I AM RATING THESE ALL THESE JAM SUBMISSIONS RELATIVE TO ONE ANOTHER. THERE ARE HIGH HIGHS AND LOW LOWS BUT PLEASE DON’T TAKE THIS TOO PERSONALLY, AFTERALL, WE ALL ONLY HAD A MONTH.

I’VE ALSO ONCE AGAIN VERY MUCH PROCRASTINATED ON DOING THESE JAM REVIEWS SO THESE ARE BASED ON MY MEMORIES FROM 10 MONTHS AGO.

Implementation of Theme (2):

I remember them exploring a dark cave and then wolf turning into or on a light.

Story (1):

The translation needed a lot of work. I could barely understand what was going on so it just kind of felt aimless. Maybe I need to play Elden Ring.

Presentation (2):

Ladies, gentlemen and everyone outside and in-between, WE GOT CATBOI BUTT!

Creativity (2):

I’ve got to give this team props for being the first project to use the Translation Extension Policy.

Total (7):

I haven’t played any of the other projects that the team has made before or after Blue Hour but I think Please Send Nudes has been the most popular one so far. It’s really nice to see the sheer variety that the studio is able to put out when so many people just stick to same genre over and over again.

Really beautiful, from art to words. I have to admit though, there's a heavy amount of purple prose which makes this VN one of the more difficult ones to read. I'm trying to not hold the ESOL-isms against it, but they don't help much either. There's also a considerable amount of mystery to the dream worlds, giving very few answers as to what's actually happening. Generally, it's a combination of all these factors that leads to this VN being quite dense. Despite this, though, I really liked the story of Anpu and Aeron. They're both complex and well-developed characters, especially Anpu and his shit-eating smirk. Their story is also a sad one, full of longing for the past. Truthfully, I've found myself very impressed with this VN, despite not understanding a lot of it. The aesthetics are immaculate, with the color blue pervading all the visuals and even the emotions. It's another VN I'd love to reread, to really absorb all the details I missed.

I have never enjoyed a work of fiction that I had no idea what the fuck was happening so much since I watched FLCL. This whole VN gives off a very surreal and ethereal vibe that few others have managed to achieve. Anpu is very entertaining. He's haughty and overly confident while also having the skills and powers to back up that personality. He's got some badass moments. Aeron is a stoic character who nonetheless has a tender side. As you keep reading, you slowly begin to realize he's more relatable than he initially seems. The two's chemistry is pretty entertaining, with both of them constantly challenging each other's natures. The art's also very beautiful. The purple-tinted backgrounds, as well as the character art really hone in on the game's mystical aspects. I actually really like the character designs of this VN, they fit the aesthetic the game's going for. The lore's also interesting from what I can understand. But yeah, I have no idea what happened. I understand bits and pieces, but I feel like a lot of the world-building is too cryptic for me to understand. The prose is also a little rough, which makes sense considering it's a quick English translation of a story written in Polish. It goes from flowery to simplistic at several points, and it hurts the overall quality of the prose. The purple prose also doesn't make sense all the time. Also, this has nothing to do with the VN itself, but the thumbnail for the game's itch.io page sucks. You have all this art in the game, and yet the thumbnail is very simplistic and bland. It doesn't even have the title of the VN. I'd recommend replacing it with more striking imagery. Overall, this was a good read and I'd recommend people read it, especially if they have better media literacy skills than me.

Well, if nothing else, it's definitely the best Polish language entry in the jam.

Jokes (albeit accurate ones) aside, this is a tough one to evaluate since I'm not sure how much, if anything, was lost in translation. It's not an issue of glaring errors or the language being incomprehensible - far from it, in fact; there's some really impressive imagery in here - but more so that we have a writing style that's already supposed to be ethereal made even more esoteric by the translation, so at least for me this one took a while to get through.

Going to try to do my best with the breakdown, spoilers from this point forward.

Implementation of Theme:

It's there, or at least I think it's there anyway, in Aeron struggling with the darkness of his creation, existence, and eventual fate, mirrored by the literal darkness of his blindness. Depending on the choice made in the penultimate scene, "light" comes to that darkness either from a change in perspective and a new purpose, or from permanent release from that existence.  I see it, but it doesn't always come through clearly, especially in the first option where it doesn't really feel like the leads' relationship has quite developed to that point (even with the bathhouse, which felt a little out of left field in its own right).

Story:

This felt like such a weird one to me, where we learn so much information, so many details about the world and characters, but simultaneously feel like we don't know enough to keep up. That's paradoxical and probably a bit unhelpful, so maybe as another way of looking at it, the plot is moving and the characters are developing, but there's something missing that makes it feel like the narrative isn't gaining momentum at the rate it should. Like despite the obvious care and effort that went into the worldbuilding and the presence of a lot of things I like (I like creepy; I like mystery; I like well-done body horror; I like Big Wolf Man) I just really struggled to get invested.

One thing I'll say about the writing style, and I mentioned this in a review for another entry as well, is that while metaphor and simile are generally good, and there are some good examples here, it's also possible to have too many figures of speech, and sometimes it's good to have more standard narration in between your more vivid imagery to let those passages breathe. I'd consider that especially important in a work like this where we're in an unfamiliar universe with a lot of unfamiliar concepts and it can be easy to get lost. 

I think there are also some points in the VN where you could be using action to better draw in the reader - for example, in the intro we have a pretty decently sized exposition dump about the Dreamers. I would either 1) cut this and let us encounter the Dreamers the first time Anpu sees them, learning more details during the initial encounter with Aeron; or 2) have more of a cold open that follows a Dreamer or pack of Dreamers through the environment, depicting a scene of the goo oozing from their eyes and looking up at the sky or something - create an image and a mystery that makes the reader want to know more.

Also, neither here nor there, but I am choosing to interpret the second ending as a surprise twist Novembear entry. (joking)

Presentation:

Potential issues with translation aside, it's pretty good! I like the ominous air of the whole environment, I think the sprites are really solid (I actually like the Dreamer and fox ones more than the leads, but like I said, I like the creepy stuff), and music and SFX are used to great (and sometimes subtle [!]) effect. Love the chants coming out of nowhere. 

In terms of writing generally, like I said it's tough to evaluate - you're well within your rights to submit an entry that's not in English, and I appreciated the chance to get to read this with the translation. There were just a few parts though that I just could not parse, like the bit from the graces at the end. Like, I kinda got the gist, but also ended the VN on a note of not knowing what I just read.

Creativity:

Creativity absolutely abounds here, and like I said, despite some of the difficulties involved I'm really glad I got to read this and get into this world for a while. There are a ton of really neat ideas here and I think, outside of the confines of the jam, if you'd had a little more time to polish this it could be an even better experience. 

Who is the light here? Every characters seem evil, except Aeron, a sweet round cinnamon roll. Interesting story, with a lot of mysteries and a strange ending. A lot of assets as well, the art is nice, good job!

This was genuinely a really intriguing premise and I'm curious about the world that you've created! From the idea that gods interact in this world along with various different magical phenomenon and they are able to interact with each other in various ways, to how the people in this world interact with these phenomenon. (Granted the 2 mc's were far from normal in their world I would assume.)

The theme was executed well for both of the main characters each having their own struggles and being able to have some sort of relief in the end.

The art for this is really nice as well, I loved the character designs for both of the mc's and the backgrounds looked really nice as well. And when there was music it was a nice addition to the scene.

Now the unfortunate part is that the translation isn't the best and I feel like I might've misunderstood/missed some pieces of the story because of it, BUT I think it was good enough! Also, I think some parts of the story don't make sense (could be a translation issue though). Like the beginning of the story where our Lynx was somehow in those shackles and we weren't given much of an explanation for it. The same could be said for the last bit of the game where the three cats are talking.

Either way this was a great read!

I don't want to say a lot because I'm just getting the translation of it, but I really enjoyed this one. I'll write a more in depth opinion of it when I finally get to read it in a slightly more presentable form. I do think, if nothing else, the set up and the premise are amazing. Two immortals from opposite sides (a scientist who is half insane and wants to understand everything, and someone who holds all knowledge but only knows it in a way that drives the surrounding people mad) traveling together in an ethereal story book setting. The parts I don't need words to understand, like the art and the music, are very very well done. I cannot wait to come back when its a bit easier to read! 

There's a lot in here that seems to work – cool character designs, nice art direction, and, on the whole, a striking atmosphere. Unfortunately, the English translation feels kind of unrateable in that the literary intent just doesn't come through clearly enough.

There are a lot of places where it's hard to say if important plot information is being conveyed accurately or not, and a lot of the imagery is strange in a way that doesn't seem purposeful. (An example from the very first line: "A heavy fog has enveloped ruins of the fallen kingdom. Like a palm, it covered every single corner, sealing it in a dormant embrace." – like a palm?) It wouldn't feel fair to say more about the story when I wasn't able to experience it in a form that did it justice.

That was quite the intriguing story. The beginning was too expository, much of it didn’t really matter. But it starts getting good when the wolf appears. The way they speak of the world, it seems quite expansive in a way. The main characters are all well fleshed out and interesting. Anpu ended up hiding more than I expected and in the end I didn’t get him completely, not sure if that’s intentional, that extends to much of the ending actually. The backgrounds are quite beautiful, they really sell the dreaming world. The sprites look good too, Aeron and the fow lack a bit in expressions but that’s a game jam for you. The music did its job.^^ Overall, a bit uneven but definitely a good read.

'Blue Hour' is a dream-like and ethereal fantasy story in a strange land, with strange magics, and more than enough philosophical discussions than I expected this one to have. The art work is great at conveying the both familiar and alien setting of this story, and the characters are equally intriguing and fully fleshed out. The themes written in this story are big and profound, and still somehow in the end, I was surprised at how cohesive this setting ended up being. It works both in a literal setting, but also potentially allegorical, which is something I was worried this would end up being a bit too scattered and chaotic, but it all wraps up so nicely, that I was enraptured by the story being told.

I think it was surprising that one could read into the dynamic between the main character and the wolf as being an interesting conflict between science and religion/spirituality. I love all the character categories from the 'dreamers', the 'truthteller', the 'falseteller', the 'alchemist', the flower imagery, and the hearts on fire. I also really enjoy that our lynx main character wasn't some helpless every-man, but an intelligent scientist that has agency and will impose his will on the story. It's such a great read when the power dynamics shift between the lynx and the wolf, with the lynx coming across as in-over-his-head, but also being surprisingly competent, while the wolf is all-knowing and powerful, yet still apprehensive and vulnerable, very complex characterization.

The plot itself is something also quite interesting, a journey to the heart of this land that is covered in a blue haze, where the denizens are shells of living beings, unable to see, but continuously dreaming. The wolf, a 'truthteller', who knows all truths, but no understanding. A 'falseteller' antagonist, a creature that understands all, but cannot speak the truth the know, driven mad. Like, if this isn't an allegory for religion and science, it is quite the coincidence. I especially loved the twist at the end, where the lynx is described as an agent of the 'plague', which is an interesting way to describe the idea of knowledge and understanding that wipes away the 'parasite' that would be religion and 'blind' faith. It's also a great ending to have the whole land be twisted by a simple question and answer that was given but taken to a crazy extreme, the whole 'If you want to be happy, keep dreaming', which taken at face value without understanding, led to this weird cursed land in the first place. Really great way to bring it all full circle.

I will say, while I enjoyed the bathhouse scene, it was a little bit superfluous, and I either wanted it to go a little bit further, but I understand that this story wasn't quite set up to be one that had a lewd scene in the middle (even though I really enjoyed the two's playful flirtiness and getting to know each other better). As for the theme, 'a light in the dark', this is one story, that even though I think is amazing, I don't know how well it was inspired by the theme. There's the whole wolf is blind while the lynx is his guiding light, but I feel that's a bit too much of a stretch. There's the whole burning heart on fire in the middle of a blue scene, that's very striking, but didn't seem to permeate through the plot, as it was just an interesting starting point.

Overall, I'm really glad this got an English translation so I could appreciate the story it's telling, and how crazy good the narrative twists are. Love the two main character dynamics, the art is evocative and amazing, love the color choices, and the character designs go hard. I don't know how you can come up with a premise so dreamlike, but well done, a high recommendation and one of my sleeper favorites this game jam.