I don't know exactly what Ren'py uses (HTML5?) to run the game in browser, but the loading phase is much slower in chrome compared to like for example edge. It's even faster on chrome for android (perhaps it loads lower resolution images on phone idk).

I don't know if I messed some settings up in my chrome that cause this, can someone help?

it's not you, some crazy reason chrome has  install this new rue on their browser that does not allow local browser games to run on chrome. This is why many A.I Artist use WebUI  and Git together to bypass chrome restriction. You either give up on browser games or use firefox.