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Glad you were able to get all the endings! I hope you enjoyed it. :)

I'd recommend saving manually. There is no auto-save function. 

You're welcome! Lol. 

There's actually two ways to get the secret ending. If you can't get the all-clear end, you can also answer questions in a specific sequence to unlock it. 

Assuming you've gotten all the other endings, you should be able to re-start and have the stay option pop up. Otherwise, it means you may not have answered some of the prompts right to unlock it the other way. If you're still having trouble after starting from the beginning, let me know and I can try to find a way to get you a guide. 

This seems to be an issue that happens every so often. Does the option "STAY" pop up for you in the forest when you make your branching choice?

Good morning, Adam!

I have found that submitting from your dashboard is generally the best idea. So create your project in the dashboard, upload everything you need, then once you have your assets uploaded, you can click "submit project" on the jam page then choose it from the drop-down list. Hope that clarifies things!

Thank you for a reasonable and frank review. I'll discuss it more in our post-mortem, but the ARPG aspect was one which sort of went weird during the process so we had to work around it a lot. Other than that, I'm glad you seemed to enjoy the rest of the game; I was concerned it might not translate but that seems to have been more paranoia than anything. 

Thanks for such a spirited review! I hope the rest of the game treats you just as well.

This might be the most wonderful comment I've ever received for a game. Thank you so much for the joy you brought our team. 

Thank you!

We're hoping to have the full game ready to go some time soon, but we now have a playable version (with some known issues) available to be played.

I love the concept of the game a lot. Photo-shooters force you to think a different way and I really appreciate that. The music is also very nice, and appropriately fitting in my estimate. It is perhaps my favorite part of the game. The gameplay was a little confusing to start, certainly. Z being shield and X being shoot felt counter-intuitive and I often got caught up. 

Once I got a hold of it, the challenge was brutal. The combination of slow cooldowns and the OHKO was especially killer, as shield and shoot both use up the same resource which means you have to choose between guarding and shooting, which extends the possibility of dying, which is a brutal punishment because one hit starts you right over again. Related to the cooldown is the fact it means you essentially have to either play aggressive-- and risk getting one-shotted-- or be conservative and choose between laser and bullet to clear (in the first stage for example.) And considering you can only do max 2 lasers per and about 4-8 bullets per, it takes a lot of cycles considering clearances were 15 and 50 respectively.

That said, there's a lot of good in this game too. Though I do admit being challenged and frustrated at points, it was still good fun. Oddly, I did encounter an issue where a dialogue between characters simply did not play on start until about my 10th time through... though I think that may be related to why I had difficulties starting up the game to begin with. Lol. But once I saw the portraits, they were very nice, with witty dialogue attached to them.

I'm not familiar at all with Seihou, but it seems you did them a pretty good service here. Nice job overall!

I tried very much so to advance past Stage 2, but the unpredictablility of the ball and the weird control layout really played a number on my already feeble ability to react to things. The instruction layout was very confusing and the added element of the LMB when the rest of the buttons were on the other side of the keyboard left me in the lurch as well. It just did not feel terribly responsive to me. Which is too bad, because I absolutely love the framing device (Nitori playing a video game) and how the art and sound design mesh together. The pixels are crunchy, the music is pleasant and the sounds are authentically bitty. 

I do think the game is fair enough; it gives you a lot of lives to start with for sure, and you're able to correct mistakes if identified. I'm thinking after seven of these TH1 clones this Jam, it just might not be the type of game I am good at. But outside of the control scheme issues and my own issue of skill, this is a very nicely composed entry and I look forward to seeing your next one!

I appreciate how self-aware this game is, I'll give it that. Lol

I love, love, love the idea of this game. I was very excited to play this one to the point where I wanted it to be one of the last ones I played in anticipation of any changes. The art style is very cute, and the sound design/music is phenomenal. It's a pleasant environment for sure. The twist of the game is also extremely unique, I appreciated it very much.

The gameplay could certainly be smoother, though. The A was wrong, which left me in the lurch when Koakuma moved on her own to attack an enemy (which was not something I knew could happen) and allowed Wriggle to steal a book. I also had to mess with the input delays a lot because the initial settings were very unforgiving. I spent about 15 minutes on the tutorial, if not more, trying to make a word. I think some simple changes to ramp down difficulty could have helped; the intention behind the word system was appreciated to keep the Morse code bit authentic, but considering you're asking the player to literally learn it to play, perhaps flexibility would help. For instance, allowing orders to be the letters in sequence would get the point across since there's so much time between enemies and it would read much the same the same. (i.e.: If you type BC, Sakuya reacts, then you can confirm with instructions or K to kill the message-- or you could designate #8 as a space and let the player use separate letters and K at the end.) Also, there's an over-reliance on C as a letter between the players and the rooms; perhaps using H for the hallways would work better there. 

The only other thing I noted could be fixed is the dictionary laying over a third of the map. If there was a way to fit both things on the screen at the same time, it would be more fair to the player. I do like IllusoryBread's idea about the meter; it was hard to tell when the game was reading a dit or a dah.

I know this reads as potentially over-critical, but I love this game so much I want to see it at its best. I think some small changes would put this over the top. This is probably one of my highest-rated games in the Jam on pure audacity alone. Congrats on making a great game!

I understand this is your first game and seems to have largely been done on your own, so I'd like to start up front by saying it's awesome you did this in just three days. It's an ambitious idea and the fact you got it off the ground is an accomplishment in itself. 

I'll start with the positives. The twin stick controls and the firing with triggers was very natural, and felt good on the controller. If there's one thing the game does well, it's definitely that. It also felt like a fair challenge, all told. In terms of gameplay, you got the basics down and that's the most important thing.

All said, there's a lot which can be improved upon too. Mima moves like a boat (at least on controller) for a game which seems to want to play hard and quick, which creates some issues. I accidentally moved my mouse at some point and the game spun around like I was on a merry-go-round and it made me sick, which indicated to me it was probably made for a PC experience. (Which is fine, honestly! Just different.) I also didn't really know what a lot of the different bullets did as there was no tutorial or indication. All I could do was interact and shoot. I felt pretty lost as a result, especially when I started carrying multiple types. And then the sound effects. Oh dear, the sound effects. That was extremely unpleasant, even with the volume down. Having some music to at least cover up 70 percent of that would have made it feel a bit better. I had to stop after awhile because it felt like the bullets were directly hitting my brain. 

Overall, you aimed to make a twin-shooter game and it totally works. The premise for the scenario is pretty funny as well. The way you write Mima as haughty really quite works. The fact there's multiple endings is also very good as it encourages more play. The main issues are just some polish things, mostly with audio, minor navigability things and the UI (it was very difficult to read due to the fast action.)

Good job, and I hope to see you again soon!

You don't see many eight-direction shooters in these Jams, so it's fun to see it here. The gameplay itself was smooth, with snappy controls. The bomb youkai were pretty clever, I liked that wrinkle. As for difficulty, I think this is perfectly fine for a three-day affair all considered. The game doesn't feel unfair outside of the one-shot death mechanic; if you get hit it's your fault.  

The music not being Touhou is a bit of a distraction, but it's also befitting. I do wish there was more back-and-forth between Reimu and Yumemi; if you had more time, I think you could have programmed some tit-a-tat between the two to mark increases in difficulty. 

Overall, a good job!

This game's concept is super intriguing. The idea of a competitive TH1 is extremely fun, and I think if I had someone else to play with, it would be pretty fair and fleshed out. Alas, playing on my own was a struggle since the keys were so close to each other and it was hard to keep track of things. Also, Marisa got 0 points despite hitting things? 

Regardless, the pixelated art and the bangin' music really help make for a pleasant experience. Keep up the hard work!

You hit the retro theme about as authentically as possible on this one! The movement, the spritework, the environments... all of it is fantastic. I think my CPU didn't agree with it though because I got no sound effects or music, which means I can't really rate that fairly. All in all, an excellent entry despite my laptop's skill issues.

I love Yui so much! I like that you went out of the way to attempt to create an original character for this; it shows an ambition that I like seeing in Jams like this. 

As for the game itself, not having to worry about dying was nice! A lot of the TH1-inspired entries in this jam are particularly merciless with the yin-yang orb, so it was nice just to chill and focus on hitting things. I played on controller and unfortunately, it felt fairly unintuitive-- but I slid tackled my way to victory, so it all worked out in the end.

There's also not a lot of polish in general, which is understandable given a three-day cycle. What matters is that the essentials (the character sprite, the orb and the cards) all feel very authentic to their inspiration. I also love the storytelling device you have here. It's very cute and I think is good to have for this style of game. Nice job!

Short, sweet and to the point. This game knows what it is about and strives to take you there as quickly and obviously as possible. I say this as a compliment; there is no misunderstanding the moral of the story here. The game itself is an allegory, entrusting the player will take care of Mitori as they go along to get to the end.  I did feel for Mitori as they progressed; the writing of her character is extremely grounded and refreshingly honest at points.  From a storytelling standpoint, the game design is very clever, even if the gameplay itself consists of walking and grabbing the occasional thingamajig to progress.

The in-game art is nice and cartoony, which helps to cut down on the sobering nature of the internal dialogue and gives the game a Flash-y aesthetic, even if that wasn't quite the intention. The portraits are also excellent at humanizing both characters, which I appreciated. The ending art really brought the emotional climax home as well. Relatedly, I think the handful of music tracks in this game are some of the best composed in this Jam, even if the rest of the sound design was largely the walking sound.

A lovely experience which nails its execution.

This game epitomizes the impact sound design and music can have in creating a true atmosphere. That combination is the best part of the experience; aural reactions were always timely to what was going on in the story, really lending a sense of awe and intensity to the whole experience. The 2.5D art-style was also a nice touch. The game manages to blend those artistic elements in very naturally in a way which does not feel forced at all. The story arc is also extremely unique; subverting the Touhou expectation is always a plus in my book, and lends towards the humanization of the characters themselves. Putting these two in such a relationship is interesting on its face and not something I've seen before in other works with these characters. 

I'm writing this review after one ending (which I think was the intended one), but I do have to agree it's not exactly apparent what I have to do to collect the other endings outside of answer differently on the final question, and the game itself largely being a walking sim makes it hard to replay back for all those endings, especially since you cannot skip read text or save in-game as far as I could tell. There was also some parts towards the end where the writing really could have been improved; particularly in environmental storytelling. I would have loved to have known what the poem in JP read in the cooling tower, for instance. (Though I do like that Maribel just has no idea what any of the Touhou references mean, it's very clever.)

The fact this was done in three days was also intriguing to me; it has a lot more polish than even our two-week Jam projects have. This is a very well put-together game which I think should find a lot of success.

This is a thoroughly delightful romp. Quintessential idea of a jam game, with extremely authentic Game Boy visual and audio cues to boot. Awesome job!

The normal hitbox, I don't think I crouched from what I recall. 

I admit to being a little confused; I only got a visual novel, but there's apparently a gameplay element? Was there something I was supposed to do? Did I download the wrong thing? I feel about as lost as Koishi.

This game's got a very lovely, cartoon-y style to it. It feels hand-painted and taken care of in a way that delights me. The music is also zany and fits the general mood of "wacky beat-em-up." Unfortunately, the game itself is kinda unfinished. No matter how much I beat up the fairy, I never win or advance anywhere else. I am left to wnder eternally, my hitboxes visible to the world around me. I'd love to see this at its best form.

This is a game full of charm and spirit. The music and pixel art is especially in this game's favor. I wish I could hear and see more of it, but I keep getting stuck at Aunn's battle and I am confused as to how battles go. There's some clearly unpolished stuff going on here, but Jam games do be like that sometimes. Overall, the concept and feel is very cute, even if the design and game itself is unpolished.

Would love to see a version of this game come out at some point, even if you feel it's too late. I also had a pretty broken game for my first-ever Jam title, but persevering through that is part of the fun.

This game promised both bullets and cats, and well, this game has both of those things! 

I think if you had some other team members who could tune you in to some Touhou lore, you could have definitely take this art style and game design and made it more, ya know, Touhou-y. There's definitely plenty to draw from if you want to keep it cat and fish-themed as well. As for what's in front of us, it's a particularly interesting eight-way shooter that allows for a lot of freedom of movement. That would be pretty unique in the Touhou sphere. If there were parry mechanics, a way to be more direct with bullets, power-ups or a way to bomb, that would go a long way to helping the playability. I think there's great potential here for a boss rush game as currently constructed.

Also the music is GREAT. The way it builds up over time is anxiety-inducing in a good way. More games should take advantage of that.

This is a very cute idea with crisp graphics and authentic sounds. It definitely captures the spirit of a Game Boy Color/Advance game for sure. I did find the Yuuka mode to be pretty easy;  I realized after a few moments I could shit in the center and let the clocl bounce around freely and it would eventually pathfind its way to every star on the map within about 10 seconds. It was goofy; very perfectly Jam-my. Reimu's mode, however, is extremely stressful. One life and game over for a yin-yang orb which is incredibly unwieldy even before the lack of space. (I'm sure part of this is intentional in design, as the plot is about Yuuka harassing Reimu for the lulz.)

Overall, a fun game with polish and just a little jank (complimentary.)

There's definitely the idea of a game here for sure. I think committing to the shapes instead of enemies is fascinating if you're going for a more retro-inspired look. Matching up the music with that in mind would have done wonders. That said, it was kind of confusing to know what was what. Apparently the white circles are good, but they behave like something bad (since other white shapes are enemies), so it complicates gameplay. The hitbox was also extremely large for a Touhou game; I found myself dead very often from getting pixel-clipped-- which is especially a pain when you only have three lives and the bullets are the size of you.

All said, however, for a three-day project, this is pretty interesting. I would have been very interested to see what it looked like with about a week or so instead.

Unfortunately I got an error on export and can't find the game itself in the files I downloaded. Lots of empty files and the like. It's too bad because from what I've read, it seems like an interesting idea.

It's incredible you folks managed to do this in just three days. The menu UIs are gorgeous, the art is simply adorable, and the battle system just works. The writing is clever, with very good characterizations as well. The only issue I have outside of the pacing of the game (feels kinda slow in terms of progression and the speed of play) is this game is very mouse-dependent. If there were controller support or a way to move with the keyboard, it would be a lot easier to persevere through. All-in-all, an excellent effort with high marks for visual, concept, music and use of green.

Oddly enough, I had a harder time with the non-boss rush sequences in this game than the bosses themselves. All said, this is a very neat and compact Touhou-like game in the truest sense. The mechanics are spot-on, and the patters are very visually striking... might be some of the best I've seen so far. The music is especially hoppin'; I think that might be the best part of the game itself. That said, it's still ferociously hard and as a result can feel really unbalanced. No story or dialogue also notches some points off the final score; if there was a story included, I think this entry would have that authentic cherry on top  Don't let my minor criticism bug you though, this is a GREAT game, especially under the three-day limit.

I cannot say enough how smooth and polished this experience is. You found a way to combine three very different games into one complete package and nothing feels out of place at all. The game design is on point, the art is fantastic and the music bops. It really doesn't get much better than this. Be proud of yourselves on this one!

I know people always get so hyped about sequels, there can be concerns about it not performing up to snuff. But not to worry with Freeze The Frog or Die II... it meets all those lofty expectations and more. I especially liked the cameo at the end, really a nice treat for fans of the first game. 9/9.

Love text games so much. I especially love how silly this one is. 9/9.

This is an entry which will stay with me for awhile. You really nailed down the feel of someone noticing the inextricable passing of time and the silent cruelty of what it can do to someone. Which is very weird to say about an interactive fiction where you press A to talk to yourself, but the dialogue just captures those feelings in such an intimate way and the environment is so befitting of such loneliness, I cannot help but to reflect on how I feel about my own life.

This is fantastic and one of my favorite entries of the Jam, even if there's not much in the way of gameplay or challenge.

I have no nostalgia for AVGN, as I never watched him growing up, so I had to take this game for what it was at face-value. 

Unfortunately, even knowing this game was a parody of the retro game genre and of YouTube/Twitch culture, I just don't think this game was for me. The troll mechanics, combined with pretty unforgiving difficulty (two hearts on normal!) and the smarmy (and at times pretty childishly vulgar) dialogue made for a really unpleasant experience for me personally, even if I can appreciate the  clever game design as a fellow game dev. Which is too bad, because the art is supremely cute (as I would expect from a WOAH MAAAN game!) and the sound design is very authentic, which gave the game some good value. 

I've always been a fan of MST3K and have always wondered kind of how that would translate; this is skimming close to the idea of such a concept, which I think is the best part about the game even if I didn't particularly like the execution.

I agree with Valonad's assessment pretty much spot on. It's impressive to make this in Scratch of all engines. Art is cute, music is retro. A nice lil game ya got here.

It is incredible this was knocked out in around 72 hours or so. The level of visual polish is off the charts. Going for the pixelated look was a great decision, as it lends a unique design language in terms of the Jam entries. The programming is also pretty ambitious; the custom UI really brings a lot to the table presentation-wise. You definitely got the most out of Ren'py for this.

The story premise is cute, but I did think it was a little opaque as to what you had to do to progress. The game does have seven (!!!) endings, so I assume you're meant to play through multiple times for the optimal experience, but I felt a little lost whenever I had to make a choice to go somewhere (i.e.: will this be the choice that ends my day? It's hard to know til it happens!)

Overall, this is an excellent entry with crisp graphics, ambitious ideas and delightful writing. I had some minor gripes with how the game was paced and how events could unfurl in Yuuka's free time, but that does not distract from the experience at all. Great job!

I definitely love the concept and design of this game! It is one of the most unique games I've had the pleasure of playing in a jam, that's for sure. Once I figured out what was going on, it became great fun to play and I had a delightful time just twiddling back-and-forth. 

I do think some more aural indicators would be nice; I'm not sure if the Micro had a speaker or not, but it was hard to tell if I was hitting Mima or not if I wasn't directly looking. But other than that minor issue, I really loved this game.