#The suicide of Rachel Foster

[stardustizuku]

The Suicide of Rachel Foster has to be one of the most misunderstood pieces of media I have ever since, holy shit. You know media literacy is dead when someone can make an hour long YouTube video completely missing the point, and just acts enraged that the MC didn’t stare at the camera and said “I am a bad person”

[legy]

media tag 2024

#46. The Suicide of Rachel Foster

"not good nor bad but a secret third thing" indeed. kind of a game i liked a lot less the more i thought about it. i think it uhhhhhhh does not exactly come down very hard on the act by the mc's father that causes the title of the game. this did not work for me. ending is insane tho

[littleclownopinions]

The romanticisation within 'The suicide of Rachel Foster'

Content/trigger warnings: Suicide, Paedophilia, Grooming, Murder

So, for those who don't know, 'The Suicide of Rachel Foster' is a walking sim, released in 2019, about the player character, Nicole, exploring her family's old hotel and discovering the truth about her father Leonard's affair with titular character Rachel Foster. I'll give the basic run down of the game and then I wanna talk about the glaring issues and honestly the potential I think the game had. Feel free to skip the recap if you already know what happens.

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RECAP: After the death of both her parents, Nicole returns to 'The Timberline', to audit and sell the building at the request of her late mother, Claire. Upon arriving, she ventures upstairs to her family's old apartment within the hotel and enters her childhood bedroom, which is when an old radiotelephone starts ringing. Nicole picks up and the man on the other end introduces himself as Irving Crawford from the "Helena Federal Emergency Management Agency." He claims the family lawyer informed them of her visit to the old hotel and he has been instructed to assist her with her stay. Nicole wants to leave but the weather prevents this and she is forced to go through with the audit, staying till the weather clears up. Things get kind of complicated from here, so I'm going to explain the following as best as I can.

Rachel Foster was a 16 year old girl who struggled with dyslexia. She began tutoring lessons with Leonard but he proceeded to take advantage of the young girl, grooming her into a relationship with him. When Rachel became pregnant, the "affair" was exposed and Claire killed Rachel, framing it as a suicide. She split from Leonard and took Nicole away from the hotel, blaming Rachel for "tearing the family apart". Eventually the guilt caught up to Claire and she committed suicide. Leonard tried to move on with his life but eventually he too committed suicide because the community of Helena didn't accept him or what he did. Womp womp, am I right? Now in the present, Nicole was uncovering the truth of how Rachel actually died, and the full extent of the "affair". Eventually, Irving admits he is Rachel's younger brother. He was inside the hotel with Nicole the whole time, making sure she found everything she needed to reveal the truth of what happened to his sister. Once Nicole discovers the truth, Irving leaves the hotel and commits suicide so he can be reunited with his sister. Nicole then, would you believe it, also commits suicide to be reunited with what I think I'm correct in interpreting as not only her parents, but Rachel and Irving too? Idfk man..

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Now, the glaringly obvious issue with this game's story is the romanticisation and glorification of paedophilia and suicide. Not a single main character has an issue with the grooming, the age gap or the power dynamic between Leonard and Rachel. And yes, that includes Irving too somehow. They all justify it with excuses amounting to the equivalent of "well, Rachel was really mature for her age". Now, I will point out that the paedophilia is not completely ignored, but it's brushed past almost entirely. Nicole finds hate mail Leonard received calling him a paedophile and there is some graffiti in the hotel calling him a pig. However, every single important character seems to have zero issue with it which is obviously a massive issue. I mean, Claire literally murders Rachel instead of, i dont know, reporting her husband to the police? And I honestly don't even know where to start with the suicides, especially Irving's and Nicole's. Both of them committing suicide to be "reunited" with their loved ones is such a dangerous representation of mental health struggles and a gross romanticisation of the topic I'm left really wondering what the message of the game was supposed to be.

What really frustrates me about this game is the potential I think it had to be something great. Visually the game is stunning, the sound design is great, the lighting is beautiful and I think the core concept of the story was something that could've worked really well. A women returns to her family's hotel after 10 years simply to assess the building so it can be sold. Unbeknownst to her, she was about to uncover some dark truths about her family's history and her parents divorce. Pretty good, right? I mean, it's nothing revolutionary but it's the kind of story that fits a walking sim pretty perfectly. But goddamn this story was done so wrong..

This game should've been about Nicole Slowly realising she was gaslit and manipulated by her father to believe that the "relationship" he had was okay. It should've allowed her the space to look back on her father and see him for what he was instead of continuously through rose tinted glasses. It should've been about Rachel's death being done justice and Irving finally being able to move on with his life. It should've given Irving closure and allowed him to begin the process of healing after everything. Instead it was just a lousy, pathetic attempt at telling a story that, i hope accidentally, excused grooming and romanticised suicide for what I genuinely think was nothing more than having this weirdly consistent ending to every character's story.

Here's the thing, I don't think the creators of this game are genuinely trying to tell the player that paedophilia is okay and that, if they're struggling, the answer is just suicide. I can only assume the people making this game, at least writing the story, were trying to create the Lolita of gaming and failed miserably because the topics they were addressing were just too complicated for them to do justice to. Overall this game is like biting into a beautifully decorated cupcake only to realise it was made of foam and acrylic paint. Don't let the visuals and the atmosphere trick you into thinking this is a game even slightly worth your time or money to play. Regardless of the intentions behind it, this is an incredibly insensitive, heartless and honestly downright stupid story that feels like a real slap in the face to anyone who gave the time to play or watch it. Spend your money one something better and more worthwhile, kids!

[bufferingplzhold]

Little did I know!🫢

A lot of the time you can predict the ending before it happens. Not much takes me by surprise these days but playing The Suicide Of Rachel Foster got me! It’s roughly a 3-4 hour gameplay.

a mystery–thriller adventure game played from a first-person perspective. Players take control of Nicole as she explores the Timberline Hotel. Nicole's only means of communication is a radiotelephone she can use to talk to Irving.

If you like a little murder mystery and plot twist I recommend this game for sure!

[chobit92]

[boyapologist]

ok! my thoughts on the suicide of rachel foster are bellow:

I don't think the theme itself it's "handled poorly", because we are SUPPOSED to notice Irving's and Nicole's delusion and refusal to accept that Leonard was a predator. I don't think the developers were just sitting there jacking off to the ideia of a 50 year old grooming a child. I think that both Irving and Nicole's perspective of it are supposed to be fucked up, because humans are fucked up. Just as in any form of media, I don't think video game characters have to be perfect, or even good people, really. It's what makes them people in the first place. It's realistic. Not everyone knows how to perfectly handle and demonize their parents for being abusers. Some people simply struggle with it and live in denial.

HOWEVER, the ending sucks. The reveal was good, but Nicole's ending itself (ha) was just so fucking stupid. It led the game nowhere and turns the hours of play through into a waste of time. What's even the point of seeing everyone in this game lose their marbles if you can only choose either an anti-climatic ending or LITERAL SUICIDE??? It makes you feel like you just wasted hours of your life and got nowhere!

So in conclusion, I did like the game, and I don't think every piece of media has to handle a topic "well". Sometimes things are meant to be problematic, because problematic shit happens in real life. If you're expecting a video game to perfectly handle you the obvious message that "grooming bad!"... just go watch some video essay on youtube or whatever. Game's not for you. Or any piece of media ever lol

7/10!

[walkonpooh]

Found this while playing The Suicide of Rachel Foster on PS5. I understand the game is somewhat problematic, I haven’t run into anything too icky yet beyond the initial concept, but it appears to have been made by a small team and is impressive for that.

I don’t understand how the team at Titanic: Honor & Glory can’t make a game like this? Both take place in 1 location. If you can’t get sinking tech to work, make the game take place before the set Titanic sail.

Anyway, thought this was an awesome Easter egg. I love that attraction!

[no-fxn-club]

Hi I just placed the suicide of Rachel foster in one day and I am completely fucked

[hasilito]

[Intended for spanish speaking audiences]

We're LIVE on Day 7 of the October Marathon! (+18)

We'll be playing The Suicide of Rachel Foster! Mystery everywhere! Come join us!

twitch.tv/hasilito

[imperotenebre]

The Suicide of Rachel Foster PS5 gameplay 4K - prime impressioni

L'upgrade per PS5

[perhapsorpheus]

Trapped in a hotel by a horrible blizzard? Sounds familiar.. Tonight at 6:30pm EST!

[chobit92]

[mifithemuffin]

[ 7 days of Rachel's Suicide Diary + Isaac's Prank Diary ]

Day 1 / Next Day

Navigation

Drawn by 桜プリン (kuiruri)

Translation/cleaning/typesetting by @mifithemuffin

[imtiredmandontquestionit]

aod stuff

I'm a main bsd person, but I wanna go on a silly rant about aod (Angels of Death) rq! SO, this will obviously contain spoilers (For the ending mainly) and yeah beware!! (also s--cide warning)

So, I personally do not believe Rachel committed. There's one main reason for that; the window. The glass on the window was broken from the outside. I know it's implied she did khs, but the glass from the window was broken inwards, since you can see a majority of it on the floor, meaning someone broke in, not out. I saw a theory somewhere (I forgot where, sorry) that Zack was an "Angel of Death" hence why he has his, previously broken, scythe. He had one last task to do before resting in the afterlife, and he had to do his promise to Rachel, to kill her. Anyways I'm not active in the aod fandom so idk what is commonly believed but yeah, this is my interpretation of the ending! Sorry for lack of posts/bsd content!

[narrativestringtheory]

NST #917: The Suicide of Rachel Foster (2020

A couple of investigation variants appear in The Suicide of Rachel Foster (ONE-O-ONE GAMES/Daedalic Entertainment, 2020).