Lots of feels. The game touches on some heavy subjects - it doesn't force you to go to deep into them, but it doesn't shy away from them either. While Cove is definitely the focus character, there are plenty of opportunities to share moments with other people, friends and family alike.

Consent is a tricky thing to handle in games. There's a special section just before part 3 to discuss how the game handles it. It was a thoughtful approach. I'm not sure what the ideal way to handle it is within games, considering the nature of the medium, but this was done well.

The inclusivity did not feel shallow. There were moments where things just happened without comment, and there were moments where decisions where explicitly affirmed by the text. There were a couple of moments that felt weird to me as an NB, because the affirmation was along the lines of "Normally only girl/boys do this, but you never cared about that". It was kind of weird reading that as an NB because I feel like either everything or nothing is weird about gendered action in this case, and the way it reads presupposes a binary framework. On the other hand, the game doesn't try to pretend that there's no problems in the world even while depicting everyone you meet as accepting, so this is another complicated thing. I appreciate the sentiment of the text, and this is really a nitpick in a script that is overall stellar.

Personally, I very much enjoyed role-playing as a normal person growing up. I had a weird, disjointed childhood and I felt like I was getting a glimpse of a life I could have had if I was born in a different time and place. There's a lot of Cove's life that is reminiscent of my own, it was a little surreal (in a good way) at times to see a reflection of my past while thinking through who I am growing in to.

I really loved games growing up. I fell in love with games because of things like Heavy Rain and Analog: A Hate Story. At some point as I was getting older, I stopped spending as much time looking for gems and just went with whatever the major games were, which tend to be very competition and action focused. These games can be fun at times, but they're not what really draws me into the medium. Then some podcasts I listen to talked about things on itch.io, which eventually led to me playing this game. And I fell in love with games all over again. Thank you.