ending drags on a bit too long for my taste and it doesnt seem like it'd be an enjoyable experience playing-wise, however the visuals are absolutely incredible and deserve 5x more recognition than it gets

I really like the song representation in this level, memory does seem to fit this song a lot and I love it

reading through the companion document mcres made explaining his intent with this level, it's very apparent that a lot of attention and care went into every little detail here, but for me most of that emotion has been lost in translation. i just don't think connect does a very good job conveying the message it wants to tell. it relies far too much on symbolism—this part's background is an infinitely scaling tunnel which represents how it felt like i was falling through a tunnel. obviously symbolism can work to great effect, but only when it's in addition to a compelling emotional narrative. it's like the difference between stumbling upon a pentagram etched on the floor of a spooky haunted house vs showing me a png of one; a pentagram can really enhance the experience when built around a compelling atmosphere, but if not, it just ends up falling flat. and for me at least, i find connect to be mostly png and little haunted house.

details like the tally marks counting the number of suicide attempts during the level's creation are chilling after learning what they represent, but if you were to remove mcres's document and look at the level on its own, all they are are seemingly random marks with no perceivable emotional weight behind them (before the document pointed it out, i thought the tally marks were a pause icon). that's not to say that symbolism has to stare at you in the face to be good, but i don't find connect compelling enough for me to want to analyze what every last cryptic detail could mean, even ignoring the big document that explains it all.

i think there's also something to be said about the inherent incongruity of trying to tell the story of your life as you're living it through a 140+ editor-hour, 4 minute long extreme demon. with a gd level you're forced to conform your vision around someone else's song, and there may not even exist a song that perfectly matches the story mcres wants to tell here, let alone one that's on newgrounds and hasn't been claimed by another level. especially with a level of this length and difficulty, a lot of planning and forethought is required to make it feel like a cohesive experience, which doesn't allow for the spontaneity i think mcres wants to have here. perhaps a shorter, more contained level focused on a single, more general idea rather than trying to tell a very specific story could've worked better. looking at his twitter he seems to have gotten into digital furry art and game design, two mediums i think are much better suited for the kinds of stories mcres wants to tell, so i really do hope to see mcres flourish as an artist in his future endeavors, whether that's inside gd or not.