'For the Black Hour' is another crazy drug trip of a story by the team over at Strawberry Noodles. We've got the trifecta of Strawberry Noodle story traits: a surrealist world with unusual rules and a bunch of magic that I think is supposed to be symbolic, a buddy-trip plot where we get two characters going on a journey to get somewhere and 'do the thing', and those two buddies being weary and distrustful of each other and coming to find that they like each other more than they realize when it turns out they've just been putting up a front. The aesthetic this time? Oppressive light and cult like activities, ala Midsommar.
The story plot is always a crazy ride, this time being a Szeptucha (medicine/magic man from what I could research) and a forest spirit go on a journey to bring night back to the world after it has been placed in eternal day time. Along the way, they meet a couple of cannibals that eat gods, the knights that defend the sun and want to stop them from taking it out of the sky, a village that is filled with burning villagers trying to escape the eternal day, the witch that seems to have something to do with it, and eventually the Bell Tower of the celestial moth that is able to finally put the moon back into the sky. Along the way, the szeptucha and forest spirits learn to like each other, turns out the szeptucha was depressed cause he didn't feel authentically loved, but he got over it because that's just who he is and a god of death told him so. Also, the forest spirit felt like he betrayed the forest that he couldn't protect, turns out the forest did forgive the wolf, so happy ending I think. The plots for these stories are always just fun vivid set ups and funny banter between sad complicated characters, and this gives a lot more of that.
The presentation is top notch, with the art stylization just being really something different and hauntingly beautiful, also a staple of the art team. They really enjoy their body horror painted beautifully, though not as much this time as some of their previous works, leaving more to the writing prose to describe it. The audio work is also really good, though I will say I don't know if I fully understood the purpose of the jump scare scream at the start and end, because this isn't quite as horror story as it feels like it's trying to come across as. The prose as always is a little bit rough, but that comes with the territory of being translated from Polish, but even so, it does a good enough job to get the emotions and feeling the characters have, as well as give them some distinct personalities. I really liked the shift in Lazarus as he slowly gets back his memories, really well described the process of a character acting out on pure emotion, and then realize who he actually is and those emotions are given context. The weakest bit is probably the resolution, as it seemed to resolve without much issue, and aside from meeting a couple of knights, there wasn't any kind of character growth moment, since both characters are already good boys. I wonder if the writer just really needed to wrap up the story for time, so just did it as well as they could. Would've enjoyed a bit of a moment between Lazarus and Cyril, just so they could say that they've grown closer, but I'm not mad it's not there.
The folklore aspect is cleverly woven into the narrative. One, it's got (I think) Slavic folklore-ish traditions being the basis of the story, and then the little Easter egg at the end of the story where it turns out this whole visual novel was a story being told by last year's may-wolf characters. I really liked that call back, and giving a bit of continuity to this crazy story universe. Of course, the creativity is always off the chart with Strawberry Noodles, never knowing what set pieces and imagery is going to come across the screen next. Cannibals eating a corpse with flowers growing out of it, a village on fire with folks playing music, a galaxy moth in a cave, just fever dream at that point. I will say, something about these stories is that I could usually find some kind of symbolism or meta-narrative that might be going on, but I don't think I could decipher one while I was reading it. I had thought by the description it might've been something like a toxic positivity with the eternal day, maybe something about environmentalism and burnout culture with the burning village, or something about self-love and self-sacrifice? If there was one, I wasn't able to pick up on it, but then again, I could just be reading too much and it's just a fun campfire story being told by a kitty and a wolf.
Always an interesting read from Strawberry Noodles. You do need to go in ready to brace yourself for some kind of obtuse storytelling, but it's a fun ride if you let it play out. I wouldn't want to take away from their signature style of being confusing to comprehend, but I'm always fascinated by how much I come to enjoy and root for the pair to get together, so maybe giving a bit of payoff wouldn't hurt for making it to the end. So glad that they've become established enough that they have their own team logo splash they can put on their projects, so leaves me looking forward to what prompt will get them going the next time.