ughhhhhhh this game OOZES charm (pun not intended we will get to that) from every fucking pore of its being

i started this game first and foremost because theres furry characters and i got no moral value whatsoever and still this ended up being so much better than i had expected

the whole game revolves around solving a mystery in the town of beacon pines surrounding a fertilizer corporation honestly this sounds dumb as fuck but its actually as interesting as it gets

now that would be pretty plain but they decided to articulate the story in some intricate ways . youre actually following a kids storybook and a narrator is guiding you through the discovery of this mystery and therefore also the struggles to get to the perfect ending that this town deserves (yknow how much i love the trying to get your perfect ending trope when i tell you higurashi is one of my fav media) and to do that youre using charms (heres the pun) which are single words that you can acquire talking to people or examining stuff or simply by continuing the story and in particular every branch has at least 1 new charm so that youll be able to open another branch of the story after a dead end and so on so forth (plays very similar to radiant historia if you know what im talking about with the back and forth through timelines)

the charm mechanics make for some great variety of choices that kinda emulate the different routes in a vn somehow but every single one of these choices branches into a completely separate "route" so the gameplay loop end up being choose a branch > acquire a new charm > reach a dead end > choose another branch and so on

the thing that single handedly lured me into this game was the art style its just SO competent and charming and comfy i love every single character design (i saw someone here say theyre too furry for their liking but as a furry im gonna say that theyre not furry enough) and every single town location is painted in an outstanding way its a world so cozy to be left in

and talking about the art im just gonna say the illustrations in the book for every branching point are possibly my favourite part of the entire game i would just be there staring at these amazing works of art for minutes just wow the artist(s) know what theyre doing honestly

umh ok this was long enough and i havent talked about the characters................. ok music the music here is great i loved every single piece its not very memorable id say but its composed so tightly and skillfully (me, a music ignorant) that you cant help but enjoy it also the different approaches going from cozy jazzy or something osts to dark and claustrophobic drones was stellar

so lets just talk about the main characters but again i do love everyone in town theyre all my babies im looking at you cute mayor

luka is cute i wanted him to convey a little more about the trauma that lurks behind his docile little eyes but this is a mystery novel not a psychological one so i guess i shouldve expected this kind of superficial treatment BUT i enjoyed him as a POV and also deers are great

beck would be possibly my fav character or the entire game but unfortunately rolo exists so she has to settle with #2 but aside from that shes my sweet small angel i love her so much shes a fucking force of the nature and the most witty and charismatic rebellious teen trope ive ever seen shes SO badass like shes canonically bi i know this because the creator told me (no its not because of her mothers) and of course she has blue hair and pronouns

rolo i love him so dearly hes so funny hes so stupid hes so cute he makes a great pair with luka in the beginning and even after beck is added to the trio hes still somewhat the one i ended up loving the most because hes SUCH A CUTIE UGHHHHHHHHHHHH MY GOD the end like i have no other praise for rolo hes my bf thats the most important factor for my character rating rn call me biased or a simp idc

in the end its a great game the mystery is gripping enough to get your full attention and the whole writing department is just off the chart now take that and add outstanding art direction and music production and you get a cute little cozy game to play during a nice fall evening or something

cant believe furries won again lately some of my fav videogames have been furry stuff what up furry world domination

i guess you can toggle off the VA (i didnt like it in the beginning but i grew accustomed to it after some time the voice actor is great i just didnt like the over emotional delivery BUT i can say that she makes for a good narrator props to them) but having someone else cry before me was very calming so that im not the only person crying like a fucking baby every time

footnote and mild spoiler ahead
rolo after The Thing TM is . wow if i hadnt been already in love with him before seeing him all grown up let me free to simp for him hes just so dumb and charming good lord rolo im free on saturday if you wanna hang out or something on saturday the day that im free

I should be your boyfriend because I am better than Luka. I am funnier, I am more loyal, I am smarter, and I will treat you better. I will be on your side no matter what and you will always be right no matter what the argument is because I will always listen to you and I will do anything for you. I am smarter and I will help with you anything you need help with. I will always put you first. And I will love you no matter what <3, even when we are old. I will never let you go and I will go out of my way to make you happy.

also why does no character in this game address the fact that the employees of the fertiliser company all look the same that would make me shit my pants and these peeps acting like theyre all twins or sumn

I'm tagging this now because I played the "Walking in the Sky"-Chapter and now consider this game done for me. The main game has a lot of ambition and is beautfully put together (with some minor hiccups along the way) but in the end it falters because it doesn't have the time to explore most of the concepts it touches upon.

The bonus chapter tho? It's the most artificial dialogue I've ever seen, with characters talking for literal paragraphs, but that's exactly what makes it work. Because you can tell these are the thoughts of the writer condensed into a love story, and quite entertaining. It feels so much more personal than the main game, because it's... honest. How it is made made clear to me that some love stories are just there to construct a way we all would like our relationships to go, there to assure us that everything is going to be okay. And I think that's actually quite beautiful.