genuinely had to take a day to process what happened, man that was heavy HAHA

in a good way ofc!

(SPOILERS)

i really, REALLY love the vibe here. everything made me feel so much like i was watching a noir movie about an elderly detective on the brink of retirement. the moody music, the interrogations, the chases... even the censor beeps (which were really funny btw) add to the vibes of watching an old investigations flick haha. this game absolutely NAILS feeling like a detective story, from the title screen to the very end. and that's also aided by the way the story progresses; it felt appropiately realistic when i got nothing from interrogating the apartment neighbors, or when i couldn't find the cultists in the graveyard and had to go home by bus, or in general when a day went by having found next to no new clues. it felt frustrating, but in a way that added to the tension and storytelling. obviously everything is unraveled by the end, but the path to get there is filled with confusing clues and dead ends that the characters have to try to get through. again, it's realistic, and probably how something like this would play out in real life. and then, the reveal of supernatural things possibly being at play is the cherry on top, and makes this game feel so unique compared to other detective stories. great job!

the visuals are really good too! default assets are used really effectively here; never once i doubted the places i walked through could exist in real life. and your character art is once again really nice, conveying personality and emotion with with drawings that feel both simple and stylized. the mist in the graveyard chase that makes it harder to know where you're going while you're trying to hurry? so cool. the ominous lighting during the dream sequence and the shadowy world in the bad ending? AMAZING. the loading screen being magnifying glasses? brilliant haha. so many little touches that add up and make the presentation really cool. and that's without mentioning the audio, which is also fantastic! the music that played through each scene was PERFECT for the atmosphere, love me some moody jazz lol. and i noticed you use a lot of creepy whispering in your games, right? it's really effective haha.

i gotta say, i think this might be my favorite game of yours writing-wise. for starters, the characters here are some of the best in this series; they're all so charismatic and memorable. westwood and rogers had a funny rivalry in their debut game, so it's awesome to see their friendship in a much deeper way. their bickering throughout was funny and felt natural, but it's still made very clear that they have a really deep-rooted relationship and would take a bullet for each other. overall their dynamic is great! and the other characters were great too; evaness walking a fine line respecting westwood and annoying the crap out of him was very amusing, and her villain persona is delightfully psychotic, even achieving the sweet tinge of making you feel a little bad for her; emily being a stickler for the rules contrasted by her hidden courage was really neat to see (that moment where she's shocked after killing evaness in the true ending was REALLY good); and even small characters like the mayor, his wife, the tree guard, the kid that runs from you, the apartment's neighbors or the absolute legend that is ben, have so much personality despite barely even speaking. it's a REALLY strong testament to the quality of your writing. one of my favorite aspects of character writing is just characters having little details or quirks. learning that westwood loves cats or that rogers is a plant nerd, even if those are really small things, endeared me to these characters even more :> and the actual plot is fantastic on all fronts. like in 'pieces', it was really intriguing trying to untangle this mystery clue by clue, step by step, feeling the same frustration as the main characters when nothing seemed to lead anywhere. as well as in that game, i think the plot can get a bit confusing with so many characters, names, and storylines crossing together, but i got the gist of everything by the end so it's fine. and even then, it's compensated by a LOT of standout moments: the creepy phone call in the middle of the night, the street lights breaking during that walk, the plants puzzle which is both challenging but not too complicated... and my favorite moment in the entire game, the dream sequence, which was just so so SO abstract and cool looking and excellently done!! legit made me feel like i was watching a hayao miyazaki film, walking among street lights, talking to sentient memories of people i knew... so so incredibly well done. i got both endings, and they were bittersweet in the best way possible. even if evaness gets stopped in both endings, it's clear they're not 100% happy and clean resolutions. at all. (that scene in the mental hospital is gonna stick with me... i wasn't kidding when i said i needed time to process the story HAHAHA abra you're amazing at breaking hearts and minds-)

there's honestly very little i want to complain about? the puzzle after the dream was pretty hard on my first try, had to repeat it to get it right (maybe i just have bad memory lol), i think having less items to keep track of would've been better. and there were some parts where the game explained an important event in text form instead of showing it, but i'm chalking that up to the jam's time limitations since the game is pretty long as it is. and yea that's all lol.

i was already curious about a westwood spinoff when you mentioned it some time ago, and this game honestly exceeded all my expectations. and i'll be thinking about the story for a while, no doubt haha.

amazing job!! <3

edit: I WROTE HIDEO MIYAZAKI GOD DAMN IT I'M A FAKE ANIMATION FAN AFEDEFVJFRFJOFIA

I genuinely love this game! 

1. The characters and the world feel really alive (I mean, goddamn, there is a huge tree in the city).

2. The jokes hit really well! I laughed so hard.

3. The characters are so likeable (Ben Weeds, God bless his soul! Roger and Westwood, I love this duo of sexagenarians).

4. The mystery is also quite interesting!

5. *beep*

love love it 
(Edit: Just noticed that this is a spinoff. Time to play all of them)

The censor beeps caught me off guard, and they were funny pretty much every time they were used. Some of the music choices were also quite nice.

The apartment building scene gave me slight Hotel Dusk/Last Window vibes, which is always a good thing.