This game was a lot of fun to go through. After a bit of time, I was able to pull together my thoughts and write this review.

I really liked the narration trick The Voice pulls. I love 4th wall breaks, so it's always a treat to see it in a game, especially when it's used for dramatic effect. This one in particular really surprised me--I wasn't expecting it at all, so it really made me excited when I realized what was going on.

    However, I believe the game has two major issues that prevent it from being the best it could be. First, I think that the overall tone/mood of the game is too inconsistent. When playing through the game for the first time, the 31 textboxes (which I thought was kinda long) of watching Crystal look at and hurl insults at Iris' old posts coupled with the very creepy start to Chapter 4 led me to believe that the game would be very serious. At the very least, I was expecting the game to take itself seriously. But then The Voice just dropped the serious demeanor once Crystal realized what was going on. This became especially apparent in Ch 4.5, where The Voice just runs out of steam halfway through the monologue, and with the line "The voice continued, driving in the fact that beyond this point it would be impossible to tell genuine narration from joke narration." I felt somewhat betrayed by the sudden unannounced tone shift, especially during one of the most important moments of the story.

    The second issue I thought of involves Crystal herself. From what I gathered, Crystal is a perfectionist because she fears that not being perfect would lead to her friends ditching her. For example, she can't confront Claire over the phone, wishes her classmates would take witching seriously, and insists that "she needs to impress" people and that she "doesn't want to lose [their friendship] before we've even met," which taken together implies she desires approval from her peers. Presumably excelling in her studies was how she managed to earn that approval, which led to the present day.

    If that really is the case, however, then The Voice missed the mark. Being perfect isn't her goal--rather it's a means to her true goal of having friends. So The Voice's lecture on "accepting your mistakes," etc. doesn't address Crystal's true motivation, which makes it far less effective. Perhaps something to consider in your future endeavours.

    I will say that both the art and music were excellent. I personally noticed the timestamps/phone clock during my playthrough. They were a small detail, but a pretty nice touch nonetheless. It was very interesting to see 23:13 during Chapter 5.

    One final minor note--I noticed that Hurt Records is not credited on the main page. Is this intentional?

    Overall, I think it was a very nice game, especially for a first try. I excitedly wait for what will come next. Hopefully by then you'll have learned iambic pentameter :)