(Disclaimer, I bought this game on a whim a few hours ago and I have only done Liam's route so far but I couldn't wait any longer to gush!!! And it is just pure gushing. Like I'm not even sure if this makes sense lol.) Also I just spilled a bunch of personal information to illustrate my feelings about certain themes and characters so sorry if it is A LOT.
ALSO MAJOR SPOILERS PROCEED WITH CAUTION
I LOVED THIS. The story was good and handled some heavy themes, but in a respectful, mature way. The art was pretty, the characters were amazing and showed incredible growth. Liam was adorable, though I was lowkey expecting him to be a werewolf. Ella (the name I gave the zombie) was tsundere and more reserved, a good contrast to Liam and Sam, but I found her likable from the start unlike a lot of more tsun's who veer WAY into the "total jerk" field. She actually reminded me a ton of one of my close real life friends, just in her mannerisms and personality, but also how she clearly cared for Sam and spoke her mind and was super strong. Also I know I already said this, but I can't believe how good the character development was across the board. I liked the mixture of fantasy and modern life and appreciate the depiction of customer service life (I work in a customer call service center and can confirm some people are just so fucking stupid. JUST SO STUPID.)
I thought the character backgrounds with the parents and also how it dealt realistically with the struggle of doing what you love vs what people expect vs what will allow you to have a stable and comfortable life. I liked that Liam picked [redacted] back up and tried to once again, but I also liked that Sam decided to start with accounting and do baking on the side as opposed to going full hog (as most stories end with the character chasing or achieving all their dreams but sometimes it's just not realistic, so it was realistic while also being satisfying and open ended.)
I identified a ton with the characters struggles as well. Like Sam I've spend a large portion of my life basing my value on if I am of use to others and being terrified that people will leave if I ask too much of them. It's something I still struggle with and I loved to see it addressed so beautifully and sensitively to acknowledge how people can end up in that mindset while ALSO encouraging growth. In addition, while I'm fully white and can't identify with some of the specific character cultural struggles, I can identify with having a family life that was not ideal. I do wish that we got to see Sam tell her parents to go to hell, but at the same time I get that that was kind of open ended. My family life was quite fractured, most of the people who caused that abuse are gone now, but some of my relationships are still quite fraught, such as with my father, who has a habit of rejecting anything he doesn't understand and also just being real garbage sometimes, but still genuinely trying to do what's best for me. I still love him and am in contact with him, so while it would have been satisfying to see Sam cut them off, at the same time it feels realistic, things are rarely that clean, even when it hurts. GOOD FOR LIAM FOR STRIKING OUT THOUGH.
Also maybe I'm just not looking in the right spot, but when it comes to visual novels/video games I don't think I've ever played a trans protagonist? Other quuer (lgb) shows up sometimes, but I rarely see trans characters and stories delved into I loved it. I'm not "fully" trans, but I am nonbinary, so I related to a lot of aspects. I am also bi, and have faced many of the things Liam described. It made me tear up. I know some people don't want bigotry to be brought up in stories because sometimes you just don't want to read/play about things you already know that are painful, but at the same time there was something almost so healing about seeing issues important to me not just brushed aside, but acknowledged where it fit and handled with gentleness and maturity, without brushing away the ugliness, but at the same time showing that to some people those factors won't matter ever and that you deserve to loved not just in spite of, but because of those differences, and that there are people willing to do that out there!! I also appreciated that sex was optional without affecting the romance at all.
The artbook was SUPER cute by the way. Loved it.
ALSO ALSO all the references like "Backier" and "Dark Spirits" were HILARIOUS and I was proud of myself for understanding so many. Maybe that just means that I'm a nerd though.
Anyway, yeah over all I LOVE this game. It's 2am because I foolishly started playing at like 11 so I will have to finish Ella's route tomorrow. But yeah. Incredible. A favorite for sure, I'm going to follow you guys and if you ever do kickstarter or another VN or something I will be first in line to play.
This is getting long and I'm so tired and there's other aspects I want to touch on (the humor was great!! And I appreciate Sam being greeted with the start to a potential horror movie and yet after the initial shock just kinda being like "cool this is my life now, I guess" LOL though I wish I could have seen the meeting of Liam and Ella in game, I just feels like that has a high potential of comedy. Also it was just CUTE.) BUT YEAH 5/5 LOVE IT THANKS SO MUCH FOR CREATING THIS.
Have a good night! I hope this wasn't too weird and rambly, haha, but yeah, thank you so much for telling this story!!! You are a wonderful artist, storyteller, and writer.