Post by Minnaloushe in Solipsism Reigns Otome/GxB Version comments

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It's been recommended a couple of times on yandere threads there, plus a few of your other games, I actually ended up with this, DD and Yandere Heaven all open as potential games to play before I even realised they were all by the same person xD

Oh, there's definitely a sub superiority thing when it comes to anime stuff, personally, if it's an anime I watched as kid, I'll usually watch it in English, cause I'm used to the voices and the anime was usually cheesy anyway (digimon, yu-gi-oh, etc). Nowadays, I suppose it's a mix of either feeling the voices don't fit the characters, or that there isn't a dub/the dub is way behind the sub, or just that sub tends to be my default now. In terms of VN, I've only really played otome (dangranronpa being an exception, I did actually play that in English, thinking about it, and I enjoyed the VA's there) and it's hard to find otome games voiced in English.

I definitely agree that things have more impact in English though, even when I recognise some Japanese words, it doesn't hit as hard. This game did emphasise that I've got to say, some of the stuff Kuro said! (Looking rather pointedly at mage Kuro here, did not expect the insult he dropped and it hit!) It's good to see you supporting English VAs though, it would be nice to see English VAs and dubs in things supported more.

And for sure Tim is Kuro! He did a great job, let him know that if/when you do remake this (and I'll definitely be back to replay if you do), he'd better be back as Kuro too, otherwise 100% I'll be complaining! ;D

Spoilers

I honestly still really liked the student one, I think starting on the detective route did set things up and help me understand stuff better, but I don't think I would've been put off if I'd played student first.

Ah, yeah, the pantsing way of writing, it's fun but you do inevitably end up with some plot holes. Still, I do think the story is solid, I didn't spot anything that was story/immersion breaking. Like I said, was a bit confused with mage Kuro, but when it didn't crop up in any other route I figured it was probably something like that, (and he did come across as one of the more unstable Kuro's.)

Yes, I'm a big fan of how stuff was revealed! Enough for it to be very intriguing, but not so much to figure out more than the basics of what was happening. I feel like it's hard to find reveals that aren't either a bit of a let down or really obvious, so I'm always super excited and happy when I find a reveal that's done well, (which I think this definitely was).

Ooh, I did wonder if that character would crop up in some of your other stuff! How fun, I'm definitely curious about them so that's more games added to my list to play! As for DD, I'm trying to convince myself to wait but I probably won't xD I don't mind replaying stuff, especially good stuff, so I'll likely end up playing before and then replaying after the update.

Nothing wrong with a bit of rambling :3 And thank you for making such an awesome game!

Melancholy Marionette3 years ago(+1)

Well, I really appreciate that it has been :3 I totally suck at getting my stuff out there with how rubbish I am at social media, haha. I'm trying harder this year to do a little more on that front, but I really struggle with it >.<

Haha, yeah, I know what you mean cos I grew up watching the dubs of all of those animes :3 I'm generally happy with whatever I can get nowadays, haha. I remember I initially watched the dubbed version of Psycho Pass, but was desperate to see the next series as soon as possible, so I switched to subs, but it was soooo strange watching it half and half! It was like the characters were completely different >.< I tend to watch anime subbed more than dubbed now, unless I'm watching it with my family cos my brother prefers dubs as long as they're not awful.

I'm just glad to see so many OELVNs being created cos I remember back when I first discovered VNs were a thing, there was very little available outside of a small handful of big Japanese releases on PS Vita + a lot pay-per-route mobile stuff. I still love playing through the big VN releases from Japan when I get time (so many get localised now that my backlog keeps growing, haha), but I also really enjoy the variety in indie OELVNs nowadays :D

Hahaha x3 Ahh man, I did wonder if that particular line was a bit too much! Especially when I eventually heard it voiced xD In fact, as I edited Tim's voice acting throughout the game, any time Kuro went yandere mode, I was sat there editing with a face like this o.o

To be honest, I don't think I could ever cast someone else as Kuro! If it comes down to it with the remake that he's not available or doesn't wanna do it for whatever reason, I think I'd just have to leave any new lines unvoiced cos it would just seem so wrong to have the character voiced by anyone else >.<

I'm absolutely terrible for pantsing x3 Even nowadays when I do write an outline, I'll still end up massively deviating from it >.< The problem is that when I'm in the mood for writing, I get a bit like those videos you see of people who are supposedly possessed by a ghost and writing manically x3 I'll wind up typing away, and before I know it, I've gone completely off track xD So I confuse myself a lot >.< but at the same time, for whatever reason, my brain doesn't seem to like sticking to a structure much, so it's the only way I can manage to work.

I'm just glad you think I didn't mess up anything too badly with the story in SR x3 There's a lot I'd change and edit now, but at the time, I'd just been working on it all for so long that I didn't have the brainpower left to attempt any tweaks x3 + with Tim leaving for Japan to live and work, unable to continue voicing Kuro, I had to push myself to finish writing his scripts before he was gone. Again, that's entirely my fault for not planning stuff properly, haha. I was sending him scripts each time I finished a route. I should really have waited until I'd finished the writing completely before even getting voice actors involved. But I just didn't think ahead at the time. I did a lot of stuff really awkwardly while making SR just cos I had no experience and didn't know any better >.<

I know what you mean about it being hard to find reveals that aren't a let down or really obvious cos I'm a huge fan of thrillers, and it's not often that I'm genuinely hit by a reveal nowadays. In fact, some of the series' I've watched recently have been brilliant overall and I've enjoyed them immensely, but the big reveals at the end have just made me think, well, that makes no sense whatsoever >.< Like, I don't wanna say the shows and mention spoilers, but what keeps happening in what I've watched lately is that the person behind everything always ends up being a character that you could never have suspected in a million years, not because there were cleverly disguised clues or anything, but because it's so out of character for the character in question that it's just not even believable. And it's had the opposite impact on me to what a reveal is supposed to have, cos I always just think, but that's silly >.< Instead of, holy crap!

But yeah, it does mean that when I do come across a reveal that's done really well, my mind is just blown and I love it xD

Well, the content additions for the existing parts of Castor/ia's story is rising by the day x3 So replaying should be more eventful at least, haha. I'm a little worried it's getting out of control at this point because I decided to add a sort of personality system, and now I don't know if there are too many choices and little alterations in responsive dialogue! I mean, I feel like more is better when it comes to choices and the impact they have, but at the same time, it increases the workload immensely x3 And while I don't mind putting in the extra effort, I worry about keeping track of it all + keeping on top of bugs and making sure everything's working the way it should.

Whatever you end up doing, I hope you have fun with it :3 And thank YOU for playing!

Minnaloushe3 years ago(+1)

Marketing is such a nightmare, and there's so many platforms to market on and trying to keep up to date with it all is overwhelming, so can definitely understand the struggle! Good luck with it!

Yes, there never used to be much variety with VNs, I played quite a few of those mobile ones, but waiting for the story tickets to recharge was such a pain, and they were a bit too pricey to spend on, so it's great to have so much choice nowadays. I've got a few Japanese ones on my to play list, and a bunch of routes I still need to finish xD Been nosing around indie titles as well, so my list is also growing, haha!

Nah, I think that line was great, it shocked me, but in a good way! Kuro's voice in yandere mode did honestly spook me a few times (again, in a good way), also nearly always the 'about to die' sign xD It would be really weird if someone else voiced Kuro, bit like the whole swapping from subs to dubs in anime, or the other way around, I'd personally be fine with new lines being unvoiced, would also be a little weird, but less weird than a new voice.

You can never escape the pantsing way! >:3 I'm the same though, will write a lovely outline that makes perfect sense, and then a character will decide that, actually, they don't want to do that, and that what they do want to do requires a complete rewrite. I've resigned myself to it now and just patch the holes afterwards, not sure that's the best way of doing things though ^^;

The first thing I ever wrote is an absolute mess of plot holes and awkward writing, I don't think I would've guessed that this was your first project or that you were on a time limit, it's turned out so well!

Oh, for sure, a lot of reveals are either easily guessed, a let down or just don't make sense. The best reveals are the ones were you look back on the story and go, 'oh yeah', but it is hard to find those. I mostly hang out in fantasy, so there isn't always a reveal, but whenever there's a really good one, I'm guaranteed to remember it for a long time, there's some stuff were I don't really remember the story, but I do remember that it had a good reveal xD

I gave into temptation x3 I played both routes, and am looking forward to replaying both when the updates come out. I'll probably wait for the update to drop a review, but in short, I loved both routes and your writing is brilliant. Balancing a good amount of choices is difficult, very easy for it to get out of hand and become overwhelming, I think (from comments on choice games, rather than VNs admittedly), that people usually prefer a small amount of impactful choices over a large amount of choices that are more or less the same. Whatever you end up doing though, I look forward to it! :D

Melancholy Marionette3 years ago

Yeah >.< I can't cope with it really if I'm honest x3 I'm just about managing to make a couple of tweets a week and that's me at my limit, haha. Heck knows how I'm ever supposed to try and get stuff on Steam or possibly make any Kickstarter without paying someone to handle all that for me cos I'm just hopeless!

I used to play some of the free ones with tickets and stuff, but man, it did my head in waiting, so I wound up mainly playing the pay-per-route ones like the ones Voltage released. Even back before they changed everything with the big merge, I couldn't keep up with the sheer amount of content they were spitting out. I used to ask if I could get a Google Play card for Christmas, and then try to spend the credit as wisely as possible on whatever was on sale, haha. I think Enchanted in the Moonlight was one of the first ones I played from them cos I loved the look of Miyabi x3 I did have a blast with em at the time, but as soon as I discovered there were VNs on PC that you could just buy as a one-off purchase and get the whole game, I never went back to mobile ones, and it was then that I realised how shallow the stories were that I'd been reading on mobile in comparison to some of the longer, more in-depth PC VNs I'd downloaded. I did, of course, make an exception for Mystic Messenger, haha. I wasn't a fan of the premise for Dandelion or Nameless, but I still wound up loving both games just because the characters were so cool! But yeah, boy did the cost add up for pay-per-route stuff when I calculated compared to just buying PC VNs >.< I was horrified xD It would've cost me like over £70 in total to play all the Enchanted in the Moonlight content that I played back in the day! Not really acceptable >.<"

My backlog is so ridiculous at this point that even if I sat and read every single day, I don't think I'd clear it in a year x3 and that's just my VN backlog not even including all the other kinds of games I wanna play xD

Hehe, pantsing party for life x3 I'm glad it's not just me, haha.
"I've resigned myself to it now and just patch the holes afterwards, not sure if that's the best way of doing things though ^^;"
That is basically now my life xD Makes me feel much better about it knowing you're the same! I can just about stick to bullet points, and that's it. But I mean, I have fun, and that's the main thing xD

I adore the TV series, Inside No.9 cos there's almost always a twist of some sort in each episode. Usually, it's a pretty decent twist as well, which is quite incredible considering the number of episodes x3 They're not always mind-blowing reveals, but usually pretty amusing and satisfying. If I had the time, I'd love to make a VN version of every single episode xD And one of my favourite films/theatre shows of all time is Ghost Stories cos the reveal in that is beautiful and makes you see everything differently when you rewatch it after knowing the ending :3

I'm glad you had fun with what little there is of DD ^-^ It should play out somewhat differently in the update cos I've added so many choices and variations to scenes that I've wound up writing roughly 100 extra lines of dialogue for Castor/ia to go in the segment of the story that already exists for them, haha. I certainly wouldn't wanna put any more than I have because I'm at my limit for keeping track of stuff now, haha.

Most of the choices are impactful later on, but some have a more immediate effect. The reason I've gone with so many more choices though is because a fair few people said they wished they had more control over MC's responses cos they feel like MC is a bit too much of an asshole, which I totally understand xD So I've given players more control of MC's personality but made sure that the cumulative effects of their personality type help to determine what choices are available later on + what ending they're steered towards :3

I really wish I could work faster cos I'm dying to show the new version of the game x3 but it's gonna take me a while to actually add all the brand new stuff now I'm done with the revamp T_T and I've wound up deciding to add 2 new characters instead of just 1 because of the way I want to implement one of them >.< I need many clones x3

Minnaloushe3 years ago(+1)

I tried the whole building a twitter following once, for future marketing, managed to stick with it for about two months, haven't touched it now in a couple of years xD Anything marketing related makes my head hurt, I suppose there is the otome subreddit, which is somewhere to start, do Steam and Kickstarter not have marketing help?

I managed to get through quite a few of the ticket ones, but waiting was a massive pain, I think I played one pay-per-route game, and I remember really liking it, but I can't remember the name and it disappeared years ago :( Haven't played the Moonlight one, but googling Miyabi I can understand why you'd pick it up, love a good kitsune :3 The first full game VN I bought was Amnesia (which I still need to finish, I'm terrible for playing one route and then leaving), I was so hesitant cause it was like, £40 or something, and I had all these free ones I could play, but like you said, the quality was so much better and ultimately, they do work out cheaper than the pay-per-route, or the ticket ones if you do spend money, cause both of those really add up fast and you don't even notice until oops, money's all gone! I keep hearing about Mystic Messenger, I really need to play that, Nameless is also on my list but I've been distracted by Rune Factory 5 and Genshin recently >>

I've been on holiday the past week and haven't even made a dent in my backlog ;-; I've got so many games and tv shows and anime and books to get through, but it's never going to happen xD

Nothing wrong with pantsing! Don't let the planners fool you, this is definitely the cooler way to live >:3 As long as you can patch everything together and go, 'ah yes, totally my plan all along' is all good!

Ooh, haven't seen Inside No.9 but I see that it's black comedy, so it shall go on my list of things to watch, especially if it's got fun twists in it. Ghost Stories sounds good to, I enjoy stuff that suddenly makes sense/ seems different on a rwatch. I'm currently working my way through the Expanse, which is setting up lots of questions and mysteries, so I'm curious to see if those will pay off. I remember the book Runemarks had a really good twist, cause I was so sure I had it all figured out, only for them to reveal more, I was so impressed at the time xD Danganronpa does the same thing, gives you enough to figure out 'the twist' only to reveal more twists.

Yeah, sinister MC goes a bit extreme, but it is a freaky situation and I like an MC that's got some fight in them. Still, I very much look forward to seeing the new content and the personality system, I will definitely be playing around with it! Personality systems are fun, difficult to implement, but they really do make such a big difference. Sounds like you've written it well, with good variation but not so much that you'll get completely swamped.

Ah, piling more work onto an already big pile of work, classic writer move :3 I'm excited for new characters as well! I'm super curious but I'll resist the urge to ask questions and just wait patiently instead x3 And that feeling of nearly finished but actually got a bajillion things left to do is the worst! Still, it'll be worth the wait :) Also, I'm noticing that we're starting to take up a big chunk of the comment section with these replies, is that ok?

Melancholy Marionette3 years ago

Yeah, I dunno how much longer I'm gonna manage to stick with it, to be honest x3 It's just really not me, haha.

I know this probably sounds a bit silly, but I'm actually anxious about ever trying to post to the otome subreddit ever again xD I've stayed away from it ever since a mod declined my DD release post over a year ago, haha. I spent ages working out how to word it and stuff, only to be told that it wasn't allowed in the subreddit because of the fact that it contained gender-neutral references to MC rather than there being a set female MC and the option to pick a female LI as well as a male one meant it wasn't otome, and so it should be posted to the Joseimuke subreddit instead. Which I did do, but the community there is significantly smaller than the otome one >.< That little experience just made me feel kinda alienated from the otome community on Reddit, so I just don't participate in it at all x3 I do see the mod's point, but I also think it's being a bit too nitpicky since the game can technically be played as an otome game if that's how the player wants to play it >.<"

I have no idea if Steam and KS have marketing help x3 I've never looked into it enough to find out. I just know that when I've read articles and stuff by indie devs who've had successful KS campaigns or Steam releases, they've always talked about the immense time and effort they've had to put into marketing and promotion in order to get to the point they did x3 And I just stare at that and think, yeeeeeah, I don't stand a chance then xD Some spoke of posting to social media every single day, across different platforms, and having a schedule for it. My brain just went, uhm O.O how?! I can't handle THAT much social media, haha. But then a lot of those accounts were from small indie teams, so they had one person who ended up with the job of dedicated social media person while the others continued to actually work on development.

Actually, that's another thing that always bothered me about the mobile otome I played! Some of them did just disappear after I'd spent money on them >.< And sometimes it would be before I'd even managed to play all the content I'd purchased. My phone sucked, so I would have to uninstall apps, I'd decide to go back and get them, only to discover they no longer existed x3 Felt kinda robbed, haha.

Wooo! High five! Amnesia was the first proper non-mobile otome I bought as well :D I absolutely fell in love with it, haha. I couldn't believe how much better it was than the mobile stuff I'd been playing. I think I got Hakuoki after that. I did finish Amnesia, haha. It surprised me cos I played Ikki's route first, thinking he'd be my favourite purely based on the character art. Nope. Actually wound up not liking him very much, haha. And characters who I thought would be boring turned out to be anything but that xD It was a real rollercoaster for me, haha. And even inspired SR a little bit!

Hehe, yeah, Mystic Messenger is a gooden :P I was so in love with Cheritz's games by the time it was announced that I pre-ordered the physical edition with some money I saved up from Christmas and my birthday, haha. It came with enough hourglasses to complete the base game content as well as a bunch of cool collectors bits and bobs :3 The problem was, because my phone sucked, when they began updating the game with new content, I couldn't play it anymore cos the updates were too big for the app to fit on my phone x3

If I hadn't vowed to never touch a single MMO in my life again after beating MMO addiction years ago, I too would probably have gotten caught up in Genshin, haha. But I've stayed well away from it x3 And I've always been intrigued by the Rune Factory and Harvest Moon games cos they look so cute! But I don't know if I would actually enjoy them cos they seem a bit sandboxy? I don't know if they are or not, haha. I just get the impression from what I've seen of them that they are, and I always get bored quickly with things that don't have a deep story for me to sink my teeth into.

That's nice that you've been on holiday though :D Did you get up to much, or at least manage to get some relaxation time in? :3 I've been on sort of holiday these past few days since we've had the 4-day Easter weekend here. Been staying off my PC and just going out for walks with my dad :3 We've seen a lot of cute little creatures since it's spring, haha. I told myself I'd play some Pokemon at some point and charged my switch, but that still hasn't happened xD And I'm supposed to be getting my butt back to working on DD, haha.

Hehe, I guess I'll just keep pantsing away then x3

Ooo! I just finished the final season of The Expanse with my family the other week :D Don't worry, I won't mention any spoilers, haha. It's definitely an incredible show overall. I don't remember ever being bored for a single episode :3 It's one of those shows where I weirdly prefer most of the side characters to the main characters, haha. But they don't seem like side characters so much anyhow cos the whole universe is so well put together and everyone plays an important part in the story! We ended up moving on to the latest season of Snowpiercer once we finished The Expanse. I wish they would've carried on with The Expanse though :(

I'll have to look into that book sometime! And the Danganronpa series has long been on my backlog, but I still haven't gotten to any of them x3

Don't look forward to the personality system too much since it's pretty basic x3 It might feel like a disaster while playing xD I've done as much as I can with it though without confusing the crap outta myself too much, haha. I was feeling fairly happy with its implementation within the revamp, I'm just not so sure how I feel about it in the brand new story stuff >.< But then I'm not particularly happy with any of the new story stuff I've written recently x3 I blame the sunshine, haha. As soon as the sun shines bright and hot weather rolls in, it's like it melts my brain T_T Productivity + brainpower just drops for me during spring/summer xD

Hehe, yeah, and I sweeeear that even when I manage to make a bit of progress on stuff, rather than the list of things I need to finish decreasing, it always just seems to get bigger and bigger, haha. Sometimes I feel like I'm being buried by a mountain of invisible 'to do' notes x3

Ooops! I hadn't realised, haha. Well, I don't really mind, but if you wanted to continue chatting over email or discord instead then that's fine with me :3 Please don't feel pressured to reply to any of this anyhow. If you do want to, you're welcome to do it here or feel free to drop me an email instead to melancholicmarionette@gmail.com
I can always give you my discord thingy from there if you prefer to use that for messaging :3

Hope you had a lovely Easter + are having a great week so far ^-^

itch.io

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