Unnecessary Rue Valley Hate
I genuinely don't understand the hate that rue valley keeps getting. I just finished the game and it was amazing. I go online to see how others take it and end up seeing so many negative reviews here.
I had an amazing time playing Rue Valley, especially as a person who has gone through the same cycle of mental health problems that the main character had.
I found that the game genuinely showed the horror of a self propagating cycle of hopelessness as well as the attitude of someone with no motivation. I genuinely felt so seen with some of the games dialogue.
Also Mike Smith, as Dr. Finck, holy his voice was so soothing. Other voices were phenomenal too.
I understand most of the issues come from the way the game explains the time loop, or rather the lack thereof, but genuinely I think people misunderstand that this is a game about psychological trauma and healing first and the time loop itself second. In fact I'm pretty sure the time loop itself was an allegory to the ways people in depressive spirals sometimes go into their own imagination to take a break from reality. I did this myself before I started therapy, so this made me so much more seen.
I wholeheartedly love this game and would recommend anyone who wants to try this out to not look at it like any run of the mill RPG, but one where your 'stats' are purely charisma based and will only affect the flavour of words spoken rather than consequences seen. So if you are searching for a game where your stats affect the world around in any way other than in conversation than this game is not for you.