I played through this VN about a week ago, and even now I haven't quite been able to gather my thoughts on it. There's just so much to process and even after writing all of this down it doesn't feel like it was enough.
I still haven't gotten over just how... warm everything feels. Obviously the color palette plays a big part in this, but it's more than that. The music, the environments (shout out to the friendly spiders, my pals), the interactions between Michelle and Alex. Even when discussing relatively dark subjects it's done with a certain amount of... tenderness? It's hard to put into words, but it's clear that everything in this was made with a lot of care.
I loved the aesthetics and presentation. The way the text is sometimes treated as a part of the background, the way scenes are framed, the music, the different colored text for each character, the animations, the background text in the signs/posters (the I AM MELTING one in the ice cream shop was particularly good), just the sheer level of details, all of it was lovely. I appreciated how much you were able to say without using text at times, which is something that would only really work with a unique presentation like this. The subtle animations really gave the environments much more life than they would have otherwise. The town that the story takes place in very much reminds me of parts of my own home town. The rot is cozy in the same weird sort of way that Silent Hill's otherworld is to me.
Despite all of the dark themes and generally bleak tone, I was... pretty happy while playing this? I don't think that was the intention at all, but in a funny way I couldn't stop smiling almost the whole time. As someone who can relate to Alex in ways that I wish I didn't, it was kind of comforting knowing that there are other people who (unfortunately) feel and think similarly to the way I do sometimes. The ideas of being this outside observer to both yourself and a world that is inaccessible to you, a world that's maybe not worth being a part of in the first place, a world that might be better off without you. I actually started writing my own VN a few months ago - mainly as a way of expressing similar ideas that are otherwise difficult to talk about to anyone. Normally I might be a little disappointed that someone else has already written something with (vaguely?) similar themes/ideas/etc but I felt the exact opposite playing through this. It was honestly a bit cathartic being able to read something close to your own thoughts as written by someone else (especially when it is as incredibly well done as this!).
I still haven't quite figured out the right words to really do this VN justice, and I'm not sure that I ever will, but I hope all of these will do for now. I'm glad that this was only a demo because it means Michelle and Alex's story isn't over yet, and that one day we will see them again. And that day is something I will be very much looking forward to.
p.s.: the only complaint that I have is that the line "She'll be venerated by equals and make friends with those worth the effort" is missing a period :^)