I very much appreciate seeing furry visual novels tackle historical fiction; there's not a lot of that out there. But Fragments of the Past feels unpolished even by the standards of this sort of indie work in a way that looms over the entire reading experience. For instance, while I can see the idea behind the art style, I think the execution ends up accentuating the unconfident linework and the sparseness of the environment in addition to looking severely out of place with the photo backgrounds and the one that appears to be... a Minecraft screenshot? The attention to detail needed to pull off the highly stylized look just quite isn't there.

Similarly, there's a decent amount of typos and grammar errors to be found (e.g. "emptyness", "Nabisin plant another kiss"), and the prose is often burdened by awkward phrasing ("my efforts had gone to fail", "the constant fear their relationship posed for both of them was dangerous"). On a more technical level, it's not just the tense that's inconsistent, but the grammatical person, too – though predominantly making use of third, I'm pretty sure the writing jumps to 1st and even to 2nd person in places, possibly while trying to convey the viewpoint character's internal dialogue. This kind of thing is not particularly difficult to notice and makes the game come off as unedited.

And as far as the story goes: can't say much with how little there is at this point, but I think it avoids the most common pitfalls plaguing this kind of thing. The swift pacing is on point, even if how thoroughly various plot points are explained borders on repetitive, not to mention the narrative's tendency to spell things out making the characters feel like they lack complexity and interiority. As for structure, it maybe feels kind of weird to open on a grand mystical exposition dump and then immediately transition to something a whole lot more grounded. I suppose the magical elements don't take long to return to the limelight, but still, one has to wonder it would have been more interesting to learn some of the lore later on or if it could have been a bigger factor in the character drama-focused beginning. To be clear, though, I don't think this represents as big of a concern as the rough prose.

The project has its strengths, namely the unique premise and the pulpy, propulsive storytelling, but I feel like multiple aspects of the execution prevent them from shining through. On the whole, the VN could afford to be more mindful, consistent, and deliberate with both its writing and its visuals. Fragments of the Past has my moral support in any case because it's definitely something I'd like to see more of, but I do also hope it can grow and improve from its current state.