Accessibility in games has only recently become a topic of conversation regarding modern titles. As more games are released, more accessibility options are available for players with limited vision, hearing, and more.
One new trend, however, is games that have accessibility for a particular phobia, and Monster Hunter Wilds has come with an Arachnophobia Mode.
Arachnophobia Mode in Monster Hunter Wilds
According to Eurogamer, players who have had early access to Monster Hunter Wilds thanks to their PS Plus subscription have noticed that the game’s accessibility also has a mode that helps players with arachnophobia, i.e., the fear of spiders.
Players can turn on Arachnophobia Assistance, which adjusts the appearance of some small monsters and endemic life to accommodate players with arachnophobia. "
Here's a look at the mode in action:
The result is that it turns spiders in the game into golden slime blobs that players can fight off without feeling too icky.
Curiously, the game should address only arachnophobia, specifically since many of the monsters are made to scare players with how gross or creepy the creatures are.
Not All Spiders
Though the mode takes care of smaller creatures resembling spiders, it doesn’t change any larger monsters. One monster, for example, named the Lala Barina, is spider-based, but its arachnophobia mode doesn’t alter its overall look.
If it’s any consolation, the Lala Barina only has four legs instead of four, so it’s easy to discount it as an actual spider. Then again, some think that it’s the legs that really make the spider, and Call of Duty was able to remedy this problem by just removing the legs on their spider-like monsters.
It is worth noting that the golden blobs are available in the beta, so it’s possible that there could be some changes made to arachnophobia mode in the future. Who knows, maybe with enough community outrage, maybe they could turn the Lala Barina into a giant gold slime instead of its current form.
Accessibility in Gaming
Arachnophobia mode is just one of the latest things that accessibility in gaming has been able to address. Besides Monster Hunter Wilds and Call of Duty Black Ops 6, World of Warcraft was also able to introduce a mode that would cater to players who were afraid of spiders.
For now, it seems like accessibility is continuing to evolve as more ways to make games accessible to different people are getting introduced. What started out as being able to cater to blind or deaf players has also changed for players with limited mobility in their bodies and more.
There are even official controllers released that are fully customizable and are aimed for players who need very specific specificationss when it comes to their controller needs—anything to get more people playing video games.
Watch out for Monster Hunter Wilds when it launches for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on Feb. 28, 2025.