So back in 2017, a movie called Atomic Blonde came out, and I remember a bunch of incels getting pissy and calling it "Just a james bond movie with Charlize Theron" like watching Charlize Theron beat the hell out of a bunch of goons set to the greatest hits of the 80s and have sex with a woman who dies one scene later wasn't something I'd want to do. In the same sense, I feel like this is "John Wick but for Gay Furries." Maybe a Liam Neeson film. Y'know, one of those action movies where they have a real actor, someone who can actually display the full range of human emotion beyond "quippy one liner" so they want to give him a tragic backstory to balance and justify all the hyperviolence he wants to commit. I mean come on the only thing Luc is missing, and I fully expect to see it in a full release, is a dead wife in the white sheets scene. We've got a similar set up with the main character, he's an ex navy seal, so there's justification for why he can snap necks or fire every gun known to man or whatever other action hero shenanigans he gets up to, and he's a war criminal so you know that even though he's REALLY COOL war is bad! Once again, I think all of this is hype. It's just what if you made [ALREADY FUN MOVIE NIGHT] have gay furries. Cool. I'm extremely down.
I don't want to honestly dig too deep into the guts of critique here, because it's not really something I want to rate since I know it's going to be more finished, and I'll have more to say then. Great teaser, wish there was more, etc. I love the creativity and how much you've twisted renpy but... I wish there was more accessibility. I would rather just not read the vn than listen to the god awful self voicing, but some of the fonts were a bit hard for me to read, and self voicing can't handle the things on the papers we're given. Is the puppy we're shown at the end supposed to be Theo, then? Admittedly I think you're gonna have to work a little harder to invest me in the cast. Personally I've got a fairly negative view of the military so having Luc and Darius both be like "wow thank you for your service" is like... hrm. Luc nothing but respect for nurses. Darius... I mean you kinda reaped what you sowed man. The names are different but I assume we're in Fake America and our enemy nation is Fake Russia, but Darius' deployment seems to be a mishmash of Iraq and Vietnam. idk if I were him I would not be touting my service if I got a whole town blown up including a kid that kept giving me bread. Despite my enjoyment of the overall... premise? setting? these guys do not thrill me, but I am a burnt out american so it might appeal to people who do not have to sit through countless recruitment attempts from the industrial war machine. Or maybe when we get a bit more time with them they'll offer me more than just "what if the punisher was a buff gay tiger?" It's hard to suspend my disbelief with Fictional Military when it very purposefully resembles Real Military, is what I'm saying, and that distances me from caring about them from an empathetic standpoint. Only a clown would die for his country etc etc. Either way you made me think this much about it, the use of the medium is extremely impressive, I'm always thrilled when people make renpy cry and scream and twist into something other than a visual novel engine. Love the art direction, and i'm looking forward to future updates!