Ruya

Ruya is a truly meditative experience with a simple, endearing story, and interesting game play. If you're looking to just chill and play a solid, calming game. This is it. People who arn't aware, there is a demo of this game on Newgrounds, so if you're still on the fence, you can play part of it here: https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/719494

I loved this game. Sure it's a match game, but the atmosphere, the soothing music and color scheme, the focus on meditation to heal was all interesting and a great balance for a game to play while maybe doing something else in the background. I listened to some of the soundtrack and then decided to start playing an audiobook (a common bad habit of mine), and this was a great game for that. So if anyone else likes to multi-task gaming, this is a good one for it. Also, and I can't stress this enough, this is a fabulous game in my mind for anyone with GAD, MDD, or even ADHD or something similar. It's grounding and tension relieving enough that I feel it's great for that. It took me around 12 hours to conquer (with all achievements), but I know I can be a bit pokey. A normal player probably can beat this in more like 9-10, so I feel like 4 dollars is a really good price for that.

The game is basically a match-tree with a nice, relaxing atmosphere and a beautiful design. The difficulty curve increases with the levels, on advanced levels you can't just make random moves or you'll going to lose; they require a bit more of planning and strategy to win. But the game never gets particularly hardcore or frustrating. The story of Ruya is quite simple, but fits well in the minimalistic atmosphere of the game. It is not long, 64 levels in total; the challenge to get the three big flowers in each level (by dropping items until Ruya adds a flower on the next item and then using that item within five moves) add some more playtime (NB: if you get a flower with the finishing move, it doesn't get count... this is something I would change) I liked it. A nice and peaceful diversion, worth its money (less than 4 euros). Recommended for casual gamers, but still enjoyable by abitual gamers (like me)!

*Conditional recommendation* [b]Has limited moves, and if you get stuck anywhere, will block all further progress.[/b] Some levels can be quite difficult, so be aware of potential for lots and lots of replay to try to solve, frustrations and possibly terminally stuck. No playthroughs anywhere (and anyway levels don't generate or regenerate identically) and in-game hints only help a little bit. Matching shapes kind of game, no timing pressure, very nice to look at, soothing and pretty, and pleasant music. Backstory makes you feel emotionally invested in trying to solve the levels and give Ruya back her memories and zest for life. So a bit of extra heartache to have to abandon Ruya to her tears in the rain, if getting stuck without being able to complete. This would be much better with an added Skip, or Casual mode. Also, the rules of the game are not entirely clear - like those 'frozen' blocks - how many matches do they take to 'melt', and nothing visually to show how far along in '...

so calming. so relaxing.

Extremely therapeutic game, having a lot of fun with it and love the backstory concept! 10/10

Excellent match 3 variation, where you must use the match patterns presented to you, finish each level in a given number of moves and with the number of required colours, and optionally get the "secret" flowers in the process. In addition, some blocks can give you an additional move, some of them are frozen until you "match" them a few times, and on some levels, blocks can fall "sideways". All of this with a nice and relaxing design. Definitely recommended.

Relaxing and beautiful!