V Rising players are calling for an arachnophobia mode to deal with its horrible spiders

Players of hit vamp ’em up V Rising have taken to the game’s Discord server to request an anti-phobia mode to make some of its creatures easier on the eyes. It seems the offending boss in this particular instance is Ungora the Spider Queen, a high-level giant arachnid (the worst kind) who’s set up a fetching gothic domicile in the Cursed Forest’s Spider Cave. According to the mission summary for Ungola: “No living creature save for her children has ever entered and lived to tell the tale.” That’s enough to put anyone off.

One player called Simonocles took to Discord on behalf of their friend who experiences arachnophobia. Simonocles asked Stunlock in their Suggestions For Content and Features channel if they would consider some way of making the ol’ ceiling crab of a boss look less intimidating. Unfortunately, the request seems to have caused a bit of a stink.

While some have rallied around Simonokles’ request, other Discord users have said V Rising players should just embrace the Gothic horror trope and let spiders be spiders. I’m not sure where this leaves anyone with arachnophobia. It doesn’t tend to coincide with wearing shirts with puffy sleeves and drinking from goblets in moonlight while lightning cracks overhead, at least not in my experience. The general consensus seems to be that V Rising should implement modding support so players can handle the matter themselves.

Stunlock haven’t formally responded to the thread just yet – one of their community watchers will be “carefully reading” the channel as discussions continue – but if the studio was to implement an arachnophobic-friendly mode for V Rising, then they wouldn’t be the first to do so. Obsidian added options to the settings for their Honey-I-Shrunk-The-Kids-alike Grounded back in 2020 so that anyone with arachnophobia can make all the game’s spiders look like floating blobs instead. Coffee Stain Studio’s Satisfactory has a similar setting but, rather than blobs, the arachnids become floating cat heads. I’m a dog person so this just makes me wince by association.

Stunlock added the option to enable offline play in V Rising yesterday so at least you can take on the Lv.60 Ungora in the privacy of your own server now. Disabling spiders is a very specific form of implementing accessibility but as someone with arachnophobia myself, I quite appreciate the effort. Is there anything ordinary that spooks you in games that you’d like the option to turn off?

V Rising is out now in Early Access on Steam for £16/$20/€20, replete with giant spider. If you need some tips and tricks for V Rising, including how to track down bosses using the Blood Altar, then Ollie’s got you covered.

Disclosure: I really can’t be having with spiders, me.