(constructive criticism, maybe somewhat harsh. Don't read if you're too sensitive, I understand. But there is praise, too)
What I think this game suffers alot from is undecidedness in the tone and what it wants to commit to. It tries to have a little bit of everything(comedy, romance, realistic characterisation, tension) and in practise doesn't quite hit the mark with any of them ending up a bit of a jumbled mess. The idea itself is applaudably creative and interesting with the potential to properly entice interest and mystery. But in execution, I feel a more focused approach would've done it more justice. It wants to tackled so, so many themes and evidently struggles to juggle them, among these being themes of loneliness, love vs obsession, thirst for knowledge, living in the wilderness, the occult/supernatural, etc etc. Some of these could've done with cutting away entirerly, and some being more elaborated on and actually intergrated with whichever one should've been the main plot point.
This discombobulation of direction is especially evident in the characters, particularly in the differencess in how Crowe acts across the routes. Sure, the very point of routes in games is to see different sides of characters and the story, but it doesnt feel like the core feel of Crowe as a character remains. My main grievance in this is in what information is revealed and the extent to Crowe's, erm, "psycho"-ness between the yandere ending and the other two. In the others, more sympathetic, but uncharacteristically by comparison cruel and "psycho" in the yandere route. Perhaps this would've made more sense if the loneliness aspect was expanded on more of as a theme, or perhaps not. The Yandere route, despite being the most realistic one for how the MC would act, robs the play unnecessarily of CORE information needed to understand the story and leaves the entire supernatural plotline feeling unresolved and like a contrived plot device to drive the plot forward/ "add spice".
Speaking of realism. Not only does the game abnormally punish the experience of a player playing sceptically, it also entirerly appears to make getting other ending so much more difficult. If you act suspicious, as one realistically would, in the first day or so, this makes getting anything other than the yandere route/ sweet route hard to get. There is also a great struggle in the realism of the MC. I can appreciate when an MC is written in a relatable way, but here it is done so too far, to the point it often takes away from moments which should maintain tension, another thing with which this game struggles. Comedy is fine, but it is done excessively here to the point where it is difficult to take the scenario seriously.
Narrative aside, art, voice work and music somewhat mirror the issue with matching one another and being contradictory much like the narrative. The art, imo, suffers the least from this. Quality wise, both aspects are STUNNING, however it is so clear that the background and object art is not only better in quality but also in a drastically different style that clashes a little with the way the characters are drawn. Music-wise, it's alright and not of much note; except with one track. The track used, about twice from what I can remember, in moments of anger/suspense. There is no easy way to put this, it is comically unmatched to the vibe of the scenarios it plays in and takes away from their weight. The worst offender of these is by far the voice acting. Don't get me wrong there is some GREAT delivery and it progressively gets better towards the end only to dip up and down at the very end. But alot of the time it can be dysproportionatelly emphasised and dramatic, sometimes reaching the point of bad english anime dubs.
As for finer critiques/praises I have noted:
*I liked the inventive choice of having a character so contrasted to the setting, ie a scientist in a cottage-core esque setting, and having this actually link to the supernatural part of the story somewhat for his thirst of knowledge. The seeds were planted for the character development in the sweet route of Crowe learning to learn things by experiencing them, but I feel there could've been more build-up than just that singular seed. Also noticed the nice little detail of Crowe's necklace being a black feather, I assume, well, a Crow's; matches both his connection to Crow's, his name and his interest in studying them. Overall a nice character design detail
*The, cringey and edgy sequences where MC leaves the room and we get a line or a few from Crowe could've been done away with. They were not only very edgy and cringe imo, the smaller more subtle hints in their interactions such as Crowe patronising and over-protectiveness of MC already did enough foreshadowing.
*The weird Chibi CG at that one point with the work in progress book felt off and weirdly placed considering it was just one of it's kind; this is related to my issues with this game struggling to decide just how comedic and #silly it wants to be
*Liked how through nearly all endings there was some repetition/call-backs to earlier phrases(partial migration, cross my heart and hope to die, etc); it was both cute and impactfull. The flirty ending lacked a little in this, though. Also liked the bird-ish word play in the sweet and yandere endings, including "a little birdie told me" or "two birds with one stone" very, very clever.
*Confessions. In the flirty ending, very predictable. But the use of silence in the music along with the voiced delivery of "I love you" was rather impactful, I have to admit. But the Yandere one was extremely undercooked, and though the VA did it some justice, it was poorly written
*2/3 endings(flirty yandere) seem VERY abrupt and don't elaborate on crucial parts. Already talked about the issue with the yandere one, for the flirty it was the time-skip. Like, really? We couldn't have had that conversation with Rory? I feel robbed. But I did quite like the sweet ending, and feel the final line of "you're not alone" could have had even MORE impact should the themes of loneliness been explored a little more.
*The plot, just very slightly, reminds me of Coraline. Crowe=other mother Rory=the black cat, MC=Coraline. Not a perfect comparison, but it just gave me that vibe. This is neither positive nor negative, just an observation I had
*I have to give credit where it's due, both the writing and voicing of Crowe's initial breakdown(where he pins MC to the wall) is done extremely well.
*one scene which I think did absolutely nail tension and a frighful atmosphere was beggining with the quote "Snowflake? Where are you~?". Despite being rather cliche for a yandere, it was hauntingly well voiced. The placement of it, right after lulling the player into a false sense of comfort with eating the granola, actually made my heart do a little clench in fear for a moment. The subsequent twist of Crowe being clever enough to lace the granola was not something I had seen coming either, and Crowe's monologue was so well voiced at this point. Great scene. Sadly cannot say the same for everything that happened after MC woke up.
*CGs are well utilised for intimate moments/moments that need a visual representation to help the imagination, and the art is absolutely stunning to boot.
All in all, a lot of potential, which was rather fumbled by jumbled misdirection. 3/5