This was a great experience to play! I love the story concept.

Even though Goldie was a nice Doppelgänger, things still ended up going the way they usually do in these stories, which creates an eerie sense of inevitability. Mari might have remained stuck with her unsatisfying life otherwise, but being faced with an idealised version of yourself who is nothing but good and kind and only wishes the best for you didn't make it any better for her either. And it makes sense, because being confronted by who you could be without all the issues and ingrained self-manipulation and accumulated exhaustion from trying to get through life isn't something that'll feel good. 

It's very easy to turn into Mari and become too tired and angry and resigned to have any energy to even want things to be better. Putting all that aside to open yourself up to a chance to improve things is hard. I can definitely relate to her. Even when you know it's not ill-intentioned, people being unflappably optimistic to the point that it feels like they don't see your pain and your difficulties can feel very frustrating.

I think it was a great choice to not have a "good" ending where suddenly everyone gets along and is happy following their dreams. I appreciated the look at the bleak way the situation turned out no matter the final choice rather than having a feelgood message,

The music was well-chosen and really brought across the underlying horror atmosphere. All the aspects of this VN came together very well for a coherent experience. Great job by everyone on the team!

This one was a real surprise! The tone is quite different compared to a lot of other entries in the jam, and I liked it a lot! Mari is such an interesting protagonist; she's someone I sympathize with, because work life definitely isn't easy, while getting beaten down and giving up comparatively is. Goldie is also a well realized character; much easier to like than Mari, but you could see why Mari would be frustrated with her; keeping a positive attitude in the face of difficult circumstances, and actually willing to fight for change, someone stuck in a rut like Mari is might easily take it as an attempt to outdo her. 

It's painful, and frustrating to see Mari constantly refuse to try and improve her life when opportunities start to present themselves, and I was impressed with how well she was written. Lastly, I really wanna compliment the sprites and the sheer amount of expressions they have. Both Mari and Goldie are so expressive because of that, and it really helps get you engaged with the dialogue! 

All in all, great work! I won't be forgetting the endings to this one any time soon.

Wow. What a story this was. I'm not sure I enjoyed my experience, honestly. It felt too real, too uncomfortable, too self-cringe-inducing, too depressingly relatable. While I can't say I had fun reading this, I can confidently say I felt this story on a deeply personal level. 

it must take an incredibly skilled writer to get a reader to self-reflect to this extent. I couldn't help wondering as I was reading whether I, like Mari, have ever been stuck in the same sort of negative, nihilistic, and ultimately self-destructive patterns of thought and behavior. I'm pretty sure that, at certain points in my life, I would be dwelling on ideas and engaging in harmful habits like hers. 

At the same time, I also felt good about myself when reading some parts of the story. Mari doesn't have a very effective filter, for better or for worse, so her bitterness slipped out in front of others so many times. I would then tell myself: well, at least I'm not that terrible to those around me! One example was when Mari thinks about commenting on someone's social media. That might be one of my favorite scenes because it felt so authentic. It was interesting being stuck in what possibly is similar to the mindset of many internet trolls. I'm sure a lot of them are deeply unhappy individuals who want to lash out in the only platform where they can do so invisibly and without consequence so that they can feel better about themselves, however briefly. 

Goldie served as a flawless foil to Mari's character. Amidst Mari's spiral deeper and deeper into pessimism and hopelessness, Goldie acted as the perfect counterpoint for the reader's benefit -- she showed that a better path does exist, if only one dared to reach out and grab it. While nothing in life is easy, one will never get anywhere if they gave up and stopped trying to change for the better. 

Overall, this is a story I won't soon forget! I am very grateful to the team for developing and releasing this thought-provoking and emotionally resonant visual novel. You're all amazing!

I love everything in this game! The art, the presentation, the music, so good! Especially the story. It hits closer to me than I thought it would. I understand so much why Mari is like that. When presented with a mirror, but the reflection you see is only the better version of you, you can't help to feel jealous, bitter, and miserable, even though it's just a reflection of yourself. But breaking things we always know and making unknown risk is hard, facing failure is hard ... even with many people stretch their hands and try to help, it feels like they would never know the struggle we feel .... It feels like being chained inside a box we can't escape from ... but whether we are forced to be chained inside the box or we're the one who chained ourselves inside the box, it never felt like either.

And then the struggle between keep moving forward or just give up in the endings really wrap it up beautifully, I got to play all the three endings. It's sad Mari couldn't stop being stubborn and accept the help, but I'm still satisfied it ended just like that.

I had the opportunity to beta read for this, and it was such a pleasure seeing the project come to life with the visuals, animations, music, and sound effects! The art is lovely, bold, and expressive, and the programmer did such a fantastic job with making everything incredibly dynamic with animations and transitions. The story is tragic, but it's also very relatable, and the endings were very satisfying. Really fantastic work by the team!

I'm part of the dev team for this game as the character artist, but I was honestly too busy doing my part to keep up with the writing & game build updates. So, I only got to see the writing and coding for the first time via playing the finished product! I am truly shocked by the final result!!! Everything was executed sooooo well, better than I imagined! I'm so impressed with what the programmers did with my static illustrations, they made it super dynamic!! And Jacqueline's writing is so quality; as a hobbyist writer I really admire the work she did! <3 It was wonderful working with this team, and such a joy to work on this project! <3

I really liked the story, felt like a very relatable thing, yet constantly making you wonder "who" was right, and "who" was being truthfull. Wether it was a scheme, or an actual helping hand in some way?

HAD to check all the endings, and I was hoping for the one option that was left out (to avoid spoilers) But I tottaly get the reasons behind said choice!

Also loved the art style, and the expressions and movements of the camera.