Absolutely beautiful. Always slightly eerie - the music was lovely and appropriate to each scene and also felt like a horror movie, keeping me a bit on edge. I loved the way the city felt - with people's genuine care for each other, full of life, and also slightly terrifying. The little mentions of how Vil runs, the pus on their face, constantly making me update my perception of them/myself-as-the-main-character.
Fantastic worldbuilding and so well-written. Every scene layered on more details perfectly. I wasn't confused by anything, and while the game leaves a lot of questions about the world unanswered, it gives plenty of depth and just leaves more room for imagination. (And you do get an idea of how each path would go at the end even if you took a different path)
The art is of course just gorgeous. I keep stopping to hide the text and just take in the feel of the scene - especially with the music and the colouring. The character designs were really cool, especially how many different emotions they showed during conversations. You managed to give three very nonhuman characters understandable body language and 'facial' expressions!
The first time I played it, I spoke with Yiestol bc he was first and then was disappointed that I couldn't explore with Brattan lol. But the conversation with Yiestol really made me stop, and think, both from my perspective and from Vil's. I ended up choosing the dialogue options that gave me no choice but to refuse Yiestol, which hadn't been my intention. I kinda love that, tho? I made genuine character choices and that meant my character wasn't right for Yiestol, as much as I'd been trying to romance him. Plus, it turned out his romance path was a bit more intense than I'd been expecting. (Trying to avoid specific spoilers :D )
(Personally, the sort of Big Brother police state thing he had going on would normally be 'horror' without the sexy/romance aspect. That shit's terrifying irl. But hey, it's a horror game, there's flesh on the walls and the food burns your mouth, so it actually fit perfectly into the world!)
And now, a few months later, I was feeling in the mood for some more horror romance (and, as I'd just rewatched Venom, was also more in the mood for exploring that kind of bond.) And it was just as enjoyable this time around - same little thrills/chills from the music, from the punishment salt scenes, from the legit horror elements; getting to notice more details about the world; romancing Yiestol. Plus even though I vaguely knew what direction the conversation should go, I wasn't entirely sure which answers would get me there, so I still got to think through my character decisions and accept the consequences.
And it was so lovely! Watching the eclipse, the beautiful artwork, the perfect music, stopping to really take in the impact of the dialogue. I was able to picture how Vil felt towards Yiestol, and imagine making a similar/equivalent decision myself, so it felt less like I was just clicking through a story about someone else's emotional moments and more like I was really playing/living the character.
And the Yiestol ending was so good!! A real horror scene written as an erotic romance. (And I was half-expecting it would just end there, as though Vil hadn't realised exactly what was going to happen, and the 'erotic'/bonding parts of the scene really were pure horror; although I enjoy just as much that it was a real romance ending). It felt like a good decision for Vil's character, too. (Also I gotta say I was impressed with Yiestol's mouth. Was not expecting what I'd seen of his mandibles/teeth to go that far, so it was a delightful/terrifying surprise)
I'm going to replay it to see how the other two go, and I'm looking forward to how their paths get fleshed out, but honestly just Yiestol's path was really worth it for me, so I went and 'rebought' the game so I could actually pay you (since I got it in the itch BRJE). And I'm definitely recommending it to some friends irl (we've joked about being into 'monsterfucking', so if they're actually looking for some real content I can't think of anything better than this game).
- I did notice a couple typos (very few!) - how do you want us to report those?
- any recommendations for similar games, once I've played through all of this?