I enjoyed Bearony quite a bit, but the fact that there is not much of a story here yet leaves it in a very strange place for a review.

I think it did its job as a game jam demo relatively well - it is a prototype that shows off what the developer has learned in a month when starting from scratch. A lot of care was put in customising aspects of the UI, or giving some flavour depending on player choices (specifically the several outcomes of naming the player character). It has some neat tricks that I haven't seen even more experienced developers do. It also makes me wonder if code shenanigans ate up most of the development time and left us with such a short demo.

My favourite part about this entire VN is the art. The style is just so incredibly charming. The bright colours (on the bear character specifically), and the expressions are wonderful and the splotchy colouring, I adore everything about it! What I look forward to the most is just seeing more art and expressions of these characters.

My main gripe with the current build of Bearony is the flashing lights in the opening scene. There is a content warning on the game page, but I hope such effects will have a toggle or get toned down in future versions.

Of course Bearony's biggest problem is its length, or rather lack of said length. Even as a little prototype, it would ideally do more than give us just a very bear-bones premise. One would hope it would give us a strong hook, some more intrigue to gag us, or a clearer indicator where the story will go. This lack of substance is the game's biggest weakness, but one that can be fixed once more of the story comes out.

All in all Barony is disappointingly short, but the vibes are immaculate and just seeing the screenshots of the game causes my brain to dispense free serotonin. I am looking forward to seeing more of these boys and more of the story.