OHHHHH I REALLY LOVED THIS GAME!! There's something incredibly beautiful and poignant about it, from the music, to the art style, to the story itself. I somehow was getting some vibes from games likes The Witch's House and stuff a bit. Just incredibly lovely!
Really great choices for the music! There was a sort of calming nostalgic tone to them tinged with mystery. My favorite track was the one that played during the black-and-white scenes—absolutely perfect! It gave those scenes such a creepy-cute vibe. And the artwork itself for those scenes was so superb! From the very first one with the cracking glass, to the one of Allein with the creepy red stain—I loved all of them! They were the perfect little creepy nostalgic interludes interlaced amongst the story.
I loved the BGs and how... subtle they were? For lack of a better word? Like they did truly feel like they had this kind of surreal wash of nostalgia over them, which fit wonderfully with the theme of memories and feelings of loss. And the sprites were absolutely gorgeous! I loved the design of all the characters, especially Allein hehe 🤭💕
I felt like the story was really well-done. It starts out right in the middle of things, leaving us (and Joan!) wondering what's going on, then gradually revealing more and more of the story through the witch's memory. I felt like that was really effective in setting up the story. AND THEN THE TWIST!! I feel like a part of me knew that something to that effect was coming but I didn't know exactly what it would be, so that was a great job in setting up enough foreshadowing while not giving everything away until just the right moment. It took me two guesses to guess the name! Admittedly, I went on Google and typed in "names that have to do with the sea" hehe perhaps otherwise I wouldn't have gotten it as I didn't even know that name had anything to do with the sea originally LOL But I think it's definitely guessable with the given hints and if people do some research!
Overall, just really lovely! A poignant little game with a well-done story and visuals and great characters! I loved it a lot!! 💕