itch.io

The concept is intriguing! I love how you heavily and eagerly set the tone from the first ending. I finished the entire endings in one go, I cannot put it down like a page-turner book. The way you have to start the game over and over with different scenes that stacks up the tension and psychological horror of what to comes next is really something. The way you actually wrote the MC is well done! The characters don't feel flat at all. With that said, I love the True ending the most simply because it just ties everything up like a ribbon. 

I renamed the characters based on Attack on Titan (if you deeply know the anime/manga) characters simply because I thought it would go well based on the title: Eren being the MC, Christa being the MC's friend, and Mikasa being MC's girlfriend. By this pattern, I'm sure you've figured out who's Armin hehehe. It doubles the gaming experience lmaoo. 

I encountered no bugs or issues throughout the game, surprisingly, since I have quite a potato PC. Though the transitions and the flow of the text is a tad slow. Other than that, I had a great time with this game, worth playing after a long day of working. =v=

This game is a rollercoaster.  

The sprites was what got me to click on the game. Love the artstyle-- realistic with underlying uncanniness to it. 

When it's labeled as Dark Otome it convinced me to play the game right away. I expected twists and turns when it's labeled on my very type genre, but I didn't expected it will give me the whole spring (and red herring, my golly goo-goo, that first ending twist to unlock Doyle's story mode made me spin myself.)

Doyle's story is such a treat, and by that I mean it gave me the pieces of the cake that proven my suspicions that is all about him. From the very beginning, he was already sussy to me. I didn't actually expect him to be indeed a Yandere and reading his entire POV made my skin crawl. He felt real and disturbing--to the point I jumped out of my skin when the meta part pops out doing the deed twice. As someone who had finished Doki Doki Literature Club, it sent war flashbacks XD. The transition from game-like to meta-like was so on point it I almost went Alt-Tab out of the game. The unknown entity was a welcoming touch though, I read that it came from your other game and you intend to make that entity appear throughout other of your games and I think that's quite a nice meta-lore to add in to your games. 

Although I personally don't like Doyle, I love his characterization and how the voice actor did the lines in such a polarizing way that he made Doyle truly frightening at his worst, but at the same time sympathetic at his best and when he was being remorseful over what he'd done for/to Leah. What bugs me a bit is that there's little to no backstory for him, like, how did he became homeless or chose to be homeless? Just curious.

Ah, and speaking of crazy antics, Akuji's VA had also done an amazing job in creating a convincing character who is, well, alive and not alive either. It was so weird of him to be too chill and relax and being sunny as Leah going through a tough time (missing most of the days and acting as if everything that's happening to Leah is sort of a normal day by day thing to him whenever he comes back to "check" on her). Alternatively, Yandere Akuji also caught me off guard., I cannot believe that the voice I'm hearing is the same Akuji, hallucination or not.

And, OMAGHERED, Leah's voice acting is so great that I never saw the first ending coming. VA's choice to make her sound like a normal, average woman was pure genius. 

Last but not the least, the soundtracks. I wasn't aware they were originals until I checked the information again. Your compositions are all wonderful, my favorite being Apartment No.9 with vocals that I just discovered from your extras. It added to the haunting vibe I'm getting with the music: the dissonant-ish harmony that sounded as if the voices are the duality of her subconscious.

Evidently, I'm actually not fond of Yandere characters, especially in an Otome or Otome-ish setting, but this one is an exception where I enjoyed a whole lot. The plot twist is truly a plot twist and you delivered the endings with various payoffs.

My favorite ending has got to be the Letting Go (B), because I was rooting for Leah's individual happiness at that point and it's relieving that Doyle's retreating (for the meantime, seemingly) this is the best bittersweet payoff in imo. The second would be the Afterlife with Doyle's below anger levels ending because I love redemption arcs to a fault XD. On that note, I may have also liked the Letting Go (A), where Leah and Doyle get together in a wholesome-ish version of effed up couple XD, and also because Doyle's also acting remorseful there and the whole scene is like a fresher air good toxicity XD. Root orange-and-blue-morality!

The experience I had in this game would definitely mark me in some way in my life, and because it's almost 1AM, it will prolly haunt me in my sleep, so thank you help me. I will play your other games in the future I'm a masochist :D

I'm mindblown that you've actually done so much to the game now that I know you're just starting out as a programmer of sorts. The micro-expression addition seemed like a touch of genius to me! I'll be keeping that in mind when I get back in your game!

Oh, don't worry! I've noticed the option icon as well, it's pretty visible. It's a good decision, and now that I thought about it, your simple dialogue box also contributed to that too in making the game effectively even more immersive. The option I'm referring to is the sound settings. I can't seem to find them in the option icon, but I suppose that also comes with the engine. 

I am no programmer or a game developer so this is only a suggestion. From many visual novels I've played, I recalled some of them color-labeled a dialogue with the flirt option or they come up with a simple three to five word liner that can still fit the "Flirt" word next to it. I'm sure you'll be able to find a way that fits to your game. 

If it's something about highlights, one thing I recalled as to why I didn't notice it was a clickable item at first was probably due to the choice of color, as it blends like a part of the CG. But there's a no problem then if the mouse turn to a hand, it may have just been my cursor at the time hahaha. 

Thank you so much too for valuing my review, I didn't expect you would take all in so I appreciated that as a player. I hope my feedbacks have helped you somehow :D

Added in my wishlist! There's no need to rush in making a masterpiece like this and I'm looking forward all the same once this will be released sometime next year. I'll keep the Special Access in mind, as this is on top of my VN list.

Wish you all the best too. Cheers! 👊

Just played the demo last night and I must comment how I enjoyed it so much! Sci-fi like this is not my cup of tea, but somehow your game made me enjoy bits of it!

//Long paragraph ahead

It's hard to find visual novels that utilizes motion in its graphics and sprites, as well as sound effects to make the events come to life even with simple moving pictures. You weren't exaggerating when you said some characters has over 100 expressions which is a lovely touch to how their dialogues play out, but without the voice-acting (Kickstarter possible, as I heard, wheee), it'll have to make do for now glancing up and down to read the texts. The part where they're approaching through Erwani was also wonderful. 

And speaking of Erwani and other alien characters, I don't know how you made them likeable, but you did. So far, starry-eyed Daeon became my instant fave (seeing his profile here made me think suspicious of him, though). Both him and Iyalen are both cinnamon-alien rolls. The language barrier here, even though all of them speak in perfect English, got me in hysterics. I'm also surprised liking the protagonist here as a real-life character, distinct from controlling him as a player. The dialogues here are indeed natural-sounding. Aliens feel relatable enough for humans without being human-ish at all. 

Story-wise, I got hooked enough for the fact this is all about getting different species together in some adventure in a (star)ship. The transmission at the very beggining is delivered pretty well-- I felt a bit of goosebumps, prolly due to the graphic motion doing its magic. I haven't tried the romance bit though, and although flirting isn't a bad thing in general, the simple "Flirt" option felt off to me. I imagined the conversation between Sarah and Trey was more of a serious side, although intimate, so having an option to just flirt doesn't sit well with me. Take this as a grain of salt though, as this is my opinion: perhaps adding a bit more context to the flirt option, maybe? 

I have no complaints to the gameplay. The fact that we get to have our own RPG-like (D&D, even) choices in making our character more personal and unique to the player hyped me to play the game. Though there are a few moments where I am confused, like the time when Trey is supposed to pick up a weapon before heading off. The highlight may not have been obvious at first; I'm used to the mouse shifting if it's clickable, unless that's just my own experience. Using Windows 10 here. 

I also don't see any game option in the menu, whenever I try to tweak the audio. I had to save the game first, go to title menu before changing the game's audio settings. It also seemed to be resetting whatever I tweaked to default whenever I visit that section, though I cannot tell if what I tweaked changed to default as well or not. I only found out there's no exit button in the title menu and had to alt+tab and close it manually, if it's fullscreen (can't also toggle fullscreen in title menu, if that is any relevant as well).

Aside from these little issues, the game is wonderful. Immersive story, complex gameplay (quite a rare find in VN these days), and ear-candy soundtracks...this visual novel is among my top list for sure.  Looking forward for its completion! 

New Seraphinite fan here.

I binge-played this game yesterday up to today and managed to finish the three endings. What I loved most about this game of yours is that the conversation of the player to the guys you talk to is very interactive. If you're spontaneous with your choices they'll tell you how capricious you are, or when you're pretty straight-forward they'll tell you about it in certain lines as the game progress. It almost feels like you're talking to a real person. It's fun to change courses with the choices because of it, that it doesn't feel like you're doing it all over again.

I so love the backgrounds that I wanted to screenshot them! If you don't mind me putting them as my wallpaper then, I'll better get right to the screen capture thing. The CGs were something I'm amazed for some time when it was shown that it does feature the appearance of the character as you chose it to. I'm still wondering even now how you were able to do that.

I heard at least three or four BGMs which did its job on giving the whole scenario a nice spring-like 'getting away'-vibe feeling. I cracked up when the guitar-shredding music cues in for the glorious debut of the guys.

And lastly, the guys. It's amazing that you managed to create those two with depth for such a short time. Lucan is my favorite; how he makes the heroine 'react' with his double-meanings which is such a comedic relief throughout his route. As for Tristan, he's like the unique bear you just can't wrapped your arms around without feeling uneasy about it.

All in all, I want to give this 4.6/5 stars. This game is amazing it saddens me that there's no neutral ending for it. I love both of the characters to be freed equally, not just one, but the circumstances being sensible.