ok... this is going to be a very long comment. And it will contain spoilers.
I got this game recommended to me by a friend, and fell in love with the prologue. The way it uses "Show don't tell" actually made me smile as a writer and artist.
The art is gorgeous, the character design (as someone whose main focus as an artist is character design.) is perfect and the dialogue writing flows naturally, it's just a delight to read.
I started with Ken's route, because my friend told me he was Brazilian. As a Brazilian myself, i love to see the representation.
I screamed in joy when the writing switched to portuguese, and blasted Brazilian memes all the time. Colt and Jessie where so sweet and Jean is just... the best character. (Also, i think he's kinda similar to a Brazilian singer called Ney Matogrosso, at least when it comes to his figurine.)
Ken's backstory broke me a lot, even if he's the funny dumb guy, i love how complex he is. His denial is very interesting and the fact he's actually pretty resourceful and has great deduction skills, really gives him a lot of layers to pierce through. (Even if it wasn't out at the time, i have to say, the friendship Jean forms with Michelle it's really great.)
Then i read Gabe's route. He was really sweet and i can't get into words how much i loved him (I thought he was ugly at first, but now he's my second favorite.) I really loved the vibe of the route in general. His friend group is great, even if it has flaws (Talia is my favorite.) and the 80's movie adventure mood was the cherry on top.
Also, the current ending (Day 3) was really nice to see. This was also the time i decided to always skip sex scenes if they weren't necessary, i think it just makes the pacing a lot better.
[Plus, i don't wanna talk about... the whole Derik thing, cause it made me feel really bad. But i have to say, a small problem i have with Gabe and Ken's route, it's the fact that some of the Fragments seem a bit... too shock value? More specifically 035 and 043. For 035, i think the shock was already there with the CG, and it was really easy to understand what happened, so the log just hammers it in and makes the shock linger for a bit too long. For 043, it's just too explicit, slaps at your face something that you already know and it's not really necessary. Specially because the fragment right after it reinforces the information in a much more nuanced way. It really bothered me and felt a bit... unecessary.]
After gabe and ken's route, i read THE PATH....
GOD... FUCKING... DAMMIT.... It broke me, really broke me. I could see the queer horror being threaded and the fact i couldn't do anything to stop it made it even worse. The song at the end closed it all with a golden key, and made me tear up all the way.
It also made me love Grey as a MC, i already liked him because he was a very positive person, he always did his best to help people and overall was a very sweet person. But the fact that he can't see the good traits of himself and only thinks he's a terrible person, it made me connect with him even more.
Grey best main character.
Even if i was fucked up from crying, i started Hiro's route and... wow... it was like being on drugs. The setting and the supernatural elements blew me away, and i love how Hiro's character is portrayed.
He clearly puts a lot of his self worth on his work, and has a lot of pride for it. It does make him seem a bit selfish and manipulative at times. But you quickly understand that he doesn't mean any harm, and when he struggles to understand other people's perspectives, it's likelly because of his neurodivergency. He's a sweet boy, and i love him.
Also, i love the entity that stamps grey's tongue (I called the stamp "Mark of communication", because i really like rain world.), i wish he had a visible design.
Plus, GODDAMN, the choice of using body horror for the Trans character's route, it's just really witty and well thought.
I Read a couple more extras... but... then i had to start Mark's route....
This was my reaction to 90% of the scenes on this MF's route...
All i can say is... god dammit, i hate this man with a passion. Sure, i can sympathize with him in some points, and i really love how he is still a really complex character and isn't just "Bad person ooga booga." But still, i can't like him, i can understand him, but never like him.
Plus, I LOVE SIMONE. I have to point out how much i'm happy that this VN has good female characters. Please continue writing great women, i love them very much.
The obligatory sex scene... i'll just say i started to tweak a bit because it made me actually boil with rage.
Overall, it was a great route, i love monster designs so i felt very well fed in it, and it was really cool to see the more on the nose supernatural stuff.
(Also, Ollie is terrible at his job, lol.)
Overall, this VN changed the way i view writing, changed my artstyle a bit and made me think a lot about how i create art. It's just so well done and captivating.
I love how NIkko understand suffering very well. He understands that for suffering in media to be bearable, you need to balance it well with hope. I guess this is why i never wanted to stop reading.
It was so good, it actually sparked my imposter syndrome a lot, and i'm still trying to deal with it. It feels really personal to me, because it seems a lot like something i would write.
It even became a bit of a meme between me and my friends, since Virgil looks a lot like me/my sona in concept and appearence. The furry characters, horror and mistery elements, the fact that this game can be played as an investigation.
It all came together to create something really special, cheers to all of the team.
Since the next part will be a bit negative, i wanna list some minor stuff i like/hope happens.
1. Please, please, please, make Virgil have a true entity form. I'd love to see him depicted as the true horror he can represent.
2. I love the way the supernatural is included in the VN, makes it seem like the characters are in a low level campaign in a low fantasy rpg.
3. IT WOULD BE METAL AS FUCK! If gabe's day 4 turned the gabe crew into a "Ghostbusters like" paranormal hunting team.
Now, even if i liked the VN... i'll have to leave a little constructive criticism to the author. This comes slightly from a place of jealousy, but also from a sincere comment.
The same friend who recommended me the VN showed me some screenshots and told me about some incidents of the creator being a bit... rude with his fans.
Plus, i've seen some examples of the same behavior on this comment section. Don't get me wrong, i'm really glad Nikko isn't a problematic person as far as i know, but it still bothers me a bit.
Dude, these people like your work, they donated their time to reading what you made and want to share their enthusiasm about it. Doesn't hurt being a bit nicer with them. (Excluding the obviously annoying and unecessary people, of course.)
I would die to have such a massive following, and to have created something so beautiful, chill a bit man, it can really be a bit of a moodbreaker. I myself sometimes feel a bit disencouraged to interact with the fandom and make fanworks for Burrows, because of this.
WELL.... i'll just end this text by apologizing if my english it's a bit hard to understand. Not really my mother language.
And if you read it all the way here, please, leave a comment and tell me your oppinion if you have one. I love to talk about the things i like.
And if Nikko reads this as some point, i hope you don't take anything personally, i still love your work and hope you have a lot of success.