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(+1)

A nice enough read. It's a very Trans 101 story (though given some intrigue by the furry worldbuilding angle) where the only thing that maybe feels off to me is the naming choice. I found it a bit weird to have even the options where the protagonist goes "all the way" with the name change to be alternate versions of her deadname – maybe it's a cultural difference, but I don't think doing that is super common around here.

I'm also not completely sure what the choice adds to the story in general, which feels like a running theme with some devices the game uses. The plot branches into two routes near the end, but apart from simply showing different events play out as the main character hangs out with a different friend, I'm not really sure how they complement or enhance each other. I didn't get the sense that the game had a specific thing it wanted to do with the juxtaposition of the branches. NVL mode comes off as a bit carelessly deployed, too – the transitions to and fro feel abrupt every time, and again, I'm not sure what using it accomplished beyond the game being able to fit longer paragraphs on the screen. (Also, stuff was sometimes happening under the overlay while the game was stuck in NVL mode.) I think a good area of improvement would be trying to be more purposeful with different aspects of the medium: why NVL mode? Why two routes? Why the name choice? How can these things be made to serve the story being told?

Besides that, I appreciate the decision to not go too far into melodrama, but the protagonist's trepidation about coming out to her friends almost feels too lowkey, or maybe just not rich enough in good details to really convey the specificity of her feelings. The prose is generally confident, but in scenes like that, I think you can maybe sense the writer being a bit hesitant about how to approach the subject matter and preferring to play it safe.