I do have an opinion, both good and bad (I mean, I have to. Been loving the art and loving the ideas. It's hard not to have opinions about something I'm enjoying seeing develop and made. Haha!)

The positives I noticed it, while it was frustrating to figure out a bit, it was also intriguing me to see the big wrestler showing expression as you go on. Like I'm already getting to know them without much interactions or dialogue. And I think the key point is that. The way you introduce the character to the point, frustration is gone. I'm going to keep exploring and seeing where this goes until I figure it out. I want to say it in full detail, but if I do, might ruin the experience if others learn about it without playing the game so... I think I rather say that detail in private to avoid anyone coming here getting spoiled.

The bad I have noticed is, people are used to wanting to succeed. And this isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's because they don't want to miss out details if something happens on the first try or any additional information that may be hidden based on record time or attempts among other things. But I honestly think the positives, at least in my opinion, overshadows the bad. This is really interesting and I wouldn't mind more puzzles like this. But there is one more bad thing too. And that would be we have the ability to go back in case we missed details instead of a log. Nothing is stopping from people failing, go back, try another one, and not accept getting something incorrect. And I'm honestly hoping people do not do so because, I kind of like how this was set up. If you get my drift.

Overall, I enjoyed the puzzle very much once I got the hint of what was going on and frustration was just gone. I was having fun with it and Emerson.

In my personal opinion, I really like the puzzle. It was easy for me to figure out the first try probably because I love puzzles. I saw that you planned to add hints in advance for the puzzle. While I think it would be a great idea, I do wish it would be an optional thing where people can choose to get the said hints or not if there would be more puzzles in the future. I like puzzles, but I also want to enjoy the puzzles without feeling they're too easy due to the hints or too hard due to no hints.

Created the account Just for this!

So... I dont like puzzles at all. I would not say, however, this particular one breaks the pace since It is in the beggining.

BUT

I dont like being forced to do It ):

The art, ambience and ALL are so enthrawlling and fresh and desireable. I wish i could backtrack so i dont Go in so blindly (im still on the puzzle and have no Idea what im doing. This IS How i found this post ha-ha)

Someone help? Please? Going offtopic, i know.

I personally wouldnt mind the puzzle If i could Just Skip It or find the solution somewhere. So... This is a polite to say that i dont like It, but im aware others might. Im in for the Ride :D

Honestly, I loved the puzzle haha!  I failed about 3 times trying to figure it out but because of how Emerson reacted every time I failed, I never felt like it was a bad thing.  It was more engaging and it felt more like I was playing a game vs reading a VN.  The uniqueness of this VN I think comes from the fact that Chapter 1 felt so interactive.  I liked that the puzzle wasn't too easy and actually required you to think and the hints weren't super obvious either.  Just enough to give you a little push in figuring it out.  

The puzzle was good enough that I borrowed it for use in a tabletop roleplaying session a couple weeks later. It took 3 me tries to get the right solution. I thought it was paced well.

I would appreciate more puzzles like this in more VNs. (I’m a huge fan of the Zero Escape series, for example.) For me it provides some more stimulation than just the reading does.

However, my reading goals are different than others. Many people read for escapism, not to do work. So I think the best way to accommodate readers who may dislike these puzzles is to have a toggle in the options page with these options:

1. Never skip puzzles
2. Always skip puzzles
3. Ask me for each puzzle

I would make 1 the default, since you crafted the puzzles and you want people to try them, but tell them once before the first puzzle that this option exists if they want to change it.

If somebody skips the puzzle, one dialog box can explain that the MC solved it and then move on.

Honestly at first glance I didnt realize that the puzzle had any relevancy or that the dialogue would change depending on how fast you discover it, so I kept failling on purpose to reenact a himbo anyways. Even if I knew the answer before hints anyways. Thats when I realized that the puzzle made perfect sense and had a not so impactful differance overall, made it neat nonetheless to keep going back and check possibilities.

But something that is odd, is that when clicking on a locker segment... you are stuck. There is no option to go back and choose another one. You cant use "back" ui either. Besides the design, I realized that it adds nice flavor and interaction compared to pure text, like in other VNs.

I liked the puzzle. Like you said, it's a nice way to break up some of the reading. I almost got it on my first try but needed a few hints for the 12 part. I'm also a person who likes puzzles though so I may be a bit biased lol. All in all though I wouldn't mind there possibly being more puzzles in the future.

...If I have any complaints 'bout the puzzle, it is that I am more annoyed that I had to go back to fail the puzzle then I am in getting it right on my first read through in order to see the other dialogue that others, above, mentioned, which led me to engage in a bunch of save scumming in order to evaluate however many times one should intentionally fail the puzzle in order to get the best possible dialogue with one of the main interests (who I very much intend to pursue) in this VN, only to find it even more confuzzling since it has no real impact on the VN for those who don't fail given this dialogue of getting to know this character better is truly inconsequential to the rest of the VN as nothing more than needless flavour text that's there to make things interesting for those who fail, initially (but at least I can say I now know 101 through 999 give the same reaction) 😑

It pisses me off how terrible I am with puzzles. LMAO
I thought I had it, but I guess I didn't. I still enjoyed it, though! I want more like these.

I figured it out pretty quick, but one thing confused me: it counted the lockers from right to left, instead of left to right, so I clicked the wrong one the first time. I'm used to lockers going from left to right, or well. Downward, back to the top one to the left downward again, so when I failed because I hit B1 instead of B12 it was minorly annoying. Still got a bit of fun dialogue out of it.

My honest opinion? This isn't a puzzle! There is one key piece of information that is missing that means you're set up to fail. I am definitely in the "first try" camp when it comes to these games so I'm sorry to say that this really put a damper on what was otherwise a really interesting game! 

I literally had to look at this conversation feed to get a hint rather than wait for the dragon to help me, and when I did see the hint it frankly hurt my brain. If you are going to continue with puzzles, you need to make sure that you are given enough information from the start so that the chance for a first try is possible. Like I would have gotten this correct on the first try if there wasn't a "secret rule" to this puzzle. I dunno, it just felt a little "moon logic" to me.

So I see something like this, and my first thought is "Ah, so we're supposed to figure it out by context" and proceed to rewind and try it again and again because apparently I missed something obvious and it just leaves me feeling dumber and dumber as I continue to get it wrong.  I guess apparently Emerson is supposed to help you, but given that the character wasn't given an option to ASK instead of just continually getting it wrong, that never even crossed my mind.  An option to do the reasonable thing and ask the other person in the room would have been nice, and also allows people that don't like puzzles to skip it.

I was left frustrated enough to go look at the chat to see if I was alone just to find this.  I'm still rather frustrated, to be honest.  I was originally so pleased that there was more intro (I guess I joined in the last one that skipped things) but now, I'll be setting this down and coming back to it later.

I really enjoyed the puzzle being included. I understood the arrow was showing me that I had to go anti-clockwise in the room, but on my first try I counted the lockers from left to right even having understood the anti-clockwise clue. So I kept trying and on my third time I got the answer.

What I actually loved about it was that the character wasn't necessarily supposed to know the answer so it felt right that I had to experiment with a few different lockers before I got it. I enjoyed the continuation of the story and the small reactions when I was getting the wrong locker and the eventual pat on the back when I got it right. I assumed Emerson would eventually tell you which locker was yours and the story would have continued so the puzzle wasn't a dead end if you couldn't solve it.

Great work, I really enjoyed this chapter!