My original experience with Twilight Town was underwhelming. Prefacing it, I mentioned that I really enjoyed short stories; I find that they are often written with extra efficiency and care for detail that you just can't get out of a larger narrative. That being said, at the time, Twilight Town wasn't a complete short-story, per say. It feels like an introduction, or demo, to a longer visual novel that got abruptly cut off. It held no discernable thematic meaning upon reflection and a variety of plot points, loose ends, and possibility spaces were left entirely unresolved. Not in the artistic sense either, where things are "left up to the reader to interpret"- it was jarringly abrupt for no good reason.
If this was the demo game for a kickstarter, I would have gladly backed it- don't get me wrong. The characters and setting are very enticing, in the sense that they make me curious to know more and watch more interactions. The art is also pretty, and the music neat. But on its own, the game served no value to me other than eating up a chunk of my day and leaving me with a rather sad feeling in the pit of my stomach.
That being said, something exceptional happened in the history of the development of the story that I haven't seen from any other visual novel, and in turn completely changed my perspective on the story. See, in my original review, I mentioned that there were some serious issues with the end of the story, but a cleaner execution and extra attention could have made the short experience worth its time. Following the release of Twilight Town, this attention was given, with a considerable degree of tweaking to the end of the story that introduces that artistic element to the end of the short story that was sorely missing. Being thrown a bone in this regard didn't just help with the strange empty feeling at the end of the story, but also helped me to appreciate the rest of it as well for the quite powerful experience it was. I ended up doing a heel-turn on this game and now would highly recommend the story for all its richness and elegant conciceness.
If this was the demo game for a kickstarter, I would have gladly backed it- don't get me wrong. The characters and setting are very enticing, in the sense that they make me curious to know more and watch more interactions. The art is also pretty, and the music neat. But on its own, the game served no value to me other than eating up a chunk of my day and leaving me with a rather sad feeling in the pit of my stomach.
That being said, something exceptional happened in the history of the development of the story that I haven't seen from any other visual novel, and in turn completely changed my perspective on the story. See, in my original review, I mentioned that there were some serious issues with the end of the story, but a cleaner execution and extra attention could have made the short experience worth its time. Following the release of Twilight Town, this attention was given, with a considerable degree of tweaking to the end of the story that introduces that artistic element to the end of the short story that was sorely missing. Being thrown a bone in this regard didn't just help with the strange empty feeling at the end of the story, but also helped me to appreciate the rest of it as well for the quite powerful experience it was. I ended up doing a heel-turn on this game and now would highly recommend the story for all its richness and elegant conciceness.