Unironically this.
>the background is a small town, part of the rust belt, where prosperity is gone, people are getting old and losing their jobs, shops are closing everywhere and young people are leaving for better prospects somewhere else
>the premise is the protag coming back to said city because she quit uni because severe mental health problems
>the plot starts with teenage bullshit and basically culminates into cult-ish old men sacrificing degenerates to an eldritch abomination
>yes, you read that right, degenerates, they literally threw prostitutes, muggers, beggars, drug users, etc. in the mouth of an Old One.
>theoretically the monster would be magically helping the city to not fall apart completely, the old men felt responsible to not abandon what was once flourishing and resourceful
<90% of the plot is still teenage bullshit
<the first clue that kicks the plot forward is presented right at he beginning but is ignored for days
<yes, that means hours of gameplay focused in literally nothing
<the dénouement is non-existent, the characters don't react to the massive reveal at all
<not even in a traumatized and catatonic way
<they accidentally kill the old men, go back home and proceed to live their lives as if nothing have happened
<this is presented this way because the whole "thing" of the game is the protag dealing with her own problems
<her own self-acceptance and coping with the environment is the true climax of the story, not anything going around her
>one of the best characters is the older girl who is sober and stoic as fuck
>she was a normal teenager until her mother died suddenly
>this made her father have a mental breakdown
>without a choice, she's forced into early maturity taking care of her father and everything else before completing 18 years of existence
>this makes her the "only sane person" in a group of adult children
<for some reason she still uses goth shit clothing and accessories despite said maturity
>this though could be explained, as she never completely coped with her adult reality, frequently going to uni parties to fantasize her alternate future as a bright student
<said parties are full of crazy lefties
<call me naive, but how can someone close to poverty deal with entitled rich kids ideologies?
>on the other hand, she's usually drunk as fuck and just wants to feel accepted, that's how fucked she is mentally
>as for the gameplay you can explore a small town full of possibilites
>up and down there's a lot of things to see everywhere
>characters with their own little storylines that can change completely with your actions
<except it doesn't
<you can explore mostly everything in day one but that mounts to nothing
<you can start "questlines" that will extend to future days where you'll have to talk to the same character over and over again
<and it's boring
<every single one of them
>sometimes there is something new in the map
<but the game never signals it
<that means if you want to have the full experience you'll have to explore the map everyday and most of the time find nothing new which is nightmarishly dull
<that said the whole game loop boils down to this
<fuck around the town mostly to no results
<start conversation that'll start the day main event, usually there'll be two so at least there's a resemblance of player agency
<go to next day
<hence and repeat
<also remember that there'll be no actually plot development until much later
<so it's mostly useless character building
People will say it was dead on arrival because it was made by turbo SJWs, which is a fair point. At least the soundtrack was nice. Also, the good reception that this piece of shit had amazes me to this day.