Genuinely amazing. Loved the atmosphere, and while things are obviously suspicious from the start, there are a number of little details that make more sense on a second playthrough.
It frustrates me so much that there's seemingly only one way it can end, though... Surely there's a middle ground between what happens the first time around and the true ending???
(I don't mean that negatively at all- it's just that I spent a while delusionally trying to find another ending...)
;_;
It was really nice to be able to piece things together by… going through… your friends in a different order, when they might have only been hinted at in a different playthrough (Yamato first loop vs. second loop, Shiori first/second loop vs. third loop, etc.)
I was convinced that the reason for the inconsistencies that kept coming up was that you killed some possessed person, and that you were becoming the Yamakui- I never expected that you actually lost from the start.
The second-person narration was a really interesting way to frame things, and some of the interactions between original-you and Yamakui-you are actually kind of cute…
Maybe I can apply to join Shiori’s Yamakui fan club?
I mostly interacted with Yamato in my first playthrough, with a bit of Shiori on the side (Hikaru got completely left out, except for the argument with Yamato), and then Shiori -> Hikaru (third loop was the first time I heard that Hikaru and I were supposed to be in a relationship, lol).
Yamato starting to celebrate before the red moon was over was such an “aaa no don’t” moment…
Oh, right, Yamato (who was supposed to be dead) showed up in second loop (neck wound- I think from one of the random meetings?). I thought I was hallucinating him, or something, but then he also showed up in the playthroughs when he was alive, so that might have been a bug?
True ending was nice but also, agh, surely there was a better way to do that, Yamakui… besides, why are you preventing me(?) from doing anything just because you’re depressed??
Shiori seemed fun, so I went with her the second time around. It was really funny to see Shiori being so smug all the time (well, it’s only understandable), and the dynamic was great in general. Hikaru -> Yamato after that (it was nice to see them both get to have their cool moments.)
I went with Hikaru in the third playthrough, of course. I was interested in seeing how it would go, since Hikaru was suspicious of us from the start, but sadly they did not at all measure up to Shiori in terms of having things figured out (I think maybe they were just really desperate to believe us?)
I was a bit confused by trying to figure out which of us was talking during the tea scene- on the one hand, it seems like it wouldn’t make sense for original me to be able to seize control, but on the other hand, why would Yamakui force us to drink the tea (that it very clearly hated)?
I was very pleasantly surprised by second loop Yamato, especially because whatever he had going on was teased but not fully explained in the first loop (even if how things turned out was a bit unfortunate- I wasn’t expecting that either).
Third loop Shiori… Yamakui didn’t let her die happy, so petty…
I loved both Yamato and Shiori in different ways, so it’s a bit hard to say which was my favorite- I did feel sorry for Hikaru, but I didn’t really find them as interesting overall. Maybe part of it is that they seemed astute, and kind of turned out not to be…? Also, we just didn’t have the same depth of emotional connection with them that they had with us, which is ironic, since that’s exactly the source of their distress…
The red scarf was a very nice touch in hindsight, though.
