Spoiler Note: Given this is a very story-heavy game, I will be dancing around a lot of spoilers, so if you're looking to play the game yourself, I'll try to avoid spoiling much but some things may creep in. That said, some things were spoiled for me over the three years between when it came out and when I played it, and I still wasn't disappointed when I got to those points in the story, in fact I was looking forward to seeing these things I'd heard about for myself. At worst, these will be plot nuggets to get you interested more than big spoilers in this review.

Also, not that this is likely to make much of a difference, but I played the Weird Autumn Edition. I don't know what all it added over the base game but from what I can tell it was more of a small expansion than anything else.



Furry that I am, a game populated entirely by talking animals tends to get my attention, especially when a lot of artists draw a lot of fanart of it that only got me more interested. It also gets my attention when, even from fanart, the fact that this is a very story- and character-driven game shines through, especially when the story and characters are so good, because there's no denying I love a good story in my video games. Somewhere around the time it came out, I watched a video of the first 20 minutes of gameplay. I don't think the video did the game a lot of justice; a lot of potential bits of dialogue were skipped, and the video ended just after the diner scene. To be fair, I get why they would skip a lot: When you've only got 20 minutes to show off a game like this, you want to show enough of the start of the overarching plot and the main characters to get someone to decide if this game looks like it's for them or not.

By the time I finished watching, there was one thing that popped into my mind...

"It's Deadly Premonition!"

After finishing the game, I really can't say I feel wrong to have had that reaction. It's got a protagonist who's rather on his/her own wavelength and has a lot of observations to make and stuff to talk about, is set in what used to be a thriving town (emphasis on "used to be"), is populated by characters that have their own little stories going on and things to do that generally don't impact the main story but always felt worth checking on, has collectibles (in the form of cards or journal doodles), has some pretty weird, twisted and "is this in their heads or is this happening?" stuff going on, involves...uh, thick coats...I could go on but you get the point. The main thing it doesn't have that DP does is combat, at least outside of the Demontower minigame, though it's not like DP's combat was all that deep, in fact I would probably say Demontower has better action despite being a minigame and/or sidequest.

Considering: 1) I'm a total furry, 2) I love a good story in a video game, and 3) I ranked Deadly Premonition my #8 favorite game that came out during the 2010s, you can see why I was interested in this game.

Before I go into actually talking about its good and bad points, one thing that is pretty clear from the start, whether you watch videos of it, read other reviews of it, or even just hear people talk about it is that this game is very much one long story with a number of branching side stories there if you want them. There's almost no actual gameplay: More sections of town unlock as the game goes on, but mainly, you're combing all the same steps you took each in-game day. These are great stories, but if you feel your enthusiasm drop off at this description, this game's probably not for you.

Having said that, let's talk about the good, and that's the main thing the game is about in the first place: The story and characters.

I'm not from the Rust Belt and don't think I've ever really even been there, but I've heard stories. I don't have issues with mental illness, at least in myself, but I've heard stories. My family isn't having financial or employment issues, but I've heard stories. Some stories come from people I know, others I've read, real or fictional but believable. I grew up in the suburbs and went to (and finished) college in the city, then stayed there. I've heard a lot of people talk about how relatable this game is, but on my end, I'm mostly an outsider looking in, so when I talk about whether or not I got into the story, I feel like that's something worth keeping in mind.

For a long time, it's like a never-ending well of quotable dialogue. Sometimes it's quotable because it's funny, other times because it's insightful, other times because it's good enough in context but somehow becomes better without context, and other times because it makes great reaction images to post to forums and chats and all that. There's a lot of people to talk to with their own little stories and side plots to follow. For starters, Pastor Kate and Bruce, Mae's mom and dad, and Selmers the poet. Mr. Chazokov and his stargazing gets my special stamp of approval, as it combines several of my favorite things: Astronomy, history/mythology (and sometimes which is which isn't even clear, which only adds to the fascination), and one of my favorite tunes in the game.

Even nameless characters who don't contribute anything to either the plot or achievements are worth checking on: The Smelters fans in front of the bar, the guy with the newspaper, the one-time passersby in town, among others. Are they generally meaningless in the big picture? Yep. But since I was already playing this game for the story if I was playing it at all, it was nice that they were there for more story, and it always felt worth it to look over the entire town to see what was new or who I could find to talk to.

The setting itself feels like a place that could exist in the real world, and when you're writing a story that takes place in our world (even if this one's full of animal people), that's how you want it to feel. Like I said, I'm a suburban Minnesotan turned urban Minnesotan and don’t think I've even been to the Rust Belt, but I feel like if I opened a book about small-town Pennsylvania (which I hear is more or less where this is supposed to be set, and at one point the Appalachian Mountains are mentioned so that checks out enough for me), I could find Possum Springs or enough things to make me say, "Hey, this is like that part in NitW where..." It's no wonder they call it "historic Possum Springs" because this town has a lot of history to it: People have a lot of stories to tell about themselves and the people who came before them, the newspaper clippings from the library segment were great reads that got me all the more immersed in the world, and there are even local myths and legends.

And this isn't even getting into the main plot. Learning more about Mae, her friends and their pasts was always great. I can definitely see why people like them so much. Heck, I liked them a lot before I even played the game. One thing I see people talk about is how relatable they are. I don't think I've ever really known someone like Mae or Gregg even if some parts of them remind me of people I know, and I see some of myself in Angus, but even though my life situation is pretty different from Bea's, I feel like I can relate to her the most. Either way, playing through the game had me meet characters who I feel like could exist in the real world or remind me of people I've known. I found them to be solid characters and I liked getting more looks into Mae's head from all the stuff she has to talk about, even if only to herself, and hanging out with her friends. Dialogue in parts of the main story change depending on who you hang out with and what you do up to that point. Of course, eventually you get into exploring the creepy stuff going on around Possum Springs, but I won't tiptoe into that spoiler territory...other than it gets pretty creepy without going overboard. For me, anyway.

What I'm saying is there isn't a single character I didn't want to talk to or a single place I didn't want to go as much as possible, and considering talking to people and taking in the scenery is most of what you do in this game, it nailed its main goal.

At times, I've gone so far as to say it has some of the best writing I've seen since Undertale, even if for different reasons. Yeah, really. Kind of like with Undertale, some stuff was spoiled, but I still felt pretty into the story when I got to those points, even if maybe from wanting to know about these things I heard about (potentially years ago).

If there's one game I've played on Steam that has almost made me wish Steam didn't have a dedicated screenshot button, it's this one because boy have I abused it to capture dialogue, scenery, and emotional moments. My first time through the game, I took 569 screenshots, and after a total of four times through and playing the bonus features, I took a total of 1,448 screenshots.

Another big high point: The music. Not only is it just plain great, there's quite a lot of it, with tunes for even short one-time events. I bought the soundtrack before I finished my first playthrough. Someone said that a lot of these songs fit their scenes so well that they give a feeling of nostalgia even for somewhere you haven't been before, either in-game or in real life, and I feel like that's a good way to put it.

I've generally thought of the graphics as simple yet stylish. Possum Springs sure looks the part of a historic small town that hasn't seen better times in a long while, and at the same time there's still some pretty scenery, especially in nature. Characters each have their own sense of style that I feel would suit them just as well and set them apart from each other just as much even if they were humans instead different species of animals. The graphics overall are good, and they sure stand out in the way of me never having seen this style before, but as far as presentation goes, it's the music that takes the spotlight.

There's plenty of other details here and there that I enjoyed, like the recurring symbol of the region's dominant religion without using a real-life religious symbol and talking about religion or lack thereof in ways that I feel like anyone anywhere on the religion/atheism scale can appreciate somehow. The options menu is...a psychiatrist's pamphlet about having options, which rings true when the mental health of Mae and some of the other main characters is, in different ways at different times, called into question. But my favorite little detail is how Mae's journal doodles are always fun to collect, and like the story itself, they're funny, sad, insightful, and spooky.

Now, that's a lot of positivity. Is there anything about the game I don't like? Other than spending almost a month and a half trying to get "pretty good" at Pumpkin Head Guy for the achievements? Yes, there is one thing that, even my first time through the game, kept nagging me, and that's that Mae gets away with...a lot.

I often feel self-conscious about the fact that I had a pretty nice upbringing, even though I'm grateful for it, so I have a hard time feeling critical of other people's lifestyles as long as they're not bringing undue harm to the people or places around them, especially if I feel like they weren't as lucky as I was. But the premise of the game, that Mae dropped out of college after only a year without explanation, and indeed refuses to give much of an explanation when asked by anyone including her parents and close friends, was kind of hard for me to swallow when they mostly shrug it off (with one distinct exception). This might be a generational thing, I know college has been a lot more criticized in my lifetime than it was in the past, and this is set in a place where actually yeah not a lot of people go to college, at least not anymore, but...that's all the more reason I would be critical of her for it, when she got a chance not everyone (especially where she lives) gets and failed it. That said, we find out that reason later and to be fair it's one of the game's most memorable conversations.

But even setting the college thing aside, it's not for nothing that Mae's once told she has troublemaker blood in her. Being a troublemaker's not being bad and I don't get a feeling of maliciousness from her; she just wants to do what makes her happy and "what makes her happy" has strong chaotic leanings, if I can borrow from D&D. She seems more inclined to be nice to people if they don't give her a reason to do otherwise, though it also seems like she'd be a dick if the right whim hit her. More often than not, what makes her happy makes other people happy too; other times it's just for herself, but either way, she steals stuff, breaks stuff that's not hers, makes an ass of herself in public, and has a tendency to piss off one particular friend of hers (and, in one special instance, her mom), only to have it mostly brushed aside and forgiven pretty quickly. There's even one point where her mom wonders if she dropped out of college because she was pregnant and is thrilled at the possibility despite it anything but a good time for that to happen (and also despite, you know, the hope that she was going to college to...finish college). It's not so much unbelievable as hard for me to believe, if that makes sense.

Even then, I get that she's pretty damn flawed. I like her a lot as a character. I just feel like if she and I were in the same world, even if "the softball incident" had never happened, her reputation would probably still make me reluctant to be alone with her. But, oh well, like I said before, just because I don't relate to her super well doesn't mean her story isn't good, and that's what Bea is for :3

Lastly, it's time to answer one question that was on my mind as I wrote this review: Would I like it as much, or have played it, if it weren't furry?

Would I like it as much? I feel like, yes, totally. Whether or not the world is furry, a great story is a great story. But would I have played it? That's where I'm less sure. No denying I heard of it in the first place from furry sites, and whether I went looking for fanart or not, it kept finding its way to me, which of course is what happens when you make a popular thing that stars talking animals or at least has even one such main character. It's a whole lot of free advertising over the course of a long time. At the least, it's less likely I'd have played it, but that's mostly because I just wouldn't have seen as much of it to get me interested, and if I didn't, I'd have been missing out.

If you've learned much about what it's like or watched any gameplay videos, you probably have a good idea of whether or not this is a game for you...and whichever side you're on, you're probably right. For years, I wanted to play it and check out the story behind all the art I'd seen and things I'd heard, and it never disappointed.

My final score: 8.5, maybe a 9, out of 10.

Tips
Tips? This game is one long story; if you need tips to get through it, you're doing it wrong. Though, there is one good tip I can give which is relevant to a game like this: The game usually doesn't actually save until you get to a loading screen. If you want to get all the dialogue, save and quit (hold Y during a conversation or bring up the pause screen).

Minor Tips
* Those little windmills can be made to work by jumping in front of them. But there's only one point in the game where it will make a difference, and you aren't guaranteed to see it, depending on your choices. Just some incentive to play more.
* Gregg rulz ok
* Angus is good, all right.
* But Bea is bae, okay?
* MaeBea shipper 4 lyfe