The art immediately drew me into this game when I saw the screenshots, it reminds me so much of old illustrated story books!! It’s so beautiful and I love how everything blends into each other. I wish the name box was made to fit into the rest of the beautiful ui, but I don’t think it subtracts from it so much. The piano tracks chosen also really help with the fairytale quality of the atmosphere and does so much for the general vibe of the the game.
For the story, I immediately had a hint of where the story was going, but I don’t think it actually diminished the payoff (which may be better, too many people try to keep you from guessing where the story will go and end up making their narrative suffer.) Without any spoilers, while I couldn’t guess the exact ending, the actual sequence was so beautifully illustrated, and the sudden remove of the framing that the rest of the game had really helped push the eerie vibe. The actual reveal of the beast was also amazing with the change of ui too, and the realization of why the knight took the path they did was all the more impactful for it. I might just be a sucker for smaller details when it comes to games, especially visual novels, but even for such a small thing like changing the ui I absolutely adore when games play with more aspects of their medium as a part of the story. This was such an inspiring game in all honesty and makes me all the more impatient for the am to end so I can go fix up the ui I made myself for our submission because I feel so inspired!!