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(1 edit) (+1)

This game is a rollercoaster.  

The sprites was what got me to click on the game. Love the artstyle-- realistic with underlying uncanniness to it. 

When it's labeled as Dark Otome it convinced me to play the game right away. I expected twists and turns when it's labeled on my very type genre, but I didn't expected it will give me the whole spring (and red herring, my golly goo-goo, that first ending twist to unlock Doyle's story mode made me spin myself.)

Doyle's story is such a treat, and by that I mean it gave me the pieces of the cake that proven my suspicions that is all about him. From the very beginning, he was already sussy to me. I didn't actually expect him to be indeed a Yandere and reading his entire POV made my skin crawl. He felt real and disturbing--to the point I jumped out of my skin when the meta part pops out doing the deed twice. As someone who had finished Doki Doki Literature Club, it sent war flashbacks XD. The transition from game-like to meta-like was so on point it I almost went Alt-Tab out of the game. The unknown entity was a welcoming touch though, I read that it came from your other game and you intend to make that entity appear throughout other of your games and I think that's quite a nice meta-lore to add in to your games. 

Although I personally don't like Doyle, I love his characterization and how the voice actor did the lines in such a polarizing way that he made Doyle truly frightening at his worst, but at the same time sympathetic at his best and when he was being remorseful over what he'd done for/to Leah. What bugs me a bit is that there's little to no backstory for him, like, how did he became homeless or chose to be homeless? Just curious.

Ah, and speaking of crazy antics, Akuji's VA had also done an amazing job in creating a convincing character who is, well, alive and not alive either. It was so weird of him to be too chill and relax and being sunny as Leah going through a tough time (missing most of the days and acting as if everything that's happening to Leah is sort of a normal day by day thing to him whenever he comes back to "check" on her). Alternatively, Yandere Akuji also caught me off guard., I cannot believe that the voice I'm hearing is the same Akuji, hallucination or not.

And, OMAGHERED, Leah's voice acting is so great that I never saw the first ending coming. VA's choice to make her sound like a normal, average woman was pure genius. 

Last but not the least, the soundtracks. I wasn't aware they were originals until I checked the information again. Your compositions are all wonderful, my favorite being Apartment No.9 with vocals that I just discovered from your extras. It added to the haunting vibe I'm getting with the music: the dissonant-ish harmony that sounded as if the voices are the duality of her subconscious.

Evidently, I'm actually not fond of Yandere characters, especially in an Otome or Otome-ish setting, but this one is an exception where I enjoyed a whole lot. The plot twist is truly a plot twist and you delivered the endings with various payoffs.

My favorite ending has got to be the Letting Go (B), because I was rooting for Leah's individual happiness at that point and it's relieving that Doyle's retreating (for the meantime, seemingly) this is the best bittersweet payoff in imo. The second would be the Afterlife with Doyle's below anger levels ending because I love redemption arcs to a fault XD. On that note, I may have also liked the Letting Go (A), where Leah and Doyle get together in a wholesome-ish version of effed up couple XD, and also because Doyle's also acting remorseful there and the whole scene is like a fresher air good toxicity XD. Root orange-and-blue-morality!

The experience I had in this game would definitely mark me in some way in my life, and because it's almost 1AM, it will prolly haunt me in my sleep, so thank you help me. I will play your other games in the future I'm a masochist :D

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I'm so glad you think so :3

Yeah, I love me some dark stuff, haha. Don't get me wrong, I also love healthy doses of fluffiness too! But the dark stuff is my main passion x3

And I'm happy to hear you enjoyed playing through Doyle's version of events. It was something I was very unsure about by the time I finished it because I couldn't for the life of me tell if it was dull or not >.< and there wasn't time to get feedback on it before the jam deadline was up. I just really wanted to include some form of new game+ content where you could see new and extended endings, but a PoV route was the only way I could envision managing to do that within the jam's timeframe since it wouldn't mean rewriting every single thing from scratch. Plus it's something I've always wanted to try my hand at (writing from the perspective of the yandere, that is.)

I was sort of worried that I may have made Doyle too unlikeable in the end, considering he's technically supposed to be an LI, haha. But he is what he is I suppose. You saying he felt real is probably the best outcome I could have hoped for because I wanted these characters to come across more sorta human/realistic/flawed in nature than the ones in my other VNs. One darn day I will actually get my ass round to playing DDLC!

And yeah, that's correct about the unknown entity :3 It's sort of an ongoing experiment situation that I have various future plans for, haha.

The cast did a truly fantastic job of bringing the characters to life, and I simply can't thank them enough for lending their epic talents to the project :3 It sure wouldn't be the same without them, so I'm glad you enjoyed their performances!

I would love to be able to answer your question regarding Doyle's backstory and how he became homeless (and you're totally right in saying 'chose to be homeless' there because it was absolutely his decision, though, one born of various unfortunate circumstances) but my brain is too full of fog right now to give a proper cohesive answer and I don't want to end up rambling on and making little sense >.< I'm going through a pretty nasty depressive episode right now, so I'm finding it difficult to properly concentrate on anything (which is also why my reply to your amazing comment is also somewhat slower than I usually would be to respond >.<) I'll try to remember to come back and add it when my head (hopefully) clears though!

It also means a hell of a lot that you enjoyed the soundtrack because I spent heck knows how many hours trying to make it, haha. I just figured that since it was a longer jam than what I'm used to making stuff for, I would attempt it and see what happened! It was all one giant experiment and I had a lot of fun, but at the same time, it kept getting to the point where I was concerned I'd have a soundtrack and no game because I kept getting far too carried away trying to make new tracks xD And then I got it in my head that Doyle should have a separate soundtrack to Leah so that they each had a distinguishing sorta sound, which was just crazy when there was so little time left in the jam, but I couldn't get the darn idea outta my head so I just tried my best >.<

I'd love to try and make another original soundtrack for Spooktober VN jam, but with it being only a month-long jam, I don't think it would be doable on top of writing and putting everything together. And if I don't manage to snap out of this depression patch, I won't be able to do anything at all :(

Oh, and I'm genuinely amazed that you liked the vocal version of Apartment No.9! But that's brilliant that you did :3 You have Aku's voice actor, rongvoice, to thank for that because I was fully ready to give up on the idea of having a version with vocals and scrap my vocals because I hated them. He gave me a lot of encouragement with that, enough to push me past embarrassment and just go for it, haha.

I think I have to agree with you that Letting Go version where Doyle actually respects her wishes to be left alone is probably the ending above all others that I would personally like to have seen be the 'true' ending for Leah in the sense that it's likely to be the best one for her health overall. I'm glad you enjoyed that version of the After Life ending as well because I really felt as though poor Doyle deserved some form of redemption ending after everything he'd put Leah through x3 I didn't want him to come across as a completely twisted monster, haha. And you've taught me something new today because I had to Google orange and blue morality :D That was an interesting read!

I hope it didn't end up haunting you in your sleep anyhow x3 and thank you so much for taking the time to play through it all and then come here to write up such a lovely review! Reading your thoughts was fun and certainly managed to put a smile on my face despite being in the grip of stupid depression :3 I hope you end up enjoying my other stuff whenever you get round to it! I feel like A9 is probably my most polished project so far with it being the most recent one, but with any luck, you'll find the others entertaining too! Thank you again and have an awesome week ^-^