The art inspirations you've mentioned are really interesting, because I've not played a Persona game at all! This just means I'm more incentivised to give them a try. I do love Atlantis, but I wouldn't have thought of that as an inspiration for my art either. Really intrigued as to whether I've subconsciously absorbed that somewhere along the line! Definitely not a bad thing though, because as you say, it was the best era.
It's great that you mentioned the issues you have with VNs -- it's actually the same problem I often have! Knowing my own experiences with struggling to stay focused and that it's not uncommon among other people, I designed the mechanics of the game with the goal of having a 're-engagement' section quite often. But, of course, they have to mean something! Nothing sadder than making a choice only to realise it did absolutely nothing. 😂 I do like building tension in mechanics, but I'm also very aware that people can't always engage with those in a way that isn't frustrating or impossible for them, so the first thing was to build an off button!
I'm so sorry about the music bug! Definitely putting that on the fix list for 1.2. I'm also going to have a look and see if I can't change the default on those audios -- we need to be able to hear our lovely narrator! Unfortunately third-party sounds and so on can be unavoidable when you're both a solo developer and under a time constraint, but I'm hoping to get a full team in my next Jam project.
Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a lovely, thought-out review! I really appreciate it.