itch.io

Overall, I enjoyed the story and pacing, I truly felt for Mavia. I find it hard for a story to always convey emotional weight but all the way up until the end I felt invested in the story.(Even if some parts personally felt rough out of personal preference 3D has truly spoiled me.)

Positives:

1. I genuinely felt the characters had their own personality and breadth.

2. The music felt cohesive and fitting.

3. The setting felt cohesive and real. You can feel the tension in the world the characters live in.

4. The art style (Even though I personally find 2D... taxing.) truly was eye catching at some parts and was able to keep my attention.

Negatives:

1. in the beginning and it might be intentional, but Ruby asking Adam a question and him saying "I know" felt odd to me.

2. The music and sound, the sliders being preset is nice, but it didn't help in all spots, I would have preferred to see it properly mixed and the volume sliders left for the player to tweak themselves (Some stuff was too quiet while others were overly loud with the same settings.)

If itch let me I would rate it at like 4.5/5 overall. Genuinely did a good job in my opinion, literally the first I have reviewed that got way more positives than negatives. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Ok, so first off, amazing job. for such a short window you did amazingly well. I do like the idea you had, it plays well and the ending did get me lol, I will give you that.

Positives:

1. The visuals work they fit the overall theme and feel cohesive mostly.

2. The pacing is good for the total length.

3. The ending truly caught me off guard and caused me to panic lol so good job.

4. You obviously know Ren'py you used scene transitions and small animations well.

Negatives:

1. The sound, I am unsure if it is intentional but the unsettling soundtrack near the beginning feels... wrong? Not in a feeling sense but in a sounds blown out in some spots, unsure if it is intentional or not.

2. It is really short. I understand the time frame you finished this under, it just felt a bit rushed is all.(Still an amazing job truly)

3. So the main menu, it feels... Sorry but bad, it may be intentional (And if it is kindly tell me to kick rocks) but the white over the buttons is a tad jarring.

Overall though you should truly be proud. You did an amazing job. 4 days and between school and real life? Truly an accomplishment to be proud of. You have potential and I hope you continue pursuing this if you enjoy it. The 3D scenes are awesome, but file  size management could use some work lol specifically the audio, that folder is CHONKY! Again truly you did a great job, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Of course and hey don't be too hard on yourselves. Honestly there is always room for improvement but overall, you delivered a cohesive, thought out, and well executed story and game. Nothing was fundamentally wrong or off, just small pieces of polish to elevate it. And I cannot wait to see part 2.

Honestly overall I really enjoyed the flow and pacing of the story, subtle foreshadowing, nice prose, and it feels cohesive. Lenore definitely comes through really well, while in my opinion Orin feels (in the beginning) kind of stale slightly? But that is more of a nitpick than anything else.

Positives:

1. The characters themselves interacting feel cohesive.

2. I can tell you did some major research and if not you could fool anyone lol (the Ars Goetia style entry made me genuinely surprised.)

3. The color scheme and scenes look really well done in my opinion. They work well with the stylistic choice you guys went with and even though personally I wouldn't choose it myself, it works amazingly.

My issues (Purely my opinion):

1. In one of the earlier scenes a light looks WAY too close to Orin and Lenore's hands and Orin's face. It blows out a lot of subtle detail and is slightly distracting in my eyes maybe tweaking the radius could help.

2. Orin... in some close-ups he triggers my uncanny valley sense like something about his face gives ET vibes, but could purely just be a personal preference.

3. In the ritual scenes, I personally didn't like the fact that the light effects did not influence the environment lighting. Also on the full like light up sequence, the light beams go over the ottoman or something in the bottom left, which I blatantly noticed outright which broke a bit of the immersion. (Again I am a huge continuity nerd and it could just be an artistic choice.)

4. Lenore's arm in a few spots seems to clip into her body. Again just my opinion but just something I couldn't unsee once I saw it. (when she appears to put her arm behind her back early on)

5. A small thing, the music and sound effects are good but a tad loud, maybe like 1-3 Db too loud? but an easy fix with the volume sliders. As I said a really small thing to maybe learn from in the future.

Overall however I genuinely enjoyed your writing and visuals and the 3D workflow is nice to see. I cannot wait to see how you guys continue the story. <3 HAPPY HALLOWEEN and GREAT JOB!

They released a post about it I believe a while back been dead for a while now tbh big sadge