'One Way or Another' is a comedic slice-of-life pseudo-romance with some anime levels of happenstance and plot devices. The character designs by PaperCrease are adorable/hot and I really enjoyed each of the wildly caricatured personalities of each of them. For a comedy, this visual novel does a really good job of playing into all the ridiculous anime tropes and dead pan dialog humor. Stuff like Bryne getting absolutely demolished by a motorcycle but showing up later in full hospital gown, or the twist of the two love interests actual motivations got a chuckle out of me, or straight up god showing up and having a conversation with the protag. Adding in the unusually specific hyper fixation details and pop-furry references is a classic sitcom move, the only thing missing from this visual novel is a laugh track playing to remind me where to laugh. I feel like you really tried to milk the central conflict (misunderstanding) of the two love interests that are falling heads over heels for the protagonist, but it does start to feel like beating a dead horse (maybe on purpose?) by the time god shows up. It makes me wonder if this is a thinly veiled mouthpiece to vent the author's frustrations about being asked about being aro/ace, or if this is venting 'about' aro/ace folks who vent frustrations. What I guess I'm getting at, is that I can't pick up on the author's intent with this work or if it's just a 'not that deep, bro' scenario. There's not really any kind of character arc for anyone, and the only reason that's given for why the two love interests want the protag is because the script says so (literally being assigned by the devil/god), and thus, it fully leans into being a comedy/parody rather than trying to make any kind of larger statement around bein' aro/ace. Overall, I had a pleasant time with it, and I won't fault the author if they just wanted to make something amusing and unserious just to have a fun time writing out of pocket scenes.
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Thanks for taking the time to leave a review! I very much appreciate your feedback, as it touches on something I was worried about since the start (I was gonna write a devlog about it but I suppose I could get it out now):
This is my first time writing a story from start to finish that wasn’t fanfiction or wildly inappropriate smut, so somehow, I had gotten it in my head that I *must* convey some kind of message with this story, despite ostensibly being billed as an absurd, lighthearted comedy of errors. I realized partway into writing the script that it wasn't really coming through tacitly, but by that point, a rewrite would have set me too far back to finish before the deadline, so I went with what I had. You aren't the first person to bring up the out-of-place-ness of the "Aro/ace people don't need to be questioned about their identity" theme, so for sure I'll figure out a much better (and hopefully funnier) way to handle it when I do a rewrite, now that I'm not so pressed for time.
But regardless, as long as I got a good laugh or two out of you, I consider the game a success 🦇✨️
The classic game-jam crunch, I know it well. Though with the extra information that this is your first attempt at an non-fanfiction original work, really solid effort I must say. You probably picked up on it, but the crutch of fanfiction is the characters come pre-made, so when moving to an original work, you really have to build characters from the ground up. Same thing with having a direction that you want to take the story and making tough choices on which aspects might need to be cut or further fleshed out, especially mid-way through the drafting. Don't knock on your smut writing experience though, tap into it, especially the wildly inappropriate stuff (I loved the gag of Bryne's censored sex talk, but man if I could hear what he actually said). I agree though, I think you completed the assignment and this'll be something you'll learn from for your next project.