Welp. It took a few years, but I finally bit the bullet and made an itch.io account for this comment.
First things first: Wow. Absolutely incredible job, to everyone involved.
I’ve been following Minotaur Hotel since its first build’s release on itch.io (god, that feels like ages ago, huh?), and I’ve been waiting excitedly for 0.5 since 0.4 first came out. While you guys and your previous builds left me with faith that 0.5 would be good, I couldn’t have possibly expected 0.5 to floor me as much as it did. I could talk about this for ages, but I’ll limit myself to a few(ish) areas I feel this build resonated with most for me (also, given the nature of this thread, looooots of spoilers).
In regards to the general plot/story: the developments regarding P, Argos/Dominikos, and Hermes felt super satisfying. There were more than enough hints that something was up, but figuring out exactly what was going on with each of them and how their situations were related to one another was excellent to piece together. It made that scene near the end when they crashed the re-naming celebration so much more tense! Having all those threads come together so (almost) disastrously was wild shit and I loved it.
As usual, the art was great! Something I’ve always loved about this VN is how expressive the characters are, and that continues to be just as great (if not better!) in 0.5. The updated sprites (especially Asterion’s) and Dominikos’s frightened expressions really stuck with me. Loved the new backgrounds, too! Also, I’m extremely gay and there were cute guys to look at. A+.
The romance in this patch felt really soft, and I mean that in a good way! It wasn’t all fluff, as Asterion has a lot of complicated feelings to work through, but it still felt very cozy, I guess. Asterion and the MC’s relationship was progressing in a way that felt natural and right (kind of related, but Kota’s scenes with both Asterion and the MC were really sweet, too). Plus, it offered some much-needed respite to the more harrowing stuff going on (particularly some of the darker topics in the Hinterlands, which was good in its own right— but I’ll get to that). Also GOD finally the kiss. The tension. It hurt me.
Where the build really shined most to me, though, were the characters. To be honest, I was wary starting 0.5 knowing how much Hinterlands content was going to be in it. My initial fears were that it was going to serve as a distraction from the main story with characters I didn’t know about or care for, and I am incredibly happy to be wrong. Seriously, Oscar and P’s characters were so much more intricate than I thought, and they have great chemistry together whenever they show up. Seeing how they each responded to the different (usually Not So Great) locations in the Hinterlands, and how they responded to each other, and watching those interactions change as they grew closer together... great stuff. Between them, and all the stuff with Dominikos’s role as an Argos, and the aforementioned romance stuff with Asterion... god, if the characters in this VN were good before, they’re definitely top-notch to me now.
Really, the only thing that comes to mind for personal criticism would be simile repetition (the “like hummingbirds at the back of your head” one comes to mind, for example), but that honestly feels more like a nitpick than anything else. Could 100% just be my personal preference, too.
You guys have done absolutely stellar work with this most recent patch, and I hope y’all are able to take as much time as you need to rest. I’m really looking forward to hearing more about what you guys do in the future— thank you, truly, for making such an incredible experience.