This is an incredibly promising game, that falters somewhat under the weight of its own ambition - from the voice acting to the choice structure, I can definitely see where inspiration was taken from Slay The Princess, but it does leave me wondering if such a project was fit for a game jam like May Wolf - because of the time limits imposed by the jam, we only really have one route out of seemingly many, with some variation near the end - and quite a few dead ends to tease us.
These dead ends are the main problem I have with the story - while the sheer variety of choices in Slay The Princess helped make the game feel vast and unending, the amount of dead ends here makes the game feel quite constricting - to the point where I wonder if we needed to be told just how much we were "missing", because as is it feels as though it casts a shadow over what we do already have for this story (especially when the only route we currently have feels like the "bad" route in so many ways).
And, in spite of what I said, what we have is fantastic! The characters are well-defined and interesting, the writing is gripping, and the voice actors elevate the script even further! Libulan especially stands out as a character, with his beautiful sprites, his actor's fantastic performances, and just by being really interesting to follow in general - just like how the princess is the centerpiece of STP, he makes for a fantastic centerpiece to this work - and one which leaves me incredibly curious as to what the rest of the routes will look like.
There's some small issues with the presentation, such as the voices not all being at the same volume (with the MC's voice especially being quite a bit more quiet than that of the rest of the cast) and it feeling as though there aren't enough backgrounds for me to really properly grasp the world here (I especially would have liked for there to be a background of the MC's house, but I understand that it would be really hard to get it right given the usage of stock photos), but at the end of the day this preview left me thoroughly impressed, and I'll certainly follow to see what comes next - whether it's in visual novel form, or as any other form of interactive fiction.