This VN doesn't do anything particularly new with the well established genre of "doomed crew in an isolated submarine" premise, but damn did I enjoy it!
I enjoyed the framing of the opening and ending through captain's logs. They establish the tone and visual mood well already. The writing from there on out is carried by the characters and the situation never letting up, going from bad to worse until the very end.
Chimel is a no-nonesense captain that that seems like a good leader, but I do find it funny how he is the second biggest obstacle to the group's survival through the story. He remains a relatively passive observer, and the few times he does act it backfires spectacularly. I enjoyed his dynamic with the crew and thoughts in the logs he writes.
Muir is the marketable pair of tits that doesn't have that much screentime due to uhh... things happening. However, he is pretty memorable due to his design, having a very strong entrance and exit out of the story, and for being the character that things happen to. Making the buff shirtless dude into what is basically the damsel in distress is very brave, truly visionary. The few moments of agency and bravery he manages to have between being forced to be passive are remarkable.
Radovan however... My god, Radovan! Absolute standout character and actual hero/protagonist of the story. My man put his entire pussy into saving these doomed dumbasses! His back must hurt from carrying this entire VN. Even before shit hits the fan, he seems like the agent of chaos and comic relief with a strong characterisation, but seeing him shift when he goes into proactive action mode was impressive. His more sombre, tender moments work very well too. Thank you Radovan for trying to balance out the cosmic karma for all the chaotic catboy and Slavic characters from FVNs that suck 🫡🫡🫡 My only complaint is that he doesn't quite look like a cat, something about his muzzle seems a bit off.
Oh and Achre is also there.
Rergarding the atmosphere, the-
Okay fine, let's talk about Achre. He's there! He exists! And he matters... However, it feels like he drew the short end of the characterisation stick, and doesn't have nice hadonkas to make up for it. While the story tries to give us something about him with the intial scene and the crew's concern for him, and with his epilogue. I feel like him being relegated to serving primary exposition and not having banter with the others as much really screwed him over. I do understand there's a need for a quiet, low energy character of the group, but I still think his character could have been pulled off better. It's an extra shame since it happened to misterNovembuck himself!
Rergarding the atmosphere, it's strong from start to finish. The consistent use of the sickly green hue, used for both the captain's log (I see you trying to get extra credits from the Novembuck devs with for the retro theme, I'm onto you), and for the otherworldy glow used for the backgrounds and character sprites... Chef's kiss! The music and sound effects also add to the oppressive atmosphere and paranoia. I must admit, from the atmosphere alone I initially expected the disaster dominos to result more from the human factor of mutiny, sabotage and backstabbing. Instead we shift into frantic chaos of trying to overcome impossible odds with the power of friendship and Radovan's enormous balls.
The... procedure... scene had me squirm uncomfortably the entire time. That's all I'll say lol.
The last point I have is that I enjoyed the multiple endings, but I'm not really sure about the structure and the meta-text dropping 5 cheeky references to other media per second in order to justify them.
All in all, i immensely enjoyed this VN. Excellent job from the author, one of my favs from the jam!
