I already played this one when I saw the post-mortem, but I did replay parts of it now to be able to write this feedback a bit more in detail since memories do fade a bit, especially when it comes to remembering details that weren’t the main things I noticed about each VN.
Introduction: I notice that there’s an introoduction before the main menu, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the way it shows a bunch of text at a pre-set speed which could be much faster or slower than a particular player’s reading speed. Read too slow and you’ll miss things, read too fast and… okay, I can speed it up by pressing enter over and over, but there isn’t a button to just skip to the main menu if I know I’ve already watched the whole introduction a previous time. I think such a button, and maybe a way to pause or rewatch the introduction (and I don’t mean closing and reopening the VN) would be a welcome addition.
Writing: I think the story and the way it’s written is good, but the issue with the introduction does mean I didn’t exactly get the best possible first impression from that.
Theme: Monsters? Vampires? I think you got that one. (Figuring out which entries from this jam fit the Halloween theme best is gonna be tough because I don’t really think I’ve come across any that didn’t use it well… I do think most of them did better at that than mine, but that doesn’t really help me compare them to each other.)
Audio: There’s sound effects, several pieces of music, and the different pieces of music do suit each other without sounding like they’re the just same piece on different instrument. I think the music is pretty good at reinforcing the mood of the story without distracting from the text.
Art: There seems to be some pretty good backgrounds and also some pretty good sprites (I can tell that some sprites were maybe made faster than others, but it’s not really an issue). And Lacrima’s eyes blink from time to time. The art seems pretty polished. Even the GUI art seems to have plenty of work put into it.
Fun: The puzzles are fun, solving them quickly maybe not that much, but you’ve made that part optional (even made the puzzles optional), and I imagine different people might like the different difficulty settings. And the story is interesting too.
My favourite part: the art keeping a consistent look, with everything looking like someone put effort into making it look good.
My least favourite part: The introduction being based on timed events rather than having people read it at their own pace, and the fact that it isn’t skippable but also can only be replayed by closing and reopening the VN.