Gosh, this is one of the most lovingly assembled games that I've played in a long time - there's so much detail and thought put into everything, from the character designs to the cinematic camerawork to the additional gameplay elements (the paranoia bubbles, the character affection markers, the text popups) - there's a lot of passion here, and it really shows. In particular, I really loved the dynamic camerawork (especially the closeups and angles) and the usage of different artstyles for different parts of the story to reflect the tone - it was so dynamic and impactful.
===SPOILERS===
All of the characters are well-rounded and distinct, and their personalities play off each other well. Lion and Rikka are total sweethearts, and Kie is eccentrically charming(???) I'll say that I was the most intrigued by Luz, simply because I didn't know what to make of her. She seems like a cool girl, and she and Syun connect on some level, but she also sets off my alarm bells somehow and gives me such bad vibes 😂
Syun is a painfully relatable protagonist, to the point that he's almost frustrating because of his relatability (especially when he's pushing away people who are only good to him) 😂 The paranoia bubbles do a really good job of highlighting how his anxieties and past experiences color his perceptions, and I also really like the usage of Komi, representing how he wants to connect and open up (the scene where Komi's dialogue becomes something that he actually says is really sweet!) The "duality" system is also really clever, and I appreciated how initially it's portrayed as something "simple" but becomes much more nuanced as the story goes on (where sometimes Syun isn't always wrong and Komi isn't always right, or sometimes Komi's POV appeals to some characters and not others).
The cliffhanger is CRAZY, of course, and I have no idea how the story will continue or HOW that ended up happening...
(I think that this is probably the first time I've seen Lux-Pain mentioned by someone other than myself LOL I absolutely loved that game, and I really see the inspiration here!)
This was such a lovely demo - best of luck with development, I can't wait to see what the final product looks like!