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Ah, that explains it clearly. It is unfortunate you were not able to reach your creative vision. But I feel a lot better about the game, knowing it is just three separate stories. My brain was working overtime trying to decipher the connection rather than just enjoying them.

A solid concept executed well. It is not as earth shattering as it was when SM64 first came out, but even coming close to that in the realm of a jam is an achievement. The greatest challenge came from the controls and the camera, especially during the final slide. But jumping around as Sanae and exploring the nooks and crannies of even the limited game world was a good time. The writing added some chuckles to the platforming romp and the half Mario, half Touhou arranges added to the overall humorous tone.

This was made with Twine, using the Sugarcube story format. If you aren't intending to make a traditional VN with character portraits over dialogue, it works quite well. In fact, when I was playing your game I was thinking Twine might have been a better engine for the story you were telling.

Aside from that, thanks for playing.

Three stories glued together of wildly different styles. Not just obviously in art style, but in writing style and mood. From the primer, it feels like these are supposed to be connected. Bird Up, as it were. Yet I come away feeling like I missed something. One story has the silly setup of a couple by an overeager fairy. Another is an origin story within a story. And the last is a meandering tale of from lips of a rather egotistical storyteller. They all describe a meeting, in some way or another, but beyond that I am scratching my head. The author asks us to avoid external research and search within for meaning, but the heron story in particular makes me feel like I need to dive into some lore to understand it. Does the melon princess have something to do with Sagume? Are we supposed to be sympathetic to Seija during the reunion after such a brutal murder? Why is Sumireko used as the vessel to tell the tale?

The other two stories are far more straightforward. Pure stories of acceptance and love. The art helps significantly throughout. The style shifts match the mood swings the narratives go through. The music provides great ambience for some smooth reading. It is actually strange hearing Okuu's normally hype, high energy theme brought down to a soothing tune. These stories are worth the read, but I will remain wondering if there is supposed to be something more to stitch the comedy, romance, and near-horror vibes each bring out together.

This game is really digging at something. From the version I played, I could tell the devs were not quite there. But I also see why they are so passionate to complete it. The art is all handcrafted from the world map to the unique, expressive character portraits. Everything evokes a dream-like, surreal mood, which ends up being quite appropriate. The audio helped too, though I found myself fiddling with the volume knobs frequently to get a good balance. The combat is there, though it felt like I needed to cheese the bosses with so little options.

At first the story is muddy and seems to be a set up for some Marisa and Alice shenanigans. But then the LGBTQ connection squeaks in and when it hits, it hits hard. Spoiler to say, but the kind of rejection Marisa faces from the people are who supposed to love most would make even the Grinch's cold heart thaw. That scene is so intense the resolution of the story doesn't truly feel like it has addressed it. But then again, sometimes those issues are never resolved. We pick ourselves back up, find a new family who accepts us, and make our own way. A powerful message.

This game feels like a product the language it was built in. It hit me with real retro nostalgia, as in Atari retro. The game design is simple and doesn't try to be more than that. Then you hit Mizuchi and you better be ready. She is beatable, but quite the difficulty spike compared to the platforming sections.

This one really sucks you in. It is a Touhou story without a single youkai to be found. What it lacks in horrible monsters turned to cute girls, it dives deep in the unknown and peeling back layers that maybe should have been left alone. While the union of Maribel and Renko is a constant and no surprise, the world building here is a giant mystery. Even after progressing down both the available endings, I want to know more and see the conspiracy unraveled. The game is gorgeous, and you quickly forget this is a jam game and not a commercial release. That every part of the UI has clearly been developed from scratch gives unity to the presentation. Playing in full screen is indeed preferable, so you can get properly immersed. What I had trouble with is determining which decisions mattered and how. I got the true ending my first run, and then reversed all my choices to get the bad ending. Yet only two or three choices seemed to have any "bad" result. If there are to be more ending in the future, a skip text option is going to be necessary as there was a lot of clicking and slow scrolling text to even get a second ending. If you like Maribel, Renko, or Steins; Gate you should be playing this VN.

A spooky way to to spend an anniversary. I did like realizing that Renko was not being entirely honest about her intentions as more items are found. The two really chat like old friends, or something more. Sadly, my hifuu lore is weak and the reminiscing went way over my head. The visuals are great, with the blend of 2D adding to the dissonance of the creepy foggy graveyard. A bit hard too, trying to find 2D objects before Merry gets too spooked. The ending screen ties the experience together with a nice bow.

A deep dive into Marisa's past. One that feels appropriate for her present, but offers many knobs to turn to tell a different tale. The variations remind of the how an oral legend might twist and turn through the generations based on the values and interests of the storyteller. The endings provide a brief summary of the results of your choices, leading Marisa to seek someone. Maybe I missed it, but the ending I tried the hardest to find was one where Marisa sought out more on her mother and grandmother. That narrative hook was dropped early but feels like it it got lost along the way. It is unfortunate to see no visuals to accompany the writing, but the writing holds up just fine without it. Really, the one thing I'd like is a larger textbox to make more use of the screen and require less clicking between sentences. A byproduct of the engine being used, I suppose.

"Short, goofy story" really is the perfect description for this game. It doesn't take itself seriously, finds humor everywhere, and then finds another layer of humor on top of its own humor. The jokes can be hit or miss, but there are enough that a couple will certainly draw chuckles. Even better in my opinion is the oblique approach to LGBTQ themes. It starts subtle, and eventually clubs you over the head with it. A comedy tackling the bigotry head-on is refreshing to see. Writing aside, it is clearly an RPG maker game but there are a plethora of unique sprites and well decorated areas to make it feel like Gensokyo. You  will mostly be wandering and chatting, which makes the end sequence even more surprising and hilarious. If nothing else, I wish there was more to explore that wasn't required for the story. Always room for more Chiyari and Joon antics!

A fun little game. The otters are cute, and I swear they sound like jinjos from Banjo-Kazooie. Yachie herself has a glorious model, though could do with a blink cycle on the eyes or she will stare into your soul. The UI is not a looker but clearly provides everything you need to know. The gameplay loop is super interesting, being a sort of pikmin pathfinding problem. The biggest shame is that there was not more to play, which is one of the better problems for a game to have. A few more levels to explore would be great. The writing is a detached from the actual gameplay, but gives context to crystal hunt and has some amusing tidbits thrown it. This game is worth the few minutes it asks just to watch the otters hop about and dip your toes into the interesting concept.

Thanks for the report. That was one of the bad errors that slipped through on the jam release. I just fixed and should now link properly in the update. 

I am quite the novice when it comes to VN decision trees. Thanks for playing through it.

The biggest drawback to that word count was proper editing. My team caught dozens of my typos but I am sorry enough slipped through to hurt your experience. The postjam update I just added today at least catches the worst of them, hopefully. I tried pretty hard to make all of Reimu's choices still sound like Reimu, so it is reassuring to hear that came through.

I am quite grateful to the team for adding visuals and music to match and often exceed my words. Thanks for playing our game.

Another heartfelt story from the mastermind behind Echoing Hearts. This is technically more kinetic novel than visual novel, so you need only sit back and enjoy the snarky, goofy, heart-string tugging ride. The music blends in with the mood of each scene, and there are plenty of little animations or CGs to break up the dialogue. The plot follows the same notes as its predecessor, which is both comforting but lacks a bit of ambition. It is about opening up to another and overcoming the past together. You will feel good by the end of it, and that is a nice takeaway. There is depth too, and I have come to realize my knowledge of Touhou lore is getting out of date. At times it can get a bit verbose, which coming from my style is "pot calling kettle black" but maybe it takes one to know one.

It may be a bit weird, but my favorite bit of writing here was the dev note from the author. As a writer I could relate with the challenges and fears directly, more than the story itself, ahaha. Reflecting back on a project is a great way to improve.

The VA-11-Hall-A influence is clear and that is a compliment. This VN offers a limited viewpoint into the lives of a surprisingly large cast. Their various problems are not anything new, but the game presents them in a thoroughly entertaining manner. The cast have sharp personalities that are amusing to read. Miyoi's reaction to a certain tengu guest is something else. The little animations are where this game really shines though. There are enough that body language comes into play to really express their emotions and internal thoughts.  Even commercial VNs often skimp on these sorts of animations so its great to see them. From audio, the little jingle when you get an order right feels quite satisfying. The music sets the mood, though some of the sudden transitions can be a little jarring. As for the gameplay itself, it's pretty simple. You either know what the customer wants with some basic reasoning, or you just have to guess on a few.

There was a mention of multiple endings. I got ending B on my first go with a few errors. I tried it again and made sure to get a perfect service score but still got ending B. I'd like to know what the requirements for other endings are before trying again, because it is a lot of clicking.

I have never played any of the Atelier games this is based off of, so I am coming in for a fresh experience. The game is a time and material management simulator. The primary way to gain efficiency is with batches that combine effects and contract construction time. The trouble is, in order to complete the game you need to craft batches of items with certain properties or in certain quantities before you know you need them. The only way to do that is to restart or save scum. The developer suggests the save scumming route, so that is what I did. I also was able to guess a couple of middle tier ingredients with certain properties I would need later, avoiding a couple of otherwise forced save loads. I guess this kind of gameplay appeals to some, but to me it feels really wrong when save scumming is a mechanic and not the crutch it usually is.

 If that kind of gameplay is what a player wants, this game delivers it well. The music is lively and sets a nice mood. The character portraits are imports, but serve well. The UI is clean and well presented, which is great as its what you will be primarily interacting with. There are a few minor trouble spots. The dates follow a Japanese format, which fits the setting but is a bit disorienting in an otherwise English game. The buttons to change quantity are nearly on top of the button to confirm a synthesize. I misclicked one for the other about 2 dozen times over my playthrough. And it would be really appreciated if materials with a special property showed that in the list rather than needing to mouse through them to see which have what. Don't let these quibbles fool you though, the rest of the UI is quite nice and I saw no bugs or typos.

There is some serious social commentary here, but it isn't actually related to pride month. Let's just say I don't think this interpretation of Chimata is going to make many friends.

I was not expecting the fully featured shmup game to also have the funniest writing of jam. The whole game is polished from start to finish. Immediately, the UI is not just clean but also a treat on the eyes with animations and sound effects just scrolling through menu options. Everywhere you look on the screen, from the character portraits to the backgrounds to even just the sidebar during the danmaku sections adds to the visual appeal. The fights themselves are a mix of nostalgic and expressive of the characters they represent. With a complete suite of difficulty options, the experience can be tailored to the player's taste. And rather than just be a few cut-ins between the fights, the story is worth it by itself. There are moments that really worth a laugh while still offering depth in the exchanges between Marisa and Patchouli. Ran's "bug" in particular really got me chuckling. The cutscenes even have the psuedo-animations of visual novels, with Marisa near running over Meiling.

Care was taken for the player experience everywhere here. The story mode lets you retry so you can keep up with the story. Completing it unlocks a mode to skip straight to the fights for QoL on replayability. And I had such fun I felt compelled to up the ante from my Normal clear to Hard. With judicious bomb use, I squeaked by and find myself even considering Lunatic. I haven't had such fun with danmaku in a long time. After playing I am even eying the main line games I have left aside for years.

You really have to nitpick to find something to criticize here. A restart option would be nice from the pause menu in Legacy Mode. Or just a few more unique tracks for the bosses. 

Great job to the team here, this is a contender for best in jam in several categories.

The challenge of the game is something we never got quite right. The suitors are too easy, and Yukari too hard. Since you seem interested, I will tell you how the True End works- but BIG SPOILERS for anyone who hasn't played yet- To unlock the true ending you must handle each of the suitors amicably and then convince Yukari to leave Reimu alone. The trick there is each of the Bad Ends with the suitors teaches you, the player, the best answer to one of Yukari's questions. Since the jam ended I have gotten several better ideas to handle the decisions but they would require a complete rewrite. I will save them as lessons learned for the future.

This game is quite the undertaking. A 3D game world with multiple units to control in pseudo RTS/Moba fashion each with their own abilities is hard to keep track of. Most of the common control options have been implemented, such as control groups, box selection, and tab focus switching. However even with all these options it is still missing some things, like the ability to click an ability card to activate or clicking a single unit to select it. Small differences like these can add up with how frantic the gameplay is. Also, control groups 4 and 5 don't seem to function.

However, once you get a handle on the controls, the gameplay is a lot of fun. The game asks you to keep track of a lot but if you can manage to juggle cooldowns across the three characters you can  really wallop the bosses. A chance to practice the abilities before the bosses would be great here, like against smaller enemies, as trying to understand them while a boss pumps out massive attacks is hard. The bosses themselves are varied in their demands of the player. Reimu is the hardest despite being second. Her attacks are fast, while either homing to you or flinging about randomly. I couldn't do much more than just dodge to keep Patchouli alive while whittling down with her Q attack.

The game looks great with 3D clean environments, big splashy spell effects, and nice pixel sprites for the cast. Some of those spell effects block vision of the screen though, especially Reimu's yin yang orbs. This makes seeing Reimu or even your own units impossible and does not feel fair.  Sound effects are missed and the music unfortunately seemed to cut out.

If there had been time to smooth out the edges, this might have been the best game in the jam. I would love to see this framework expanded on in the future. In its current state, it is a fun, hectic experience that is worth overcoming the sore spots.

I am apparently a bad enough dude. This an easy contender for best concept in the jam. As fitting her canon, Hecatia's 3 bodies lend a huge amount of power that would make the game trivial... if you could control them efficiently. And its fairly deliberate the devs granted the raw power because no one is doing this efficiently. Yet with three bodies and free reign to decide what to upgrade on who, the player is free to experiment with their own solution to the three body problem. I favored a slow and steady approach, setting up 2 Hecas as turrets to counter spawns and using the third to kill the spawner itself. And then halfway through wandering ghosts show up to challenge my playstyle and force me to adapt. I have seen someone else stack all the upgrades for a super Hecatia, trying to narrow the control issues. A game that gives tools to the player to use and leaves it to them to decide how to apply them is ripe for emergent, engaging gameplay.

Besides the gameplay, the UI is very well done and it needed to be with how the amount of information is needed. Lighting up the hats of the active bodies is very clever. Also clever is the grass around fairy spawners. They warn the player a spawner is near before they are on screen, and the withered grass marks cleared areas. It is actually a shame the later spawners don't have a similar callout. The sound work and other visuals worked well enough to support the game. Nothing stood out, except maybe Hecatia's chest. 

For such a strong base game I would have liked to see more of a story and depth to the characters. I wanted to play with the bombs more, but with them being the only apparent source of health recovery I felt obligated to save them all for Earth. Maybe Junko could restore some HP?

One final note- whoever designed that room with the wolf spawner and a ton of yin-yang spawners in a tight twisting corridor, you are an absolute fiend and I want the fifteen minutes of my life back I needed to clear it with two of my Hecatias at 1 hp.

This is a rough one to play. The lack of tutorial or instructions on the controls made me accidentally switch to dash Yui the first time and I had no idea how to use her. Only watching someone else made see there was even an option to shoot. The two leads(or is it just one person really?) leave a lot of questions that appear to unanswered. The dialogue with the shopkeeper reveals more tidbits of lore, and the shop is very interesting visually but the shop items appear to be unimplemented.  I genuinely want to know where this game is going but it seems unfinished for the moment.

A well titled game. Playing this properly takes a coordinated dance of backing away from Koishi during her attacks and cutting in to respond. The game doesn't pull punches but Kokoro has a variety of tools at her disposal, including a lot of air maneuverability that isn't immediately apparent. I might have liked maybe one other attack choice to add more steps to waltz. The challenge felt spot on.  The only thing that felt unfair was Embers of Love being substantially more difficult if Koishi randomly throws more horizontal hearts and the floor become lava with all of them bouncing around. The visuals are clear and I appreciate hearing sound effects to add to the performance. I had fun throughout and would play more in this style.

There is a lot to love in this game. The team of artists did an excellent job coordinating to deliver visuals that work together and don't clash even from style differences. Using new characters for the lead in a Touhou jam is always bold, and they blend in well with the setting. The writing is solid with many playful asides, though it takes a dramatic turn when Iku shows up. That chapter is a real highlight, but a plot that significant needed more time to breath than this game could offer. I like the bit of detective hunting to deduce what the perfect outfit is for each person. The fashion design system is shockingly robust. The UI is a bit clunky but offers a ton of choice to really customize. Sadly, it seems like there wasn't enough time to really implement as many clothing options as the game needed to offer any challenge or make use of the insight you gained.

A goofy part of me really wants to take one of the fashion disasters I can design here over to Beast Metropolis a la Mode to see the judges' reactions.

We implemented the music at pretty close to the deadline and I guess it shows. In an ideal world we would have liked more variations like the sad Sanae track to better match the mood of each scene. However, intentionally using silence is a great idea we did not consider.

Thanks for playing our game.

I am really pleased to get more representation out there. Thank you for playing and I hope you enjoy the other endings if you decide to play further, even though they show a Bad End.

Getting a chance for the player to see through a different lens was a central goal of this game. I can understand the frustration, as I bet it is similar to the discordance I can get reading romantic works. But I hope this game helps build empathy for different viewpoints.

If you are referring to why Sakuya and Kogasa are featured as suitors, I selected each of them based on the angle they could add to the story. Kogasa is a lovable goof who is easy to read for a first challenge, and Sakuya's form of expressing love through gifts and service could be played off Reimu's greed.

Thank you for playing.

If the goal was to be hardest game of the jam, this one certainly hit it. The game takes a familiar shmup setup but lumps a Patchouli on you to amp up the hectic decision making. It takes much getting using to, but is actually fun once you start understanding how to accommodate the additional load. The spritework and music assist in setting a discomforting, unnatural atmosphere. The music warping as you get hit and the random NND comments meld together into something unsettling. Controls are snappy and response. Quite appropriate for challenge. 

The big question then is if the challenge itself is fair. And after a few hours of attempts at it, I have to conclude it is not. The rapid enemy patterns demand just about rote memorization of every round, and even that isn't enough when the fairies decide to throw curveballs. The game effectively has a single resource that is overloaded in its functions. Your health is the only way to patch up Patche, but also governs your movement speed and your damage output. And, of course, you need it for not dying. When you get hit so much happens at once with the aggressive screen shaking and the sudden change in movement speed that its common to get disoriented and get hit multiple times in a row before recovering. And since health governs everything else, going below half often causes a death spiral where you can't reposition fast enough nor blast away the threats. And when I clutched it out of those situations to survive the round, rather than enter a round I lack resources for I ended up throwing Patche into the wall to reset. Very against the story. From other comments I see these are intentional design decisions, but I personally find this kind of difficulty frustrating rather than fun. It really sapped the enjoyment I was experiencing at first.

I can enjoy a challenge,  but if one is going to be presented at this magnitude at the bare minimum I would like a checkpoint. Not to make it easy, but just to escape the tedium The first four rounds really felt like a complete waste of my time while I was trying to get progression on higher rounds . After around my tenth attempt at round 10 I had to call it quits to try other games in the jam.

If nothing else, this game is interesting. The writing flips between weird in a humorous way to just sort of incomprehensible. The character portraits are great, and something about Seiga with a shotgun tickles the funny bone. Would have been nice to know where she got it. The UI, though, is really unpolished. That extends into the gameplay. The bullets without outlines and the fireworks warning markers are quite hard to see on much of the background. The upgrades are fun and tying them to Yoshika integrates the story and gameplay. Yet you don't get a lot of time to play with them and they are irrelevant when they are needed most. The lack of an epilogue to wrap up the insanity of the script is also sorely missed. Apart from that, Suika's theme is an absolute jam and I'd want a copy of it.

This game has an immaculate level of polish. There are smooth animations for transitions. The UI is clear but also has character to reflect the theme. You have to scrape around for quibbles, like some item descriptions being cut off. Knowing which gift goes to who is pretty easy, but still nice to look around for the connection with character lore and the stated hints to match. And even if you know the item, the little danmaku duels are fun. Each one evokes the character or remind me of actually facing them in the main games. The challenge level felt just right for my modest shmup skills. I just wish those dang enigmatic customers would stop showing up when I am at 0/3 shields to ruin my perfect run!

An interesting little game. The challenge is there, but a fair amount comes from trying to grapple with game mechanics as fairies pelt you. There is a character switching mechanic, which is cool, but its not announced and it doesn't appear you can switch when you want, only when a heart comes up.  You can end up with a character taking up a lot of the love bar but no way to switch to them so you have less effective health. And it seems like red hearts are way less common. The gameplay is tricky and requires getting comfortable with strafing and dashing. Getting it right has a good feel. The visuals are quite good with colorful sprites. With a bit more polish on the edges this would be a star.

I reached Alice but nothing happened and I wasn't sure if there was supposed to be an ending cutscene or credits. The game appears simple but the fairies and platforms are precisely placed to make it quite difficult. Minor variations keep ramping up the challenge at a good rate to keep it satisfying to make it higher. It is unfortunate the music didn't make it in time to enhance the experience.

This game is packed with charm. The character portraits are expressive and just the right amount of goofy for the lighthearted tone of the story. The writing itself is quite cute. Momoyo's innocence/ignorance sets up a canvas to explore the themes about love, not to mention being amusing. The actual gameplay was lacking in depth and challenge, but I felt compelled to complete it to get more of the adorable cutscenes.

The concept of controlling two characters could have been interesting here, especially with Doremy's ability to modify the surroundings. Unfortunately, this one leans too much into the silly for me to enjoy.

A fashion game is a real tough sell for my tastes. This was a formidable challenge, and I seemed to get higher scores if I clicked at random. Some of the achievement flags felt a bit off. The judges' comments were pretty amusing and encouraged trying more outfits to sway them one way or another. My favorite part of this one, though, were all the smaller detail in the art such as Reimu slyly grabbing more snacks as Yachie talks at her.

There are the building blocks, somewhat literally, here for a game. I found the visuals to be pretty charming. Hopefully the experience earned here will be built on in the future for something more fleshed out.

I am a sucker for a detective game, but even with my bias this is a fun one. The LGBTQ+ themes are woven into the backdrop of a mystery game with tact. The writing is subtle where it needs to be, supporting the idea of figuring it out yourself. Information is presented in fragments and asides that leaves it to the player to piece together. Very fitting for genre. To get all the various systems working must have taken bending Twine near to breaking. The visuals embedded help give character to the characters, especially comparing their living spaces.

An impressively fully developed VN right here. A completely voice acted for a game jam is a real surprise, and Haru's VA stood out with a great performance. An impressive array of music tracks assist with setting the mood well. A huge amount of CGs are packed in here and drive in the emotional moments. The minigames fit the festival theme and offer a good change of pace. However, all were pretty easy. The writing hit the themes well, though a bit simple for the depth of the issues presented. It is really great seeing more aro representation in the jam, especially a take very different from the one I presented.

I am joining the club of not quite understanding the Koishi ending. I am also unsure if there is more content to be seen by replaying with the items gained. I tried it for a bit and they seemed to just shortcut to the ending?

This pixel art is great. So many little animations.

First off, kudos for even attempting a VR game for a jam. The concept here was strong and builds off what VR does best. The core gameplay of swinging the scythe about and reaping some souls is quite satisfying.

I think the biggest issue keeping this from being an experience to really dive into is spatial awareness. Before I could really rack up any combos I found myself dying to a bullet coming from behind or below me. I am not sure how best to address this. Tweaking the sound effects to better indicate direction could help. Or perhaps a grace period after correctly sorting a spirit that purges bullets over the boat?

Also, the scythe spin is incredibly cool and I had trouble not using it constantly.