I was not sure if I would like this. I heard it described as "meta" in the vein of Stanley Parable, and the store page description almost makes it sound like a "joke" game. Neither of those are my bag. But having finished it, I would say neither of those impressions are true. It turned out to be an absolute 5-star game/VN for me. The visuals and music are both intentionally minimalist but extremely effective. The voice acting is very competent, but the recording quality isn't quite good. It's not quite bad either, but it doesn't sound like professional equipment or a studio environment. It is an indie game, to be fair. The story is what sets it apart. The cast of characters is small but they are developed and used quite well. How it was told - structurally - was very interesting. It can be easily played in small bites, but for The Best Experience I would suggest setting aside a few hours and letting yourself get fully immersed. The ending (the one I got, anyway) was surprisingly emotional, and I really treasure it. Last note is just about the writing... it's really good. Far better than is typical for games, frankly. They played the mystery and profundity just right, without ever becoming pretentious or verbose. Full marks, no notes.
It has the worst load times I've ever seen. When entering a new area or reloading after death, it can take 2 minutes or more. The combat ranges from tedious to unbelievably frustrating, and is at no point fun. Generally, enemies are only ever difficult because they are absurd damage sponges, not because they are cunning or clever. For some reason, most human enemies are more resilient than you, despite being a vampire, which means your supernatural condition only serves to drive the game's drama. And the game's drama is actually rather good, so it's unfortunate it's so badly hampered by the mechanics. NPCs are plentiful and well-realized, it's genuinely interesting talking to them and untangling their backstories. I appreciate the consequences of your choices (even though I sometimes felt I didn't have enough information to make an informed choice) and the temptation to gain EXP by devouring citizens. Honestly I would have preferred if they cut the combat completely, and focused solely on quests and characters. To preserve the usefulness of drinking blood, they could have instead used a system of skills and skill checks. Unfortunately with the combat being a chore, and the price of failure so high (because of the insane load times), my will to push forward is challenged. Forget about replaying to experiment with the choices.
