This game was a trip, in a good way. The changing volume in the music, the change in music, all of the sound design really was perfect and really did an excellent job of setting the tone and making the player feel exactly what they should be feeling based off of their actions.
The story of Charon is vague, but based on the hints in his dialogue, his name, and a quick google search, it is not hard to figure out that he is symbolizing a guide for lost souls stuck in limbo. I really liked his character.
In my opinion, the first story with the maze was the least impactful and least memorable. I will admit that it was the first level and I did not go back and talk to the husband after helping the wife move on, so I did miss some story, but a man just disliking his wife to the point of tormenting her just didn't leave as much an impression on me. His motivation for doing it felt weak and he seemed like pure evil, so it was very easy to make the choice to go against him. Now do not get me wrong, the story of the husband and wife was still good, just not as good in my humble opinion.
The story of the boy and his mother is what really sold me to the game as I played. Hell, I made this itch.io account solely to rate this game and talk about it and the soldier level. I got the first riddle right first try and the second riddle right on the second try. The buildup to the reveal about the mother is excellent by the way, I got the first riddle of the second room wrong so I have no idea what the answer was, but the two riddles I did get right had "mother" as the answer and wow did that set the tone perfectly. It was beautiful foreshadowing and I sincerely applaud you all for that, devs. The shift in music in the third and fourth rooms was incredible and the fact that the boys style of speech (writing style I guess) shifted from energetic and almost naive with more upbeat music to more of a desperate plea to leave him be with no music at all (I think, not the best memory so I may be wrong about some stuff) left me feeling very concerned and empathetic for the boy. Seeing how loneliness destroyed the child and hearing his story left me thinking "Damn, he didn't deserve this...". In regards to the boy's story, I interpreted it as follows (may be wrong about stuff so take it with salt): the boy's father is rarely home, leaving the father-son relationship very poor and causing the boy to develop a very close bond with his mother. The mother eventually grows sick of the loneliness with the father never around, so she cheats on him and is eventually caught. The father kills both the mother and the man the mother was cheating with. The father then decides the boy is next and drowns him. I may be wrong, but if I got even some of that right then that is a powerful story to be told by a character that is supposed to be a child. His story was excellent and I honestly have no criticisms of how his story concluded (for me anyway, I think there may be multiple endings).
The third painting was why I clicked on the game to begin with. I saw this game was tagged horror, so I clicked on it and 20 minutes later I was finally at the scary part. The locker mechanic was very interesting and the fact that the lockers no longer worked after I "killed" the soldier was a neat touch. Anyway, the slow movement in the dark was somewhat annoying, but it made sense in order to build suspense and let the creepiness and the destruction of the place really seep into you. I have no idea what the building was supposed to be, my two theories are a hospital and a pizzeria. The scream when the power was turned on was pretty good and it left me wondering if I should exit at all. Unfortunately, once I did exit the "creature" or whatever it was was right there and it killed me after a second after, fast enough I had no chance of making it to the locker to flee. Scared the hell out of me though and I got a good chuckle out of it. Now that I was officially scared I pent the next few minutes getting the keys and periodically exiting to save after getting 2 keys as I was scared if losing progress. I eventually made it through the door and met the soldier. His story was incredibly compelling as it truly seemed like he felt guilty for what he did. As the player you have no idea if the war was justified, where it was, what nation he was fighting for or against. Personally, my mind immediately went to him being an American soldier in the middle east so that I would have a better way to imagine what he was saying. Hearing him want to die and finally move on after everything he did really left me thinking. "Did this man, most certainly a war criminal, who took his own life when he finally realized how evil his actions and those of his "friends truly were, really deserve such a merciful ending?" I decided that he deserved to finally move on, and disabled his life support. I noticed in those winding hallways between the soldier's room and the hospital/pizzeria had a somber BGM going in and a much happier soundtrack afterwards, making me feel like I had truly done the right thing putting him to rest. When the creature showed up again it said something about how the other half of him had died before it disappeared itself. A personified form of the "part of me reveled in their pain" part of him. Makes me wonder what would have happened had I spared him... Overall, it was an excellent story and definitely made an impression on me.
The final paining, when I first saw the player character in the game I got very excited. "Who am I? Why am I helping these people instead of being in a painting myself? How did I die? Was Charon right when he said I was a detective or a puzzle solver? Or was that the devs' way of breaking the fourth wall to make fun of the player?" and so on, but the game ends once you interact with it. maybe I am missing something, but the game was so captivating and then it just ends like that. Kind of anticlimactic in my opinion.
Anyways, thats all I had to say. Great game and it was certainly a hell of a journey. The end kind of disappointed me, but the stories throughout the game were phenomenal and will stick with me for a while. Hopefully everything I said is readable and makes sense as I am writing this only half awake. Great game, peace.