I absolutely adored this! It had a very unique, somehow nostalgic ambience and I love the subtlety of their backstories and narratives.
The dialogue flows naturally and the abundance of sprites made the scene, especially the first act, look quite dynamic, despite it being quite self-contained.
The story is a good slow-burner and the development between the characters feels natural when you consider their life circumstances and just how isolated and lonely each must have felt prior to meeting each other.
SPOILERS from this point on!!!
I gotta say, I overlooked this at first because I expected it to be clinical horror/body horror, which while I don't dislike, I feel as though it's been done to the point where it's difficult to execute it in a way that's truly shocking. Anyway, I'm glad I was proven completely wrong! What the game gave us instead was a very conflicting story of two individuals at their rock bottom - one who has nothing except a spark of creativity to escape to once in awhile, and one who seemingly has it all but sees no value in it.
Angel and Lee are both thoroughly fascinating in how layered they are. I feel as though lots of recent pieces of media, whether mainstream, niche or indie, rely on the Tumblr-fied ship dynamic of stoic x sunshine, or the "dumb hunk" trope, so seeing the characters resemble actual people rather than the 283836th rendition of a ship trope got me so immersed that stepping away from the screen for a second felt like a slap to the face.
I never thought I'd be so much into any piece of dark romance, but this game made me root for the main couple, and had me hanging onto a thread of hope that things could still work out for them even after the jammer scene (everybody is talking about the shrine, the jacket and the murder but I think the phone jammer was actually the creepiest offence). Also, fictional (!!!) vigilante justice is a guilty pleasure of mine, and seeing Brandon's, uh, fate, especially after the dismissive way he talked about Angel's SA, he... had it coming. The line "Angela? Seriously?" really confirmed that the asshole thought that that would be the one offence he'd truly get away with while pointing at how isolated, socially awkward ND people often get taken advantage of...
I also love how despite Angel's transcendental motif and proneness to escapism, they're so much more pragmatic and down to Earth than they first appear, while Lee, with his completely muted color scheme and surface-level appearence of having his life together has a much more esoteric, yet completely bleak look on life, to the point where his object permanence is more or less blinded.
I just wish we knew a little bit more about Lee's siblings and why, despite him speaking so fondly of them, do they not appear to be as present in his life. Granted, we only saw one snippet of him compared to Angel. At the same time, seeing no purpose in living to the point where even one or two loved family members are not enough to stop you from ending your own life is sadly very understandable. It's a mindset that's very difficult to get out of once you're deep in it, no matter how comfortable of a life you live from the point of view of someone who truly has no future.
The endings... I don't think I need to state my thoughts, most of the fandom seems to feel the same way. Even with its implications, Ending 2 made me feel a strange sense of relief and tugged at my heartstrings in a way that very few pieces of media have.
I could probably yap on about this game all day. Thank you for sharing your creation with the world ♥♥♥