Well, shit.
There are a few issues with the writing style, which others have touched on and I will as well, but this is about as close to an unequivocal backboard-shattering slam dunk as I've seen in this jam. This is kind of the epitome of a jam VN - very short and limited in scope, but every frame is purposeful, intentional, and poignant. It provides just enough detail to convey the emotions at play without getting bogged down (mostly, and I'll get to that too) in worldbuilding it doesn't really need.
I said something along these lines during Novembuck for Proxima Protocol, but it bears repeating: I am seriously impressed with the massive strides you're taking with every new project.
Going to break this down further, but this one warrants a spoiler warning:
*
*
*
Implementation of Theme:
Yeah, I mean, take your pick. There's the rites of Forefathers' Eve themselves, the characterization of Wolf's deeply personal experience as another piece of folklore conveyed to Lucas, and even some other references to folklore thrown in during Lucas' closing internal monologue. Honestly, I'm not sure you really needed those last pieces - this story was already dripping in the folklore motif throughout, and adding new terms like "Likho" just a few lines before a very emphatic ending felt unnecessary. You could have had Lucas get to the same point in his musings without introducing new terms to make the language harder to parse. The requirement was clearly met here, though.
Writing:
Speaking of language being hard to parse, that's maybe the one real issue in this VN. I understand the tone you're going for, but readability is important too, and there were numerous instances where the language really could've been simplified instead of going for the most complex syntax and vocabulary you could think of. Everyone and their brother has mentioned "saline solution" and purkka already listed about 70 other examples, so I'm not going to linger on this point for too long, but just as another quick and simple edit, you can take something like "Long, long before the grand crosses decorated the apexes of any chapel in any town." and chop that down to "Long before grand crosses decorated the chapels in town" without losing any of the immersion or general vibe of the narration.
One other quirk that I noted here - perhaps I missed something since no one else seems to be mentioning it, but sometimes Lucas is referred to as "P" and I don't know why. Not sure if this was a placeholder from a previous draft that made it into the final edit.
Presentation:
Great. Good. Spectacular. I loved the subtle SFX throughout as opposed to more conventional backing tracks. The shift from the crickets and crackling of the fire to the buzzing of the wolf's tale to the distant popping gunshots of the ruined city was really well done and set the scenes well without being overbearing. Yes, the final effect was extremely loud, but I didn't necessarily mind that? To be fair, I was also playing through speakers and not headphones, so maybe it was excessive through certain peripherals. Even if you were to turn the volume down, I think it's a really effective full stop for the narrative.
Art was similarly excellent from my perspective, and I thought the UI was unique. I like the immediate impression of the Start button on the pyre, but as someone who (perhaps ironically, given the previous paragraph) likes to adjust the sound before starting a game, I'm not sure how I feel about not being able to access the settings immediately. Art-wise, the middle sequence especially stands out, with the sun literally tearing through the paper the wolf is drawn on, though other images like the wolf's face being blurred out as he rushes towards Lucas are also very impactful, especially with the full picture of the narrative in mind.
Besides the issues noted above, the script was generally well proofread, which is also always good to see.
Story:
As stated a few times by now, I think this was incredibly effective. I caught onto some of the story beats very early on, like Lucas talking to no one at the start, Lucas dying, and Lucas being the sun and all, but the actual reveal of the current reality was still a very well-delivered moment that I didn't really see coming.
There are moments when the narrative might get a little too bogged down in the folklore aspect instead of just letting the relationship on-screen speak for itself, but really, this VN does a great job of getting its themes across. We have the pain of losing someone close to you, the pain of facing your own mortality and losing yourself, and the ability to find hope even when all hope seems to be lost, even if that's just through carrying someone's memory. It's beautiful in its simplicity and I think we get just enough about these characters to feel the weight of their emotions without disrupting how those emotions are conveyed.
I usually have like five pages worth of notes for "Story" in these reviews, but I really don't here, to be honest. This was really tight and well done.
Creativity:
Wildly creative, down to the UI, the art style, the audiovisual imagery in general, and the way the theme was implemented. Aside from those minor points above, this really was exceptional from the top down. If you keep improving at this rate, the sky really is the limit for what you can produce.
Final score of 120 sheets of graph paper out of 1 9mm shell casing.