Very strong showing for someone's (to my knowledge) first published VN! Apart from the scope issues I'll get to later, the story feels very confident in choosing the things it wants to focus on: it's a pretty literal interpretation of the folklore theme and light on tension & scares, but on the other hand, the down-to-earth tone works for the game's seamless mixing of fun hangout scenes, cryptid intrigue, light character drama, and horniness. While the prose tends towards simplistic, the exceptionally smooth investigation scenes add a lot of character to how the plot is conveyed and help the clues and the lore come off as tangible. All in all, the feels quite strategic in what it downplays and what it emphasizes and good at maintaining a consistent tone of disarming casualness. I think this is the kind of thing that's often invisible to readers but ultimately counts for a lot.

There's a lot of good stuff happening in the visuals as well; firstly, the photo backgrounds do a lot of work to ground the story and make the cryptid jumpscare jarring in just the correct way. It's so good how mundane the intro segment is – not least because of the blatant Wawa product placement – and then, suddenly, the Jersey Devil is here and unambiguously real. The story really captures the impression that the boys have accidentally stumbled into something way beyond their pay grade.

And speaking of: the character designs are so so good, I'm obsessed with everyone in this. The use of color is particularly strong; Terry's and Shane's designs highlight their faces beautifully while the mysterious side characters are a bit more muted as a whole, and everyone's outfit is appropriately casual but nice to look at. Macaulay's bulge is a respectably insane design decision out of context, but I do like how it makes his intentions and role in the game difficult to parse. I imagine many a reader's thoughts bounced between "threesome?" and "axe murderer?"

Anyway, maybe you've already gotten a lot of this kind of feedback, but just for the sake of being thorough, I'll say that the dev having run out of time is somewhat apparent. What jumps out to me primarily is that the three side characters all fall just short of having satisfying arcs – with each getting an introduction, something unexpected that completes or complicates the character profile, and then a missing final beat – and that the investigation segments get simpler as the game goes on. The first two or three do a good job at creating a logical gameplay progression by utilizing all the mechanics and the previously gathered evidence, but I don't believe we even use the Examine feature in the last two, which also rely a lot on the player just arbitrarily choosing the right topic of conversation to continue. So, on the whole, it does feel like there's a lot of unrealized ambition and a sense of the scope having been a little too big for a solo developer to handle.

On the other hand, though: points for the fact that the main plot with our duo gets to the finish line more or less unscathed! Shane's backstory is maybe the only element where I concretely felt like there was some missing development before the climax; when he mentioned regaining memories as a result of hanging out in the forest, I wish we had gotten a more gradual progression of that playing out instead of him just saying it happened. Having this aspect more actively present in the story would also have helped make the sense of danger in the climax a little more palpable, I think.

But the important stuff works: the characters have a fun dynamic, it's easy to get invested in their fates, there are stakes and dramatic angles that get explored as the story goes on, and the climax resolves all the big questions, even if some of it is just implied. I stress this in order to commend the dev for his determination in telling a complete story within the constraints of the jam rather than just leaving the VN unfinished and promising a conclusion sometime after (with a 50 % chance that it never comes). To readers going through the jam entries, I feel like it's a big source of disappointment and burnout to keep hitting "to be continued..." screens after promising openings. So, despite the fact that a post-jam polish update would probably do the VN some good, nice job with finishing the story for the jam version!

I have just a couple of other nitpicks as well. At least to me, the lack of a line end indicator (the symbol that shows up to let the reader know text is finished showing) makes playing through the VN quite janky; it's so easy to accidentally skip over a line. There were occasional typos and punctuation errors, though this kind of thing isn't obviously what matters in the big picture. Having snooped around the files, I can say that there are better ways to implement tinting on the sprites – I believe you can just set a color to multiply them directly – and the somewhat laborious method chosen here probably accounts for the colors generally feeling just a little inconsistent. (Some scenes didn't have a tint when it felt like they should and so on.) On the whole, though, this was a delight to read.

The presentation is good, but I felt the AA style UI a bit lacking, it's simply not fleshed out enough to feel as though it's necessary, and as a purely aesthetic decision... hey, it must've taken a while to do. There's no doubting that. It's just lite.

The theming is on point, never once did it have a chance to be forgotten, not even during sex.

The characters are charming, and so are the backgrounds. Speaking of... I thought Mac was the Jersey Devil for a while. Like, he looked like he was in disguise, and also the amount of exposition he gives seemed strange to me, I really thought... and then, the main characters 'need' the explanation after finding, yes, we did actually find the Jersey Devil, for real, in fact here is a picture. 

It felt like it sat on the windowsill for too long, the latter half of the story. The ending was a bit abrupt, and I wish there were more injuries.

It can still be lighthearted, even if you end up in the hospital.

A really nice and cozy read. Though it's a bit odd to say that about a horror, but I guess that's because a lot of it is slice-of-life. Truthfully, I didn't think the plot was anything creative or groundbreaking, but it still fits just right somehow. The investigation segments were a neat idea, but I feel like they were underutilized, as most of them just amounted to talking to people over and over until the game progressed. Probably since this was done within a month, so it's still impressive that it's there at all. The characters are all likable, but maybe a touch bland. Ultimately, this is a traditional cryptid hunting tale with no fancy frills or embellishments. It is interesting that the cryptid was confirmed as real so early on but I think it also throws the pacing off a little. There's something slightly awkward about the way this story is paced a lot of the time. Like, for example, Mac is entirely too ready to bring strangers into his home and blab to them all about his own cryptid hunt. It's a bit convenient for the plot. There are also a couple of lingering plot threads that get abandoned, like the house with the smell of blood or the campsite. This is probably because the ending was like, really abrupt? It gave the impression that the game is incomplete, though apparently it's marked as Released. Despite the odd pacing throughout, the central relationship is a good narrative drive. It's nice that the VN switches perspectives between the two characters, and it's nice that we get to see their relationship get pushed to the limits, especially toward the end. I suppose that's why I said it was cozy at first, because it focuses on that relationship above the horror/investigation elements. I think this could be a great story if it was polished a little more.

I'm saving my full response for when you finish this game. BECAUSE YOU'RE GONNA COME BACK AND FINISH IT OFF RIGHT!

RIGHT!?!?

But I really liked it all the same, and I think you should be really proud of an INCREDIBLE first entry, especially as a solo dev! I'm really excited to see what else you cook up in the future. I hope you're proud of yourself, because you 100% should be!

Before I get into the review proper, considering the comment below mine I just want to make a NOTE FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE NOT PLAYED THIS YET - there is a soft lock problem, and it's been a known issue for quite a while. There is a thread on the main game page with a workaround so you don't get stuck :) 

With that out of the way, it seems like there's a couple of these every jam - entries that try to go above and beyond to incorporate really neat gameplay elements but just don't have the time to execute those under jam constraints. As others have noted, the ideas here are great, but this probably would have been better as a normal project with a longer development timeline rather than something that was rushed for the jam. 

Implementation of Theme:

"Folklore" is very comfortably covered here with the incorporation of the Jersey Devil myth. The target monster, and cryptids in general, are a primary focus of the narrative, so the theme is well-implemented. Full credit here, moving on.

Presentation: 

Like much of the rest of the game, what's there is good, but suffers from scope creep. There was clearly a serious amount of effort that went into shaping the interactive components of the game, and those sequences, including the menus and exploration screens, look really well done (up until they kinda drop out in the final act, but we'll get to that). The art looks really good here too! Lots of variations in sprite expressions, and I like the monster design, as little as we actually get to see of it. Text was predominantly well proofread, with relatively few noticeable errors. 

While there was nothing wrong with any of the music tracks in isolation, I did feel that there could have been more variation in the music, especially to better establish tone. We'll touch on that more in the story section, but for a story that purports to at least partially be horror, this could have used some more tense tracks to sell the eerie parts rather than having the BGM be so lighthearted most of the time. 

There were a couple issues with the dialogue name tags. First, I think someone else pointed this out as well, but even though previously unknown characters like Sofie and Abigail start off as ???, Mac immediately appears as "Macaulay" before we learn his name (though I don't think we ever actually get a proper introduction for him anyway?). The text colors for Shane and Terry are also too similar. Since these are the characters with the most screentime, these should contrast much more sharply. It's a little thing, but I did lose track a couple times early on of which character was which. 

Aside from the noted soft lock problem, there are some other issues with the gameplay segments and how they convey the story. I don't love having to choose the same "talk" options multiple times to advance the conversation, but if you are going to do that, I think that could have been signposted a bit better. The character profile screen probably shouldn't be updated until after you've properly interacted with a character (e.g., Abigail's entry stated she didn't believe in the Jersey Devil before we'd had any conversation of substance with her), though to be honest I'm not sure it was ever actually used in gameplay at all anyway. I'm not sure how, but going through the clues with Sofie instead of the talk option first completely skipped a conversation, so Shane mentioned finding Maria before I knew who Maria was. 

Introducing the clues mechanic early on also sets you up for trouble later on when most of the investigation options are dropped, presumably due to time constraints. It was a bit frustrating that when questioning Abigail you couldn't just show her the picture of the monster, since that would have changed the whole conversation and seems like the logical thing to do given the way the mechanics were introduced. 

Story/Writing:

Similar to the other aspects of the VN, there are some good ideas here, but it gets pretty messy after finding the campsite (it's actually a little messy before then too, but the pacing is at least workable up to that point). A main problem with the narrative is that the tension stops building and kind of plateaus after meeting Mac. Like, we start off at night, encountering the Jersey Devil in the road in a sequence that could have been more tense, but at least establishes the danger. Then, after some hiking, we meet Exposition Dispenser #1, Sofie, who builds the tension by giving more details on the local Jersey Devil mythology and gives the leads personal stakes by asking them to find her sister. The leads then find the abandoned camp, further increasing the tension before following the stranger back to his cabin, at which point everything just kinda grinds to a halt. 

Like, what do we really learn from Mac? He collects a lot of info about the Jersey Devil being real, but we already know it's real. We have the picture. He points out the flaws in Shane and Terry's relationship, but these could have and should have been explored differently. I'll touch a bit more on how I think that conflict isn't really well characterized, but Shane and Terry's cryptid-related arguments could have developed organically without Mac having to explicitly explain the conflict to Shane, or I guess more realistically, the audience via Shane. 

For that matter, I have no idea what Abigail's purpose in the story is. I think there was supposed to be more development with her backstory with Mac, but we don't get much about her other than that she's a skeptic who works for Mac. Maybe there's some history there, like she's a former partner or something (not sure how old she's supposed to be), but after talking to her, when Mac says that we should know why he cares so much, I really felt like I did not know that and questioned what the point of talking to Abigail was at all. 

While I wish this had more time to develop so all the characters could be fully fleshed out, if you were to keep this scoped to the jam, I would cut Sofie and Abigail entirely. Cutting Sofie allows Mac to be the sole exposition dispenser, thereby giving him more to do in the story. It also removes the personal stakes with Maria, which, you might consider to be a bad thing, but considering that plot thread is completely forgotten about by the climax, would probably improve the narrative by not having it at all (it is a bit whack that the story ends abruptly on such a happy ending when Maria and like 12 other people are possibly dead), and it removes the broken leg plot point, which also gets forgotten for most of the runtime until getting like one line in the final chase sequence that doesn't have any material impact on the scene since the Devil drops a tree on Terry and Shane saves the day anyway.

Keeping the cast and scope smaller could help keep that tension building, but I understand that commitment to the investigation gimmick was probably the driver for including those scenes with Sofie and Abigail.

Returning back to Terry and Shane's dynamic, I never really bought the conflict. Setting aside that I didn't really buy someone being like, relentlessly bullied for seeing something spooky in the woods in middle school, the whole thing about Shane not believing in cryptids seems pretty forced and contrived when they literally have a picture of a real, live cryptid. It was kind of baffling to me that Mac told Shane he should be honest about how he feels about ghosts when all three of them know cryptids are real. There are also a sprinkling of other character beats that don't really make sense either, like both of them following Mac without question and Shane expressing discomfort about spending the night in Mac's house immediately after having sex there like it was no big deal. I recognize that I seem to have a habit of calling out gratuitous sex scenes, so some of this may be personal preference, but I did feel like it further disrupted the pacing of the story to have a lighthearted, steamy sex scene when we're ostensibly supposed to be building to the imminent climax of the narrative. Like, it really just didn't seem like the time for that. 

The ending was also generally very abrupt, with little tension surrounding the monster, the monster seeming way to easy to beat considering its body count (nobody brought a pocketknife to the woods and thought about stabbing it in its glowing red eye before?), and a jarring lack of denouement, but as stated a few times above, I think it's understandable where the rush came from. 

Creativity:

I really can't stress enough that I love the idea - I really liked going into the profile and evidence menus and seeing all the interactions for each. The Jersey Devil is a fun idea that's been underutilized outside of a few low budget found footage films, and using it as the premise for an investigation-based mystery/horror is great. For what looks like your first effort, this was still exceptional work, but it really needed a lot more time to cook to deliver on what you were planning for this story. 

"WolfKart" is great though. I'm imagining a universe in which Wolf O'Donnell somehow became the mascot for Nintendo instead of Mario, and that sounds like a lovely world to me. 

Final score of 12 Martin Brodeur facemasks out of 1 Last Broadcast.

This one's a great entry, albeit one that falters underneath its own ambition - I enjoyed the implementation of the gameplay here, and the UI is surprisingly slick and intuitive, but it does feel like the game's disparate elements never really 'clicked' together properly to me. The gameplay scenes felt somewhat arbitrary - the 'clues' and 'profiles' systems never really felt clear to me, and frequently the resulting conversations from them felt like they could have been part of a normal conversation tree rather than part of them - especially since the connection between the 'profile' or clue and the resulting conversations were never really all that clear to me. Notably, these also see far less use as the game goes on - so I imagine the jam's limitations and the looming deadlines might have been part of this. 

One time during the conversation with Abigail I also somehow softlocked the game, with all conversation options leading me back to the dialogue tree but none of them advancing it (this was specifically after managing to convince her to finally tell the truth). I had to restart the game and make liberal use of saves to somehow avoid the softlock, but I'm not entirely sure why it happened.

Storywise, I enjoyed it, but I also felt as though the tone was quite inconsistent - with Sofie and her missing sister being the main source of the oddities, in my eyes. It felt as though the characters frequently just forgot about the very real missing persons cases and Sofie's potentially dead sister (who we never follow up on), in favor of seemingly lighthearted exploration sequences and sex scenes. There's the sense that the characters never really properly acknowledge the danger inherent to the jersey devil, in spite of there being a lot of evidence to the contrary (and them mentioning said evidence, but never really taking away any lessons from it) - it comes off feeling as the story making them momentarily forget about the stakes for the sake of more slice of life scenes. There's also the odd matter of Terry's broken leg, which sounds like it should be far more severe than what the story treats it as (until chekhov's gun goes off and it becomes a problem near the ending).

That said, I don't want it to come off as just complaints - I think that the game is astoundingly polished for something made within a game jam's timeframe, especially given the complex coding that was presumably required to set up the investigation sequences. The characters, odd as they act sometimes, are incredibly charming, and the usage of photos for backgrounds works very well. The art in general is really good - the characters are very expressive, and, as I'm sure everyone has picked up on, Terry is absurdly hot. In general, this is an incredibly well put together visual novel, and you should be proud of yourself for managing to put something like this together!

'Crimson Creek' is a fun, light-hearted, slice-of-life cryptid mystery adventure game. What impressed me with this entry is all the work that went into making this into a pseudo-adventure game, where you have elements of clicking on the bigger screen looking for clues, pulling up menus to ask characters about specific topics, and have the option to exhaust dialog trees to find little gems of interactions. It really helps immerse the reader into what is a fun little monster/mystery story.

You've got your protag duo, of Trent and Shane, couple of ghost hunter boyfriends. Trent's trying to do a youtube channel, while Shane's being supportive. They're headed off camping and coincidentally looking to get proof of the jersey devil. Shenanigans ensue when they're pretty sure they ran into the jersey devil when they were driving in. They start doing the camping activities, when they run into several colorful characters who are all affected by the jersey devil in some way. Trent and Shane have a bit of a fight when Trent is upset that Shane isn't as excited about hunting monsters as he is. They go in the middle of the night, and oops, turns out they got attacked and Shane saves the day. Also, somewhere in there, Trent and Shane go skinny dipping and then have sex in a stranger's house because horny, and I'm all for that. To be serious, I do think that while the idea and vibes of the visual novel of amazing, the story itself is rather... happening because the script says so? I mean in a way where scenes are leading into other scenes, not because the characters are following a set of clues that lead them on this mystery, but because a character shows up and is here to take them to the next location and info dump their backstory. I can understand that Trent is willing to go along with anything to get his scoop, but it's more like Trent is allowing the plot to carry him along than have it feel like it was going from one thing to the next thing naturally. Mac and Abigail seem like tutorial NPCs, if that makes sense. Sofie showing up by riding into Trent, feels like there was a note in the script that was 'Sofie is here' and there was no better way to incorporate her into the story. I think what I'm getting at is that there's a slight issue with structure and the set up, where it all feels to happen-stance instead of something the character's are actively pursuing.

The presentation is the game's strongest point. The GUI and the way the menus work make it a really nice set up for an adventure/mystery game set up. The characters are all well designed and really show off their personality. The main guys are also hot, I'm glad that this story takes time to remind the reader that this is in fact a my wolf/romance with a lil bit of smut here and there. I will say that I took a lil bit of issue with the dialog trees, where you have to continuously click the same choice to exhaust the information in that. Maybe something like a graphical indicator, like it's greyed out/line strikethrough might help in showing the player that a choice has no further progress, instead of randomly clicking it each time to see if something different happens. The art is really good, and the audio I think it pretty alright too. It makes for an immersive experience. The real life photographs mixed with the drawn clues was also a fun touch. I will say the writing is adequate, in that I understood what everyone was saying and how the plot was going. I think I got a lil confused when the POV changed from Trent to Shane halfway through, but otherwise I saw what you were going for. Maybe for an adventure game, some kind of graphical indicator which character you're seeing through.

The folklore aspect I really enjoyed, especially learning so much about the Jersey Devil, and the connection to a cryptid hunting youtube series. I like that it was a direct hunting of the jersey devil, going into the area that it was spotted and then just straight up looking for it after a guy has been tracking all the missing persons. Plus, I like that this story straight up confirms that it's real, and not some kind of conspiracy to a different plot. I feel like this was a fun and creative entry, with a couple neat twists and turns in the plot, but mostly in the framing of a mystery game. This kind of format would be great to use for other projects you may work on.

Overall this is an extremely impressive showing from HollowFox7, especially for a first time visual novel and game-jam entry. There's so much to like about this, and there's so much work and effort put into making the game run as smoothly as it did (the only hiccup being a soft-lock that is still able to be circumvented). From the art assets made, to the coding, to the writing, I'm blown away that it was done by a solo-developer. There's definitely room for improvement, mostly in the conceptualizing and writing-structure stage, but everything else is surprisingly top notch and well polished. I could definitely see the developer getting swooped up as a team member for future projects, or just continue getting better at solo developing.  I'm looking forward to more stuff this guy puts out.

A pretty atmospheric ghost story. The first two-thirds of the story are a comfy mix between mystery and just two boyfriends hanging out. All of the characters are pretty likeable. Obviously, the two main leads have an adorable dynamic with each other, but Mac and Abigail were also pretty cool. Shane's one of the few Wet Blanket characters that works, because he actually has a good point about how what Terry wants to do is dangerous, and Terry isn't a badass hero kicking ass, but just a regular guy. The art's pretty clean, and the gameplay aspects are quite neat. [Insert if I had two nickels meme about how there are two May Wof 2026 entries with Ace Attorney-inspired mechanics]. The music was also a vibe. There is some horror, particularly near the end, but it's not as intense as, say, Echo or Arches. Without spoiling anything, the VN didn't end the way I expected. I will say the ending was a bit rushed, but I think the other comments already mentioned that, so I won't harp on it. Overall, just a chill ghost story that wouldn't be out of place as a Gravity Falls episode. If what I said sounds interesting to you, I definitely recommend reading this.

Pretty interesting, and really integrates the myth well, and has some fun gameplay-esque segments. Somewhat basic progression, but works well

It’s a cryptid hunt! But, are we hunting the cryptid or is the cryptid hunting us? Crimson Creek is an intriguing story with a bit of investigation flair. The characters are well written and I really liked our main couple’s dynamic there.The ending is a bit abrupt though, and the second half of the VN doesn’t have scene examination or clue presentation, probably because of time constraints. Additionally, the sexy scenes feel a bit tacked on. (We never got to know what happened to poor Maria)

The presentation is really good, with great looking sprites and good audio landscape. The UI is great as well. Maybe the Jersey Devil was too clear on the dashcam camera..? The photographs work fine.

The folklore theme was obviously present as we were looking for it the whole way through. I had heard of the Jersey Devil before but didn’t know anything about it. So I don’t know how much this adaptation changes things. We definitely didn’t see any crimson creek.^^

Overall, I really liked it but was a bit disappointed by the gameplay elements mostly disappearing in the second half. Great job!

This was a very enjoyable FVN. I LOVED the clues and talk with the other NPCs. Also, the clicking around the environment was very nice. It was a very good mystery and if this wasn't a time restricted game jam, I would love to see this as a more fleshed out and longer story. At the end, the pacing was a bit abrupt, but I still enjoyed it.  The theme was spot on, the mechanics I haven't seen used before in an FVN setting, so I would love to see how it's coded. Additionally, the mechanics also helped a lot with keeping me interested. I found myself trying to make I didn't miss any of the clickables. The art is also very good, enjoyed Terry and Shane design wise a lot.  

Overall, it was a good read! Would love to read more of your works.

Took me a while to read, said I would in 2 or so days ago, but I didn't. Still, I really enjoyed that, loved the atmosphere of the whole read, the music was well chosen, and the UI looks great, very Ace attorney-esque with its inspiration, I REALLY liked that examine feature and fits well with its theme. The implementation of its theme was done well by directing the focus towards the Jersey Devil and setting the plot around the creature. And I love their designs and how sweet they are towards each other, and naughty like damn on a stranger's bed? And being loud as well? On somewhat thin wooden walls? I'm surprised Macaulay didn't ask what was going on. Though impulsive and determined Terry is, he does take care of Shane's feelings as well... Except when he left to go out on the night on his own, but still when Shane said not to go, they still listened, which was nice. The art is great as well, love the variety in species. But I guess here's my other not-so-great thoughts, mostly narrative:

Somehow I already knew Mac's name before an introduction, and the closest to knowing his name at first is Abigail calling him Old Mac, I think. Also, he was wearing a coat and taking it off inside, sure, but then wore it again after showing the map of the creature's path and taking it off again? And I can kind of assume that his son was taken by the creature, but I don't know if it's good that asking who got taken by the creature and not giving an answer, then asking about the son and not giving an answer as well, making me assume the creature did something, like yes privacy, but are they connected or am I making an assumption only, I'm surprised I didn't get the softlock, I just moved the dialogue options from top to bottom, if I finished one I started back at top, it was hard to know if I have to keep reading the dialouge options or not, especially not knowing if there will be new dialouge.

Then these are character-based questions: Was it fine that Shane let Terry on his own to go to the abandoned village, I did not know if the creature hunts only at night, like sure it can be assumed based on Sofia's story, but I'm not sure especially when Terry smelled blood by the village and it FADED like it MOVED, next is Terry is a ghost hunter and has a bunch of cameras, but no flashlight? Even for the hiking camping trip, they should've had one, and I would assume Shane would. Also, damn, a child wielding a switchblade in the middle of the night in the forest after an argument with his father, oh right and to add, the ending felt nice but sort of immediate and quick? Like it was sweet but somehow I felt myself saying "That was it?" Also, there are drops of mystery about what happened to Maria and Mac's son/person he lost, but it just goes nowhere, which I was kind of wondering about.

Overall, me likey, it was a nice read. 5, 4, 5, 4, 5.

This has some interesting ideas, though I do admittedly have a few qualms with it.

(Some spoilers ahead)

I'll start off by saying that I'm an absolute sucker for urban legends, so I'm glad that at least one VN in this jam used that as the implementation of the jam theme. Urban legends are folklore! The fact that this is based on an actual American myth also gives this a real sense of time and place, further grounded by the background photos of what I'm assuming is the real New Jersey Pine Barrens. I always love it when stories are set in a specific place and capture the essence of that area. This was no exception.

My main gripes come in with the story. This tries to balance slice-of-life romance and mystery horror, though it kind of loses the latter as it goes on. I'd say the inciting incident of the boyfriends seeing the Jersey Devil and capturing it on video has the strongest horror elements. After that, the tension for the Devil storyline just kind of fizzles out. The plot then pivots its focus to the relationship between Terry and Shane. 

I was the most satisfied with Shane's storyline. Between him hiding his disbelief from Terry and his mysterious past, Shane felt like the most fleshed out character. I will admit, I didn't see the reveal of him encountering the Jersey Devil as a child or the reveal of him being the only known survivor coming, though I probably should have. Shane's arc even has a Chekhov's switchblade that I couldn't help but smile at when I noticed. Although I do question the potential logic hole of Shane having a close encounter with the Devil as a child (even attacking it), only to not believe in the supernatural as an adult.

The other characters, however, didn't really work for me. I feel like Terry didn't really evolve at all. Sure, his whole purpose for being a ghost hunter is because he wants to validate Shane's past encounter. That's all well and good, and there's a real love in their dynamic. But, that's just kind of...it for Terry. Even when Shane's story is validated by the end, it doesn't really feel like Terry learns anything from this.

Finally, the supporting cast of characters. They're basically just setup with no payoff. We have like one or two scenes with the side characters before they're basically forgotten. What happened to Maria? What's Abigail's deal? What about the abandoned village? They're only used as plot devices to help us learn more about the Devil, and even Shane and Terry before being dropped completely.

All of this builds up to a conclusion that I found underwhelming. The final encounter with the Jersey Devil just kind of...happens. There's some buildup as Terry finds the abandoned house (which I assume is separate from the abandoned village), then the tension is broken when Shane finds him and tries to get him back to the cabin, and then the Devil is just behind them. Sure, the encounter technically closes out Shane's character arc, but he's not the only person in this story.

I've ranted a lot about the story, so I'll move on to technical aspects now. I enjoyed the investigation segments, though they did feel a little barebones. I know the author said they were new to coding, so I won't lambast this too much. The pacing felt a little uneven; we'll have long scenes of conversations between characters, but then the finale just kind of happens. The writing is good enough, though I did notice a few typos and missing punctuation. There's also a few parts throughout where the narration randomly switches from its usual past tense to present tense. I don't know how much experience the creator has with writing, though I will give a tip: keep the tense consistent throughout; only change it if there's a reason to, such as flashbacks. There's also not really much in the way of horror; it's kind of weird to have a tense moment with jolly romantic music playing. I will say, though, Terry is hot, and BIG BOTTOM REPRESENTATION.

I know I said a lot here, but it's not all bad! Everything I've said could be fixed by writing additional scenes to flesh out the characters more and have them more involved in the plot. I did enjoy Terry and Shane's dynamic, and I felt like they were the best part about this.

Overall, I'd say that Crimson Creek is a collection of interesting ideas only held together by weak connective tissue.

(Minor spoilers ahead)

It was quite entertaining. I keep getting fascinated by what people can do in just a month.

I have enjoyed Terry's and Shane's relationship dynamic. bits of their interactions and stories helped in understanding their motivations without overloading the narrative.

The detective part is quite lacking, there are cool point&click mechanics, but they don't require you to think much.

However, I can't say that it wasn't fun. Very few FVNs have those, so any gameplay feels very satisfying.

I would notice that the game's pacing is quite inconsistent. It speeds up a bit too much in moments, especially at the end.

Some plot lines don't lead anywhere. For example: What's the deer girl role in the story? All she does is stop Terry from going into an abandoned building, and then they talk about the monster, which doesn't lead to anything certain. I have a feeling that initially, more was planned for her character.

What happened to Mary? Did she survive or not? Why did the characters forget about their promise to Sophie?

Despite not having an answer to these questions, I still consider this entry more than worthy.

I hope to read more of your works in the future!