Having just finished my first playthrough of this and about to immediately (tomorrow) start a second, I figured this would be a good time to write a review.

I typically don't really bother with writing reviews to games i play but this one felt very special and to be honest I can't exactly figure out why, but I'll try my best to write about it anyway.

Firstly, the thing that drew me to this game in the first place, the visuals: I initially thought it might be something like Omori since that's what the appearance of it reminded me of but I found the game to be very different from that in most aspects. The art and general atmosphere of it though gave me a very warm feeling all throughout this experience except for places where that was intentionally absent. It just all feels so cozy and nice.

Secondly, the thing that has made this game stick to my memories so nicely, the characters: There's a lot of characters to meet throughout this game, most of which naturally only get a few minutes of screentime and no real impact on the overarching narrative, never the less the developer has done an excellent job of making them feel real and making me care about most of them. Other times where sympathy wasn't intended I found the game great at making characters feel imposing or untrustworthy, and in either case, a lot of the dialogue is just incredibly fun to read through.

Thirdly, the other thing that made the game etch itself in my mind, the story: I can't really say much here as the overarching narrative relies on obscuring certain info until much later into the game, so i won't add to what's already in the description. I will, however, say that it's incredibly good, and made me feel anxious for the wellbeing of this world and its characters, I still haven't gotten the 4th ending -hence the second playthrough planned- but i think that's a testament to how much this game has made me care about its world and characters

Lastly, the gameplay: It's fairly simplistic and as the description describes, I found the simple puzzles strike a nice balance of keeping things interesting without feeling tedious or making things drag unnecessarily

Overall, probably one of the best games I've played in recent memory, despite the comparatively short runtime (it took me 5 hours but i just play games a lot more slowly than most). Highly recommend it if you're interested enough to have read my yapping up until this point and I'll definitely be looking forward to any other project from this developer!