Hey! I played the part of the game which was released so far and OH MY GOD it was actually amazing?????
First, we can't ignore the level of polish this game has, especially for a game developed under a month. It is fully-voiced. The sound-design is impeccable. The coding is engaging. The many beautifully-drawn character sprites bring so much life to it. The character design is gorgeous and immersive. The backgrounds are superb.
First of all, kudos to the sound engineering and the acting direction because, goodness, it was IM-MA-CU-LATE, and that's an understatement. The nuance in the characters' emotions, the sound effects, the speeches being used as such, even the GUI, holy molly, it was amazing!! The interpretation of the characters gave so many layers to their personality, it is insane!!
The music was gorgeous too, very immersive and well-composed! I even stopped myself during my playthrough just to listen to it, because it really was that beautiful.
The game was very polished: first of all, the GUI looks highly professional and is implemented amazingly. But beyond that, the way the game is coded is very immersive: the camera movements were delightful (cf. the mechs walking), the game doesn't hesitate to move the sprites around, use fade to black transition to suggest things. A game has rarely managed, by its coding alone, to make me feel like I was in the shoes of the POV character.
The art was also amazing! The two CGs present so far looked gorgeous, and the way the game presented these CG scenes made it an even more polished experience. But I can't ignore the INSANE amount of sprites?? All this done under a month??? And the characters looked GORGEOUS?? Yonah, Zeke, Shiloh, Nahum, Mari and Ester are so pretty I BLUSHED?????? And even the other characters were beautiful beyond measure (for example, Tamara is too young to make me blush, but she is my favourite character design)? And let's talk about the character design: it was varied, the characters all felt different, the outfits they wear are A-MA-ZING, with a special highlight on the outfits of the royal family and of the military. And if that wasn't enough, some characters have SEVERAL outfits.
So, all these many qualities, and I haven't even started talking about the beautiful writing yet. Ah! the writing! The phrasing was absolutely beautiful, and that's an understatement. I loved how the story managed to show instead of telling, and yet to keep us doubtful, always unsure of the characters and their intentions. This is a story of manipulation, of betrayal, of characters not hating each other and yet being manipulative. Darius is the incarnation of this.
I also adored the balance of the story: it knew how to conjugate its darker topics with light-hearted and even humourous scenes, while still managing, in those scenes, to explore the relationships and inner conflicts of the characters. I loved the relationship the members of the military have with each other. I loved Tamara and Ira's relationship. I loved the nuances of Sarai's relationship with her family. I loved the very twisted relationship between Shiloh and Darius. The obsession Nahum had for his sister. And I could multiply the examples. I loved how, overall, the game didn't shy away from portraying nuanced characters, to explore the toxic dynamics that sometimes exist between them. I loved how you could feel all these characters had a background, a story, something to tell, and that there is more going on about them that the game shows.
The plot itself is also VERY interesting, and I'm curious to see how it will finish because the demo ends on a CLIFFHANGER. And without giving spoilers here, I do love the set-up of everything, of all the relationships, the posts the characters are at, the situation they're in... and I can't way to see everything explode in the climax!
Congrats to all the team for the tremendous work and the high-quality of this work. You rarely encounter a game like this, and I really mean it.