Sorry for the late reply! I wanted to replay the game again so I could give the most accurate feedback possible, but my laptop broke. 🥲 Had to borrow my wife's Mac, RIP.
So, first off I have to say that I'm very impressed by how engaged you are with fans! I think it's a big deal when a creator hears some constructive feedback and actually wants to work to improve the areas that fans are struggling with while still maintaining the integrity of their creative vision. It speaks very well of your character and makes me even more excited to see this game completed; because I know that you and the team are working extra hard to make this game the best version of itself possible! Thank you~ I'm very glad to hear that you'll be implementing some illusory choices, and I can't wait to experience them firsthand!
As for ways to make the pixies seem less suspicious...the only suggestion I really have is to possibly make the pixies a bit less hostile towards Sev in the beginning. While I can see that that is simply their personalities (toned down even, yikes haha), the most red-flag aspect to me is how cruel they sometimes act in comparison to Shyloh; who (while definitely somewhat creepy) was always kind to Sev in their interactions. Some of the pixies (Helios and Merka in particular) were a bit too aggressive in the way they speak to Sev at times. This definitely makes sense in hindsight, but at the time had me shaking my head at Sev: 'Honey, why are you taking their verbal abuse when baby boy is right over there? 😔'.
However, I do want to emphasize that I don't think it's completely necessary to change the way they speak to Sev. I think adding the illusory choice to go with the pixies at the start will go a long way towards reducing the impact of the red flags they're initially giving off. On subsequent playthroughs, I was picking up on hints and dialogue that I was simply unable to in my first playthrough due to the fact that I was focusing so heavily on my frustration with the lack of a choice at what felt like a very pivotal scene. For example: in my first playthrough I found it very suspicious that the others weren't even slightly concerned with helping Helios when Shyloh grabbed him, but on my second playthrough, I realized that Helios literally explains why afterwards! I just wasn't paying attention the first time because I was hyperfocusing on my frustration. 🤦♀️
I hope this all makes sense; if there's anything you're confused by, please don't hesitate to ask me to elaborate! This ended up much more long and rambly than I intended, haha. Anyway, thanks for hearing me out! Each time I play this demo, I get more and more excited for the full release! I will definitely be playing every single route at least once, but Shyloh's will absolutely be getting played at least a dozen times, I'm calling it now 💖