This was a sweet relaxing VN, I had a pretty nice time. My main impression came after I finished playing it with a group, with everyone's reaction being "well that was a nice game, but it's a shame it didn't engage with a theme at all". I was surprised by that reaction, and I worry it will be how the median FVN reader (derogatory) will have a similar reaction . So I'm hijacking this review to moan and bitch about the esoteric "theme" rating category in the jam.
So far I'd say most of the entries I read have recreated or alluded to some real life myth, some have been about cryptids, and some were fantasy or had a DnD spin. Basically what one would expect. But this entry thought a little bit outside the box, and I worry it will get punished for it.
It made me think of my first job and when I arrived there. Of course all workplaces are different, but I think a newcomer being initiated into an existing community with their own rules, habits and inside jokes is relatively universal. I remember living in the shadow of my predecessor, an apparently eccentric and hard to get along lady, and everyone kinda expected me to follow in her footsteps. I was being compared to a woman I have nothing in common with and who I never met, just because I inherited her position after she left the company. Coworkers kept telling me about this lady and her many exploits, nitpicks, neuroses and the many scenes she has caused, she was a local mini legend in the company.
When I joined, I just barely missed the company celebrating the 15 year anniversary of its existence. Everyone returned from a lovely company funded trip where they went to another country, stayed at a lavish hotel, had a wonderful dinner, did some teambuilding exercises and everyone got shitfaced. It was a very positive even which is frankly hard to imagine from the place of 2026 corporate austerity and penny pinching. It was also talked about with much reverence and it felt like a magical event I just barely missed out, and colleagues speaking fondly about their exploits and bacchanalia engraved itself into my "freshly joined the workforce" mind.
Why am I saying all of this seemingly unrelated shit? Paws and Recs does something similar, and I don't say that just because of the stories being about the workplace and colleagues. Stories like these might not be folklore in the traditional or academic sense, but I think they do count. It is a very creative interpretation of the jam theme. These are all stories that we tell to each other, mundane places and people and events that we give meaning to.
I do wish Paws and Recs went harder on this though. I think The Shrine is the most explicit part of this, where the game look directly at the reader, blinks with understanding in its eyes, asks you to trust the vision and hands you the cypher to understand what you're supposed to be looking for. I hope audiences will meet it at its own terms and be open minded enough to appreciate it did something different.