The Bygones

Such a bittersweet story. I especially loved how real everything was, no simple black and white situations. The addiction(s), social pressures, relationships, finances. So much nuance and complications with no easy answers. The time jumps were implemented very well, making the short story feel much longer. Also, who doesn't love musical cut scenes? Art was phenomenal as well. Not too sure what to think of the memory device bit, but I'm relieved that it ended on a positive note. Great job!

Interesting story. The characters are really good and distinct. I’m not sure about all the jumping forward that happens. It makes me feel like important bits are jumped over each time. The ending contextualizes this, but that has its own problems: mostly that this last part is quite short and feels very tacked on. The entire story feels a bit messy and disconnected. The scenes themselves are cool though. And the writing is good.

The backgrounds have a distinctive style that’s quite great. The CGs are really nice as well. While the sprites are nice, the lack of expressions leaves a hole in the visual presentation. The glitchy effects near the end are really nice.

Impressively, this VN has several (apparently original) full lyrical songs. That’s cool. There are a few scenes where the audio went missing and it felt a bit weird, though.

Overall, a lot of impressive work, but I think there are a few critical flaws that holds this back. (Also, I’m personnally not much into music bands and all that stuff, so…^^)

was an audience member for a readthrough of this (FVN server) and was totally blown away. just a month? this GOES PLACES. it's a bit chaotic and i love it for that, going for big swings is important to me. love all of the work that has been poured into this. i kinda hate that something like this can be over so quickly. of course i could spend more time with it, but that's not what i mean, i just wish it was possible to be in the mind of creators during the making of something, sometimes. this is one of those times

Oh! huh wasn't expecting that ending with the memory recall stuff. I suppose that's one way to summarize the timeskip

You gotta rock and roll to break some people's mind.
(Joke comment)

A friend who worked on this project recommended I play it and see what I thought.

And I won't lie, it was great!

Sure, it felt a bit rushed in certain areas, and there are some plot holes that aren't explained well as the story progresses, but the smooth flow, thanks to the time jumps, didn't make me notice it too much.

And that final message...was beautiful.

The music was excellent, and the environments were fantastic, perfectly matching the game's theme. Although the songs with lyrics can glitch in some parts if you roll back or when you try to hide the interface to view the BGs, but besides of that it's a great project especially considering it was only completed in a month.

Good game! I appreciated the atmosphere and character moments. The art slaps, like holy heck. The musical elements did a great job of immersing me into the world of this game. The writing could use some polish (there were a few sentences that admittedly didn't make much sense to me, and I'm afraid I'm one of *those* people). But overall, good jam game. Nice work, Fantom Fandisk.