This was a very nice, cosy VN, and I enjoyed reading it a lot!
The head well lost is, as the short summary so succinctly describes, a romance story between a librarian and a pop star (who just so happens to be headless). The story opens when our protagonist, Francis (whose name can be changed in-game), pairs with the mysterious Rai on a dating app, and the two hit it off. They begin to learn more about one another, and they gradually open up through series of text messages which are fun to read (the phone UI is really cute, and I love how the characters use emojis and have distinctly different ways of typing too).
Then, after talking to one another a little, the two end up meeting in person, where it's revealed that Rai is actually a pop star from the band DRYDEN... and he's also a dullahan without a head.
Francis is pretty thrown by this, as one might expect, but she resolves to make the relationship work. Whether it actually works, however, is up to the player, as there's quite a lot of choices scattered throughout. You can choose how Francis interacts with Rai to a degree, though her personality is set. Francis is her own distinct character (she has self-esteem issues owing to some familial strife and a past failed relationship) and she's rather cautious about jumping into a new relationship. You can decide whether she decides to voice her concerns to Rai, however, or if she keeps them bottled up for fear of bothering him (though doing this too much will typically result in a bad end).
There's several different endings to this VN which branch off at different points, and while I haven't read all of them, they show various ways Francis's relationship with Rai can go. It's clear these endings are short 'bad endings', however, and there's one clear 'main route' where Francis and Rai end up happily together. I'm not sure if all of these endings were strictly necessary, as they feel like very short 'what if' scenarios which aren't fleshed out too much, but the large amount of choices the player has throughout keeps the story engaging.
I personally enjoyed the first 50% of the story the most, when Francis and Rai are getting to know one another and they're just starting their relationship. I thought this part of the story was the most engaging, and it was nice getting to know more about Rai alongside Francis (and seeing all the cute nicknames for Rai Francis has as she routinely changes his name on her phone lol). The last 50% of the story deals with Francis trying to maintain her relationship with Rai while also digging a bit more into Dullahan lore, which was also interesting, but the story felt a little aimless at this point. The good ending was still very cute and heartwarming though, so it all felt worthwhile overall!
It's worth noting that I liked the presentation of this VN a lot. It's minimal, with only three character sprites, and the backgrounds are all filtered photos. I also believe all the music is stock music, though I might be wrong. The character sprites, though limited, are very expressive, however. I especially love Rai's sprite, and how many poses he has. He doesn't have a head, so he can't emote like characters in typical VNs do, so the devs made up for this by giving him several different poses and occasionally making the animated smoke which drifts out of his head turn into a question mark or a heart. It's a really cute little detail which gives him a lot of character!
The backgrounds, though filtered photos, work really well with the sprites: they feel cohesive. I'm also a fan of filtered photo bgs in VNs, since they can make stories feel more grounded in the real world (which The head well lost definitely is; there's a lot of pop culture references in here, and the characters even go to Waffle House and IKEA). The music, meanwhile, was perfectly fitting.
I also liked the UI a lot. It's simple, but it's very stylish.
All in all, I'd recommend this VN if you want a nice, chill romance story to unwind to. It's quite lowkey for the most part, but the characters are charming (especially Rai) and I enjoyed my time with it overall!
