Post by VictorSeven in World's Crossing Academy 1.0 comments

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Well, if that's the kind of player you are, you might find WCA enjoyable. I'm very interested to hear how you feel if you end up playing for a bit.

There are 49 total planned love interests if you include the 21 DLC characters. We're still in the early stages of Side Content (this becomes available in Season 2), which is each girl's romance route that you get to play in the Free Time system you unlock eventually. NONE of these girls will die. Slight spoiler here, but one of the girls DOES suffer an attack in Season 1 but recovers. Cecilia (the yandere stalker) is an integral part of Aurum's backstory, so she's somewhat present during Season 1 of the story. However, she ended up being such a polarizing character (half want a redemption arc, the other half want her dead) that I moved her romance route to the Secret category. In a future episode in Season 2, you the player will get to choose whether or not you ever see her again.

WCA is built on the back of community feedback, and many voices have gone into shaping how this experience feels over the years. You're right in that I ABSOLUTELY need to update that description; for every one person who speaks up there are at least 10 who feel the same way who remain silent. That being said, there is a fair amount of emotional rollercoaster in this story, probably more than you expect from a typical adult experience you'd find here on Itch. But as a writer, I use these techniques not because I like bad things happening to the characters, but because the presence of bad things makes the good things sweeter by comparison. The shadow only serves to elevate the brightness of the light. I understand people get a little weary of tragedy and conflict in things they play with the intention of feeling good, and that's why I have my disclaimer at the top of the page. This absolutely could turn out to be everything you hate in a story like this, and if that's the case, I do apologize. I know I can't please everyone. But there's also a nonzero chance that you end up absolutely falling in love with a few of the characters and enjoying your time in WCA.

And it's when that happens that I feel the last 4 years working on this store were worth it. Appreciate your time, and thanks for giving WCA a shot.

OppaiLove56 days ago

I will check it out today. Good to hear the girls survive i rather not repeat the disappointment and sadness of losing one of my favorite absolutly loved characters like from Final Fantasy 7 (with Jessie) or Assassins Creed Unity (with Elise) and Odyssey (with Phiobe). Its no suprise Cecilia is polarizing i myself dont want a Yandere Stalker threatening the girls so i can understand the Kill her side however she kinda reminds me of Azula from Avatar the last Airbender who is also definitly a broken but capable girl and a psycho yet i love Azula and want a redemption for her and i can see me feel the same for Cecilia. It would certainly be good to be able to have a choice to either fix her or say its not worth the effort and get rid 8f her entirely. In fact i already fell in love with a few girls from their design alone (Wither, Black Elf girl Core category end of first row, Goblin girl beginning of third row core category, Demon Girl DLC group first row third from left, dragon girl secret group third from right). As long as you dont go "Stray Incubus" and friends style and make horror (aside from the ghost girls i know are already in or planned and my (un)itentionally are scary sometimes), hell (aside from the probably hell like homeworld of the DLC demon girl, played a game once that refreshingly DIDNT depicted the demon girls as evil manipulating antagonist trying to make you a bad criminal boy who will join them punished for the sins he let them seduce him to do as their eternal playtoy in hell) and the gods as Antagonists (game was still ok though and i absolutely fell in love with the spider girl Misty so if your to do character list gets shorter i recomment this absolute lovable cuty as inspiration) the story im sure ill like it. In fact i got my own school adventure story with fantasy/mythology girls and (probably way less magical) travel between worlds however its more of a private hobby thing just in conceptual text form not really planned to ever be a book or game. Maybe it will become a public fictional world encyclopedia on World Anvil but i doubt it will go beyond that in this life.

VictorSeven55 days ago

Very rarely do I ever like to make a character "mwahaha evil because I wanna be evil." I feel that's lazy. Avatar has some of the best writing I've ever experienced in a show, and I like to lean into grey morality more often than not. There is a reason Cecilia is the way she is. It's trauma-based because of the way she lived. She is a character that is very clearly in need of professional help. And once I have the main story to the right point, the player will be able to choose to either get her professional help or to not have her in their playthrough anymore.

Druthari, our Dark Elf security officer, is another example. She has trauma-based anxiety/panic attacks with specific triggers. She's a very closed-off person whose walls take time to work through. But once she explains her past history to you, everything makes sense. I have a lot of characters like this that have emotional hangups they can't solve on their own. But I also like to flip the script and have a character who is reasonably healthy who sees the main character's hangups, and instead of you fixing her problems, she's trying to help you work through yours.

For me, it all comes together as this wonderful living, breathing world where the characters are deeply crafted like in several of the AAA games you mentioned, these lovingly designed, complete characters that in those games, you never get to explore your connection to. I take that and I splice it with the Adult Entertainment genre, which typically has abysmal story and character depth, but DOES allow you to explore your connections to characters, physically and emotionally. What I hope for is the best of both worlds. Characters with depth, personality, and endearing nature mixed with the option to explore what that means to you in a setting where the story is rich and rewarding in its ups and downs. I like to write in a way that plays the strings of your emotions in such a way that the darkness amplifies the light.

Over the nearly 4 years I've been working on WCA, I've learned that this style is not everyone's cup of tea, and there's no mold I can fit myself into to please these people. So again, I understand if the story is a little too... dire for some? The point of making dire events happen in the story is to make people CARE. And when people CARE, the romance they experience is sweeter, because they feel they've made that difference in that character's life. That's what I'm setting out to do. Not to be a sadist and break hearts by offing someone's favorite girl. That's a big no-no in this genre lol

OppaiLove55 days ago (1 edit)

So i have have played through the game as far as is possible to this date and i like to state my feedback

1. I NEED Jack, Willy and Cecilias Sister Ashley VERY VERY VERY VERY FUCKING DEAD ASAP!!!! Jack is a stupid pervert macho "every girl should be mine and satisfy my sexual needs and exotic girl addiction" jerk and i believe hes the reason cute mirror spirit girl is dead and that girl is the same who he got in him the one named Eleanor, Willy is a fucking sick mad perverted scientist and im sad i could only beat him up on nightmare mode and not kill him right then and there and Ashley is literally the one who stabbed Gillie not Cecilia i would go as far as saying those who want Cecilia dead didnt get that Ashley is the real sick murdering stabbing psychopath who needs to die Cecilia is a good girl in need of help who is manipulatey by Ashley to think hurting people is the only way i figured, i think these 3 maniacs are your "mwahaha evil because I wanna be evil." characters, i heard some love those kinda villains without higher moral goal or trauma and want more like them but i ABSOLUTELY HATE these villains and want them dead instantly

2. OH MY FUCKING GOD WITHER IS SO DAMN CUTE I LOVE HER!!!! I wanted to tell her straight up that i love her way more than Saaya

3. Make Nook young again. Sure shes a cute lovable granny but man i still want her back to her supposed normal young age fast

4. My favorite Girls i really fell in love with from the currently meetable cast are: Wither, Druthari, Esthel, Nook, Rukah, Cute Mirror Ghost Girl (i love how her first communication way became the top left corner where isually just game notifications like New Message from X pop up, usually im scared and freaked out by these mirror ghost girls but with her i knew fast she was trying to help and warn and i love she figured too she is scary and decided to go with starting with black screen and a little wave from the corner as a warning shes there before actually fully coming out with a few steps back instead of straight close up jumpscare of her face, thats so darn sweet cute and considerate of her), The Succubus Girl on the who is probably the Night Guard i saw in the where Embers text got all small tinier and unreadable before Druthari held her hand, those are the characters i really care about right now

5. Aiobheann, Jade, River and also suprisingly Cecilia and Yuka are characters that also grew on me in a way, Rivers dealings with Sick Willy however dampened my sympathy for him/her a little and i hope he dies long before he/she gets so involved with this evil maniac bullshit and does so many bad things for him that i lose the sympathy and love i just got for her

6. At one point while talking to piano girl Yuka i felt like i was meant to play that game and read certain lines she said like 2 things that hit weirdly different

VictorSeven55 days ago

Hey, glad you enjoyed the project! Thanks for all the feedback! We have character voicemails in the Discord, and I post extras whenever I can.

Not surprised at all about Wither. She's become the fan favorite by a long shot.

And I'm working on getting the main story to the point where the Rebirth Ceremony is available and we can start helping some of the girls with their issues.

itch.io

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