First of all, thank you for creating this game. I’ve had a blast playing both acts. The game feels like it was created by someone with love and care, and judging by your community engagement and rapid updates it seems I was not wrong on that mark.
Character expression
In a text-based game like this one, the primary way a character can express themselves is through text. This is both a blessing and a curse: it is easier for a game developer to create unique characters, as they only have two attributes to individuate (looks and text); but those two attributes need clear differences in order to create truly “unique” characters. On the visual side, it is pretty simple: change the hair colors, eye colors, face features, etc. Text, however, is much more difficult. Communication through text is often much more impersonal than, say, meeting up with someone. Additionally, all the characters are written by one person, which tend to carry him- or herself in a similar way. Creating truly unique characters is extremely difficult, and is rarely something I find in NSFW games – this one included. It is something you have to actively think about when writing dialogue.
A couple of random examples.
- The elven queen in the last scenes of Act II should speak more formally than the rest of the cast. She is in a seat of power where more formal speech is expected, and has lived more than enough years to “learn that way of talking”.
- Most of Mida’s dialogue does not feel “affectionate”, which is part of the reason I did not really enjoy that character relationship. She does not feel any special in contrast to most other characters, because the MC talks with her the same way he would with most other people he met throughout the game (and vice versa).
On the contrary, a character I think is good in this regard is Cerea. Although improvements can be made, it’s relatively noticeable that the further into the game it gets, the more she “softens up”.
To get this sort of character expression feel right is very difficult. There’s only a handful out of all the games I’ve played that REALLY nail this (last being Eternum). I’m not saying Ataegina is the worst offender – far from it! Although it can be something to think about a little extra in the future, that really helps make a game stand out.
Prologue
I also want to point out that I full-heartedly agree with all of XxMadRoguexX’s points in a comment he/she made a few months ago. The prologue was a let-down, and I never really got to make a bond with any of the characters during this phase. If you ever decide to revisit this content, I would love to see more of Katriona forming this close, almost family-like bond with the MC in his younger days. Maybe we even get to discover where the “flower boy”-nickname originated from? Additionally, it is mentioned throughout the story that Ayna always showed a “little extra care” to the MC. I would like to see some examples of this to, maybe a few scenes with some training sessions they had together? Also, during the prologue, it is mentioned that Mida and the MC started dating a few months prior. It would really help with Mida’s character development if this romantic relationship was actually established, instead of forced down your throat with a “Mida is now ur gf lol”. Essentially, the prologue should be extended.
Systems
There’s quite a few systems to this game. The combat skill points, the love/corruption, the free-roam, the stone, and the money. Let’s break them down a little.
Combat skill points: these are generally fine. A little out of tune, but an engaging combat system was never really the main selling point of the game anyway. It is just a nice bonus to have.
Love/corruption: I… I’m not really sure what this does. I assume if a character has too few love/corruption points, you are locked out of certain scenes. That’s alright, however, managing to balance these throughout the game while being unsure what the right amount of love/corruption is for a certain character to experience a certain scene just ends up being annoying. I’d rather have ONE system – love – which locks you out of scenes so that the player has the ability to not see certain content. Corruption, however, should instead be decided by the characters personality. We learn throughout the story that Mida is a little bit of a nymphomaniac – great! She does not really need a separate points system to indicate this.
Free roaming: Adding free roaming to a game like this is very ambitious. Most of the time the rooms are empty with nothing happening in them, so you just end up clicking all over the place hoping the next room is the right one to go to. It ends up being a little useless in the end. If there were tons of content in these rooms (I know there’s a couple in Liliana’s room) it would be fine, but it’s just… not enough for this to be worth it. It seems they are only really there to gain a little bit of extra side cash, but… yeah, I’ll talk about that next.
The money: I generally do not enjoy games with monetary systems. Prioritizing content, being afraid to spend money in case you get locked out of content in the future… not really for me. If there was something you buy in some sort of shop, which was consumable or unlocked pictures or whatever, and did NOT lock you out of content, that would be fine. However, there’s no consistent, not main story-related way to make money, and there’s no sort of consumables or extra content you unlock with money, so it just ends up being fickle.
The “Stone”: I believe this is not fully developed yet, and we are to see more of this in the future, but… I am left with blue balls on this one. There is really only one character which can be corrupted as of yet (Carinna? Corinna? I must’ve forgot), which is in of itself a cool interaction. You also try to corrupt Ryo, but ultimately the stone does not really play any significant part there. Additionally, you are able to consume a soul once? I never really understood what that did. It did not grant any stats, did not change the story in any way, and there was only one time this was able to be done by free will. So far, it seems like an interesting theory but severely underdeveloped.
To summarize: this game feels like it is in the middle of a little identity crisis. It is trying to be a free roaming-esque game, but lacks most of the necessary features to be so (content outside of the main story, a way to consistently earn money, buyables that affect the gameplay). Also, stone is cool, but largely forgotten.
Praise
Despite all of this, this is really a fantastic game. I thoroughly enjoyed my multiple playthroughs, and I genuinely am looking forward to more content from you. I enjoy the universe you have created, I love the inclusions of multiple different races, and I especially love how all the different places in the world FEELS unique. The visual feel of the game is fantastic. You’ve really outdone yourself in that department.
This game feels like a love-project, and it is definitely noticeable the amount of time and effort you have sunk into this creation. Also, I understand that the majority of the points I’ve talked to are scenes from earlier versions of the game, and a lot has improved in the later installations (majority of Act II was great in these regards). I understand that you might not want to revisit this “old” version of the game, and instead focus on creating new content, which is ultimately what garners the most attention. Although, I wanted to give you a little feedback anyway, because with the effort you put into this game you definitely deserve it.
Again, thank you for all you have done with this. These are my personal opinions and might not ring true for many of the other players.