Oh I loved it! The writing is incredible, cheeky and relatable and somewhat understated. There were quite a few lines that made me swear out loud at the clever wording and fully pause the game to mull over. The artwork and writing combine eerie, lighthearted, and embarassing elements very well. It gives the main char & the hotel a very strong personality, so the liminal space feels much more present than it would in a game solely focused on creeping you out.

I loved the elephant puzzle and the short runs instead of longer routes. It felt like a rougelike in a way, where I could really dig into how I was experiencing each run instead of what I wanted to unlock or 100%. It's not often that I play a visual novel without compulsively hitting save every few minutes, but I straight up forgot that I could save during this game (and that's good game design!).

Also, I adore VNs but loathe the norm of splitting routes into "good" and "bad" endings (I want to focus on the journey, not where we might end up; I want nuanced routes!). The short vignettes of Parts of the Elephant managed to do just that, all without ever showing the full picture (and maybe there's a message in that... a parable of sorts lol). I'm glad I kicked off Pride month with this game!

P.S. The very first thing I did was talk to Casey and that conversation scared the bejeezus out of me. The hunger conversation hit so hard I truly looked over my shoulder to make sure the kid wasn't actually talking to ME.