I'M SO SORRY CHIM I STARTED PLAYING THIS LAST NIGHT BUT I WAS SO JETLAGGED AND TIRED I FELL ASLEEP AHHHHDFLAKJDSFADS
BUT I FINISHED IT TODAY. And I was also able to appreciate the second half more I think thanks to the fact that I was not absolutely exhausted LOL I think the beautiful calming music and beautiful painterly vibe really helped lull me to sleep, almost like a bedtime story...
AND WHAT A STORY!!
Gosh, Chim, all of your games just have this magical storybook quality to them it feels like. Even the ones that are traumatic and/or horrifyingly sad, they still somehow have this essence to them. I think thanks to not only your art style but also music choice and just the poetic way you write in general. At any rate, this game was no different and just as wonderful and beautiful and gosh I really loved it so much!! The art in this was just spectacular. I LOVED the way you framed it with the borders to really look like a storybook with cut-outs. And all the CGs, too! The CG scenes especially just felt right out of a storybook. I was in love with every one of them. And I especially loved how you drew Happho how did you make her look so cute and sweet??? I thought it was also really effective the way you'd use color to increase the mood, especially during numbing or menacing scenes, where it would go completely grayscale (or grayscale aside from the sprites).
In love with the music choices, as always. Especially that piano piece that Amaia plays. I LOOOOOOOVED how you kept bringing it back for big key moments, like the true theme of the game, the theme of Amaia finding her freedom through the piano and through that song and it becoming truly her. It felt very symbolic. And also just beautifully touching because it's a beautiful song so I always felt my heart start to soar every time it played.
---SPOILERS FOR SOME STORY BITS THO I TRIED TO KEEP IT MOSTLY VAGUE---
Gosh the story... my heart started to twist so much towards the end. I could relate so much to the idea of having something you once loved soured become of a person/experience with a person. So seeing Amaia break through and reclaim her love of the piano really touched something deep in my heart (which probably is what also made the use of the piano piece even more evocative for me). My gosh is Azaiah an awful awful man. In the type of way that you don't see it all right away. You only see those glimpses. And though he never was physical or inherently forbid Amaia from doing things or acting a certain way, she still felt trapped by him. Which is so much like so many relationships out there. Which was especially heartbreaking. And then my gosh the whole build-up in the ending, so much happening. Caleb, no!! I liked Caleb so much!! I was glad that the instant he saw that the things he was doing or said made Amaia scared or angry he took them back. Because it wasn't about him. It was about Amaia and her needs and her feelings. He's like the complete opposite of Azaiah. AND THEN HE DIED SOB. Sigh... and then ofc the big finale... I maybe should have seen it coming, but I didn't, and so my heart felt very soft and touched. Especially at the very end when the other girls' wishes began showing up on the screen. Ahhh... it was so beautifully done. Everything about it.
Thank you so much for this story, Chim! It was just beautiful in so many different ways and I loved it so much. The presentation, the story, the characters... just an absolutely breathtaking and wonderful experience. This might be one of my favorite games of yours!!! 💕