So, I played through the whole entire game, and I mainly did Victor's route. I got half of a green heart with him. Don't know how to unlock the rest of that heart, but this was a cute but long visual novel to get through. I liked the various art pieces, and the music mostly fit the tone of the story. Maybe because of the way I played it, but the story became tedious and repetitive, and the story beats felt too far apart and spread out. There were moments of intrigue, mystery, and heart in this story that sometimes pulled at my heartstrings. Otherwise, the way the story was set up, I was waiting to finish the VN or waiting until something interesting happened. Even the beginning didn't completely pull me in, as I felt like things were happening in the story without the emotion or motivation behind why the characters were there in the first place. Thus, the beginning felt stilted and boring to me, especially with the slice-of-life-moments. As cute as those scenes were, they didn't invest or grab me into the story or their world. This is because there was no tension or conflict that created reader engagement. However, when things started getting more serious later on, that's when things started getting interesting and emotional. Maybe if I replayed the game and went through various routes at once, the story would be more fleshed-out and fulfilling for me. Otherwise, it was a nice read with pretty art and nice-sounding music. Good job! I give it a 7.5/10.
Thank you for finishing it and for the feedback! I agree that the beginning is unfortunately tough to get through. 😥Maybe one of those "I swear, give it 5 episodes" kind of stories. It's one reason the Bonus Scenes were separated from the main story; I really wanted to write them and I think they add to the lore, but they would've slowed down the story even more. Thanks for letting me know that there are good moments in later parts. 🥰
The green heart is actually the dislike meter. 😅 I think Eidan is the easiest to accidentally annoy, but I remember I wanted Victor to be overly sensitive in some of his choices, so that checks out. The Dislike meter exists because I originally wanted to make a Hate route for everybody, but the game was getting too long, and worse so it was already buggy. 😵
If you're curious about which choice it was, the Advice toggle usually says which choices cause Dislike points. But admittedly, the only changes across in multiple playthroughs are just different character responses. Unless anyone's invested in more dialogue, there isn't a lot of reason to go back. 😓 But just in case, there's a whole guide here: https://papersak.com/zenocelproject/guide
Thanks! The special scenes were cute. I ended up treating it as a dating sim when I forgot everyone was only going to be friends. If the character has already maxed out a stat, then making that choice unclickable would work, similar to how the player couldn’t play video games all day, despite that being a choice.
This game reminded me of Tokimeki Memorial, which was a hit, Japanese, stat-managing and dating sim game back from the 90’s. Although a fan-made English patch exists for that game, I couldn’t get the emulator to work, and I resorted to using Google Translate while using a free web browser for it.
And that game was 5 hours long, but the difference is that the player sees the stats increase, and the player can eventually unlock different cutscenes depending on stats, seasons, or in-game events like yours.
So, I’m assuming you were trying to go for something like that. There are also YouTube Let’s Plays for the game too with English text if you’re interested in checking that out yourself. Although, having played through the game multiple times myself, even that game that pioneered this genre became tedious, repetitive, long-winded, and boring for me.
I think it’s because there is a lack of story in such games, and I’m seeing disconnected scenes play out when triggering events. Yours I liked because the protagonist was a character and not a faceless self-insert, they had a backstory, and I could see how all of the events tied into the bigger, overall story.
The only other minor complaint I have is that sometimes the backgrounds were too close to the character sprites or looked too different from the polished character sprites, or they were at a weird angle, like when they were playing cards and the table facing an aerial position when behind them. I got used to it, but it threw me off at first.
Although, I know backgrounds can be hard. So, l didn’t mind it, especially when other backgrounds looked fantastic and had variety. I especially loved the different classroom settings and CGs.
Nonetheless, I tried different times in creating a game like this and always stopped short. So, I can understand the amount of time and effort it took to build a kind of game like this. So, kudos to you!