I am not well versed in the genre of visual novels, but saw this on itch.io with the LGBT tag & thought why not? I'm LGBT, I want to become more comfortable exploring media with LGBT topics, this did not seem too long. Hence I think this could be a nice starting point getting into visual novels considering its themes.

I really vibe with the story! Albeit nothing groundbreaking (very outcasts vs. the world) the 2 main characters play off each other well & it captured/held my interest easily throughout its 2-3 hours till end credits rolled. I will also give a huge compliment to the artstyle. It does seem rugged at first glance - almost coming off hand drawn in a sketch format, but I think it works in the games favor. I'm personally a believer that the most important traits of an artstyle is that it's 1) consistent & 2) distinct. Which are 2 rules "Lookout" manage to abide by throughout.

There’s 2 things worth mentioning though. I wish the game had used a bit more time of having more music tracks present. Because there are periods where nothing is playing (not even ambient noise) & it does come off uncanny. Secondly is a thing that might be standard for VN’s & I perhaps just am not used to it, but wish there was a tad more player input expected. It’s more an interactive story than a game - which I don’t oppose because I enjoyed the story that was there, but barely any dialogue options, branching or interactivity was required (outside of reading ofc) which does disappoint me a bit.

Still a fun experience. I liked the story, characters, artstyle & setting a lot + you can perhaps make an argument that 1 of my complaints could stem from inexperience with the genre more than anything. For something that can be found for free on itch.io I enjoyed my brief time with it.

useful information to consider: i am a gay guy and as a gay guy this is what my basic necessities are made of (gay sometimes furry vns or any other piece of media really) and therefore ive lately been on a . lookout (i would say this wasnt intentional but i cant deny ive been smiling through my teeth while thinking about this horrible pun ok just bear with me rn) for gay stuff furry stuff vn stuff so a friend recommended me this one and WOW I LOVE THE GAYS

its been some years now that ive become enthralled with the whole furry sphere of existence and lately this appeal grew stronger again after reading echo (i finished it but i have to meditate about what to say about it ok so in the meantime lets talk about the cute western whatever the fuck cowboys idk The Good, the Bad and the Ugly with gay and trans people spaghetti type beat (im italian and this sounds very wrong ok))

somehow the next evolution of a gay person sometimes ends up being the cringe furry uwu rawr xd mess that i am today and thats probably because the 99% of the community consists of gay (broader term) people and i currently have no idea if the authors of this game consider themselves furries but thats not important . i know what you are

so this game is basically brokeback mountain but without the female love interests due to internalized homophobia or the milking cows stuff idk i actually have never seen a movie of this genre and the whole western setting gives an edge to the story that kind of makes the ending more satisfying

now i tried to be as calm as possible but its time to say that this game is SO FUCKING CUTE MY GOD I LOVE EVERY SINGLE INTERACTION THE MAIN CHARACTERS HAVE UGHHHHHHHHH i love my babies i love them so much i rooted for them i watched them grow i watched them umh get umh touchy ...er in the purest way possible ?

ok well . furry games or media in general kinda have a stigma of being porn fueled and honestly ? not that far from the truth i also believe nsfw stuff carries the whole community sometimes (i have nothing to complain about i love porn) but this game OOF this game is written in a way so tender and gentle that every line seems appropriate for the slow infatuation of the 2 protagonists that wouldnt work out if everything was horny centered (again if i say that this doesnt need sex that means THIS DOESNT NEED SEX)

main guys are a great center for the whole narrative and even the side characters add shades of personality to the entire story and atmosphere and even though the game is relatively short (i have no fucking idea how much it took me to finish it maybe 2 - 3 hrs) they managed to make them richly written

the art style is what bewitched me to begin with its muted sepia colors and adorable character design is just ugh immaculate art direction that you dont usually see anywhere else and competently encapsulate the vibes of the story

story that i loved and made me cry at the end wow literally im the worst person to be consuming any type of media with because more than half of the times i will be a crying mess at the end of it

they specifically made this game for me they said here you go this is for you joseph being my boyfriend prototype and the protagonist being my self insert if i were traumatised in a western setting without an arm and pew pew guns trying to have a happy ending with the sexy bird from the neighboring bandit ranch

yeah idk in the end i liked it a lot ost is good writing is great and characters are amazing maybe i will bump it up to 4 stars someday even though i wanted it to be a bit longer

anyway i still need to emotionally recover and if you show me the scene where they go "the night may be cold but he was all the warmth youd need" you WILL be the next shoulder i cry onto so beware

also joseph beat the shit out of me at vingt et un that i later realised is actually blackjack (which i shouldve recognised because its actually ventuno in italian and thats pretty close to the french name ok thats beside the point though) and either way i dont know how the fuck to play it im not good with cards joseph i failed you

still screaming over the scene where they sleep together (as in SLEEP together you dirty ass get off my review) like... i love them so much i wish cowboys were real