A highly emotional RPG with Personality System and Mind Map Mechanics. Survive the unjust psychotherapy, lift yourself from rock bottom and uncover the mystery of the time anomaly that keeps the world stuck in 47 minutes.
I wish it hadn't squeezed such interesting ideas and a compelling concept (though clearly inspired by Disco Elysium) into a package that fails to excite much and occasionally feels like a time-waster due to some of its mechanics. While Rue Valley could have been so much more, it seems content with being just average.
Rue Valley excels in brief snippets, but forces players through long spans of laborious exploration.
Overall, Rue Valley gets off to a very strong start, and after a brief period of uncertainty, it manages to bring the story to a satisfying close. When it came to choosing and shaping our personality, I felt the developers missed a few genuinely promising opportunities, but I didn’t regret at all being there alongside Eugene during one of the long,...
Rue Valley is a mixed bag. Its strongest moments are getting to grips with Eugene’s situation, learning the character’s routines, and the initial sense of mystery and intrigue. Regretfully, it doesn’t stick to landing due to a rough and utterly boring final stretch. If you want an RPG, you aren’t really going to get one here.
Ultimately, Rue Valley is a frustrating experience, with too many loose ends and unresolved arcs at the end of the game. It’s unable to make the most of its excellent setup, faltering in the mid and late game stages as you’re forced between slow montages and extremely specific puzzle sequences. It’s a game with great writing and some truly fantastic...
