***SPOILERS ahead for Mark, Ken, Gabriel and "The Path" storyline*** I LOVE THIS GAME SO MUCHHH
This is an incredible VN holy moley. All of the characters are super complex and I adore them deeply - so far I've played the Ken, Gabe, and Mark storylines to their most current state, as well as "The Path" extra story. The art is some of the best I've ever seen in a VN. Dialogue is well-written and punctuated effectively with little movements of the sprites on screen, which I really appreciate and lends to the immersive quality of the game. And THE MUSIC cannot be understated!! It's so good and does an amazing job of accentuating the moods in every scene, and the tunes are quite memorable too! More than a few times I've caught myself humming some of the songs here. And, for all of his faults, I have loved playing as Grey - really makes me prefer this sort of "roleplay as this established MC" vs. the self-insert MC that a lot of other VNs have going on. Again, it's so immersive! Fantastic work, cannot wait to play again and again :D
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Ken's story was the route I played first, and good lord it's a banger, too (Spoiler alert: they all are). He might be the best-written character in here. I was immediately drawn to him from the bits we see of his soft side in the prologue, and I'm SO glad his story got to explore that and find some closure in that side of him he seems to repress. He's got so many sides to him - sure he's standoffish and rather toxically masculine at face, but he's actually extremely smart, thorough, and thoughtful if you pay attention, too. Discovering the details of his horrific past gives way to so much understanding as to why he's so guarded and why he's constantly at war with himself, and getting to exactly some well-deserved Revenge was so fulfilling!! I'm very excited to see where the rest of his story goes <3 I do have some questions I hope get answered regarding some of the minor characters in his story (particularly Takoda and "The Entity" and their level of involvement here, as well as the singer woman at The Salty Dog). Overall, it was fantastic!
Gabe's route is the next one I played, and it definitely felt like a bit of a weight off after the seriousness of Ken's story. Something I did really appreciate being present here was the time-travel shock on Grey's part. Given the setting of Ken's story, I could understand why it wasn't as much of an issue there, but here in the 80s it's definitely MUCH harder to ignore. I loooooved meeting Gabe's family and friends, his Abuelita is so adorable. The D&D segment was so much fun, and having everyone's little animated character doodles was cute as hell, and it worked as a vehicle to better understand Gabe's relationship with his group of friends here. I just want to give our insecure shark bro so many hugs. The latter half of the story felt almost like a Scooby-Doo plot that got obscenely morbid and terrifying, and I was left with FAR far more questions than answers by the end of it. It was quite a cliffhanger which was a bit upsetting (IS HE OKAY?!), but I'm fully invested in where things go from here!!
The last route I played was Mark's, and I found it to be maybe the most intriguing so far, given that (as far as I'm aware) his plot involves Virgil more directly than the others I've played, and I suppose that's the element of this story I'm most interested in demystifying. I found Grey and Mark's dynamic very interesting, though definitely also toxic as hell and a bit gut-wrenching at times, too. I really enjoyed the other characters that appeared in this storyline too. I'll have to go back and see what changes if I go a different way with things in regards to those characters. It felt like the dialogue with Mark's story had the most branching options, and the most play with the concept of VN dialogue as well (bringing up that thing). It was also super real to see how someone else might mentally deteriorate from going through/witnessing Virgil stuff. You'd think Grey would be more brain-broken after what he's gone through with it himself, but damn if he ain't a trooper and a half. That boy has some FORTITUDE, for better or for worse. The ending of this one blew my fuckin mind, and I'm honestly terrified to see where things go next, in a good way of course.
It was superbly enjoyable to try and piece together the details of Grey's past while playing the main storylines, and then the "The Path" just hits you like a TRUCK with all the details of That Character's past. Definitely had to take a couple days after that one just to process what I'd seen there, god that one is brutal. And while I'd grown to despise Virgil and his sadistic trickery throughout the events of the main story, "The Path" kindddd of made me understand what role he could be playing here for Grey. In what I've played thus far, I have opted to go the "romance" route for all main characters (I'm gay as hell, what do u want me to say), but I'm becoming curious how that involvement will affect things for some of these characters after gaining that insight on Virgil's possible motive(?).
Overall, I've been unbelievably happy with the experience this game has given so far!!!! Thank you so much for creating such a beautiful game. Seriously, you all are maestros with this stuff, amazing amazing work :) The only, ONLY gripe I have is that there aren't enough pages for saves, in my opinion. Unless I'm missing something, I've filled all 9 pages up just playing the 3 routes I've done so far. I reallllly want to do Hiro's route as well (and I still will regardless), but I'm a dirty little save-scummer who wants to enshrine all my favorite moments in a save file and I'm out of room currently.