The Wolf in the Wardrobe

At first I started reading the story and thought, 'Oh, this is a fantasy story just like Chronicles of Narnia, even complete with Christian undertones. I wonder where this will go'. Having just finished it, I can say that it is very much not like the work of C.S. Lewis, and that this stands as its own wonderfully inventive and literary work. The ambiguity as to whether the alternate world is real, imaginary, or some strange mixture of the two is well-executed. I also enjoyed that the exploration of religious tension included its consequences upon the lives of others and the narrator's reflections after deciding to pursue what could only have ever been a needlessly destructive course of action. The depth and subtlety of this jam submission stand out to me, and I look forward to reading more of the author's work.

I've been listening to Shoujo Rei by MikotoP recently (Youtube embs aren't working on itch.io), and the lyrics remind me of this VN. Definitely would recommend listening to it if you enjoyed the VN.

Spoilers
















So, let me get this strait... The MC travels to another world possibly all of it in his imagination.  Brings his religion to the people of this world, and sees nothing wrong when the people start murdering all those who will not convert.  Then upon having the slightest bit of intimate contact with his only friend goes into a fit of religion induced guilt and outs said friend to the people who were murdering others for being different.   How vile!  

Nova Friburgo, October 20th 2025

Mews,

Cries,

and back to his Dreams,

To visit another world.

Hopefully, 

Pandrine

I felt, at the end, in the scenes before he leaves for the last time, Ilmari could have thought a little more about his relationship to the world - as Kyllikki was saying, he made all the bad things happen just to end them again, but never entirely - and give Sampos father a scroll with a "spell", something like this writing: "If this scroll is torn, all of Ilmaris' fantasies will be unmade - reverting the world back to 10 years ago or whatever.", with the note to only do that after he left through the wardrobe, and that Ilmari doesn't know if it would work or if the father would really want to do such an extreme thing to the world, but the option might be there if he so chooses. Because Ilmari essentially doomed the world to ruin by leaving and not defeating the demons he made, he could at least gift himself and sampos father a little bit of hope before fucking off. 

He is responsible. And he knows that. He just figured that out in a hard way. But he basically says, "yeah, now it's your problem. k thx bye" and just floops out of there like he doesn't give a damn.

Very good writing, I also liked the parody's of the roleplay-influenced popcultur from the MC. The final of the plot was a real hard stone to gulp down. The question why the MC is so addicted to religion is not fully answered to me, but that can have their reasons in cultural differences. (By the way: I feeled never so much pitty for a game-NPC, and I played all Echo-ends. Poor wolf.)

What a truly amazing game, a really interesting premise used to tell a really interesting story. This one is certainly going to sit with me for a very long time.

We’ve made a MAY WOLF ‘25 #FurryVN Jam Superlative Form on Google Forms are posting it to everyone’s itch.io pages now.

Voting for the Superlatives ends when the clock strikes July 5’th in New York: https://forms.gle/URongEfqz4swkdFo8

Please contact us or Unagi if there’s an error.

baller fvn, waiting for that music drop :)

Well... this was emotionally harrowing, in all the good ways mind you, I'm kinda at a loss for words it really is just that good.

I feel horrible, I'm gonna blast carameldansen through my earphones.

Ok it's been an hour, this is one of those stories that make me feel in ways I struggle to articulate. I feel this urge now to go and rewrite the ending so that everybody can live happily, I always have this urge when I interact with stories that make me feel for the charachters, I immagine all the miracles I would work to make them happy.

I can't manage with this story, I can't fathom a way they could truly be happy, even if I brought back that wolf I know it would not be enough.

This happend only once before to me, with Echo, Flynn specifically.

I want to blast away these horrid things with loud music but I just can't seem to shake off the dread and misery off of me, like a seagull trapped in an oilspill.

I find part of this relativly easy to explain, on a human level as they are now happiness just isn't an option, that man has rot in his heart, he's in a small dark box, away from the stars and the sun.                                     Worse than that, he moved on.

The truly difficult thing for me to articulate is that world, that power, that childish violence enacted from someone who didn't know any better, to "people" whose being is relative to a child. The fact that their religion, their beliefs and convictions stem from an innocent invader, from misguided love is salt on the wound.

I've been through this before, Echo did a number on me, for I think 2 whole months I was in a terrible mood, I tried my hardest to regain composure after Flynn's ending, I don't think this will leave me as vulnerable fortunatly, but I think I learned something just now, bending a world, a story untill I feel better about the ending isn't the only way to confront these feelings, just letting it wallow fro a while and then washing away the tar with sadness is another way.

I hope I made one thing really clear, this story is really good, I just needed to put down my weird thoughts somewhere and this seems like the best place.

Great job

Thanks for the kiss after throwing a brick at me, in all seriousness though, this was really well made. I loved the title transition and the the sound design was great!