THIS WAS SO GOOD???? LKDJFALSKDJFADSF I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I WAS EXPECTING....... ok I slightly did just because of some of the lead-up posts........... BUT LIKE EVEN THOSE EXPECTATIONS DIDN'T EVEN COME CLOSE TO THIS KDJDKLFJAD
This was just FANTASTIC?? Like. Everything about it. The art. The ambience. The characters. The CHILLLLLLLS it sent up and down my spine. The intrigue??? The building tension and terror? THAT ONE CG HOLY GOD LAKDJFALKDSJFADSFA
Gosh.
I love, first off, how it just like... I don't know. It really transported me into the world right off the bat. The BGs are gorgeous??? The sheer immersive-ness of them. Mixed with those ambient background sounds. Like. When it raining I could practically feel the raindrops on my own skin. That's how much I felt immersed in the vibe you had created. It set it up right away for this kind of... subdued, tense isolation that then built beautifully as more and more got revealed.
The animated CGs were beautiful!! Every single one of them was like a work of art. And I really loved the composition of the various comic panels and just how you set everything up. It really added to the feeling of immersion you already had going, like being sucked straight into each and every scene and really feeling it in your gut.
The story GUHHHH. Fantastic. I got the ending where you're not quite sure what's going on at first -- only that something bad is going on. Probably because I was so Dubious about Raku that I instinctively didn't always answer as kind to him as I could have LOL (though even despite that, I still was never mean to him, since I felt like that wouldn't have gone over well either hahaha). So then I retried following your advice and was able to get two of the, mm, more intense endings lkdjfasldka God, I started to guess more and more bits of what was actually going on the more I played it -- which is a great testament that you wove enough little foretelling bits in and out of the story. For instance, in the first ending that I got, the mention of the spider watching Nelli, I was like wait............. but even despite having that inkling after that IT DID NOT PREPARE ME FOR THE ONE CG GODDDDDDDD LKDJFASD
I enjoyed also how depending on your choices you could "go along with it" or..... not, and though that changed the outcome, it didn't really change Raku's hold on Nelli because at that point it's too late. Both of the endings were so chilling just in different ways??? HELP BUT THEN YOU HAD THOSE CUTE LITTLE SPIDER CHIBIS IN THE FINAL TEXT FOR THAT ONE AND I SNORTED A LITTLE BIT.
Anyway...
I just loved this so much. What an absolutely fantastic thriller that just devolves into creepy horror that makes your blood curdle. I'm such a sucker for dark stories that still include some romance so this was right up my alley already, but it was just so well done. It's going to sit with me for quite a while!! 🤭💕
There is still one ending I need to get, so I'm going to keep testing more options to try and get it!!
(OH ALSO RANDOM BUT I LOVE HOW THE LITTLE TUTORIAL IS THE SAME AS ACTALA'S??? It feels like this cute little connection to you as a dev and your games. Like "welcome to my world, here's a little tutorial" ldkjfadskfa idk I just wanted to mention it hahaha)