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Tsunogami4 years ago

First, I’d like to say that Messy Academy is the best diaper-related visual novel game I know of and I’m considering becoming a supporter, which is kind of radical for me, but to me what you are doing is true art, not just more boring porn. However, I had some thoughts I’d like to share, and I recognize I’m just one opinion among many so nothing may come of this, but I wanted to say something anyway. I’m pretty gender fluid bordering on trans and have always identified more with my feminine side in daily life and so when it comes to VN games or manga/anime I tend to automatically identify more with the female characters and see things from their point of view. This is why I struggle to enjoy “harem” style stories because I can almost never identify with the male lead. I just fail to feel much of a connection to male characters. So, when I play Messy Academy I feel like the proverbial square peg in a round hole because in real life I feel much more like Miki, or Juliet, or Erika, but I don’t feel like Brandon at all. He and I simply don’t get along! I recognize that for a VN to be commercially successful it has to primarily cater to the widest possible audience, which I assume are males who do identify more with Brandon’s character, so I understand the direction the design of the game has gone from that perspective. Having said that, I would feel much more emotionally connected to the characters if there was an option to play as a female character in place of Brandon. This would also come with two additional benefits in terms of game play structure that I can see. First it would provide a way to start the game without a need for the whole hacking of the school’s computer to change the student records thing which would simplify the storyline, and second I think it would also provide a way to play Erika’s route romantically even if the characters are genetically-related as it would make the whole incest problem not so off-putting. 

 

Anyway, that’s my 2 (or maybe even 3) cents. I hope nothing I say offends; I just really wish there was a way to play the game as a girl too! Btw, Miki, and Erika are my favorite characters and I struggle to decide between them, but I like several others as well. I think you did a very nice job with character design. I’m sorry this is such a long comment! I looked for a way to send it to you somewhere else but didn’t see any obvious way of doing so. Thank you for all your hard work! 

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Princess Bridget4 years ago

No offense by any means! :P Thanks for the well thought out and well said mentions! <3 We hope you'll continue to enjoy the game and if you do choose to support us, we'd be very welcoming to that as well. ^^

I think this is one of our most requested brought up suggestions is to look into offering a female choice for the protag in the story and I'll say we are looking into it. But it might possibly take a bit of time before we do begin handling it, as we're trying our best currently to keep our focus less split up as possible and come back later towards the end of development with additional things.

With that said though, we have been thinking about it and how to possibly tackle it. Without trying to hype it up and fail on our delivering of it, we're talking about two options possibly to run with. Option (A) would be simply offering the player the choice between Brandon or a new female character who roughly follows through events of the game fairly similarly to him. Option (B) would be instead, offering players to play through the game as Erika as the female protag and tackle things from her point of view.

We still have much to think about and figure out about said options of course, as we have to wonder if the female protag option would cover options to date the male cast only or if there's the path to date the other females. We'd have to figure how that would fit with Erika based on her character (no spoilers). When the time does come for this, we'd most likely engage with our fans/supporters across our social platforms to see what feels the best in terms of handling the dating aspect, etc.

Hopefully that leaves you feeling hopeful for the future of the project as it fleshes out more, but maybe not too over hopeful or hyped. As we don't want to over sell or over hype on something we can't deliver on, but this is one of our most requested things and so it's safe that we'll see something in regards to it. :P

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Tsunogami4 years ago

Thank you for the detailed response! I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one who feels similarly. And I do agree with you that the best economic and public opinion policy to follow here is to under-promise and over-deliver as opposed to the other way around. Both options A and B seem like the most logical to consider.  From the perspective of a player of the game I'm always interested in seeing a new character developed but I assume option B would take less time and money.  

I must confess that I like having a sister character as a route in the game. So if something like option B were implemented and I was Erika, then who would be my sister in the game then? Any Japanese-styled VN game worth the name needs to have a sister character right?? 

As for dating the male characters from a female perspective, its not that I'm against the idea as such, but I think that if such routes were to be created it might be best if they were treated as secondary options because at least from my perspective, forcing the female characters to interact romantically with the male characters no matter which gender the user plays the game as rather undercuts the potential of playing as a female character in the first place, and puts me kind of back in the same situation I'm in now just from the opposite viewpoint. To put it another way, if I don't like to play as a certain male character now, then I'm not going to be interested in having to date said character either. But in the end it's not my game and I don't want to seem like I'm trying to force my opinions onto anyone. I hope that perhaps by sometime next year or the year after that development will have progressed to such a point that these concepts will be in more active consideration.  

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jo.ez014 years ago

there's such a thing called "reverse harem"

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Princess Bridget4 years ago

Hm? If you're wondering if MA is a harem only or harem focused game. You choose one girl to date as you lead into their route.

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jo.ez013 years ago

Sorry, I was responding to what the dude or girl said. They didn't know that a reverse-harem is the term he/she meant to say.

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