The Blue Cloth stuns with its production values – the intricate sound design pulls off some tricks you rarely see in FVNs, and the amount of art assets is admirable for a game jam project. There's a lot to like in it, even if the narrative feels ultimately too messy.

Regarding the art style: it clashes somewhat with the tone in a way I think works in the game's favor. You see, the story itself is quite grounded and detail-oriented, conveying how much this trip sucks by centering material & logistical concerns (they even use lube!) while the bright, cartoony visuals suggest a lighter and more stylized fantasy journey. The mismatch ends up feeling meaningful as an "expectations vs. reality"-style dissonance; it's a nice bit of visual storytelling.

Another cool thing The Blue Cloth does is characterizing the existence of furries in the setting with the fact that the ones we meet are based on domesticated animals and with the art depicting them as somewhat human-like. You immediately get that all these species have some level of familiarity with each other – considering my later gripes with the game's exposition, I like that it manages to convey this aspect of the world without telling us anything.

The relationship between the Levis and Alfrin feels very real and is intriguing to read about. What the game does is more of an exploration of the dynamic between these two people connected by duty, not choice, than a simple arc of a character going from A to B – there's a literary undercurrent to it that I enjoy. It might be worth it dialing down the subtlety slightly and concluding on a more explicit note, though; the finale (particularly the orb scene, which feels kind of unclear in its purpose unless you read it as a metaphor for masturbation & gay self-discovery) can come off as a little underwhelming. While I ultimately think the central relationship more or less works, I wouldn't say no to exaggerating and elaborating the drama just a little.

However, worldbuilding is handled far less gracefully. Some stuff works – I like how magic is used to represent Levis' insecurities, and I think a lot of the dialog fills its purpose as flavorful idle chatter even when ostensibly feeding the reader lore. Still, on the whole, it's hard to shake the feeling that you're reading a lot of exposition about a magic system and related societal phenomena without ever really getting a proper payoff within the boundaries of this particular story. Everything just betrays the fact that the game uses a pre-existing setting; if inventing it from the ground up just for this thing, there's a lot you'd likely try to simplify or clarify.

The Blue Cloth almost succeeds as a standalone read. Dividing its attention between three characters and lingering on extraneous worldbuilding fluff, it's just not quite as tight and focused as being this short of a read demands. That being said, I'm more than ready for further tales set in the Clothverse, should the author go forth with their plans to return to the project after finishing Fields of Spring (which rules, by the way).