(Review based on build 0.2.1)

Right Heart Man's greatest asset, as well as what helps it remain a largely enjoyable experience despite some uneven writing and presentation, is how diligently it sees through the high-concept premise.

The protagonist is a homeless runaway who inexplicably discovers a person resembling an exact reflection of himself within a mirror. From these two things, many questions and problems – such as the reflection's journey of self-discovery, practical issues arising from him having no ID, and the kitties pondering the nature of their relationship – emerge in a way I think shows great care for the story and good attention to detail. While not advertised as science fiction, the game does feel like something made with the ethos of coming up with a wacky idea and then working through its implications. It's easy to get invested in a story that feels this eager to exist.

I do have various criticisms to make, too, however. Firstly, the writing has a tendency to go for pure function in scenes that would really benefit from making an impact as literature. Though it's not too long, the opening is really just an infodump with not much style to it; I would maybe prefer getting all the information about the protagonist's history across in some other way. Along similar lines, when the reflection first appears, the narration immediately jumps to thinking about philosophical and thematic issues. Sustain the mood! Let the characters and the reader linger in the scene! (It's a bit unsubtle to spell out the self-love metaphor the literal moment the plot point appears, too.)

In the big picture, the serially released VN often feels like it was appended to rather than properly outlined and edited. Everything is anchored around the relationship between the two characters and tightly focused on whatever problem they're currently dealing with – apart from the dream sequence, which is quite hard to make sense of, there isn't a lot of good setup and payoff. Some details come off as inconsistent: the literal first thing the protagonist and his reflection do is cuddle, but intimacy of any sort is a tense issue for them later on. Though the narration remembers all this happened, it doesn't make much sense with how the character arcs develop, and could afford to be changed. Also, the game goes back to the moment the reflection emerges from the mirror many times. Maybe it'd be better to simply put all the information there when it happens, or at least make the characters talk everything through sooner?

Some smaller points: the POV switches are so subtle they're always confusing, which may be too gimmicky of a literary technique if intentional. The flowery narrative voice generally stands out from the more casual manner in which the characters speak, but sometimes they use words ("incredulous") that don't feel completely natural for them.

Presentation is on the whole quite rough, I would say, with a lot that could be improved. The sprites are positioned strangely, with only the feet cut off, though I'm now wondering if this represents a bug or if my copy of Right Heart Man was personalized since the itch page shows them as floating full-bodies. Sprites are also sometimes centered and sometimes off-center with seemingly no reason at all, and a character can linger on the screen even after they've left in-universe. Similarly, backgrounds don't always match what's happening in the story, and there are a couple of long stretches of pure black that could probably use images. The music can feel inappropriate: the track playing through the end of chapter 2 and all of chapter 3 doesn't really fit the more comedic moments. As a result of all this, I often felt disconnected from the scene currently playing out – with so many details coming off as unintentional or inconsistent, the game doesn't reach a high level of baseline polish.

Despite all these nitpicks, the story does have its strengths, and though the author's idiosyncratic brand of weirdness may be an acquired taste, those brave enough for it will find a lot to enjoy. I hope what I had to say feels like useful feedback! Looking forward to more!