Firstly, i had a good time playing this game. For the price, it was pretty quick, but worth it for the fun little adventure, the cute artwork, and interesting animation and interaction styles.
My main critical feedback is about the storytelling itself. Overall, i thought i saw the direction it was going maybe 3 different times, and was pleased to see the little twists and turns that were made with regard to suspects.
ALERT: MAJOR SPOILERS NEXT
I had a hard time liking the main character. He’s kind of a BUTThead in general. Can see why his lady left him tbh. He’s pretty dang mean sounding all around, and doesn’t have much to redeem himself by, not even towards the end when for not much reason he warms up a tad to his apologizing roommate, then doesn’t have much empathy for his friend in the end while he’s crying his eyes out over his gf’s betrayal.
The story sort of wraps up too fast without any closer on what happens to the son when his single parent is arrested (i don’t like the idea of jumping to conclusions about the stranger father just taking over instantly). Also, the detective getting arrested was prob supposed to be funny, but threw me… there was no obvious reason for it (I’m left to guess it was due to him snooping into people’s things and getting called on it by the camp owner, or it had to do with his court orders / divorce?? Either way, REALLY GRIM and not a great wrap up, didn’t leave this game feeling good at all).
Also, got major creep vibes from the estranged father after the kid goes missing without his mother knowing, and finding a red-string stalker board of the kid’s activities… why couldn’t this have been a photo album and clippings like a caring parent would do, rather than a seemingly murder board…. I think the album would still have been sus at first for someone seemingly unrelated to the kid, but makes much more sense for a proud parent wanting to connect rather than a red string murder suspect board. Probably would have called the cops on this guy too for getting a kid he was seemingly stalking to go out on the lake alone with him…
Also, some things felt so unresolved or unlikely. Like why the noisiness of the broken toilet or the spending habits of Emelia were made to seem noteworthy? Also, the biggest problem i had was the ‘bruise’ mark clue on Katja which felt like a huge stretch for natural deduction to figure out that mystery. Why couldn’t we just ask her about it and maybe get a response that we later find out was untrustworthy?
And i kinda feel like the game was more heavy on filling in the missing words, and could have had more to do with getting info from interrogations, maybe a 2nd examination of people to notice any noteworthy changes to add as clues or hints… etc