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Firstly, finally got to play through the whole, complete game, and MAN was it worth it! I can see how you grew in all ways, Carrot, as the arcs went on, and just how the characters evolved.

I loved the ending in which Iggy, after letting others dictate his whims, finally takes control, not just from others, but from me, the player. I also love how that gets foreshadowed when given a false choice as to whether to get on the boat. I also like how no, the characters keeping all their future knowledge and experience doesn't magically make everything better. The whole unintentional erection incident which led to Genzou's blinding still happens. Iggy still lashes out at Gidget for winning the coding challenge. But in all cases, they listen to each other. Iggy is WAY more of a true friend this time. Genzou finally learns how to let go of Iggy. Orlam, while it's clear he and Genzou will never get along, finally has friends, real connections. Bucks - oh man, how she busts herself and Hunar out of their wedding. SO in-character for her! Oh, and of COURSE Orlam is a businessman. (I could write up a whole fan-fic short about how Orlam brings in a misbehaving employee treating those under them like pigs for the slaughter and verbally rips them a new one as only Orlam can.)

I also like when Iggy enters...I dunno, the Wishing Tree's inner sanctum? We finally get to see what everyone wished for, what Iggy's first wish was, and while seeing Saydie die along with the Tree was quite sorrowful, given the bizarre, supernatural circumstances, and given how Sadie is effectively being kept in a strange sort of undeath, I'd do the same thing as Iggy. She needed to finally rest in peace.

Now my one big criticism is this: why is the Wishing Tree, a maternal entity as old as mankind itself, if not older, holding the same views as Gidget's mother? The story leading up to the Tree's proper introduction to the characters seemed like it was just sick and tired of its wishers' hypocrisy, among many other vices, to the point of madness (what with wishes being her life-blood), when it lashed out to the characters, she'd point out all the flaws in their wishes. Orlam? You wanna make the rules, but all you're doing is running is running from the rules meant to help you find happiness - not to mention sealing yourself off from all aspects of life, even the good parts. Gidget? Your true self is a man, but you sacrifice it all for your mother's flawed view of the world and a pointless, destructive obsession over a biological man who can never satisfy you the way you OR your mother wants. Genzou? You want to see with Iggy so badly, you're willing to be blinded by his own emptiness to the point of sharing it and its active harming those who truly care for you - like Orlam. Bucks? You want your daughter dead...how do you think you got into Wonderland these last six times (at least)?! Iggy, though? The Wishing Tree's diatribe against him fits perfectly (and is a nice fourth-wall break).

OK, with that out of the way, but before I get into my non-review questions: final verdict? My good carrot, this is a masterpiece. Full stop.

This is worthy of a commercial remake. Get the money and team you need to bring the rest of the arcs up to Arc 5's level, make original backgrounds, music, etc.; hire on voice actors, like asexual Michael Kovak and pansexual Elsie Lovelock (my personal choices for Iggy and Gidget, respectively); and get more semi-animated and animated scenes in.

Okay, for the question and one 'critique' that's so minor it's a nitpick:

Why are the scenes of Orlam's Event Horizon-level flesh-orgy and Sadie's mangled corpse censored even with censorship off? I realize these scenes can easily be EXTREMELY triggering, if not upsetting and/or disturbing, but I feel those who are willing to brave the depravity should be permitted to see the images in all their horrid detail as, in context, they cement, respectively, just how completely uncaring and unhinged Orlam has become without his heart, and just how far the Wishing Tree is willing to go to get her 'perfect' wish.

Also, I don't know if this is just a limitation of Ren'Py or what, but in the scenes with false choices, the player could still be made to think that they can make a decision, but no matter which they select, they get the same scene, complete with options in the background. Just something to enhance those scenes' bait-and-switch.

Thanks for reading, Carrot, and I look forward to your next endeavor!

(-1)

(my sincerest apologies for the delayed reply 😭)

Ahhhh I'm really happy you enjoyed seeing everything get wrapped up! There was so much build-up leading up to this and so many different aspects that needed to converge... in some ways I feel as though I'm quite lucky that I was able to make everything come together as well as I did, especially considering how much the story and characters themselves evolved throughout production. (Perhaps a sign that I should actually outline things when crafting a larger story... but then again, I think I'd lose too much motivation then, as half the fun for me is discovery while I'm writing and being pleasantly  (or sometimes not-so-pleasantly) surprised at the directions the story takes lol.) So much of myself also ended up coming out in surprising ways through the characters and their stories. And this made many parts of the ending quite emotional for me to work on.

Hahaha I wouldn't say the tree is exactly like Gidget's mom 🤣 Gidget's mom would certainly not care about violence and drama and would actually very much encourage "non-innocent" behaviors if it meant Gidget would give her grandchildren and be her idea of a "perfect child." Though certainly some of the same ideals do carry over in that fashion. I think with the tree though it's more this idea of pure innocence, and with Gidget then its issue is less so Gidget's gender struggles and more so the focus this then brings on specific body parts, which in the tree's mind, automatically equates to lost innocence. At least that's what was going through my mind as I was working on that part 🤣 Though I did keep quite of the ending sequences somewhat vague on purpose as I never want to force interpretations and would rather have people take away their own stories and ideas from it. I just enjoy when stories don't answer every single question and let you get lost in your own theories. I really love the "hot takes" you've written here that the tree could give each of them though. They all feel extremely on point hahaha.

"This is worthy of a commercial remake." --> Weep that's so incredibly kind... As much as I would love to be able to really go all out and do something like that, I think I just don't really have the heart or mental capacity... I am too anxious and easily overwhelmed of a person, so I don't really want to work with money and hiring people and having to manage all those things 💦 I think it might kill me LOL I feel like the only way something like that could ever happen is if someone else wants to do it and has the money and influence and know-how and then I could just be a consultant or something 🤣🤣🤣  Maybe I am just too timid and weak LOL But I'm really happy you think the game is high enough quality that it would even be worthy of something like that. It really means a lot to hear 💕

Ahhhh... about the censored CGs yeah... for the first one in particular I received feedback that I should tone it down. And I was worried that completely redrawing a toned-down version wouldn't have the same effect, so I chose to hard-censor it instead. For the second one, I decided myself but for similar reasoning to hard-censor it, as it felt unnecessary to show the full extent of it for the impact to still be there, especially since I still have the written descriptions. I realize some people might not be happy with this decision, but I made the choices both from an idea of not wanting to just be extreme for extreme's sake, and also because of the audience I've cultivated around the game.

At any rate, I was really happy to hear your thoughts about everything and I'm glad that you've stuck through to the end of this and have enjoyed seeing it all play out! I've really enjoyed reading all your commentary along the way and hearing your thoughts and interpretations for all the different story beats. Thanks so much for playing and always leaving such long and wonderful comments! It means so much hearing from you again now that this thing has finally come to completion! 💕