Just watched the video. Came to check out the game. I see. I feel. Yeah.
Sprites would have helped, I had a hard time figuring out who was who in the first scene. The CGs were amazing. The Sky. I won't elaborate any further since this is my spoil free section.
The music was great. When the first song started playing I just let the music play for a moment until I got to a point where I was certain which song was playing. Good thematic touch. Sound effects were well timed and well picked. The songs that needed to get my emotions going did exactly as they should have.
SPOILERS BELOW
It took me my third play through, Val's route, to realize what the endings were. I mean literally, what the end of the game was. Fuck. That's clever as hell. The animation helped me understand, and honestly I think that would be great to reserve for the final route rather than with Vals (or if it's random, to not be random.) But that's nitpicking, because it really was impactful. Like someone slapped their hands together right in front of my face. Loud, sharp, sudden.
I hope this doesn't sound weird, but I could hear your (Keith's) voice very strongly through the writing. Maybe because I've listened to so many of your videos which is just your writing given to me via your voice. (Mostly our character, Jack, but even the others I could hear you). Which is to say, you've got a strong personal writing style. In your video you shared some insecurities about your writing creds compared to your collaborator's in their own fields--I don't think you ever need to feel that way. Writing accomplishments mean nothing, the writing itself is what to measure yourself by. And your writing measures up. It's hard to give more specific writing feedback due to the nature of this being a game, but I think digging into your writing would be a great time (this is a compliment, as I'm also a writer and especially look at rhetoric and craft).
Edgar and Charlie were my favorite. I went in without checking out the content warnings and followed Edgar's route first. It was a lot. But good. Painful. I kept thinking back to the first labels you had given to your characters.
Control. Edgar. Fuck, I mean how else would that end? And how fucking selfish of them. Especially considering how quickly the end of the world came after their death. You (I) are (am) tainted. And then death for all. I think their spiral was well done. Some have called it pretentious, but I didn't feel that way. Maybe that's because I tend to think very deeply like them. It's not out of being so smart or anything like that, the thoughts just. Come. Edgar was scared and mad. So they let it out. Jack's lost responses worked well too.
Rage. Charlie. To be honest, I expected Charlie to rape Jack. He was giving off that connotative dissonance type of homophobia where it felt likely. A violent expression of sex to counter Val's gentle expression of sex. I am also surprised we (Jack) didn't end up killing Charlie, to then counter Edgar's route. Edgar asked us to kill them wanting death while Charlie asked us to fight him wanting to kill. Having us accidentally kill him while trying to protect ourselves, to only see the end of the world so quickly after? I think that would have really landed. (And if I was supposed to leave that route thinking we killed Charlie, I didn't, sorry. Emphasis on Charlie's noises stopping would have given me that idea.) I really would like more of Charlie's route. He's a terrible guy, who did nothing with his life, who's receding to terrible philosophy just because the world is ending. It's fascinating.
Lust. Val. While I agree with Val the most in terms of what I'd care about at the end of the world, I didn't connect with his route as much as the others. Pain and comfort are pretty straightforward. But again, the animation that played at the end of his route was brilliant.
Sloth. Nomi. Nomi's denial is terrible. Her request is terrible. So she's a great character. I think, in a way, Nomi's request is more violent than even Edgar's. She's asking you to forget her while you are still with her? She's given up completely and it's painful. She's real. Having the conversation continue after she asks you to forget her was an odd choice. I was hoping since you chose to stay, she would at that point, get up and leave. I get that would mess with the mathematical side of the story, where two stay and two leave you (sorta? Charlie technically didn't leave? But he turned on you in a way that would denote leaving your side so. It works). But to end up sharing a story where the only "success" is in finding comfort in others would have been a nice symbolic bow.
Overall this was violent. Even the softer endings were filled with rage, and well, why wouldn't they be? I didn't get that way after the election results because I looked at it like a "time to work" kind of thing. But it should have made me furious. I think I was too shocked to feel furious. Thanks, a ton for this game and the video. I've always been making things since I was young, but I've rarely ever shared them. Maybe like, 1/10th of what I made is shared. Clearly, that needs to change. (Also sorry this got long and maybe a bit too personal. I'm in feedback mode because I've been (trying to) work on my assignments which ask us to give feedback and get all introspective :P)