I...I have a lot to say about this game. For starters, I'm North Carolinian! Granted I'm from the piedmont area and not the mountains, but still! It's super great to see a game set in the state where I live and in a setting and culture I'm familiar with. It's so comfy! I love how accurate the vernacular is, among other things! I was playing the first episode with my boyfriend (who's from the mid-west) and pointed out how unbelievable it would be when Stella mentioned that no one in the Holler goes to church. "That's super unbelievable. A rural, southern, mountain town and no one goes to church?", And then imagine my surprise when I could address that in-game! I was really impressed that the game was reading my mind lol!

That leads me into the dialogue choices. Love them! I love the variety you get with the choices with the different traits. And even traits aside, there's a good variety of options to shape the protag's personality really well! I made the unfortunate mistake of picking to talk to animals on my first playthrough because I ultimately feel like that one would be better on a second playthrough purely because of how much additional context and dialog it offers and how the consistent options you pick alter what characters can say. It really does feel like my choices and the traits I pick have a pretty big influence in how things play out, and that's great!

And THAT leads me to the characters! I love every single one of them. They all stand out on their own and have such great personalities and motivations, and I love how even the prickly characters (lookin' at you, Tabby and Doc), have really understandable reasons as to why they act and behave the way that they do and uncovering those reasons and learning more about the mysteries is so engaging. Can't wait to see what's going on with the Pastor 'cause for the moment, bless his heart, I think he's just a little misunderstood and tries a bit too hard. But that could change! Who knows! 

I also love the inclusion of romance too! I feel like there's a good amount of variation for the folks that are gonna be interested in that and honestly? It's nice to be able to play a horror game where I have the option to smooch a scary thing too c: 

The mysteries! God. So, I love spooky stuff. I love horror. I love cryptids. I also love me a good mystery and I feel like Southern horror done properly is so rare to find. But y'all do it so well! Incorporating southern cryptids into the mystery and treating the characters with respect! It's always really nice to see Southern characters depicted as people and not caricatures. I'm so excited for more episodes so we can figure out more of what's happening.

God! The art! It's so good! I love the character designs so much and how you can so much about the characters based off of their attire, but that they have more going on under the surface. I am also in love with the Ghost Hunting scene. I noticed that Kaneeka had a Kyubey sticker on her laptop, so am I safe in assuming a lot of those bits with the possession scenes were Madoka inspired? Art-wise, I mean. It was really cool! It's not something I see a lot in VN's so I was really taken aback and unnerved!

The horror and build up in this is so good. The reveal of the nest in Episode 1 was a good WHAM moment for me that I was very sure in my purchase. I had wanted to play through Episode 1 first because I wasn't very sure that the horror payoff would be worth it when I got there, but it absolutely was!

I don't regret my purchase one bit and I can't wait to see what y'all have in store for us next!