itch.io

This game has "my first VN" written all over it. That gave it some charm, but oh boy was it rough rough. Not only that, but it was carefully designed in a lab to cram in as many of my personal pet peeves in one package.

The little revelation at the end that it was developed in only a week instead of a full month explains everything. Honestly, it has a surprising amount of art for such a short amount. Speaking of the end, I think ironically the little dev talk was ironically my favourite part... The dev's sassy pose was quite expressive and the openness about the messy development made me mellow out with my feelings about the game.

The game itself though, my god... It's such a cliche storm. We open on a black screen, with the words anyone who's familiar with isekai FVNs has seen many many times in some form. "Dark. Cold. Quite (sic). Only darkness as far as my eyes can see." This, including a catastrophic typo on the third word you'll see in the story, is pretty much what awaits for the rest of your playthrough. There's a lot of unintentionally funny typos (Munch being used instead of much being one of my favs) and English that is more strangely redundant and tangled in its own construction instead of the usual ESL stilted. "I can forge a contract capable of making it possible." is one of pretty early examples you will stumble into, and there is a lot of instances of characters "beginning to start to stop", and similar. There was also the unintentionally funny habit of the player character curtly replying "I see." while a giant eye entity is going on long exposition tangents at him.

There are some jokes that were funny where we laugh together with the game, but a lot of it just very snarky semi-referential humor that didn't land for me. Both the narration and character dialogue have instances of pointing out some FVN tropes, and then going "oh what is this, a furry visual novel!" and it felt very weird, especially this this story is very guilty of repeating the same tropes.

The one non tropey surprise was that the protagonist isn't human (anymore), in fact he turns into a cute canine. I actually like his design quite a bit, better than Wage's.

While I wasn't a big fan of the story of several chosen ones from a prophecy having to save the kingdom from a bad king, the setup is interesting that it has Wage having to collect what is basically his RPG party of chosen ones. I think that could lead some some interesting character dynamics, especially if Wage himself isn't part of the prophecy and how that will affect everyone's feelings and approach to the whole thing.

I did have a lot of complaints, but I hope the dev continues and finishes this game, hopefully by keeping it under a manageable scope. One of my big issues FVN isekai stories is how aimless they often are and how they go on forever with no end or goal in sight. Second Chance gave us a pretty clear goal in build one, and now it just needs to lock in and focus.

This is so far my favourite Team Eclipse VN, and the best "to be continued" VN of this jam.

The visuals are absolutely gorgeous and steal the show. Roar has outdone himself in every aspect. I remember loving the itch page alone, seeing Frey's shiny armour as he's releasing the dove. The illustrations in game are even better. The random dying tiger guard makes such iconic faces as he's getting a smooch, the lighting from Frey's healing magic is gorgeous and the tiger's tits are fat and pierced for an amazing reason.

The sprites are just as nice to look at. I think the generic guards and enemies look a kinda goofy, but I do love how all the characters look. They have nice clean designs that tell you who they are, with pleasant colour schemes and a smooth simple rendering style that is easy on the eyes. I think I like Korpa's design and expressions the most, but I love Frey's soothing colours and very naive head empty smiles, and the fact that all of Chris's expressions are just different flavours of 😏

Speaking of characters, I enjoyed them quite a bit. Frey is a relatively unusual protagonist since such archetypes usually tend to have more of a supporting role. I must admit I was going in with a bit of dread as more of his deal was revealed, since the other Team Eclipse protagonist who has Very Important Powers and is a symbol of purity and goodness I didn't jive with. Thankfully Frey managed to avoid all the grievances I had with a certain other puppy. Chris did strike a good balance of being a cocky bastard, reasonable and dutybound and kinda too edgy for his own good. I liked the dynamic those two have both as rivals and as party companions. I am a sucker for a good enemies to lover AND a healer/bodyguard romance, so I'm looking ahead to what will come next with these two (even if it isn't romance, I am just manifesting). Korpa was used well for a character who exited the story pretty early on, but the inkeeper felt like he was trying to hog up the screentime towards the end. I felt like he tried so hard to invite himself to the party and elevate himself to status of main character, I almost expected him to join the duo in their travels. 

Also just one last minor thing about the characters - I found the names pretty odd. We have Korpa who fits his name (being corpulent), Manfrey who is literally a MAN wanting to be FREE, and then we have... Chris from accounting. Chris gets done double dirty cause he introduces himself with a pretty edgy sounding dorky title. It is a small thing, but it leaves an impression.

As for the writing and story, its greatest strength is that it manages to be a self contained episode despite being an intro for a bigger long term project. Very few WIP VNs manage to do this, so congrats to the team! Anyone can read the jam version and end up with it being a pretty satisfactory self contained story. The other strength was the characters, whom I talked about already.

The writing itself and the setting I didn't enjoy as much. I felt both were pretty bland, and a lot of things seemed either generic DND campaign or just a general trope without anything too concrete to make it stand out to me. Okay that's a lie, there is one thing that stood out to me...

The boykisser magic! That was so unexpected, self indulgent, and kinda unhinged... but... it works! Once again the illustrations make the absolutely ridiculous situation of making out with dying men work, but the writing does pull its own weight here too. Frey is such a sweet, innocent person that he manages to do it without coming off as an absolute freak. I can't overstate how easily this could have ended up being creepy or weird or unserious, but we avoid all those pitfalls here yay! I think beautiful art and shock factor aside, I appreciate his absolute devotion Frey shows here. It is a small detail discussed in only one or two lines, but him explaining that his healing kiss gets powered by him showing his authentic self and being vulnerable is an angle I really enjoyed. It is a perfect parallel to his main character dilemma of gaining unwanted attention and jeopardising his freedom because he can't live himself if he refuses helping the vulnerable. Not only that, but it is a great parallel to queer experiences! Letting yourself be open and vulnerable is dangerous, but it will heal both you and your loved ones. Waiter waiter more stuff like boykisser magic please!

One last remark I have that I have no fitting place to put it in is the music. It was lovely, but it is such a shame that these loops were so short. I am not sure if this was caused by the cost of production, but the Tavern ditty in particularly actually drove me mad with how short and repetitive it is. I don't hold this against the game when rating it, since it's such a minor blemish when it comes to the presentation, but it is a shame when devs go the extra mile and put in the effort, but in the end it makes for a worse reading experience.

All in all, I am happy that I have a Team Eclipse project I can say I enjoyed without too many caveats. I guess this review did include plenty of complaints, but I do think it's a well made VN and I overall had fun with it.

This was a really cute entry!

I want to comment on the art first, since it's the thing that stuck with me the most from all the elements. It has this very specific style that is a dying breed nowadays. It used to be very prevalent until the early 2000s, somewhere around the time anime started becoming mainstream in the west, and when many artists, including furry ones, were still adopting digital art. It brings me a lot of nostalgia and makes me realise just how much a miss this very early "how to draw manga" style that was used in furry webcomics a lot. The fact that this dev kept it makes me very happy.

The 3D backgrounds had a nice charm, and  Iiked the full screen illustrations even more than the sprites. The fact that a single dev managed to make the backgrounds, sprites, illustrations, writing AND music in just a month is seriously impressive. Aryaman's initial sprite where he's playing music s looksmaxxing, mogging that poor yeen and aurafarming so hard, it's incredible.

As for the story, it was a rather typical slice of life romance with a sprinkle of supernatural. Over the years I've been falling out of love with this genre, but a short jam game is small enough for me to stomach. My main issue with them is that they meander horribly, and they don't have any progression, conflict or stakes, even though that is absolutely possible even in such a low intensity genre. The VN does provide us something with the bookstore's struggling business, the little tiger's "promotion" to a more equal business partner (along with his very forgettable B plot secondary romance), and of course the romance between Tyler and Aryaman.

I do find it a shame that everything unique about Aryaman gets stripped away after our first encounter with him. His supernatural design, status and powers get put aside (other than him using a spell off screen once) when he disguises himself as a mortal. This can of course be done in a more interesting manner, but to me it seems like him being a Deva becomes almost irrelevant after the first scene he's in.

Other than that, I did enjoy seeing and learning about Indian culture and setting in this VN. I do find it curious that the two dishes that get a lot of attention are Mexican and Swedish though. Also shoutout to the cooking scene that explained how to make a sandwich in excruciating detail for almost a third of the wordcount. Slice of life fans are were probably feasting during it, but I must admit I took a lot of damage from it. More power to the SoL enjoyers tho!

All in all, I had a pretty good time with this VN, despite the genre not really being my cup of tea. It's charming, inoffensive and self indulgent in a way that you can't help but respect.

Dawww love the two cuties! I'm looking forward to the full build version, best of luck!

This was a sweet relaxing VN, I had a pretty nice time. My main impression came after I finished playing it with a group, with everyone's reaction being "well that was a nice game, but it's a shame it didn't engage with a theme at all". I was surprised by that reaction, and I worry it will be how the median FVN reader (derogatory) will have a similar reaction . So I'm hijacking this review to moan and bitch about the esoteric "theme" rating category in the jam.

So far I'd say most of the entries I read have recreated or alluded to some real life myth, some have been about cryptids, and some were fantasy or had a DnD spin. Basically what one would expect. But this entry thought a little bit outside the box, and I worry it will get punished for it. 

It made me think of my first job and when I arrived there. Of course all workplaces are different, but I think a newcomer being initiated into an existing community with their own rules, habits and inside jokes is relatively universal. I remember living in the shadow of my predecessor, an apparently eccentric and hard to get along lady, and everyone kinda expected me to follow in her footsteps. I was being compared to a woman I have nothing in common with and who I never met, just because I inherited her position after she left the company. Coworkers kept telling me about this lady and her many exploits, nitpicks, neuroses and the many scenes she has caused, she was a local mini legend in the company.

When I joined, I just barely missed the company celebrating the 15 year anniversary of its existence. Everyone returned from a lovely company funded trip where they went to  another country, stayed at a lavish hotel, had a wonderful dinner, did some teambuilding exercises and everyone got shitfaced.  It was a very positive even which is frankly hard to imagine from the place of 2026 corporate austerity and penny pinching. It was also talked about with much reverence and it felt like a magical event I just barely missed out, and colleagues speaking fondly about their exploits and bacchanalia engraved itself into my "freshly joined the workforce" mind.

Why am I saying all of this seemingly unrelated shit? Paws and Recs does something similar, and I don't say that just because of the stories being about the workplace and colleagues. Stories like these might not be folklore in the traditional or academic sense, but I think they do count. It is a very creative interpretation of the jam theme. These are all stories that we tell to each other, mundane places and people and events that we give meaning to.

I do wish Paws and Recs went harder on this though. I think The Shrine is the most explicit part of this, where the game look directly at the reader, blinks with understanding in its eyes, asks you to trust the vision and hands you the cypher to understand what you're supposed to be looking for. I hope audiences will meet it at its own terms and be open minded enough to appreciate it did something different.

I've been watching the dev's teasers and musings about developing both this VN and their longer upcoming VN, and I've been pretty curious to see what he'll cook up. I wasn't disappointed, Nat One ended up being a solid first entry, and a good example of how to do one's first published project and a jam game.

This game is relatively long, quite dense and I took some time to digest it before writing this review. It might be a bit scattered all over the place, I hope it's not a big problem. I read another tabletop themed entry just recently which was quite the contrast, so I realised I must give Nat One the laurels it deserves.

Well, let's start by talking about the roleplaying and tabletop portion. It felt... good! The issue with such parallel stories is that it is often not to care about the fiction inside of the fiction. I'm afraid that even this VN, not matter how well done, managed to avoid that pitfall. I wasn't as engaged by the group's campaign. The actual players and the way the two stories intermingle and interact though? I was very much invested.

Despite not being able to make me emotionally invested in the campaign story itself, it had so many neat tricks. The dungeon master being the voice of god, the little sprite set of the eye, the fact that it changes depending on who the DM is, and the way the same visual gets used in the emotional finale... All very fun stuff! I also loved how natural the story felt, the players having different takes, disagreements, mutual passion and what they get out of the game. It was fun seeing characters who do the same what we do in this community – we all know these are just fictional stories with no real stakes, but we care enough about it to get into heated arguments. Despite the sometimes passionate disagreement, we and the players are still in this together for the love of the game.

As I said, the "real life" portion of the story had me very much invested. The characters had a tangeable quality to them, and Tyler was a standout. A furry VN protagonist with anxiety and depression? Oh and he hears a manifestation of his mental illness as an ominous voice that berates him? Those are dime a dozen. I think it's solely a matter of skill and experience that manages to separate characters whose struggles I care about and those I find whiny an annoying. I'm sorry it's harsh, but I've read characters like him who had the exact same struggles, but instead they just pissed me off and I didn't care whether they'd overcome their struggles or not. Tyler however was a treasure and by the end I felt nothing but empathy and a desire for him to get better. He might be a dragon, but in my heart he is a pathetic little kobold squeeze toy that needs to be both bullied and protected.

(this is the vibe I get from similar protagonists who come off as just whiny. Thankfully not Tyler)

I really liked his tendency to latch onto one thing, for better or for worse, and to drown in it. The butterfly effect is absolutely something I can see him learning about and thinking it's cool, and it sticking with him until it becomes engraved in his psyche, eventually becoming an obsessive thought he tends to use when catastrophising. Similarly, him latching onto Arthurian legends and the DnD campaigns with them, It is his last (perceived) beacon of stability in his life, and he has a death grip on it. Lastly, he also refuses to let go of his Lancelot, and oh boy that part was painfully relatable. The way these three fixations compare, contrast and play into each other was well done and really fun to read about.

Speaking of the butterfly effect, I enjoyed those little interludes. They were intriguing and visually interesting. The reveal the wings belong to Tyler was a neat visual to tie it together. However, I feel that by the end we had maybe too many of them, and the last one lingered on way too long. I can't say for certain without doing a re-read and focusing on them, but I felt like by the end the entire metaphor was a bit lost in the sauce. The emotional climax of Tyler spiraling and being berated by the multiple Eyes of god definitely felt a bit over the top and like it went on too long. The entire concept of these segments was a good idea and executed mostly well, but I think some editing, letting some thing implied instead, or shorter segments would be a lot more effective.

My last big like was the last scene and how it all untangled. This story has been pretty good with setting stuff up and then coming back to conclude them well. The players leaving and the campaign devolving into an utter mess was a nice parallel to Tyler's life. The visual of him playing with goblin figurines alone in the dark and sobbing is a lot more effective than many other stories trying to make it obvious that the character is Going Through It real bad. The intervention by Tristan was sweet and empathetic. Having him do all that in this outrageous princess pink crop top is both unhinged and perfect. You could really tell a lot of care and tenderness went into approaching such a delicate situation, both from Tristan and the writer. I think in general that was what worked for me best in this entire VN, Tyler's struggle was really compelling and the way the author approached it with empathy and heart without devolving into melodrama.

All in all, so far one of my favs of the jam and a really strong first showing from the dev!

I went in this game with some apprehension, but ended up liking it more than I expected. It also ended up having some issues I worried about, but not quite in a way I anticipated and I left kinda frustrated cause by the end I got to expect more than what the game gave us.

I see a lot of people complain this VN is "just porn", but I have a different issue. It wasn't good sex, or at least I wanted better sex from it! Commit to being a true cumbrain, a true maker! But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

While I do have my issues with both the story, writing and art, I also enjoyed a lot of things about them. The art style is quite pretty and it reminds me of older flash games, the wolves are easy on the eyes and have some pretty cute design details, and the story was pretty chill and fun if you're in the right mindset for it. The crumb of folklore we got was also kinda interesting, but it was doing less than the bare minimum lip service to the jam theme.

The game had some really neat tricks, like the little animated cutscenes and main menu, the pretty effect when clicking the start button, the constant animated fluff, the pretty (but strangely solemn) portraits... I also enjoyed the build up to the uhh grand climax, the truth of dare scene being my favourite part of the game.

Now, for the issues...

I'll start with the first obvious thing, the four wolves (and kinda Pepper). While I do like how it looks, all four characters look like they're made in a Picrew template. They are all handsome and I love how ridiculously fluffy they are, but they're just four times the same dude with the same body type and features. I spent way too much trying to latch onto SOMETHING, and I do appreciate that despite them looking like a lazy palette swap, they do have a bunch of different little details. They all have unique tails, accessories, eyebrows, nips etc etc. It makes me thing where we got the worst of both worlds, where some genuine effort went into making them all look unique, but in the end it still looks lazy. What we got makes me think of the infamous production of the Ctrl+alt+delete webcomic (there's a dated reference for you all) where the author would churn out strips by mixing and matching premade face elements. One neat detail that was missed was that initially I thought all wolves would have the same matching ring, one on each different finger, with Milo's not being visible on the little finger all the way in the back. I was hoping we would go somewhere with those, hoping maybe Pepper would get a fifth ring as well but... nothing comes of that neat little visual detail.

The wolves being way too similar isn't just an art issue either. They all have very little character or anything that makes them interesting. Bruno is definitely the winner when it comes to personality, but even with him it's very slim pickings. He's funny with his idiocy, and is the one who pushes the "plot" forward by being a cumbrained instigator of chaos. Other than that I really struggle to say anything about the rest. Rex is the basic bitch one, Milo is the... small careful one? He's at least often the most considerate to Pepper I guess. And Damien is the... smart one? He seems to be the only one listening to tour guides.

The real shame is not only that the boys have very slim personality, but them not having dynamics, a history or relationships does make me question why there's four of them. There are glimpses of that, especially during the truth or dare game. I like how Bruno is needy and gets uppity in order to be included, or that everyone seems to ship Rex and Milo (those two have the most similar faces and are often placed next to each other, leading to my reading group often saying "never talk to me or my son ever again"). More of such neat little moments, and more of their history together! I did like how it was very obvious that yeah, these guys all fuckin, but I was hoping for a bit more of a concrete reveal. I was just waiting for the reveal that they're all a polycule with matching rings, but nah, they're just a group of friends who travel together and breed together. And you know what, fair. It makes for a fun dynamic with poor timid closeted Pepper.

Lastly when it comes to the tragic lack of variety and flavour when it comes to the four wolves... the sex scenes at the end. We get some oral and escalate to them all breeding Pepper one by one in orderly fashion. After he gets fucked first, Pepper presents himself to Damien and goes "wanna have a taste, big boy?". Imagine my disappointment when he didn't mean literally, and we don't get a rimming scene but a repeat of the same missionary with lights off like with Rex. We have five bodies, all possible combinations of them intermingling, but they all do the same thing 4 times in a row. They could have had any combination of partners, to flip flop with Pepper topping, or at least breed him in different positions. I am probably too greedy, but this with visuals of the bodies visible instead of the internal shots would have made this way more interesting. What we got was four basically identical anal scenes with an internal shot. I can't believe someone managed to make getting bred by four hot guys feel boring and like going through the motions.

The truth or dare scene, and the skinny dipping scene were much better. I think the teasing and slow build up of expectations was done much better than the payoff in the end.

My last barrage of complaints is the UI, or the lack there of. This engine made me realise that we should never take Ren'Py for granted, even with all of its flaws. A lot of basic features like saving, loading, going a line back or reading the text history, adjusting the text speed or music volume, saving or loading your game, BEING ABLE TO QUIT THE GAME OUTISDE OF THE MAIN MENU are things I sorely miss. I have some understanding for a small game made in a month for a game jam. I've seen such cases in fully priced furry Vns sold on Steam, or even in official remakes of the same game.

All in all, all the other reviewers are all wrong, screw the haters! The problem isn't that it's "just porn", the problem is that the porn felt like the dev was giving us an apathetic handjob. Put your entire pussy into it! Give us four hot lads that are memorable and interesting! Make five guys having horny adventures on an island be a spectacle worth remembering! And god make those fat wolf knots be worth it and not feel like a chore!

Well, it's no City's Light... But it's a worthy successor!

I had a blast reading this! First of all, I have 0 resistance to KnowIt designing absolutely adorable wolfies... I took crit damage from all versions of El, they're just too cute!

The intro honestly felt like an alternate universe of High Score Hyrax, with an insecure fat bitch fumbling a perfect hot baddie catastrophically, with a supernatural twist. I like the different direction this story took, I am an absolute sucker for characters suffering from supernatural whorrors with a normie being their only mundane anchor that makes them cling onto their humanity. That anchor being an adorable marriage material cutie? Chef's kiss!

I wish we had spent more time with the various versions of El and exploring the similarities and contrasts they have more. I really enjoyed seeing the slightly different dynamics they have with Kali, and the fact that Kali has the supernatural advantage of knowing some constants and using it to his advantage (the belly bribe was demonic). Some of the versions of El were also criminally underutilised. You're telling me you made a CYBER BAKER EL, and we did nothing with him? Girl give us the nanomachine yeast segment, i need to know more! It would be the only acceptable FVN tiramisu scene.

While I had a blast with the game overall, I am not sure what to think of how the story went. The premise was great, the development too, the drama was delicious, especially once we start revisiting familiar dimensions... But then, I feel like the story didn't really know what to do with that and where to go from there on. It's tricky with a story structured upon being so fragmented and with a conundrum that has no solution. With El, Kali and their relationship(s) being the only constant, the only logical conclusion is that one of those elements changing would lead to a satisfying end. We... kinda get that? I did like Kali's change of attitude when back on his initial homeworld and all he suffers there. But then he just kinda resigns himself to fate. I get what the story was going for, with him coming to terms and acceptance with everything, but it felt like the story was a bit unsure on how to conclude and just fizzled out unceremoniously.

That was a pretty minor blemish on my overall enjoyment of it. I also have a few random tidbits I wanna say I appreciate that I have no structured place to put in the review. I really liked the contrast of the two leads telling the same story, one being really engaging with lovely Utenaesque visuals, and the other being a bad retelling with childish crayons. I love all the familiar worlds from other KnowIt works we visited. A BIG NERD of a friend pointed out that Kali might be a DnD Yakman, since they have hypno powers (shoutout to the author's barely disguised kink), so if that's intentional that's also brilliant! I love that El has an outrageous bulge in every universe.

This was... a strange read! Spoilers ahead for the uninitiated.

Most of the VN felt like going through the motions of a typical slice of life meet cute. I must admit, I didn't really pay close attention to the Itch page and jumped into a stream of the game pretty much blind, so I didn't see any warning to know what's in store. However, the very odd vibe of the writing and the visuals made me clock that something is wrong the moment Ren shows up, and that was the biggest strength and what I enjoyed about my read the most.

I must gush about the honey trap that is Ren first, since this VN lives and dies by that. Red flag wolf boyfriends have been a bit of a trope and meme in these circles, but it never really worked for me cause it tends to be used on a man who's usually not really my type, and the red flags are too glaring and menacing. I never find them disarming enough. Ren on the other hand...

Ren is so cute and fluffy, and perfectly weaponises the image of a cute, quirky extrovert partner who adopts the lonely, isolated man who's looking for an adventure. Perfect perpetrator, perfect victim. I like a lot of the subtle (maybe not so subtle, but still subtler than the usual play on this trope) indications that something is... wrong. The moment Ren is introduced, I felt the vibe was off. They wear just a wifebeater in a dark alleyway, they conveniently drop a wallet, the name of that flower shop is foreshadowing 101, the sunlight after the rain illuminates them as a literal red flag, they constantly hide their arms behind their back... And not to speak of the things they say. There's so many moments where they say something that is just slightly wrong, with some pretty big fumbles where the mask slips too much. Still, Ren has the charisma to convince someone who's especially vulnerable to this like Lucan, that this is all part of their eccentric charm! Honestly Ren can sell my kidney on the black market, I don't even care!

Also I find it very funny cause this is the second unhinged florist wolf from a May wolf jam. Something something two nickels.

The writing felt very disorienting and kinda floaty, but that was to its strength. It works really well with Ren as a character and Lucan as the lovestruck fool. There was some fun imagery and flourish used in the prose. The plot was intriguing because as I said, even before the intrigue fully gets revealed, you already have a mystery of trying to figure out why are the vibes so off. The one thing I really disliked was the heavy use of auto-advancing to the next line. I honestly never enjoy when a VN does that, unless they give a pretty generous pause before moving on.

I need this VN to continue and conclude! I need to see where this is going. I am invested in both characters, I want their relationship to work despite that really being a bad idea, and I'm honestly interested for any wild outcome this story could end up with.

The game page is pretty sparse with info and I think I will be here too.

This was a pretty uncomfortable read, for all the intended reasons. You suspect the entire time that something is wrong, and you are trying to figure out what exact kind of wrong, until it the other shoe finally drops. The whole time I kept thinking "they're not actually gonna go there, right...?"

That said, I think I liked the premise more than the execution. I think the story is too short to let the dreadful build up simmer enough. While the brisk pace is disorienting and fitting, I think it looses a lot of its bite cause it's just too quickly over. It did build up the feeling of unease well, but I think it should have gone much further. I also don't think we had enough time of the girls hanging out and bonding for me to believe that Lucy would lower her guard down, or for Mary to grow attached to her to have second thoughts. The brother was a sparse character but have a very strong presence. For a story about manipulation, it didn't really leverage Mary's explore with either character that much, and that's a shame.

The interplay of the two endings was done well. I like the idea of going with the plan remaining implicit, although I think I would have gone with more disturbing implicit vagueness here, and having the other ending be the one that reveals the whole grim picture.

Lastly, I wish the game touched upon the Greek myths some more. There is an entire very rich pantheon of stories regarding fucked up shit that this story touches on to draw parallels to.

All in all, an idea that could have been really strong if it committed to slow cooking the horrifying implications.

This was a sweet little story, with an interesting albeit absolutely unhinged premise. I'm sorry but I have to get that out of my system first.

I thought how this entire set up is really interesting and wondered why isn't it done more. We've seen an opposite sex arranged marriage a million times, and stories about queer people being forced into one have been done too. But an arranged same sex marriage? Kinda cooking, but at what cost.

I read this in a group and the spiciest take one person had is that this story would be a lot more interesting if one or both characters were actually straight. That would be a drastic departure from the author's vision and it got me worried that it could easily go some unintentionally dark place, so I'm not on board. It does leave me wondering, and we ended up with some question about Brock specifically. The reveal that his partner is another man was a shock to everyone in the game, and it was also a shock that he agreed to the marriage. I kept asking myself if his family knew he was gay back then. I wonder if he himself realised he's gay before that? We don't get many answers, but we get some little unhinged details about this entire setup that only lead to more questions.

Speaking of which, everything about William... His parents basically catfished Brock's family, didn't reveal his gender or name (I'd have a crumb more understanding if William had a unisex name and they all expected a woman from being told the name and then were in for a surprise), SHIPPED HIM TO ANOTHER CONTINENT, ALL ALONE, and then didn't even attend  the wedding? 😭😭😭 I'm not sure if this is something that hasn't been given much thought cause of the tight jam deadline, but it's diabolical lmao

Absolutely wild marriage set up shenanigans aside, I did enjoy the story. The initial loveless marriage tension was done well, even if with much used images of the pillow barrier or one partner not wearing the wedding ring. My favourite part was Brock as a character and his inner dilemma. I'm an absolute sucker for characters who deeply care, but are unable to express it due to self loathing, but they still can't stop themselves from showing affection some ways. The fact that he makes a coffee for William every morning ,but never sits down to have it together with him is the perfect example of this.

What I'm less thrilled about was the resolution. The significance of The Badger's Moon was good, but I feel like Brock's inner turmoil was contrived and wouldn't survive for so long. It seems like this is the first serious pushback he received in two months and his insecurities immediately crumble.I do understand what the story was going for, and the way they bond through The Badger's Moon (and its significance of protecting the household from the cold, both literal and in this case marital) was done well, but it felt like this tension deflated too easily. What I expected was something more dramatic or cathartic. We got William pushing Brock out of his comfort zone a bit, but introducing more stress and conflict between them could have lead to a final confrontation where they are finally honest and reveal their insecurities and come out stronger on the other side. Another option would be having an even more sentimental climax. I found it weird how there is a line about Brock crying on the walk to his parents, but he takes what should be the emotional finale pretty stoically. Of course he is in a better place, but it feels like his anguish mostly disappeared instead of being released.

As for the proseitself, I'd say it was an improvement compared to A knight's myosotis. There were some weird times where the tenses got switched up for no reason that threw me off, and many sentences were pretty plain and lacked flourish or anything fun. I feel like  scenes when Brock is alone have this habit of just describing things in a very matter of fact way, especially listing things he does without any flare.

Lastly, I want to say that I enjoyed the art! I think the characters were cute, their sprites expressed who they are (Brock's posture being very stiff is perfect considering he's suffering from having a stick up his ass), and the figurines on the bag in the end are soooo cute (main menu change too!). My fav illustration is probably the opening shot at the wedding though.

All in all, it was a sweet game I enjoyed, with my fav parts being the sweet sentimentality and the protagonist's big mental blockade. Despite harping on it a lot, I do like the insane set up about the marriage... I just wish the game milked the entire thing for more drama or more sweetness.

I enjoyed this VN quite a bit! From the first impression of the really creative Itch game page design, till the pretty ending illustrations, it was fun.

I think the writing and story were pretty tight, and they hit on some raw emotions... but maybe too raw? Both Beckett and the VN wear its feelings on its sleeve and have big displays of emotions. I'd say the most subdued moment it has is refusing to go into the details of the freak incident that took Beckett's life and letting the clever character design do the talking instead. It slips into a bit too melodramatic at times, especially during the more bombastic and more tragic endings, but otherwise I felt the story and writing were pretty tight.

I liked the take on a (relatively) benevolent haunting. Unorthodox interpretations of creatures of the night, monsters and undead are always fun. Exploring undeath as literal undying loyalty and several aspects both good and bad was pretty clever.

Art wise, everyone looked so gosh darn cute!!! Rhett's design is simple but vibrant and fun and he (like everyone) has fun gay little poses. I especially like his tired/bending over sprite, it's kinda goofy but it's so good. The full screen illustrations are also a joy, I enjoyed how the expressions on the characters are drawn and Beckett's fruity little poses especially.

For a first VN, it's a solid showing, excellent job! I hope we see more from the dev, either as an artist or as a project lead again.

Mundilactes had my attention from the screenshots showing off the beautiful art alone, but the very short Itch page description had me intrigued too. In retrospect, that little blurb is ended up telling us exactly what's in store for us.

I'll get to the visuals first – I have only good things to say. I absolutely adore every visual element of the game. The textbox is lovely with nicely contrasted text and an elegant but readable font, the little portraits are lovely, and everything else just... wow! The painted backgrounds are extremely my jam. I love the style and brushstrokes, and the fact that everything has earthy colours of autumn and decay gives it such a strong persistent mood and it absolutely looks gorgeous to boot. You really feel that this world is stagnant, the slow degradation of everything in cycles is the norm and the ability to preserve instead of renew is the best we can hope for. The colours of autumn get dropped only when scenes of extreme terror or wonder happen, which makes them pop out even more.  I loved the contrast and interaction between organic and mechanical, with all the horrible black goo that is somewhere in the uncomfortable middle.

My only minor complaint is that the textbox does cover up almost half of the screen. While this isn't a problem in itself, it's a shame that some of the full screen illustrations get covered up. For most of them this isn't a problem since the composition is such that all the important elements are on the right side of the illustration, but there are a few exceptions. It wouldn't be a bad idea to have the UI fade out and back in existence when scenes change and new illustrations are shown.

The main menu and the little animation that plays at the start of the game is also a treat. It' makes you wonder on your first playthrough, sets the tone, but also makes you understand it subsequent playthroughs. I always love when things from the beginning get recontextualised.

Last visual element is of course the sprites. My god, I could gush about them for so long. The character designs are very simple, but their demeanor, stature and more than anything expression tell us everything. The main trio's design being so generic, but their personalities coming through other ways is such a perfect choice for a cast of shapeshifters. The highlights of the sprites for me are basically everything the fossa does, the horrific, but still not unbearable through some clever vagueness "ouch" variants of the deer, and of course the leopard's getting the iconic kitty gleam in his eyes when he's happy.

The one very glaring flaw is the complete absence of audio, but this will get remedied in the post jam polish update I hope. My playthrough had the Majula theme from Dark Souls 2 playing quietly in the background on Youtube and I must admit, it fit surprisingly well. Make of that what you will and I guess give it a shot while we wait for some audio to be added.

As for the writing and the story, I enjoyed it as much as the visuals. It is very noticeable that this is a script translated from French to English and it has some quirks because of that. Some sentence structures sound unnatural, and the fact that the main trio doesn't have names and is referred to by profession makes it stick out when their titles get changed a lot in a way that seemed more like indecisiveness of the translation than a deliberate choice. The descriptions used for the hauler leopard seemed to struggle the most when trying to pinpoint what is his role in the mission. But then again such was his role in the story as well, love your energy girl, give us nothing! 🐆💅

I personally didn't mind the dodgy translated English, since I feel like it worked well for the disorienting and ambiguous tone the story had. Everything was just slightly alien and off, and you were never really sure if the game is trying to misdirect you on purpose, the characters struggle to articulate what they uncovered, or something was simply lost in the purple flower field of prose,

As for the story structure, I think it was clever. We have a very clear mission statement, we go and do the thing, come back, bim bam bosh, done! Sounds easy, right? Well, things end up being more complicated on several levels, and those several wrenches in the plan made the entire thing so fun. The initially unclear stakes and setting do a lot of the heavy lifting here.

There was a lot of ambiguity about what is going on, what are we doing, why are we doing this, why do we care, where you don't really understand many of these elements due to how strange this world and its society is. I love how those get revealed, and not through one playthrough only either. I enjoyed how all the pieces of the puzzle are sprinkled through the story, and some are pretty subtle and require you to pay attention and think about what is said and what is being deliberately left out. The multiple endings that all range from "this is a disaster" to "this was a mess" were fun and I enjoy that you will be confused or disturbed when first seeing them, but as you see more and more the picture will become clear.

One last thing that I keep thinking about is the reaction of a friend when we finished reading this. I very cockily proclaimed that I understand the story and how it wasn't so obtuse once you simply read the entire thing and it gives you all the information. His takeaway was that he didn't understand anything, and how our understanding of the literal events of the story are just scratching the surface of what they actually mean, represent or imply. And I think that's the best part. If you're like him, you can go hunting for some greater meaning and chase for celestial fishies. If you're like me, you'll get a fun story with the option to retreat into what is familiar and curl up into troubled sleep, left with a lot to ponder.

All in all, I found Mundilactes to be a very creative and well executed little jam game. I highly recommend it to everyone and I hope we get the final 1.0 version.

This one was... chaotic. I feel like it was trying to juggle so many things, had conflicting things it focused on, was in the weird place jam games have being a supplementary prequel for a dev's other work, tried to juggle too many plot threads... but in the end I think it managed to pull it off. Mostly successfully.

The presentation first, There were some nice picks for the background photos, and I liked the cover image of Ransom with the multiple photos. I enjoy the sprites with the iconic Rhettoe eyes, and even if they many were WIP they looked good. The fact that the dev managed to sneak in a custom UI and music in just a month is seriously impressive.

As for the writing and storytelling, I have more mixed feelings. Trying to write a standalone game that is actually connected to the dev's another work seems to be tricky in game jams. I'd say it's been the most successful in that regard out of the three such VNs I've read. There weren't things where I felt like I'm missing crucial context, and I'm sure fans of IMG_1697 were getting a nice bonus treat. My only suspicion is that the fact that it belongs to the wider Rhettoeverse resulted in some dangling plot threads and superfluous characters and moments. Let's crack open that topic.

Reading the story, my main impressions were that a lot of the scenes and mini storylines seem very fragmented and disconnected. They do make sense from a logical and chronological aspect, but not so much from a narrative one. This is the thing I have always been coming back to during both my reading the VN and writing this review.

We have quiet contemplative moments, a lot of atmosphere building with autumn melancholy, we have a very slicey lifey sweet dream romance, we have the homophobia/toxic relationship in the college, and then we have everything with Ransom's mother's pregnancy, death and all the consequences that has after. It's a lot... and it is connected, but in a way where something kept feeling off to me.

The premise to depict a dramatic time of a character's life worked for me when it focused on Ransom and his family and friends, but the entire thing with this Novembuck jam was... well, mister Novembuck himself. He felt so isolated from the entire narrative that he even disappears for lengthy parts of the game. He pops in Ransom's life, absolutely charm the pants off of him, gets shoved aside when the real drama kicks off, and is then unceremoniously put on a bus to Canada. I'm glad he at least got a nice parting scene, but I must admit he was the least memorable part of the entire story for me. It felt to me like there was an entire story about meeting someone during a turbulent time of your life, having a brief but amazing romance, and then going your separate ways is a strong story that deserves to be explored, but just didn't have enough focus and room to breathe because of everything else going on in this narrative.

Ransom's relationship with Ryan was a lot more interesting though. Honestly trying to awkwardly navigate a break up with an amicable ex who you are unsure how much he hates you could have carried this entire story alone. The conflicted feelings Ransom has, the fact that he's both feeling guilty, but also wanting to be close to Ryan, there were some really good character moments there for Ransom. Ryan was maybe a bit too MVP of a character for his own good, considering his conciliatory attitude removed any nuance or complexity from his side of the complicated relationship. In general he ended up being my favorite character for being so brave and kind the entire time. Knowing he gets elevated to protagonist status in the sequel makes me so happy!

The last big chunk of the narrative is everything that happens with Ransom's family and oh boy... I found everything to be too dramatic for its own good... It was certainly memorable! But at what cost?

Everything from the death of Ransom's mother to the fallout it leads to with his father didn't really work for me. It was very grim topics that I could not take as seriously as the game wanted me to. It was all just so melodramatic and over the top, I ended nervously chuckling in disbelief or rolling my eyes most of the time. I think it slipped into moments of cheap shock or poor taste at times, especially the over the top nightmare sequence. I think the vision here wasn't necessarily wrong, but either the skill or time weren't there to make all this land for me in a way the author wanted it to. I do commend the balls of engaging with very dark topics few FVNs dare even graze.

Oh and then there's the lion and the ram. That sure was... a plot element... It was there! It existed! And it mattered? I'm going to give this one a pass and assume it's all just some setup for IMG_1697.

And I enjoyed the ending (not only cause we get a lot of Ryan, I promise!), it was very sweet. I do feel like the game wanted to end half the script ago though. After Ransom's mother dies, every scene felt like the last one and a good stopping point, but then the game would just... keep going. I got some very severe ending fatigue by that point and was wondering what are we doing and what is the point of all this.

In the end I still remain with that feeling, but I kinda don't mind anymore? The game promised us a small, dramatic part of Ransom Wilke's life. It delivered exactly that. I keep wondering if that mission statement was misguided to begin with though. I feel like it managed to succeed maybe too well, and gave us something out of someone's life: a series of events that don't really have much connection other than having Ransom star in all of them, that don't form a particularly cohesive narrative. Sometimes in life all is well and then you experience tragedy that throws your life off course and cascades in even more tragedies. And then life just moves on. But does that make for a satisfying story in a fictional work of art? Life's a bitch and then you live?

Despite me complaining a lot, I had an overall good time with The Album of Ransom Wilkes. I just have a lot of thoughts and questions about the things that didn't really work for me, and many of my issues lingered with me longer than the parts I genuinely enjoyed. Except Ryan. He's perfect, don't change anything. Boypussy Thursday every day!

Also who the fuck names their child Rans-

Hell yeah! Can't wait for the grand finale, i'm HYPED!!

Oooh, nothing too special. I just remember the call with Rimo being pretty short and the media friend pointing out how Mr. Powerhouse mostly goes "ah, that's nice" and hangs up without engaging with the listener for long lol

The story isn't really about Rimo and I don't expect it to go in depth and I honestly  didn't even think much about that conversation. I guess it just stood out to someone who was in Diere's shoes and role more!

I have a history of liking Kemono kusuri's games more than I can play them. Tune in to you kinda broke the curse in that I managed to get through the game from start to finish twice, albeit both times in a stream with a bunch of people. Despite Renpy's best efforts, the gameplay didn't prevent me from seeing the end this time!

First of all, I think the reason why I tend to admire this dev's games is the art. I have such a soft spot for his art and character designs. That is also the case here. The two leads have a pretty simple design, but I love how they both look still. Those glasses look really good on Diere, and Lufo rocking the double sleeveless shirt and jacket is just peak.

Writing wise, I enjoyed this game‘s dreamy vibes. It managed to evoke this very specific feeling of driving at night and all the late night thoughts that come with that territory. It managed to nail this contrast between a lonely drive and the comfort of a soothing, familiar voice from the radio.

I absolutely loved this setup. The two perspectives of contrasting characters, and this story that seemed to be going for a parasocial relationship between a radio host and his listener. There‘s a lot to explore there. The fact that Lufo does call, and it turns out they‘re old friends who drifted apart took it to another direction, but the parasocial aspect remained. I found it interesting how instead of developing one sided feelings of love, Lufo manages to invent a parasocial nemesis instead, and imagines Diere hates his fucking guts. Diere having no idea what he‘s talking about was great, but also muddied the waters for reasons we‘ll get to later.

I liked the very cliche but classic for a reason contrast between the two leads. We have a big tuffo buffo puffo puppo Lufo with his biceps that destroyed two shirts, who is a blue collar worker of some kind, and an absolute emotional wreck. On the other hand we have the wealthier, calmer, well adjusted Diere, who‘s loved by fans and has his cushy job of fiddling with the sliders in the first fucking puzzle I mean of talking with people over the radio. Also I am extremely normal about his 🏳️‍🌈❓expression with those glasses on woof woof bark arf

Fun fact, my second playthrough of this was with a friend who works in media, and they pointed out that if you actually pay attention to what Diere is saying to the listeners, he‘s actually doing a horrible job and not engaging them or bringing anything interesting to the table at all. I know this isn't the focus, but act your wage I guess Diere!

Then, we get to the section in the house and oh boy, does the story take a turn… Every single other review already beat the dev to death with hammers for the second gameplay segment, so I won‘t repeat it. I will add that I partially see the vision for reasons I will return to later. Narratively though, I think this is such a sudden, wacky turn that was really unnecessary and completely derailed the good thing this story had about these two reconnecting and about Lufo‘s one-sided perceived hatred and self loathing.

Now this is where we get into the meat and potatoes of why Lufo is being such a weird boy about this entire thing. I must admit it‘s confusing in a way that feels both overexplained, dragged out, but ultimately unclear. Lufo is beating himself up for having a crush on Diere in the past, promising he‘ll confess SOMETHING in his letter, and chickening out. Fair enough. Diere remembers absolutely none of this? A bit strange, but I understand him being unable to connect it to „Lufo hurting him“ as Lufo keeps painting this entire thing.

Now the strange part is to me that Lufo keeps insisting that he hurt Diere, and the prose is very wishy washy whether he means emotionally or physically. I think the confusion stems from the gameplay segment where you must use Lufo‘s howl attack on Diere to progress, and that does physically hurt him, but the game is very vague whether this is all a recreation of literal past events that are now haunting Lufo. A lot of things point at yes, but Diere absolutely not remembering anything would indicate no… unless Lufo hit him so bad he got brain damage 😭😭😭

I‘m all for ambiguity in situations like this, but here it feels like it‘s confusing due to unclear editing and writing, and not in order to give us a vague situation to untangle and theorise about. The fact that this emotional climax is happening in this segment with frustrating gameplay that had a couple levels too many didn‘t help.

The resolution though? No complaint's, chef's kiss, I need more!

All flaws aside, I enjoyed this game a lot! While I have noticed this dev focuses a lot on gameplay and novelty, I hope we‘ll get a VN where he locks the fuck in and doesn't get screwed over by the jam deadline or focuses on elements other than gameplay.

I ended up enjoying The Mighty Ken quite more than I expected! The dev's May Wolf entry really didn't click for me at all, so I was going on with a bit of dread. However, this submission felt very energetic and had very vibrant prose.

The prose and narration are descriptive and verbose and I found them fitting to the player character‘s voice so well. There‘s a lot of fun descriptions and all senses are used (so much description of smells!) and I was fully immersed in the hedaspace of this angsty teenager who is ready to lash out at the world, or himself.

It had a very grounded take on the stress and worries highschoolers go through without being unintentionally edgy. That is a rare feat, considering that "having mental health issues at college" is practically a genre of its own in furry VN spaces, and I find them hilariously edgy most of the time. I‘m glad The Mighty Ken never got melodramatic to that degree.

The other remarkable thing is of course the endings. I usually adore games dropping bizarre shit at the reader out of nowhere, but here it didn't really work for me. It felt less like something weird I‘ll keep untangling and mulling over long after I have finished reading it, and more like the jam deadline is almost here and we have to wrap up this story NOW, everything be damned. The rat is absolutely iconic though and keeps living in my head rentfree weeks after reading the VN. Mission accomplished in the end I guess?

Remember that really grim trend from around a decade ago on Tumblr where someone tied balloons that say “get well soon” on dead deer by the road? Asking for no particular reason.

After reading the devlog for this VN, I felt a lot better. I must admit reading Gravekeeper had me exhausted by the end cause of the length, and I kept wondering “why are we here? Just to suffer?”. I was wondering what is the point of this long VN and what is it trying to tell me. But I think I‘m getting ahead of myself a bit.

First, I find the premise very interesting and promising for further development. Seeing the practical, moral and existential questions a society has to tackle in a world where undeath is a fact of (un)life is very interesting. One of my biggest gripes is that the narrative didn't allocate a lot of attention to exploring those questions. We get something, but most of the time is spent on what is my main issue…

I felt like the beginning and closing thoughts the story had were the best, and everything between felt like filler. The story is filled with pretty creative monsters of the week that all have their own unique mechanics and gimmicks, and we do get Myles having to adapt and overcome them in different ways… However it felt to me like too much time and wordcount was given to Myles explaining his tactics in details, and a lot of the interesting questions regarding the people, their relationships and society are pushed aside.

I think my issue is the fact that while Myles‘s predicament itself is interesting, he isn't a particularly interesting protagonist, since he doesn't have much interesting going on. He‘s just on that sigma grindset, spending his (un)life from one assignment to the other. The one part I found more engaging was the ending, where he finally gets challenged about that, but that was literally a few lines before we wrapped up.

Another big misstep that I think could have been avoided is that Myles is alone for most of the VN. There is a reason why we have duo detectives or cops in these types of stories. He had nobody to have any type of dynamic with, there was no interesting back and forth, banter, or just clashes of different worldviews. That does bring me to the brief flashes of what we could have had...

The brief moments where we have mission control in the form of the operator is a glimpse into another more dynamic version of this story. Alternatively, Billy also brought exactly what I think this story needed to the table. It‘s a shame we have him for so short! He felt like the true heart of the game, an actual protagonist who engages with these interesting dilemmas the story and world pose. His discomfort with his government‘s and society‘s callousness towards wraiths, and ultimately his sympathetic nature leading to a big ethical dilemma regarding ghost grandma… That‘s the good stuff I was craving the entire time.

I also don‘t have anywhere to put this neatly, but I must mention the plotline regarding Grand SOMEWHERE. It was resolved in such an anticlimactic way, that I was in disbelief. I must wonder if this was a problem with editing, the jam time constraints or what went wrong here.

While I do always enjoy heroes defying the "if you kill him, you‘ll be just as bad as him!" trope, I was flabbergasted that we had so much time devoted to Myles getting into both an ethical and criminal pickle, spending so much time trying to work around it, ultimately failing, scrambling on how he‘ll do damage control and then… The story just unceremoniously drops the whole thing and it gets resolved in a throwaway line after a time skip… I was just waiting for this to come back and bite Myles in the ass, but then the story ended and I had to make peace with the fact that it‘s just a loose plot thread that went nowhere.

Lastly, I have to compliment the visuals. I always like seeing jam devs getting creative and going wild with editing the sprites provided by the organisers. The little detail like wounds carefully layered under clothes, and seeing them actually heal and become scars after a while was a very nice touch.

Ultimately, the last piece of my reading of this VN is in the post mortem dev diary. Seeing that the author used this jam to get back into the creative groove made me happy. Also props to a dev that actually went back after the update embargo was lifted in January and actually updating and finishing the VN, that's always commendable and sadly rare with jam games. I hope my criticisms are helpful and I think that despite any issues I had, this project is a big success since it accomplished what the author set out to do. I wish the best of luck to the dev back in the AO3 mines!

I feel like a clown for saying this is the dev's first showing 🤡 

Many Love jam entries have been on my ever growing "to read list" and Food at a wake has been one that piqued my interest, but I somehow didn't connect it's by the same author 💀 

A month later after having read almost most Novembucks, Utter Rubbish only cemented itself as one of my favs of the jam even further!

This VN doesn't do anything particularly new with the well established genre of "doomed crew in an isolated submarine" premise, but damn did I enjoy it!

I enjoyed the framing of the opening and ending through captain's logs. They establish the tone and visual mood well already. The writing from there on out is carried by the characters and the situation never letting up, going from bad to worse until the very end.

Chimel is a no-nonesense captain that that seems like a good leader, but I do find it funny how he is the second biggest obstacle to the group's survival through the story. He remains a relatively passive observer, and the few times he does act it backfires spectacularly. I enjoyed his dynamic with the crew and thoughts in the logs he writes.

Muir is the marketable pair of tits that doesn't have that much screentime due to uhh... things happening. However, he is pretty memorable due to his design, having a very strong entrance and exit out of the story, and for being the character that things happen to. Making the buff shirtless dude into what is basically the damsel in distress is very brave, truly visionary. The few moments of agency and bravery he manages to have between being forced to be passive are remarkable.

Radovan however... My god, Radovan! Absolute standout character and actual hero/protagonist of the story. My man put his entire pussy into saving these doomed dumbasses! His back must hurt from carrying this entire VN. Even before shit hits the fan, he seems like the agent of chaos and comic relief with a strong characterisation, but seeing him shift  when he goes into proactive action mode was impressive. His more sombre, tender moments work very well too. Thank you Radovan for trying to balance out the cosmic karma for all the chaotic catboy and Slavic characters from FVNs that suck 🫡🫡🫡 My only complaint is that he doesn't quite look like a cat, something about his muzzle seems a bit off.

Oh and Achre is also there.

Rergarding the atmosphere, the-

Okay fine, let's talk about Achre. He's there! He exists! And he matters... However, it feels like he drew the short end of the characterisation stick, and doesn't have nice hadonkas to make up for it. While the story tries to give us something about him with the intial scene and the crew's concern for him, and with his epilogue. I feel like him being relegated to serving primary exposition and not having banter with the others as much really screwed him over. I do understand there's a need for a quiet, low energy character of the group, but I still think his character could have been pulled off better. It's an extra shame since it happened to misterNovembuck himself!

Rergarding the atmosphere, it's strong from start to finish. The consistent use of the sickly green hue, used for both the captain's log (I see you trying to get extra credits from the Novembuck devs with for the retro theme, I'm onto you), and for the otherworldy glow used for the backgrounds and character sprites... Chef's kiss! The music and sound effects also add to the oppressive atmosphere and paranoia. I must admit, from the atmosphere alone I initially expected the disaster dominos to result more from the human factor of mutiny, sabotage and backstabbing. Instead we shift into frantic chaos of trying to overcome impossible odds with the power of friendship and Radovan's enormous balls.

The... procedure... scene had me squirm uncomfortably the entire time. That's all I'll say lol.

The last point I have is that I enjoyed the multiple endings, but I'm not really sure about the structure and the meta-text dropping 5 cheeky references to other media per second in order to justify them.

All in all, i immensely enjoyed this VN. Excellent job from the author, one of my favs from the jam!

Hiræth is a short, sombre story about grief and heartache. There's a lot to like, but I was under the impression that the developer was fighting for their life a bit to make it.

There are some choices that made the perspective switching not really work for me. The inconsistent use of format, colour, name tag usage and person/perspective was disorienting more than stylistic. I really hope that if there's a post-jam polished update, some of the visual bugs and prose structure gets addressed with more clarity.

Other than that, I did like the prose. There was a lot of emotional talk, some good bits of dialogue and some lines that I really enjoyed. Lines like "A lean, clean, almost pristine yote can be seen through the screen of steam." have a really good mouthfeel when reading.

The story is very small and simple, which works for such a short word count. Honestly, it felt like the game was almost too long with how little happens? The initial mystery for me was wondering how these two got to such a catastrophic break up where one of them is deeply hurt and lashing out, and the other one wants to continue the relationship. That little mystery gets unraveled in a pretty satisfying way. I like that the focus of the post break up conversation is healing rather than salvaging the relationship.

Presentation wise, the calm music fit perfectly the cozy but melancholy vibes. The use of backgrounds had a lot of good contrasts between cold streets and the warm and inviting looking diner. That diner illustration was absolutely gorgeous. I wish the sprites had more emotions for a story dealing with an emotional topic. I did enjoy the simple, straightforward design of the characters. And I must admit, emotionally constipated coyotes with a guarded pose with cross arms are my personal weakness.

A somewhat messy but still nice first showing from the team. I hope we see more from the team members in the future!

This VN was such a fun and thrilling action flick! For me it was the author's long awaited return to form a la Night Time Dreading Fever. The slicey lifey low stakes transformation fluff stories are fine, but a bit too light on the plot for my taste. I always preferred Hollow's more unhinged takes on action and adventure.

The writing was fast paced and chaotic, but in a good way. The story starts fast and never loses steam. Seeing multiple perspectives of characters who are all in competition with each other on a wild goose chase was used well to reveal information and build some tense situations where the reader knows more than the characters. It was uneven since one of the POV characters gets most of the love but... well I guess we might as well get to that.

Sep is a type of character with so much high energy that he paints my main impression of the writing and game overall. Luckily, I happen to like Sep A LOT. I could see him being written as annoying or the author's favourite Mary Sue, but instead he ends up carrying this entire story. He's a pretty unconventional protagonist and his many, many quirks make him endearing and intriguing. While I do have a sneaking suspicion that he really is the author's favourite, he definitely ended up being mine.

Presentation wise, I enjoyed some of the little tricks the VN pulled. There's some neat little sprite positioning for some gags, the the way Sep reading emotions is represented, and the fact that the author and sprite artist bothered to make the eyepatch symmetrical whenever Sep turns.

The cliffhanger and "to be concluded" at the end did sting. I was very hyped and invested by that time, and the action nonsense escalated to a whole new level. I am looking forward to the ending with a lot of anticipation and (im)patience!

Down the River's Edge ended up being one of my favourite Novembuck entries so far.

When it comes to the presentation, I think everyone did their part really well. I loved the custom UI, especially with the little details like cards and antlers for the characters speaking. Every single one of the many artists did an outstanding job, especially the animator who managed to create an insane amount of animations in just 30 days?? Even the sketchier comic/action segments are expressive and lovely.

The expressions on the sprites are very good too, especially Javi's guarded expressions and body language. Special shoutout to the faces the lawman makes at the end, those were... a lot! My only complaint is that some of the clothes, especially pants, look very strange? It seems like the texture on the material isn't quite right.I think the bartender character is the worst offender, followed by Nate. The music was pleasant and fitting as well.

I enjoyed both the prose and the storytelling decisions that were made. The present and past were interwoven at nice intervals to give us insight into the characters' history in a way that hit in the feelings just right. There was uncertainty until the last moment whether we'll get a tragedy or not, and the journey there was full of intrigue, adorable sappy moments and tension. I was ultra invested in the fate of the main duo without even realising when it happened.

I must compliment the smutty part separately,  since I very rarely enjoy the way sex scenes are written in FVNs. I'm just too picky and they tend to say something  that I find too silly or that makes me roll my eyes. This never happened here, so please take the rare City of sneps horny medal of honour. The animations absolutely helped too.

Congratulations to all team members for all doing their part excellently, and to the project lead for not the good writing, but coordinating it all into such a strong debut VN!

Thank you for the kind words! I kinda got lost on other jam games, but I am slowly chipping away at the final update of Terminated. I want to make it as good as I can, so I'm taking my time.

Philomot/Philomont is a VN where you will get exactly what you see on the Itch. io page: Absolutely gorgeous art and plenty of typos. Foreshadowing is a literary devi-

I went into this VN completely blind on pretty much a whim with some friends, and we all joked how it seems to have been carefully grown in a lab to hit all my buttons. Forlorn old timey mansions, cute twinky foxes, judgemental maids, and dreamy winter landscapes... It is everything I ever wanted.

First to get the most obvious out of the way, the visuals. Both artists did an outstanding job. I am absolutely mesmerised by the backgrounds primarily, but the sprites as well. The two managed to blend them together so well, that I wouldn't know it was drawn by two separate people if the Itch page didn't state so. Jacques's sprite having a faint green lighting matching the room he's in is an example. Some of the sprites have a slightly weird or uncanny quality to their faces, but it honestly works in the game's favour. Absolutely no complaints, excellent job to both team members who worked on the visuals.

As for the writing...There is a distracting amount of typos and mistakes. I hope this will get fixed with highest priority after the jam update embargo is lifted, since it really hampers the experience. The worst instance was Sylvain striking his bombastic pose and biding us "aidou".

Other than the typos, I don't think there are any other big issues with the prose. Regarding the storytelling, the setup is intriguing and the seemingly welcome but hostile atmosphere of the strange mansion seemingly misplaced in time and space is well done. I find the player character's blasé entrance into this story intriguing, since it seems like such a flimsy explanation that surely it must be a lie. I do feel like having the visions/flashbacks reveal everything to the player character and the reader is a missed opportunity.  Seeing the polite mask of hospitality slowly crack and uncovering horrible secrets of decadent nobility in cursed Victorian mansions is the main appeal of such stories! I feel like these flashbacks serving all the revelations to us on a silver platter are cutting through all the fun parts. While the reveal worked as a dramatic end of demo 1, I do wonder how the story will proceed after showing its hand so early.

I am very much looking forward to the continuation! But for now, I must bid you...

The premise of Ventral is extremely up my alley, and I went in with much excitement!

First, I adore the visual parts of the presentation. Mostly. But we'll get to that. The editing of actual computer screens was fun, the CGs and sprites are all extremely charming. I love the different style used in the sprites and illustrations. I remember seeing art by the author in one of my fav May Wolf entries (By the Shore's end) and it their art was done in a lovely scene that is still stuck in my head. Naro's tie being comically oversized compared to the other two employees is also a neat character design detail I adore.

Sadly, the presentation starts falling apart as the game progresses. The sprites are very sparse, and eventually stop showing up on the screen all together. It is extra a shame because it happens towards  the end when we meet the main team and have  them plan and debate together. I assume this is due to jam time constraints and I would love to see an updated version with dynamic sprites.

The writing is the aspect I have more issues with. It is serviceable, but not particularly amazing. There are some interesting ideas and moments, like Naro's scatterbrained narration matching their short attention span or canine excitement, or the game smoothly switching to online nametags during the short (and kinda pointless?) texting scene with a friend.

My biggest issue is that it lingers on some things that aren't very important - like everything that happens before the interview, and breezes past some more exciting stuff that deserve more gravity. Do we really need to focus on Naro's morning routine in such length? And then the revelation about being a dog isn't given much room to breathe. The slow descent into absurd and forceful scenarios and slow dread as the situation gets more dire upon entering Ventral isn't given time to have doubt and fear slowly creep into Naro's and the reader's mind. What should have been a horrifying implication about the leaderboard isn't given time to marinate at all. Much of the horror is dulled by this.

There is a good set up of showing the contrast of Naro's mundane morning and the horror job interview and tasks at Ventral. The writing just needs to be more mindful on what is given attention and time to breathe, and which details are included why. For example, the revelation about being turned into a dog is blunted by the fact that there is no indication of Naro's species prior to that. The shower scene could have been a good time to have at least a short line conveying the information that Naro is a human, and anthropomorphic animals aren't normal in this setting.

I really hope we see a continuation of this VN, I'd love to see what crazy direction the story will go and a more polished version. I think all the writing issues could be fixed with help from a well fitting editor.

This was a really fun read. At first I worried that the premise was gonna get a bit too busy (first dates, mental health, speedrunning microcommunity drama AND time travel??? Girl you need to slow down!), but the story manages to tie all the elements nicely in its pretty nicely limited run time.

I usually am not a fan of gameplay in VNs since in my experience it most often gets in the way of the story as opposed to helping it, but that is not the case here. The titular high score doubles as a health bar, and watching it go up and down depending on how much the hyrax can prevent himself from dying of self inflicted cringe. The score not being exactly what it might initially appear is a nice touch, and the fact that it can fluctuate wildly in one choice depending on how the conversation goes is also amusing once you realise this little "deception".

The second unique element is of course the ever present coin, always tempting both Saul and the player to use it... This was such a fun substitute for something that many players already do using Renpy's generous save slots and the rollback&skip buttons. It is integrated in Saul's character, and once the game confronts the player and Saul more directly for its (mis)use, that's where it gets really interesting.

The writing was witty and tense when needed. I think that all mini-conflicts between Saul and Alan were pretty well handled, and all of them explored the fine dance between trust and caution we have when trying to open up. From the low stakes of small talk and gauging a stranger on a date, to the tension of both hiding secrets, to the ultimate reveal and confrontation about the coin, and all the frankly horrifying existential can of worms that opens... They were done individually, but tied together even better.

I enjoyed the pixel presentation, and I really like Alan's design, he's so pretty! He has so many good expressions, which is an important point since the entire game consists of trying to gauge his reactions on this first awkward date.

I enjoyed the music a lot, I was honestly shocked when I found out it's free stock music. It was a fucking bop and fit the retro game visuals and feel the VN is going for surprisingly well.

I enjoyed Chmrons's previous work and it was nice seeing his work in a more light-hearted story.

Utter rubbish was such a delight! I expected something a bit more existential or scary from some of the screenshots, so I was in for quite a surprise when that main menu hit me. In the end, I think the game told the story it wanted to quite nicely.

The presentation carries the show single-handedly, from the cute simple style that reminds me of old Flash animations, the gorgeous more rendered illustration, and of course the abstract imagery used.

I really liked the retro UI as well, including the fake loading screens. I do wish the UI would integrate all of Renpy's buttons, it was a bit jarring seeing them sitting below the nice custom made textbox.

My only complaint about the visuals are some minor animation errors (like the layer order issue pretty early on where Cal stands up and walk away), or some strange artifacting that happened during most scenes. It is the worst during the dancing scene, but I am going to assume it is the fault of God's silliest little engine that is Renpy. Another distracting thing was the slight flickering every time a movie starts and stops playing. These are all very tiny complaints considering the impressive amount of animations created in just a month's time. I do feel like this came at the cost of some more "traditional" sprites where we had Cal's visuals strangely static compared to what is being described, but I'm not going to hold that against the game. I liked seeing a more dynamic way of portraying the character compared to sprites.

Lastly, my absolute favourite part of the visuals were the abstract bits. The painting scene was so good, but I adored the visuals used when Partridge describes what the sensation of touch feels like to a robot. It is a scene and concept I liked in general, but the visuals enhanced it even further.

This leads me to the writing, where scenes accompanied by more abstract imagery were also my favourites. The story is a cute romance which honestly advanced at a pace I felt was a bit too fast for my own liking, but hey, I can excuse that with the memory recalibration time skips! Also both characters are pretty direct and don't waste any time beating around the bush.

The idea to tell the story from the perspective of a robot was interesting, and it did hit a lot of notes I enjoy in monsterfu- teratophiliac works. We get the usual non-humans experiencing human emotions like love, self-doubt and a search for meaning. It's always nice seeing the fun fantasy (or in this case sci fi) exterior used to explore topics about relationships, like here with trust, intimacy and boundaries. While the entire game did that well, the memory chip repair scene was the cheekiest when doing that.

This was a very first strong showing! I hope more people read this VN, it's worth it for the visual spectacle alone.

The story is very short, but despite being unfinished works as a cute little vignette. It managed to evoke a real "you had to be there" early Deviantart days feel for me.

I liked the squiggly chaotic style, and the scene with the deer ancestors was a nice tonal and visual contrast.

My only big complain is the Main menu and UI elements: bright blue text on a white background is barely visible and strained my eyes.

I hope this gets finished, I'm curious to see where it was going!

I must admit, I was naughty and skipped the content warnings. I was dreading a drastic shift to horror until the very end because of that. It's what I get for not reading.

Overall, this VN was a neat little package. I often go with dread in college aged slice of life VNs because they tend to meander or be too melodramatic for my taste. Broken and mended does slip a bit into melodrama with the father character, but not too much. I think that it being so short with little to no fat worked out really well.

The writing had exactly what I'd want from a story like this. There were some very relatable thoughts and insecurities both leads had. The "reveal" about Emily made me go "oh god, I've been this idiot like Daniel". The idea to tell a story about queer issues from the perspective of a straight ally is also strange and not something I think I've seen in a FVN before. While it did lead to my favourite line from the entire VN, I kinda wish it committed to this and didn't give up Daniel's last straight man in the FVN space status in the last few minutes. But hey, it's not like the bisexuals have much to work with either, so let's goooo! Lastly, I do wish the choices were more consequential, they seem like they only provide very mild flavour.

The art was rough but charming. I was once again naughty and peeked into Daniel's modular sprite. It is an impressive setup that wasn't used much (his expressions are rather limited) and my god the code... Not a critique, but babygirl you don't need to live like this... You don't need to torture yourself coding every single body part over and over again every time he changes an expression 😭

I liked Charlie's sprites better. The multiple shirts was a nice touch, and he had some pretty intense expressions. The lack of some more muted expressions was strangely absent on him though.

Lastly. I really liked the more painterly style used in the bathroom CGs and that fucking painting in Charlie's living room. I adore this painting, immaculate house decor choice. I adore Dan disassociating in the bathtub looking all scrunkly. I do wish we could see Emily in that CG too, but alas.

All in all a nice first showing!

I loved Your Eyes, so I can't wait to read and see what this game has in store!

The writing in this VN is incredible...

Yup! Sorry it's taking so long, but the half containing the latter half will conclude the story and I want to make it as good as it deserves

The game is alive, don't worry! The latter half of the VN is the grand finale and needs more time in the oven, but it will be dropping this year

I wrote about this in the release devlog in more detail, but the short answer is yes. I'm very excited about the finale of Terminated, but it is quite big and needs more time in the oven.

THE PLATINUM SNEP AWARDS

I've noticed that that there were some patterns during the jam that I decided to mark with these little awards just for fun. They're not meant to be taken very seriously.

Also initially these were supposed to be part of the review I left in the rating system, but Itch.io did not like that at all.

Strong art direction🎨 - I just REALLY like the overwhelming purple. I'm easy to dazzle with the right colour choice and keeping the palette consistent...

Who is she?? 🦢👒– I assume we play as a human, but I am not 100% sure if the game ever confirms it.

Also here is a horrible shitpost I made

THE PLATINUM SNEP AWARDS

I've noticed that that there were some patterns during the jam that I decided to mark with these little awards just for fun. They're not meant to be taken very seriously.

Also initially these were supposed to be part of the review I left in the rating system, but Itch.io did not like that at all.

His whole puss yout 🐲🐈 – I love the parallel thinking of multiple jam entries deciding to just flash us with derg pussy for no reason other than to have a laugh. The mark of a true maker!

Who is she?? 🦢👒– The MC mentions having both FUR and TALONS. I had a lot of fun playing my favourite game of "what species are we playing as?"

Disassociating at Target 🎯 – I must admit, my first playthrough of this VN had me space out and I had a hard time paying attention. I'm glad I managed to lock the fuck in during my second read.

Supporting cast MVP 👥 – The manatee and dragon characters continued to be great wingmen and support. A bit more spicy, and for once not an iconic duo, but good boys nonetheless.

Oh yes, expect an android version soon!

THE PLATINUM SNEP AWARDS

I've noticed that that there were some patterns during the jam that I decided to mark with these little awards just for fun. They're not meant to be taken very seriously.

Also initially these were supposed to be part of the review I left in the rating system, but Itch.io did not like that at all.

Cute coffee date 🐺☕️❤️ – it's a game where the wolf takes the protagonist on a date! The fanciest one of the jam. Followed by...

Date escape 🐺☕️👋– Surprisingly booking dates and then booking it on dates is not an isolated instance!

Burning in Hell for Marvel quips 🔥🤓🔥– A harsh but fair award for having a character spout a Whedonesque zinger.

HIS WHOLE PUSSY OUT 🐲🐈– Getting flashbanged by derg pussy? More common than you think.

Supporting cast MVP 👥– probably one of the sweetest dragon and manatee characters in the jam, and the competition is pretty tough!

Fashion police 👠✨– Awarded the moment that "life is a beach" shirt appeared on screen, given for being playful with character's outfits.