Well, I'm super glad you decided to give it a chance :3 I know that sorta feeling cos I've had reservations about the odd game in the past, wound up just giving em a go, and then was pleasantly surprised, haha.
Also, that's so cool to know that it's been recommended ^-^ I just kinda assumed not that many people even know it exists x3 So that's really sweet people have enjoyed it enough to give it a mention. Makes me super happy to know that :3
I have to agree with you about the sprites, haha. Unfortunately, that was the best I could do at the time >.< It's one of the things I'm still really unhappy with years later, along with a large chunk of my writing xD But I hope to one day remake the entire game (in the engine I'm using now cos Tyrano kinda sucked) with brand new sprite art, writing revisions, and some new routes + extra scenes!
I'm so glad you enjoyed the English voice acting ^-^ Everyone put so much time and effort into bringing the characters to life. I'll never be able to thank them all enough for volunteering their time and talent to the project.
When it comes to VA, I've always enjoyed both English and Japanese in anime and games. I tend to sorta ping pong between them, depending on the quality of dubs available anyways x3 I've always had a soft spot for English VA in games especially though, just because I find it easier to stay immersed in a world where the spoken language is my native one. For me, it means certain lines have more impact when I can directly understand them as they're being said rather than reading subtitles. And yeah, that can sometimes result in some pretty cringeworthy moments xD but I'll take that when it means everything as a whole hits me harder :3
So yeah, I'm just super passionate about English VA in VN games since they're so personal, and really want to try and shine a spotlight on how awesome English VA can be. Cos I feel like a lot of people have that sorta image in their heads of bad anime dubs from years ago, and that impression has stuck, so a lot of people just automatically avoid English VA because of that >.< I wanna show that English VA of today can be wonderful :D
I'll have to pass on your comments to Tim about his performance as Kuro if he's not already seen this, because to this day, he still beats himself up about it, thinking that someone else could do better >.< I keep telling him that's impossible. He IS Kuro, haha.
I'm so happy you like the opening song too! My friend and I worked ridiculously hard on that x3 I think we drove each other insane in the process, haha, but it was a lot of fun.
I really appreciate you taking the time to play through the game, write such a sweet and thoughtful comment, and recommended it to others, so thank you very much ^-^
SPOILERS
I'm glad you started on the detective route cos that was my favourite one to write besides the ??? one :3 And I feel like anyone who begins with the student route might get a bad impression of the game because it's the first one I wrote, and I personally feel as though it needs a hell of a rewrite >.< It's always worried me that if people are playing in the order on the route select screen, they'll play the student one and then call it quits :( So yeah, I'm happy the detective one reeled you in at least x3
"??? route Kuro is a close second though, even with the stuff he keeps in his pockets."
That made me chuckle out loud xD
There wasn't really a huge amount of thought that went into the split-personality part of mage Kuro beyond me thinking it would be a fun way to show poor Kuro's craziness manifesting in a different way from all the horror going on in 'reality'. There are quite a few bits here and there like that which don't entirely make sense >.< With any luck, I can rectify that when I get around to rewriting it all :3
I'm relieved that the ??? route cleared up most of your questions though :3 I did end up confusing myself quite a bit while writing because I didn't know about outlines and stuff at the time >.< And the ??? route was essentially the idea I had which sparked everything else. I wanted to make a game with the events of the ??? route, but thought that it would come across weird if I didn't have any build up or explanation for those events. And so I kinda had to work backwards to create what came before in order to justify all of the ??? route x3
And it's also a relief to hear that you think stuff was revealed without being too obvious cos that was one of my huuuuuuuge concerns, haha. I couldn't for the life of me tell if I was giving too much or not enough away at any given point in the game >.<
And as for what came after, it's certainly not the last you'll hear from that character if you end up playing some of my other stuff, hehe. If you want to meet again, I recommend playing Apartment No.9 :3 And there are some brief references in a small part of Limbo Line too, but they're extremely tiny and easy to overlook. I do have future plans for the character though that are a while away from popping up x3
With DD, I would say it's probably better to wait just because you'd have to start over when the update is out since too much is changing for saves from the old version to possibly function post-update + the whole game is going to look and run so much better in general (I hope!) but it's up to you :3
If you did wanna just check it out now though, I guess at least you'd get to see how much has changed if you decided to continue playing after the update :D You'd have to replay a small amount of content, but with the update, even the old content is being expanded (more dialogue options + impactful choices with Castor/ia at the beginning of their story.) So hopefully, it won't be too boring replaying the start of their story since it will also contain new stuff.
I feel as though I'm rambling now anyhow, so I'll shut up x3 Thank you again for everything!