Depression Quest was by far one of the more intriguing text based quest games that I’ve played, at least in recent memory. I think what Depression Quest handles so interestingly are the games concept of restraints. In other text based “quest” games, a restriction might be something more practical, a “broken weapon,” or “missing tool” etc. Here, the effective change is that restraints on the player are reflected on the “stats” of the character. How well they are feeling, if they are in contact with a therapist, whether they are on medication, and how it's affecting them. I got a good ending, to my understanding, by the end of the game, I had made the effort to actively continue the meds, keep seeing my therapist, and make efforts to communicate with the close friends in my support network. All my “stats” were positive, and the game ended rather peacefully. I thought what was more interesting were the parts, especially in the earlier game, where certain options are unusable, because they wouldn’t be within reasonability in relation to the character, and these amounts can become more or less depending on the state of the character. It intuitively shows how things can slide and become much worse or better, and that the struggle is constant. I found the game to be quite the journey from end to end, and thoroughly appreciated it.
This game definitely made me cry. (in a good way)