There's a lot I could say about this one, but as a VA-11 HALL-A fan, I'll just say you got them conversations and character writing down! My favorite LGBT representation this jam for how diverse and personal it was written, and I quickly found myself getting into not just the characters but the worldbuilding (and drink menu!) in this unseen little corner of Gensokyo.
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Room of a Thousand Petals's itch.io pageResults
Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
Use of LGBT Themes | #9 | 3.937 | 4.143 |
Story / Writing | #9 | 3.903 | 4.107 |
Visuals | #18 | 3.530 | 3.714 |
Overall | #18 | 3.394 | 3.571 |
Concept | #20 | 3.666 | 3.857 |
Gameplay | #22 | 2.512 | 2.643 |
Audio | #22 | 2.953 | 3.107 |
Challenge | #23 | 2.003 | 2.107 |
Ranked from 28 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Team Members
junejijo, mollyyncy, mitaka78, sewagechrysalis, Pedestal
Streaming Permission
Comments
I like a lot of things in this lil VN!
starting with the character portraits they are delightfully stylized! They really portrayed each voice the characters had in their writing perfectly and speaking of voice, the surprise voice acting really added to the way each character should come across. Shout outs to the Hatate voice talent, your voice was PERFECT!
The implementation of original characters was also nicely done, usually I have a distaste for OC in Touhou that aren’t just background characters but I rather liked Hana and M! It’d be nice to read more stories with them.
The backgrounds were also nice, when first seeing the bar background I hesitated to click through the one clean look we got at it because I wanted to read all the little graffitis on the wall! Very nice touch. The music set the mood well but I wish the tracks either were longer or looped with less “quiet” time.
As far as more things I’d want: the bit with Hatete and the phone was really neat and I wish more of the game did surprising things with its UI. Also having a drink menu you can look at separate from just during the dialogue choices would be nice. Also, a lil bit sad Mamizou didn’t get to interact with any of the other patrons. I want more mamizouuuuu!
I greatly enjoyed my time in the room of 1000 petals! I wanna go back! Thanks for make Junejijo and crew!!!
Thanks for all the kind words, Panchamon! I knew you were looking forward to seeing this game so I'm happy it delivered!
I was very nervous about the addition of Hana and M, but I'm glad people seemed to embrace-- and even want to see more of-- that dynamic! Molly did a wonderful job with portraits, Demo made a gorgeous background and mayama did a great job bringing the mood out of the music. All our VAs did an outstanding job bringing life to each character as well, I am very proud of how they ended up sounding.
In our original vision, we would have had a few more surprises with the UI and a separate recipe book, but we sadly had to make some sacrifices due to myriad production issues. I think if we ever revisit the game, we'll definitely try to make those changes a reality.
I'm glad you enjoyed your time! Maybe there will be another chance for Hana and M to serve the denizens of Gensokyo yet.
I'll be honest, I didn't quite finish it, I got about half way in one sitting, so take this review with a grain of salt. For a gamejam this looks and sounds very nice, enjoyable writing, enough options to be entertaining, but didn't wow me.
The art was very nicely done, however a few of the faces I felt were off, particularly Marisa. outside of the faces though it was well done and the artstyle was charming.
The VAs each did a pretty nice job, though as I lack familiarty with Touhou lore, I can't speak for how fitting they were. Only Hana surprised me, the rest fit characters as the script presented them.
Audio sounded nice, good quality and I liked the selections. the default settings made the occasional music a touch loud but they provide settings.
I'm not sure if M was meant to be a character fans would deduce, but to me they were handled in a mostly fun way, I wish they either used neutral pronouns or let you choose to be male/female as I'm not a fan of playing males in games, especially if they are meant to be myself.
If I may touch on the gameplay, there was one order where you're basically told "figure it out". you are given a clue that it should pair well with a particular thing, but no descriptions mention it at all, so unless you're already very familiar with drinks and/or the food in question, it's a blind guess between seemingly every drink in the game. I wish there was a bigger clue. Things like describing the food, or an offhand comment about what category or style of flavour would go a long way. "Any Simple drink will go well, but do you know which is best?" some line like that would make the choice less daunting.
All in all, a solid game that is impressive when you look at the time limit, but has a couple nitpicks.
P.S. I don't know if this is intentional, but you can scroll up through previous dialog and just redo choices. It feels like a bug but is a handy feature if you mess up.
I would encourage you to go through the whole game if you could; the third day has lots of story and activity which makes some things make sense.
The choice in question is also meant to feel that way; we wanted the player to be on the back foot and have to make a reasonable guess based on background after having their hands held for a bit. We were also a bit restricted for to some development issues; our original vision was a bit more involved.
I'm at least glad you seemed to enjoy the art and acting; they're what really makes this story come alive, so the credit goes to them for that.
Bartender simulator. Wow. I never thought deeply about what these guys go through during their working days (I don't go to bars so uh ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ) so this is truly an eye-opening point of view. These guys aren't just here to serve drinks, they're also apt listeners and even sometimes almost directly influence the flow of the convo.
Well maybe it's not fully accurate (idk), but the way the script's written makes this PoV fully believable, and all the characters relatable. It's just a really great read!
And then I realized this game (very likely) happens in the same continuity as this silent Kokoro VN and it went from great to amazing in my head. And then I got to the reference about manly Rinnosuke with the soccer ball and it went from amazing to "yoooo they really did that"
I really enjoyed serving the drinks, even when there's only one "choice", because playing as the bartender, it truly feels like a key that unlocks the next bits of dialogue rather than a standard VN Brand Choice™. When in fact, it's still just a standard VN dialog choice. I really can't pinpoint why it feels different but again, this is the most actual fun interactions I've had in a VN in a while.
I'm remembering this sidestory in Yakuza 0 where Majima becomes an impromptu bartender now lol
Hey Medal Hunter, I always appreciate your candor with comments, so I'm happy you enjoyed our entry so much.
To read how much of an impact the writing and presentation it had on you truly blows me away; as a writer, I always strive to make sure people can relate to the stories I try to tell, so to hear it does is wonderful. But our voice crew and artists really brought everything to life, and I wanna make sure they get their due too; I'm so proud of them and their choices for every character.
Our original vision would have been even more involved as a player character, but we had some circumstances out of our control impact the production, resulting in a switch to a more dialogue-based "serving" menu. I'm glad you still found enjoyment in the choices system even despite that! (We hope maybe someday to make the game in a fashion that is closer to the original vision.)
And yes, I love that mission too; I cannot help but admit that certainly did play a role in the creation of this game, most especially in the drink descriptions.
I've played the game jam version as far as it allowed me to go after ignoring errors, which was up until Miko and Byakuren. Even though I'm now playing through Cold Open as well, I'll rate the game based on the unfinished version as a form of fairness toward the other participants, I hope you don't mind!
I'll start by saying that I like the concept! I've already seen VNs where you impersonate a bartender and it is a solid choice, as it allows you to add some gameplay elements in the form of mixing/choosing drinks. This makes the gameplay feel a little less samey and adds replayabilty. The choices are not always straightforward to interpret, which adds a bit of challenge, something that I appreciated.
I like the artstyle of the game: the backgrounds are clean and the characters look so good! It's a shame that in this version most of them are too big and don't fit in the screen. They also often overlap and sometimes don't even show up. I'm sure these problems were all due to a lack of time, as I see they've been fixed in the latest version of the game.
The audio effects are nice, I don't think I've seen other developers in this game jam add voice effects to the characters' lines! It's a good compromise between full voice acting and no voices at all, especially considering the scope of this jam.
The stories are all really enjoyable, I'm just sad I couldn't finish the game beacuse of errors! They all involve LGBTQA+ people being silly or serious one way or another, so I'd say you definitely got the theme right! The game touches multiple topics about gender identity and sexual/romantic attraction and they fit right into the narrative! I'm also convinced M is supposed to be someone important, but I haven't figured that out yet...
I want to say a few lines about the finished version as well. Once fixed and polished, the character portraits are GORGEOUS, it's such a shame you couldn't make it in time! At first, I immediately fell in love with your rendition of Rinnosuke, then I saw Mamizou and found her just as good, but then the more characters showed up, the more I loved the art! They all look wonderful! The music is also very fitting, I really felt the difference between the two versions of the game.
I haven't played through the final version fully, but I'll definitely update this comment or add another reply once I have. In any case, I really like your game and can't wait to finish it!
EDIT: Ok, so it turns out I had very little of the story left to play! The way you represented the credits with all the characters coming back to thank/say hi to you was really cute! I still haven't figured out who M is supposed to be though. Are they an existing character or just a stand-in for the player? I thought the former, since the dialogues hint at M having a definite backstory, and they do have a non-generic character design, but I couldn't tell. Anyway, I enjoyed the story very much! I didn't want it to be over and wished it to be a bit longer, but you still made an incredible work, considering it was for a two-week game jam!
Thank you for playing!
The Jam version is a fair bit unpolished because we ran into some circumstances out of our control with about two days to go which forced us to switch engines to make sure a game even got out. We're very thankful the organizers allowed us the time extension in that sense. 😅 The original idea of the game would have played a lot differently; I hope we can get back there at some point.
I'm glad you enjoyed what we did have on offer for Cold Open; as the lead writer, I wanted to ensure a lot of different stories were being told which may not otherwise get shine. As director, I also wanted to try some things to add to the experience (such as the VA) and everyone did an excellent job. It sounds like you fell in love with a bunch of characters, which I appreciate!
As for your inquiry regarding M... That's a bit of a mystery which is will be left up in the air for now.
Thanks again!
I like the mysterious intro to the story! The character sizes seem to be a bit off (some too small, others too large for the window). The voices were great, and so was the art! An exception error occurred after Hana asked if I want to reconsider (which is kinda hilarious :) ).
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