itch.io

This story contains lesbians, therefore, it's better than the rest—for legal reasons I must clarify this is not an objectification towards lesbians, clarified this—I enjoyed a lot this game, it had a great balance between the mundanity of a girl worried by her feelings and the craziness of a bunch of young adults that believe they have the world in their hands.

The inner monologue of Lilah was intriguing and immersive, managing to portray her feelings towards Valentina, so her doubts about continuing this trip across America with her friends in search of the evasive criptids—topic that I’m very a fan of, so that’s a plus—

The story is quite simple, and it does know it very well; it knows what it is about and doesn't try to go further. However, I’d like to see a bit more about their friendship dynamics, especially before all this YouTube extravaganza. It’d be a nice contrast, escalating Lilah’s feeling even further, to the idea of ‘everything was better before’.

I’d like also to see a bit more about her dynamic with Trenton. I know this story is about Lilah and Valentina, but I feel that the story would benefit a lot more from exploring the factor friendship since this whole project started as an idea between friends and would put in retrospect how much that initial idea changed until the starting of the game.

The presentation and art are impeccable, though. I’ll be honest, when I played your last game—and if you’re reading this and you haven’t played it yet, you must do it. It’s not a recommendation, it’s a threat—I wasn’t sure about this art style, it was cute but not my type. However, I’m glad to say that I changed my mind, it’s simple yet expressive. The characters have a lot of personality, and their gestures express their demeanour flawlessly.

This story is one of my personal favourites, and I’m intrigued by what you guys can do next. Keep the good job!

OK, this story was honestly very weird… But I love weirdness.

It is difficult to actually have conclusions regarding this game, each path you decide to follow in an attempt to seek an explanation bifurcates into more paths that guide you to such conflicting answers, and I think that was what the game was searching for, a complete lack of answers.

Maybe Cheery is a representation of a God, and Leeroy is the humanity, maybe the island is an analogy for the last moments of Cheery in their war against the ocean, or maybe this story never happened in the first place, so it is useless to even try to get a conclusion.

The story presents a lot of concepts that never receive a conclusive explanation, like the nature of the islands, the identity of the characters, the reason why those objects hurt Cheery, the implications of the time loop, or what that clam is.

I can’t say a lot more about this game because I can’t fully grasp all the dimensions the game tries to project, yet I like it a lot. After all, I’m all in for everything weird.

This story is a fairly interesting dive into the contrast between the usually considerate ‘normal experiences’ and personal likings and notions that may not be aligned with the standard.

Going to a bar is something that most people could enjoy, so hit a conversation with someone whom you could find there with a drink. However, that’s not something that happens here. Wonder is portrayed as someone who doesn't really care for going to parties, or drinking alcohol, or even socializing, but yet, knowing that he probably wouldn’t enjoy going to a bar, decides against it and gives it a try, in an attempt to understand what is so good about it.

I may be a little biased, but I can resonate deeply with the idea of going outside your comfort zone, attempting to understand what it is to be normal and what is the good thing about alcohol, parties, and sex. Wonder and I share multiple traits that make me understand his inner monologue. He can see why someone could enjoy going to those places but at the same time notice that bars and parties and things that simply are not made for him, and that’s OK.

However, that is. There is nothing really more going on. I understand it’s a fairly short game, but nothing really happens, it's just the scene of an introvert going to a bar and having—expectantly—a disappointing time. The game doesn't try to be more than it is, and that’s good, but at the same time, it is difficult to be memorable with such a mundane scenario.

The presentation is good enough, managing to be unique by changing the sprite’s colors and having an interesting break of peace with the scene of Mirth's TikTok, and the music, despite being fairly relaxed for a bar atmosphere, is explained by being off-hour time.

The folklore theme is simply not there, others have debated if maybe the implementation was the contrast of older generations’ approach against the younger's laid-back and disconnected interactions, but it is just a big stretch. The story had something to tell, and it wasn’t something related to folklore.

The story was good, but nothing really outstanding.

Hmm… How can I fairly rate this story when the objective target is almost an antithesis to me? Don’t misunderstand me, I can see why someone could enjoy this story. It has its fun points, and—I guess— that dad bod is a thirsted body type. I won’t talk about the morality of fucking your ex’s dad, anyone of us would like a 101 moral class now.

As I said before, this story is not for me, but that doesn't mean that the plot is bad by itself, it doesn't drag more than it should and doesn't try to be more than it is, a horny story about fucking DILF.

It has some silly moments that actually made me chuckle, and the management of the sprites shows an understanding of composition for narrations. The music was a nice addition, not too overboard but not repetitive either, and the BG, despite some details here and there, correctly synthesized the situation and locations.

The characters, however, flopped a little bit; they feel more like tools to make the ending happen rather than actual people reacting to the situations they are in. Most of them are one-note or moldable characters that say whatever is required at the moment. I recognize the effort to make them slightly different, like the lazy one, the silly one, or the flirty one, but it really doesn't matter if they act according to the plot requirements.

I think the most obvious of this is Harvey. We have this guy, whom the plot established that the protagonist has to fuck, being weirdly open with his sexuality, using a more than revealing outfit, and jumping at the first chance to shower with him because ‘it was the only one with hot water’ —I’m paraphrasing, I’m sorry if that wasn’t the actual excuse—. If at one moment, they needed to sleep together because ‘there is only one bed’ I wouldn’t bat an eye at that moment.

This story is not for me, but that’s not something bad, you can’t please everybody, so do your best to please those who you can —I swear to God, if someone sees an innuendo there, I’ll skin everybody alive— I see the potential, and your other stories also have something worth telling for what I’ve seen of them!

I will be offended if this story doesn't end at least in the top 3 for Implementation of Theme, arguably one of the best submissions that uses the theme to tell its story.

The concept of reconstructing old stories with ‘facts’ and fables to find the ‘real’ story works perfectly with the gameplay mechanics—although maybe I’m a bit biased because I love logic games, but shh—it is interesting to see how much a story can change across time, seeing how, in cases, their messages and lessons can be completely different. Also, it brings the question of: if logic and deductions are actually useful to discern what is real or not, ignoring in the process that there’s not a real story to begin with.

Both stories were compelling, and it was more interesting to see until what point you can chop and disregard the stories, forgetting in the process the original message from them.

I won’t deny that I was expecting something extremely different from that beginning. A cheesy story about two guys meeting and falling in love with a happily-ever-after ending? Yeah, nothing groundbreaking. Big was my surprise when, suddenly, Kali was teletransported to another world, and with that, grim implications about what is happening to him, seemingly used to that occurrence.

The story knows how to manage its characters in a more than satisfactory way. Kali’s situation brings him into having a pessimistic and resigned way of seeing the world, but with an impressive determination and resilience to keep standing despite the despairing situation he finds himself in. A juxtaposition with El’s optimism and positivity with a pure heart of always helping whoever needs him, even if that supposes harm for him.

They create an excellent contrast of ideas, shown by their debate regarding the value of stories and their endings. One of them defends escapism in false happiness as a way to momentarily ignore the suffering, while the other sees worth in understanding pain and sadness via stories; neither of them is definitively correct nor wrong, as the story doesn't even end with a classical happy or sad ending, if not with an ending (this wasn’t intended to be a Simpsons reference, I’m sorry).

The presentation, despite being simple, works to transmit the situation clearly enough to understand what’s happening most of the time; it’s better to have a simple yet understanding image rather than a detailed but complex one.

I don’t really have a pointable issue with the story, it’s good in a general compendium. The only real moments that I could have an issue with are just moments where I felt like the story dragged a little bit, like the beginning. But again, just an iota compared to the feats the story has; one of my favorites, no doubt!

For being a small story, it certainly has a lot to unpack, for starters, the grieving over being unable to be there for the one you most love is the moving emotion across the story. Beckett, who died in an unknown—although arguably, in a grotesque way—stayed next to his boyfriend—ex-boyfriend¿—Rhett to help him with whatever he could, despite his actual state.

Quite the beautiful concept, being there for the one you most love even though they don’t even know you are there, with an extra layer of pain since Beckett can't be there for him, in a physical way, at least.

It boils down with the introduction of Hudson, who is the one who can actually be the one who can help Rhett.

This is the exact proof for Beckett to finally understand, he's dead and Rhett is not aware of his presence. From that revelation, there are three paths where he can go. He could burst in rage, destroy everything around him in denial of this event; break down and, ironically, bring along the one who can’t see him in his sorrow; or he could accept the fact—accept that he can’t be there for him but be happy to see someone else who can be there.

The story is strong by itself, but I think it could benefit a bit more if it flashed more the actions and situations rather than the events. Since the story is just a monologue of Beckett with any kind of interaction with the other characters, the story relies a lot on telling instead of showing. A way this could be sorted is by having a kind of time lapse across the time where Beckett is always next to Rhett; when he wakes up, when he’s eating, when he’s about to leave, when he comes tired from working, when he’s falling asleep on the couch, and when he’s tucked inside that cold bed. All this while showing he’s still mourning Beckett’s death, like staring at the photo on the nightstand, or doing something that they always did together with a sad expression. Everything builds until one day, he comes unexpectedly happy after a long time, pacing around the room worried yet excited – strange, but understood once the door’s bell chimed and, on the other side, a Racoon with his arms open, action that reciprocated Rhett.

Just a silly idea I had, don’t mind it too much.

The art was also a delight, the portrayal of a ghost with the visuals was well achieved, and the ideas for the structuration of, for example, the Itch io page. The rest of the sprites are cute, with just some little details in the proportions in certain poses, but good overall.

I’d like to talk about the implication about Beckett being able to – what it seems – demolish a freaking house with his pure rage, hold a tight grip on a faucet despite having someone else trying to close it with all their might, and yet be unable to leave any kind of message that he is, in fact, ‘alive’. But surely it’s just me overthinking a detail, and being such a big sucker for having a sort of reality of plausibility in all stories.

I enjoyed the game, short yet strong on its premise. It was even more impressive, judging this was a first time submission, good job!

Wow, this story was quite the experience, it has some interesting points to talk about, so I hope I can do justice to this story with my review.

First of all, the presentation. I really loved the art direction, the sprites and CGs were beautifully drawn, and the UI had an amazing style that complemented the classical ambiance of the location. The characters varying their position around the environment was a nice detail, giving a bit of immersion to the game.

The story was also a nice hit. The principal conflict was Federico’s bisexuality, with Anna’s internalized homophobia and insecurity of her partner being with another man in the past and Raimondo’s feelings being pushed back to let his best friend be happy with someone else.

However, the resolution of those conflicts is where the story fails a bit. Rai’s conclusion was, honestly, satisfactory; they were able to talk about their feelings and how they want to continue their relationship. Rai—despite seeming interested in pursuing Fede, judging by the fact that he kisses him at the first chance—pushes him to solve things with Anna.

However, her resolution, and therefore, the ending of the story, is just too abrupt to actually see the development she had across the story, she just wanders around the manor and talks with a representation of a god—I think, I’ll be honest, I didn’t understand correctly that interaction with the Polyhedron although that’s just me, surely—and it seems that she came to terms with the fact that her boyfriend also likes guys.

Quite the deception, I was more interested in knowing her story than the other members of the cast. Her narration in second person seems to be a disassociation regarding her feelings, maybe it was just a way to differentiate her narration from Fede’s, but the UI’s color change was enough to make that differentiation. She seemed to have a more important inner monologue than Fede, but she was the one who had less time to flash her thoughts.

Besides that detail, the story is strong by itself. I enjoyed seeing the parallelism between the trio and the myth.

It was the excuse to bring them together in a place where they could be, both alone and together in time required by the plot, but it also brings another interesting topic to discuss: stories that change across time.

I don’t really remember why, but at some point I was thinking about how time tarnishes some stories, leaving their messages being contrary to what they originally were, and I was quite surprised to see this reflected in the story. Giuditta’s story was wrong, tainted across time to depict her in a happy marriage and success that is nothing like reality, and the story that accompanies her myth, ‘if you stay all night, your wish will be granted,' is also a lie.

I could be wrong here, but it seems that the only one who followed that legend, Raimondo, was the only one whose wish wasn't granted, being with Fede. The story never fully addresses Rai’s thoughts, being the one without a narration, and it feels intentional. He’s the one who followed the legend, thus not having the ending he expected, and the other, the one who broke Giuditta’s myth, has their wishes being reality—or at least it seems, the story still cuts before they had a satisfactory resolution—

This story was an interesting dive into people’s mentality regarding homosexuality and how it affects your way to relate with others, being in a good way or in a bad way, it could benefit a lot with more time to reflect on Anna’s monologue about her reasons, her life, and her resolutions, but besides that, I enjoyed this game a lot.

Ok, time to convey my thoughts into words, let’s see if I’m able to express my ideas on this entrance.

The first and most evident thing to say, this submission is very ambitious; judging by the great amount of sprites, beautiful drawn backgrounds, diverse set of CGs, and the word count scratching the cap for the Jam, quite impressive you were able to make all this in the lapse of one month and with consistent art direction that mixed everything together into a cohesive world.

Now, however, I won't deny that the word limit didn’t play a handicap over the narration, this story still has things to say, but due to the limit, it needed to cut some parts, affecting the plot and cohesiveness in some crucial parts of the story, like the final part where Kameron wanted to go before seeing Ryley being honored by the Devah (Sorry if I wrote it wrong, I don’t quite remember the title) by using the excuse of ‘Wanting that the last memory of him is he being happy.’ Cute and everything, but wouldn’t he be happier while being crowned, thus having a better memory of him?

As I said, this probably is due to the word limit instead of an illogical decision from the characters.

The implementation of the conlag (constructed language) is the most impressive feat of the game, it would be stupid to deny the fact. However, it seemed to drag a bit up the mid part of the game. I know about the existence of the dictionary, and trying to decipher the language as if you were a sort of linguist could be very fun, and it would add an extra layer to the game, but I can’t help to think that part of the responsible for the lack of space in the prose is due to implement part where the characters speak in this wicked version of Zypanese. Those who are not that interested in roleplaying as epigraphers, will surely skip those parts that they can’t understand, but due those parts also counts for the word limit, they will see a decrease of consumable content they can understand.

The characters were a bag of mixed success. First, Kameron and Ryley’s relationship quite feels a bit rushed, having two sex scenes in the lapse of two days, but that just be me, I guess. Cody felt more like a plot device rather than a character by himself, he was just the translator for Kameron and Ryley in those moments where they can’t convey their ideas, being able to learn the language at a more than acceptable level in less than 3 days.

The Crow and the Tanuki (I can't remember their names for the sake of my life, I’m sorry) were just there? They pretty much can’t talk with you, so it’s difficult to care for them.

However, arguably, I’d say that Eugene’s party was the best of the game. First, Eugene as Ryley’s rival is first depicted as the impossible barrier, the sworn obstacle on the good side’s path that must be defeated in a final epic battle, just to actually speak with him and notice that he’s just a nice guy, maybe a bit snarky, but good overall. An amazing subversion of expectations, that, actually, puts us on the bad side, with Ryley cheating and trying to summon an old evil to win the competition by any means, that also works perfectly by putting him under a new light. Yes, he’s determined and hard working, but until what point was he actually trying, and instead trusting that he has an unworldly power able to defeat everybody on his path?

Lou was also a great addition, having a parallelism with Kameron’s story, he also had his otherworld romance with Saya, affecting him in a similar way by having the best moments of his life ripped away due to the impossibility of actually being able to live in that world, a tragic ending. And he (seemingly) didn’t have a reunion at the end with his love interest, which, unlike Kameron, makes the conclusion of his plot more significant.

And Saya… OK, the reason I like her is for headcannons of she having a strap-on and pegging Lou until mental breakdown in their last day together rather a concise show her real self, but again, the parallelism of their stories with Kameron and Ryle is quite strong, and the moment of she and Lou touching their horns in a show of affection was the cutest scene of the story, I won’t hear any argument against.

With all this said, I really enjoyed the game, it brings a lot of interesting concepts to the table, and I wouldn't mind seeing the aftermath of the story in a short continuation to fully understand the implications of Ryley now being in that other world. I hope I haven’t come across as too critical, this game was such a delight to play, and pretty much everything I haven’t mentioned are things I enjoyed, like the music or the UI. Anyways, excellent job, maybe I’ll give a try to your other stories to see what kind of amazing stuff your mind has been cooking.

I enjoyed my reading a lot! Short but pretty loaded with its themes. I liked the art style, it’s simple and really cute, which is much better since it contrasts with the darker themes the game manages. The detail of the BG changing according to the emotions of the scene is a nice detail and really helps setting the ambience.

The implementation of the theme was really good, using it as an excuse to make Mary bond with Lucy, making it actually important for the plot. And even better, giving an extra layer to the characters, giving them roles and dynamics that parallels their gods’ counterparts. Mary and Michael with Hestia and Zeus, in a constant circle of Michael ‘betraying’ her and she hurting the girls instead of him. And with Lucy as Hestia; being the goddess of hearth, she’s depicted as someone kind and benevolent, same with our Wolf, judging by her helping Mary and her care for the plants.

What I most liked is how the game cautiously keeps to itself the details of the events, just leaving context clues and dialogues with multiple interpretations. With it, I think the best character (at least conceptually) is Michael, the fact that he never appeared in the game sets an air of mystery around him, especially since you don’t even know by a fact what or is he doing what he does.

Lucy is genuinely a nice girl, which contrasts even better with the twist of the ‘Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing’ since she’s actually willing to help Mary in the ‘Truth’ ending. Which makes her fate much more tragic and gruesome on the 'Lie' ending; never really knowing what happened to her, and leaving us with just some cryptic final words from Mary.

And talking about Mary, similar to Michael, her intentions are never disclosed and you really never know exactly why she does that for her brother; is she scared of him, maybe she doesn't realize how bad it is, or even maybe she loves him? Questions that are upon the reader to answer. However, since she is the protagonist, and that is where the narration comes, it might feel a bit… Weird? Something like that, I don’t know how to explain it.

I get why she doesn't explain the situation thoroughly, since maybe it’s a defense mechanism, judging that she dissociates and gets distracted pretty easily. It was well implemented overall, except once you reach the ‘Truth’ ending, and that is where the writing fails a bit.

Since this game doesn't detail a lot regarding the characters’ reasons, it makes them pretty foggy. In this ending, she realizes that what she is doing is wrong and wants to change for better. However, at first impression could seem as a sudden change that came from nowhere, once you start to analyze you see the cracks on her resolution through the game, but that impression lingers.

That’s a skill that is tricky to master. You need to know how much exposition is required in each scene and character in specific moments, and not losing the subtlety of the scenes, neither without compromising the understanding of the situation from the reader in the process. As I said, it’s a really difficult skill to learn, and I even saw genuine experts fail to communicate the message by trying too hard to be mysterious.

Anyways, a good game overall! Just some detail that drags it down, but easily forgiven due to the time limit.

God, I can't wait to see all this in game, you guys really did an great job with the art update. No only it looks amazing, but also delivers it's intentions so clearly. 

There's no words to express how much I loved this game. The history, art, music, all was perfect.

When I saw the promotional images my expectations with the game go so high that I was scared if the game couldn't surpass my expectations, but boy, I was wrong. From the start to the end I couldn't unglue my eyes to the screen.

Mori it's a great protagonist. I really loved to see his live. It's great to see a protagonist with a history and personality so well made as him, and being at the same time so reliable.

And Memento. I'd be lying I'd I say that I've nave fall so hard in love with some character so fast. His design was what draw me to play this, and he didn't disappointed. The relationship between both of them is so well made and cozy and the existential crisis was very interesting and enrichment to read. Isn't an exaggeration say that Memento became easily one of my top 3 favorite character ever.

And a especial mention yo Estella. Even though we didn't saw her but her silluete, she's easily a better character tham most of other FVN characters. Getting in term that we won't see anything more of Mori and Memento, I wish to see a story of her getting a close with her las discussion with Mori (maybe with the she-reaper that Memento mentioned?)

Anyways, I'm so grateful for have seen this story, this is, without any exaggeration, my favorite visual novel.

I think myself like the kind of master that would do the things that wants, I don't really care bout how's the hotel, maybe I'll be on the restaurant/bar playing the guitar or searching for a band, also staying at the obsidian layer, testing the limits of the power of the contracts and what kind of crazy stuff can I do.

Yeah, I won't neglect the hotel, but ain't feeling like bounding with the staff or even with Asterion, maybe I feel a kinda curious bout difference between them and the humans, but after I fulfill my curiosity, I'd doing my things by myself

El 3 en raya Vs. el Sexo, ¿Quien gana?