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There is undoubtedly a lot of talent on display here, but I must admit the overall package left me pretty unsatisfied.

Starting with the presentation, the art is pleasant to look at and I actually quite like that a lot of the assets are currently unfinished. Considering the art gets sketchier and sketchier the more we get away from the mall, it creates a sense of the world unraveling as we move away from the protagonist's comfort zone.

However, while having a VN with lots of CGs and no sprites can definitely work, I believe the prose it currently is doesn't complement that choice very well. Narration is often scarce in VNs because we can see the characters emoting and doing stuff on the screen. Here, however, the characters are pretty static since they only appear in CGs, so I think the story should have been written a bit more like a traditional book. As it stands now, it almost feels like reading a chat log: a bit sterile.

The overall rhythm and pacing of the story are also slightly off, it doesn't feel like pauses and block breaks are always used at appropriate times. Take this one block of text as a random example: "I'm on my feet, I think. I don't remember. I need air. The air isn't working?" Breaking this into 2-3 different blocks would make the whole passage feel much more frantic and impactful.

The writing is otherwise serviceable, but it does have a tendency to be a bit abstract ("when the fist comes it's cataclysmic") and surprisingly detached, considering the subject matter ("I'm feeling a lot of shit that I've never felt before"). I can't say I've ever felt like I got inside the protagonist's head during my reading.

A final note on the presentation: while the music was nice when it was there, it was surprisingly sparse. Most surprisingly, the most tense scenes were often the ones without any music.

As far as the story goes, I must first of all give credit to Since November for tackling a challenging topic that feels pretty personal to the author. I like the story's premise in theory more than I liked the execution though. The story is very cerebral, with characters preaching their philosophies and opinions, rather than those emerging naturally from the narrative. The story doesn't really give the characters much to react to (except for the premise of the story itself), so for the most part this ends up feeling like the characters explaining their opinions to the player. Not very engaging.

Some of the thoughts being committed to the page are also very off topic and they don't feel really relevant to the theme of the story. A lot of opinions on movies are presented, for example, and I can't help but feel like this is not be the story they are super relevant to.

The biggest problem for me, though, is that this story deals with the one thing every human on Earth has to deal with (our own mortality) and ultimately it didn't feel like it had much to add to the reflection each one of us has undoubtedly done about the topic. The story has a bunch of characters reacting in different ways, but it does nothing more than state those different perspectives. Some people would do A, some others would do B, so what? I think any one of those routes could be developed into interesting stories: yes, give a me a romance doomed to last just a day, give me a character's emotional journey as he seeks and experiences assisted suicide, etc. But the story just states these premises and then it's immediately over.

I also found Val's route very confusing and perplexing. It reads to me like a parody of romance stories, what with the overdramatic character talking about "his wolf" and the over-the-top CGs, but I'm not sure if that was the intended tone... If it was, I question what this parody has to do with the rest of the story.

I realize I'm coming across as pretty harsh in my review, so it's worth noting that plenty of people had a much different response to the story than I did. I hope I at least managed to explain why the story didn't work for me, but that doesn't mean it won't work for you.

Sorry but the advertisement for New World Symphony was unbearable and sucked all the attention I could muster for this story. It made for a fun stream reading session though.

I must admit I was not in love with the writing style, it felt like a pretty uneven package. We go from sessions where the narration is entirely short sentences to sections where the narration is so dense and abstract that it makes me start to zone out. We can from very literary language to characters being described as "cute". I feel like this would benefit from an editorial pass.

The presentation was otherwise immaculate though. The backgrounds perfectly communicate a sense of loneliness and isolation and the simple understated sound design perfectly highlights the key moments and functions as a narrative tool as well. For example, every choice being accompanied by a sound bite serves to hint at the significance of "choosing" even before the story addresses that point.

Above all though, I loved the story, and it is one that will stay with me long after I finished reading it. **Slight spoilers** I guess, but I couldn't really help but frame the whole story as the struggle of homosexuality vs Abrahamic religions.

The end sequence was incredible.

I don't have much to say about this one, but I enjoyed! I thought the writing in particular was really solid, even if not a whole lot has happened yet I'm definitely curious for more.

I loved the edited BGs, I thought they perfectly fit the mood. The rest of the art was good, but there was a bit of a confusing contrast between the almost overly detailed sprites and the much more simple CGs.

While I enjoyed the piece, the overall tone was slightly confusing as well. The narration was very artsy and moody, but it was occasionally interrupted by some choices that felt straight out of a comedic anime. The two biggest culprit is the big fujoshi mission statement (accompanied by boss music) followed by the hilariously cartoony logo. I can't say I hated that part, but considering that in the current version that functionally is the current climax of the story, it being so disconnected from what happened before doesn't feel right. I guess it could work well when this is just a small part of a much bigger story.

I haven't gone through all NovemBear entries yet, but out of what I have read so far Face to Face has been the biggest surprise and possibly my favorite entry so far. Carried mainly by the quality of the writing (plus some excellent music choices), considering the very basic visuals. Even the premise of the story is not particularly novel, just masterfully told, and that makes even the VN's shortcomings shine. Even the most glaring issue of the VN, i.e. the mostly complete absence of backgrounds, ends up working for me: the story is set in a building dedicated to the performance arts, the rooms are just set pieces, the barely illuminated actors are what brings them to life.

I feel like I can't talk much more about this without spoiling the story, but I will say I appreciated how the title frames the thematic core of the story.

If you've skipped Face to Face because of the luckluster presentation, please give it a try.

Unfortunately I can't say much about the story because what is there is too brief to form an idea about what it will end up being about. The demo though shows much promise. The art is lovely and the dev already proved above than average mastery of Renpy with a few well-executed tricks, such as the blurry background at the beginning and the custom messages throughout.

Can't wait to see more!

I must premise this by saying this is very impressive as a jam entry made by a one-person team. The art is plentiful and lovely, the lighting and the use of color used for the backgrounds to highlight the most dramatic moments is especially striking.

Above all, I love the experimentation of having different section focused on visual and auditory experiences. It's a very interesting idea and I like how the story does a lot with that concept in general, of the characters being able to perceive different things. The highlight for me was the scene in the bar, where the inability to see or hear is used a lot to hide some information from one character or the other.

I don't think there's much more than could have been accomplished within the constraints of the game jam, but I would like to see the presentation pushed even further. One thing that I felt that was missing is that the "blind sections" ended up feeling a bit too silent for me, in terms of diegetic sounds. I know it's asking a lot, but having some voice-acting for those sections would really highlight the difference. As it is right now, the dialogue in particular ends up feeling very same-y regardless of whose perspective we are in. (This isn't helped by the magic technology introduced in the story. While I understand the need to have something to facilitate the two characters interacting, I think something a bit more grounded than what essentially amounts to telepathy would have fit the story better.)

The story explores a lot both narratively and with its presentation and was in general a joy to read. I must admit though I had a big issue with the story itself: I found its overreliance on melodrama and tragedy a bit tiring. There is too much going on, which hurts the pacing and doesn't allow us enough time to process each sad backstory element because we got to move on to the next one. The whole story seems to be build so that we can experience a sense of catharsis by the final scene, but that didn't really happen for me. In fact, by the final scene, instead of trying to sublimate what we have accumulated so far (which is a lot) the characters introduce even more sad backstory elements! For a short story such as this, I think we would have needed more streamlining.

One final element that I would have liked to see explored and developed a bit more is what exactly kicked off this relationship in the first place. On one hand, we have the deaf guy stumbling into a complete stranger on his way to his girlfriend's funeral and deciding to invite him to a gay date even though he has zero clue about his sexuality... Which is pretty wild already on its face, but again, funerals are usually held within a few days after someone dies, and the way the protagonist acts doesn't seem like the way someone would act when your significant other's corpse is barely even cold.

On the other hand, the blind guy is stripped of much of his agency in the romance because his personal circumstances (he has no friends, no jobs, no perspectives...), so the answer to why he's attracted to the otter seems to be he's receptive to someone finally paying attention to him. Not a problem per se, but the story seemingly equates this character's personal circumstances with him being blind. As someone who has dated a blind guy, I would have enjoyed the relationship being a bit more driven equally by both characters.

Having said all that, I reiterate this was a very enjoyable and interesting read, and a very impressive entry.

The art, first of all, is lovely and I think it's very appropriate for the story being told. The characters come across as inviting but vulnerable when they need to be.

I'm not familiar with RPGMaker so I can't really comment on how impressive it was to use that system for a VN. The implementation looked fine to me, even though the commands were not as intuitive as they are on Renpy. The visuals were interesting and not something I've seen before, featuring both traditional characters sprites and a mini-map of the room where the scene is taking place, with simplified models of the same characters. While the idea is interesting, I think it needs to be honed a bit more: I must admit I found myself most of the time ignoring the minimap because the sprites in the foreground just demanded more attention. In the few moments when the scene was not cluttered with sprites though, the minimap did manage to stand out, and the payoff at the end of the story was lovely. Maybe it would have worked better with side sprites? 

The music felt appropriate but I'm sorry to say it very quickly became unbearable repetitive.

I appreciated the story, but I must admit I did not find it as engaging as it could have been. I think the main issue is that, for the most part, instead of witnessing the story firsthand, we are mostly told by characters about key story moments that happened in the past. So while there is nothing wrong with the story itself, it is not presented in the most exciting manner.

Still, a very promising debut!

I've been spoiled by Erebus at this point. We can expect his projects to push the limits in terms of slick presentations, and Blackout: Zero doesn't disappoint. Unlike his previous works, this one doesn't wait to reveal his cards and wow from the very title screen. The visuals do a lot to sell the tone of the game.

My only complaint here is the car scene in the opening: while an impressive feat, I quickly found myself feeling motion sickness trying to read on a moving background. I can see Erebus is already aware of another minor issue (regarding the way the journal works) I had while playing, so I'm confident that will be fixed in the final version.

While the story isn't finished, what is there is very exciting, I was intrigued to be able to read a new chapter dealing with the same character from One More Light. The writing is sharp and the opening lines immediately pull you into the story.

The only issue I noticed was sometimes a tendency to repeat the same things in narration and in dialogue. As an example, you will have the narration stating "I've crossed paths with my share of would-be prophets, self-proclaimed saints shouting nonsense at street corners. But to hear one preaching in a bar? Odd doesn't even begin to describe it." and the very next line is another character saying "Never good when people start talking about gods n' religion in a pub, mate." (What makes this example especially striking is that not only the idea is repeated twice, but it comes from two different characters.)

While I want to see where the story leads to before forming a complete opinion, I liked the supernatural premise of the story and, more importantly, the way it is presented. We are not given a complete picture, and some of snippets of information we need to go dig from the character's journal: the mystery keeps us engaged. The character interactions are also very engaging, the protagonist's relationship with his colleague is definitely the glue holding this story together.

I must admit I personally found my attention wane a bit during the most mundane investigation sections. Because of the supernatural premise of the story and its short length, the investigation is mainly about being given new information rather than discovering it, so when the investigation isn't accompanied by a bit of character drama I found myself not as engaged. I think this is a result of having a lot of most interesting bits of the story for me frontloaded in the beginning of the VN. But this might be down to personal preference and didn't hinder my overall enjoyment of the VN thanks to the story's brisk pacing.

I can't wait for a new chapter of Mycroft's story, detective extraordinaire!

Beautifully written and presented story with a very interesting premise. I must admit the "setting", for lack of a better term, felt fresh to me. It might be me not being super familiar with the genre, but I can't think of many other stories that feature a world where the climate and ecological disaster has already turned everything to shit, and the apocalypse is still so far in the distance that the characters can afford to go on with their normal lives. It's an interesting tension, I must admit I had some trouble initially because the stakes felt too dire (everything is dead) and not dire enough (and yet food is not a concern) at the same time. And yet it's a tension that mirrors the real world to a T and makes for a nice parallel to the emotional stakes of the story. The contrast between nature being described as dead and yet visually depicted as hauntingly beautiful still is also nice contrast.

The personal story worked as well, and everyone did their part: the prose was evocative, the music set the mood, and the art was impressive. There are a couple of points where I feel the story could have been improved, but they are minor points in an otherwise impressively woven tapestry.

My main point of criticism is that, with how effective the story was at hinting at things and establishing a mood, I think it could have resisted the impulse to spell out certain things as explicitly as it did. For example, the descriptions of the environment are so effective that what was going on was immediately clear to me, and yet the characters still spend a good chunk of their dialogue delivering exposition about the state of the world. Another example is when a clear parallelism is established between Owen and Robin, by having them repeat the same things, and yet the narrative still feels like it needs to draw that point explicitly by having Owen literally transform into Robin.

I wish there was a bit more trust in the reader being able to piece things together. For a contrast, I think the story did an amazing job at stopping just short of explaining the "fishing stakes". Arthur says he needs something to take the bait in order to feel closure, and it's up to us to realize that that already happened, he's already fished something out of the lake. Perfect!

Another minor point of criticism, somewhat linked to the previous point, is that while the narration is patiently paced and very effective at showing, it felt like the dialogue was sometimes speedrunning things and going for big sweeping statements. The scene where Arthur "opens up" is probably the biggest offender: in just a few lines we go from wailing about how the character is feeling, to talking about the protagonist's Asperger syndrome, to trying to convey who Robin was as a person in very abstract and general terms (he was so smart, kind, etc.). In general, I think the dialogues would have benefited from the characters interacting a bit more with each other, instead of taking turns monologuing.

Final very small nitpick, while I love the scene of Arthur remembering Robin and their time spent in the cabin, I can't help but wonder if it was maybe placed a bit too early in the narrative. Instead of immediately laying down the story's cards, I think it would have been more interesting to build up to that flashback.

It bears reiterating, I think you guys did an amazing job, this would be a 5/5 from me. I focused mostly on what IMHO could be improved because other than that I don't have much to say other than "Stunning work".

In the FVN circles I often hear people wishing this or that species was more represented. I think you gain points for unique species representation here: while snakes are already pretty rare, having the MC be a real size bee is an amazing choice. 

The art and the custom UI are simple but very effective, I'm impressed by what you were able to put together. The bee, in particular, is very cute, I love the small details like the wings flapping at varying speeds depending on the emotion being displayed. I think it also helped to deliver that amazing "bug" pun.

As far as the writing goes, I appreciate the brisk pacing, which leans on the visual elements instead of ignoring them to do its own thing. The dialogue feels pretty natural and has a snappy quality to it, but I think the writing, and the narration in particular, could use to be more daring. I noticed an overreliance on adverbs and dry utilitarian language that doesn't help to convey how a situation is supposed to feel. I think the clearest example of this is the transformation sequence: we are told afterwards by the protagonist about how emotionally affecting it was for them to witness it, and yet nothing in the prose really conveyed that when it was happening.

On a more fundamental note, I feel like the story so far lacks clarity of purpose. I really liked the little news sequences interspersed throughout the story, but it felt like they appeared at random points instead of seamlessly being part of the narrative. The story so far seemed to be more worried about establishing the characters, considering we spend a few days with them going through their normal lives, and yet I must admit I came out of the story with a very unclear idea of who these characters are as people. I wish the episodes being shown and the characters' interactions were a bit more illuminating about both their personalities and their relationships (sometimes it feels like they barely know each other, sometimes it feels like they are supposed to be close friends).

Finally, I was a bit confused by how the characters insist on remarking that something incredibly wrong and suspicious is going on in the city, but what we have witnessed so far hasn't really sold that idea to me. It feels like this conspiratorial train of thoughts is kicked off by a random vendor... being slightly rude to them. And it's capped by a transformation sequence that, while tragic, is presented as something that just happens in this world and it's normal. And yet the characters speak as if what they have witnessed so far  is so worrying that it's worth considering uprooting their lives and move to another city? I was really struggling at grasping the stakes here.

All in all, a very promising debut, but one I think could benefit from a second pass now that time isn't an issue anymore.

Hey everyone!

The Bear 🐻 and the Whale 🐋 have been published!

The Bird 🐦 and the Fox 🦊 will follow shortly.

Yes, it is allowed👍

Hello!

1. As long as you respect the conditions to use the sprites, you are free to submit your entry to another game jam as well. (You might want to make sure that's ok with the other game jam's rules, considering work on these sprites began some time ago, but that's for the other organizers to assess.)

2. You are free to work and submit more than one game.

These are very cool, thanks a lot to the both of you! :-) 🐻

Hello! In the FVN discord server, you can drop a message either in #looking-for-work (it's not a jam specific channel but it's all purpose, you can use it for that) or in the Novembear discussion post (which you can find under vn-discussion).

That server has a lot of people interested in making FVNs. Alternatively you can also just leave your contacts in a community post here on itch.io

Best of luck!

(Edited the post above as I got the months mixed up!)

Hello!

Anything that has to do with planning, ideas, gathering a team is fine.

As far as things like sketches and drafts go, I would encourage you to work on the project during the month of November only, as I feel like that's the spirit of a game jam. As long as nothing you worked on before the beginning of the jam ends up in your submission though, it's ok.

Hey, sorry for the delay!

There are no such restrictions, anything that is compliant with itch.io ToS is fine. As a courtesy to your readers, I'd recommend to make sure they're aware of what they're getting into!

Hello, thank you for the question!

We haven't created a tag for the jam yet. We'd be recommending to use #novemBEARjam , we'll be sure to use it as well in our future announcements. :-)

The beginning of the story gripped me pretty solidly! I like the writing and I like how story managed to avoid overwhelming exposition by starting the story medias res and filling in the details as you go. I feel the beginning and the protagonist's first dive into the Lovecraftian horror stand out as the most effective bits of the whole VN.

I do have to say though that the rest of the VN, while good, was not as strong as it could have been. I feel like, while the initial set up is great, the story struggles to justify its large wordcount in the later parts. In particolar, the characters feel a bit repetitive and flat after a while: I feel like the story is very effective at establishing their personality, conflicts, and so on, from the very first scenes, but then the story keeps repeating those same interactions and traits throughout without really bringing any kind of novelty about them?

I feel like this is very clear in particular in the two scene where the POV switches. I feel like despite being in these characters' heads, we don't really learn anything new? It kind of makes it feel like the two characters entire personality revolves around the protagonist and the protagonist's reading of them is so accurate there is nothing to add.

In terms of presentation, again the Lovecraftian nightmarish scene stands out as especially well executed, and the music/sound design (when it's present) it's pretty on point. However, there are plenty of points where the presentation is a bit plain: aside from the obvious points (sprite positioning and lack of music), I must say that I really felt that the atmosphere was a bit lacking in the scenes taking place on Earth after the horrors have been unleashed (this is not helped by all the jokes and casual banter the characters continue to exchange, it was really hard for me to tell sometimes if I was supposed to feel like the characters were in danger or not).

Overall, a pretty solid entry and first attempt at a VN, I'm definitely looking forward to reading more.

A pretty fun ride overall, I must admit to having enjoyed it a lot more than the dev's entry last year. There were unfortunately a few issues with the coding that caused a lot of the sprites and other images not show up correctly, but I did enjoy the bits that worked correctly (the game uses the sprites very playfully).

I enjoyed the fantasy setting and the story was fun, but I do feel like it misses a good punchline. Having read it a few days ago, I must admit I remember pretty vividly a lot of scenes, but I would struggle to describe what the story is about or how it ended.

I don't feel it needs to be stated at this point that the game is plagued with several issues in pretty much all sectors. The story is structurally messy too, it sets up very little in the first half so the "twist" feels like it comes out of left field. (Even though, I appreciate it, finally something exciting happens!).

In terms of prose, I felt like the bar scene was pretty poorly written: there are a lot of repetitions and meandering before we get anywhere. I must say though, the writing bounces back somewhat starting from the sex scene onward.

What is there is salvageable, but unfortunately it was way too far from being ready for publication.

As far as presentation goes, I liked this one a lot! The sprites are lovely and I do like how they have different poses instead of relying entirely on facial expressions. The music feels like something I've probably heard in other VNs before, but it was used very appropriately (although, considering music plays a small role in the story, I would have liked some diegetic music). I think my only two points of criticism are the complete lack of transitions and the textbox.

The lack of transitions feels purposeful and I'd say it mostly works, being so consistent throughout the game. However, I think scene transitions in particular suffer a bit from it. As for the textbox, while I appreciate the custom design, I didn't like how it is constantly changing color. It was a bit too obtrusive, without really helping me to tell who was speaking because I always ended up forgetting who is associated with which color (as an aside, there are a lot of mistakes where the wrong nametag is used,  but that's just expected game jam roughness).

As far as the story goes, I did like it in concept and I appreciate the ambition, however I must say I came out feeling very differently about the two routes. While on paper Felix was the most classic and least interesting of the two (being pretty much a straightforward romance story "he meets him"), I think the execution was pretty effective.

Roy's route, on the other hand, while on paper it drew me more (yes, delicious drama, gimme), felt a bit more rough to read through. The characters go through such a roller coaster of emotions in such a short amount of time that it left me disoriented. During my playthrough, the protagonist inner narration was very inconsistent about describing Roy, in a way that did not feel intentional or natural. I am guessing this might be in part due to having part of the story shaped by the player's choices. And Roy, while not unbelievable as a person on paper, ended up feeling a bit cartoonish in such a fast paced story. Finally, some of the dialogues felt a bit dizzying to follow, with the constant change of topic.

Overall, I liked it, but I kind of wish I could see an implementation that allowed for a bit more breathing room!

While I did expect comedy going in, from hearing other people talking about it, I did not realize this was going to be an unashamed troll entry. And you know what, it was pretty hilarious, this is the kind of VN that I'd probably love reading on stream. I will say though that in several points the prose in particular is bad in a way that does not serve to sell any jokes.

I came away from this with one strong impression: this felt a lot like playing Small Talk: The VN. I don't feel like this is necessarily to be attributed to the game belonging to the Slice of Life genre. Usually in SoL the game at least focuses on the lives of the characters. The uniqueness of Beginning Anew with You is that all the talk is pretty weightless: there is a lot of talk about videogames, pets, music, etc.

It is pretty well written though! I kind of like the beginning of the story, where the small talk fills the function of depicting the MC approaching the wolf and breaking the ice with him. I just wish something a bit more substantive had followed these initial interactions.

The elements are all there though: the writing and the presentation were effective, I just wasn't a big fan of the story.

This felt like it was written just for me. I loved the comedy, I cringemaxed and I was happy for it! The story, if you can even call it that, was pretty thin, but taking it as a series of vignettes I loved the experience!

Even though the "story" is probably going to be main thing people will take home from this, I can definitely appreciate the technical skills too. Everything flowed very well, I loved the music, the backgrounds, and the expressiveness of the characters. (Taking full advantage of Sikyu's premade sprites, which is surprisingly challenging too do: so many layers to play with.)

I would honestly love to see these characters again in a proper story.

ESaF was pretty enjoyable: asy to read from start to finish and it did have its little comical moments (I appreciate the shoutout to the previous year's game jam).

The story didn't leave much of an impression though: I am definitely more of a fan of Night | Time Dreading | Fever by the same dev, it felt more adventurous! The story can summarized in a single sentence and there aren't really any "twists" to spice up the simple premise.

The presentation does suffer a bit too. The position of the sprites is pretty strange when superimposed on the backgrounds. Even more importantly, I don't feel like the size change that is the main plot point of the story really comes through visually: it would have probably required to experiment with the sprites a bit more, as it is, Nico at the end comes across as just being a bit closer to the reader.

Like I said, pretty enjoyable overall, but it does feel like the dev probably didn't have enough time to fully flesh out their vision.

I liked the writing a lot in this one, it managed to set the mood perfectly. The story lacked some better payoff, but I enjoyed the journey. I loved the music too, although like with every other asset in the game, it could use some better transitions.

Visually, the VN is kind of bare bone and I feel like it lacks a clear vision. While the backgrounds were decent on their own, the overall VN lacks direction: for example, in the first few minutes we move from very bright backgrounds (almost blindingly so) to a dark dimly lit room.

Got to be honest, this one is my favorite of the dev's three May Wolf entries, by a long shot!

SPOILERS to follow

While it shares some weaknesses with the other two entries (such as the lack of narration), I think this limitation works far better here, in this setting, than in the other two stories. At certain points the protagonist acts for all intents and purposes as the narrator, which feels appropriate in this particular story (which is all about this character's self-exploration), and the cassettes provide a nice excuse to be jumping around in the timeline. The premise of the story is also something I very much enjoy.

The one weakness of the story is that I don't really buy its main conflict: the story is trying to sell what the protagonist does as a "sacrifice" (give up his memories). But we don't get to see any happy memory after the love interest dies, so the sacrifice feels hollow at beast. Not to mention, it's a second chance at life when the protagonist already died. I think this plot point, which ends up taking a lot of space, doesn't feel very satisfactory. Everything else I enjoyed a lot though!

Of course, we're all here to improve! It's already plenty impressive you managed to write three stories in the one month.

I need to preface this by saying that I'm impressed at how, after discovering Kraaj for his Gothic horror story and generally gloomy stories, he still manages to write incredibily intertaining funny characters and skits. The comedy in A Rebound from MARS! is great and the MC's snarky personaly is a joy to behold. I think the one joke I'm not a fan of is the one where the MC acknowledges that nametags are a thing: while funny on its own, it didn't really mash with the rest of the humor of this particular story, which is meta but not fourth-wall breaking.

The presentation is top notch, even with the self-imposed visual limitations: the limited color palette gives the game its identity and the game uses silhouettes in interesting ways (OMG that scene with the paw massage, I love it! The length some people will go to get Grange brownie points!). The sound design is also great, not just the music but also the ambience.

If I have to offer some criticism is in the structure of the story. The story is a joy to read, however I do feel that one thing that was missing is focusing a bit earlier on the protagonist's motivation. I couldn't help but be reminded of E.T. and Wall-E while reading this story: the first preoccupation in both of those stories, before we get to the plot eventually leading to the climax, is establishing the seeds of a relationship between the protagonist and his alien friend. In Rebound, instead, the protagonist embarks on a journey right off the gate, and it's only towards the very last leg of said journey that we get to see the two mains establish a connection: everything at the beginning is mostly comedy, busywork, and establishing the characters' backstories (and powers).

SPOILERS to follow

For example, when we get to the bridge crossing, the whole time I couldn't help but think "Why are we risking our life again, instead of finding another way across? What is the urgency, what is the motivation from the MC's point of view?" I do get the answer to that question is probably just "The protagonist needs a project to distract himself from his failed relationship." I just think the story would have been stronger by moving some of the bonding scene from the end to the beginning, in order to make this journey really feel personal.

Also given, the nature of the story, my brain couldn't help but try to poke holes at it at times. The powers of the alien are left a bit mysterious in how they work: the alien will go in the span of the same scene from not knowing what farts or parents are to being able to recount the protagonist's entire life story with very appropriate Earthly terminology. But that's something I can look past!

My final nitpick is that the handling of the "bad guys" left me a bit confused. The reveal is well handled, but I can't help but think it clashes with previous information about the characters (almost like the dev decided half-way through these were going to be bad guys): the way the two bad guys are aware the two protagonists sneaked away during the night but don't seem to react to this information doesn't really seem consistent with the way they are protrayed the following morning. And during the resolution of the story, the protagonist is left in their company, without leaving any clue of what exactly is going to happen to him.

These are all nipicks though: like I said the story was very good!

Considering this part of a trio of May Wolf submissions, I can't help to compare Worth More Than Words to the other two entries by the same dev. I think I can safely say this was my least favorite (which, considering this was the first one they wrote, is a good sign, it shows their growth!).

First of all, I must say that while the VN has some good art, Josiah and Winston are somewhere in the uncanny valley for me? Mainly because of their big eyes staring directly at the reader. The sprites staring at the reader while talking at each other do not work in WMTW, while it sort of worked for me in The Awakened.

Timothy, on the other hand, looks cute, I think he incapsulates the idea of aged wolf pretty well!

SPOILERS to follow.

The core of the story, the part where Timothyr rambles about his youth, sort of works for me. You can tell this story comes from a real place, the music is nice, and the very long monologue sells the idea of an old person rambling. Despite that, it kinds get tiring and monotonous after a while. I really wish there had been some more interjections by the son and some more physicality in the scene. Both the title and the way the story is handled seem to point to the relationship between the dad and his sister being the emotional core of the story, but that never really materializes. I think it's significant that the father shares this experience, but the real emotional core of the story, the one we get to actually experience, is the relationship between the father and his son, in all its complexity. I wish it had been developed a bit more by making the son a more active presence.

Aside from this singular scene (that eats most of the VN's wordcount) everything else doesn't really work for me. The framing device with Josiah and Winston doesn't really do much (except telling us how the story with the dad ends, which could have been shown in a more interesting manner). The vignette with Timothy and his sister is shown at the beginning, where it has no context, and then has to be awkwardly repeated a second time with context in order for the emotional beat to land. And the random frontal pics after the end of the story really clash with its tone.

This was a very fun entry! As soon as I was greeted on the menu by giant wolf boobas to the tune of epic medieval music, I knew I was in for a ride!

The art is very cute. While it's easy to recognize as the same style as Alones, I generally liked this one more in the art department: not sure why, but I guess Wacky must be growing as an artist!

The comedy was hilarrious and the characters and story was very enjoyable. I did find the Expand bracelet a bit on the nose, especially with some of the interpretations given: while they'd make sense as interpretation for the jam theme, I'm not sure why anyone in story would think that the bracelet has anything to do with the expanding of the wolf population, for example. XD But the final interpretation ties with the Burning Woof nicely.

The story like I was saying is very enjoyable. The prose does suffer a bit from Wacky's trademark unusual sentence constructions and ESL-isms, but it doesn't hurt the experience. Structurally, while I thought the beginning and ending were very solid, I did find the beginning of the 9-day structure a bit more tedious. I guess this is my word of caution considering Wacky is considering expanding (eh) on it after the jam ends.

All in all, I had a lot of fun!

This one was a bit hard to get into for me. First of all, I like the presentation and the art is very cute. I also like the poetry sections pretty well!

I found the prose a bit hard to enjoy though. While I got a pretty basic idea of what the main conflict of the story is and what the story is about, What exactly was going on line by line was sometimes confusing (I am an ESL though, so take my words with a grain of salt).

As a random example, this is a line of dialogue from the game: "Most of the stuff that leaves Vekpoji freely is a public face but inside the country it's much more open to complex depictions of stuff." Upon second reading, I guess I understand what this line is trying to say, but the first time I read it I was like "Huh?" Much of the VN was like this like me, I was slightly confused as I was reading it, but then I was able to piece together an idea of what was going on.

Still commendable as a first VN!

SPOILER to follow

This was most certainly the most VN I ever played.

I was not sure how to feel about it once I finished it. If I should consider it a deeply personal work of art, telling its message in an unconventional way, some elaborate form of shitposting, or something in between. In the end, I decided to focus on how it made me feel: it wasn't pretty, it was very low effort, but it did speak to me human to human and it does effectively depict depression and apathy. So I decided I like it for what it is.

And just in case this is how the dev actually feels, I wish you all the best man! Lots of love.

Minor spoilers to follow

I think the concept is really interesting (destroy the Beastmen! attack them! feast upon their flesh!), but the execution is way too rough and rushed to really be enjoyable. Other than the interesting concept (which isn't really developed, because it's like the last two lines) nothing leaves much of an impression. The writing is rough and doesn't really gives itself time to establish an atmosphere, and the imagery is bizarre not always in a good way: the shift from demonic imagery to colorful background with humans in it is jarring and the sprites are very weirdly positioned.

I will say that one aspect I did enjoy was the audio design. The flute music, repeated in two different versions, were very effective and there is some nice sound effects to punctuate the nightmarish scenes.

This was such a fascinating entry. I can't help but talk about it by splitting it in two parts.

The first part of the narrative (everything leading up to the game) is just amazing. I simply love the art and the characters, the theme of poverty is depicted amazingly well. I even to commend the writing even more: this is an entry that doesn't really use flowery language, but it has no need to. The writing is to the point and manages to set the mood, develop the characterization, and advance the story in short straight-to-the-point sentences. I love it.

The story does begin to lose a bit when it comes to the game part though. Not because the game is absurdly complicated, but it is a bit much to follow along, I do think that more visual aides would help this a lot. Also I feel like the narrative focuses a bit *too much* on the game in the second half: while the game is obviously important, it would still be nice to focus a bit more on the characters and the real space they occupy at the same time, find again that atmosphere that was such a strong presence in the first half.

All in all, I can't wait to see how this VN concludes.

SPOILERS to follow.

Please forgive me one CinemaSins-style nitpick: I feel like believability was a little strained when the two characters were allowed to just go together to the bathroom to discuss freely their next strategy. Considering this is a high stake game run by the mob, it strains credibility that no measures were put in place to prevent this. I would have liked if the characters had found some more creative way to communicate between themselves *during* the game, and if the story had done a bit more with the situation of the characters knowing there was a mole among them. Instead, they reveal their newfound knowledge pretty much immediately, and not much comes out of it.

This was just beautiful. There is obviously a lot of beautifully evocative art in this project, but what really elevated it for me was the writing and the music.

I realize I tend not to comment enough on the music when I review VNs: unless the music makes itself really stand out (in a good or bad way), I tend not to think about it when I finish a game, even though it was definitely an important part of the experience. This was one of those rare cases where the music really stood out: there such a coherent style through the VN that I was never really sure when a music track had began or ended. It felt like one large music score.

And the writing was just beatiful, poetic when I needed to be, and it sold the drama and the melancholy perfectly. I am not one to cry because of FVNs, and more often than not FVNs designed to make you cry leave me unscathed. But for this one, I was fighting back tears at the end of the experience.

This was incredibly cute. Mainly thanks to Aubrie being so damn adorable, both thanks to the art (all those character poses) and because of their bouncing personality!

This another entry where a choice was made to employ no narration whatsoever, everything is communicated through dialogue and visuals alone. I think this works really well in the mall scene (which is the main and biggest chunk of the VN). I really loved the whole section.

I do think the beginning and end suffer a bit though. The beginning is pretty confusing and in general the pacing in the beginning and ending scenes feel too fast because there is nothing in between dialogue lines. But overall I quite enjoyed the story.