That's so sweet of you to make an account to leave such lovely feedback :3 I appreciate it more than I can put into words :D I'm so glad to hear that you enjoyed the game!
You're right that sometimes indie creators don't seem to get a whole lot of feedback, anything I receive always means a lot to me. I'm touched that you think I deserve all the positive feedback I can get :3 And I'm glad it felt like a labour of love, that's certainly one of the ways I would describe how I feel about it myself. You taught me a new word there with 'dearth'! I had to look that one up, haha, so that's something new I learned today :D Also, that's interesting to know that it's been recommended on Reddit. I do sometimes lurk there on r/otomegames, haha, but I had no idea it had been listed at any point, so that makes me happy to discover :3
SPOILERS
I'm super happy that you liked Kuro :3 I'm very protective of him and can't help but be saddened when people occasionally don't understand him because, deep down, he's such a sweetheart. I feel the same as you where you said you feel in most games there's the 'courting' period and then something snaps, haha. With SR, I really wanted the reader to know that this was genuinely a love story, despite all of the horror and despair x3 That was something that was very important to me to get across. Yeah, I know what you mean about the kisses, hehe :3 That's really interesting that you'd say the Student one was your favourite for that reason :o I don't recall anyone picking that as their favourite so far! I do kinda struggle with picking a favourite myself, especially when for me it would be kinda like picking a favourite child. haha. I do prefer some versions over others though.
That's cool that you also read through some of the other comments about the behind the scenes stuff :3 Yeah, I was very resource-limited, haha. That breastplate was actually one of two options... the other had giant sticking out bits for huge boobs, so that was a no go xD I would really love it if I could remake the entire game someday in the new engine that I'm using and hire an artist to redraw all the sprites in their own style. The VA's were so wonderful, I'm glad you enjoyed their performances :3 I'm so proud of them all + will be eternally grateful for the work they did on the project. Jacob had a lot of fun with Topper, and it certainly shows, haha. Rabbit was played by a guy, yeah. What happened was, I cast him to play the male version of the character in BxB version of the game that sadly won't be getting released. I had also cast someone for female Rabbit but, unfortunately, she never delivered her lines. I just decided to use his voice for the female version of Rabbit in the end since Rabbit's a magical creature anyhow. I can totally understand how that might be jarring though x3 And I know what you mean about how English voice acting can sometimes be a little cringe-worthy cos I've played my fair share of games like that, haha. Tim absolutely did Kuro justice though :3 He was so perfect for the role, and I agree that those emotional lines he delivered were very powerful. Some of them almost had me in tears! x3 He portrayed the character exactly as I intended, and I'm super happy to hear you think the same :D
I have to agree with you and the others who have mentioned it that OG MC + Shiro are less relatable than the clone x Kuro combo. It's not something I really thought about at the time of writing because I knew from the start how I wanted it to end, but I think it wound up becoming Kuro's story more so than Shiro's, even though they're linked. At least once things calmed down there, you could go wake up all the Kuro clones and be surrounded by Kuro's forever x3
As for the Architect's comments like you mentioned the: "Better you than me." Upon reaching certain bad ends. It's basically just him being a dick x3 And I guess, in a way, he's sort of presuming that the player is self-inserting (which I know isn't always the case, but that's how I tend to play, haha) so he's kinda just mocking the player for having caused the death of their character. And yeeeeah, the Architect is a pretty twisted dude as you say xD That's my favourite reaction of his when you choose that happy CG, kinda like a child throwing a tantrum, haha. As a side note though, that Dollmaker ending is one of my personal favourite 'bad ends' x3 I can't remember for sure, but I think I named that bad end after my dev name in the bad ends guide document, haha.
What you said regarding the Student route and Kuro's reactions to some of the bad end stuff, I'd love to claim that I did that on purpose, but it was unintentional, haha. I guess it came out that way because I wrote the routes in a particular order and then figured I would stack the route options in the same order that I wrote them, just allowing the player to pick whichever they wanted. I guess with what you said though, it would mean the order they're arranged in on the selection screen would be the recommended play order.
There's nothing wrong with rambling anyhow :D As you've no doubt noticed, I do rather a lot of it myself xD I really do appreciate you taking the time to leave your thoughts though, so thank you :3
As for the recommendations, they're always much appreciated! I have indeed played Dandelion and Nameless, and I have to agree with you, Tei is pretty darn awesome :P Actually, he's probably my favourite manipulative yandere character that I've read so far. I'd like to create a similar character myself at some point. He'd make a terrible being in reality, but he's wonderful as a fictional character, haha. I don't recall coming across that many characters like Tei, so if you know of any others, feel free to let me know! And yeah, I have dabbled in the BTD games :D They're certainly quite something! I did enjoy what I played of them, there was the odd scene that I found a little gross, but I mean, I had anticipated that anyways xD I played all of the routes in the first one, but I never actually finished the second. I got kinda stuck and I couldn't find any walkthroughs at the time, so being the lazy bugger that I am, I kinda just gave up >.< Is there any character in particular that you recommend I finish their route in BTD2? I've been told I would likely enjoy Black Wolves Saga, but haven't gotten around to checking it out yet, likewise with the yandere in Nightshade cos I've heard good things about him as well.
Anyways, thanks again for writing all of that up :3 I hope wherever you are in the world that you're managing to stay safe! Have a great week ^_^