That’s definitely an ambitious project. Loving the moody vibe. The visuals are great, from the doctored BGs, the CG, and the sprite (Ian is such a good boy). Very clever use to implement multiple playthroughs. The intentional use of Renpy error to indicate that is brilliant. I just wish I didn’t get completely locked after reaching the third ending.

The writing is nice, but not flawless. I feel like the scope can be pushed more into sparking the embers all over again with Ian. I get you want to make the story end on an open end and keep things vague, but you raised too many loose ends, which impacted the experience. Rather than accepting the beauty of the thematic message & end, I was bugged by too many questions.

Overall, it’s a good read. A job very well done!

That was a great read. The mystery, the melancholy, it was all really well done. I admit I didn’t really get the last ending but that’s fine. Ian is a very interesting character and I feel for him, whatever’s actually going on. The writing in general is good as well. The backgrounds are nice, the sprite looks good, the CGs are beautiful, and the music and sound effects supplements the atmosphere nicely. The way the game’s name changed was interesting. I can’t be sure whether I caught them all, though. This is one of my favourites for this May Wolf, definitely.

The writing is atmospheric enough to sustain interest through the patiently paced journey; even when the situation the characters are in is sort of abstract, the details and the descriptions keep it grounded. I do wish the game went a little further with its imagery, though, even if I get that it's not the point – while the overall mystery of what's happening here needs no further answers than the ones already implied, I think it could have felt more distinct and interesting. The prose finds monotony and solitude in the emptiness, but doesn't quite reach the kind of haunting beauty that would elevate it further.

Along similar lines, I think the connection between the two characters remains more unspecified and hollow than it could have been even in the thematic confines of what the game is trying to say. Compare and contrast with something the game really succeeds at: the nonlinear plot. The repetitive structure of the reader playing through multiple times to get all the endings allows it to have its cake and eat it, too, with the initial run creating a baseline of expectations and the final one pulling off some dazzling twists that recontextualize everything that came before.

I wish the relationship between our characters would have been reframed or elaborated upon in a similar manner. You could introduce them as strangers meeting in this world by chance at first, doing basically what the game is doing now, and then dig deeper in subsequent endings. Unfortunately, in what feels like a major missed opportunity, there is not that much more to it all; I think the flashbacks we get aren't enough to truly explain and characterize what these two mean for each other. It does feel like kind of a bummer when it's what the emotional stakes are really resting on.

Still, the VN is a pretty good read on the whole. Ian's design is quite pleasant to look at, and the expressions do a lot to suggest character, which is very lucky when the visuals are so sparse otherwise. Plus, no spoilers, but the formal trickery in the last ending is just so fun. The stock backgrounds do maybe feel a bit generic in a way that underlines the vagueness of the setting, but it's all professionally put together – the only thing that feels underpolished is NVL mode not being styled like the custom UI component (the font isn't even the same).

I'm giving you 5's across the board... I don't know that I would necessarily if there were a bigger number to rate out of? But 4 definitely feels too low. Presentation is very impressive, what a commitment for such a short project. There's 3 different artists that draw Ian... and I love the look of him in all 3, each one cooks hard. He looks SO gay in the sleeping scene. The music is also amazing and does a great job setting the tone. I'm always a sucker for any sort of breaking of the fourth wall (done tastefully), so using the medium to change the name and create the error to get the final ending? really good. I love that not only is the twist that Tor is Ian's light, but also his darkness. and pretty much just darkness for poor tor lmao. Sorry buddy. 

The only critique I have is with the story. The writing is light, and floaty, and I don't think that's bad. It works fine for the presentation, and the cycles are short enough that it doesn't feel like it overstays its welcome. Maybe it'd be a bit too purple prose with a more extended story but it works fine here. That said... I kinda want like. More? an answer, so to speak? I mean I can put together most of the stuff. How they died, why their specific branch of limbo/purgatory plays out the way it does, etc. But I want a thesis statement. I want a rebuttal to my "For what?" Ian has pulled Tor's spirit through countless cycles to the point of exploding him into a million tiny pieces, and then he just gets to go "hey death I'm satisfied actually can we stop" and death hits him with the shrug emoji. Idk it just is missing that final spike to land it home. The vn does such a good job building... something up, I want the final answer to shatter me. I want to lay awake in the middle of the night thinking about this vn for a week, and I feel like you're really close to that. there's more style than substance in this ending, but the style is soooo good that i can forgive it. There's this sort of... pensiveness and ominous undercurrent throughout the whole game. it's hard for me to pin down in words myself! and I can't really go back and reference specific parts because. well. There is nothing left here. I would say "maybe it's more about the time spent on the journey" but in this case the end is still very important, and the lack thereof. I choose to interpret the ending in an optimistic light, but I still would have preferred a bit more than the simple straight forward answer, including death showing up itself to dunk on Ian and then peace us out of the whole vn.

THAT SAID I still really enjoyed the experience quite a lot! Just because the payoff wasn't as striking as I think you can, could, and should have made it, doesn't mean I don't respect how well you managed the game, and how good the pieces pull together. I also can't help but love Ian's design, the crying tear markings are on the nose but they still have me very much feeling for him. I look forward to what else you do in the future, great first attempt!

'To The Shore's End' is a melancholic mystery romance that goes to lengths to take advantage of all the benefits using the medium of visual novels. I feel like this type of review and comment can't really go into lengths without spoiling the twists, so this is the spoiler warning. I have to commend the creativity and ambition of this visual novel, to try and craft a narrative that becomes recursive upon itself, thus reaching a sort of meta level of story-telling is one where I can feel the 'Doki Doki Literature Club' and 'Undertale' inspirations in it. The intentional use of Ren'py errors, the sort of 'passcode' level of typing in your own name to get a more 'true' ending, are really fun mechanics to unlock more story from this visual novel.

That being said, the story does leave me wanting, since with the 'mystery' being solved upon multiple playthrus, a lot of details are left unanswered and intentionally vague, and the framework of this story leaves me wondering about the nature of this world and if it's just made this way just to make Ian suffer. To start, the biggest question is that I'm unsure if this world is meant to be some sort of afterlife, a state of purgatory, or maybe even some kind of computer simulation. If it's the afterlife, does that mean that Ian has also died? If so, why is he stuck in this purgatory and not us? Is it actually Ian's story and he's just trying to come to terms with our death, so he's just replaying the same thing over and over? If so, why is it in this purgatory that we'd degrade upon each reformation? It's what leads me to think it might also be a simulation instead, cause then that makes sense for the degradation to happen. But then it's like, why is Ian also in this simulation? If it's a simulation, why doesn't Ian have this degradation problem? Just feels like the world is inconsistent with itself from this stand point.

Part of me then tries to figure out this story as if maybe it's allegorical, where it's about how Ian is living in the real world, and these are his dreams/hallucinations for what may have been. From context clues, it seems the main character dies from some kind of meltdown or explosion in some kind of nuclear energy facility or research lab. The 'dreams' that the main character had add to the tension and confusion, but don't fully add to the resolution of the mystery. Since Ian never did get to take the main character to the beach, this was his way of trying to fulfill his dream. That kind of tracks with the log book having so many names and fulfilled wishes, but not sure if it was alluding to the main character not having memory and choosing a bunch of different names, or if this was a metaphysical log book for the afterlife. I think I'm getting too caught up in the weeds of it all, so I'll summarize with that I'm still confused at the end of it.

Which leads to the payoff of going through the mystery of a romance that doesn't feel fully realized either. With both characters playing amnesiacs, there's not much of a romance that I feel builds between these two characters, and the sudden twist at the end where the main character is the one to go, feels emotionally manipulative. I think Ian is supposed to have some kind of arc once he talks with death at the end of the story, but it don't know what that would be with the vague fate of Ian left unexplained. Especially with character backstory flashbacks in the epilogue, that hint at more concrete story beats, it only really makes me wish I could see an acknowledgement that he knows the main character in the main narrative. I'm unsure what the goal of making the ending such a downer with the recursive code to leave the reader in black screen is supposed to impart on the reader. If it's meant to be a tragedy, I don't think that there's enough emotional connections made that earns it.

Aside from the structure of the main narrative, I think the prose is really wonderfully constructed. There's lot's of vivid imagery and interesting descriptions of existing within that world. That being said, when it comes to the theme of 'light in the dark', I don't think I really see the inspiration in a physical or metaphorical sense. You could say that it was Tor being Ian's light as he walked through purgatory, but his situation is so vague, I don't know just how much sense that makes. There's also a lab scene with what I imagine is an explosion, which could be seen as a light in the dark, but once again, way too vague for me to say concretely. Presentation is solid, with all the great artwork and the music matching the dream-like environment. The idea is really interesting, especially in a "each time you play through the story, you can unlock the truer endings based on information you learned before," but without seemingly being able to change your fate using this information, it becomes kinda depressing to read in the end. If that's the kind of story that was intended, then it accomplished that goal.

A bit of a slow start, but I wound up really enjoying this bizarre world the characters have found themselves in. At first, they're on a journey that appears dreamlike. Of course, it becomes obvious that it's the afterlife, but it's still a fun journey as the characters grow closer. The best part is at the ending though. All of them, actually. I always like to go through a VN multiple times to find all the endings, and this VN is no exception. I especially loved that one of the endings is apparently unlocked by knowing the protagonist's true name, which is only given to you at the end of the other routes. This decision ended up changing the VN pretty drastically, more than I expected. The other ending was also really trippy, playing with the medium itself to deliver a powerfully emotional ending. No matter what happens, they're doomed. It was really cool to see my choices make a tangible impact on the story, but I do have to wonder whether I happened to choose the right order of endings or whether it was already decided for me. Regardless, even though the writing is a touch purple prose-y for my tastes, this is still an incredible VN. Well done.

Feel like I see you in every comment section. Your turn, pal.

This was solid. Certainly more ambitious in structure than some of the other projects, which I think helped this project but also left some bumps in the road.

Major spoilers from here on out.

*

*

*

Implementation of Theme:

As I read it, the theme is implemented as kind of a twist here, with Tor being the light for Ian rather the other way around, which is a fun misdirect. I think it may lose a bit of traction at the end though with the message being that Ian should let Tor go, but I think my issues with that are better saved for the story section.

Story:

Full props for attempting something with a higher degree of difficulty in terms of storytelling - games that artificially require multiple playthroughs to get the real ending (i.e., you need to finish the game with a bad ending to unlock the good ending as opposed to trial and error where you could have gotten the good ending the first time) usually annoy me, but I think this was pulled off well enough. I like the references in the early game to later developments that give the reader things to notice, but I did feel that the "friend" and "love" routes still felt kinda samey with the exception of a few scenes. (I get that this was probably kind of the point, but from a "gameplay" perspective it would have been nice to have more differences so I didn't feel like I could just skip through most of it). I also like the way you teased the way to get to the second route without fully giving it away, even if I was just a little upset that Ian's lover couldn't canonically be named Admiral Pussypounder :(

Ultimately I think my main issues with the story are that you bit off a little more than you could chew in the confines of the jam. The long bits of narration between the town and the beach are evidence of this - everything up to that point is so granular that it feels jarring and abrupt to basically fast forward the rest of the story to the climax. I also struggled to put all the flashbacks together into a coherent narrative, and I'm not sure if everything was an actual memory or if some were just Ian's and/or Tor's desires. Like, Tor's wish is to go to the beach, so does that mean it wasn't fulfilled in real life, even though the "love" epilogue shows them about to leave? Like, it looks like they got blown up at work so presumably nothing happened on the way. Or was that just the memory that was in Tor's and/or Ian's mind before they got zapped?

Also not entirely sure what to make of the ending. I got that the story was Ian's purgatory waaaayyyy early on, but was the implication that he had actually dragged Tor's soul into it somehow? Cus that is pretty messed up, and really muddies the theme for me.

Presentation:

No major issues here. I thought the sprites and CGs were totally fine, especially on short notice, and the custom UI was a nice touch. I do wish some of the backgrounds came through a bit more clearly though. There were parts where we were supposedly in a tunnel that didn't look much different from the fields. 

Also, I get the whole "there's nothing left to see here, the story's over thing", but it would still be nice to have a "start over" button or something from a gameplay and review perspective so I didn't have to delete save data or look in the script file to go back and reread some lines.

Creativity:

I can't fault the effort, really. This was a fun idea for a more complex narrative, and even if it didn't land every shot smoothly, I still felt like this was heartfelt and entertaining. 

I give this 806,503 plus 3 and counting cycles out of 4455 bamboo tubes of fur care products.