I HAVE SO MANY THINGS TO SAY??????
First off, the sheer overall vibe and ambience of this game is unreal?? Maybe it's the whole combination of the dream-like artwork mixed with the surreal music mixed with the glitches and the slowly building feeling of claustrophobia being in that room, but I have to say that I've never played a game that's given me this type of feeling before, and only now that it's been a few minutes that I finished going through it 4 or 5 times is it starting to unclench itself from my heart lakdjfasd IT'S QUITE IMMERSIVE???
I'm in love with all four of the characters HELP. I wasn't quite sure how to best approach the dates and the messages at first, so my first strategy was to try and like, get the most out of a single char in a single playthrough, so I went for Justice's scenes first (trying to get all of Justice's dates and messages whenever possible). I LOVE JUSTICE SO MUCH????? JUSTICE IS SUCH A CUTIE CUTE HYPER LITTLE BEE (WITH DEEP HIDDEN EMOTIONS)????? Then on my next playthrough I decided to be a bit more mix-and-match but focused on Mint where I could. I ALSO LOVE THEM SO MUCH ALKFDJALSKDFA WHY IS HE SO SOFT AND CUTE AND SHY AND I WANT TO HUG THEMMMMM.
After that I kept playing, this time really trying to as many interactions from all of them that I could. Rei's dialogue made me laugh out loud multiple times from them not getting the jokes or just being so hilariously frank. And then I about melted from all the adorable knight stuff with Akira (I-I-I may have a bit of a ... soft spot............ for this metaphor....... LKDSJFALSKDFJA) By the end I just literally was in love with all of them though. I love how delightfully different they are from each other. So full of personality in their own ways. I kept going from laughter to sighing blissfully to sobbing on and on LOL
The messages were hilarious????? I swear I got at least a small chuckle out of every single message interaction. They felt so real. Like the exact type of silly random texts a group of friends would be sending to each other. And they were another great way to see how each of their different personalities played out in a different format.
The music was lovely??? I loved how every char had a different theme. Also how every char had a different sound effect while talking. It added to the whole previous mentioned ~ vibe ~ that really made it feel like stepping into a sort of surreal half-world. Some of the music tracks were literally so good though ESPECIALLY THE ONE FROM THE ENDING CUTSCENE I GOT SUCH SHIVERS WATCHING AND LISTENING TO IT THE FIRST TIME.
The art of course!! Absolutely gorgeous, from the sprites, to the BGs, to the side images. I love how between all the different character images we were able to see so many of their different emotions. I just loved how full of personality all of the side images had??? JUSTICE'S ESPECIALLY WERE LITERALLY SO CUTE. Especially Justice's pouty-faced one alkdfjas LIterally though the painterly style is just so gorgeous and really set the tone for the entire game, adding so much so that dream-like quality. And ofc I don't even have to mention how lovely the character designs themselves are.
GUH WHAT EVEN ELSE DO I TALK ABOUT. I enjoyed going back through it multiple times to get all the different interactions. It made it feel as though I were shifting through all these different separate clues and interactions. The glitch moments were so wonderfully creepy. It took me a few times to start realizing what was going on, which made the feeling go from "what the heck is going on this is creepy" to "omg this is what's going on that's creepy" ldskjfads And I mentioned this earlier but the final cutscene is just so epic and every time I played through it it never lost the feeling of guttural dread it instilled in me, especially when that music began playing.
Overall just a really well-made game with an absolutely unique vibe, characters you'll fall in love with, a surreal dream-like story that keeps getting creepier and more ominous up to the end, and a whole experience that will sit with you long after you've finished playing it. Even more fantastic considering it was made in one month for Spooktober!