Before I mention anything else, I want to just talk about how it took me 5.5 hours to finish a playthrough of this game, and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. I'm simply floored by how much narrative there is here! Truly ambitious scope, especially considering this is a Jam game.
The game beautifully illustrates the weird limbo that people in their 20s just out of college go through: the need to make money, chase your dreams, be away from parents and be grown up and independent. Friends don't come as easy as they used to for most people, and it's even harder if you were never that good at making friends in the first place. This is where we first find Anita, perhaps mourning an old life, and now trying to establish a new life and space that feels safe.
But we quickly find that things are perhaps more complicated for Anita than your average person. She's coming off of a bad relationship, her confidence is non-existent, she's in therapy--evidently for an anxiety disorder, and the real complication: she sometimes sees things that aren't there. Anita is such a great protagonist. I rooted for her, winced at her foibles, and wondered often whether her position as the narrator of this story was a reliable one. The other characters are also well realized and round out the narrative nicely--as a bonus, they are also well designed, helping the in game compositions to pop with life and color.
Speaking of character design: there are monsters in this game, and they wonderfully designed, and scary as hell. When things get going, these guys push the tension over the top.
If there's anything to complain about here, it might be that the writing needs an editing pass. There were some issues with tenses, and in some places the narration probably needs to be cut down a little--but this is all easy to forgive when you consider the breadth and scope of this game in the context of a game jam. I played through in 5.5 hours, and only got one ending. Just astounding! Definitely give So Below a shot!