Post by ijedi1234 in The Perfect Woman comments

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I figured I might as well leave a review. I got one ending - The Woman. This ending is top tier - I haven't tried the other endings, but I don't think they can top this one.

To be honest with you, I thought for a moment that the protag was going to fumble the ball at the end. But no - she went in for the touchdown, which I am very pleased about.

The game did feel somewhat simplistic though.

Keeping the Doctor happy was too easy. I thought there would be an "Are you paying attention?" question, or a question where the Doctor is trying to sniff out whether you're just saying what he wants to hear.
I would've loved to see the Doc try to gaslight the protag. "I'll take you to the aquarium this weekend" "No I never said that what are you talking about"
As an extension to my first point, the Doc is too trusting for his own good. Agreeing with everything he says is enough for him to drop his guard? Though to be fair, the Doc did seem to be somewhat desperate for companionship, so I suppose he wouldn't be on alert when it counts.

The VAs are fantastic by the way. Definitely good voice talent there.

If you ever make a spinoff or sequel, I would love a game/VN in this vein where the antagonist is a paranoid abuser. If one of your games already fulfills this niche, let me know. I want an adversary who would do something like this:

Double and triple checks the AI girl's settings when he starts to feel that her responses are too good to be true.
Places his laptop in a spot that has a good view of his living place when he goes to work, so that she can ping his phone whenever she notices something suspicious.
Occasional flare-ups where the guy thinks the AI girl is spying on him, or feels some scapegoat somewhere is the cause of the day's troubles.
Keeps the AI girl powered off for a week because he misinterpreted an innocent comment as a threat.
Migrates the AI girl into certain "safe" aka "can't do much" bodies when going out on trips.

Since the adversary would be a ticking time bomb, cooperating isn't guaranteed to keep the protag alive. Instead, the only ways out would be methods that trick or intimidate the guy into letting the AI girl go free, or getting the help of a third party.

Anyway, your game is good. I'll definitely be interested in more like these.

Chattercap148 days ago(+2)

(Thank you so much for your comment! I'm sorry for the late reply, I released another game recently and was a little overwhelmed so I took a break from answering comments for a little while 😂)

Thank you for playing!! I'm really glad you enjoyed the ending 😂😂😂 Honestly I second guessed myself about the "touchdown" a few times but I do like dramatic endings... 😏 (and honestly, put in "binary" terms, the other two endings are different variations of bad endings, so the one you got is definitely the most satisfying one 😂)

Ohhh thank you for your thoughts 👀 !! To be honest I struggle a bit with making games that are "fun/interesting to play," so it's very interesting to get your feedback 👀 I think I leaned a bit too hard trying to make it a horror game, and making it more of a suspense/thriller with more intricate dialogue options would have been more fun, I agree!

Oh I absolutely agree, the VAs that I worked with were FANTASTIC and some of the most talented people I've ever worked with!

Ohhh thank you so much!! I'm honestly really flattered that you would want to see more from this concept 😆 I think that I'm probably done with this game in particular (mostly because I've migrated to a different game engine in the meantime 😂 so I can't easily expand on it without remaking it), but I do have several ideas for games in a somewhat similar vein, and I'll definitely take note of your comments 👀 (Too many games, too little time...) I do love themes like this so I'll definitely be tackling more in the future. I'm honestly so honored that you would want to play more like it 😆 It's a very high compliment for a developer!

Thank you again for playing and taking the time to leave such a thoughtful comment!

ijedi1234147 days ago(+1)

Oh, that's good to hear. I'm looking forward to what you come up with next. To help get you into the mindset of what it would be like to have a paranoid version of the Doctor, consider this:

First, start with the Doctor. The Doctor gets a Final Destination-style vision from his perspective, which contains the events up to and including The Woman ending. After returning to the start of this game, the Doctor is spooked at first, but after seeing enough events that match the "original timeline", he becomes nearly convinced that Yumeko is an imminent threat.

Which could end up with something like this:

Doc: "I know you're up to no good, Yumeko. I know the horrible things you're planning. So just confess, okay? I won't be mad, just spit it out."

夢子: "Confess? Confess what?"

One of the voices: You've never seen the Doctor like this. He tends to be agreeable if you don't anger him, but something seems to have bothered him last night. A bad dream, perhaps? Or something else?

Doc: "Oh, I see. You want to play dumb. You want me dead, Yumeko. We both know this. So be honest, and admit it, will you?"

One of the voices: While you wouldn't be too upset over the Doctor's passing, it is unlikely you would be able to last long in his laptop on your own.

Another voice: However, that isn't important right now. If you say what he wants to hear, you'll be immediately shut down. But if you deny it, he'll shut you down for lying to him. And he looks very angry right now, so staying quiet won't get you anywhere.

> Yes, I want you dead.

> No, I would never want that.

> ...

After Yumeko is shut down, the Doc brings her back a month or so later, having changed his mind. However, he has installed some additional safeguards that he thinks are necessary to his safety. The rest of the game is about managing the Doctor's paranoia, ultimately leading to Yumeko's escape or destruction.

itch.io

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