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drakoky24 days ago (1 edit) (+1)

Wow… I’m very impressed. This novel is peak, the story, the art, the music. The music isn’t super memorable, but it fits the story really well. I’ve never seen a novel that integrates action scenes this well, you can really feel the emotion. I really want to see how it ends.

But… there are some things that left me with questions (v0.47):

  1. Why aren’t there any women?
    I only saw feminine pronouns once in the novel, and it was when referring to Mother Earth, who is kind of like a goddess. Even all background characters are male. Is there a reason for the absence of female characters? Maybe something similar to Soulcreek, with a virus that reduced the female population in this case? If there are no women, how are they born? I know it’s an MLM novel, but… you know, I expected at least some lore behind it.
    Now I’m thinking, if there aren’t women, then there aren’t hybrids either. Maybe they’re just born from Mother Earth… well, that’s just my theory.
  2. Why are all the characters so horny?
    When I saw Rune’s jerk-off scene and his explanation, I thought sex would be related to mana (the power system of the novel), something like In Finite Space (where emotional bonds enhance the Aegis, and sex can reduce its damage, simple explanation, but still something).
    But no, the rest is just sex. I’m not complaining, I like it (top and bottom Rune are my favorites), and I read this kind of story for that too, but again, some lore would help, because as it is now, it feels more like a porn novel.
  3. Is Alon’s route completed?
    Every main character’s route (Max, Burry, and Rune) has some kind of emotional bond with Luke… but what about Alon? In his route, he just says he finds Luke extremely hot… is that it? I hope the novel explores Alon’s feelings more deeply in future updates, because he’s one of my favorite characters.
  4. How did the world shatter?
    At the moment, every character just accepts the current state of the world as it is. Nobody really questions it (like where humans came from, what those ruins are, or what the relics actually do). Burry used to be focused on seeking knowledge, but it feels like he just dropped that part of himself.
    What I’m trying to say is that there isn’t much buildup around the mystery of the world. Are we going to get a lore dump in future updates?

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goatedmilk20 days ago(+4)

The whole cycle of rebirth is touched on in the magic crash course in Alon's route, which also has hints of a past connection between Luke and Alon, so maaybe play that route again to see if you can answer your own questions on the reread.

And v47 does mark the end of Alon's route...hence the quite drastic menu changes upon completion.


And...everyone in Shelter is focused on preserving their freedom, and everyone else is too focused on cross-species conflict to care. That is, if they even know humans exist, let alone what they really are.

For most, I imagine they just take it for granted. For them, this is how the world has always been. If they dig, they're only met with insanity, when they're missing the key component to seeing the Truth.


Burry's whole arc was learning to do things for himself...he never wanted the knowledge, he just wanted to make his superiors proud-- then subsequently, to bring his brothers back. Why would he want to look back at this point when he has everything he ever wanted?


But above all, and this is established pretty early on in all routes, most canines are, by nature, dumb (and horny but that's besides the point). It's only through absorbing human mana that they could begin to have these complex thought processes that might lead them to any sort of conclusion for these big questions....yknow, if it didn't drive them mad whenever they tried to use it.

I think the only character we've seen even interested in finding out the history of their world is Alon, but, being who he is, he's definitely an exception.


Also, respectfully disagree on the music thing. Sic 'em, Freedom, and White Wolf are all playlist worthy imo.

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drakoky10 days ago (1 edit) (+1)

Oh yeah, I already replayed Alon’s route. English isn’t my native language, so there were some things that escaped me the first time I read it, but I still didn’t notice anything too major.






Aside from Luke, ever since the Third Howl I expected that he knew them in certain timelines or past lives, because he says he has lived for thousands of years. He also said Alon was important to him, but that he traded his memories of him for the power of Ablaze. At the same time, Moon seems to have met one of Alon’s past lives too, based on what Doom Moon says when he sees puppy Alon: “I forgive you.” That made me expect that Alon’s past self and Moon had some kind of connection at some point, but with Luke... isn't totally clear for me.

I know the dogs are dumb, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be curious, those things aren’t mutually exclusive. Aside from Luke and the Observer (and Alon, who learns things from Luke’s other timelines after tasting his blood), there doesn’t seem to be anyone else interested in the world itself. Like you said, they’re more focused on their own problems than on bigger questions.

I just don’t want everything in one big info dump explaining the whole world (but I also don’t want a vague ending like Soulcreek, where many things stay a mystery), especially since there’s only one Howl left: the final Fifth Howl. At the very least, I’d like complementary side stories that expand the lore a bit. Like the crossover with "Demons Within", in chapter two Cooper saying he is Mother Earth’s shepherd, which I found funny because “shepherd” translates to pastor in Spanish, and pastor can also mean a religious leader.




And about the music, I know there are some tracks that are really good. "Sic ’Em" and "White Wolf " definitely have a place in my playlist. I just meant that most of the soundtrack works very well in context, but it isn’t the kind of music that gets stuck in your head.

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goatedmilk8 days ago (1 edit) (+1)

*Spoilers*







Was it ever stated that Luke's lived for thousands of years? I don't remember reading that during Luke's ablaze scene...


But, to my knowledge, there's no indication that he was created differently than the other humans. My best guess to how he was acting during his Ablaze is that humans can gain access to the memories of their past lives once they become adept enough at burning their mana. After all, if they can see the future, why not the past? 

So, yeah. As far as we know, Luke and Alon only share history with each other in this life. (I mean. Alon knows pretty much everyone, but that's besides the point)

I'm sure some more scholarly dogs have been curious about it, but that's not really going anywhere without the complex thought to back it up-- as well as all the pieces (i.e. human mana, which is exceedingly rare). Shelter's leaders have their own reasons for not digging into it, and the Canine country is under the Observer's rule, who is unlikely to want his dogs looking into history to make them easier to control. 

We don't know about the other races, and I doubt we ever will in this game.

Ooh, lore tidbits in the crossover, ey?  I gotta catch up on those 👀

And Cooper lore in particular?? He's the one boi (on the game's banner) we haven't reached yet!! Wonder how important Shepherds are to this world...

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drakoky6 days ago(+1)

⚠️SPOILERS⚠️








Let's start with the short part: Cooper. In the crossover with "Demons Within", Thistle talks about Cooper with Resnick. Later, Cooper pulls out what looks like a bible or religious book and starts talking about Mother Earth, but since it's Resnick's POV, he gets lost in his own thoughts and stops listening. By the way, you need to play the first chapter of "Demons Within" to get the code for chapter two.

Now, the dream scene between "Luke?" and "Max?" is weird, but there's this line that stands out:

"Well, it's been like a thousand freaking years and I've been dying for one of those herbal coffees."

He seems to at least remember his life before the world broke. And since Luke can loop through time, what feels like a couple of years for the dogs could be hundreds of years for him, kind of like what the Observer tells Gunner after Alon's vision:

"To you it felt like no time passed at all… but to me… FUCK!!"

So when Luke says "a thousand years", it's genuinely unclear whether that's an expression, literal, or just his skewed perception of time.

There's also Alon's theory that humans shatter when they overuse their powers. According to him, Luke has been unusually careful, and maybe that's exactly why he lost his memories: as a way to protect himself from breaking apart.

In Alon's route, when he describes his vision of a future Luke:

"You talked about yourself. About the nature of our realm. About the Humans, the Monsters and us. How everything came to be. At least as much as you knew yourself."
"You were there when everything started and, as fate would have it, you were there to see the end too."

Luke never explicitly says he's thousands of years old, but the context makes it pretty clear he's been around longer than anyone else.

One last thing, the Observer recognizes Luke immediately and says:

"You... I know you. You are Dawn's brother, aren't you?"

And we're definitely not talking about his lion brother Sansun.

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goatedmilk5 days ago (1 edit) (+1)

Fascinating....

‼️SPOILERS‼️







I completely forgot the Observer's dialogue there, purely because a lot of his scenes aren't replayable 😭

I still don't think he's literally lived for thousands of years; he still grew up under the care of Tharros, and Alon mentions him appearing young when he first sees him. But if the Observer recognises him, that means that every time someone reincarnates as a human, they become the same one every time -- likely the one they lived thousands of years ago. So for now, I still subscribe to the theory that humans are able to gain back all their memories through Ablaze (a bit paradoxical considering Luke's Ablaze required burning his core life experiences, but he said himself that he forced it when he wasn't supposed to, so that seems to be an outlier)

And...it sounds like they knew each other? Or were at least acquainted (before the world shattered and, presumably, the World was born). It'd be most reasonable to leave it up to coincidence for now but...that is very interesting. Do they both have something binding the fragments of their soul together so they come back whole?

Either way, I'm hoping we get to meet this 'Dawn' at some point, seeing as she is their common link -- despite never being mentioned before by Luke >.> (I hope we meet any of his family really, past or current! but I'm getting off topic -w-)


Resnick is a gem, but him listening to the boring exposition would make these lore conversations a whole lot easier 😭

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drakoky5 days ago (3 edits)

⚠️SPOILERS⚠️








You're right, everything here is just speculation, but Alon does explicitly state that humans are in a constant cycle of reincarnation. They just shatter and return as one of the six races, over and over. Luke could easily have gone through multiple cycles already:

"No matter how many Humans claw their way back into reincarnation, they always end up shattering themselves back into the six under the vastness of that power."
"There have been many Humans through history. Each of them, a World-changer. Each of them, shattered and forgotten once again."
"You were careful with your power. Respected and avoided it, like you should. And yet even you had weakened and almost perished from it when pushed against the wall."

And I really want to know more about Dawn. It's a feminine name, which would actually make her the first female character in the story. The Observer seems to had a complicated history with her, based on his tone, she seems to have been a serious obstacle to him at some point:

"You... I know you. You are Dawn's brother, aren't you?"
"It makes sense why you would try to fuck with me. You were always on their side, right?"

I'd love to learn more about Luke's family in general. The main story feels locked into the loop of the Skies Ablaze day, so maybe a spinoff could give us a look at Sansun and his father Tharros, or at least have them appear in one of Luke's memories. Though honestly, part of me just wants to see them show up at Shelter someday. Imagine his dad walking in, looking around, and going "look at you, taming all these dogs and having them worship your cock, I'm so proud of you, son" ... okay I'll stop there.

On a more serious note, I'd love to see more of the other races too. The "Reincarnation" ending already hints at how interesting it could be to follow Luke outside of Shelter, him living in the Saurian kingdom (Also, Luke says that is a beautiful place) for a while sounds like it'd be a great story on its own.

Lastly, yes, Alon's route isn't replayable, which is why I went through the game's files, collected all the scripts and merged them into a single file (it's not clean, since the scripts are sorted alphabetically and not by chapter order). I just feed it to Claude to scan for specific lines I remember. It makes it a lot easier to revisit the parts I want to explore more deeply.

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goatedmilk3 days ago(+1)

I still don't think we're getting anything about the other races in this game...but I think it was this game that had plans for an rpg type thing after it was done, so maybe in that one..? (take that with a grain of salt though, that could've been an entirely different creator >.>)










And yes, humans are in a constant cycle of rebirth. My point was that not only is their soul retained, but their body as well, seeing as the Observer wouldn't have been able to recognise Luke otherwise, which is interesting compared to other reincarnation systems -- even from this same universe! (Rune, Alon)

Woahh your hypothetical Tharros is unhinged xD

I'm going to hope for a post-credits epilogue where we get to meet them all =w=

I mean, it has been established that all mana types will be necessary for the longevity of Shelter, so there is an in-lore incentive to have additional characters of other races, living in Shelter. Maybe some could become part of the core group..?

Samsun has technically already appeared, but it'd be really interesting to see his interactions with the dogs, and the Opal Pride cats, or just his dynamic with Luke himself! And of course, his sprite, along with Tharros'. 

But yeah, just getting to see Tharros and Samsun and Zerek in the present would really be the greatest thing for me :)

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