maybe not the person to ask since this is very much in nostalgic conversation with older games that i am not familiar with! but i could not find a way into this for the most part. could have either reigned in the general tone so the big reveals arent so underwhelming, or increased the intensity of the big reveals. some potentially interesting threads about the toxic need to put Competitiveness in educational spaces (which ultimately serve those in power rather then being any kind of meritocracy), might be some Real Art School Baggage on display, but its all a bit light and airy to me. a few passes of thoughtfulness away from being interesting or a few passes of edginess away from being impactful. this all applies to when u actually Get to the revelations, the leadup is just a bunch of weirdly unimaginative art direction, puzzles ive seen too many times in other games, and weirdly precise demands on use of rpgmaker's grid movement for chase scenes. my lack of nostalgic fondness for either gives me just about nothing in the play experience. the emotional thread with the security guard goes off alright, but the borderline saccharine way things are resolved in the true ending makes me wonder: is this whole thing a bit too Toothless to capture the Famously Edgy rpgmaker horror scene its nostalgic for, or was all that stuff itself pretty toothless and this is par for the course? idk. weird experience for me, mostly unfruitful.