I Wani Hug that Gator!

Gator good
Need More Gator
Please . . .
Will pay many many money, for more game like this.
I have already Done the Snoot game.
This has become an addiction
I now have a hyper-specific need for anthropomorphic visual novels that melt my soul.
CAVEMANON please keep making games. the world is better with these games in them.
Thank you

The west has risen. Billions must have autistic gator wives

im realizing just how much of a lonely pos i am from a dino story qame

10/10 i cried

(My actual play time is around 12 hours as of writing this review)
As someone who has first-hand experience with disability, I was really sceptical of this game, wondering if they "got it right".
And boy, they sure did.
Pros:
- Interesting characters, I was interested in character developments, even for characters that I didn't like much.
- I was taken aback by the authenticity of the writing. It feels very natural and flows well.
- The feels! From laughter to sadness, I went trough all kinds of emotions.
- With really similar situations, I related to Olivia a lot, her conflicting feelings, her struggles tied to her handicap. There's no doubt in my mind that the person writing is very aware of disability, the good, the bad, the ugly. And it shows.
- A true slice of life, where the kind-of-boring setting is made interesting by all the characters and feelings around it.
- Very nice music, discrete and mesured, that would match the scenes well.
- The pacing is very good. Slowing down and fast forwarding at just the right time.
Cons:
- Inco, the main character, is a bit uncanny.
> He's supposed to be kind of a blank slate character, but he has enough personal traits to be his own character, so he falls in kind of a weird middle ground.
Not enough traits to be it's own character, but too many for the player to properly insert themselves in the story.
- The beginning was a bit slow, but I'm glad that I kept going.
- Some key/important moments could use more art, but that's subjective.
I feel like the fact that I played the full game, reached an ending(n°3),
played again to reach another ending, and interrupted my run to write this review,
before buying it, -full price on purpose-, is the biggest praise I can give this game.
Well done, Cavemanon, you deserve the money.

Best VN I've played in a minute. However, It's made me realize that it's gonna be the only one to hit me as hard as it did, because when you've played peak, everything else looks like a valley.

I gave this game a shot after a friend recommend it. I made fun of him for playing a furry game naturally, because of all of its connotations and the repulsive subculture, but I downloaded the demo to try it out.
To my surprise, the writing was good and it was getting better. It has animations and they are good? And the music is great too? No way. Oh no.
Twenty five hours of reading later and I think I just had the most humbling, life changing gaming experiences of my life. Easily the 2024 game of the year, no competition. And while I still can't stand furries this is now one of my favorite games. Are those two things contradictory positions? Yes.
First of all, everything from the colorful style to the name "I Wani Hug That Gator" screams that this is a bad attempt at a self parody, a cringy wifu simulator, or a ♥♥♥♥ post. It completely embraces this expectation, or rather it completely unapologetically embraces its dumb premise and asks itself 'But how do we actually make this kind of game good?'. And the answer is to just tell a compelling romance story, but the impressive part is that they actually managed to pull it off.
The style in a way blindsides the player, the over the top designs make you lower your guard, so when the moment comes, the exploration of more mature themes hits all the harder. And it is masterfully executed.
A big part of the game's charm for me are the multiple endings that give the game real stakes. The main character is not a blank slate, although you couldn't tell by the design. Instead, you guide him in a certain path by picking some choices for him, watch him struggle with his own problems and hopefully by the end of the game he becomes his own person.
To my surprise, there is never a point in the story that feels off tone wise, and the humor is well balanced with the more serious plot points. Despite the fact that a big part of the game is lighthearted banter intermittent with slapstick humor, the game and the story itself never become the punchline. It's so refreshing compared to modern day marvelbrain baby writing today's writers are increasingly afflicted with.
This game is clearly a labor of love, it is what you would call soulfull. In this day and age where products masquerade as art, this is a shining example of what is possible to create when you create with heart.
Everything from the writing, the art, the music, and the animations work wonderfully together to create a cohesive believable world. The music does a lot to elevate the scenes, and there are some real gems in there. You know that a soundtrack is good, when you notice it. "I Dream of a Dance", "Final First Page", "Furious March of Red", "Green Specter", "Teenage Traffic" all stand out as highlights of the original soundtrack. The are fantastic on their own, and paired together with the scenes they are written for they are absolute perfection, and I love them. Even the non original tracks are well picked and add a lot to scenes in which they are used. We are talking about some real tear jerking tracks that will leave even the most grizzled, shriveled up, bonafide crusty sailor complaining about sudden onsets of rain or having some crap stuck in their eyes.
The only questionable parts are the crude pixelated background images that are either passable or stick out like a sore thumb. There was an effort made to make them fit in, but some of them really make the game feel cheap in comparison to the rest of it. The art that is there is great, and while the budget was obviously put into some parts (animations) and not others (background images), there clearly wasn't a lack of effort, because the game is full of details. For example, all over the game there are simple sprite movement animations of the characters visually reacting to something that was said or seen. They add life to the characters and some of them are very cleverly used to convey the story through visuals.
The characters are for the most part well written and very human. They feel as if they are real people, and not just characters there to entertain you or to be a foil to you. While I have given a lot of praise here to the writing, it is not perfect by any means. There are some flaws with the story, but none of them are enough the ruin the good parts. For example not all the characters got the amount of exploration I would have liked. Some parts felt rushed and are left somewhat unfinished, but it's clear that the writers wanted to focus on the two main characters. The reason being, delivering the game's central themes.
The two main characters Inco and Olivia struggle with self actualization, agency and responsibility, and you get two see them at their best or worst depending on your choices.
The game does a beautiful job of presenting those struggles, and it does so consistently, with kindness, and most importantly a real sort of rough sincerity that could have only come from the author's personal experience. The maturity with which the themes and characters are explored makes this one of the best romance stories I've ever seen. If I had to describe the game in two words, it would be unapologetically sincere.
And finally, I don't think a piece of media ever made me cry out of happiness before. I cried like a baby during one of the animations. This wonderful story made me really inspired to create again, something I hadn't felt in a long time. I didn't know how much I needed this game until I got to play it. This piece of art touched me deeply, and it's messages will stick with me forever.
I will never forget your game. Thank you Cavemanon.

if olivia has a million fans i am one of them. if olivia has ten fans i am one of them. if olivia has one fan that fan is me. if olivia has no fans, that means i am dead. if world is against olivia, i am against the world. i love olivia till my last breath..