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(+2)

Keep into account my rating and thoughts may change upon full release; these are only my oppinions of the demo so far!

Well, I think I ought to start off with the positives first. The music fucking ROCKS, on god. Very atmospheric too. Speaking of atmosphere, it is extremely well set in the menu-like choice sequences, such as in the beggining or when choosing the gender of the love interest. Along with the dialogue, they give a very cool vibe that feels like it sets you up for this immensely cool grand experience and if that's not a KILLER way to start your game I don't know what is! Hypppeeee

The story/narrative so far isn't too much of note; I'd appreciate a bit of an explanation in-game on how LI leaves the game and forms into the real world, however I have the sneaking suspicion this might've been explained should we have gone to the AI transplant meeting thing. Speaking off. I think it's a very odd choice to have the refusal of that be the option that we're limited to. Infact, I am rather disgruntled with how many options are unavailable. I understand that this is a demo, however even as one, it feels unfinished in that regard. Imo, you should've developed all choices to a satisfying point before ending the demo, not just focusing on one. 

Well, either way, what I do think is innovative and cool is the nice spin on VN choice mechanics. The duality system is really a cool idea however a little misused in practise. Oftentimes, the "evil" options are options that would've been reasonable in MC's position. 

Voice acting wise, out of curiosity, I checked out both dubs. I have to say the female actor did a better job emotively. However, both actors to an extent sound a little, robotic?, in their delivery. I'm willing to believe this is a stylistic choice to an extent, them being game characters an all. However I would've liked to see a more obvious change in both sound and expressiveness when they're out of the game, but instead it appears more subtle and gradual, almost unrecognisable. Some lines were delivered with great emotion, but I do feel the performance overall could've used an improvement(should this not have been a stylistic choice). The glitchy sequence I feel overused the glitchy-ness of the voices just by a smidge, it made the situation a little funny which unfortunately diminishes it's creep factor. 

My biggest qualm, though, is the lack of adequate content warnings for what happens ingame. As of writing this, and before I had played the game, both the in-game warning and game page warnings had been "suggestive situations". I don't think this fully emphasises how far the game goes. Instead, I believe the game should not only expressively warn that there will be nudity, but also add an SA warnings as well. Here is my reasoning as to why; not only does LI lay on top of MC NAKED, but this is also done without any consent from MC. Shortly afterwards, they comment on MC's possible lack of control, and then make/attempt to make yet another forceful advance, even if this just a kiss. Later on in the game, MC is essentially drugged and given the context of these prior occurences, I think drugging should also be a TW. I myself have been fortunate enough to not have experienced SA and it was enough to make me really uncomfortable, I can't imagine how an actual victim could be affected by this without proper warning. 

That aside, I also think the intro sequence with the title screen ought to not happen everytime one goes to the title screen; it gets annoying after a couple times. I also found about 2 non-game -breaking bugs, but I will use the thread to comment on those. 

Overall, 3/5

(+1)

It’s okay, the demo is pretty ancient at this point anyways, and I’m already well aware of how badly it needs a remake, haha. There just isn’t much point in doing that at the moment because the project is currently on hold while I finish other projects, and when I do come back to actively working on this one again, I will need to pretty much remake the entire thing from scratch for a bunch of different reasons x3

One is because it’s waaaaay behind the current version of Naninovel that I’m using. It was one of the first things I made when I got Nani a few years ago, so I didn’t know anywhere near as much as I do now about how to use the software. Many of the niggles in this old demo can easily be fixed just by using a more up-to-date version of Nani now I know how to do more with it :3

But updating the project files to the latest version of Nani will break pretty much everything in the demo + I’m gonna have to recast voice actors (already covered the reasons behind that in past comments/posts, so I won’t repeat myself cos it’s a loooong story >.<), so I might as well just completely start over with it when the time comes!

Anyways, thanks for choosing to check out the demo anyhow! I’m glad you like the music and atmosphere in general :3 There will be a lot more original music in the eventual full game, as I now make full OSTs for my projects. The demo only has a few original tracks because I had only recently started dabbling in making music back then x3

There is indeed an explanation later on in the story regarding how Castor/ia leaves the game, but I won’t say what it is cos it would spoil major stuff further down the line x3 Just know that it’s covered eventually, haha.

Actually, the reason that you can’t do much with the AI branch of the story (and also why so many choices are blocked off in general) is that there are a lot of features and routes planned that were impossible to showcase in the demo, sadly.

Basically, I had this even shorter demo originally cos I made it in under 1 month for Winter VN Jam. Then Manly randomly did a playthrough of that outta nowhere much later after I’d released the demo as a self-contained chapter of a much larger project that I put on hold, but with Manly’s video came an influx of eyes on the project, and that put me in a bit of awkward position when people started assuming that what Manly played was all there was. A worrying number of people who saw the video thought that was the end of the story >.< Or they assumed that the game was all about/only about Castor/ia, and that was never my intention.

My plan was to start Castor/ia’s story and end it at a point where it was self-contained to make it tie up nicely for the jam I was making it for while leaving it open to continue at a later date. I kinda got swamped with people asking if there was gonna be more, and I just wasn’t expecting so many people to suddenly look at the project when it was in a state that I wasn’t particularly proud of >.<

So, to try and give people a better idea of the direction I was hoping to take the project in, I tried my best to put together a remade version of the demo that clearly showed there would be more character routes and features, in the hope that all the questions would stop x3 It was very rushed. I realised it would be frustrating to keep encountering blocked-off paths, but it was better than constantly being asked the same questions over and over again because I was really struggling to keep answering. 

The demo that’s currently on here to download is more like a working copy of my old project files with parts blocked off because there wouldn’t be any point pursuing them when they aren’t written yet >.< They’re literally just there to show that there are things in the game other than Castor/ia x3

But like I said, it was super rushed because I just wanted to get something out there as fast as I could to stop all the misunderstandings that kept happening after Manly’s video.

If it wasn’t for the fact that the entire thing needs remaking from scratch, I would update it to make it much more polished. As it stands though, that would be far too time-consuming, so sadly, it’s stuck in the super rough state that it is until I’m actively working on the project again :( 

It all boils down to the fact that when I made the original demo, I wasn’t expecting anyone to play it >.< I couldn’t have anticipated all the attention it would get from Manly randomly playing it x3 And I’m extremely grateful for that :3 It’s just that it was never really ready to be viewed by a larger audience, and still isn’t now really, haha. It’s not even remotely to the same sort of standard as my more recent full releases T_T

But yeah, that’s that explained anyhow, haha.

As for content warnings, that sort of falls under a similar issue as above >.< When I first made this, as far as I was aware, people weren’t making especially detailed content warnings and triggers for their projects, or at least, I hadn’t come across that in any of the stuff I was playing. Of course, times have changed, and I do now include detailed content warnings and trigger information in all of my recent projects. I put larger lists in-game, and on the game pages here on itch. I put a main list that is visible by default, followed by an expandable dropdown list that’s far more detailed (but contains spoilers), covering everything I can think of.

Again, that’s because it’s something I’ve learned how to do more recently.

In the past, I had no idea you could even make hidden dropdowns on itch pages >.< So all of my older games, like this one, are somewhat lacking in the level of detail for content warnings, and I do absolutely intend to rectify that at some point, it’s just I haven’t had the time to do it yet >.< It does need doing for all of my older projects though!

The problem is, I’m just one person who gets very easily overwhelmed (I have ASD >.<), so it can take me a while to get around to ticking off tasks on my giant (and seemingly neverending) to-do list :( 

Nowadays, I use a specific resource to help me compile my big lists of warnings/triggers which is quite comprehensive and includes a lot of stuff I would never even think to mention. 

Back when I first started making games, people seemed to just be using warnings similar to like what you see for films or when starting a Netflix show (just like 3-5 vague bullet points), so I just did the same. It’s a tough one because, of course, I would never want to hurt anyone who encounters my stuff >.< but I also had folks tell me in the past that even a vague warning kinda spoiled their enjoyment of some of my stories because it sort of acted like a spoiler. 

I’m not sure about including nudity as a warning though since it’s only a topless sprite with censored nudity/no genitals on show, as PEGI says that sorta thing can even be in games rated 12 >.< Even PEGI 16 says it covers erotic nudity or sexual intercourse without visible genitals. And that in general, “depiction of nudity in a non-sexual context does not require a specific age rating.” As far as I can remember, when the characters are briefly naked, there isn’t any sexual stuff going on. Heck, the nakedness is even there specifically to represent innocence and rebirth into a new world. However, I do completely agree that drugging needs to be added when I update the lists!

It’s interesting that you mention how an actual victim of SA could be affected though because I am one myself.

In fact, I’ve endured more non-consensual sexual experiences than I have consensual ones throughout the course of my life! I'm actually asexual/demisexual myself, but that was hardly going to matter to the people who chose to abuse me. That’s one of the many perils of being an autistic woman >.< especially as a teen/young adult. I was extremely gullible and easy to take advantage of. By the time I realised what was going on, it was too late.

Despite that, I don’t find I’m ever harmed in any way by fictional content covering the sorts of experiences I’ve had in reality. Sure, the odd scene in something might bring up a bad memory or two, but it passes in a flash and I’m no worse off for it. I know that won’t be the case for everyone though! I just wanted to point out that when you mention how a victim might feel, I am one of those victims.

I guess that’s partly why triggers/warnings are such a contentious issue because everyone is so different >.< It’s impossible to know what might hurt one person and not even remotely impact another.

I’m just the sort of person who doesn’t really get triggered by anything in fictional content despite my past being filled with enough trauma and abuse that I could curate an entire gallery of horrors x3 And as a gamer in her thirties, I’ve played my fair share of games that just straight-up slapped that sorta stuff in my face with no warning whatsoever. For me personally, I find my brain just completely separates fictional content from anything that’s ever happened to me in reality. Like I said, I realise everyone is different though :3

I would like to hope that if someone finds something even remotely triggering or making them uncomfortable in some way, regardless of whether they've seen warnings or not,  they would just disengage with that piece of media immediately >.<

Being able to create hidden dropdown lists on the game page is a real blessing when it comes to that sort of thing because it means it’s up to each individual as to whether or not they want to view the fully detailed list and be prepared at the cost of also being spoiled, or to just heed the main warnings without going into any detail :3

As a player, I personally prefer all content warnings to be hidden/revealable, as I don’t want any spoilers whatsoever for stuff I’m about to play cos that completely ruins the experience and immersion for me.

But yeah, whenever I actually have a chance, I plan to put those detailed dropdowns on all of my older project pages that don’t currently have them! It just might take a while because, as usual, I’m completely swamped with stuff and struggling to stay on top of things >.<

As for the intro sequence, I know how to edit that sorta thing now :D Again, it’s just a case of literally not knowing at the time how to code it in a way that avoids playing the full sequence every time, haha. Now that I have the knowledge, I can implement an instant-loading version of the title screen when backing out of menus and stuff :3

Cheers again for checking it out!