Enjoyed my time with this one. The game is deceptively simple and that makes for a great story, but honestly it’s pretty hard to follow. My suggestion is making a graphic or a custom scene explaining the rules and situations more clearly and allow the player to open it whenever after the first explanation. Outside of that, story and presentation do a pretty good job of establishing and selling the stakes and characters in a really lean way. Even if I couldn’t fully follow the game, I shared in the MCs emotions.

I didn’t fully understand the rules of Three Aces (skill issue from me don’t worry), but I could definitely feel and understand what it was at stake, the tension, and how important this game is for Jack and the others.

Really wish to see what’s next, and see if the relation between the mc and the wolf can blossom more, both are tragic characters that need constant hug and comfort 🫂

Creative, but confusing.

Let's get the obvious out of the way. The sprites are beautiful and the custom images are sexy.

But this was probably my hardest MAY WOLF read thus far. The opening few scenes felt a little too blunt and fast to me. Then we get into the explanation of the card game and I'm completely lost. There's some great character building there for a minute or two, but then it's the card game again, and I'm once again scratching my head. I think I began to pick up the basics near the end, but for a lot of the game I struggled to stay engaged. 

Maybe a diagram when they are first explaining things would be helpful? Maybe when they are practicing you can show how things play out through images rather than text? IDK. Those are just some ideas. Like, I get that I'm an idiot and all, but the way the characters grasped the mechanics of the card game so easily while I'm just sitting here dumbfounded made me feel like I was missing something really obvious.

The writing itself is good. The head-hopping near the end there didn't help my confusion, but for the mostly internal narrative that it becomes, it's good. And even though I didn't understand too much of what was going on, I was intrigued when the tension started to ramp up.

And this all might be a "me" thing! It was certainly very pretty and creative, but I didn't quite jive with it.

Stylish (the art style is just lovely) and well-written, with straightforward prose that does a good job at conveying information and a strong specificity of time & place. The tone is grounded and gritty without being miserable, and the central conceit of a card game where everyone knows everyone is cheating is so sharp as a metaphor that the social commentary basically writes itself.

Presentation-wise, there's stuff to nitpick. The single jam-provided sprite sticks out pretty badly, the lack of any kind of transition to the opening scene is kind of jarring, and how the card game is visualized works on a basic level but is really subtle and understated. Making use of more visuals and maybe animations of some sort to emphasize what actions everyone is taking would make a difference in terms of clarity, I think; as of now, the prose has to explain a lot by itself. Besides that, it would just be a cool way to use the medium to go all in on showing the card stuff.

As for the other formal elephant in the room ("Should this video game about a card game be playable?"), I found it all so engaging and so skilled in its use of the premise that the thought didn't really cross my mind. It's clearly a story not only written by someone who enjoys card games but someone who knows how to turn them into compelling drama! The player lacking choices has also felt like a pretty effective literalization of how the narrative portrays the competition in general; turning it into an actual game with strictly defined rules and boundaries would be missing the point, I think. Excited to see how this comes up if the VN does decide to go nonlinear in the future, but if it's entirely kinetic, I'll say the point lands.

While the "to be continued" screen dampens the mood somewhat, Three Aces does feel pretty well thought out as a serialized work – far from being all setup, the first act contains a fun twist and ends on a stinger that teases the continuation perfectly. My only concern is that the story is probably something the reader would want to finish in one go anyway. It's dense with information, and I have probably already forgotten something crucial while typing this.

Definitely a "more than the sum of its parts"-category entry; it all just works so well together, and I'm excited to read the rest.

Awesome writing, great characters ! I would have loved for Vincent to be more fleshed out, it would make the revelation more powerful.

By the way, from the theme and by how long the game insist on the rules, I thought I would be able to make choices in the game... Play a little against these opponents. Oh well.

I'm hooked. It's very good. I want to see the end of it !

I'm invested in the story.  I can't wait to see where it goes from here!  Other than wishing for an overhead view of a game while the explanation was given, I really can't think of anything else I would suggest to add.  Well done!

Mobs and gambling are certainly two genres that I enjoy, so it's not surprising that this one caught me right from the get go. Nice setting and art, though the pacing feels a little rushed both before and during the game part (which in all fairness, may be as a result of this being a jam entry).

I find it curious that for somethin dealing with an actual game, we as the players do not have any way to influence any of the outcomes (so far), which I could see it coming both from a game jam and narration perspective; and I'm not completely sure here if the story benefits or gets hindered from that decision.

For some reason, I couldn't manage to open the PsychoSpiralBeast .exe file to read it, so I will read and rate this VN in the meanwhile. 13th entry I will read and rate, here we go!

This is the first VN I read that uses the Tasmanian devil sprite.

Edit 1: OMG, ROBLOX FLOOD ESCAPE MUSIC.

Edit 2: OMG ECHO MUSIC.

Edit 3: Ok. I have finished reading this VN. Here are my thoughts.

I liked the story you went for. It reminds me of Squid Game a bit. It is one of those VN's in which the plot can be just as interesting as the characters, if not more.

The fact custom sprites were made for this VN is amazing. It provides the game with its own unique vibe. The visual component of presentation was decent; however, the VN could use some modifications in sound design (for example, music representing tension drags on for too long and loses its effect).

As some comment has stated, I am not sure about how you implemented the theme. If I had to make a guess, I'd say it is expansion of greed.

That's what I think of this VN. Thanks for the experience (and the accidental Roblox Flood Escape reference).

This was such a fascinating entry. I can't help but talk about it by splitting it in two parts.

The first part of the narrative (everything leading up to the game) is just amazing. I simply love the art and the characters, the theme of poverty is depicted amazingly well. I even to commend the writing even more: this is an entry that doesn't really use flowery language, but it has no need to. The writing is to the point and manages to set the mood, develop the characterization, and advance the story in short straight-to-the-point sentences. I love it.

The story does begin to lose a bit when it comes to the game part though. Not because the game is absurdly complicated, but it is a bit much to follow along, I do think that more visual aides would help this a lot. Also I feel like the narrative focuses a bit *too much* on the game in the second half: while the game is obviously important, it would still be nice to focus a bit more on the characters and the real space they occupy at the same time, find again that atmosphere that was such a strong presence in the first half.

All in all, I can't wait to see how this VN concludes.

SPOILERS to follow.

Please forgive me one CinemaSins-style nitpick: I feel like believability was a little strained when the two characters were allowed to just go together to the bathroom to discuss freely their next strategy. Considering this is a high stake game run by the mob, it strains credibility that no measures were put in place to prevent this. I would have liked if the characters had found some more creative way to communicate between themselves *during* the game, and if the story had done a bit more with the situation of the characters knowing there was a mole among them. Instead, they reveal their newfound knowledge pretty much immediately, and not much comes out of it.

Spoilers:

Theme:  Other than a big bet size or like... schmooving from being in debt to being open to other options, I'm not seeing it.

Story: While the story is incomplete, I still love me a gambling narrative. As soon as I saw the Biturong was a black suit, that made me think that the rat was gonna be a traitor, so in that regard I wonder if you're perhaps being a bit too overt with the symbolism (he's also the only one that isn't a face card (or better/more flexible (aka Remy)). But that might just be me being more attuned those with my recent Balatro runs :p

I feel like the overt cheating was maybe too soon, but I suppose where one only has "four lives" they have to act soon to reveal it, especially if one can't truly trust their partner in crime.

I guess it's a bit curious how Remy even found either of the two, even if the metric was "look for down on your luck people" how the fuck are you gonna regularly meet those? Trawling the streets? I feel like the usual narrative arc is someone in the gambling games already drags someone down further (which the rat ostensibly does, but if he was to be asked, that comes off as an off-screen activity as opposed to a plea to join) or the desperate goes to the loan shark who points them to something far more predatory (a hard element to escalate past).

It makes sense that the debt collector would point, but not quite so that Remy and Vincent picked the right person (other than narrative convenience)-- were they just prepared to have a pizza party and keep looking if they were wrong, or just ostensibly move on a two-man team (leaving Remy to be in a 1v1v2 with the stranger).

I didn't love the "I was kicked out for being gay" dialogue (as in not a monologue), especially as Jack shows he's not the naive trusting sort like the Nao.Liar Game archetype. He cottons onto the cheating, which makes his open disclosure a bit closer to the patsy archetype, barring his catching of the collusions between the other two (albeit, there's not too many of them to pin the blame on, narratively). Remy's also a bit too trusting of Jack and Vince for someone that's already played before, even if he's trying to be a collaborative cheater.

Narratively, based on your card assigning, I predict Remy would be the final winner again. (High card Ace beats King, Queen and Jack (and obviously four)), and there's not of one suit nor dupe cards to make a proper flush or other hand either.

I think the major issue is this ends too early into the game at this point, while having identified the cheating already.

----

Story aside: How dare you. How dare you be a mahjong hater. Rude. Jail.

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Presentation: The game isn't too mechanically dense, although it's one of those things where I wonder if it would help a smidgen to just see it further than the diagram (the stacking) to make it clearer for the player. I like how all the marked players have their suits over their heads as well in their name cards, although I find it curious that the Lion gets a crown instead of a repeated suit. You've introduced a fifth suit (and if there were one of those, I'd say those are ostensibly jokers, not a face card), so that was a strange implementation.

Using the otter sprite felt a bit jarring given all the custom ones you used--it may have been enough to not have anyone on screen, especially as I don't expect they'll come back given the lack of suit upon their head. Having them have a sprite gives them more importance, which kind of washes out if they never appear again.

I do appreciate your custom sprites, they're nice looking! Good gambling manga vibes.

Very nitpicky, but I found the cicadas a bit out of place, in that the first distillery image seemed very industrial area (meaning not many trees that they live in) although it made sense in the latter image.

Creativity: I do enjoy my fair share of gambling mangas (Liar Game, Usogui, other ones that I still read even though they were trashy) so this was a treat. Not what I ever expected to see in this space any time soon either, so that was a real joy.

Overall thoughts: Let's go gambling! Aww dangit! Awww dangit! Aww dangit!

I'd be excited to see this continue (and maybe have the pre-gambling game  tinkered a bit with? But that's just me?)

I was the most excited to read this one because I love the sprites so much, and it met my expectations! 

There was a lot of good tension during the card game, and one can easily empathize with Jack. I love how you put the suits above their head, and the portraits being cards when they speak looks fantastic! 

Some pauses/fades between scene transitions would be nice, though, because some of the shifts felt just a little jarring but not to the point I was unable to follow the story. Like Erebus, I'm assuming your application of 'expanding' here is the growing bet / rising risk / stakes which for me, works just fine. 

Your music choices were great! It contributed to the atmosphere of a dark, back-alley card game complete with the desperate smell of cigarettes, cologne, and (In my imagination) A little booze. 

For your woof, Remy, He's cute! I hope he's not going to backstab Jack. 

Overall I had a lot of fun reading this, I was engaged from start to finish and I look forward to seeing how the story concludes should you continue! 

As someone who likes to play a game of cards, I really enjoy the narrative. The game is very well explained with the help of the illustrations, which is the best decision in telling complicated stuff. I've lost my mind so many times trying to explain various games of cards to new people and tell them to jump in the game right away.

I take it that the interpretation of the theme "expanding" lies within the rising stake of the bet? Could be wrong, but couldn't see it any other way. It's well captured in the story, but definitely could be better felt in the next act. I was too invested in seeing how the game goes, that "to be continued" just pulled the rug under me. Welp, don't have much to say in the writing department bcs it's not my forte.

Presentation-wise,  the vibe is "there". Love all the custom sprites and the little detail makes me question if there is some sort of symbolism there. However, the VN can definitely benefit from simple improvements like the use of transitions between scenes and pauses. The latter is important bcs some scene changes felt too jarring without some break between them.

I assume you just use the traditional left, middle, and right positions for the sprites,  hence there were only max 3 sprites on screen? I'm just being picky here but putting all four of them together, with Jack and Remy facing right (gotta flip Remy's sprite), while the other two facing left, would make the scene more tense and foreshadow that plot point. Also, did you put all the quotation marks manually, not using prefix-suffix?

All in all an enjoyable read. +1 for "that's definitely Torahiko." Broken heart be pushing men to edges.