Overview:
From chills to thrills and kills, this ominous mystery VN has a lot in store for both the reader and the story’s protagonist, DJ, alike.
Haunted by her past, DJ winds up back in her small hometown, only to be left with more questions than answers. Searching for the whereabouts of her mother’s disappearance, she learns that there lurks bigger and darker figures behind the facade of the idyllic neighborhood.
Hunting for answers, reasons, and clues, she inadvertently thrusts herself into the center of trouble and under the suspicion of the paranoid townspeople as more and more attacks and killings continue to rise without an end in sight.
Will DJ uncover the truth behind the gruesome deaths that plague the town? Will DJ uncover the truth behind her mother’s fate? And will DJ uncover the truth about her own true self with the gifts she had all along?
Through her using investigative prowess and through forming an unlikely friendship, she’ll learn that more meets the eye in the eerie atmosphere of her hometown she never once called home.
Thoughts:
Guided through a wordy info-dump in the beginning passages, I was dumped with more information than necessary to kick things off.
A lot of it could have been condensed or left out for later to help ease the reader in and give the reader something to chew on for a surprise reveal, whether that would come up naturally through dialogue or hinted at through the main character’s thoughts.
Then, through my own ignorance and from the way it was visually set up, I thought the brunette was the character in question who was spotted when the main character finds a young woman outside town.
However, I was mistaken, and I didn’t see much of the main character prior. So, having that familiarity of the main character ahead of time would have helped cleared up that confusion.
Even a black silhouette of the other character in question could have helped build up that suspense without fully revealing the character until later.
Otherwise, the first fight scene left me feeling confused because there was a lot going on with not the best visual cues there. However, through careful reading and after settling into the story thereafter, the action-packed sequences were easier to follow and digest with the world and the characters more familiar by then.
Furthermore, the only other minor complaint is that certain backgrounds were not visually depicted when the scenes transitioned from one place to another. Instead, the backgrounds are only there for core locations.
Regardless, the backgrounds popped with color, and it had a hand-crafted feel to them.
This did not impact my reading or understanding of the various situations involved. Rather, it’s just an observation I noticed while going through the story, which definitely leads with a steady pace not long after the story begins.
The story skips over the filler, and each story beat gets the protagonist closer in uncovering the mysteries of the town, leaving me on the edge of my seat for more.
Each choice feels heavy and impactful, feeling the weight of each one, as serious sound effects play after each decision.
As for the character sprites, the only issue I found with them is the dog, Bones, hovering in the air upon his second encounter when hiding the text box with the H key on the keyboard.
Otherwise, the characters are colored and drawn beautifully, and the variations of their outfits and expressions help immerse the reader into their worlds.
I became invested in their lives and the risks they took to which they put their lives at stake upon.
The story may not give the reader all the answers he or she is looking for, but it ends with a message of new beginnings and final endings wrapped into decisions of trust for the young main character to make who has to live with the consequences of her actions either way.
All in all, that is a story worth reading. I give it a 9.5/10.