Ohhhhhh the vibes for this were absolutely fantastic! It felt like stepping into a dark fantasy storybook, from the style of the art to the writing and tone, to even the amazing GUI. I had a ton of fun playing through this (and dying many times LKDJALSKDF) and it makes me really intrigued as to the direction of the story and what will come next 👀💕
The BGs are absolutely beautiful?? I'm in love with the dark painterly style and how you use such wonderful contrast to create really immersive yet isolating scenes. The forest in particular was breathtaking, and I love how you did the effects when Perrin is running through and being chased, from the flashes of red, to the use of the slanted blur, etc. It made that whole section feel so intense and terrifying. My heart was beating so fast kjkadfa
Also the sprites and CGs!! What a beautiful style, and so fitting for this type of dark fairy tale?? Every character felt so detailed and alive (even if sometimes in a horrible way that made me want to punch them LMAO). And the CGs were gorgeous and so beautifully shaded!! The one of the mom in particular is going to haunt me GODDDD.
The cinematography/effects were wonderfully done and incredibly immersive. I already mentioned the forest chase scene -- it really filled me with such terror and dread, how you handled all the effects and just the whole urgency of the situation. But also throughout the entire game, I always felt this wonderful sense of immersion, from the way you shifted between day and night in scenes, to the use of music and sound effects, to the presentation of the characters and scenes. It was all so incredibly well done, which helped me become even more engrossed in the story.
And the story, too, of course!! I'm already so invested. I felt my heart clench multiple times because of Perrin's situation, both in regard to the throne and their brothers making instilling in me this guttural sense of injustice and anger, to their gender, which came as a surprise to me and I found myself instantly empathetic to them even more (SOB), and also to their sick mother. Also the mysterious horror of Nuitépine itself has me both intrigued yet terrified. You did such a great job of setting up the sheer ominosity radiating from this terrifying place, then culminating in actually experiencing it and its surreal horror for the first time.
Because I'm a bit of a dork, I forgot to save at all during my first playthrough and died during the chase scene LOL. So then when I played back through and tried playing around with some different choices and found entirely new scenes that I hadn't seen the first time!! Which was really neat. It expanded the story even further for me and makes it feel like there's even more depth and lore just sizzling beneath the surface lakfjda I enjoyed trying out all the various options (some leading to further death LOL) to see little things I might have missed. And for some reason I refused to check the walkthrough so I replayed that final chase part like 15 times until I finally got the right combo hahaha. Which then just made me feel even more accomplished when I finally got it (AND WITNESSED THAT MONSTROSITY????). Though then cue my disappointment when that was the end of the demo 🤣
SOB SOB AT ANY RATE. This was absolutely wonderful, and I'm excited already to see where it will head next and what more I can experience in the story. Especially as in the description apparently I haven't even met any of the LIs yet, so I just feel like there must be so so much more up ahead! Very exciting!! Congrats on a fantastic demo and looking forward to more!! 💕