Hi, I wanted to leave a little critique on this prologue. I know some fans may see this as an unjust attack, but I hope that if the dev team reads this, they understand that I'm coming from a sincere place as a fellow writer and creative, even though this is going to sound harsh. Although I commend the fact that this project was able to see the light of day despite everything that happened, and I appreciate the obvious effort put into this game. However, everything else about this fell short for me:
- The writing, specifically the dialogue, is generally not very pleasant. Nearly every character has at least one voiceline that's using a common meme phrase said online, even the more relatively "normal" characters do this. It just ages your game so much. Relying on references as a stand-in for comedy is just not good writing. Speaking of comedy, when characters swear every other line it just loses its impact so fast. I'm sure you've heard of a certain cartoon that got criticized for the same thing. (I know, harsh comparison, but it got memed on for a reason)
- This is something that might be seen more as an opinion, but whatever. The voicelines (the short exclamations, not the fully voiced dialogue) of the characters are jarringly frequent. I feel like it could benefit from having them speak less frequently.
- The characters are also overall very unpleasant. There is no real harmony or sense of blossoming friendships or rivalries between any of them. I know that they're not going to all hold hands in a killing game, and that this is only the prologue, but it is still very foreboding. In the original Danganronpa series, they were still able to forge bonds, which made when the characters die or betray each other all the more impactful. (I cried a shameful amount of times during certain trials lmao) It feels like a majority of the characters are only sarcastic and snarky with each other. It makes everything feel irony-poisoned and insincere. Nothing feels genuine. Everyone is putting on the same mask.
I wanted to also list out things I did like, so that people don't think I'm only trying to attack on the game:
- Like I said before, it's obviously commendable that this project was able to push through its difficulties, and it's clear that there was a lot of effort put into this game.
- The art is also really well done and gets the style down well, especially the CGs, which are particularly gorgeous.
- The music is also pretty good.
- The accomplice gimmick is very cool, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how that pans out. I have high hopes!
Even if you don't agree with all of my criticisms, I hope you can at least consider what I'm saying. I'm also aware that I'm writing all of this about a free game that is being made by volunteers, and that there was a lot of turmoil during its production and therefore leaves some room to cut you guys some slack on certain things, but even so, I don't think this makes it immune from criticism. I want to take your game seriously. I want to be invested! I'm sure you want your audience to be invested too.