FVFRFDCVF THAT WOULD BE AN EXPLANATION INDEED, but hey, good you found out!
Chimériquement
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HORRIBLE-LOOKING PACKAGE DFVBGFDFGVBGF OKAY NOW MY HEART IS DEFINITELY BROKEN I'LL NEVER TOUCH A PEN AGAIN /j; but yes, overall, in terms of design, Yancie's concept is to be a parody of the "muscular stud" you see in dark romance stories and some... absurd proportions we sometimes have in manhwa (more than in yandere media tbh).
And yes, the fact it's a parody is mentioned here loool
(+ I guess the "so much shitpost this game should be called a dogpile" in the game features is also a clue loool)
HORRID ART DFVBFVB I AM SPEECHLESS I HAVE A HEART YOU KNOW (more seriously, yes, Yancie is designed to have stereotypical proportions and an edgy design looool). Now, for this game in particular, it is really parodic, so it's more shitpost than anything loool, the only constant is that the heroine never dies in any ending, and the game is more shitpost if anything lol; so if you're looking for a more serious/romantic approach of the trope, this isn't the game you should play; if you'd have fun with a parody (parody going as for as, spoilers, having the male lead turn into a giant slide of pizza turning the heroine into a pineapple in one ending), it might be worth trying it!
Hi! Thank you so much for this thoughtful and kind comment! I'm not sure I have the words to reply in a way that would show all my gratitude! Overall, I'm glad the narrative choices made here (no clear good ending, the struggle being between Romaine and herself and not being with something exterior) felt authentic to your experience. In th end, it's something to navigate, with no clear answer, and we can just respect people for the choices they make. Thank you so much for sharing your experience, your thoughts and for all the kind words, you really made my day, you have no idea!!
I had the honour of proofreading this game, and what can I say but that another banger was added to The Under The False Sky universe...
For the story per se, per usual, it is a striking tragedy, highlighting the fragility and the vanity of human existence, and how so many deaths meaningless in conflicts are actually meaningful to someone. An inner fight in the concept of humanity itself: what will triumph? Our empathy ("humanity") or what we deem the great good is (for "humanity")?
This game in particular, more than any other previous written for the series, is rather slice-of-life, focusing on the rebels' daily life, especially when facing the ruthlessness of winter... This games serves both as an amazing introduction to some of the characters we get to see in other games (Micah, Mariam, Ester...) for new players, and as an excellent exploration of some well-known characters for players already familiar with the UTFS universe. The characters we get to discover are also very touching (Cain my baby)!
For the art, it is absolutely lovely! The sprites look gorgeous, and I love the addition of colours in hair, to either mirror the eyes of the characters... or mirror other things! It felt like an amazing addition, making the characters pop! And also, I ADORED their character designs, they were so good! The outifts were detailed, the haircut so good, and for the characters we've already seen, it was so great to compare them with how they look now and how they look in the future!
The backgrounds too, as usual in these games, are very well edited, and completely immersive. But here, in particular, I really appreciated how desaturated they were, how grey the sky was... It felt cold, just like winter. The GUI too is absoluely gorgeous, perfectly implemented, absolutely immersive - long story short, perfect!
Finally, the sounds in these games were so good: the music slapped, and how many indie VNs have custom SFX????? This is absolutely insane, and the audio engineer/composer did such an amazing job!! The voice actors, per usual in this series of games, knocked it out of the park, the performances were amazing, and the more dramatic lines were truly heartbreaking!
Long story short: this game, and this series in general, is a gem, and I encourage everyone to play it!! Thanks for involving me in this!
Looool, less about you being critical than the game presenting religious celibacy as a possibility loooool, but I'm glad it was fine (that was the point I was really anxious about with the game, I was worried it could get misconstrued about me promoting some nasty homophobic things religious people do dxcvcxcvdc)
Hey L, thanks for your feedback and for sharing your thoughts!! I won't lie, I was really anxious about what you would think of this game, so I'm glad it is this positive loool; and yes, that is a complicated situation, and I think that, in the end, people try their best, follow their paths, and that's enough looool
And yes, it was a conscious choice: in the end, Romaine and Juliet's environment is rather accepting, the conflict is really internal, between faith and attraction (I just felt like the conflict being with a third-party was something that was represented more frequently in general loool); and I'm glad you could overall overcome the paranoia and the guilt you were feeling!
Hey! Thank you so much for this detailed feedback and for sharing your experience! I'm ENTHUSED you found it relatable, because I did notice media would tackle it in general as "queer religious but not so religious kid wants to be queer but the environment doesn't let them" which is a valid experience that we should shed light on, but at the same time, it neglects the one experience I wanted to tackle, without indeed shaming Romaine, no matter what choice she makes because... it's just hard dfvgfdfg
And interesting thoughts on the concept of love! It's an interesting perspective to oppose love in the common sense to a possible more theological meaning!
Thanks again for all these kinds words, and for sharing your thoughts. Best of luck on your journey too!
Hey! Thanks for sharing your thoughts! And yes, admittedly, the only way I could think of making it more heart-breaking would be to have Romaine and Juliette rejected by your parents or something, but ultimately, I really wanted the conflict to be only between Romaine's orientation and her faith, without anything exterior, to paint an inner conflict. But I'm glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for the compliment on the art! I went wild on the colours, but I had fun drawing Juliette!
Hey Hiro, thanks for trying the game!! I'm glad you enjoyed the visuals, the story and the sadness!!
More seriously, this is quite a difficult conflict indeed, and I'm glad you shared your thoughts on the matter tackled here! The compromise isn't perfect, it can never be, but well, sometimes, you indeed just gotta try to find what "overall" works, although not in detail!
Thanks again for your feedback and your thoughts, I appreciate them!!
Hi Taumi, thanks for sharing your thoughts! And it would have been really nice indeed for Romaine and Juliette, but that actually was the point of the game haha: it is complicated to conciliate the two, and most of the time, you can't. So, what is there to do? Try your best, no matter what your choice is!
I am glad you appreciated the art (and the leaves effect loool, it was a struggle to think of a way to make them noticeable without making them overbearing), and that was the idea: have everything look very sweet because, well, in any other context, it would have been a perfect romance scene: Juliet and Romaine love each other, they confess it... and yet, there is something blocking it.
And yes dfvgfdfvb it actually reminds me of a preacher in the train, who started his preach by saying: "The world is bad!! Celebrities turn out to be sexual offenders! There is global warming! An economic crisis!" and concluded his looong enumeration by saying: "But fortunately, there is JESUS", it was so unexpected for me that I burst out laughing dfvgdfg
Thanks for sharing your feedback Taumi, I appreciate it a lot!!
Hey Carrot, thanks for your feedback!
I do feel very conflicted too about the game, I won't lie haha, because, well, there is no perfectly happy ending in the end, and I don't think the conflict can be resolved; just trying your best to be happy and to limit the dooming feeling, whether it is guilt or regret.
And I'm happy you enjoyed the presentation! It was meant to be very very sweet, but only to contrast with the less idyllic situation Romaine is going through.
And yes, even I wanted to confront Romaine to what she could be missing on even if she didn't confess, it was in theme, unfortunately for her!
Thanks again for all these kind words, I was so unsure about releasing the game (I think I wasn't that anxious about a game ever since High School Lolita lol), so I'm glad it was a touching experience!
Hey Omega! Thanks for this lovely feedback on the game!
And you overall worded the difficulty of the game very well! For exemple, Islam or Judaism forbid the consumption of pork, but now, I'm sure most Muslims or Jews don't mind other people eating pork, so yeah, to each their rule as long as you don't force anyone! But now, when the problem is within you... it is more difficult, and I wanted to explore the inner conflict indeed, rather than everything exterior (societal expectations, family, "church" or anything similar).
And thank you for the art! I overall tried to get closer to my traditional art style for this game, and I'll admit I quite like the results in terms of colour too! Thanks for the kind words and for sharing your thoughts, Omega, they mean a lot, and they were very interesting to read!
Hey! Thank you so much for the kind words about the game, I'm happy you enjoyed it!!!
And I agree with you, I think most gay people I know from religious households tend to hide their relationship from their family. Admittedly, this game wanted to tackle the conflict not with the family (as it is more often portrayed), but an inner conflict between the characters and their faith, which you illustrated quite well with "even if the ultimate fate is a tragic ending, we still need love", and I'm happy you allowed Romaine to experience her love!
Thanks for trying the game and sharing your thoughts, this means a lot!
Hey! What platform are you playing on? Anyway, when you launch the game, you should automatically get to the main menu (after some loading if you're playing on the browser or android versions), which looks like this (if you're on Android, the "Help" and "Quit" options shouldn't be there)
Then, you just have to click on "Start" to start the game, and click anywhere on your screen, but on the icons at the top right corner in-game to play the game! If you successfully launch the game, this should be the first thing you see after the main menu:
I hope this helps!
Yes, that was a need too, to have a bit of representation of this conflict, since in general, it just looks like the character in question doesn't think much about their religion in the exploration of their queer identity, which is fine, but why the religious background then dfvfdcv. And thanks again, Chatter, I'm glad I could get it out of my mind loool
Hey Ebi, thanks a lot of trying this game! I'm glad you appreciated the art! And yes, that was the main conflict while writing it lol: I didn't want the game to be excessively optimistic, because I think it would be idealistic rather than realistic, but I also didn't want it to be all terrible and that's it. So hopeful is the right word, indeed!
Hey Chatter, thanks for the long feedback per usual!
Overall, what can I say but that I appreciate all your compliments, and that I'm very grateful you accepted to edit and beta the game!
You overall caught my artistic intention; I wanted everything to be excessively dreamlike, only to have them contrast with a bitter reality, with a fatality from which you can't escape: the eyes of God (dang, when I phrase it like that, I realise this is very VERY RACINE-like again, I can't escape the doom either fvgfdfg). And good catching on the name loool, I couldn't not go with a Romeo and Juliet reference here; and beyond the obvious "forbidden love" reference, it was also just to add to this dreamlike, fictional feel, contrasted with reality.
And thanks, I really enjoyed making the art for it (not so much the GUI, I gotta admit)! Overall, I wanted it to look closer to my traditional art style in terms of colouring, since I tend to go crazy with colour pencils loool, but yes, I wanted to keep the GUI as minimal as possible, so that the focus is on Juliet only!
Regarding the writing, you caught it all: there can't be a perfect resolution, and whatever the decision Romaine takes is, it isn't judged: in the end, all that matters is that she attempts to be happy on her own terms, whatever these are. But, whatever the decision is, there is a drawback, a conflict that will never cease to exist, since Romaine's very existence somehow is the conflict... which is kind of depressing to think about lol, and I hope the game is more optimistic than that looool
Once again, thanks for all your kind words and your support, they really mean the world!!!