Hey hey! I read your comment/review when I first got up this morning, and it gave me a huge smile to start the day (especially that last PS bit xD That made me laugh out loud!) Thank you so much for sticking with SR all the way through to the end + taking the time to share your thoughts on it afterwards, it's much appreciated :3

I'm super glad you felt slightly differently about the main 5 routes after playing through the hidden one, as one of my main worries with this project is that people may not feel like getting that far, which will end up leading to misunderstandings >.< I guess I probably shouldn't say too much on that subject in case I accidentally manage to spoil something xD but the main point is, the hidden route is pretty essential to the overall story of the game, so without going through it, people could draw some very different conclusions about the story, and about Kuro in general. So yeah, thank you very much for choosing to complete the story!

SPOILERS AHEAD

I'm happy to hear that the theme/reveal of the hidden route still managed to surprise you somewhat, cos I wanted to give the reader some hints throughout the other routes that something wasn't quite right, but I didn't really know if I was maybe giving too much away to the point that people might guess exactly what was going on. 

I don't know if you will have ended up reading any of the comments for possible clarification of anything since I'm only just getting a chance to write a response now, but if you did want to know the answers to a bunch of stuff related to the hidden route in more detail, I wrote quite a lot in a recent couple of comments in response to user Sayana34, and I think I also answered some stuff in earlier comments too :3 I would type out more stuff here, but I think I'd probably end up repeating myself a lot + rambling on like I usually do xD I hope you don't mind walls of text though, cos I'm still gonna respond to stuff I haven't covered before, haha.

I did cover the first main pairing of the hidden route with 26 + the Kuro who I tended to just refer to as the defeated/weary Kuro (the one whose throat you slit) in my reply to Sayana34, but I did kinda ramble a lot, so I'll try to summarise for a shorter answer x3 Basically, in my head, the Kuro who you go through the training with in the white room + slit his throat, is the "real" version of the Kuro you were with in the main 5 routes, BUT, only in my head xD I didn't say so in the story cos I couldn't decide if I wanted to state that as the absolute truth >.< Because in some ways I wanted those 5 main Kuro's to be various Kuro clones, rather than all the same one. So I guess the player can choose what they prefer to believe on that front x3 I'm sorry for killing them off so fast though! I mean, 26 technically survived by having some of her memories transferred to/becoming part of 339, haha, but I know it's not really the same thing. They were just kinda in the way when it came to wanting to tell 339 + 13's story >.< But yeah, if you wanna read a giant wall of text with more details, feel free to check out that other comment :3

In a roundabout way, Isaac's crazy plan kinda succeeded, though not really in the way he had intended. It was more like 339 + 13's sacrifice in order to save OG MC had the happy side-effect of creating the sort of weapon Isaac was trying to create. 13 definitely wasn't ideal for Isaac since he had essentially been discarded a long time ago. I guess 339 was closer to what he was hoping for in the MC (though he certainly didn't want all the non-compliance that came with 339 after what Raine did xD) I'm rambling again so I'll move on >.<

You're absolutely not an idiot for feeling the way you did regarding the switch to playing as OG MC with Shiro. I also covered the switch to them in my reply to Sayana34, as they pretty much said the same sorta thing as you regarding feeling that way towards playing as OG MC, haha. Now, I would love to be able to sit here and state that that was my intention to make the reader feel that way, but that would be a lie xD It's more like something that just happened by accident! >.< In a way, I'm kinda pleased that people feel somewhat detached from OG MC + Shiro's story at the very end. The way you put it, as though you're reading a story rather than living it, sorta seems like a fitting way for it all to end! I actually wish I had written it that way intentionally x3 I just like the fact that you can get into being the clones, but OG MC is like someone totally separate that you watch from afar, cos then it's like you're still one of the clones when it switches to OG MC, in the way that you've been transferred to her, and you're a part of her, but you're not her, you're a passenger rather than the driver.

 I get that it could be seen as a bad thing too though, and it's my fault for getting way too attached to 339 + 13 when I was writing their story. The pair of them wound up becoming more important to me than OG MC + Shiro, and I guess that ended up showing in my writing of OG MC's final story. To me, 339 + 13 were the true heroes of the story, and without them, there couldn't have been anything close to a happy ending for everyone else. I reckon if the pair of em were selfish, and hadn't sacrificed themselves, they probably would've been capable of saving the world as they were, just the two of em! Man, I'm rambling again xD As I said though, feel free to check out the other comments if you're not bored with my rambling by now and want to read more detail, haha.

I'm super happy you enjoyed the game overall anyhow :3 It sounds like you're a similar kinda player to me, haha, I can't play as a male protagonist either x3 usually cos I'm self-inserting when I read VNs, so a male protagonist just kills immersion for me! I'm probably not gonna be releasing a GxG version anymore, cos it's just too much work :( however, I probably will make a version with female Kuro where the protagonist is gender neutral (and the same with male Kuro x gender neutral protagonist to replace the BxB version.)

In regards to your PS, you might get what you wish for someday xD I have a lot of future plans for that character, but haven't quite worked out how I wanna execute em yet, haha. So all I can say for now is, that definitely won't be the last you hear from him x3

Thanks so much again for taking the time to write up your comment/review, and for your support in general, it means a hell of a lot to me <3 Stay safe + have a wonderful week! :3