Down the River's Edge ended up being one of my favourite Novembuck entries so far.
When it comes to the presentation, I think everyone did their part really well. I loved the custom UI, especially with the little details like cards and antlers for the characters speaking. Every single one of the many artists did an outstanding job, especially the animator who managed to create an insane amount of animations in just 30 days?? Even the sketchier comic/action segments are expressive and lovely.
The expressions on the sprites are very good too, especially Javi's guarded expressions and body language. Special shoutout to the faces the lawman makes at the end, those were... a lot! My only complaint is that some of the clothes, especially pants, look very strange? It seems like the texture on the material isn't quite right.I think the bartender character is the worst offender, followed by Nate. The music was pleasant and fitting as well.
I enjoyed both the prose and the storytelling decisions that were made. The present and past were interwoven at nice intervals to give us insight into the characters' history in a way that hit in the feelings just right. There was uncertainty until the last moment whether we'll get a tragedy or not, and the journey there was full of intrigue, adorable sappy moments and tension. I was ultra invested in the fate of the main duo without even realising when it happened.
I must compliment the smutty part separately, since I very rarely enjoy the way sex scenes are written in FVNs. I'm just too picky and they tend to say something that I find too silly or that makes me roll my eyes. This never happened here, so please take the rare City of sneps horny medal of honour. The animations absolutely helped too.
Congratulations to all team members for all doing their part excellently, and to the project lead for not the good writing, but coordinating it all into such a strong debut VN!