Today i finished reading this VN, and it was wonderful! Even in the rough edges i feel like i can see the main ideas that they want to convey. My favorite route was the detective one as well, although my love for bad ends makes me fancy the student route as well xD! I played it from Windows 11, and everything went well (thought that information may be useful)
Playing a novel with these graphics(background and sprites) felt really nostalgic, i don't usually dwell in those feelings that much, but it was refreshing, and the CG's reminded me of Higurashi they were endearing! There were parts when the 4th wall breaking really got to me (usually when MC is doubting her reality, i was about to think that the ??? route wasn't the end and there was another route even if it wasn't listed here LOL)
Overall as a lover of yandere characters, i really like this novel :D! It's always nice to see more takes on this trope, it makes sense that someone develop this type of character in such dires escenearios. It would make sense that a character develops a extreme personality, grim situations bring harrowing consequences. Kudos to everyone that worked in this project, the effort and results are amazing and that is visible to me.
SPOILER
Shiro and MC (the original ones), were pretty nice! Him accompannying you to the end in the anhilation route, accepting your dream world or protecting you at the cost of his life in the true end, it's a nice way to show his devotion even if he was subject to give up on hope for a long time. Other moment i really like is when he tries to help MC to manage her anger, so that she doesn't loose herself (even if it feels like vindication is the correct thing, it makes sense that MC would put the wellbeing of others above herself, since that's pretty much what the good endings of the other routes tell you)
Coming to think about it, most of the route good ends include options that encourages ideas like: "if you fail try again, trust Kuro, think that you have the power to overcome". Maybe it's intentional or not, but i can see some foreshadowing to the ??? route, probably i would be able to find more connections when i re-read it again :D. Speaking about that, it's kinda nice to see how the different Kuro's are handling the different simulations, i remember thinking that Mage route Kuro, had double personality out of nowhere, but in perspective if he was able to remember the many iterations of MC, then i see how that Kuro ended up coping in that way with his situation.
I also remember seeing the opening trying really hard to match all characters to one of the sprites of Kuro/Shiro and MC, but i ended up not being able to do so for the last one (did someone had a "x" clip on their hair?) then again it makes sense that we do not see all the iterations of Anathema lol and Kuro xD.
In the end although we didn't spend that much time with the original goods, i feel like we got to know them in the different routes played before. So i didn't feel detached from them (but i guess they feel a bit like skin walkers if i see them like that xD)
Now me, inserting hard in MC(don't kill me Kuro!): I usually feel some sort of Ego death on daily basis, not like "is anything real or not" kind and crisis of identity, but more like my sense of self just disolves? or sometimes i can see me from a distance (de-personalization) it's kinda weird to describe tbh, so this MC felt really reassuring to me, in her descriptions of oblivion or when he gattered herself together to make a comeback, it's kinda inspiring in some sense!
I'm a bit confused about the voice calling us Anathema, but seeing other comments, i see that is somewhat of a ongoing plot for your games! From what i can gather it seems like this entity will follow the player that it's interested on having fun in other fictional stories :P. Well i guess now i have a yandere following me through games although you tried to save me Dx
Totono, Aoi dark route(?) xD