itch.io

This was an absolutely fascinating experience. I underestimated what I was going to get when I initially read the premise and ended up spending nearly an entire day exploring through this gem. Even had me making up makeshift maps in Twine because I kept getting my ass lost lmao

The idea of diving into the guts of something long dead, a place where people once thrived and their remnants still linger, is a concept I adore and this knocked the execution out of the park. It's hard to be too frustrated at not getting all the answers or messages when it fits the theme so well, despite how effective the glimpses of deeper story here serve as hooks. The break in of glitches was a great mechanic as well, as a touch of digital decay and a source of wonder - and dread, when held up against the wider lore.

Thanks for sharing!

The first time I played this I ran into a bug where the last confession didn't load properly, but second time around was the charm. That aside I adore the concept and execution of this game; the recursive 'human playing a machine that replaced humans' aspect to it when it comes to the lore built up around the confessionals is especially fun to chew on. And the confessions are so very human and relatable, even when they aren't confessions at all. Those were some of my favorite ones to read.

Thank you for sharing this great work!

This is less of a game and more of an experience. A dialogue, a question asked, and by the end I'm not sure how to answer. But I don't feel pressured to. I have the time and patience given to me to just absorb and chew over everything I saw and read.

Thank you for putting this gem out into the world!

!!Spoilers!!

The Baron 'misheard' 15 mins of fame as 15 seconds huh lmao

This was a super cool glimpse into a spooky universe and now I'm sitting here like 'what do you MEAN that's it!!!!' That last conversation with The Baron was packed with so much intrigue that we barely get a glimpse at and I want to know MORE. But at the same time I don't, because the horrors that you never understand are a treat all their own. That said, if you ever revisit this (or make a loose connection down the line - am I wrong in thinking the reuse of the name Ajay here isn't coincidence?) I'd pounce on it so fast.

Also the art for the other realm is absolutely gorgeous, I'm in love with the style, particularly on Our Friend Kenney, the bonfire talks and the end meeting with The Baron! He really has a gorgeous grin doesn't he :' )

I've been looking forward to this since I saw the initial announcement, and it's just as wonderful as I'd hoped! My favorite thing about your games has always been the care and attention to detail you put into your UI, giving each game a distinct identity from each other, and you really nailed the cozy vibes with this one. The swaying of the subway made me wanna be on a subway or train so bad, I know the feeling and it called on it so well! The speech bubbles also gave the impression of idle floating thoughts so well, I adored it.

The strangers presented were charming as well. I loved the set up I got a lot, and even if part of me wishes to play again, just to see more of your work and the different sides of the cast I missed, I am content with the passings I experienced all the same. Thanks for another great experience Cho!

If I can pass on one recommendation to others, it's to hold off on playing this until it's night! I jumped on this in the middle of the day and while I don't regret it, I know I lost out a little bit in the process. Let your day end alongside Emma's for max chill.

I adore house horror, and this was an incredible read. The atmosphere was impeccable; the stairs to the basement filled me with a real sense of dread as I 'descended' along with the text, and I loved the representation of ever-shifting thoughts and opinions in the cycling options. I especially loved how much it seems like the house is grinning at the reader. This was a visceral experience even before the decaying body came in, and it's gonna stick with me for a good while, I can feel it. Thank you for sharing such amazing work!

This was a delightful game from start to end. The anthology of stories culminating in one, shared tale made for a wonderful experience, complemented perfectly by the art style and the music. You managed to paint a complete picture of each character in such a short time; I actually found myself tearing up at the end. And you did this while also dangling tantalizing hooks with the Wanderer that made me want to latch on and see more of his life. To see his own tale told.

Thank you for sharing your work with us!

Every part of this game is simply stunning. The art style, the creeping atmosphere, the designs all come together into an incredible experience. I'm on the edge of my seat already; VERY eager to see where this is going!

In my opinion, if you're gonna have a clues page, I think the clue notif should stay! It prompts the player to check out their clues regularly and see what's changed; without the notif, it'd be easy to completely overlook the clues page. Players can still ignore it regardless, but having the notif helps lead the eye in a sense, especially for those actively interested in deeper knowledge of the game's world.

If you want to strike a balance between clarity and mystery, you could change the notif text into something more subtle. Something like 'You should remember that.' would toe that line. (That's just an example, of course; if you do change it up, feel free to make it something else and keep it a secret ;) )

Actually, checking out the clues system brought me to another error:

CHP3
- "You have some time before work.": If you check the clues page after picking one of the paths, returning to the game causes it to act as if you'd picked two paths and forces you to head to work.

Continuity:
CHP2
- On any route but the Sans route, both Sans and Ralsei end up including the note about monsters being large, leading to repetition.

CHP3
- At the beginning of the chapter, it says you grab your blankets and pillow (singular) off the bed, but when the shootout starts the pillow is on the bed. (This is extremely nitpicky, but I figure I'd put it down anyway!)

- In Papyrus' scene in Sans' route, he's described as 'familiar', but the MC didn't see Papyrus before this because they went out the back while trying to avoid Sans.

CHP4
- The music queue from the night jog scene doesn't transition properly in Papyrus' and Wingding's routes.

Typos & writing suggestions:
CHP1
"Ebott City is the second largest cities in the country."
"It's not ever quiet at night" -> never
"You're on the seventh floor and there is no fire escapeon this side of the building"
"You never touched the basket, yet somehow your in first spring here"
"On the wind you catch the sublte floral scent of your roses"
"The skyscrapers block [...] you even lose site of Mt. Ebott in the back." -> sight
"They reach high in the sky with their acromatic colors" -> achromatic
"They run the Fell Kingdom and are the largest supplies of magic crystals in all of Delta." -> supplier
"They have a kind of uniform-all members where a black suit hat" -> wear
"Each window a different a light" -> remove an a

CHP2
"She is a tall woman who laughs with her whole body and has many wrinkles on her tauny skin" -> tawny
"He's the bartender for the dayshift, whereas your the bartender for the evening shift."
"Don't don't your heart, Frisk."
"As a monster, you know he could be dangers, but when you look at him you feel no threat."

CHP3
"What're workin' on?" he asks. -> forgot 'you'
"You crack a small smile You'd love to." -> missing period
"You ask him if he'd be okay to wait for you to get changed—you camere here to run."
"The waiters wear a long-sleeved white shirt dress" -> dress shirt
"A shiver a fear slides down your spine."
"Someone in the biulding stole it, or... destroyed it?"
"What's it matter?" he asks with a frown when he notices your expression. -> should be "what's the matter" ; "what's it matter" would be more appropriate if he already knew what the problem was and was dismissing it

CHP4
"Mister Scott clearly needed someome to talk to"
"You pass many people in street" -> forgot 'the'
"You skimmy through it"
"You turn to the voice [...] crimson eyelights in a black sockets." -> remove the a
"Along with fervor desire." -> should be fervent

An excellent update! I'm loving the clues system and sniffing them down. I'm also VERY intrigued by the new oddities introduced with Asriel, and eager to see what they're building up to. Papyrus, meanwhile, continues to be a steadfast sweetheart... which only has me wondering when we'll see him being dangerous. Great work!

I've been rounding up issues I note through the chapters to try and help keep everything to one fell swoop of error sweeping; I'll be posting it in a follow up comment.

I'm already in love with what I'm seeing. Talk shows have always been one of my favorite concepts, especially when combined with the supernatural, and I'm so charmed by the heart that's gone into this project. The music is nice, both characters feel real and whole, and I've already teared up a couple times reading through it. Definitely looking forward to seeing more!

No problem at all, and thank you for your work! I can confirm those errors are gone now. I found a couple new coding errors. The first happened when it comes to checking and committing to the route:

I was on the male variation of the Sans route in this screenshot, but I think this might be across all routes; I encountered it consistently when testing other routes and gender variations.

Additionally, I got this error on Asriel's route specifically when the 'intuition' first acts up:

All this said, thank you again for being so quick to listen and act! As a writer myself, I can imagine it might feel a tad discouraging to receive a wave of reports like this, and I just wanted to say I appreciate how lovely you've been when responding to the comments. I had a lot of fun playing Underfell, and Mafiafell is shaping up to be a great romp too. I'm looking forward to where it all goes next!

For male and NB versions of the Sans route, there's a couple of big errors:

this, and during the meeting, all his nicknames only show up as code rather than actually words.

Hello Cho I return because I took another replay through the game recently and I think you'd enjoy my tale of the unintentional bonus pinch of pain I experienced when I decided to finally tackle the No Love route. Posting it down here instead of in a new comment to hide it better, but just in case!

!!! SPOILERS !!!

For No Love route I changed the name (because on some level I am still a weenie), and the thing is. When I did this. I managed to skip over Flowey's whole barb about it in the beginning. So I went through the ENTIRE ROUTE having no idea that it hadn't truly mattered, which made Sans saying the first name I input instead of the name I put in for that specific playthrough at the end hit WAY HARDER sdhgfjsdg

It truly was the most karmic of punishments and I'm laughing thinking about it even now!!

I've always been on the outskirts of the Lupin series. I know of the characters, read some smatterings of plot, seen some out-of-context scenes - I know a vague approximation of Lupin, at best. Enough to make me love the charm, and enough to draw me to Jigen in particular, with his character archetype being a long-lasting fave of mine. The grumpy stoic trying to hide his gooey center? Handmade for me every time. I loved the hints of his and Lupin's relationship I saw in Is Lupin Still Flirting, so naturally I was super excited to see it expanded upon when I noticed this game.

BOY WAS I NOT FUCKING PREPARED FOR IT.

**SPOILERS**

Having never officially SEEN Lupin, I actually had no idea about Lupin and Fujiko's marriage and the following divorce. But I loved that you never tried to downplay Lupin's behavior about Fujiko in ILSF, so I didn't think much about his constant talk of her here either, which made for an extremely effective punch to my gut when Part 3 of the game came around. I spent Parts 3 and 4 mired in an odd little disbelief about what was happening, how abruptly things had spiraled down. I saw it through because of the care for characters and story I saw throughout both ILSF and this game, and I'm glad I did!!

The ending really ties everything together in a way that's so incredibly satisfying. I genuinely got a bit teary when I realized Lupin's little act wasn't working the way the stats told me they would; Jigen refusing to look away after a whole game centered around trying to get him to raise his hat, alongside the failure of Lupin's mental math when it worked to pinpoint perfection every time, got me right in the heart. I LOVE those big moments of reversed expectations so much, and it worked so well here. Lupin's a man of casual manipulation swept under his goofy charm, but Jigen never misses his mark, and Lupin's no exception!! All of it made me feel extra gleeful about the fourth wall break at the end. After everything, it made me SO happy to have a little personal hand in helping Lupin get what he wanted.

To say all of that and then talk about how much I liked the stats and the building of the relationship between Jigen and Lupin is a bit of putting the cart before the horse, but I was very emotional about the ending and I will not apologize. But I did love those aspects very much!! I still have to play around with options and outcomes and see how much is possible without it, but it really ties the bow on the game when you use Lupin's openness to 'influence' Jigen; how Lupin sees it as a necessary evil in order to get what he wants when it's really just him participating in what makes a relationship work by making it a two-way street. We love when a manipulator plays himself!! And every tidbit Jigen shared about himself broke my heart and made me adore the character all the more. Watching him wrestle with his own issues and insecurities in regard to Lupin really made him feel like his own person, someone I cared for and wanted to see happy.

I don't know if I'll ever get around to actually properly experiencing the Lupin series (I'm one of those 'when the stars are aligned' people when it comes to sitting down to these things) but I had a blast with these games regardless because I could tell just how much care and love was poured into each one. If I got this much enjoyment as someone hovering at the fringes, I can only imagine how lucky true Lupin fans must feel to have these works to enjoy! Thank you so much for making and sharing them.

I read this a long, long time ago, and coming back to it today, it holds up just as well now as it did then. A wonderfully unsettling and vivid piece that I'll always hold dear in my heart.

This game was an absolute delight in every way. A lot of the time I feel like it's difficult for media to throw the audience into a world they should already 'know', but I felt the natural build of information and Vil's POV tackled that issue well. And what a world it is! It's weird and wonderful and I loved learning about and experiencing it through Vil's eyes.

!!! SPOILERS !!!
The act of spending so much time in what was familiar to Vil, through Vil's POV, also served to make the twist of Brattan's route something special. Getting to experience Vil and Brattan learning to live in a world and bodies that were new to them added a level of awe to something familiar, and it left me with a much higher level of appreciation for his route than I think I would have walked away with otherwise.

That said, all of the routes were delightful experiences! They all felt very down-to-earth despite being couched in the unfamiliar and strange, because at the core they remained very relatable: standing at the precipice of growth and change, heading out to explore the unknown, or trying to open yourself up to another. It made the story feel very cozy and intimate in a way that made it soothing in something that, at first glance, you'd never expect such a feeling from.

Thank you for creating and sharing this game! It's going to be sticking with me for a while, I think.

Just got done playing this through and it was quite a fun little romp! I'm a sucker for detective stories, and I loved Hugo right off the bat; haggard detectives with a heart of gold are my absolute jam. (Noah and Colby are also very charming, of course, and I adore them.) I'm hooked on the concepts introduced here, and really hoping we'll be able to catch more of Hugo and his world in future games.

HELLO IT'S ME I'M BACK AGAIN

Before I get into everything else: I was actually watching your twitter through the development progress, and it was wonderful getting to see all the work and care go into it! It gave me an even better appreciation for the effort it took to pull this game together. And it all paid off! It really astounded me with all the little details you put into it despite the time limit - the caller ID bar, the ringtone, the charging ping and the charging symbol on the battery bar... it really lent to the charm of it all. All of your Undertale VNs really have their own tone and charm to them because of the way you chose to arrange the UI or how you focused on different mechanics with them, and it's an incredible thing to me!

NOW REVIEWING START

Artwork: Impeccable. Mmi's take on the sprites and expressions of the cast were on point, and her Papyrus portraits are so handsome!! But I have to give a shoutout to the way she drew Sans laughing, which audibly made me gasp when I saw it cuz it's so fucking cute. Even in the Pap game I keep looking at Sans rip.

Voicework: Once again, Dave batted it out of the park! It really is fun hearing him as the brothers, he does so well differentiating them and showing their character. Blair's work as Alphys was absolutely adorable, the stuttering and fumbling was ON POINT. But my heart goes out to CELLO AND THAT VOICE FOR UNDYNE HELLO??? It's a perfect fit in that hearing Cello's performance made me feel the same feelings I had the first time I saw Undyne: stupid and too bi for this.

Script: This was such a cute little romp! I've always adored Papyrus (who doesn't lbr) and he really shines in this game. I can't believe how SMOOTH he's gotten, someone really has stepped up his game since coming to the surface huh!! But beneath that he's still as big a sweetheart as ever, and reading his lines all tugged on my heart the same way he did in the original game.

!!! MINOR SPOILERS !!!

But the way I fucking lost it when I got to 'arms heavy knees weak my spaghetti'. I never saw it coming and it was SO good, thank you.

Thank you for yet another wonderful Undertale adventure, Cho!!

OHHHH JUST GOT IT AND OW :') Thanks for the good pain Cho!!!!!

!!! SPOILERS !!!

waitwaitwait, you can get Baggs to ask you to save him? [insert eyes emoji here] VERY curious how you managed that, if you (or Cho, if you see it first!) would be willing to offer a hint? I'm assuming it's something more than going down the straight Talk path?

I'm not one for interacting with Undertale AUs much, but having been replaying Dating Start! recently, how was I going to see that you made another game and NOT play it? And I'm super glad I did! Hope you're ready for another long review because HERE WE GO.

First things first, the collaborators: one other aspect that made me pause initially was the voice acting. I'm too used to the voices that I hear in my head when I read the dialogue, so I wasn't quite sure how I'd take to actual voices playing! But Dave did a fantastic job; the almost ASMR quality of Dave's performance as Baggs adds a new dimension to the idea of the hypnosis. He's also a very charming Papyrus, capturing his energy and keeping in a good strike zone between being too loud/overbearing or too subdued.

And of course, major credit to megalommi for making the AU and allowing this to be brought to life, and also for the design taste. I'm an absolute sucker for neon colors so the blue and magenta activate my brain in the best way lol. (It's me, I'm the most susceptible to Baggs' influence on aesthetic alone.) More than that, it's a great take on a Sans who decided to do the MOST rather than waiting til the last second.

!!! SPOILERS PAST THIS POINT !!!

On the game itself, the new mechanics implemented are SO fun and were such a surprise when I first saw them. I know coding can do a lot, and I'm not a newbie to interface screw, but I was definitely taken off-guard by having my cursor being taken out of my control like that! The atmosphere and art that went with it were superb as well. Your CG perfectly captures a feeling of terrible triumph on Baggs' end, A+. It made it all the more rewarding too when I finally managed to squeeze the second lie in past his control, even if it was a petty gesture at best. The flavor is what makes it!

Thanks for bringing another fun experience to life!

This is an absolute gem of a fangame. Even setting aside the main conceit (dating Sans) it's a wonderful love letter to Undertale in and of itself! It manages to pack so much into its runtime, and I find myself replaying it every so often because it has the same cozy feeling I loved from Undertale. Even more than keeping the mechanics Undertale initially employed, it's important to nail the heart and the feeling behind the game, and you really got everyone here 100%!

!!! MINOR SPOILERS HERE, BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY !!!

Seeing and interacting with the other characters feels like coming home, a happy little glimpse into their lives past Undertale's end. I especially adore the roleplaying scene with Alphys and Undyne; it's hilarious while also feeling warm and affectionate, with all the love going around everyone, between the MC's pining and Undyne and Alphys's own relationship! Every character was incredibly true to themselves, up to all their quirks and mannerisms, and it makes every part of this game such a delight to read.

I can't skip over the writing of the main draw either. The way the relationship with Sans is built over multiple RESETs is so charming and feels so true, with the hints of his character we got in the original game; of course he wouldn't be that easy of a nut to crack, even with his friendly attitude. More than that, the moments between him and the MC are written with such genuine emotion and care that it never fails to get me, no matter how many times I replay the game. Catch me in the club crying over the quiet wonder perfectly captured in the scene where he sees MC's soul even after I've read it for the 100th time in a row!!

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for bringing this project to life and releasing it into the world.