This review is designed to be read following completion of Day 1 of the game.
NoisyBear knows how to do this stuff right. In fact, you could almost be inspired by them. Every aspect of this story was beautiful, and the pacing was just right. The dialogue gives you pressure, in a good way. You can almost choose how much feeling you have for Cooper. The environments, art, worldbuilding, and character design are gorgeous, the characters are thoughtfully and beautifully written, and the music does an incredible job of immersing you into the tone of the story at any given point. Cooper is an absolute charm. Furry characters, when written, drawn, and executed correctly, seem to be better than human ones, and more real and down-to-earth. Our alligator "friend" Cooper is exactly that and more. For such a short visual novel, only taking around an hour to complete the first day, which is all that has been released so far, it is very impressive. Perhaps the most notable part is the bait-and-switch (that is not mentioned or even hinted at at all) to supernatural horror near the end of the day interrupting one of the most peaceful moments, reminiscent of horror classics like Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Additionally, the fact that this game was made by a native Japanese speaker is extremely impressive considering the quality and correctness of the writing in English throughout the entire game, as well as the perfect representation of suburban America. Early Shift is a short, cute, fun visual novel which almost makes me want to remember meeting Cooper for the very first time all over again. Amazing job to everyone who played a part in sharing this story with all of us, no matter how minor or major.
7.8/10