Hiræth is a short, sombre story about grief and heartache. There's a lot to like, but I was under the impression that the developer was fighting for their life a bit to make it.
There are some choices that made the perspective switching not really work for me. The inconsistent use of format, colour, name tag usage and person/perspective was disorienting more than stylistic. I really hope that if there's a post-jam polished update, some of the visual bugs and prose structure gets addressed with more clarity.
Other than that, I did like the prose. There was a lot of emotional talk, some good bits of dialogue and some lines that I really enjoyed. Lines like "A lean, clean, almost pristine yote can be seen through the screen of steam." have a really good mouthfeel when reading.
The story is very small and simple, which works for such a short word count. Honestly, it felt like the game was almost too long with how little happens? The initial mystery for me was wondering how these two got to such a catastrophic break up where one of them is deeply hurt and lashing out, and the other one wants to continue the relationship. That little mystery gets unraveled in a pretty satisfying way. I like that the focus of the post break up conversation is healing rather than salvaging the relationship.
Presentation wise, the calm music fit perfectly the cozy but melancholy vibes. The use of backgrounds had a lot of good contrasts between cold streets and the warm and inviting looking diner. That diner illustration was absolutely gorgeous. I wish the sprites had more emotions for a story dealing with an emotional topic. I did enjoy the simple, straightforward design of the characters. And I must admit, emotionally constipated coyotes with a guarded pose with cross arms are my personal weakness.
A somewhat messy but still nice first showing from the team. I hope we see more from the team members in the future!