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This one's tricky to judge.


On one hand, I think the central idea is fantastic - it's creative, funny, and all-too-relatable for just about anyone - let alone the people who're most likely to be reading it. I think it's got immense amounts of potential, and the level of polish is unmatched - the art's fantastic, the music perfectly fits the scenes, and it's simply an entertaining story to read on a moment to moment basis, what with the slick UI, fun character interactions, and constant barrage of well-timed jokes (also I LOVE how the characters do a little bounce whenever they start speaking, it's absolutely adorable).


On the other hand, I feel as though the story never really manages to tie everything together into a solid conclusion. As others have mentioned before, the VN just suddenly... ends, without leaving much room for the reader to mull over the experience or come to conclusions about the ideas explored throughout it. All the pieces for something incredible are here, but the story simply chooses to discard the pieces at the finish line. Now, this might very well be intentional - there's something to be said about the unsatisfying experience of the final day matching Swift's own unsatisfying con experience, but while I understand that, it doesn't change the experience - the negative consequences it has for the rest of the story, and for how it feels to read it, are there all the same.


Keep in mind, that I absolutely do not think Swift should have succeeded in his goal of getting laid - I think it's far more interesting for him to end the story "failing", and that it's much better for it. The story would be just as (and much more) unsatisfying if it ended with Swift getting what he wanted and nothing more. However, I do feel like the story has a lot of room to further explore the ideas behind what Swift is trying to do, which isn't properly utilized - at the end of the day, there's a lot to dig into with regards to why exactly Swift wants what he wants - both on a personal level, and on a broader societal level (which, to go on a slight tangent, ties back into his opening monologue with regards to the unspoken rules of being a man, given how much the desire to lose one's virginity / get laid ties into existing patterns of toxic masculinity). 

At the end of the story, In spite of reading through 16000 words of his perspective, I feel like I still don't *know* Swift. Which is odd, given how much he monologues throughout the story - but most of his internal dialogue feels as though he's lecturing the reader about his experiences, or cracking jokes for the audience's sake, rather than us getting to peek into his head and thoughts (the opening monologue stands out here, with it practically feeling like it was taken from a video essay). 


That said, this might be a skill issue on my part. I don't doubt that a lot of thought was put into how Swift is written, but I just personally feel like it's kind of hard to tell, as a reader. Likewise, I feel as though this same idea applies for the other themes of the story - instead of focusing squarely on Swift trying to get laid, or the experience of being at a furry convention, or on current day political issues, it bounces back and forth, while never really stopping to fully explore any given one of these ideas. The con isn't focused much on because Swift's search takes him outside of it, but the search is interrupted multiple times in order to start exploring current day politics - all three of these things are perfectly valid things to explore in the story, and even just existing as a queer person is political so it especially makes sense to explore the latter, but the way the story jumps between the three always feels somewhat jarring and disorienting to read through.


Day 2 stands out especially here, given the sheer whiplash of the story jumping from Swift looking to buy an Amicus dildo, to discussing the Pulse club shooting in less than 300 words. In general, the way the story discusses political topics feels somewhat one-note - Diesel is obviously a horrendous person, and Hammer is obviously a fantastic person, but they both feel like caricatures of political views rather than real people. This especially goes for Hammer, who the story tries to expand beyond this role, but who just ends up feeling like a dash of wish-fulfillment in an otherwise quite grounded story - the hot, nice, confident punk who singles you out from the group and is super into you. Obviously things don't work out between Swift and him, but it's for a "safe" reason - it's not due to a personal flaw of his, it's because of poor timing, and Swift's own hesitation (but not outright unwillingness) at being with someone who's in an open relationship.


While all of this is happening, there's the matter of Blake. And... I fucking love them, honestly - their scenes are hilarious, and I loved the gag of them commenting on Swift's 'escapades' and how they contrasted with their own - they're simultaneously a very charming and entertaining character, and a fantastic foil to Swift, someone who's having the con experience he's been dreaming of (mainly, sex). That said, they're quite underused in this role - they show up in a very limited amount of scenes, in spite of them being the 'novembuck' of the jam - and they're entirely absent from the climax of the story.


This is a massive shame, given just how much potential their character has - both in the sense that they will undoubtedly have a *ton* to say about what happened with Osgood (whether good or bad), and in the sense that I think that a frank conversation between them and Swift after it all ends could go a long way towards exploring the many ideas that the story touches on, but ultimately doesn't go far with. Their role in the story as the foil to Swift has so much potential, and the fact that the story doesn't properly make use of that potential is probably the biggest part of why I left it feeling so dissatisfied.


And, really, potential is the word I want to focus on here. I've been quite harsh at times, but it's ultimately because I feel as though this story has so much potential - it feels like many of its flaws are just the consequence of having been written on a time crunch for a game jam, while at the same time not having the proper scope for such a project. I feel like, if the story had shifted its focus mostly to just one of the three main 'ideas' I mentioned previously instead of bouncing between them seemingly at random, it could have been fantastic - but as it stands, it feels quite flawed and unsatisfying, in spite of still being a very entertaining experience. 


That said, I'm really looking forwards to seeing if there'll be post-jam updates to the story - I feel like, given more room to breathe, and some additional scenes here and there, all three of these ideas *can* be properly fleshed out and coexist with each other - while still not compromising on the game's vision, and on the desire for the story to still feel somewhat "unsatisfying" by the end.