I really liked this! The art and music were both really cool, and I liked how retro it made the game feel! Both had a high level of quality. I also really liked the codex entries, and it was cool to learn about some traditions and concepts that I was only vaguely aware of!
I did notice a few errors which I'm guessing probably weren't caught before the deadline. If you want to fix them up, they are:
- I'm unsure whether it was a debugging thing or whether it was part of some mechanic that I didn't pick up on, but the hotpot ingredients all had numbers (or "N/A") over them after I put them into the hotpot
- The line "(Honestly the cutlery and stuff here is all pretty mismatched for restaurant standards.)" shows Yuan Le with a normal sprite (i.e. not as a jiangshi)
- Questioning Hei Ze in the kitchen had no exit option from what I could tell; I had to load an earlier save and not talk to her
- The line "I guess it's still March, 10pm - Yeah! Hotpot Kitchen" has Yuan Le's side portrait covering the text
The ending of the story also felt a little rushed, which I'm guessing was also due to getting everything done before the deadline.
Overall though, I did enjoy the game, and it was a great experience! Jiangshi are something that I only know a little bit of information about, and the idea of them being imprisoned in a restaurant is a great concept that absolutely feels like it would happen if they were real. Thanks for making this, it was well worth playing!