Another neat shortform VN that makes every word count and leans into its literary influences.

The writing is slick. There are plenty of evocative descriptions to set the tone, but Cade's voice is wisely surfaced during pivotal moments. A particular highlight is the fight scene, which reads as very naturalistic in its rising sense of disorientation; in general, I think the game does a good job at painting the perspective of a young adult character who notices, feels, and fixates on things without always knowing why. What A Day That Was! keeps its moments of characterization confidently reserved and understated, trusting the reader enough to not state every subtext out loud.

(One small editorial nitpick: the game has a tendency to repeat information, seemingly not taking the fact that dialog already reveals character names into account. For example, see Mason's introduction, which goes from "my younger brother yelling at the TV" to "Mason: What the hell?!" to "My brother, Mason, is...", which I feel could be tightened. Also, a couple of longer paragraphs could afford to be broken up.)

The plot has just the right amount of complexity for the scope of the project, its elegant simplicity difficult to appreciate if you don't stop to consider how ingeniously laid out it all is. Each detour before and after the main event feels justified, but the game never comes off as stuffed with needless details. The only spot where narrative momentum is in danger is probably the chat with Justin; I would have enjoyed some kind of foreshadowing for it – maybe just Cade offhandedly wondering if he'll see the guy tonight – but it's ultimately not that big of a deal, as the scene is short and clear in its intentions. Another weaker point is the climactic conversation, as the character it involves similarly lacks setup and the protagonist is maybe just a little too quick to accept what he's told. The final beat feels believable as a character moment and brings the whole thing full circle satisfyingly, though.

Background choices are good, and the color coordination feels considerate enough that I wouldn't have minded having longer transitions between scenes to display the images more prominently. The original soundtrack is the real star of the show; besides the tracks themselves being nice to listen to and laying down the game's atmosphere perfectly, their placement in the story – silences included – always feels purposeful. Sound effects are used sparsely, but it feels right to let the music do the talking. The biggest presentational hiccup is text frequently extending far down enough to overlap with the buttons; I'm into how it's displayed, resembling the pages of a book, but some extra padding near the borders would help.

All in all, good work – even if an important scene sort of underwhelming hurts the whole to a noticeable degree, the prose has a constant clarity of purpose to it, and the insanely good music more than makes up for the limited visuals. Plus, the game is grounded and realistic in a way that feels like a breath of fresh air with the average FVN leaning towards melodrama. Recommended read for everyone suffering from Fields of Spring withdrawal.