it would be obvious to say that they needed to have 12 episodes to get closer to fleshing things out, even then, i think maybe 24 would be better to match the style of the game. still, we live in the real world and if they made 4 episodes it's because they didn't have the funds to make more, at least on this level of animation
so then, what could have they done to make this better, even while limited to this length?
i think a more impressionistic approach. less focus on dialogue and trying to explain the story, and way more focus on building an atmosphere. what i enjoy so much about the game is how it's an exploration on the bleakest parts of human experience, you explore the school and through notes and finding bodies you find a lot of stories on how students sucumbed to despair, died or killed each other, it's suspenseful and all builds up to evoke an opressive, depressing mood
so, they could have shown scenes of characters exploring the school, and to switch it up they could have also directly shown the stories of students from other schools sometimes, showing different kinds of deaths and not only the flashy ones like they did here
as all of this is of course absent, there's no tension and release, the school is like a background and instead it's just rushing to one plot point to the next in a desperate attempt to cram everything in. it ends up feeling so rigidly structured even if it progresses so fast, as there are almost no scenes shown that aren't for advancing the main plot
still, could have they done all of this i'm asking for in just 4 episodes? not without cutting off some characters, or only showing them towards the end, which may have not been done as it could have affected sales from fans of one character or the other
i didn't have an issue with how the story departures from the main route in the game, i read some people angry cuz so or so died, but i just saw it as one of the many bad endings the game has, some of which i enjoy more than the main route
speaking of which, it was the ending that caught me off guard (i'm pretty sure it's not in the game) and closed the whole thing on a good note for me, it was quick, had no dialogue, and the sound effects were great, it was really well done and synthetizes the kind of dark, empty feeling i love the game for
