I quite enjoyed this one and it’s unfortunate that this one didn’t get as much attention as it should have had, as well as the fact that I wasn’t able to rate this before the rating period ended. This one has a nice blend between surrealism and concrete plot. It’s a lot like Blue Hour in that sense. The art looks very pretty, especially the CGs towards the end. The music was good and fit with the tone of the story. I liked the worldbuilding of this VN, it was very interesting. Although not much happens, what does happen is pretty fascinating and hard to parse, in a good way. I do think that there’s a distinct lack of conflict, which kinda made the climax anti-climatic, though that’s not too big an issue. There were a bunch of typos, but I can set that aside considering this VN is written in both English and Polish, while also being done during the Jam period. Ignoring the typos, the prose is decent but nothing amazing. I also like the two main leads and their dynamic, though I will say that I much prefer the two leads from Blue Hour. I just think Anpu and Aeron had a lot more character compared to the two main characters here. Overall this was good. If you like surreal-ish VNs, I’d recommend reading this.

Category Rankings: Theme: 5/5 Story: 4/5 Presentation: 5/5 Writing: 4/5 Creativity: 5/5

I loved the cannibals. I'm not familiar with Blue Hour, so if I have an extensive review to give, OR if you continue this story (via another submission or update) it will be later.

Love the surrealism, the impatience of Lazarus. The stakes of the story appear to be graver, but the path of resistance is in a shambles. It was a bit disappointing, but also, our main characters are not warriors. They will not be doing the cutting down SO much, so we focus on their character and relationship more; and it delivers, not just with themselves but Butwiala and the cannibals, too. The ending threw me, but again, I don't know if it's based on Blue Hour or not - I swear I will go back and read it ! Would still recommend this story.

This one is a bit weird. There are some strange scenes that don’t seem to add much to the story (meeting the cannibals, the burning village, the ending) and some very contemplative scenes (the beginning, the part with the goddess, or with the universe). There aren’t many parts that feel “normal”. It’s quite disorientating. Adding to the feeling, the VN doesn’t shy away from using terms without explaining them. Most of them can be inferred but it’s a bit hard to read. I guess this makes the VN itself feel like some folklore… The writing is mostly good, with some mistakes here and there. It’s a bit hard to really pinpoint the characters though, especially the MC as he changes a lot in the middle.

On the presentation side, it’s solid. Nice sprites and CGs, good UI, the music works well. There’s nothing really special, but it all looks good.

Overall, I mostly found it weird. Still, there are stuff to like. Good job!

A creative project that knows how to wield all of its elements. For The Black Hour's Polish and eastern European influences go beyond plot points and names, working to support its narrative. UI, music and character designs all display a care to build inventive while borrowing from tradition. Additionally, surrealism and abstraction have been employed really well in building a complex world that's also not too hard to comprehend. Being aware of its predecessor Blue Hour, I cannot deny I came into this with some worries as my experience with that one was more uneven. To my pleasant surprise, I had a far more enjoyable experience here. The fact that the devs have toned down the purple prose helped, but I'm particularly impressed that they did so without harming the idiosyncrasy of this "series." Unfortunately, my other major problem with Bl'Hour I had has returned. For The Black Hour was written in Polish first and then translated and it shows. Most of the time, these imperfect translations are easy to ignore, but I found that denser scenes — action and exposition ones — are harder to follow than they have to be. In a project already dense and complex, I fear this did some noticeable damage to my experience. Even so, I liked this one quite a bit! It's artistic, solid and intriguing in a way that is hard to achieve in general, let alone within the bounds of a game jam.

It's much like Blue Hour, in that I had no idea what was going on and I was still thoroughly entertained the whole time. I was very impressed by the creativity of this VN, which presents a lot of odd imagery that I would never have imagined on my own. I especially like that the entire story occurs in eternal sunlight. Normally, horror stories happen at night, in the cover of darkness. This time, even though their world is stuck in daytime, it's no less horrifying. The cannibal scene represents this very well, as the corpse is covered with flowers and their blood has turned into wine. The visuals are saccharine yet the plot is anything but. The scene with the village on fire is also unsettling, considering they're singing and dancing while on fire. I think this represents a pretty strong and clear theme throughout the VN, aided especially by the impressive visuals. Something to do with life and light being not good if there's too much of it. The MC returning to life was not treated as a positive thing, for example, though he does come to terms with it eventually. It's really original for sure. And the romance was actually sweet underneath the heavy storyline. That being said, the story was still a bit hard to follow. Some of the imagery went over my head a little, particularly the moth giant scene, so that part's on me. The English was not the best, though definitely an improvement over past entries from the same team. Honestly, though, I wouldn't have changed a thing. I was just happy to be strapped to this wild ride, and some of the imagery will definitely stick with me for some time after this jam. (Also, was that a Blue Hour cameo at the end?)

'For the Black Hour' is another crazy drug trip of a story by the team over at Strawberry Noodles. We've got the trifecta of Strawberry Noodle story traits: a surrealist world with unusual rules and a bunch of magic that I think is supposed to be symbolic, a buddy-trip plot where we get two characters going on a journey to get somewhere and 'do the thing', and those two buddies being weary and distrustful of each other and coming to find that they like each other more than they realize when it turns out they've just been putting up a front. The aesthetic this time? Oppressive light and cult like activities, ala Midsommar.

The story plot is always a crazy ride, this time being a Szeptucha (medicine/magic man from what I could research) and a forest spirit go on a journey to bring night back to the world after it has been placed in eternal day time. Along the way, they meet a couple of cannibals that eat gods, the knights that defend the sun and want to stop them from taking it out of the sky, a village that is filled with burning villagers trying to escape the eternal day, the witch that seems to have something to do with it, and eventually the Bell Tower of the celestial moth that is able to finally put the moon back into the sky. Along the way, the szeptucha and forest spirits learn to like each other, turns out the szeptucha was depressed cause he didn't feel authentically loved, but he got over it because that's just who he is and a god of death told him so. Also, the forest spirit felt like he betrayed the forest that he couldn't protect, turns out the forest did forgive the wolf, so happy ending I think. The plots for these stories are always just fun vivid set ups and funny banter between sad complicated characters, and this gives a lot more of that.

The presentation is top notch, with the art stylization just being really something different and hauntingly beautiful, also a staple of the art team. They really enjoy their body horror painted beautifully, though not as much this time as some of their previous works, leaving more to the writing prose to describe it. The audio work is also really good, though I will say I don't know if I fully understood the purpose of the jump scare scream at the start and end, because this isn't quite as horror story as it feels like it's trying to come across as. The prose as always is a little bit rough, but that comes with the territory of being translated from Polish, but even so, it does a good enough job to get the emotions and feeling the characters have, as well as give them some distinct personalities. I really liked the shift in Lazarus as he slowly gets back his memories, really well described the process of a character acting out on pure emotion, and then realize who he actually is and those emotions are given context. The weakest bit is probably the resolution, as it seemed to resolve without much issue, and aside from meeting a couple of knights, there wasn't any kind of character growth moment, since both characters are already good boys. I wonder if the writer just really needed to wrap up the story for time, so just did it as well as they could. Would've enjoyed a bit of a moment between Lazarus and Cyril, just so they could say that they've grown closer, but I'm not mad it's not there.

The folklore aspect is cleverly woven into the narrative. One, it's got (I think) Slavic folklore-ish traditions being the basis of the story, and then the little Easter egg at the end of the story where it turns out this whole visual novel was a story being told by last year's may-wolf characters. I really liked that call back, and giving a bit of continuity to this crazy story universe. Of course, the creativity is always off the chart with Strawberry Noodles, never knowing what set pieces and imagery is going to come across the screen next. Cannibals eating a corpse with flowers growing out of it, a village on fire with folks playing music, a galaxy moth in a cave, just fever dream at that point. I will say, something about these stories is that I could usually find some kind of symbolism or meta-narrative that might be going on, but I don't think I could decipher one while I was reading it. I had thought by the description it might've been something like a toxic positivity with the eternal day, maybe something about environmentalism and burnout culture with the burning village, or something about self-love and self-sacrifice? If there was one, I wasn't able to pick up on it, but then again, I could just be reading too much and it's just a fun campfire story being told by a kitty and a wolf.

Always an interesting read from Strawberry Noodles. You do need to go in ready to brace yourself for some kind of obtuse storytelling, but it's a fun ride if you let it play out. I wouldn't want to take away from their signature style of being confusing to comprehend, but I'm always fascinated by how much I come to enjoy and root for the pair to get together, so maybe giving a bit of payoff wouldn't hurt for making it to the end. So glad that they've become established enough that they have their own team logo splash they can put on their projects, so leaves me looking forward to what prompt will get them going the next time.

Let's see... sassy cat dragged on a quest through a grim fantasy world with a hot wolf companion... plus the title consistency between "The Blue Hour" and "For the Black Hour"... and the ending scene... I think there may just be a Strawberry Noodles May Wolf cinematic universe in progress. 

Personally, I'm all for it. I never got around to your Novembuck entry (I am still vigorously beating myself up for not being able to get to all those), but compared to last year's May Wolf this has just as much charm and felt far less cryptic. 

Breaking things down further:

Implementation of Theme:

Yes, we have folklore here, and we have it in spades. I'm not all that familiar with Slavic mythology, and really the only thing mentioned here that I was aware of was leshy (totally not just from Inscryption I swear), so I'm not sure how much of this is based on real world folklore and how much was invented for this universe. Regardless, I think the way legends and mythology were handled here worked really well, and were clearly integral to the narrative and its characters. I'll delve more into those in a bit, but I think this more than met the requirements for the "folklore" theme.

Before I move on too quickly though, I'm also going to throw out a less conventional reading here and say that there's some Catholic imagery as well to go with the Slavic mythology. Besides just the explicit reference to Lazarus for our protagonist rising from the dead, the dead god's blood turning to wine is basically transubstantiation in reverse, and I did initially read Lazarus' severed arm gushing water as a post-crucifixion reference, though this could just as easily be more literal in the sense that he was resurrected by trees and is therefore like, part tree or whatever. I thought there was a plausible angle with past Poland being rooted in Slavic folklore and current Poland being very Catholic, but I could be reading way too much into it.

Presentation/Writing:

I'm not going to rag on the language too much since translating a whole VN within the jam timeline is understandably very difficult, you're aware that it could be polished more, and, as I said at the top, I thought this was way clearer than last year's anyway. There were some points in particular when it was a bit hard to follow, like the action scene where Lazarus and Cyryl fight the knight, but I'm always impressed with the vivid imagery in your work, and the writing style in general, despite the occasional translation jank, is technically superb.

Art and music were outstanding here as well, though I'm not quite sure what the significance of the screams at the beginning of the main story and epilogue were about. Visually, while I wish there were a few more images, like the knight approaching or the stars in the cave, I recognize that it's hard to get all that done in a jam, and I really did like what we got. Sprites for our main characters are well done and expressive, the village scene was haunting as intended, and I really liked how Butwiala was presented.

Just one other error that I noted here, there is at least one instance of Delilah's name appearing in her text box name tag before we actually learn her name.

Story:

While for the most part I felt that the story and characters were really solid here, my main critique with the story is that pretty much every conflict is resolved very easily once the script has deemed it time to do so.

Like, a major driver for the interactions between Cyryl and Lazarus in the first act is Lazarus' flippant attitude, which clashes with Cyryl's mission to put the sun and the moon back in order. But once Lazarus gets KO'd, Butwiala essentially tells him "hey stop that" and he does, immediately, and they're practically instantly best friends after that. It's not that the scene with Butwiala is bad - the emphasis that Lazarus loves unconditionally despite others hurting him (I can't not see the Jesus thing, I'm sorry man) is great and I totally see that as a catalyst for his growth, it just feels a bit sudden for me.

Same kinda thing with the resolution of the central sun/moon conflict. Like once they figure out where to go from Delilah, Lazarus and Cyryl walk up to the giant practically unimpeded, adjust some orbs, and the day is saved. Like maybe resolving that conflict wasn't important as the character beats, but it did feel very easy to do once they had the information, which itself seemed to be acquired conveniently by stumbling upon Delilah in the village (yes, the cannibals directed them to the village, but I don't think they knew about Delilah). 

Other than that though, I thought the main characters were handled really well. Besides the occasional rushed character development, I really liked their relationships and interactions (more so than Blue Hour) and I found the whole ending scene with the trees revealing that they resurrected Lazarus, forgiving Cyryl, and thanking him for all he did for them to be really touching and emotional. 

Creativity:

I know the last section may have sounded critical, but don't take that the wrong way. I really, really liked this project and it had creativity oozing out of every corner. The integration of the folklore, the writing, and the art direction all contribute to make a really excellent experience, and this was a real highlight for me.

Final score here of 5 giant moon moths out of 7 blistering violin solos (get it because the violinist is literally on fire, yes I'll see myself out).

As with every Strawberry Noodles production, often the thing that I find myself wishing for the most is simply More. I want more time with this world, and these characters, and the interactions between them. Not to imply it's not enough, it gets the job done. I just want to indulge. I find the dynamics you construct between characters fascinating, and compelling, and despite an outwardly similar set up, they're always so unique. I love that Lazarus can't help but love, and forgive, even though it hurts. It's just in their nature to do so. I especially like that their relationship with Cyryl by the end has become a bit blurred. Like there's the start of something, maybe. Lazarus already loves him, after all they can't help but love him, but just in what way, hm? I adore their reason for hating themself, and the way that it's resolved. I love that Cyryl has this survivor's guilt burden, like a captain that didn't go down with his ship, and I love his little bit of cheekiness hidden under his ashen knight persona. His entire concept is frankly just cool as fuck, I always love seeing people twist and play with concepts. As someone who did something similar once with a dryad, it hits a soft spot for me. And as everyone knows, I love life, and dying, and symbolism, so someone quite literally burning out despite surviving the impossible, while helping to resurrect someone else, is sooooo tasty. There's just back to back to back moments like these that compel me with how cool they are! They're fresh and exciting, and inspiring! It's the type of worldbuilding and dynamics and plotbeats that make me want to write more.

The translation is the weakest link, unfortunately, but I do think that the writing style comes through better now compared to some of the rougher first translations of the older work. I'm especially fond of "Because love you can" though I think it would benefit from a comma, reading as "Because love, you can." I think the prose also works better with the format of a visual novel. It no longer feels like I'm getting redundant descriptions of actions or expressions, and instead they expand on the relatively few and simple expressions that the characters have, though I do think they go a long ways. Most impressively is just how deeply integrated the folklore is with the game itself. It's a respectable size, and yet so many sentences have these other bits and pieces of folklore stitched into them. Some things that I've got cursory knowledge of, like szeptucha, some stories with my interpretations like Cygnus (teehee), and some I've frankly got no idea, but they all strike my attention without feeling overwhelming. The scene with Butwiala has an especially intriguing line, where Lazarus notes that gods should always have faces, usually three, but she has none, which just goes to show how powerful she is. Is that made up? is that tradition? i don't know, but I sure want to.

The art is gorgeous. Butwiala is especially striking, though I'm also partial to Birdie and Kitty and the little cameo of old friends at the end ;> The music reminds me, unsurprisingly, of the blue hour, at least on the main menu. This is one of those games I can really feel the time constraints in, so I hope you'll give it some more polish (no pun intended) post jam, because I think it deserves it, since it's already so strong. I wish some of the sprites were used a little bit more, sometimes a character is mentioned emoting something like happiness or anger, which there exist sprites for, but they remain in their neutral expressions. Anyway I look forward to whatever comes next from this group. You can expect me to be in the front row seats every time! 

😜👍 

This was an incredible experience - it felt as though I was reading a macabre fairytale come to life, with so many little idiosyncrasies and unique, lively characters that pulled me incredibly deeply into the world. Though I'm not familiar with much of the folklore that this story was based upon, this is, in my eyes, undoubtedly one of the best implementations of the theme I've seen. 

The art is beautiful, the characters are compelling, and the mystery and dread that comes as a result of the everpresent sun makes the world of this story incredibly fascinating, left me constantly curious about what the next setpiece I'd see was while I was reading it.

Fantastic job all around!