Another good vn, happy to see that you took what you had dealt with in your past to make something that was more manageable for you!
Honestly the whole vibe of this one was so different, I find that the grungy backgrounds were very in-character for the bleakness of this whole thing, and the artstyle itself both blends well with it and yet still catches your eye.
Honestly when I read the synopsis, I was confused.
A tree zombie? Never heard of that before, but I was intrigued with the character design, I genuinely thought he was headless for a minute there and you would get a kind of shy and horrific entity that couldn't speak shambling after the player, it was kind of a pleasant surprise to hear it was a bag over his head!
The story in itself is so unique, I enjoyed it, though admittedly I wish we knew more about the people from the forest, considering the Main Character treats the reveal as something we should have known about prior and expected.
I also find the drugs causing blackened fingertips to be very interesting, and the whole way everything went down was pretty fascinating.
(The fact that the car key really isn't even his really made a lot of sense yet the fact he eventually accepts it as his because they were offering was really cool.)
Playing the whole game straight I found myself getting the Unrequited Love Ending. I honestly felt pretty bad, so I found out the other two endings and honestly I find it really in-keeping with the darker tone of the story and the 'griminess' of the world that none of the Endings are really happy.
Two out of the three one of them ends up dead, and in the other one they both leave the encounter feeling pretty awkward.
While a part of me wishes that things could have gone smoother or turned out better for the two of them- You really did such a good job with the Tree Zombie and how he acts- it just really goes to show that the two are incredibly incompatible.
I will be keeping an eye out for more things you put out, if you do, thank you!