The best furry horror VN I've ever read, I loved the atmosphere of mystery and tension, the feeling of being stuck in a loop and how the characters gradually lose their sanity, along with a great soundtrack.

Despite its shortcomings, this is a great VN that focuses intensely on the horror. While the opening scene was pretty good, the introduction is a little slow. I get the story needs to set up normalcy first before shit hits the fan, but I do think it went on a tad too long. The second sex scene in particular is a bit unnecessary, even if it provides a nice dash of whiplash at the end. Also, there's the blatant author tract that happens at least twice in the story. I could write an entire essay about why random political rants aren't usually effective in a story, but the gist is that it would be like if a friend was talking about their time during summer camp and suddenly stopped to yell out, "INFLATION!" 20 times before continuing with his story. This could have been forgiven if the rants were connected to the story, but not really? The main conflict is about internalized homophobia, how it's caused by small religious towns, and the unhealthy ways to cope with it. The political rants are more about general conservatism and extremist groups, which I consider to be a separate thing, even if there is some overlap. Other than that, I think the VN did a good job of building up the tension and anxiety before the final day. The writing, the visuals, and the effects do a great job of throwing a gut punch to the reader and it paid off very well. The different endings were nice, with each of them serving their own purpose in the story. Definitely recommend this VN if you're a fan of horror.

Momma look, it’s 2025 Echo! Sorry but I cannot not mention it :(

I think the material and the recipe are there. The opening swiftly hooked me into the story. While the writing is nice, I feel like sometimes it gets a tad too blunt, especially the ending with Cody. Like, that’s not a normal reaction to move on that fast. Unless it’s your intention to say that MC is 100% not right in the head.

The horror is good, but it certainly needs more variety than relying on jump scares. I feel like the whole story can benefit from more slow-soaking, unsettling horror. I guess it’s a complication that arises from having a very limited cast of characters

Nevertheless, it’s a great horror piece. Amazing work!

Love the "in medias res" opening tbh. In general, this story plays around with story structure to a degree that's both clever and makes the story stronger. There's a lot of unanswered questions at the start which drives up the intrigue. It's a bit of a slow burn for a horror, but there's plenty of creepy stuff peppered throughout the VN. Even the obligatory sex scene was filled with an ominous aura, aided by the uncanniness of the CG. And don't think I didn't notice the subliminal frames. I also loved the route splits. Always fond of when there's deviations in the story like that. To be honest, I actually picked the option to leave him at first (like any sane man would!) and if I had let it end there I'd still have been satisfied. But I was absolutely blown away by what lied on the other route. The presentation was impeccable, the story was gruesome and haunting, and yet... there's just a little hope at the end of it? A light in the dark, if you will. There's a little bit of cheesy writing here and there (juicy plums comes to mind) but generally I think this was a very strong entry, full of creative storytelling. All the more impressive it was completed in less than a month, then.

Definitely I regret reading this at night before bed. The sounds and visuals have a lot of unnerving suspense built up to drive my imagination wild. The story is simple enough to follow through, though I hope we get to see more clues into what’s going on with Julian, or more motivations for the protagonist to either care/distrust him early on (without spoiling the reveal of course). The presentation of this VN is solid, but I’d like to see more novel ways of spooking the readers if possible (which I’m sure is possible given enough time)

I’m looking forward to more works from the creator and I enjoyed this VN a lot. Thanks for making this for our enjoyment.

有模仿Echo的那种味道，但是在故事的主题上比较一般，我个人认为Julian不应该被拯救，他应该为自己犯下的罪而付出代价，而且本作对于黑暗中的光明这点离谱了，至少我觉得Julian不应该为黑暗中的光明，所以我可能只会为该作品打出一个及格分。期待后续带来更好的作品，加油！

Phew, that sure was a curious VN. Puns aside, you knew what you wanted to do and did it really well. I’m not super big on horror stuff, especially when day three started and all semblance of normality disappeared. That whole part until the final choice felt too hamfisted and I’m not sure about the exposition Julian gave. I really liked the endings though. The presentation is pretty phenomenal. The sprites look pretty good but mostly it’s all the effects and animations that work overtime. The sound effects are placed well, although some are a bit too uncomfortable for too long (thinking about the bathroom scene). The music is quite good, but can sometimes feel a bit grating. That was notably the case at the beginning (like during the sex scene). Of the people going for the “light is bad” thing, you did it the best. Overall, very well done! Not what I want to read on the regular but it’s good from time to time, especially with that quality.

'The Curious Case of Route 19' is definitely not the type of story I read, but I'm glad that I got to experience it due to rating the submissions for the game jam. It's one of those crazy horror type stories that's full of jump scares, stark imagery (prominent red and black gory scenes), and a supernatural element that makes it a wild and immersive ride from start to finish. It's really well written, setting up an initial mystery, giving the main couple some nice chemistry and some steamy sex scenes early on, and then the breakdown of the characters as the hauntings get worse and worse. There's even three potential endings, which is a nice way to make use of the visual novel medium to explore different plots. The presentation is top notch, the audio design is great, the transitions and flashes of warnings are always chilling (plus the sex scenes are hot). 

I was actually a bit surprised at some of the themes other than 'light in the dark' that permeate through this story. The way that social conservatism is brought up constantly, the graffiti on the bus stop, the mention of real world parallels to the election, even the reception lady at the motel, turns out to be a big plot point for the actual reveal at the end of the story (if you get to what I think is the 'true ending'). It's interesting, cause I don't have any criticisms for this story, the pacing is good, the characters have enough personality and agency to feel real, and the mystery/horror feels very at home in this type of genre.

What I have is more like critiques for the story choices made when exploring the plot, which are fully subjective and may or may not be the authorial intent. My interpretation is that the real 'evil' in this story is social conservatism, or just the persecution of queer people. While Julian is a serial murderer, he's ultimately been conditioned by his upbringing (being taken to church/being taught that queer people are less than human) and he becomes twisted to have a weird sense of logic of 'if I kill a queer person, then it cancels out the part of me that's queer' in a self described sense of internalized homophobia. So, when he finally gets caught, and runs away to California, he's able to finally address those demons within him and work on that. He still has that sense of guilt, which makes sense that he feels the need to return to his home town to come to terms with it.

I think there might be a few plot inconsistencies or head-scratchers, that I think happen with this set up and the final act of this story. For one, I think the plot starts to forget the whole 'homophobia is the evil' theme, and starts to focus in on Julian needing to be punished for his murders, treating it like he's a psychopath rather than traumatized. I think something that might've hammered in this idea more, is to really highlight the conservative gay-hating community in Craterville that shaped Julian into who he is. It's a bit weird that a community that dislikes gays would be particularly vengeful against someone that murders them, putting out that 'when the devil comes back' graffiti, and also immediately hanging him when he comes back. Maybe if they stopped at a diner, they get under-the-breath comments of 'you best be careful, gays end up getting killed here in Craterville'. Then there's the threat of an unknown murderer that might get them, and have Julian get nervous knowing that it's actually him.

The vengeful spirits also feel a bit underutilized, aside from being creepy jump scares and acting to warn Xander about Julian, I feel they could've been better used as a representation of Julian's guilt, especially once it gets to the final lynching scene. Like, the way the story was going I was expecting that Julian was actually going back to try and atone for his actions and hang/kill himself in some grand gesture or to rid himself of the guilt. Then, Xander could have the choice to intervene or not, in a sort of 'killing yourself just means the homophobes win, you need to find other ways to atone for your actions'. I guess having a murderer be dragged off to hell is the expected outcome, but it does leave the reader with a feeling of emptiness in all the different endings provided. It just feels like the ending ended up being wrapped up in a way that's a bit unsatisfying.

Apologies for going off and amusing myself with potential changes that might not even be the original intent. That just goes to show how great a job this story did in crafting an interesting premise that brings about discussions of the meaning behind the story. I also remember how early this was submitted in the game jam, so you really had a passion about this, and it shows. I think you've got a honed skill for writing and look forward to other projects you have down the line.

This was an absolute amazing ride from start to finish. The amount of times I was unsettled was something else. To be able to write something like this gives me so much anticipation for the main VN you're working on.

The art really works for the horror aspects, as well as the music. To think that you did all of this by yourself is nothing short of amazing.

I haven't read all of the endings, and I will go back to them in the future, but from what I've read, I am thoroughly impressed.

Keep up the great work, Rhettoe.

Congrats on releasing your first VN! There are a lot of creative touches in this one, as well as an impressive amount of art for a game jam project.

As a horror piece, I'm afraid I found a lot of it to be more silly than scary, though. I'd say it primarily suffers from being always at either 0 or 100; the first half has a fair amount of quick jumpscares but not a lot of careful, atmosphere-building setup. In contrast, the back half is doing so much it comes off as a bit over the top with its stark red-and-black color scheme and wild twists. How the loop plot point is handled is a great example – at first, the characters feel quite unbothered by having found themselves in what appears to be some kind of anomaly in spacetime, only for things to escalate to them yelling in all caps pretty abruptly. Largely absent is the kind of creeping tension that makes you anticipate what kind of horrifying stuff will happen next. Some of the images border on goofy, too, especially the Julian sprites where he has extremely prominent dark shadows around his eyes.

There is also a lot of political messaging and language that feels a little out of place. Comparing the supernatural horrors to Donald Trump's re-election rings hollow because those two things just aren't really in the same category; while possibly resonant on an emotional level, I don't think it's the right kind of image to put in the reader's mind. Meanwhile, when a serial killer's backstory is discussed, characters throw clinical terms like "internalized homophobia" around, making it feel like they're posting about it on social media instead of experiencing a stressful situation in real time.

As a result of all this, the game is often literal in a way that comes off as detached, not visceral; good horror can, I think, afford to explain itself less and lean more on metaphor. There are other places where the story is blunt to a fault, too, such as the prophecy that comes true so precisely that no ambiguity or mystery remains and the detail of the protagonist being a writer that only seems to amount to bland metacommentary.

It's neat to get three separate endings, but they're all somewhat abrupt. The first opportunity given for Xander to run away feels like a non-sequitur if you haven't read the rest yet, and one of the other endings speedruns a romantic plotline that doesn't quite justify its inclusion or feel like a natural development in light of what the protagonist has just gone through. It feels like the VN might have bitten more than it can chew here, and a simplified structure could have helped the finale land harder.

I do like how ambitious the story is, even if it did miss the mark for me sometimes, and hope at least some of this will read as useful feedback.

Well damn, someone played Echo. I jest - this had plenty going for it on its own right, even if there were some noticeable similarities.

First outright spooky VN I've played this jam. If there's anything I've found over the last few years, it's that nobody does slow-burn horror better than gay furries (for some reason), and this is another one to add to that esteemed collection.

Spoilers from this point forward.

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Implementation of Theme:

If I'm reading it correctly, it's not exactly subtle; "You helped me see the light"; "you're the light of my life".  Xander is the light which brought Julian out of the darkness of being a literal monster. I like this take for two reasons: 

1) it's twisting "a light in the dark" from something positive, even if it's in the context of a bad situation, to something only positive for one character and disturbing/unsettling for everyone else.

2) For what I assume is the "true" ending, the "light" encasing Julian is kind of unceremoniously snuffed out, bringing a fitting end to the character, and is quickly replaced by the light of the sunrise as Xander and the townsfolk are able to move forward.

It's good stuff. Works for me.

Story:

Hooked me right from the cold open and I thought most of the rest of the story was really well-paced, especially for a relatively compact jam entry. I thought the waxing poetic on how to begin stories bit was a little meh but it really picked back up from there, doing a great job of both setting up each of the characters in their "normal" state and dripping in the supernatural and spooky elements at a good rate.

I will say that I kinda wish you didn't give the option to leave after Julian's snap outside the car. I took the leave option first, assuming that this was going to be a short bad-end, like either Julian catches up and kills you or you pass out and die trying to cross miles of desert on foot while being a writer from San Diego. I was still contemplating a few directions the story might go, including whether Xander was somehow the villain (would've been wild if Julian was a serial killer and Xander was like, an even more prolific serial killer) but as soon as the "leave" option allowed Xander to escape the loop that kinda gave the game away for me and I was able to see most of what was coming after that.

With that said, almost everything about the Day 3 segment was great. The oppressive atmosphere, the visuals (the unhinged murder CGs god damn), and overall tension really sold it for me. Still not entirely sure what the mouse's deal was though? She's alive and interacting at the motel in real life, but she appears dead when the rest of the spirits come out? Did current Julian kill her that night?

Other complaint about the story was how the "true" ending wrapped up. Everything about Cody for me was just kinda "no". Like, man, you just saw your now ex get hanged because he disemboweled dudes and ripped their dicks off and stuff, and you seriously think now is the time to ask one of his other victims, that you literally just met, to come live with you? What? Why? I think this maybe could have worked if the last interaction we see with them is Xander just asking Cody if he wants to go up to Logan with him and leaving it at that. I get the desire to have a positive ending, but this felt a bit forced. (Also, neither here nor there, but if you're coming from SoCal there's pretty much no way you're getting to Logan without passing SLC so might I suggest to Xander just hanging out there? No? Never mind)

Presentation:

Really really good. The music in the cold open was a bit too dissonant for my taste but I know what you were trying to do and it didn't last very long so I don't really have a major complaint. Art here was phenomenal; haunting, tense, and all around spooky. 

One minor thing I would point out is that the transition to the first sex scene felt a bit awkward. I know you were trying to replicate a smash cut, but I'm not sure it really worked in this medium.

Creativity:

So, Echo does not get like, undisputed reign over all horror stories taking place in the desert, but it did feel like there was a lot of overlap. Tiny western town with a weirdly high gay population; some sort of supernatural curse or other status effect looming over it; loop that prevents you from leaving during the event; child murder protagonist backstory; wolf boyfriend to death love interest; MC is a writer of some kind that uses the event as a premise for a work; inexplicably getting together with a random side character at the end, etc. 

As I said in the opening, I think this VN does enough to stand out and still be wildly entertaining, but there were a few moments, whether directly related to Echo or other media, where I couldn't help but think "I've seen this movie before." I'm not really dinging you too much for it though - this project was still oozing creativity, especially in the art direction.

I give this 19 disemboweled foxes out of 5,454 bacon cheeseburger combos.

Excellent use of sound and jumpscares that aren’t too overbearing. The build up escalated some really good tension that kept me gripped through to the end.

I’m not super sure what to make of the resolution and how the supernatural aspects were handled though. It felt like it maybe tied up a bit too much of the story with a neat bow when the tone might’ve meshed better with leaving us a little wanting.

Amazing!

I was gripped from beginning to end. I adore horror and while there are personal preference issues that I have I really think that this is a great piece for horror fans. I even went back for all the endings haha
Great job on this!