Half Haunt Halloween

Saving and/or endings don't seem to be working quite right - I received a A/N that said that selecting "yes" would lock me into Milo's ending, so after that scene I made a save and chose to depression nap to the ending. That just gave me Ending 5, not Milo's ending, so I reloaded the save... and the flag for Milo's ending was no longer up - he acted like I hadn't spoken to him before. D: 

Great mix of spooky Halloween fun, humor combined with explorations of heavier themes around being an outsider, the stresses of living in a society that forces us to pursue money and how that stress can reverberate through our relationships, and having a personal existential crisis in the middle of all of that.

I especially appreciated Peter (and Nico's family in general, even as the father's gambling problem is a source of frustration), Milo (adorable!! very good snow leopard boy trying his best, melted when he started purring lol), and Nico themselves for the complicated emotions they dealt with through the story. The writing around how they lashed out at Peter or Milo when tired and stressed and then regretted doing so was visceral!

Aesthetically, love the Halloween color scheme and just overall really great Halloween vibes <3 love the music as well :D the art is really fun and cute, especially the character designs - I'm a particular fan of Peter's sparkly eyes, and Nico's mother's look! Environment-wise, the casino is fittingly the sparkliest and shiniest to look at, but my favorite was the backyard because it was where I got to talk to Milo, haha.

Loved the humor and how the jokes were deftly woven in with the tougher parts - often, tying together to poke at companies who pretend to care about environmentalism or draw a line under the absurd hopelessness of a person trying to navigate systems that aren't built for them to win.

I got ending #6 and was delighted by a visit from a very special guy, and that's all I'll say about that :p Play this game if you want a fun Halloween jaunt with some messages to chew on!

Yessssss, HERE IT IS. THE EVER-SO-SLIGHTLY MESSED-UP HALLOWEEN STORY. Enjoyed playing through all this for sure, whether it was being silly with Nico's whole family situation +Milo and ALL OF THE RANDOM EVENTS THROUGHOUT THE MONTH, sweet with Mainly Milo and A Bit Of Peter, or upsetting to varying degrees with every other facet of the story, it was just, a very well-rounded experience!! Plenty of cackles and "awww"s and "oh god"s!!

Notable points of Extreme Enjoyment include: Peter is such a dorky child I love him and his "nya"s and general child-like exuberance; very good to have him here, especially alongside MILO, who's also an Extreme Enjoyment Point. I mean. Obviously, right?? He's endearing as hell and you really just wanna see him smile after frowning and such. Also Mr. Bodyguard 1 is pretty cool too y'know. Just a guy. A guy who wants what he wants. Can't blame him for that. (All the other characters are enjoyable too but like..... y'know............. Samson really can't compete with Child Who Says "Nya" Randomly, y'know???? Even if he's a fucking dweeb and I KINDA love him but also DEFINITELY have a whole unfeeling attitude towards him for the most part, as you do sometimes with a character like that (which is to say, he's a very good character!! Even lovin' somebody like that's a lil hard to accomplish. Maybe. Possibly.))

SPOILERS BELOW THIS POINT I GUESS???? uh.....

Although I enjoyed all the endings I found, I didn't end up finding Ending 5. I was experimenting for like an hour to try and figure out what the heck the trigger for it was, but I couldn't figure it out!! A lil nudge in the direction of it would be appreciated, for sure, but y'know. Of the endings I did complete, I think... Ending 3 is probably my favorite...???? Endings 1 and 2 are rather standard lil things, and then 3 and 4 end up feeling kinda... empty?? feeling???? Like, not as in they have no substance and don't illicit a proper valuable response, but that the response is mostly "God things could be so much better couldn't they". Which, I mean hey, guess that's kinda the whole point of the story, isn't it, pff. So I'm a lil happy that Ending 3 goes the way it does, I suppose.

As for the themes, I mean........... I tragically have never experienced the soul-draining woe of higher education and subsequent lethargy and general displeasure with life in general, but I can certainly feel these fuckin' feelings and god is this story just so exhausting in a great way. Hate to see Nico have a bit of an existential crisis every time he interacts with people while we go "Yeah that's really how it is, isn't it", pff. But, at least Nico gets some positive outcomes, and the people they're surrounded by are delightful as hell, so... y'know. It's really powerful seeing a character who is explicitly Tired As Fuck being warmed by the folks around them and learning to feel a little more after being worn out by life's troubles and such, y'know? It's a really nice story at the end of the day. ALTHOUGH I GUESS I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENS IN ENDING 5 SO LIKE. Hm. I can only hope it wasn't something EXTREMELY SIGNIFICANT but considering its placement on the list, I'm really not sure. Is it more like 3/4, or is it more like 6.........

EITHER WAY YES. THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS!! IT CAME OUT EXCELLENTLY AAAAAAAAA. Hope everybody else enjoys the FUCK outta it!!!!! Everybody must enjoy Milo's beautiful way of speaking and Peter's also-beautiful way of saying "nya" here and there. We love characters who do that. Also as a random last note the integration of LORE in the narrative is very excellently done as well??? Like just staring at the mom's tail going like "Hmm, wait, wait a minute...... does that mean Nico and Peter have one, too??? Or is their Vampire-ness more powerful...." before subsequently getting that answered ~very smoothly~. I DUNNO I JUST LIKED THAT BIT A LOT. Made me go "Ohoho" because of how perfect the timing was, pff. ALSO THE GENDER STUFF WITH NICO. SEAMLESS. BUT YA. ONE LAST TIME. THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS!!!