So... How do I start this...? There were other 3 VNs I played before Socially Awkward...
Disclaimer: nothing here is a cRiTiCaL ReViEw, but just a bunch of opinions from a fan! (probably fanboy)
I've started playing FVNs a few months ago. First one was Echo, with an amazing, intense, horror experience with an awesome writting. I had a roller coaster of emotions... The horror and character relations were nice.
Then, my second one was Nekojishi, which the production surprised me a lot... Amazing soundtrack, characters desing and all. It even had an opening, and gave me a lot of expectations, but... I don't know, their writting just didn't catch me well? Despite all the good things I've played only one route and didn't feel like trying others...
And third, Temptations Ballad... I've got in love with everything there. The soundtrack, the way the sprites move, the writting... It was an experience better than Nekojishi, specially in making the player liking and caring about the characters... I've thought it could be even better than Echo when it finishes...
But then, started playing this one... Which made me create an account on itch.io to write this comment... Socially Awkward.
This VN just feel special to me. By far, my favorite over all the four I've played until now.
Not even Echo or Temptations Ballad made me want to replay the routes over and over again like Socially Awkward makes me.
My days get better from reading their interactions, listening the soundtracks and admire the character's expressions while they speak. The effort and love from the creator for these characters and story is visible.
The humor already got me in the beginning. I laughed hard when I saw the option of making the MC waking up thinking about P E N E. This stupid kind of comedy is my kind.
Jayce is pretty cute, funny and specially relatable when you've dealt with Social Anxiety. I could've keep hours reading his dumb thoughts and actions for hours without getting tired. I love how he is not shy and talks normally when is around his friends too. It's pretty real;
And talking about his friends, John, man... I confess I thought I'd dislike him at the start. This "gremilin character archetype" is something I personally dislike, BUT... John is VERY likeable, his jokes and takes are actually funny, and his personality isn't summed up in being an asshole...
He is an fun bro who helps Jayce a lot of times! (for example, when he stole David's collar to get Jayce's wallet back, or at the shirts testing scenes)... That's something I love on this VN, characters are all more than just one thing, y'know?
John makes the scenes between the characters way better. When John is on screen I already know something unexpectedly absurd and funny will be said or done.
Similar thing happened with Rask. Like, he is an rich dude... But he is so cute and adorable I wanna hug him and squeeze so hard man >////<
Also, Maccon's route was my first one, and when I replayed it I noticed how well the characters introductions were done when all of them get together...
We see Maccon and Tom's dialogue while John's sprite follows David's nonstopping... That scene was just amazing, all characters were interacting with something, and it was just great.
Monchi knows very well how to make the character's faces express what they are feeling and thinking with the sprites... I love a lot when they're thoughtful before giving an reply to something and their eyes like... With an thoughtful expression, duh
And... David's sprite expression's are my favorite, cuz he doesn't speak a lot and we can know easily what is on his mind. He show's perfectly what I say about Monchi's ability in using the sprites moves and character's sprites here...
There is also an scene of Jayce beating Tom that come's up to my mind... His sprite was so big lmao XD
(Remember: I'm just fanboy fanboying over something he loves)
Talking about Tom... Man, WHAT A GREAT HUSBANDO...
I haven't payed much attention on him at first (he was my last route); but he became my favorite love interest! (Fav character is still Jayce... Or John... Or Dav- AAAA INDECISIVE);
His flashback scenes with Jayce, taking care of him as kid made my heart melt... The throwing shoes scene and the cake scene made me cry. And I rarely cry with media for some reason (haven't cried not even in Echo);
These scenes aren't super heavy or super emotional, but I've got so attached to the characters that these scenes hit hard... That's what your VN did to me dude...
Still on Tom, his teasing scenes at gym on the last update made me be sure that he is the best... Like, wow... o///o wasn't expecting Tom to do this and when he did it was so... Hot. Dude knows how to tease.
So, well, this is already pretty long, and I could keep talking about more and more scenes and things that make this VN feels so special to me the more scenes and aspects I remember.
I know there are a few criticism about this show and I'm probably making things look better than they actually are by writting this; but I'm so in love with this job that I just wanted to put on an declaration of love for this author's job.
You're an amazing and talented author dude. It's clear how you care and put everything on John, Tom, Maccon, Rask, David and Jayce's story; never let anyone tell ya otherwise!
Maccon's nude sprite disappointed me and turned me off. Not a fan of cut/mutilated men. It's my fault, I hyped myself up, thinking him being Latino would make him hotter than Tom. In more constructive criticism, the story's pacing is too slow and is becoming tedious to follow, the plot seems aimless, and the unreliable release schedule makes me lose interest. The lesson here is to finish writing and producing a VN before publishing it. Creating the VN each update is a terrible thing many developers do on this site, that makes it harder to trust creators, harder to commit. Visually and narratively this is not for me anymore, I had high hopes months back. I am done with this VN. :(
I agree with everything you said 😿😿😿😿 I'm really sad because this game doesn't go ahead 🐱😿😿😿😿 I got involved in the story is very amazing 😺😺 John cute 😻😻😻😻😻😻 I check every day to see if there is an update 😿😿😿 I hope all is well with the creator and that he has a lot of motivation and health to continue 😻😻😻😹😹😿😺😽 I hope it's fast too :D Hihihi 😻😻
I didn't have a problem with the shower shenanigans. What disappointed me was Maccon's character design. I expected him, being a Latino doggo, to be uncircumcised/not mutilated, due to the culture. I dislike cut characters, so I was willing to let that pass, since Tom is at least uncut... but then I noticed the problems with the story itself, and with how unreliable updates are, there is nothing to keep me invested. It really sucks how people publish incomplete VNs and then complete them at a slow place, making one wait YEARS for the finished product. Even worse, since I have paid double $$ digits, and invested 18 months of my life, for this project on Patreon. So you can see how unhappy I am with this product so far.
Oh. I wasn't really arguing, I just wanted to share my thoughts. Well, I do understand your frustrations, but a little sympathy can be allowed given Mochi's circumstances. I don't know what the money is being used for, but I do see Mochi making progress on their Twitter. I trust them. I believe in Mochi.
There is only one creator I trust on this site. He is a person I respect greatly. Despite his busy life, he managed to publish a complete VN, and monthly updates are merely translations and adding more CGs, story wise his VN is done and very well written. I don't trust anyone else, because in the last 12 months, 10 VNs I used to read/play went into indefinite semi-permanent hiatus, because their authors had not planned before publishing, and were making up the story as they went with each update, until they "burn out" and quit. After wasting time on them, and coming to trust this author I am fond of, I realized serious authors will publish full VNs, unless they can consistently prove they can handle the monthly update schedule and follow through with it.
I really feel you There are many good novels out there, but sometimes their long update periods/unknown status make me gradually lose interest in them, and by the point when an update finally comes out, I may have already forgotten half of the story/events, and in that case I either have to reread the whole thing to understand what's going on, or just kinda abandon it for some time
I only just started playing and i already know this is pure gold. Absolutely amazing! Thanks for making this <3 the art is gorgeous, the characters feel alive and the cute humour is on point (Jayce having the same ability as the puss in boots from shrek ? hell yeah)
The creator of Human Cargo, Rob Colton (his game can be found on itchio), has a fully functioning gallery, with drawings, backgrounds and the music present in the game. His game is on renpy :) hope he can be contacted/help
A game you can't go on? I played until the day I had a floating fireball. It couldn't go on in a nightmare scene and cried. and the game crashes Go to the menu page. How does it cover it???
not sure about that or is one of the existing route is a cameo, but the only came that i noticed so far are zale and the coach, not sure if i miss someone
I guess if you go down the Maccon route, that's also technically a "friendship" route with David since David's going to keep appearing in Maccon's route so you'll most likely get close with him as well, only as a friend though.
I have forgotten how to talk to strangers, so seeing MC befriend someone and not take them on a date is music to my ears... So this is what being Ace feels like. Sweet.
I was scared that the ghost thing happened in real life cause you can't just introduce ghosts all of a sudden . The menu changing to Archie being in the forest is a nice touch. Its reminds me of slasher films ( hospital chase and serial killer arc when lol )
Maybe a dumb question but do I have to download a the new version of this game and just forget about the older version? If I play it through the itch app I guess it updates more smoothly but I downloaded the game to Windows.
(At the time of writing, I have currently finished version 0.20 whilst 0.21 is currently available. This review contains only my views after playing 0.20, and some things might be inaccurate for 0.21.)
-
I honestly don't know how to describe this game very well. It isn't bad, but it's certainly not a typical FVN. It seems very sporadic and some (if not most) of the events don't really make any sense (at least to me). No real context is given for (Greys, in particular) some things, the situations (Mall store running out of chicken, overly-aggressive PE teacher, other 'Japanese' teacher, especially the out of nowhere 'ghost') don't really seem believable or have no obvious purpose or reason for being there. I also didn't personally enjoy the stock music scattered about the game- not to say it harmed the experience, but some of it is so overused I could not take the game seriously when I heard it. I understand custom sound design is expensive and not everyone can afford it, I just believe it could have been done better. Feel free to disagree with me on that, though.
Another issue I believe is an issue with the game is that it simply cannot take itself seriously. I will admit that I am personally biased here in the fact that I personally prefer the darker FVNs, but even for a light-hearted novel it simply threw around far too much to feel genuine and interesting. Again, feel free to disagree with me here- perhaps that's just my personal preference on the scene impacting my review- but that is what I truly believe.
Now, I'm sure some of these things can be chalked up to "The game isn't done!" or "It's not far in enough to have been explained yet!", but frankly, I personally did not enjoy this game much due to everything I've listed. I would not recommend it to any friends searching for FVNs to play, as I just can't suggest a game with such 'strange', contextless design. If I had to give a rating out of 10, I could only give it a 6.5-7/10.
I don't say any of this to slander the creators of the game, but rather to help the team gain an idea of what they can do to make it the best game possible! These kinds of games make up the majority of my reading nowadays, and it hurts my heart to see underperforming games or games that only need a bit more love to be truly wonderful, and as such I'm very passionate about giving developers the best constructive reviews as possible while also giving interested players a good idea on what to expect from the game before playing. I hope to see this game grow well in the coming updates!
Honestly this might be a preference thing as I absolutely love the comedy in this game. I don't think the game is supposed to be taken too seriously.
I'd say the bigger problem is updates take too long and there's too much reworking being done. I just end up being able to play it once every say half year for a bit. Feels the plot not moving much is more because of the weird and slow update/rework schedule than anything else.
You can tag the pc version in itch with Linux support btw. You include the necessary libraries in the build. I can confirm that it works. Thanks for doing that :D
Because Mr.Kitty after a long day and needs his sleep. However, I can see how the night shift can be sorrow. If I may add, though night is scary, moonlight is also associated with love sometimes.
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Funny enough, I made a GoFundMe page to support my visual novel series. No such luck though :/
Btw, love the game!
So... How do I start this...? There were other 3 VNs I played before Socially Awkward...
Disclaimer: nothing here is a cRiTiCaL ReViEw, but just a bunch of opinions from a fan! (probably fanboy)
I've started playing FVNs a few months ago. First one was Echo, with an amazing, intense, horror experience with an awesome writting. I had a roller coaster of emotions... The horror and character relations were nice.
Then, my second one was Nekojishi, which the production surprised me a lot... Amazing soundtrack, characters desing and all. It even had an opening, and gave me a lot of expectations, but... I don't know, their writting just didn't catch me well? Despite all the good things I've played only one route and didn't feel like trying others...
And third, Temptations Ballad... I've got in love with everything there. The soundtrack, the way the sprites move, the writting... It was an experience better than Nekojishi, specially in making the player liking and caring about the characters... I've thought it could be even better than Echo when it finishes...
But then, started playing this one... Which made me create an account on itch.io to write this comment... Socially Awkward.
This VN just feel special to me. By far, my favorite over all the four I've played until now.
Not even Echo or Temptations Ballad made me want to replay the routes over and over again like Socially Awkward makes me.
My days get better from reading their interactions, listening the soundtracks and admire the character's expressions while they speak. The effort and love from the creator for these characters and story is visible.
The humor already got me in the beginning. I laughed hard when I saw the option of making the MC waking up thinking about P E N E. This stupid kind of comedy is my kind.
Jayce is pretty cute, funny and specially relatable when you've dealt with Social Anxiety. I could've keep hours reading his dumb thoughts and actions for hours without getting tired. I love how he is not shy and talks normally when is around his friends too. It's pretty real;
And talking about his friends, John, man... I confess I thought I'd dislike him at the start. This "gremilin character archetype" is something I personally dislike, BUT... John is VERY likeable, his jokes and takes are actually funny, and his personality isn't summed up in being an asshole...
He is an fun bro who helps Jayce a lot of times! (for example, when he stole David's collar to get Jayce's wallet back, or at the shirts testing scenes)... That's something I love on this VN, characters are all more than just one thing, y'know?
John makes the scenes between the characters way better. When John is on screen I already know something unexpectedly absurd and funny will be said or done.
Similar thing happened with Rask. Like, he is an rich dude... But he is so cute and adorable I wanna hug him and squeeze so hard man >////<
Also, Maccon's route was my first one, and when I replayed it I noticed how well the characters introductions were done when all of them get together...
We see Maccon and Tom's dialogue while John's sprite follows David's nonstopping... That scene was just amazing, all characters were interacting with something, and it was just great.
Monchi knows very well how to make the character's faces express what they are feeling and thinking with the sprites... I love a lot when they're thoughtful before giving an reply to something and their eyes like... With an thoughtful expression, duh
And... David's sprite expression's are my favorite, cuz he doesn't speak a lot and we can know easily what is on his mind. He show's perfectly what I say about Monchi's ability in using the sprites moves and character's sprites here...
There is also an scene of Jayce beating Tom that come's up to my mind... His sprite was so big lmao XD
(Remember: I'm just fanboy fanboying over something he loves)
Talking about Tom... Man, WHAT A GREAT HUSBANDO...
I haven't payed much attention on him at first (he was my last route); but he became my favorite love interest! (Fav character is still Jayce... Or John... Or Dav- AAAA INDECISIVE);
His flashback scenes with Jayce, taking care of him as kid made my heart melt... The throwing shoes scene and the cake scene made me cry. And I rarely cry with media for some reason (haven't cried not even in Echo);
These scenes aren't super heavy or super emotional, but I've got so attached to the characters that these scenes hit hard... That's what your VN did to me dude...
Still on Tom, his teasing scenes at gym on the last update made me be sure that he is the best... Like, wow... o///o wasn't expecting Tom to do this and when he did it was so... Hot. Dude knows how to tease.
So, well, this is already pretty long, and I could keep talking about more and more scenes and things that make this VN feels so special to me the more scenes and aspects I remember.
I know there are a few criticism about this show and I'm probably making things look better than they actually are by writting this; but I'm so in love with this job that I just wanted to put on an declaration of love for this author's job.
You're an amazing and talented author dude. It's clear how you care and put everything on John, Tom, Maccon, Rask, David and Jayce's story; never let anyone tell ya otherwise!
Question, is it possible to get the token and still get a message to get the token?
Maccon's nude sprite disappointed me and turned me off. Not a fan of cut/mutilated men. It's my fault, I hyped myself up, thinking him being Latino would make him hotter than Tom. In more constructive criticism, the story's pacing is too slow and is becoming tedious to follow, the plot seems aimless, and the unreliable release schedule makes me lose interest. The lesson here is to finish writing and producing a VN before publishing it. Creating the VN each update is a terrible thing many developers do on this site, that makes it harder to trust creators, harder to commit. Visually and narratively this is not for me anymore, I had high hopes months back. I am done with this VN. :(
I agree with everything you said 😿😿😿😿 I'm really sad because this game doesn't go ahead 🐱😿😿😿😿 I got involved in the story is very amazing 😺😺 John cute 😻😻😻😻😻😻 I check every day to see if there is an update 😿😿😿 I hope all is well with the creator and that he has a lot of motivation and health to continue 😻😻😻😹😹😿😺😽 I hope it's fast too :D Hihihi 😻😻
Honestly, I was happy the gang was having fun. It was insane, yet the right amount of comedic.
I didn't have a problem with the shower shenanigans. What disappointed me was Maccon's character design. I expected him, being a Latino doggo, to be uncircumcised/not mutilated, due to the culture. I dislike cut characters, so I was willing to let that pass, since Tom is at least uncut... but then I noticed the problems with the story itself, and with how unreliable updates are, there is nothing to keep me invested. It really sucks how people publish incomplete VNs and then complete them at a slow place, making one wait YEARS for the finished product. Even worse, since I have paid double $$ digits, and invested 18 months of my life, for this project on Patreon. So you can see how unhappy I am with this product so far.
Oh. I wasn't really arguing, I just wanted to share my thoughts. Well, I do understand your frustrations, but a little sympathy can be allowed given Mochi's circumstances. I don't know what the money is being used for, but I do see Mochi making progress on their Twitter. I trust them. I believe in Mochi.
There is only one creator I trust on this site. He is a person I respect greatly. Despite his busy life, he managed to publish a complete VN, and monthly updates are merely translations and adding more CGs, story wise his VN is done and very well written. I don't trust anyone else, because in the last 12 months, 10 VNs I used to read/play went into indefinite semi-permanent hiatus, because their authors had not planned before publishing, and were making up the story as they went with each update, until they "burn out" and quit. After wasting time on them, and coming to trust this author I am fond of, I realized serious authors will publish full VNs, unless they can consistently prove they can handle the monthly update schedule and follow through with it.
Seek professional help bud
I agree with Link2346
I really feel you
There are many good novels out there, but sometimes their long update periods/unknown status make me gradually lose interest in them, and by the point when an update finally comes out, I may have already forgotten half of the story/events, and in that case I either have to reread the whole thing to understand what's going on, or just kinda abandon it for some time
I only just started playing and i already know this is pure gold. Absolutely amazing! Thanks for making this <3 the art is gorgeous, the characters feel alive and the cute humour is on point (Jayce having the same ability as the puss in boots from shrek ? hell yeah)
hey just wondering if theres a way to access the music files? just wanted to know the names of the songs and music used to listen to :)
Still figuring out the Gallery thing .3.a If you know anyone who made a gallery in renpy, It be most appreciated .3.b
The creator of Human Cargo, Rob Colton (his game can be found on itchio), has a fully functioning gallery, with drawings, backgrounds and the music present in the game. His game is on renpy :) hope he can be contacted/help
I want to know how many paths this game has. and each route what to do
basically the wolf with glasses, the two lions, and i think the other two wolves/racoon/werewolf/whatever they are brothers are also a route.
Rask my beloved
very relatable tho and gay, i need more of tom's and maccon's route, theyre just cute af, as to john and rask, havent completed their routes
CAN WE PLEASE GET AN UPDATE ON RASK!!! I miss my dumb rich timid boyo >///<
A game you can't go on? I played until the day I had a floating fireball. It couldn't go on in a nightmare scene and cried. and the game crashes Go to the menu page. How does it cover it???
Still updating
I am sorry! It started with a cake, how did it end up like this?
I only took one break, I only took one break
I think I started falling asleep, then someone made the jab
Then it stared to smoke,
I'm loving this game it so amazing
Will there be a route for John in the future
There is already a John route, but it's not complete and pretty short. Still waiting for the continuation QwQ
When will Rask get a update 😔
monchi said he'll focus on finishing tom's and maccon's route before continuing john's and rhask's
he does but it's still very short because as i said, priorities
how do I get to the route
turn right and if john offered to switch seats, accept it
Lowkey hope Zale gets a route someday
Damn u probably got a teacher fetish
I mean...He pretty cool.
Ngl i agree with you
He's a cameo character tho so the probability is very low
Wait, of what? I got to know now. Wait, isn't one of the routes a cameo?
not sure about that or is one of the existing route is a cameo, but the only came that i noticed so far are zale and the coach, not sure if i miss someone
Monchi,I'm shaking...help
Is Dave going to be a love interest? I'm finding his character very interesting :D
He's 17 so nope!
He's 17? Weird. Figured since it's taking place in college they'd be the same age.
Same :/
Think we can at least have a friend route? I am fine not having a date as long as we have a bigger friendship circle.
I guess if you go down the Maccon route, that's also technically a "friendship" route with David since David's going to keep appearing in Maccon's route so you'll most likely get close with him as well, only as a friend though.
I have forgotten how to talk to strangers, so seeing MC befriend someone and not take them on a date is music to my ears... So this is what being Ace feels like. Sweet.
oh wow a new update yey
Thank you for your diligence! Good luck in the development of the game! I really liked the novel, I'm looking forward to continuing!
I was scared that the ghost thing happened in real life cause you can't just introduce ghosts all of a sudden . The menu changing to Archie being in the forest is a nice touch. Its reminds me of slasher films ( hospital chase and serial killer arc when lol )
Holy shit Monch is back! 🙀
Maybe a dumb question but do I have to download a the new version of this game and just forget about the older version? If I play it through the itch app I guess it updates more smoothly but I downloaded the game to Windows.
Yes, you should be able to delete the old version and download the new one with no problems. Saves should be there
When will John's update be available?😿😿😿😹😺
John has a route?
Does somebody knows how to hide the text box on the android version?
(At the time of writing, I have currently finished version 0.20 whilst 0.21 is currently available. This review contains only my views after playing 0.20, and some things might be inaccurate for 0.21.)
-
I honestly don't know how to describe this game very well. It isn't bad, but it's certainly not a typical FVN. It seems very sporadic and some (if not most) of the events don't really make any sense (at least to me). No real context is given for (Greys, in particular) some things, the situations (Mall store running out of chicken, overly-aggressive PE teacher, other 'Japanese' teacher, especially the out of nowhere 'ghost') don't really seem believable or have no obvious purpose or reason for being there. I also didn't personally enjoy the stock music scattered about the game- not to say it harmed the experience, but some of it is so overused I could not take the game seriously when I heard it. I understand custom sound design is expensive and not everyone can afford it, I just believe it could have been done better. Feel free to disagree with me on that, though.
Another issue I believe is an issue with the game is that it simply cannot take itself seriously. I will admit that I am personally biased here in the fact that I personally prefer the darker FVNs, but even for a light-hearted novel it simply threw around far too much to feel genuine and interesting. Again, feel free to disagree with me here- perhaps that's just my personal preference on the scene impacting my review- but that is what I truly believe.
Now, I'm sure some of these things can be chalked up to "The game isn't done!" or "It's not far in enough to have been explained yet!", but frankly, I personally did not enjoy this game much due to everything I've listed. I would not recommend it to any friends searching for FVNs to play, as I just can't suggest a game with such 'strange', contextless design. If I had to give a rating out of 10, I could only give it a 6.5-7/10.
I don't say any of this to slander the creators of the game, but rather to help the team gain an idea of what they can do to make it the best game possible! These kinds of games make up the majority of my reading nowadays, and it hurts my heart to see underperforming games or games that only need a bit more love to be truly wonderful, and as such I'm very passionate about giving developers the best constructive reviews as possible while also giving interested players a good idea on what to expect from the game before playing. I hope to see this game grow well in the coming updates!
HISSS!!! >XV CRITICISM!!! *points multiple Chekov's gun at you*
Honestly this might be a preference thing as I absolutely love the comedy in this game. I don't think the game is supposed to be taken too seriously.
I'd say the bigger problem is updates take too long and there's too much reworking being done. I just end up being able to play it once every say half year for a bit. Feels the plot not moving much is more because of the weird and slow update/rework schedule than anything else.
hey does anyone know what monchi meant by token in tom's route????!!??
the dollar ;)
the dollar
hmm what do you mean
bruh this update was something alright. 😳
You can tag the pc version in itch with Linux support btw. You include the necessary libraries in the build. I can confirm that it works.
Thanks for doing that :D
how do i do that?
I'm sorry I didn't make it clearer that only monchimutt (in general the author) can edit the icons next to the downloads.
Is there anything else besides the bath scene in Tom`s route? And what token is mentioned at the end?
This VN never fails to make my cheeks hurt. I just wish it was longer :(
Also Tom won me over. I was foolish to be swayed by the meat friend!
Is the horror tag on purpose 😳
what happened in the bathroom.
TELL ME, MONCHI. WHAT HAPPENED AFTER?!?!?!?
Welcome back, Monchi!
wow i liked tom route
Is this fine?
What scanner is that? 9w9 Could be a false-positive. Happens sometimes with Renpy .3./
it’s VirusTotal, on browser, you could try it, it gives a graph as well with more detail, I find that pretty much all VN’s have at least 2
I hope it’s false
I just scanned by downloaded version and no viruses were detected. It should be golden~
TOM!! o((>ω< ))o
i loved this and cant wite for the next update
I like this game
why does the main menu changes when you beat the game?? it looks sad, I felt bad, idk why 😰
Because Mr.Kitty after a long day and needs his sleep. However, I can see how the night shift can be sorrow. If I may add, though night is scary, moonlight is also associated with love sometimes.
I think cause that final part was made for Halloween