This game is the (sphinx) cat's meow!
The art direction is absolutely stunning! The sprites, the backgrounds, the CGs all look super stylish. Even aspects like the little repeating circles pattern over the artwork are really cool (I'm no artist, so I have no idea what this is called lol).
The attention to detail and polish is awesome. I love the parallax background on the title screen and how the two sprites are overlaid, the custom cursor accentuates the clean simple futuristic-looking UI, and the use of ATL as well as the 3D stage + camera bring the world (and spaceship) to life.
Even the "smaller" aspects were done with care and precision, including the diary entries being "written" on lined paper, the multiple parallel dialogue boxes later in the story during the "fade to black" moments with Cassie on screen, and — as mado mentioned — that portion of the game when control is wrested away from the player during what I assume to be the "pact formation" with Cassie, which was a fun twist!
While I mostly enjoyed the added flourishes of the kinetic text effects, I found that particular darker red(?) text colour used for some of the kinetic text tags hard to read against the dark background of the textbox and choice buttons.
The image glitching effects and back-and-forth flashing/alternating images are quite cool and play well with the type of story being told, but as someone who can be a bit more sensitive to and bothered by effects like these, I wish there were settings to toggle each of these off, since at times I found it hard to look at and it interfered with my reading (mostly when The Grand's alternating forms were on screen).
The music is really well done (futuristic yet haunting), and combined with the sound effects and animations, really adds to the immersive atmosphere and ambience of the game.
Story-wise, I wasn't really sure what to expect going in, but I was pleasantly surprised. Quite the cosmic horror story (in more ways than one, heh), and I like the use of Cassie's history of delusions to paint her as an unreliable narrator, further blurring the lines between fiction and reality in an already mind-twisting scenario!
What's real? Who or what can I trust? I can't tell... which is great. >:3 Even Virgil might not be trustworthy, despite how he comes across. For all I know, the witch coven ritual Virgil is pushing for might herald the end of times, not just for the BUB, but all of humanity...
Shout out for creating a diverse cast of characters with a female protagonist. Virgil certainly steals the halibut show, but I found Cassie to be an intriguing and compelling MC, and Lucky, Katarine, and Eddie have more depth to them than first meets the eye.
And while I'm not too familiar with devils and demons lore nor classic literature, even I noticed and appreciate the references/allusions to Beelzebub and Faust in this story about a satanic eldritch being. ;)
I'm very intrigued to see how this tale ends!
P.S. Great job on the itch.io store page for the game! It looks great, and I love the integration of Faust Industries background lore (along with the disclaimer*** at the bottom).
P.P.S. How did you get this much done within one month with such a small team?! Super impressive!