Thank you for this thorough review!
I genuinely appreciate such breakdowns a lot as they help me see where my content is lacking rather than „make game better”. Especially as this is my first dive into making games. So all critique is welcome!
1. Your first point is very valid. I might go back and create more variants indeed so that they always match the body stage perfectly. As to the artstyle inconsistencies there’s only so much I can do about that, at least with my current level of knowledge of ai. If I ever find a way to retain more consistency, I’ll try to go back and rework these scenes.
2. About choices, I have already added a system that gives notifications in appropriate story moments. Like „Rosalind’s weight just went up!” or „Liora approved”. Kind of like Baldur’s Gate 3. And there will be a Journal added too where you can track these stats closer if you wish. I hope this solution of mine is somewhat aligned with what you implied is needed.
On the gallery, yes, I believe the game could benefit from that and the only problem is that it might take me some time to implement it in a nice way, given how many CG scenes there are and some have variants within the scenes depending on the choices. But I am thinking of a way as that was a recurring thing in the comments.
The secret route is more like… a bonus? A little extra flavor for the side characters.
But I disagree on your read of the battle. In my head these character threads should be concluded beforehand. We’re closing the smaller (not less important) personal arcs to then cleanly move into the bigger stakes finale. The mood during the battle, after battle and in the farewells as well as Ellie segments are very different and I don’t think there’s room for high intimacy anywhere within. It was inspired by Dragon Age: Origins and their handling of intimate pacing as I quite liked it.
3. Selena is a recurring character who stays with us for the most of the time. While I agree she could’ve gotten more developmental spotlight overall, Chapter 1 was not the place for it yet. She had defeated her immediate problems in the Prologue and I want to savor her character like a fine wine across the game rather than make up stuff just so she’s relevant. But I can say it’s definitely not the end for Selena!
4. Here I absolutely agree. There should be bloat sprites and I should have made them. Already. Those will definitely be added and will appear consistently in the future chapters. So at least one (possibly two, depending on the overall workload) bloat sprites will be added as some events are indeed implying fullness and bloating without any visual support of that state.
5. Liora is a fun one to write indeed, I’m happy to hear you liked it! That was exactly my point to think in a different way than usual for her. I think the two-valid-endings approach is also working in her favor.
But yeah. Creating this amount of CGs would be a lot of work, even with ai involved. I can’t promise I’ll create ending variations for all states. Chapter 2 is a lot of work as is. But we’ll see about it. I hope I can deliver on all of the nuances!
6. Yes, I actually tried adding battle sound effects but it’s surprisingly hard to find fitting ones. There will definitely be effects coming once the whole thing is complete. But for now I still have to find some satisfying sounds. And right, I saw some players not notice that you can expand on the party. Designing a game with 100% knowledge of all the systems can muddy your view of the player’s experience ahaha. But I have added empty fields in the deck (where party members portraits are displayed) and a notification that new party members are available. All coming in a future qol update!
Thank you for all of these insightful points again. They help a lot with steering this game (and all the future games) in the correct direction!
I only hope the regret you felt was not about a wasted purchase but more about the fact that this game has potential to be even better. If so, I’ll definitely work on improving it. Feedback is an incredible thing to have!!
Also, may I ask who was your favorite character of them all so far? I’m always very interested in this part.