'One Last Week' is an emotionally heavy and depressing tragedy about the facing one's own mortality but being able to face it through support of someone you might not expect. This story is really good about building a living world, even when that world is ending. The tension is palpable as it describes the slow burn of the struggle of trying to maintain a sense of normalcy and routine, when by all accounts, it shouldn't matter. The art style is extremely moody and evocative of how bleak, yet hauntingly beautiful it is. Choosing to exist only in shades of purple, it feels like an ever present reminder that this is not a normal world. The expressions on the sprites are great, and especially the imagery at the end makes this horror story less jump scary and more existentially scary.

My favorite expressions in the story where when these two characters finally opened up about their flaws and shortcomings. I could really relate to Birch, as someone who is afraid of change and would keep to a routine in order to stay safe and sane. While the main character has a more flippant nihilism of 'it's the end of the world, I'm going to do what I want', but ends up finding out that once getting it, it's a lot more empty than they expected. I think that's why it's such a good exploration of finding connections in community and relationships, something that both the characters seemingly avoided before this. In a way, I feel like this was implied, but would've been fun for them to touch upon it earlier in the story, but I suppose the message of this story is to not take the time you have left for granted, even if it is just one week.

I feel like for the horror genre in particular, the monstrous force usually has some kind of allegorical parallel to it. Since this story doesn't seem to have some kind of social angle to it, the best I can interpret is that it's potentially climate change, as the overwhelming nature growth is more akin to an inverse of what would normally happen (like the sun blocked out by a purple haze). The vivid imagery, like the lights of the vegetation at night, or the zombie vines, or when we're taken by the infection, I'm not sure if there's more to it than just being striking visuals. As well for the final confessions of the two characters, it's only a light pay off for finally confessing to each other, and only getting a kiss and some cuddle time. But, I figure this story is a little bit about restraint, so that's more of a subjective taste.

Overall, it's a really effective and emotionally tugs on your heart strings, since it's such a dire situation for the characters to be in. The theme of 'light in the dark' is really emergent in this type of story, though in a way, it took the other option of having the dark win in the end. I will say that an apocalyptic survival story is a little expected, but it does differentiate itself by the method of infection being something so slow but so unstoppable. Overall, not really my type of story, but even I can appreciate the skill to weave a horror story that has an undercurrent of terror rather than just an immediate threat.

That was pretty incredible. It takes its premise (two men stuck on the last floor of a building during the apocalypse, living one last week) and runs it to its natural end. The characters are great, the game is written very well. It’s the end, but there’s still that hope that when we’re gone, a part of us still remains. The backgrounds and CGs are hauntingly beautiful, the purple glow being the only color we see. I’m not sure about the paper outline around Brich’s sprite but he looks good and expressive as well. The music works well too. Top notch presentation. Overall, it’s my favourite game of the jam so far. Loved it.

While One Last Week is heavily indebted to the usual tropes of the genre (calling what's happening specifically a zombie apocalypse feels like a step too far in grounding it in the familiar), it gets a lot of things right as the kind of story it wants to be. Some clever details help it convey the weight of time passing, and the main characters are recognizable but believable archetypes representing how a person might respond to the world ending.

Though some of the exposition near the beginning is a little blunt and the story misses an opportunity to linger in the ambiguity of what precisely is going on, the character arcs considered, a fragile veneer of mundanity does not feel like an inappropriate tone to aim for. Also, I do think the game hits some successful notes of dread as it goes on; there's a harrowing tenseness to the last third or so, and the climax lands both in terms of the prose and the direction. The only thing weakening it is that it feels like the text has already worked through the central ambiguity to the point that it's nothing new here.

The stylization of the art pays off in the ending, too, and it gets a lot of mileage out of the couple of tricks it uses. I wouldn't call the rest bad to look at, either – all the little details in the backgrounds help create a simultaneous sense of verisimilitude and something being deeply wrong with the world, and the paper border comes off as a functional reflection of how sketchy the style is on the whole. Along similar lines, the sparseness of the sound design helps emphasize what's there a lot, which is particularly nice with a radio show being a central plot point.

All in all, really enjoyable. I would not have minded a slightly fresher approach to the premise (particularly in the context of this jam, since everyone apparently decided to do apocalyptic fiction), but that is no big flaw.

Outstanding. Just really, really well done. 

Broken down by criteria, spoilers for those that haven't finished it:

Implementation of Theme:

Yeah, I mean, nailed it, obviously. Two people keeping each other alive in the most hopeless situation imaginable. One of them is a wolf. Yep, all checks out.

Story:

Excellent job of making both Judah and Birch feel like real people instead of characters. One of the biggest questions I had in the early stages of the story was how these two got to this point in the first place, and when those reveals happened they not only made sense from a plot perspective, but really contributed to fleshing out each of the characters. Seriously, almost every detail provided here goes such a long way to developing the characters, their relationship, and the world around them.

I think the romance was handled fantastically as well. Developing that side of their relationship right at the end felt even more impactful and tragic than if they'd been romantically involved the whole time. Managing to turn the end of this story into something that still somehow felt positive was really impressive. 

Presentation:

Also great. The choices in color palette really worked, with the purple conveying the post-apocalyptic setting in an interesting way that complements the more drab grays and browns. Minimalist art style for the characters really worked for me as well - expressive enough to convey what you needed but let the characters speak for themselves rather than relying on super attractive sprites. It almost felt like reading someone's journal from the event at times.

Final sequence, as alluded to previously, was beautiful and powerful despite the body horror.

Creativity:

One of the most impressive things, in addition to the above, is how well the lore was done for this story, especially in such a short narrative. The nature of the plant scourge felt fully fleshed out and that helped color the characters' existence in that universe. Obviously romances focusing on carpe diem/memento mori aren't necessarily new per se, but the execution here is off the charts and that's the most important thing for me.

This was just really good and something to be truly proud of. I'm glad I got the chance to read this.

I wanted to make a review, I really like the story and characters, and visuals. I would like to review the characters mainly. **VERY SPOILER** Warning.

- Birch: It was really satisfying to see the character break through the very popular trope of the himbo wolf. Few FVN  manage to do that actually. And once Birch snapped out, it felt hard, harder than I thought it would be. He's the strong pillar for the reader/MC. Also when he got the disease,  it hit a second time. It felt real, like how Birch didn't feel present for MC and probably was trying to process it but couldn't.  Really satisfying again to see a "coherent himbo", with flaws, and in the end MC felt stronger than Birch to process the apocalypse, the two having two different ways to process it. Probably his name reminds of that, a birch tree, being a pillar but not amongst the strongest wood.
Finally about when he's transformed, it somehow felt like the only romance, but it's normal Birch didn't have the mind to feeling something for MC with his disease. But seeing him writing a recipe and being in the front door, was really beautiful. 
Like he remembered MC's wish, and Birch could offer a company for MC's end (gosh it's making tearing up, it's the kind of relationship I like the most in medias). 

- MC: I'm not really sure if there was an allegory with him named Judah and being Jewish I think I missed it. 
But about him I think like for Birch I liked him more since the middle of the story. And his story is kinda sad and funny to lose his phone and contact to family. But than just to accept fate. I think one of my fear for an apocalypse would be being unable to contact my loved ones and just be all alone. Hopefully he got Birch. 
In the last act, I really liked seeing MC trying to cheer up Birch, though he doesn't have the mind to it. And MC really wanting to being with Birch for the last moments, felt real and just genuine need of comfort during this apocalypse. 

All in all, I think it's my favorite kind of apocalypse right there, some sort of slice of life, of two random characters trying to get through all of this. 

Absolutely fantastic. The author does an excellent job in setting up character romance both in spite of and because of the omnipresent dread saturating the story. As we were reading we couldn't help but grow attached to the character, to the point where one of us squealed  "no my comfort character!" when a certain reveal happened.

Devastating experience, 10/10. The game is free, the therapy won't be.