Despite being very different from your typical Furry Visual Novel (what with the lack of sprites and the entire game being in NVL-mode), What A Day That Was proves you can do a lot with very little.

The presentation is in general quite good. The music and the backgrounds have a very coherent style and set the tone perfectly. There are only a couple of points where I think the backgrounds could be improved.

First  is the use of the same background for both cars we end up riding during the story. I think this is a missed opportunity to visually distinguish the two cars, especially considering that the two almost end up embodying the two different "philosophies" the game centers around. In fact, the very first thing we are told during the protagonist's second ride is "I've never been in a police car", and yet we are presented with the same picture we have been staring for a good chunk of the game.

The second missed opportunity is in the field background. What is happening in the story is trying to communicate to us that the view should awe us, but the background is so dark with the textbox superimposed on it that I can barely tell what I'm looking at.

The writing is in general very strong, though I couldn't help but find the couple of passages where the protagonist has horny thoughts unintentionally funny. While I can't blame a teenager for being horny, the narrating voice shifts so much during these passages that it almost feels like we landed in a separate story written by a different author. Considering the protagonist's voice is very muted throughout the whole story (even when I think a more emotionally charged voice would have helped), the shift feels very disorienting and I feel like the character voice doesn't feel very consistent.

Aside from these nitpicks, I feel the story is very strong for about the first 2/3s. I must admit my main gripe is the conclusion, where I personally can't help but feel like the game missed the mark.

Minor spoilers to follow.

Even though the police ride is supposed to be the emotional highlight of the story and the true climax, everything feels very flat to me.

I feel like what is missing is the tension. This is supposed to be the moment where ideologies clash and the protagonist's worldview shifts, but unfortunately nothing as dramatic happens. The protagonist is immediately receptive to the little life lesson and accepts it uncritically and completely.

I am guessing this shift is supposed to be justified by the "shock" of seeing a former rascal and personal hero in a completely different guise, espousing a radically different message. But this "contrast" is not perceived by the reader, considering everything about the cop's past is just being told to us now, in a very abstract fashion, just as we are meeting him for the first time.

I really think the story should have shown the moment where these two different worldviews clash for the ending to have the impact it was obviously intended to have. The route I'd have personally taken is to have a much more heated and less friendly discussion between the protagonist and the cop, with the cop trying to reach him out but the protagonist needing some extra time to metabolize what the cop was trying to teach him. Or the friends' "betrayal" could have played a bigger role in the protagonist's coming to reject his current path. Or focusing more on what the cop meant for the protagonist. Or possibly all of the above!