Set Yourself on Fire (Demo)

i swear its like these two characters were plucked directly from my own head, the things they talk about i thought i'd only ever see conveyed well in full blown novels, at least until i played this demo. even ignoring the incredible music, visuals, and creative direction, the way you handle those themes aimlessness and wasted potential make this demo so damn good, thanks for working on this bro.

I played through this VN about a week ago, and even now I haven't quite been able to gather my thoughts on it. There's just so much to process and even after writing all of this down it doesn't feel like it was enough.

I still haven't gotten over just how... warm everything feels. Obviously the color palette plays a big part in this, but it's more than that. The music, the environments (shout out to the friendly spiders, my pals), the interactions between Michelle and Alex. Even when discussing relatively dark subjects it's done with a certain amount of... tenderness? It's hard to put into words, but it's clear that everything in this was made with a lot of care.

 I loved the aesthetics and presentation. The way the text is sometimes treated as a part of the background, the way scenes are framed, the music, the different colored text for each character, the animations, the background text in the signs/posters (the I AM MELTING one in the ice cream shop was particularly good), just the sheer level of details, all of it was lovely. I appreciated how much you were able to say without using text at times, which is something that would only really work with a unique presentation like this. The subtle animations really gave the environments much more life than they would have otherwise. The town that the story takes place in very much reminds me of parts of my own home town. The rot is cozy in the same weird sort of way that Silent Hill's otherworld is to me. 

Despite all of the dark themes and generally bleak tone, I was... pretty happy while playing this? I don't think that was the intention at all, but in a funny way I couldn't stop smiling almost the whole time. As someone who can relate to Alex in ways that I wish I didn't, it was kind of comforting knowing that there are other people who (unfortunately) feel and think similarly to the way I do sometimes. The ideas of being this outside observer to both yourself and a world that is inaccessible to you, a world that's maybe not worth being a part of in the first place, a world that might be better off without you. I actually started writing my own VN a few months ago - mainly as a way of expressing similar ideas that are otherwise difficult to talk about to anyone. Normally I might be a little disappointed that someone else has already written something with (vaguely?) similar themes/ideas/etc but I felt the exact opposite playing through this. It was honestly a bit cathartic being able to read something close to your own thoughts as written by someone else (especially when it is as incredibly well done as this!). 

I still haven't quite figured out the right words to really do this VN justice, and I'm not sure that I ever will, but I hope all of these will do for now. I'm glad that this was only a demo because it means Michelle and Alex's story isn't over yet, and that one day we will see them again. And that day is something I will be very much looking forward to.

p.s.: the only complaint that I have is that the line "She'll be venerated by equals and make friends with those worth the effort" is missing a period :^)

Loved the flow of the story, the pace was super b. The clashing tones and the details on the spaces made me wonder how the spiders were taking the rain. Looking forward to see more! 

I made an Itch.io account just to write this comment. It's weird giving this game such positive and uplifitng praise considering the bleak nature of the game, but "Set Yourself On Fire" was truly a compelling demo. The characters, the story, the beautiful visuals, it was amazing. This game truly does take me back to when I was an aimless teenager in the cosy Northern United States, waiting for something to sweep me away and give me purpose. I would stare into the dark clouds and meander by abandoned restaurants and count the days until I was dead. This game hits really, really close to home and puts me at ease. I always worry that I wasted my best years laying in the orange grasses, drunk, waiting for winter to blow over and take me with it. Yet, playing this demo, I feel comforted; This game made me feel normal. Anywhoos, I'd seriously consider giving this demo a download, and for the artist who crafted this: Thank you.

Oh my goodness, where do I even start? This game, if I could describe it in one sentence, is like going through a melancholic artbook. Each and every scene looks like it could be someone's desktop wallpaper. It's beautiful, and the texture is so well done that I didn't even realize it was 3D at first! I initially thought it was 2D art that was rigged to be animated. When I realized this was all 3D, a big smile came across my face because it was totally unexpected. The choice to have the text move along with the artistic style of the game rather than being in its own textbox is also wonderful. I especially enjoy how the text is distorted to match the angle of a window or wall, or changed to add to the also changed tone of a scene. 

Speaking of the tone, it really matches what the characters are talking about. There's only two characters in this demo, but they draw me in and keep me very engaged. This game is very good narrative wise because it feeds you information through the dialogue of the characters and their internal thoughts rather than just straight-up telling things to you bluntly. The descriptions, the metaphors and similes and imagery, are fantastic. They feel so guttural, depressing, yet beautiful at the same time. Despite this being a kinetic novel, the usage of the spacebar makes the player still feel like they're "playing" the game. For instance, the spacebar being tapped a certain amount of times to turn on the lights in a store. 

You also get attached to the characters pretty fast. Yes, they do talk about some rather existential and depressing stuff, but it's interesting to hear about their opposing viewpoints, and sometimes the things they agree on. The sudden cut from Michelle to Alex's perspective is very well-done, by the way. Jarring in the best way possible! It actually put me on edge and made me preeetttyyy unnerved. But I love it. The change in art style perfectly accompanies this. I know this isn't a horror game, but I was still waiting for a jumpscare to happen because of how creepy it was. 

Overall, I don't have any negative critiques I can think of at the moment! One of them was initially that some transitions might work better if they were smooth instead of just hard-cutting to the next scene. But the more I played, the more I realized that the hard-cut transitions actually fit in my opinion! The characters' perspective on their lives is as if their lives are labor, or like they really don't exist in their bodies. The sudden cuts make sense to me because it's like the passage of time really can't be comprehended in their minds. 

Awesome and alluring demo!!! I can't wait to see more.

Edit: I actually do have one criticism!! And that there not really the ability to save or load a game. At least when I played it? There was no lower menu that I could select from that I could see. I'm not sure if that's a me problem because I saw that the menu was available in the screenshots, but not when I played it.