I liked the grungy color palette, and the art. The grimy brown & green combo really helps sell the game's gloomy & cursed feeling. I also liked how the player character had that Petscop vibe of dangling around the line of cute & creepy. The monster's cryptid design was also cool, it may have been cliche but that's perfectly fine and it absolutely fits the vibe. And the trees being shrouded in darkness made me sometimes imagine them having this amorphous shape, as if the souls the forest had taken had inhabited them or something.
The sound design also managed to accomplish exactly what it set out to, it's simple, effective, and nerve-building. The concept of a looping forest as a horror story & game mechanic especially being the main theme tie-in is also interesting.
...Unfortunately, I really did NOT enjoy the gameplay. It had a really good setup, then the monster began chasing me, and I was anxious! I tried to run away from it, used the trees to try and build distance, but that barely worked. Then I realized that it always knew where I was, and then after a few attempts I gave up and realized oh, you can just juke the monster. And that's the most efficient way to play the game... it's just... walking in a path and having to juke the monster every few seconds. After time it felt more like it was orbiting around me like a clingy moon than anything. I'm guessing this was something that simply could not be ironed out due to time, but it seriously killed my immersion after I realized this was gonna be the gameplay.
I'm not sure if this was the intent, but I would've preferred it if you had to specifically use the design of the forest & the obstacles to gain distance from the monster. Maybe even incentivize breaking off the path in order to survive. I don't have a problem with the idea of the monster always chasing you, that creates a lot of anxiety & time pressure which works well for the game, but the execution just fell flat.
Also, it didn't really feel like I got to engage with the story as well as I should've, because you literally don't get the time to look at & interpret the pages since the game doesn't pause while you're reading a note. The principle of "Show don't tell" wasn't followed at all since during the gameplay it was better to just instantly dismiss the note and read the player character's dialogue explaining what it meant so you don't die.
Anyway, the 2 endings are both nice. The bad ending tying into the theme because you literally just perpetuate the cycle by becoming another pawn (maybe the notes shouldn't have spoiled this so much) and I liked how the good ending changed the color palette to a more soothing brown & blue combo, letting you know you really had escaped.
All in all I truly did like the atmosphere & premise! It's just that, sorry but the gameplay didn't have the sauce to back it up and it just tanked my enjoyment a lot.