I felt as though I'd rushed through. I'm famished after having read it; the presentation is really great, but the details which are given are sparse and just... not focused on very much. Even if it's mostly a series of monologues, we don't see enough time of the relationships between the characters. We don't see enough time pass in-between, like this is not something you can force in a day or even a week, it's growing more than that. I didn't feel as though I'd enough context to understand as to why Rhett is so upset and how much time learning about someone else can take.

I loved all the endings. All of them are fair in their own right, even if you chew on regret for a long time.

A very short story, but pretty cool nonetheless. It's made more interesting by having three distinct choices, and it's also a novel idea to have the POV character be the vengeful ghost itself. The presentation is simple but serviceable. It was especially nice to see Beckett in different circumstances in each of the endings. Though, given how short this story is, it does come with a lack of depth. We meet a ghost, then his boyfriend. Then ghost gets mad, then the situation resolves in three different ways. End story. I dunno, feels like I'm running out of things to say. Probably could have been fleshed out a little more, particularly if Rhett and Hudson were at all aware that there's a ghost, or if Rhett had talked about Beckett in any way. Feels like a bit of a missed opportunity to expand on the characters more. But for what it is, it's still nice.

For being a small story, it certainly has a lot to unpack, for starters, the grieving over being unable to be there for the one you most love is the moving emotion across the story. Beckett, who died in an unknown—although arguably, in a grotesque way—stayed next to his boyfriend—ex-boyfriend¿—Rhett to help him with whatever he could, despite his actual state.

Quite the beautiful concept, being there for the one you most love even though they don’t even know you are there, with an extra layer of pain since Beckett can't be there for him, in a physical way, at least.

It boils down with the introduction of Hudson, who is the one who can actually be the one who can help Rhett.

This is the exact proof for Beckett to finally understand, he's dead and Rhett is not aware of his presence. From that revelation, there are three paths where he can go. He could burst in rage, destroy everything around him in denial of this event; break down and, ironically, bring along the one who can’t see him in his sorrow; or he could accept the fact—accept that he can’t be there for him but be happy to see someone else who can be there.

The story is strong by itself, but I think it could benefit a bit more if it flashed more the actions and situations rather than the events. Since the story is just a monologue of Beckett with any kind of interaction with the other characters, the story relies a lot on telling instead of showing. A way this could be sorted is by having a kind of time lapse across the time where Beckett is always next to Rhett; when he wakes up, when he’s eating, when he’s about to leave, when he comes tired from working, when he’s falling asleep on the couch, and when he’s tucked inside that cold bed. All this while showing he’s still mourning Beckett’s death, like staring at the photo on the nightstand, or doing something that they always did together with a sad expression. Everything builds until one day, he comes unexpectedly happy after a long time, pacing around the room worried yet excited – strange, but understood once the door’s bell chimed and, on the other side, a Racoon with his arms open, action that reciprocated Rhett.

Just a silly idea I had, don’t mind it too much.

The art was also a delight, the portrayal of a ghost with the visuals was well achieved, and the ideas for the structuration of, for example, the Itch io page. The rest of the sprites are cute, with just some little details in the proportions in certain poses, but good overall.

I’d like to talk about the implication about Beckett being able to – what it seems – demolish a freaking house with his pure rage, hold a tight grip on a faucet despite having someone else trying to close it with all their might, and yet be unable to leave any kind of message that he is, in fact, ‘alive’. But surely it’s just me overthinking a detail, and being such a big sucker for having a sort of reality of plausibility in all stories.

I enjoyed the game, short yet strong on its premise. It was even more impressive, judging this was a first time submission, good job!

I Will Haunt You is very a very visually striking piece of work - from the varied presentation of sprites and CGs (I really enjoyed the floating effect on beckett), the smart use of music, and even the design of the main menu and the Itch page. The story is also quite interesting - a take on the various stages of grief, told in a branching manner through the perspective of the ghost. However, in spite of its strong visuals, I feel as though it has a tendency to tell rather than show, which winds up bogging it down somewhat.

(Almost) the whole story is told through what is, effectively, a set of monologues - Beckett directly expositing to the reader his thoughts and feelings, how he got here, and how he feels about every single thing that occurs in the story. This isn't necessarily a problem - but I can't help but feel as though the writing of the story doesn't make use of the medium's strengths and ability to showcase a person's innermost thoughts in all their messy glory - they're very matter-of-fact, which wound up making them feel too direct and to-the-point to me - to give an example, when Beckett complains about Rhett's date making spaghetti with him and claims that it's their dish, it doesn't feel particularly convincing, because we don't know enough about the context surrounding it to understand how much it means to Beckett - the incredibly complex and personal emotion of grief is flattened into vague statements, and we just have to take Beckett at his word to tell what he's feeling.

That said, I still thought the broad strokes of the story were enjoyable - and the game's striking visual direction and animations certainly helped raise things up a notch! Good job!

This is an interesting concept, but it wasn’t as explored as I feel it wanted to. The writing was fine, Beckett was interesting, while the other two characters didn’t have much time to shine. The theme is straightforwardly about real life folklore about ghosts and haunted houses being the main force in the story.

The sprites and backgrounds are all very nice. There are a few cool CGs as well (although the destroyed house one made it look like Rhett lives in the middle of nowhere, which is a bit weird^^) The music was pretty nice.

Overall, it’s a nice little VN, but I think it would have benefitted from slowing down a bit. Good job!

A pretty nice ghost story! It's very simple and short, but that's not a bad thing at all. I do like how going through the options from top to bottom gives you basically the five stages of grief, which is my personal favorite way of reading this story, but you can just read the happiest ending if you so please. It really does put you into the perspective of a ghost whose lover is still alive and what they'd be going through. There's not much to say about it, but I liked it. Would recommend reading this VN if the premise sounds interesting.

I really do like stories like this, that aren’t from the perspective of the living. Ghost stories are always inextricably tied to the living’s thoughts on the dead, but we don’t always get to see the ghost humanized very well.

I think you did a good job. The story never gets bogged down with all the concerns of mortality and ghosthood, just this particular case of ‘unfinished business’. Acceptance is the clear message being sent here. While not wholly original on its own, it’s made more impactful by Beckett’s relationship to Rhett.

The choices presented to us are fine in portraying the consequences of our rejection to move on, but I feel like they could have been a little more intentional in their mechanics to really emphasize the point. That subsequent loop option could work great in that respect. Maybe acceptance should be harder to find at first? That’s only my preference however.

In contrast, the ordering of them also feels grounded in reality. I can see Beckett having each reaction in that exact order. Each ending does have a distinct connotation that feels unique and sensitive to the topic.

While emotionally charged in nature, I never did fully become enveloped. I think the writing is partly to blame. It’s not bad at all, but does a little more telling than showing. Unfortunately, the burden of creating a full story with enough meat to supplement the writing in a slim time frame AND do everything else on top is a lot, and something I can’t spite you over. Beckett helping find the remote and trying to cook are good moments that alleviate this.

It meets the brief for the theme, even if Beckett’s ghost-ness is a little nontraditional. I fear if you did try and lean into more historical ideas of ghosts, it might’ve taken from the story so I have no complaints.

The presentation was good! A nice variety of CGs and sprites (Beckett’s design is neat), music that fits and sets the tone pretty well. The opacity and movement effects tie a nice bow on everything. Game page is fun and unique, I’m a fan.

Sick first VN submission, I’m hoping to see more from you down the line.

I didn't expect to recieve so many comments! 😭😭Please know I have read and appreciate every single one!! 

'I Will Haunt You' is a tragic novella about a ghost who haunts his boyfriend. It's quite a somber and sober look at not what it means to move on from something that is over. It's a simple story, but I think one that's distilled down to capturing just the essence of what the message of the story is trying to present.

The story centers around Beckett, a ghost, who was killed three years ago, and how he hasn't moved on from the mortal plane, instead staying and 'haunting' his boyfriend Rhett. Beckett tries to be a helpful ghost, moving things into useful places, and keeping watch over Rhett, but Rhett's still depressed. Then Beckett gets a new boyfriend and suddenly Rhett's starting to be happy again, but Beckett's jealous and distraught, still clinging to wanting to be with Rhett even through he's unable to actively be there physically for him. The reader then gets three options on how to respond to this revelation. One ending is one where he becomes vengeful and lashes out to scare away the new boyfriend, only to end up scaring away Rhett in the process. Another bad ending is where he also falls into despair, which ends up creating a space where Rhett pushes away his new boyfriend, thus leaving them together again, but alone and still miserable. The good ending is the one where Beckett accepts the finality of their situation and allows Rhett to continue to be happy without him, while he moves on as well, no matter how scary it may be. And like, that's all the surface level plot, but like a good fable it's got some fun interpretations or allusions that could be made. Replace the death of Beckett into any other situation in which this relationship could've ended and it gives a really compelling demonstration of the pitfalls of ruminating over a failing or ending relationship. The endings showing that how a person reacts to the situation matters, and can shape how that person experiences it.

The presentation is really good, the character sprites are expressive and simple, yet with bold but not gruesome details. Beckett's design of his bloodied shoulders from his neck is surprisingly tasteful. The art for the backgrounds and cgs are really good at conveying the moods of the scenes. The little animations that the sprite have add to the immersion. The music and sounds are adequate. The writing is simple, but effective. It's really good in how the three different endings all have their distinct voices, especially since it's such a singular character focused story. I appreciate the addition of letting the reader go back to the pivotal choice to pick a different path to experience it. The situation is non-descript as it needs to be in order to focus on the primary emotional conflict, Beckett wanting to be the only one who can help Rhett, when he himself is unable to be what Rhett needs.

As for the folklore element, I think this is a take on a classic ghost story/haunted house but from the view point of the ghost. I think I can think of a few haunted house stories that follow both the haunted and the haunters, so focusing solely on just the ghost makes it stand out a bit more. It makes me feel like it was a good starting point for the ghost-haunting-element, but it makes me wonder if you might've been able to find a ghost-story that you could connected it to better encapsulate the folk-lore element. I will offer that this is a solid entry for a game jam with a very manageable scope, and it checks all the boxes (bonus points for probably the best itch page design, it goes so hard), especially for a first time entry and what looks to be a first time solo project for you. Really nice showing. Looking forward to seeing what happens when you expand that scope a bit more, stuff like lengthening the plot and narrative, playing around with the structure of the story. This one works from the POV from the ghost, but it could also really work well from the POV of Rhett being haunted by his house and turning it into a mystery of why he's haunted. You've got a good foundation, so you can start experimenting.

I enjoyed this VN quite a bit! From the first impression of the really creative Itch game page design, till the pretty ending illustrations, it was fun.

I think the writing and story were pretty tight, and they hit on some raw emotions... but maybe too raw? Both Beckett and the VN wear its feelings on its sleeve and have big displays of emotions. I'd say the most subdued moment it has is refusing to go into the details of the freak incident that took Beckett's life and letting the clever character design do the talking instead. It slips into a bit too melodramatic at times, especially during the more bombastic and more tragic endings, but otherwise I felt the story and writing were pretty tight.

I liked the take on a (relatively) benevolent haunting. Unorthodox interpretations of creatures of the night, monsters and undead are always fun. Exploring undeath as literal undying loyalty and several aspects both good and bad was pretty clever.

Art wise, everyone looked so gosh darn cute!!! Rhett's design is simple but vibrant and fun and he (like everyone) has fun gay little poses. I especially like his tired/bending over sprite, it's kinda goofy but it's so good. The full screen illustrations are also a joy, I enjoyed how the expressions on the characters are drawn and Beckett's fruity little poses especially.

For a first VN, it's a solid showing, excellent job! I hope we see more from the dev, either as an artist or as a project lead again.

THERE'S A RHETT I FEEL SEEEEEEEN  \; v ;/

This is cute! Even if it's very short, it fleshes out the characters and their relationships very well. The relatively simple art style is very effective, and there's always something eye-catching going on visually. The use of music is also superb, between the common route music and each ending having their own designated song. I was honestly surprised to see that the music came from a stock site; I thought it was original. But, that just shows that you made good selections!

Blue pointed this out in their own review, but I do like how we get the typical dead spouse story of grief and acceptance, this time from the ghost's POV. It opens up interesting possibilities that this VN eagerly explores. And of course, the themes work extremely well here; I actually got a little emotional, so kudos for that! I want to hug everyone. Especially Rhett. >:3

Overall, this is a very clean experience that, despite its short word count, tenderly explores its themes and is more than satisfactory.

...And this is your first VN too?! Congrats! I look forward to seeing what you do in the future!

I had beckett for five seconds only and I... sniffle... I.... ;v;....

I'm always a sucker for Dead Wife, and acceptance, and letting go and moving on, and I think tackling it from the other side is a good twist on the formula. Short and sweet, even with such little time together with the characters I think you do a really good job of setting up just how much Rhett meant to them. Moving on is hard, and seeing someone move on from you has to be even harder. I think the responses are all realistic to have in the situation. Good work, and I hope to see more from you in the future!