When it started with a TOLKIEN QUOTE I knew it was going to be good (and such a fitting one...)
Overall regarding the actual production I'm legitimately speechless, OW was already a masterclass in renpy and yet this one managed to eclipse it in its first 45 minutes?! (well except for some of OW's MOST cinematic scenes, perhaps) The amount of art that is in this is already absolutely mental and more than that I'm really shocked by how inventive the visuals are (in terms of framing, movement, the use of text boxes/speech bubbles, and so on). There's so much movement in every single line, and while some of the scenes look a bit "comic-like" or "anime-like" a lot of them are also framed in ways that could only be accomplished in the medium of visual novels. I saw some of it previewed on socials but I'm still blown away by the end product.
The UI is very cool and stylish and suitably "horror," and the music choice is absolutely superb, as usual! As with all of Carrot's writing, I really love how poetic the prose sounds juxtaposed next to the colorful dialogue, it has so much character in the best way. (And random, but I kind of really like how american the setting feels, even moreso than OW, it has such a nostalgic feeling to me 😂)
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The intro scene went EXTREMELY HARD, it was one of the most cinematic intros to a VN that I've ever seen (that aren't like, pre-rendered cutscenes), and I also really love how it set the tone for the game while literally revealing NOTHING about the plot. Another scene that I really enjoyed in a COMPLETELY different vein was the "jumpscare" near the end of the demo 😂 the framing and the shot composition of it all reminded me so much of children's cartoons I watched growing up for some reason!
Overall I think that the demo did a fantastic job of setting up the character dynamics and making you endeared to them (ofc to make their gruesome deaths all the more heartwrenching later on, I'm sure). The entire demo has such a nostalgic and heartwarming feeling as you recognize that all of these people, who have moved on with their adult lives, get to come back and just be kids again with their childhood friends. They're such a colorful cast of characters, from the snarky Ze to the sweet Cordy to Marsh, who seems like THE definition of himbo (and surprisingly, a very likeable jock 😂) Gum is also such a sweet and likeable protagonist as well, and I really loved seeing them play off of the various other members of the cast. I was the most surprised by Berek, since I didn't really have a good grasp of his personality from his bio or design (he gave me the impression of "the guy from the friend group who 'made it'"?) and I was really endeared by his little chats with Gum, which were my favorite part of the demo - it's clear that he truly cares about them.
Another thing that really surprised me was how well the whole cast seems to get along, and how well they also seem to be doing (did I have certain expectations? maybe) 😂 Gum is, of course, suffering from the blessing and curse of being a freelance artist - and I really enjoyed how both Cordy and Berek reached out to them in this regard - but this seemed to be the only major source of "drama" so far (there are some other things that I found a bit sus, like why Gum distanced themselves and how afraid they were at someone coming up the stairs... but there isn't quite enough information there to make any predictions).
Overall it was AMAZING, and I absolutely can't wait to see the rest of the first part!