'Wolf in Sheep's Clothing' is an unnerving suspense drama that portrays some heavy and serious subject matter through a deceptively innocent looking veneer. It's an interesting effect of having this type of story be told through the stylization of an simpler and cuter art style as it does throw the reader off balance once the first sting of dread hits and suddenly the juvenile presentation starts to show that there's a darker story being told here.
That being said, I think the story here is actually really intriguing and has quite a few layers of it. To speak plainly about the plot is to spoil the reveal, but I'd like to talk about it, so spoilers for those that haven't played it. The narrative angle is really strong. Having the main story be about a sheep girl who's been sexually abused by her older brother guardian and then using her to lure other girls for him to then sexually assault is a very intense premise (the 'wolf in sheep's clothing' being a predator sheep). There's a lot of really evocative moments that really sell the intensity of the situation. The way Mary dissociates a lot, the rigidity to her thought process, the absolute deference of agency to her brother, the culpability in assisting her brother, and even the resentment to the other girls that her brother targets. There's even a weirdly sinister worshiping of the older brother as he's introduced, which helps paint the picture that while his actions are reprehensible, he must hold a level of charm and charisma that he's able to get away with seducing Mary's classmates. The introduction of the folklore theme being the Greek gods, especially with Zeus and Hera as a not so subtle metaphor for this story, does help confirm to the reader that this is 'that' kind of story. What I find interesting as well is how Lucy changes depending on how Mary answers her question in the one branching choice. If you pick Lie, the story proceeds with the luring and seemingly 'lamb to the slaughter' type of scene where Lucy gets deceived, while on the Truth side, you find out that Lucy is aware of what's going on and isn't actually completely against being prospected. On the truth end, it feels like Lucy then takes pity on Mary and we find out that Mary actually doesn't care about the girls who get prospected, but that she's got this possessiveness to her brother and doesn't want to share with other girls. It's a surprisingly candid and tragic take on the story dynamic.
The presentation, as simple as it is, is surprisingly effective at showing the disconnect between the seriousness of the subject material and the way the characters treat the subject material. The audio cues work well in giving that change in tension whenever a new detail is revealed, and it uncovers the next dark layer to the story. I do think that some more care could've been put into the transitions between scenes, as they seem to just flash in an instant, as well as the initial music coming in without any fade in, though part of me wonders if that's intentional or a happy accident that it adds to the choppy perspective of the main character who dissociates. I would say the same thing about the writing and prose, which feels very unrefined. There's some weird sentence structures, and a couple of places where it feels like there should be commas are missing and it ends up looking like run-ons. Once again, part of me wonders if this is intentional or a happy accident that it adds to the deteriorating and juvenile thought process that Mary has. While I think that the story ends at the appropriate point for each of the two choices, the ending does come very abruptly and that's what leads me to believe some of these choices are more like happy accidents that benefited the story. Adding in some kind of slow fade to back into a credit sequence or a sense of closure to the narrative leading into the end would help a lot in signaling the end of the story instead of the quick cut to the main menu.
Creatively, the thing that stood out to me the most was the audacity of tackling a story line like this. It's a touchy subject and could easily come off tasteless if not handled well, and I think you handled it with the appropriate amount of depiction without glorification. Otherwise, there's not too much else here to judge on, but I do think that the sprites for Lucy and Mary are very cute, and the backgrounds do their job of placing the characters in a setting. While I could see the folklore reference with the Greek myths, it does feel more like a foot-note, since it's not entirely a one-to-one metaphor with the Zeus story, since while Hera does punish the women that Zeus sleeps with, Hera doesn't actively help Zeus with sleeping around.
It's actually quite interesting, because I remember the author's previous game jam work, and that also dealt with mature topics. This one feels like an improvement in the narrative flow and letting the plot develop more naturally. If I were to offer some feedback, it would be to look into finding different ways to enhance the reader experience. Title page art, utilizing the visual medium more with different scene transitions or moving the character sprites around, playing around with the text visuals. On the writing end, looking into single line edits to see if there are stronger ways to convey the idea you're getting across. This was a surprising entry, and there's a lot of room for growth and potential, I would just like to be sure that there are deliberate artistic choices being made rather than it just working out for this particular story.