I've been watching the dev's teasers and musings about developing both this VN and their longer upcoming VN, and I've been pretty curious to see what he'll cook up. I wasn't disappointed, Nat One ended up being a solid first entry, and a good example of how to do one's first published project and a jam game.
This game is relatively long, quite dense and I took some time to digest it before writing this review. It might be a bit scattered all over the place, I hope it's not a big problem. I read another tabletop themed entry just recently which was quite the contrast, so I realised I must give Nat One the laurels it deserves.
Well, let's start by talking about the roleplaying and tabletop portion. It felt... good! The issue with such parallel stories is that it is often not to care about the fiction inside of the fiction. I'm afraid that even this VN, not matter how well done, managed to avoid that pitfall. I wasn't as engaged by the group's campaign. The actual players and the way the two stories intermingle and interact though? I was very much invested.
Despite not being able to make me emotionally invested in the campaign story itself, it had so many neat tricks. The dungeon master being the voice of god, the little sprite set of the eye, the fact that it changes depending on who the DM is, and the way the same visual gets used in the emotional finale... All very fun stuff! I also loved how natural the story felt, the players having different takes, disagreements, mutual passion and what they get out of the game. It was fun seeing characters who do the same what we do in this community – we all know these are just fictional stories with no real stakes, but we care enough about it to get into heated arguments. Despite the sometimes passionate disagreement, we and the players are still in this together for the love of the game.
As I said, the "real life" portion of the story had me very much invested. The characters had a tangeable quality to them, and Tyler was a standout. A furry VN protagonist with anxiety and depression? Oh and he hears a manifestation of his mental illness as an ominous voice that berates him? Those are dime a dozen. I think it's solely a matter of skill and experience that manages to separate characters whose struggles I care about and those I find whiny an annoying. I'm sorry it's harsh, but I've read characters like him who had the exact same struggles, but instead they just pissed me off and I didn't care whether they'd overcome their struggles or not. Tyler however was a treasure and by the end I felt nothing but empathy and a desire for him to get better. He might be a dragon, but in my heart he is a pathetic little kobold squeeze toy that needs to be both bullied and protected.
(this is the vibe I get from similar protagonists who come off as just whiny. Thankfully not Tyler)
I really liked his tendency to latch onto one thing, for better or for worse, and to drown in it. The butterfly effect is absolutely something I can see him learning about and thinking it's cool, and it sticking with him until it becomes engraved in his psyche, eventually becoming an obsessive thought he tends to use when catastrophising. Similarly, him latching onto Arthurian legends and the DnD campaigns with them, It is his last (perceived) beacon of stability in his life, and he has a death grip on it. Lastly, he also refuses to let go of his king Arthur, and oh boy that part was painfully relatable. The way these three fixations compare, contrast and play into each other was well done and really fun to read about.
Speaking of the butterfly effect, I enjoyed those little interludes. They were intriguing and visually interesting. The reveal the wings belong to Tyler was a neat visual to tie it together. However, I feel that by the end we had maybe too many of them, and the last one lingered on way too long. I can't say for certain without doing a re-read and focusing on them, but I felt like by the end the entire metaphor was a bit lost in the sauce. The emotional climax of Tyler spiraling and being berated by the multiple Eyes of god definitely felt a bit over the top and like it went on too long. The entire concept of these segments was a good idea and executed mostly well, but I think some editing, letting some thing implied instead, or shorter segments would be a lot more effective.
My last big like was the last scene and how it all untangled. This story has been pretty good with setting stuff up and then coming back to conclude them well. The players leaving and the campaign devolving into an utter mess was a nice parallel to Tyler's life. The visual of him playing with goblin figurines alone in the dark and sobbing is a lot more effective than many other stories trying to make it obvious that the character is Going Through It real bad. The intervention by Tristan was sweet and empathetic. Having him do all that in this outrageous princess pink crop top is both unhinged and perfect. You could really tell a lot of care and tenderness went into approaching such a delicate situation, both from Tristan and the writer. I think in general that was what worked for me best in this entire VN, Tyler's struggle was really compelling and the way the author approached it with empathy and heart without devolving into melodrama.
All in all, so far one of my favs of the jam and a really strong first showing from the dev!