Unagi's specific brand of craziness just seems to keep, ahem, expanding.

I'm going to be honest, I've barely the slightest idea of what is going on. And yet, I really started getting into it for some reason? Something about it's wackiness stopped me from looking away.

On a more technical level, the amount of effort put into this is also crazy. All the sprites. The menus. The animations. The combat (which has a strangely large amount of depth for a narrative experience).

Okay, so it doesn't "look pretty" or "flow well", but I don't think it's trying to. This game is here to push boundaries and have some fun along the way. That's a goal I can get behind. Well, it's a goal I can get behind after it crashes Ren'py three times in one scene and I turn off that mechanic.

You asked earlier in your final May Wolf stream if anyone knew how WBT played on Android, so I ran through it afterward. 

Once I was able to toggle the memory leak fix, it chugged a bit in skip mode, but I managed to make it through without crashing.  Most of the text had no issues; it wasn't until toward the end where things got a bit crazy.  

The main culprits seem to be Pyrrhos' narrator boxes and Agnarr's text boxes ( I also can't remember from the windows version if the otter sprite is supposed to remain at an angle for most of the scene):

On a second playthrough to get screenshots it  did crash on me after I swapped between apps, but that's fairly common for Ren'py android builds, so it shouldn't be as much a concern.

I ran this on my galaxy note 10+, which is not the latest and greatest, but has 12 gb of memory.  Normally my phone uses around 4gb, but with the game running at the most intensive part, memory usage maxed at 7.6 gb, so it should work okay on most modern phones.

I can’t stop thinking about Fire Emblem Engage while playing it, and I love it! Seeing all these wolves, and my Charles here 🥹 It was definitely an odd yet funny experience to play it ^^

Was expanding the limits of what the game engine could handle part of the theme?  I think it expanded so much, it sprung a (memory) leak!  I tried playing the Android version first, then the Windows version directly from the Ren'Py launcher, but it finally stopped crashing after I hit the toggle.  

I didn't hold it against you, though, as big name game console titles often have to put out patches right away, and they spend tens of thousands of dollars on development and play testing.

In some aspects, I feel like this is a tech demo of the absolute limits of what is possible in Ren'Py.  If you ever do decide to implement an integrated combat system in the future, it probably will be!

Being unfamiliar with the source material (the game inspiration and some of the initial wolves), it took me a bit to catch on to the concept, but I got there soon enough, so I don't think it would be too confusing for most people to pick up on.

At the start, I wasn't sure if I was watching a cutscene or supposed to be playing (the gun and grass scene)... it reminded me a bit of growing up with an older brother who gave me controller two while he was playing a one player game and trying to convince me that I was the one actually playing (it never worked, btw).  I figured out after the fourth time watching that it spelled out the bolo's name.

It was impressive how you took the time to customize the dialogue boxes out of the games the characters were from.  That being said, the visual chaos was just a bit much for my eyes to comprehend.  I think the same effect could be achieved while just using the custom fonts and colors in the name boxes, but you certainly went all out with references!  I appreciate the tribute to so many other projects.

I've only just learned how to use transform to make a character walk off the screen on the last day of the jam, and you have everyone floating and spinning and stretching all over the place!  I can't even imagine coding all of that in for, what, around 20 characters on the screen at once?   Again, speaking while not knowing the reference material, it may have been a bit less cluttered to have small versions of the wolves or even just balls of light floating around that 'expand' only when speaking or attacking.

I did appreciate the 'Encyclowolfopedia' for the entries I was unfamiliar with, and loved the joke with WW's Charles understanding everyone's English, yet no one understanding his French.  C'est tragique.  I was confused for a bit with some of the other character gags, but mostly figured them out as the story went on.

As far as grammer, the main recurring issue I noticed was with capitalizing words that shouldn't be.  It's not something that bothers me personally, but may be an issue for sticklers.

In terms of creativity, bravo!  This one certainly stands out from among the rest of the entries.  I wasn't sure what would be waiting for me playing your entry, but I was sure it would be something unique.  Can't wait to see it finished!

Spoilers etc.

Theme: Mentioning expanding knowledge? Meh. Using it as a mechanic for XBC2 and the additional wolf catalogue? Sure, I think that's working.

Story: Sweetie, you took too much from XBC2 that it left out your own voice outside of like the unagi notes. I kept saying during every fight "we don't need this". We don't need the XBC2 play by play hit by hit mechanics explanations. I think having briefer fights with a larger focus on the emotional why of the fight w/o the mechanics could have carried across what you wanted, let you get to where you wanted in the plot instead of what felt like filler moments, and still let you explore what you wanted to explore narratively.

As it was, I wanted to skip every fight. They felt very long with the minimal control I had over them. The only lets plays I watch are like randomizers, and that's sparingly. This doesn't even have any additional meta commentary, it's people playing XBC2 but I can't play it myself.

I think you were too enthused with your idea that you forgot you didn't have to go so literal in the adaptation. It was cute to have them present, and I enjoyed your notes in the encyclopedia, because those felt closer to your own voice rather than you echoing the beats of XBC2. The bunny was what, Morag-esque?

It was nice that you wanted to give all the characters voices (and I definitely giggled at the Futurama French dead language gag), but that also brought the narrative to a screeching halt as they all had something to interject all the time, or alternatively were just functioning not unlike the game as  things to move the plot along (field skills, etc etc.).

---

Story asides: If each wolf has a bit of amicus in them, could it be said that the more amicus in them, the closer to six stars? Because that would ring true for Lobo, to be a much as an anti 'my wolf' as he could be while still existing in the conversation :p

And huh, no cooper allowed. Smh. What fame will do to someone /s

---

Presentation: Mazels on doing all that art. You put a lot of your heart into this, and I liked the animations you did, even if they were probably lagging things up.

I get the pixellation was to like, make the presence of all the blades less noisy,  but like... that was still visually noisy and confusing as to why they were pixelated and clear in the wolf encyclopedia. I would have preferred it be closer to XBC2 in that regard, where only one per person is out, even though you wanted to give them all affection with some screen time. That works more in XBC2 because that game is a JRPG and has moments for spotlight spread out overtime, as opposed to like 1/1000th of the time of a work where you're cramming screentime together constnatly.

Also, the basketball looked like a rotating cock :sob:.

The font had one big issue, which was the "s" looked like "e" so many times i'd do a quick double take as they were too close at any size. Ooofoie.

Creativity: As someone that liked Heinlein's "Number of the Beast" more than he probably should, I appreciated the extended my wolf universe, but in another facet it felt very like XBC2 fanfiction except mirroring the beats with new chars. I think it could have been more of your voice if you strayed away from sticking so closely to the combat.

Overall thoughts:  I like your motive of a sort of tribute to "My Wolves", and appreciate the love you put for everyone who you contacted, but you got too lost in the sauce of your parody? appreciation? for XBC2 that it pulled away from a story only Unagi could tell.

An absolute fever dream of the VN...which kinda fits, coming from Unagi

tbh, although  I do think that this VN showcases some cool effects/cinematic stuff, it kinda misses on the story front.

There's a lot of terminology front-loaded on the reader, and if you're not hyper-aware of the My Wolf VNs from the last game jam, it's a lot of "I think this is a reference but it's kinda incomprehensible to me"

In addition, there's a lot of jarring UI stuff that is mainly distracting and at the extreme, starts to make the computer run slower.

An epic showcase of wolves and what is possible through animations, filters, effects, and customizations. With so much going on, the fix that has been implemented is worth doing to experience the rest of the game. There is quite a lot of variation in fonts and styles of dialogue, a little tricky at first, but I found it easy to adapt to.

I have just joined May Wolf this year, but am already getting a good sense of who these wolves are through their depictions and look forward to further exploring their sources. I feel that each character gets a good amount of representation and screen time. I looked forward to every reveal and read all unlocked entries. Hoping to return to the continuation of this, after I become more familiar with the cameos!

I like the "system" that is being used here, with a balance of elements and unique terminology. There is a lot of meta commentary that makes for an interesting interpretation of gachas and a character's individuality.

I looked into this because Unagi put one of my characters, and many other FVN wolf characters in here. The idea of a big crossover is interesting, so 3 stars for that.

I would love to comment on literally anything else but the game refuses to be played past a couple of dialogue boxes. I tried waiting some hours when I learned it was a fake crash on a timer, which honestly I think is infuriating enough to get someone to put it down for good there, So I'd say I gave it more than a fair chance.

So much so that in fact I did continue to reload from the auto save that is created every time the fake crash happens, even when that happened after every single line of dialogue, for more attempts than I cared to count. The fake crash was so ever present that I barely remember any line of dialogue, because i was too concerned with clawing myself forward through this thing that seems like it doesn't want to be seen.

I wanted to give the story itself a fair shake so bad that I looked through the code, removed the fake crash screen, and the label that calls the crash screen, and still, the VN does not function.

This is a story that does not want to be read, as a piece of art in an of itself, that's an interesting premise, but as an entry to a game jam where the goal is to tell a story, it is a book that closes itself at random. I feel like I wasted my time, and I am utterly disappointed.