I think the VN-Rhythm mix is one of the best mix ideas of the jam. I really like the game, but I do have a few suggestions:

The story was…. idk. It wasn’t terrible, but it did feel kinda generic and cliched. Admittedly, I don’t really have any suggestions for improvement, so I can’t really say too much with regards to that. I can say that it felt like the story moved on way too fast, and that there wasn’t enough time to get to know the characters. It really felt like they were thrown at you only for the few seconds they were needed (This is something my game suffers from as well).

Also, a bad end for failing too many rhythm minigames would have added some replay value IMO. Maybe something like a bad end route after every minigame and, if you fail 2 minigames, you play the bad end route and get a gameover?

The art was outstanding. Out of the around 15-20 games I’ve reviewed, this is one of only 3 or 4 to get the full five star rating. Well done! Everything from bg and cg art, to the graphics for the minigame, the UI, and the main menu screen, were very well made!

The music was also really nice! The song choices fit, and the songs for the rhythm minigames were a total bop. There were some sound effects, all of which were nice, but I’d have loved to see a couple extra; most notably, a “pop” or “crash” sound effect that played when a note was hit would have added a fairly substantial layer of sound to the rhythm minigames.

The gameplay was also solid. I personally found the rhythm minigame too easy. Maybe this is just me, but I’d have probably added a 2nd difficulty level that features one or more of the following:

• 2 or more simultaneous notes
• A tighter window to press the notes
• A faster board speed, so that you don’t see notes as quickly in advance, possibly combined with a tighter window to press the notes
• Sustained notes that you need to press and release on-time (else it’ll miss)

Also, two simple mechanics I’d love to see added are a skip feature (or some way to skip the text animation and have the text show instantly), and a feature to hide the UI to get a better look at the background and characters.

Beyond that, the gameplay was fairly solid. It’s pretty hard to mess up the UI of a vn LOL, but for the rhythm minigame specifically, the hit registration felt very fair and consistent, and was overall a lot of fun to play.

I do think that this is one of the more underappreciated games from this jam. Although the story was meh, the idea and the implementation were very strong. The art and music were amazing, as well. I do think that had the story been a bit longer and more fleshed out, this could have been among the absolute best games from the jam. Still, as it is right now, it is still a very solid and very fun game. Well done!

BTW, my submission for the jam was also a VN with minigames LOL. I’d be curious to get your feedback on it, even if it’s after the voting deadline! (Which it most likely will be, since voting ends in only 5 hours from the time of writing LOL)

WOW, what a crazy mix, one of the greatest Visual Novel I played. The story is ... meh... but the idea is awsome. I'm really used to play rythm game, but using arrow on a laptop is pretty hard xD but that's only my problem. You're game is really good ! Hope to se it un a full release!

Cute game! I really like how you transposed the idea of struggling to control your nerves through the rythm sections.  The story is simple and effective, and the rythm parts feel nice to play. They could be even better if the button press had some sort of feedback sound effect, something that tells you if you got that note right or wrong. 

Keep up the good work :)