I just finished reading Adastra and WOW what an incredible story. I have been crying my eyes out for 10/15 minutes and I am so unbelievably thankful to experience such a beautiful drama. How lucky I am to witness this amazing creation of love and heartbreak... I'm so lost for words on how I could possibly explain how this game will live with me forever. // -- // About 30 minutes I've just spent on the floor just emotionally stunned and drained barely finding the constitution to face my next adventure. The fact there's a sequel to this near masterpiece is such a daunting task. I give my full heartfelt thanks to Howly, HAPS, BlackSundi and Dylan Wunsch for their dedication to making this wonderful story.
Some feedback I hope will let Adastra reach its true peak is to look over the first hour or so leading into the story, the entire shuttle pod opening act before reaching Adastra feels like the weakest link in the story, I fear people may ditch the story before its given chance to shine due to the weak start.
I feel the art style/detail of certain rooms is a little lacklustre and could do with some spiffing up, for example, the bedroom at the very start of the game feels very bland. As well as the meditation room.
There are parts of the game that contain no audio/background music. Dead air isn't great but as far as I can remember it was only short instances when there wasn't a suitable song playing. Tho a bit more variation to what is being played would also be beneficial I feel.
The writing for the human character feels a little bit flat at stages, his simple response lacks emotion and gravity. Almost sounding bored with the situation he's in. Something that happens a lot is saying "yeah" a lot. While it may be accurate it doesn't really read very compelling. I found myself imagining that there was more life and energy in my responses than what was really being stated in some dull responses. A bit more detail and "life" would do the human good. Not so cold and robotic I suppose.
Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE this story. Never has a VN made me cry and feel such weight to the love story of the characters, the drama and trust/betrayal were perfect throughout. This truly is an incredible piece of work. With some refinements, I believe this could be a best seller worldwide. I hope my feedback hasn't sapped the love and admiration I want rain upon the devs. Please continue to work on these stories you can see just how brilliant and skilled all the people working on this story developed. I just think it needs to be polished near the start and a few holes plugged and it will AMAZING.
Massive gushing love to all <3