A VN that really appeals to those that felt Dune needed more pit sniffing. May your relic chip and shatter.
Anyway. Very entertaining and visually impressive, even if the plot is hanging by a thread, clinging for survival more than the characters are.
Breaking down by rating criteria, spoilers from this point forward.
Implementation of Theme:
I think the theme is definitely here - we have a post-apocalyptic scenario of vague origin which is causing various forms of darkness in the survivors. Besides just the general physical issues of thirst and starvation, there's addiction and a desire, and often failure to meet that desire, of control of the situation. Lights are provided by hope, both in the fire beetle and the wolf's little false prophet arc, as well as the owl, who provides a more optimistic perspective about the sand. Imagery in the second half supports the theme too, with the burning tapestry thing and the glowing wolf and exploding denizens that precede it. The theme does occasionally get lost in the colorful milieu of the narrative though, so it's best to just move onto that.
Story:
I feel like this is another one where the scenes on their own are generally very effective, but as a complete work it's a little incohesive. The interactions between Cham/Cam and the owl are fantastic - super creative and meditative and really engage with the scenario we're presented with. Interactions between Cham/Cam and Lord Batman are... less fantastic to me? Like we're getting occasional hints through the story that there's some romantic or at least elevated attachment between the two, but it never feels like it rises to the level of importance that it's given in the ending of the route that currently exists, where Cam is apparently like the most important thing to Lord Batman.
Pretty much everything involving the wolf is weirdly constructed and paced too. I get that it's part of the point - the story is a fever dream for people that are literally going crazy in a desert that is also drugs that also make you explode. But like, if we actually look at the wolf narrative, we have the wolf opposing Lord Batman based on a prophecy or mythology we don't understand, then getting exiled, finding his Unlock All Skins relic, sniffing some pits, showing up at the temple, getting yelled at, and apologizing. Like during that whole time, the wolf barely interacts with any of the other main characters, and while there's some thematic significance to his presence (false prophet, using powers for selfish indulgence to feed his fetishy addiction) narratively you could actually cut the wolf from the story entirely and not be missing anything (just have the hyena break on his own without outside interference - we see the characters beginning to crack anyway). The wolf is so separated from most of the rest of the plot that it almost feels like he's just there to keep this eligible as a "M(a)y Wolf" submission, and even there it feels like that's being stretched.
Ultimately, we know that at least some stuff was cut based on jam deadlines, but I wonder if there was more than just one ending that had to go. I noticed in the script file that there's supposed to be a title card after the wolf finds his relic, which just seems like a weird choice in the current narrative. We're already over halfway through by that scene, I think we're past a cold open at that point.
As alluded to at the start of the section, this takes nothing away from the other scenes that really worked though. This VN probably had an equal amount of scenes that made me say "wow, damn" and ones that made me say "...the fuck?" Might be nice just to have a bit more consistency.
Presentation:
Yeah it's missing sound and there's a dead end and the main menu screen is almost comically lower quality than everything else in the game, but I'm still giving this fairly high marks for presentation. There are elements missing, but what's there is really good and inspired, and I feel like I have to give credit to the outstanding visual direction.
Creativity:
I mean. Yeah. Yeah there's plenty of creativity here. Everything involving the owl is great, Cham/Cam's descent into insanity is played great, the whole sequence of the wolf on the dune leading up to him finding the relic (especially all the notes about his fantasies being completely wrong) was hilarious and really well executed, and so on. As stated above, just wish it was a touch more focused.
The whole thing is a gorgeous mess that gets 51 ornithopters out of of 7 Shai Hulud.