Funny you should say that, I've read that many people derided it for it's portrayal of depression
It's because it's different for a lot of people. The game says that right at the start, that it's only about her experience of depression and not trying to make big generalisations. The people deride it for it's portrayal have actually kind of been making those generalisations, like I've seen people write things criticising it like "of course you'd still go out with friends even when you're feeling low". I've only experienced mild depression at best, but I've had plenty of times when I didn't go out with friends even when I knew it would be good for me.
For what it's worth, I've heard plenty of people who said they've had similar experiences to the game.
A lot of the criticism levelled at the game is completely unrelated to the quality of the game. Not that it's perfect or immune from criticism, but it's usually very obvious when someone has reviewing the game has an agenda, and from what I've seen from some of the negative reviews, they do.
Plus since the first thing the game does is state that it only covers one interpretation of depression, a condition which is arguably different for everyone, then it's not the most valid complaint in the world to say that this portrayal is 'wrong'.
I just played it out of curiosity and I'm chiming in to say it's very close to my own experience as well. I've been very depressed and eventually suicidal for quite a long while before I decided last year to take medication (feeling much better now). Would have definitely helped to have someone like Alex, my own relationship died out pretty fast as did my university career and, yeah everything else. It definitely feels like you can't check any other box than "stay in bed and let the day go by" with all the consequences and strings attached.
It was surprisingly spot-on about cat ownership, I rescued a kitten right when I had reached an all-time low and that turned out to be the first step towards recovery.
That said I don't think it's a good tool to spread depression awareness, I assume that those who haven't experienced serious depression will just scratch their head and wonder why there ain't no "man the F up" choice that would solve all these problems.
I think the way it crosses out the good items would get the idea across to a lot of people (although not everyone). My biggest problem is that if you take the good options from the start then it stops crossing out items really quickly. I wish it threw in a few more set-backs so you can get knocked down a bit and have to work your way back up again.
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Very close to my own struggle with depression
I have struggled with depression over the last few years. While my circumstances were different (I didn't have a girlfriend and my family was supportive), the story brought me through some of the very same struggles I have faced. Getting out of bed seemed herculean, seeing a therapist seemed terrifying, and picking apart relationships and what people said became destructive to both of us. Although I often knew what the right thing to do was, I couldn't motivate myself to do it.
Ultimately, someone pushed me just hard enough to go to see a therapist. I was skeptical at first, but over the course of several sessions I found that it helped. After several months and a fear that taking medication would "mess with my brain", I decided to do it on a trial basis and eventually found it helped me significantly, along with continued therapy. Over time, I found that I was able to open up to friends and that my quality of life generally improved.
All of this, the struggles and the solutions, were modeled well in Depression Quest. It was kind of a strange experience actually, as I was seeing my struggle over several years in minutes. While there were some differences in how I reacted and my struggles, I would say that 90% of the struggle matched what I went through.
I find it odd to think of this as a "game" because it's not something you do for entertainment. I would instead call it a "simulation". It allows someone to spend 30 minutes in my world and I would heartily recommend it to anyone who wants to better understand what I have gone through in my struggle to fight depression.