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(1 edit)

First off I'll clarify that the AI backgrounds are temporary and it's stated so in the opening.  I'm paying an actual artist for BG assets, it just takes time to produce it.  I just wanted a build for demo day for criticism on the text mostly.

>describing the girls in detail
I mean, it's a visual novel.  The MC usually describes the things he sees giving insight on how the MC is thinking.  Antennae talk is for a reason related to her backstory which is going to be in the full version.

>Advertisement of Christianity
About 65% of the people reading this so far haven't been Christian and they didn't have a problem with the level of Christianity in a Christian visual novel.  Could you be more specific about the things you didn't like?  I won't stop shilling Christianity in it, but if you think it's proselytizing or something, that could be a different problem.

>name saves
This is just the renpy system

>background inconsistencies
all temporary placeholders

>no breakfast
It's part of the story that the MC is lazy.  Going down the tomboy dragon girl's route will lead to a self-improvement route

>harpy on the basketball team
No, she's a cheerleader.  They play basketball in gym class, but she never flies

>class has more Christian advertising
It's literally a Catholic school.  These are the kinds of things they teach and I got the books from an official Catholic school's book list

>Gabriel is good at things
He's a self insert like most MCs and he's average at basically everything.  Literally jack of all trades, master of none.  Self inserts aren't particularly deep characters usually.

>Gym in America and mixed
Yeah, lots of times gym in America is lazy except sometimes when the gym teacher feels like making everyone do track or dodge ball or something.  Combined girls and boys is rare, sure, but this is a vn.  It also has monster girls in it.

>Book choices are religious
It was an assignment, no my fault if you didn't pay attention to that part.  If you follow Eva's route in the library instead of Clovers she'll offer some non-religious books too

>Mc has various interests
Yeah, you're not lying when YOU as the player want to focus on one to talk about.  The MC has a history of trying a lot of things but not having a favorite.  In VNs, you decide what the MC cares about most during the route you're playing in order to go down the routes of the girls you like.

>MC is perfect buy you have a problem if he has a bad diet
Yeah, even if it's minor, nothing about him is perfect, just average

>MC lies, this is not okay
I thought you had a problem with perfect MCs?  I'm confused now.  YOU assumed he was a perfect Christian after all

>Rock, Punk, Emo and Goth is evil
Again, your assumption.  I like darker music too.  She'll literally a goth vampire girl

>Advertising Christianity in the dorms
Not my fault you're ignoring the assigned homework, but it's also your choice to skip the Christianity in a Christian VN

>Eva is shy
Unfortunately, that's just the only sprite I have.  She will be written to be more of a bratty tsundere, and the dere part is shy.

>Aria doesn't like dances
Goths usually don't like school functions.  Could you imagine a school hosting a goth band?  Neither can she

>Christian shilling
Yeah, again though that's going to be a thing because it's one of the only pro-Christian VNs around.  The only problem I'd have with it is if it's actively proselytizing rather than evangelizing.  If it's browbeating "atheist bad, Christian good" that could be a problem, but if it's saying "Christianity is a good alternative to the nihilism that everyone else is pedaling right now" then it's not a problem to me.  I do have most of the girls in various religious states:  Protestant, "spiritual but not religious or even Christian", atheist, devout Catholic, and pagan.  Of course Christianity wins out in the end because that is what this is, just like 95% of anime/vns are just "might is right" or "my beliefs as the hero are right over the bad guy's beliefs because power of friendship" or something empty like that.

If anything here I've said is misrepresenting what you meant, please clarify.  I want to take any good advice I see and have already implemented some advice to make it better, including being more inclusive to other viewpoints, so long as it doesn't completely contradict the main point of the VN.  Thanks for taking the time to read and review!

>About 65% of the people reading this so far haven't been Christian and they didn't have a problem with the level of Christianity in a Christian visual novel.  Could you be more specific about the things you didn't like?  I won't stop shilling Christianity in it, but if you think it's proselytizing or something, that could be a different problem.

I don't have a problem with the amount of Christianity in it, just that it seems to portrait Christianity as the absolute perfect State.  Basically every Time it talks about anything related to that it seems to be as tho its talking about how great it is to be Christian and how everything is so good with that. 

>It's part of the story that the MC is lazy.

The only mention or feel of lazyness comes from the Breakfast. Morning Workout, Prayers during Shower, always on Time, curious about others, always trying to socialize, tries to do their Homework to make up for the shift in Time, all of that reads like the total opposite of being lazy. 

>It was an assignment, no my fault if you didn't pay attention to that part. 

I recall something like that, must've slipped through all the preaching.

>Yeah, you're not lying when YOU as the player want to focus on one to talk about.  The MC has a history of trying a lot of things but not having a favorite.  In VNs, you decide what the MC cares about most during the route you're playing in order to go down the routes of the girls you like.

The Issue with this I have is, that despite me deciding the MC likes Books as a hobby, everytime they themselves talk about their Hobbies, its always about Videogames. If I decide on Books, they should talk about how they read Books in their Freetime, not about how they played Games.

>Unfortunately, that's just the only sprite I have.  She will be written to be more of a bratty tsundere, and the dere part is shy.

I mistook the Character then. I thought Eva is supposed to be shy and reclusive, hiding behind her Books.

>I thought you had a problem with perfect MCs?  I'm confused now.  YOU assumed he was a perfect Christian after all

I do, its fine if he lies, but throughout the whole Story he is depicted as the perfect Christian, so it feels odd when suddenly he's ok lying. What I'm trying to say is that the talk about Christianity in this feels artificially good. I'm not saying it can't be a good Thing or that you can't be a happy Chrisitan, but reading through every Text in this always seems like it only portraits a perfect imaginary World. I can understand if the School teaches majorly or only the good Sides, but even the interaction between Students, even if they're supposed to be more of a raised Christian not devoted Christian like the PlayerCharacter, seem to only talk about how great it is being Christian. 

>Rock, Punk, Emo and Goth is evil

Thats an assumption I took based on the Cliche of older Christians assuming that. Since as a Musiclover Aria should differentiate between those Genres and not lump then all together into one. But instead she just puts it all into one Basket. This just feels odd for a Music loving Character, especially one thats into those Genres.

>Goths usually don't like school functions.  Could you imagine a school hosting a goth band?  Neither can she

Its not about hating the School Function, Its about loving Music and hating the big Music related school Function.  It'd be similar to her not choosing MusicClass but Art, just because Music-Class doesn't sing Punkrock in a Catholic School.

> The only problem I'd have with it is if it's actively proselytizing rather than evangelizing.  If it's browbeating "atheist bad, Christian good" that could be a problem, but if it's saying "Christianity is a good alternative to the nihilism that everyone else is pedaling right now" then it's not a problem to me.

Which is basically the Core issue I have. I understand wanting to portrait it as a good alternative, I have nothing agains that. And I agree on that it can be a good alternative. But this doesn't read like that. It reads like every opportunity that talks about Christianity or Religion is a suptle Advertisment trying to lure me in. You don't actively badtalk other Alterantives as far as I recll, but you're constantly overpraising Christianity. Like if you're reading a Book about something completely unrelated, like maybe Flowers or something, and at every Opportunity the Author just goes "This Flower is very Beautiful. Like the Face of God, which changed my Life by the Way. If you open your Heart to them, you too could see the Light." And then continues on a page long Loveletter instead of talking about the Flower in Question.

I understand that its a Christian Novel, and that it obviously plays a huge Part. But the Way it gets portrayed just feels over the Top and too perfect. Just like when someone tells you that his new Soap is going to remove all your Issues with a single Swipe. You just know that you'll still have to scrub a bit, even if its a really good Soap. And I think it'd read less like advertising if you somehow showed that a bit more. That yes, Christianity can be a good Alternative, and that throughout the Story the PlayerCharacter becomes a more devoted Believer or whatever and everything ends out well, but that its not just because he suddenly woke up and decided to be a good Christian today, but that the Road has some ups and downs, that he had to work on it himself at some Times. I'm assuming a lot of this comes from not being American, as far as I know its pretty different in Terms of how Christianity is seen and/or taught overseas, especially in actual Christian Families, and of course the Facts that I don't play VNs, and haven't been raised very Religious, more like completely non-religious. 

Still, I don't think its about the Message itself you're trying to convey, but more about how it is conveyed. 

I'm sorry, this probably comes of very differently from how I intend it to, I'm not trying to badmouth anything or anyone here, especially not your Religion, I'm just trying to say that the Way it is showcased may be a bit to perfect, instead of what is showcased. Maybe that'd be different in the full Game when the different Routes are explored more, or in a Route with one of the Girls that isn't as devoted as I think Eva is supposed to be. Sorry.

( Also the initial Post might be offputting due to me being ESL, and especially becoming more and more frustrated with feeling like I'm in a big Advertisement then in a Game the longer it went on. That'd probably led to a more sarcastic undertone later on, when I talked about lumping all the Music Genres into one big evil Pool, or the perfect Christian PlayerCharacter who is then still constantly lying)

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>Music lover Aria should differentiate between genres

She was being asked what genres she plays and lists them as four different genres.  I'm not sure what you're getting at

>at every Opportunity the Author just goes "This Flower is very Beautiful. Like the Face of God, which changed my Life by the Way. If you open your Heart to them, you too could see the Light." And then continues on a page long Love letter instead of talking about the Flower in Question.

I feel that this is very disingenuous.  The only time that Christianity is outright praised is in the religious literature class or inside of the books that are literally quoting Christian authors.  Outside of that, it's just the MC trying to be a good Christian.  You'll have to quote me anything more specific that comes across this blatantly sickeningly sweet and flowery

>the amount of it is overbearing

Even so, I'll still keep it in mind and lump it into consideration with what everyone else says.  If enough people feel that it's too in your face and not enough people feel it's just right or too little, then I'll make accommodations for it to be less in your face, or at least space them out a lot more with more slice of life character interactions, but I already removed some "perfect Christian MC moments" that I'm thinking of reserving for another character anyways.  The MC already feels like a lukewarm Christian to me who doesn't do a lot, but he IS self-conscious about that not that he's at a Catholic school.  That's how I'm intending it to come off as anyways.  It might also be because so much of our life is secular that having a thought a day about religion can seem like a lot when even in the past 150 years every thought might have been guided by religion.

>apologizing for criticism

Don't worry about it.  I wouldn't be in AGDG if I couldn't handle criticism so criticize away!