I'm off the mindset she shouldn't be an LI, then again I'm sure we did have a similar mindset for some of the LIs early on. Cosy be cooking.
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So here I am again after trying this game out and writing a short comment a year ago. First off I will admit I did not give the game a proper chance the last time due to the infamous English translations, so dropped the game after the intro. But this time, I have completed everything on sandbox mode (I think). So here we go, a full review of the current game state (as of v0.2.2)
First off, I'll talk about the stuff users would be more interested in:
1. Plot is really good actually. One thing that I believe put off a lot of players is the confusing story at the start. For those of you who gave the game a go and are absolutely baffled, know that figuring out what the fuck happened at the beginning is a main plot point of the game. It is gradually revealed to us in breadcrumbs, and I think the author is doing a great job with this, the downside is it requires the players to be patient enough to get through quite a few quests to see this (which let's face it, most players aren't, including me a year ago xD )
2. Music is still fire. None of the usual copy-paste music we hear on many AVNs. I like that.
3. Characters. Well designed, good amount of intrigue, and not falling for the protagonist in a stupidly short amount of time (bar two exceptions).
4. Morgane.
5. Morgane, again.
6. Bugs, there are quite a few of them crawling around, but fortunately nothing that will ruin your day. But the author is fairly on top of any bug reports, especially on discord, so look to join it if you have feedback or bugs.
Now to address the cons/suggestions (may contain mild spoilers):
1. UI. Still as amazing as ever. It is clear a fair bit of effort has been put in here. Though I will recommend a few changes/additions.
> 1a. Cost of apps. Buying apps are understandable, but £50 for a map? Lol. I understand from a gameplay perspective, but it felt weird paying that much for a simple utility that admittedly, we won't be using a whole lot since the manual navigation is pretty easy if not faster than opening the map. I would say maybe make the map accessible via the main UI rather than through opening the phone? Like how the inventory is. If the convenience is really worth it then it could justify the funny price tag.
> 1b. Buying an app to access Skyrim inventory? Might make more sense to have an app for something like an online shop like Amazon or something to buy directly from. Otherwise, make some way for the inventory to be able to access the fridge and/or transfer between the two containers, because ultimately all I find myself using is the fridge at home, or the coffee machine at school, or just waiting the next day.
> 1c. The map. Its not a problem after playing the game and using the map for a while, but I think it could be worth putting a silhouette over accessible areas. Even without hovering the mouse over them. As we do not directly receive a notification what becomes accessible and when.
2. Although the music is good, transition at times can be too rapid. What I mean by this is, going from a sex scene to post-sex the music can change rather quickly. For example, in Nora's scene during the BJ the music was loud, and after ejaculation it just went quiet all of a sudden. If you wanted to transition to the next song, rather than just cutting it off, might be worth lowering the volume of the first song instead. Silence can be pretty loud after all, with or without sex.
3. The colouring has improved, as I nitpicked in my comment the last time, bright bits aren't too bright now. Only time I will say is a bit difficult to view, is the flashbacks. Having dark backdrops and the clouded effect makes sense, but visually it can be tricky to see what exactly the protagonist is seeing.
4. Animations. Its great that we have them but they do look a little bit clunky. Textures, characters and positions are good, just the actual moving aspect. But not too big a concern, this improvement should come as you work on the game further. One of my favourite AVNs (my very first too!) from the author of the AVN giant Eternum, Once in a Lifetime, also started with clunky animations. They also improved drastically over time. Not nitpicking seeing as this is your first AVN (I think?), but just pointing this out to remind you there's always room for improvement :)
5. Suggestion: Character list? Might be worth for returning players after new updates to see who's who. For those with the memory capacity of a goldfish like mine. Could either create it as a new app or integrate it into the quest list, just that this means instead of closing quests the way you currently do, you now have to add "there are no more quests left for this character this update" to every quest tab to keep them open.
6. Not very important atm, but down the lane, make use of call/message function? Or at least keep the message log/history to make it feel more like an actual messaging app. Not a big priority but oh well, why not?
7. I assume there is more to come down the lane in future updates, but currently there is a lot of explorable areas in commercial district for example, with nothing to do in them. Maybe have repeatable actions in some of them for sandbox mode. Or get us to that clothes shop :)
8. Finally, the big one. I know this has been a source of headache for awhile now but I think it will continue to be the biggest thorn on your side until remedied. English proofreading. There has been significant improvement since the early days of machine translating, but playing through v0.2.2 there still is quite a few awkward grammatical/spelling mistakes. I read from your discord that you have hired someone to cover this. Which is good. And I hope that as of the 0.2.2 release they are still in the process of fixing errors in the previous updates. Because some bits are written pretty well, others not so much. Remember, you're paying them, whip them if you have to if they're not already working on it. I can try to point out stuff on discord when I can, but I'll wait for the next few updates to see how that goes.
9. Morgane. Nothing wrong with her, the only con is that she's not yet wife.
And there we have it. Great game overall @VitaYok, definitely looking forward to what's to come. And just maaaybe, you might have tempted this AVN veteran to finally create a patreon account to support the hard work going on out there, when I get my paycheck end of the month
1. Cabin: For now while the main story is still presumably in the early stages, a simple wholesome activity like "watch tv" or "play games" to pass a time slot should be enough, alongside of course actions like "talk" where you can add more new sentences and lore with each update. Maybe later in the game different affection levels can produce different dialogue responses to the same questions? This is not that significant but just a little cool addition.
2. Showers: I can't remember if there was a limit or not to the number of times you can visit the showers before a time slot passes. I just remember spamming the showers once I discovered it, and then every now and then spamming again just to check new scenes. I would suggest, to avoid this, that you limit it such that after entering the shower once or twice, time slots move to the next. This encourages players to be less spammy and the showers will be more of something you check in every now and then when doing quests. I think the RNG is good. Since this isn't a one-time event you can't really get locked out of anything (other than the low-affection content like getting finisher'd by Lintar). And new scenes encourage people to use the showers every now and then, alongside the aforementioned limit.
3. Day cycles: Honestly I didn't even notice when playing. Though yes I fully agree it can be a bit tedious if for example an event required being somewhere on a "Thursday afternoon" and when I finally go one full week later thursday afternoon happens to launch another event automatically. Then again, the week cycle benefits you mention definitely are pretty good to have too. So I think as long as you minimise or ideally avoid making "go here on thursday afternoon" type of conditions, the change would be barely noticeable, and with the added benefits.
4. Update type: I agree with @dragonbackmike's comment. Both are useful to have. For chapters with big and exciting story content, say for example if Sabrina's visit to New Kassiopeia evolved into a dramatic fight to escape, then yes I think focused content to finish the 'arc' and develop the relationship with the LI(s) is good. However if its just a 'chill' content update like a quick visit with some lore and relationship developments, it'd be fair to spread out the attention a bit more so anyone seemingly lacking content (or if people want more content on a certain character) has the chance to catch up.
5. Lore dumps: I think its fine as it is, it wasn't too extensive (it gets wordy if you dive into the wiki but dialogue-wise it was alright). I mean, part of the whole experience is world building, that's why we have lore in the first place. What is in the game now is a lot of info, but that's kind of necessary at the start, I imagine its just a slow addition as we go for yet-to-be added lore. Dump the basic info about the world, and add more as the MC learns more (which is what you're already doing). The wiki is already quite well organised, just as long as its kept up to date with the new info I think its fine.
6. UI: I think it could look better, yes. But its not really the biggest issue. I'd say you can make small improvements across a few updates if you don't have the spare time to do it all in one. If I were to criticise the UI specifically, I would say it looks 'simple'. So it's not like unplayable or anything, but definitely could use some surgery.
Banger audio, personally not a big fan of the character sounds but that's subjective and the inclusion of it was worthy of praise.
Promising story, absolutely love the new gen UI. Though I would prefer having the text (on selection stuff) slightly larger.
Amazing designs and vibrance, but I would comment that the brightness is a bit high, so where there are white backgrounds I get flashbanged.
Only one thing stood out that is very jarring, and that's the english translation(?). I would try and get a proficient speaker to help proofread.
All in all, very very good stuff and definitely looking forward for more.
Good work! I will say that there are some minor plotholes and the MC isn't the most likeable at this point in time, with both the gang and his relationships with the LIs, he wants to be involved but doesn't want to involve them, but I'm slowly seeing that this is relevant to his growth, so hopefully when the plot unravels he can become the goat. At the moment I think he rushed into many relations without thinking of the consequences, so if this is to be a harem ending the aforementioned badassery needs to hit home hard.
The audiowork was superb though. And I definitely love the individuality of the characters, although I do think they fell for "Rudy" a bit too quick, given the whole jib of him at the start.
All in all, I did enjoy it. I do think the earlier content does need some upgrading in the future to kick this up a notch. But definitely looking forward to more, keep cooking ;)
Yeah I haven't tried Family at Home but both MCs in those were mentioned in this game. Its not necessary, but for other users I would recommend playing those first, this one seems to be the conjoining section for the 'lore'.
Edit: I have now finished all endings. Whew what a journey. So first things first, to address the above. No you don't need to play the previous games but I would still recommend it as it might help with understanding the story.
I played this game first, and honestly with no context the story was a clusterfuck at the beginning. You're thrown a bunch of characters that you seemingly already know or hit off with absurdly quickly. However as the story progressed onward this gap is remedied with multiple and CONSTANT interactions. Expect many, many animated scenes / renders back to back.
The story starts off hectic and honestly a jigsaw puzzle, then picks up the pace and draws you in, then midway it starts to feel like everything is speeding up (from the Halloween chapter), at this point I think the devs wanted to draw a conclusion quickly. You do notice things are a bit rushed. However, the endings are done beautifully, that I can assure you. All of them, there are 4 endings that I'm aware of. 3 Good and 1 somewhat neutral?
Content-wise you got a little bit of everything, you can opt away from characters you are not interested in. Most choices in this game is really just a matter of whether you want to see a scene or not, only few have actual consequences. There is, as you may have guessed from the author's other titles, family fun, but you can opt out of these if you so wish. The lewd scenes are a mix of renders/animated but for the latter they are voiced, by AI so not quite for everyone, myself included, and the in-game volume bars don't seem to change the volume so I had to manually mute my PC. Also to note about the UI, it is very laggy for some reason. Tip: use save for big decisions/breaks. Use quicksave for 'rollbacks'.
The grammar is a bit annoying at times but I believe this is due to machine translation. And near the end some sentences weren't even translated. But don't be discouraged, as long as your two last braincells have not been fried, you can piece 2 and 2 together and figure out the correct sentence pretty quickly.
Despite the pessimism, this game has quenched my boredom from browsing itch the past few days. This is not a blockbuster, but definitely one of those games you HAVE to have experienced.
Yalard - Magical Desire [Ver 0.3.9] comments · Posted in Yalard - Magical Desire [Ver 0.3.9] comments
This game is way underrated. I didn't know what I was getting into, saw the gif of the horn blowie and hopped straight in. Didn't even know the theme and named my character Wozart Friedenhein. I don't know why but it fit in unusually well with the plot. As another comment mentioned, love the comedy, absolutely golden, talking about the wargame summon for example. Also love the main LI personalities.
One thing I would comment on though, bar the minor bugs, and the fact that this game is seemingly nowhere near the end, is that the balance of content between main and side characters gets a bit blurry. For example, Helen doesn't get a lot of spotlight and can only be found for repeat events in one timeslot (as far as I played up until). Whereas characters like Mia or Natalie can almost classify as main characters, with the amount of content they get. Hey i'm not complaining about the latter, love the characters and their stories, but our main LIs needs more love.
Keep up the great work!