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The Heron, the Raven and the Crow's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Story / Writing | #19 | 2.753 | 3.158 |
| Visuals | #20 | 3.487 | 4.000 |
| Audio / Music | #21 | 2.891 | 3.316 |
| Use of LGBTQ+ Themes | #23 | 2.569 | 2.947 |
| Overall | #28 | 2.524 | 2.895 |
| Gameplay | #32 | 1.560 | 1.789 |
| Balance (Challenge and Fairness) | #33 | 1.376 | 1.579 |
| Concept | #33 | 2.294 | 2.632 |
Ranked from 19 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Team Members
Saishoo, Kishinjou, Cloudie, historyleaf, CD, koba, BigGayDinosaur, falto, FourGirlsAdventures, CommanderKappa, kurantoB, RubenSkyline, Zzzz
Streaming Permission
Yes
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Comments
The most striking thing for me here was the visuals. Every single unique style is very stunning to look at. At the same time, I almost wish this was published as 3 separate games, since that's what it felt like in a sense. Each story had a unique writer with unique art, so they all end up feeling different. Still an impressive production all-around.
thank yu megapig sama
There's not too much I can say that wouldn't be repeating AngryCow's review, but hey. This thing's worth complimenting anyways.
What a nice trio of stories. There's a really high density of art, which I quite like. All of it's great. I'll say that the Satori story was my favorite, and I loved the music for the last part of the Sumireko story. The artwork in the Sumireko story was absolutely amazing, by the way, I just wish I could parse what the heck it was all about.
Even if this is a bit all-over-the-place and lacks much of a connecting thread, I honestly don't mind. The brevity is quite welcome for me, and the stories themselves, coupled with the nice music, are just beautiful.
In short, it's like a blackbird singing in the dead of... day, I guess. The sun and all.
Three stories glued together of wildly different styles. Not just obviously in art style, but in writing style and mood. From the primer, it feels like these are supposed to be connected. Bird Up, as it were. Yet I come away feeling like I missed something. One story has the silly setup of a couple by an overeager fairy. Another is an origin story within a story. And the last is a meandering tale of from lips of a rather egotistical storyteller. They all describe a meeting, in some way or another, but beyond that I am scratching my head. The author asks us to avoid external research and search within for meaning, but the heron story in particular makes me feel like I need to dive into some lore to understand it. Does the melon princess have something to do with Sagume? Are we supposed to be sympathetic to Seija during the reunion after such a brutal murder? Why is Sumireko used as the vessel to tell the tale?
The other two stories are far more straightforward. Pure stories of acceptance and love. The art helps significantly throughout. The style shifts match the mood swings the narratives go through. The music provides great ambience for some smooth reading. It is actually strange hearing Okuu's normally hype, high energy theme brought down to a soothing tune. These stories are worth the read, but I will remain wondering if there is supposed to be something more to stitch the comedy, romance, and near-horror vibes each bring out together.
yeah unfortunately a lot of stuff went wrong during development and, due to a lack of proper communication on my end it came out this... weird merge of three different stories that are very vaguely connected.
There was supposed to be an additional fourth one, but we were already past deadline while working on the game and didn't want to cram anything else in. Lots of personal stuff came up with the team, and my laptop stopped functioning for an entire week.
As for the primer, I thought I removed that. I love my internet (and to an extent) itch.io not functioning properly.
Ah, that explains it clearly. It is unfortunate you were not able to reach your creative vision. But I feel a lot better about the game, knowing it is just three separate stories. My brain was working overtime trying to decipher the connection rather than just enjoying them.
This is like 3 short stories bundled into one game. All linear, kinetic novel style.
The way it is, it doesn't really feel like the whole is greater than its parts, but they are pretty nice short stories, so it's not a big problem.
Even as someone who is a bit averse towards long VNs, I was able to enjoy this since it doesn't drag on. It also has a lot of art for the word count, and most of it is high quality. The one gameplay segment is meh but inoffensive: Not really needed since the game isn't long enough that the reader will crave variety. It's over quickly so it's fine.