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A jam submission

The Trials of ARomantic ReimuView game page

In a reversal of the dating sim, you must help Reimu dodge girlfriends and discover herself.
Submitted by AngryCow, misabiko (@misabiko), Jackyyeah, Hippppo (@HippppoDraw), Jade — 19 hours, 16 minutes before the deadline
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The Trials of ARomantic Reimu's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Use of LGBTQ+ Themes#14.6364.636
Story / Writing#14.5764.576
Overall#24.1824.182
Concept#34.2424.242
Audio / Music#44.0004.000
Balance (Challenge and Fairness)#73.4853.485
Gameplay#123.1823.182
Visuals#193.6063.606

Ranked from 33 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Team Members
AngryCow, Jade, misabiko, Hippppo, Jackyyeah

Streaming Permission

Yes

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

A very intriguing and compelling reading. Every character had their own voice and I enjoyed learning about Reimu’s viewpoint. The presentation was pretty nice too (backgrounds, colors, choice of font). The music was good but I admit I also found it a bit distracting. I agree that the use of silence would have been a good choice. You could also  consider using ambient sound effects. Picture the falling rain, or a ticking clock when you wake up in the SDM. The ending **SPOILERS** makes we wish ZUN would age the characters as the years pass. It's something I've thought about as well. ** END SPOILERS**

I’m happy that you made a game AngryCow! I hope to see more games from you and the team in future jams.

Developer(+1)

Hey, it means a lot that you took the time to play our game. Thanks. And with three whole minutes to spare!

When I initially brainstormed the game, there was only going to be a single looping track, possibly of just free assets. Suffice to say, sound design is not one of my skill areas. Going forward, I want to integrate my team more in the conceptual stage precisely so gaps like that can be filled. Rain and the ticking clock are great ideas that I need someone else to tell me! 

We are already planning another game, so we'll try to make that wish to see more a reality.

(2 edits) (+2)

my favorite character is the hole in the roof. they are the main plot fr, love them

Joke aside, I'm really enjoying reading this with my friend. I find Reimu's development very relatable to Aroace people in my opinion and the interactions with the characters are both fun and serious as the plot progresses. My friend and I are still reading little by little, but when we finish I might edit this comment with more of my observation.


Very good visual novel :3
(I'm dislexic af omg help me)

(2 edits) (+2)

I've only played Kogasa's Route with a friend of mine but we were fully engaged with it and I'm really interested in checking out the rest of the routes! I really dig the concept n.n!

Favorite Parts: The deep character development, introspection, shades and nuances of the hole in the roof TT_TT

(+1)

hi I'm the friend. Love this game, give me 10 more plz

Submitted(+1)

BGM is really good. I should look up how to develop the visual novel this way.

Developer(+1)

This was made with Twine, using the Sugarcube story format. If you aren't intending to make a traditional VN with character portraits over dialogue, it works quite well. In fact, when I was playing your game I was thinking Twine might have been a better engine for the story you were telling.

Aside from that, thanks for playing.

(+1)

Really good VN. Poor Sanae.
Bit confusing with outcome sign posting, and some of the text options are vague as to if they are letting someone down gently, or if your reacting in the expected way. 

Developer

I am quite the novice when it comes to VN decision trees. Thanks for playing through it.

(+1)

Dude that word count, hahahah. This word count may deter some players. But at the end of the day, this novel is an intelligent and thoughtful piece of fan fiction. The word count was well used.

- The biggest (but only) flaw is that there are lots of typos and grammatical mistakes, so much that it was often hard to read and understand... It should go without saying but a novel with such protruding flaws is... Well you know.

- This issue wasn't big enough to fully get in the way of enjoying the storytelling though. The writing is just exceptionally good.
  The characters are all so nuanced, and Reimu's inner thinking is so in-depth, one could almost feel her mind.
  The story, the dialogues, the choices are all amazingly told. It's an excellent mix of entertaining and serious, in a way that feels very relatable and almost real.
  My favourite part in this is certainly how the game plays off typical tropes. I have never ever read such a big subversion fest before. Like, "reverse dating sim" ijbol. And of course it's with girls who fit the typical archetypes. Like, what have we here... The klutzy secret admirer, the business partner with more than professional interest, the overly hardworking and collected housewife material, the childhood friend rizzlady, and your Bollywood mom who's arranged your marriage. Have we missed any one here?

-The title screen and backgrounds look really good. I like the way the backgrounds are used and shown. It's simple but it's good enough to set the mood.

- The music was much enjoyable during the reading, the number of arranges in there is impressive.
- Loving how the songs even fit the characters. Klutz Sana's theme is just perfect. But my favourite song is the True Ending's theme. The original is one of my favourite Reimu themes already!


All in all, a very good read full of insight and maturity, even if I didn't really think I'd get reading for 2 hours and a half. Kudos to everyone on the team.

What do you mean "Don't sweat this kind of small details". Do you mean that when two girls kiss -

Developer

The biggest drawback to that word count was proper editing. My team caught dozens of my typos but I am sorry enough slipped through to hurt your experience. The postjam update I just added today at least catches the worst of them, hopefully. I tried pretty hard to make all of Reimu's choices still sound like Reimu, so it is reassuring to hear that came through.

I am quite grateful to the team for adding visuals and music to match and often exceed my words. Thanks for playing our game.

Oh right I forgot to report something:



Somehow the gray sentences from these specific top and bottom buttons are swapped.
That sure threw me for a loop for a solid 3 minutes.
Developer

Thanks for the report. That was one of the bad errors that slipped through on the jam release. I just fixed and should now link properly in the update. 

Submitted(+1)

This was great! I don't think I've seen Yukari being a sinister presence in Reimu's life before in a fanwork. A helicopter mom who can literally hover around you, how scary! In general this was very unique. My only criticism is with the music; the songs themselves are great, but I think their implementation wasn't the best. The music could be distracting, Marisa's in particular. I would have preferred just silence for some of the more serious moments. However, I can't praise the refreshingly mature writing enough. Next to Yukari, I also really liked the way Sakuya was characterized. The true ending made me choke up a bit, haha. Great job all around!!!

Developer(+1)

We implemented the music at pretty close to the deadline and I guess it shows. In an ideal world we would have liked more variations like the sad Sanae track to better match the mood of each scene. However, intentionally using silence is a great idea we did not consider.

Thanks for playing our game.

(+2)

I only know how to reach Bad End 5 but it's still really good! Really can feel the growing frustration Reimu feels as she tries to push away everyone :(