some new kind of glory—not the old glory, mind you, but the act of becoming something new after healing. As players learn, the world itself has been damaged and destroyed by a series of natural disasters, so much so that people left Pokémon in the PC system to protect them while they escaped into space. These Pokémon share the pain of being left behind, yet remain so attached to a constant source of trauma. The end is bittersweet, with the world healed, but the journey is not over. The people are out there, too PokopiaThe ending suggests, but the healing process continues long after the work is done.
Dying Light: The Beast Gives an Angry Man a Choice (SPOILERS)
Dying Light: The Beast isn't a 2026 game, you're right, but Dying Light: The Beast has just released a new version of the game called Restored Land. In it, nothing resurrects — zombies included. Players are tasked with restoring zones and returning Castor Woods to its glory through fun zombie slaughter. The healing metaphor is on the nose like Pokopiabut it's worth remembering who Kyle Crane is in Dying Light: The Beastalso.
The Story of Dying Light: The Beast is the Story of the Industry – Game Rant Advance
Dying Light: The Beast's origins and development followed a series of events that were reflected in the gaming industry, both in development and media.
Kyle Crane suffers from good guy syndrome and has always been there to help with a sly joke, but the Baron's experiments produce an angrier, more monstrous and more serious beast. He still helps, he still sticks to who he is, but he walks the line between who he was and who he is. And his actions, especially in Restored Land, are as much about healing himself as they are about healing the world around him. It's a reminder: the past doesn't have to define your present or your future.
Life is Strange: Reunion Shows How Healing Isn't Linear (SPOILERS)
Life is Strange: Reunion reunites Max and Chloe, and the story it tells is about how healing isn't linear. The world moves on and things may seem like they are on the up and up, but one day, randomly, everything can come crashing down. Mined from the trauma and pain of past decisions, from world-shattering moments, a small slip can set someone back. Reunion reveals that in a Double exposure moments that Max doesn't even remember, her pain and trauma set her and Chloe back on the path they are on now.
That path contains traces of their past and the damage they have done to themselves and others. The present brings hope and confidence, but every moment has the specter of the unknown future upon it. In so many ways, it's about how the traumatic end of Life is strange 1 bleeds into every aspect and decision of Max and Chloe's lives, powers or not. It is a reminder that large and small disasters can trigger a spiral that feels constant. But Life is Strange: Reunion outlines a path toward lifelong healing, facing future catastrophes and not getting stuck in the past.
It is about acceptance of the trauma and the pain. It's about understanding that there is no way to undo the impact; not even Max's powers can do that. Unlike the original Life is strangeit's less about a devastating choice and sacrifice that ends badly in one way or another, resulting in those moments you can't let go, and more about accepting imperfect results, past pain, protecting yourself and your loved ones, and moving forward. Max and Chloe's happy ending just needed them to heal and get out of their own way.
Rearrange the cases in the correct US release order.
Start
Rearrange the cases in the correct US release order.
Light (5)Medium (7)Hard (10)
So many of the best games in 2026 are about healing
When I was curious about the best games of the year so far, what caught my attention was how often this theme was present. The above mentioned are the biggest releases to date, but they are far from the only ones. Lost and Found Co. is about helping a little dragon regain its power – an act of healing. Hermit and Pigwith games involving severe social anxiety, dealing with resistance to corporate conspiracy and emphasizing the power of community collaboration over isolation – an act of healing.
Together offers peaceful, meditative gameplay about protagonist Connie as she deals with nostalgia, loss and change through her scrapbook. The end result, while up to the player, is about closure with the past – an act of healing. Cairn offers a story about losing what matters while attempting the impossible, and it's a reflection on life. Again, it's up to the player, but a key choice is, you guessed it – a healing act. Restoring Woolhaven and reawakening Yngya's power in the latest release for Cult of the Lamb (not a 2026 game), its Woolhaven DLC (a 2026 release) follows – an act of healing.
A suffering industry making healing games
In the end, it may not help the developers who tell these stories, the players who play these stories, and the industry that produces these stories. You just have to sit with it and do your best, however you can – an act of healing. That's what Leon had to do. That's what Pokémon the world had to do. That's what Kyle Crane had to do. That's what Chloe and Max had to do. Stories reflect the world around them; these stories may also mirror yours.
And while these games can't fix everything, they remind us that it's worth trying to heal, fix what you can, and keep going anyway. For players and developers alike, it's a message worth playing through.
