itch.io

I think that's you misinterpreting the dynamic between Adam and Carlos. most of the 'flirty' dialogue is just banter between friends; I talk that way to my straight girl friends but it's not like we mean anything by it. it's just us being confident enough about our sexualities that we can feel comfortable  having that type of banter.

haha, I hope you're not beating yourself up too much over this! I'm sure there's a lot of people who are just having fun with decoding the secret route and not posting in here because they're enjoying the challenge! I think this would've been less divisive if it were for unlocking an achievement or like an accessory for Carlos to show off that you did it, but yeah, because people are so engaged with the story and want to see everything we end up pestering you about the difficulty :P

hey there! I'd love to test out the very easy setting, if it helps! I'll shoot you an email when I get the chance. thanks for doing this! I really appreciate it a lot that you're taking the time to accommodate one random comment and take time from your day to add this in :)

I think my dislike of the planner is just due to the way I usually approach visual novels; like I mentioned before, I'm way more interested in the characters & world building than the actual 'game' side of the, well, game! that's not to say I can't enjoy a different visual novel experience than the classic just-click-through-text shtick, but rather that when the more gameified aspects get in the way or cut off access from story beats I care about, I'm quick to lose interest. It might be because VNs are so clearly delineated in my mind as story-based games first and foremost; for management simulator type gameplay, I'd rather just play something else and focus on that, haha. that's not to say that I think you should stop experimenting with systems when/if you make more visual novels in the future; if anything, I'm excited to see what you put out next!

okay, so.. while in theory, I admire the concept of a hard route for a secret character, I think the manner it's been implemented here is pretty lacking. what I enjoy most about ZAGS (as with most other visual novels) is the writing & characters, and, to be honest, i was excited to start this route to get the chance to know Tom and Eva (and Steve, even though interactions with him are very limited) after kind of ignoring them & the frat house overall while chasing the other routes. however I do feel these characters were kind of done dirty by putting them on the secret route since it's getting very hard for me not to start disliking them when I'm constantly rolling back dialogue or reloading saves to dance around their invisible sensibilities without any way to tell if I'm even doing it the right way. after a good amount of attempts and ending the game with all 4 of the secret route characters at 100 friendship several times, I still haven't gotten it, and those last few playthroughs I haven't been focusing on what's going on with the story at all; just doing trial and error over and over again with the ctrl key held down, which I'm not sure was the desired direction; if it was, I don't feel like it's a particularly engaging or effective design decision, but that might just be me.

I'm not looking to turn this reply into a review because I do have mixed feeling on ZAGS on a number of things but my feelings about the game are mostly positive. I think its highs are definitely interacting with its characters and getting to know them and see how they help shape Carlos' newfound awareness of himself on each route, and the lows... well, it's definitely the planner. it's completely forgettable and honestly feels more like a chore that you have to slog through every in game week to get to the fun bits before you figure out a good default and just put it out of your mind, so I definitely appreciated the option for an easy mode right from the get go because (in my experience)  it makes the planner barely matter at all, which imo is a great thing! the secret route though... basically feels like the whole game is planner-fied, and locking story content behind it, especially content that matters a lot if you played YAGS, I honestly think that's not great. I'm frustrated enough where I've just given up and waiting for someone to post a walkthrough for it, or just keeping my fingers crossed you decide to patch it to be more accessible for easy/standard, which I'm not sure you're planning on. sorry for the rant, and it kinda sucks to be parting with the game on these feelings, but.. it is what it is