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I am back two years later with an even longer comment after finishing the game.

I originally went into it completely blind--which is what I like doing, on the other hand, so nothing strange there. I trusted the friend who recommended it with my life, I played the demo and enjoyed the vibes, but I still didn't really know what I was going to find in the full game. I was hooked on the mystery, though, and I wanted to learn more.

I played the first 1/4th of the game in small bursts and I'd have likely kept up with that pace until I was done with it. Since I'm used to playing games like that, my memory tends to be pretty good and I don't often forget major details of the plot or the gameplay. (Or, rather, I should say my memory doesn't get *worse than it usually is*, so it wouldn't have made much of a difference lmaooo) Still, I'm really glad I decided to go all out on it after getting the first proper ending, because I picked it back up right when the true mysteries began and I was so hooked from beginning to end.

It turned out to be absolutely fantastic. I found the English translation to be really good, really fun and charming. I often switched to Italian to see how some sentences or jokes had been adapted and I thought there were some very clever things in there! The whole cast is so lovable, each in their own way, but I loved going through all of their stories and getting to know them better. It's amazing how even Honkui goes from asshole to bro.

I think it's very clever how the game lulls you into a... false sense of security? Or how it makes you think the tone is going to be one when it turns out to be another, rather. I was honestly very invested in the whole hierarchy thing and how they wanted to overthrow it (now that I've played some of your other games, I can definitely see a leitmotiv there lmao), so when the game takes a sudden turn and its vibes change, it's very shocking. It really does feel like the everyday life of these children has changed drastically in an instant and it hits HARD. Comparing that to other games and stories in a similar vein, where the stakes are revealed from the get-go, this feels a lot more personal, because you've had a lot of time already to get to know them and live alongside them. It doesn't just tell you "these were normal teens until yesterday and now they're going through all this!"--you DO see they were normal teens. I think that adds a layer of complexity too, as it plays with your expectations in more ways and you can compare how they acted before and after.

It also has a lot more endings than I expected?? Sure, they are BAD, but I kinda fricking love it. It's just more content that took time and effort to think of and create, and more story for me to explore even if I know that it's not going to be pretty. You could have easily made it more linear or just have a generic bad ending dialogue, but the fact that they're all different, with their own names and text, really makes it feel like you put a lot of love and care into every little detail and you want people to seek them out instead of simply avoiding them like a run-of-the-mill game over screen.

And most importantly, WHAT AN AMAZING OST. IT ROCKS HARD.

tl;dr very good game, would get murdered again

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! What a phenomenal job!!!

Absolutely beautiful game, though also very very sad. It broke my heart so bad that it's going to take me a while to revisit it to get the rest of the endings because I need an emotional break. However, the Spanish localization is a real mess, full of mistranslations, grammatical errors, gender mismatches (the main characters are referred to as boys more often than not), typos... A shame, because it ruins the experience for Spanish speakers. I had to switch back to English.

LET'S GO LESBIANS!!!!

This game is very special. It's really short, and you can achieve 100% completion in less than an hour. However, those 45ish minutes I spent on my first run really stuck with me as a lovely experience.

It's an incredibly self-aware game that uses the tools provided by the engine as an actual game mechanic instead of just being some quality of life function (and don't get me wrong--it's wonderful that those features have become mainstream.) But it doesn't just play with its mechanics, but also with the players themselves. Due to its time travel themes, there is always some detail, some minor spark, that reflects how the protagonist's experience changes every time you play, even if you're choosing the same dialogue options to ultimately reach an outcome you're already familiar with. It makes it worth it to pay attention all the time, even when you think you've already seen that route and you're tempted to skip forward. Despite the short length, the amount of love put into it is astonishing. Especially because most of those aren't lines 99% of the players would ever notice, or even come across, since the game is constantly giving you new dialogue options and a vast majority of people wouldn't try saying the same thing twice. And yet, experimenting and going out of your way to try new things does pay off.

It's a story that knows what it needs to do, it does so incredibly well, and doesn't overstay its welcome nor bloat itself up with unnecessary content that ultimately adds nothing. It respects your time, and knows that if it can be masterfully told in an hour, it shouldn't take 5 hours of your life away from you. And yet, for how short it is, it can be understood in many different ways due to its nuance and themes, as well as your personal views on them. The way I felt the game when I first played it has nothing to do with what it felt like the 3rd or 4th time I played through it, and it hit in a completely new way when I played it with friends as well. Honestly, it helped me reconcile with certain things that happened to me in the past and see them in a new, more positive light.

And I will say that, as much as I enjoy the extras (the developer commentary is particularly awesome), the thing I appreciate most from this version is the full compatibility with controllers. You can even select which button prompts you'd like to see, which is honestly delightful and something all modern PC games should do. I have been playing many Ren'py games lately and most of them either aren't compatible at all or make you do things like navigate menus and advance dialogue by pressing the right trigger, like some crazy maniac. Thank you for being better, Nami.

Also, it's in like 20+ languages. What kind of narrative indie game is translated to 20+ languages?! That's crazy. That alone is worth supporting.

In short: it good. Play game. (And buy it too in order to support Nami)

This was the last game I finished in 2023, and what a treat it was! A wonderful way to end the year! (And considering I 100%'d it in early 2024, it was also a wonderful - yet a lot darker - way to start the year too.)

The presentation is absolutely SPECTACULAR. The backgrounds, character designs, UI and, of course, music were all incredible and I fell in love with them all. I was bewitched by the way it all looks and sounds from the get-go, and every new piece of art only made me fall harder for it. What a collection of absolute CUTIES. Super up my alley. There was one song in particular, the one that sounds the first time you see the city background (if I'm not mistaken), that was a heck of a banger.

With how beautiful everything is, looks and sounds, it's rather remarkable how grim the worldbuilding and story turn out to be. The bad ending in particular is very messed up - though that's to be expected after Toumayhem and SVCMI, right? :))))) Still, the writing is wonderful, it makes it a joy to read through even the darkest parts, and it's just a great ride overall.

That said, the fact that the good ending is so WHOLESOME despite how dark everything else is only makes the good ending that much better. Top-notch action, super sweet romance, and a wonderful aftertaste after everything else those poor girls go through. They deserve all the best, and to be the protagonists of their own cafeteria AU fic. Truly the best possible ending. Overall, this was a wonderful game and I'm really glad I got to experience it! Thank you so much for making it and for all your efforts!!!

Uste dut joko gutxik parekatu daitezkeela a pet shop after dark-ekin. Dudarik gabe, inoiz jokatu dudan joko bitxienen, politenen eta nahasienen artean dago. Zure buruan geratzen diren esperientzia horietakoak da, pentsarazten zaituztenak kredituak ikusi eta askoz geroago ere.

Hasieran point & click moduko joko nahiko normal baten gisa aurkezten bada ere, ia-ia idle game bat balitz bezala abentura grafikoa baino, laster konturatzen zara normaletik ezer gutxi daukala. Ez diot inori sorpresarik izorratu nahi, joko hau gehiago disfrutatzen dela uste baitut hari buruz gero eta gutxiago jakinda, baina ez da inondik inora dirudiena. Espektatiben subertsio horrek, espektatiba horiek hain ilunak direnean ere, joko hau hain berezia eta interesgarria egiten duena da.

Gurpila asmatu ez arren, ezta berrasmatu ere hain bitxia izanda eta guzti, egiten duena oso ongi egiten du. Zure sentimenduak erasotzea lortzen du (eta bikain lortu ere!); ez izuaren bidez, etiketak diona diola ere, baizik eta zalantzaren eta deserosotasunaren bidez. Inoiz ez dakizu zerekin joko zaituen gero. Eskaintzen zaituena eta zugandik espero duena hain da xelebrea, non bideojokoei buruz dakizun ia guztia ahaztera bultzatzen zaituen. Hari jaurtitzen diozun guztiarentzat erantzun bat daukala ematen du eta, hala ere, bere sekretuak bekaizki gordetzen ditu (autorearen arabera, badira oraindik inork aurkitu ez dituen sekretuak...). Behin amaituta eta ikusi beharreko guztia ikusita ere, badago oraindik zer hausnartzeko, narratiba ez baitizu ondo murtxikatuta ematen eta zuk atera behar dituzu zenbait ondorio.

npckc-k hemen daukana sormenaldi ikaragarri bat da (eta baditu sorpresa BIZIKI anker batzuk). Mimo handiz egindako obra da, buru handiz eta, gainera, izugarrizko arrandia ere bada, bereziki nobela bisual "estandarragoengatik" ezaguna zen sortzaile batengandik baitator. Eta, hala eta guztiz ere, bere beste nobela bisualak sortzeko erabili zuen motor berbera erabili du joko hau sortzeko ere! Beraz, arazo handirik gabe esan genezake ere trebeziakeria dela honelako joko bat sortu ahal izana horretarako batere prest ez zegoen motor batekin.

Azkenik, aipatu beharra dago npckc-k egindako esfortzu galanta joko hau ahalik eta eskuragarriagoen egiteko; bereziki, hizkuntzei dagokionez. Honelako esperientzia bat gure eskura izan ahal izatea EUSKARAZ, eta gainera ofizialki, inolako kanpo-adabakirik edo zaleen itzulpenik gabe, izugarrizko luxua da. Gainera, bai hura zein gaztelerazko bertsioak ondo landuak daude eta jokoari karisma gehitzen diote. Joko gutxi daude euskaraz eskuragarri, baina mota honetako ekimenek esperantza ematen digute.

Azkeneko aholku bat: ahal baduzue, joka ezazue Steam-eko demoa jokoa bera hasi baino lehen, jada erosi baduzue ere. Eskertuko didazue.

It's already available on Steam! :) https://store.steampowered.com/app/1934800/a_pet_shop_after_dark/

Del 1 al 7. Faltan el 8 y el epílogo.

Aquí mismo, pero solo se traducirá una vez que estén terminados todos los capítulos :)

Russian has just been added!

Oh, dang, I'm so sorry about that! I don't know what could be going on... I tried sending myself an e-mail from a different account and there was no issue, so I don't really know what's wrong. I just added you to my contacts just in case that helps, but I'll send you another message immediately with an alternative address, in case it keeps rejecting your e-mails despite that.

And thank you very much for taking the time to get back to me through here, I really appreciate it a lot ;u; <3

Woohoo!! So excited to replay this in Spanish and recommend it to all my friends--thank you so much for your hard work!

I NEED A SCRUNKLY IN MY LIFE

Yeah, the sand castle is cute and all... but dunno about marrying it.

Thanks for letting me work on such a lovely project <3

It's finally available in Spanish!!

The Spanish version is out now!

You have to make Chloe as uncomfortable as possible in order to get the first ending. The least obvious part is that you have to make sure to choose to talk about RP when prompted, and then bring up ABO!

Hello again, and thank you so very much for the insight! :D

This hopefully doesn't need to be mentioned, but it's of course absolutely okay~ It makes me a bit sad to hear Lee's games don't do as well because I've had a fantastic time with them both, but I sure hope that means the rest of your games (which I have yet to play, so that's one thing to look forward to) are simply very well-loved! And it only makes sense to focus on what people are demanding the most. Though I am glad to have given some love to the underdog!

Still, please don't worry about it. I'm just glad to hear it's something you are still planning to do, so I'm more than happy to wait for it! That will give me time to forget about the plot and play it again as if it were (almost) brand new to me. It's the one perk of having bad memory, hahaha. So, by all means, focus on the big project and come back to this later, and stronger than ever.

Oh, and I am a dirty Spaniard, so the fact that the game is in Spain's Spanish at is totally fine by me, hehe. :) I have seen the porting was handled by people who I am familiar with, and they have historically not been... super great at translating in the games I've seen/worked on, but I guess it all depends on whom they hired in your case. I work with Nami as a translator and one of our latest projects was to fully retranslate Syrup 1 because it was handled by those people and the result was kinda eh, although that was a bit of a special case since it was a fan translation that had supposedly been revised by them instead of made from the ground up. I hope they did a better job with Lee, at least! Which reminds me, should you ever want to have it rechecked, I'd love to lend a hand (for free, so don't worry about the thousands of dollars XD) As a fellow small dev, I'm always happy to help people in any way I can, and as a language nerd, it's great to know there's one more good localization out there in the world~

Still, it's very kind of you to think of the LATAM market as well! I know for a fact that many people in Latin America actually prefer Spain's translations because LATAM Spanish isn't really A Thing (every country's way of speaking is radically different, as you can probably imagine, and you can't really make one version that works for everybody!), but, needless to say, there are many people over there who of course love having games in a Spanish that they're used to, so I think it's always worth it to have both available.

Thanks for taking the time to reply to me! Have a beautiful day, and best of luck with your projects!!

I've just played through both the prologue and this game during the last couple of days, and I've had a heck of a great time with them both!! The artstyle is incredibly charming, I loved the music, the characters and dialogue got me laughing several times, and I was honestly very pleasantly surprised by the genre of this game considering the prologue was a more straightforward VN. I ADORE point&click adventure games, and yet I hadn't played one in ages... It felt like going back to my childhood ;u;

In your last update from 2021 you mentioned having some new languages available, but I couldn't find them here yet. I'm missing a couple of endings and it'd be really great to get to do a replay in Spanish if those plans to update the game are still up! I wonder if you could shine some light on that, since it's been a little while? Thank you so much in advance!!

Happy first anniversary!!!!

I'm eager to check out the final release! Keep up the great work, and best of luck with development!

Just played through the demo--in a couple of sittings, though, due to time constraints. I was nervous going in because of the trigger warnings, since I am terrible with anything even mildly scary, but the demo was a delight and it didn't give me any issues, thankfully. I love the characters, the premise is very interesting, and I'm definitely looking forward to more! Great job!!

Glad to hear things are moving forward smoothly despite your laptop problems...! Best of luck with your project!

Oso ona! Asko gozatu dut prototipoa, eta kontzeptua interesgarria zein barregarria da (zentzu onean, noski!). Euskal mitologia eta folklorea inkorporatzen duten joko gehiago behar ditugu, eta honako hau potentzial handia dauka. Zorte on guztiarekin!

Thank you very much for your quick response! Best of luck to Sil too on their endeavour, then!

I don't know how itchio works and I don't know if there's any kind of private message service. If there isn't and you want to contact me, I'm @EndouDaisuke over at Twitter. Hit me up whenever you need to. :)

Hello! This is probably a weird comment to leave, but I hope you won't mind.

I heard of Heartbeat from Trass and got told that it isn't available in any language other than English. I'm a native Spanish speaker and it always irks me to not be able to play games in my language, so, just in case you've ever considered that possibility, I would be very happy to try and help you translate it to Spanish! I have experience with translation, I work as a text editor and I've worked (and will hopefully continue working soon) as a game designer and scriptwriter, so I believe I could do a decent job at it.

By the way, my girlfriend is a native French speaker and a professional translator who's always dreamt of translating a video game. If you need anyone to translate it to French, she might be able to lend a hand as well!

Thanks for your time!