More a Haunting than a History

in "more a haunting than a history," the pc returns to their tiny hometown after their aunt's death. what seems at first like a simple matter of dealing with her affairs while reconnecting with old friends, though, rapidly becomes more complicated, because it turns out that their high school years were straight out of a "teens vs monster of the week" cw show... only they don't remember any of it.

the game was definitely nostalgic for me as someone who watched a lot of that stuff at that age, and it's a little more realistic take on how hard it would be on a teenager to be constantly saving your town from evil, while not being totally miserable all the time or coming off line the writer thinks the genre is bad. like, there are some people who are like "it's bad when stories have kids saving the world because kids shouldn't have that responsibility," but this feels more aimed at adults who have moved on from that kind of story but remember it fondly.

the game is really well written and does a good job balancing the main plot and the dating sim aspects. tho i guess it helps that three of the dateable characters are deeply tied into the plot and the pc's history. imo all the relationships were compelling and believable, which isn't always easy to pull off. (poly and aroace options too! you love to see it!) i also thought the writing was good overall, and i loved the creepy dream sequences. (this is the second review in a row where i've mentioned creepy dream sequences... idk, i just really enjoy them for some reason! 😆)

there seems to be a lot of different endings depending on your choices, but not a lot of branching during the game itself. the endings are pretty substantial tho - several "pages"/screens each - which i appreciated!