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Hrrrrrg the slowly deteriorating relationship. The way Maggie slowly walls off Annette by not actually communicating anything anytime they talk. Annette minimizing herself in hopes that her partner would stay with her. Annette feeling like she had to minimize herself so her partner would stay with her. But of course that doesn't fix anything.  And the ending....... A very packed story that covers a lot and feels complete despite how short it is, nice work. 

Also Annette's mouse form is super cute. 

thank you for playing!! 

The writing felt uncomfortably real, and I love the subtle dig at certain aspects of white queer culture. The storytelling through the sent and unsent letters was really well done. I like how we go through the letters not in chronological order, but in thematic order, with the single sent letter being the last one we read. The way we get snippets of the characters through time... Lilith's pent-up feelings and self-destructive behavior is very tragic. Really well done character writing. 

Also love the way you styled the look of this VN. It looks unique but isn't overblown and also adds a ton to the vibe of the story. Great work!!

Thank you for the lovely comment!!!!!

Thank you so much!! I'm glad the game was able to surprise you! I haven't read our dead girlfriend but it sounds like there are better things I could be spending my time on, haha. 

And thank you for the comment on the art direction :) I put a bunch of thought into how the art is presented, so I'm glad the effort came through...!

Thank you...!! I love ZATO and definitely took inspiration from there, haha. I thought it would be fun because ZATO took from Higurashi (which I also love), so I could maybe continue the chain. 

I couldn't put the CGs in the itch previews because they're all spoilers, so I'm glad you liked them!

Thank you so much!! I was thinking about what "toxicity" could mean for the theme of toxic yuri, and I'm glad the resulting commentary was interesting to read :) 

Thank you!! 

That was really fun. Really captures the feeling of an old tale where fantasy and horror are one and the same. Love the art pieces you have collected here, too -- it's really fun to see mixed media and historical art pieces in a VN! 

Lots of interesting ways to interpret the themes of purity/desire here and the reclaimation of identity here. The unicorn was treated as a sex object not just by Aldith, but also by the narrative. The burst of violent power from her horn when Elysande breaks free, paralleling a sexual climax... A unicorn with a fake horn...  Thanks for making this! 

Girl who puts saltwater fish and anmenome in a tank without filters + Girl who sells saltwater fish and anmenome to irresponsible fish owner yuri....

Love love love the aquarium symbolism weaved into the story - Thanh and a fish scooped out of the ocean and placed into a suffocating tank for humans to view; the parallel between the deterioration of the aquarium tank and the deterioration of the two girls, fish pooping in the water they live in; the co-dependency of the anglerfish... 

I usually don't like the way asian diaspora themes are treated in media (I say as someone who is asian diaspora), but I thought the way you did it was really well done. You've captured the part of the diaspora struggle that can't be solved with therapy. The parallel between deadnaming and having people pronounce your chosen (asian) name wrong. Being told to just cut off your transphobic dad and having your resistance flattened down to just asian cultural differences, ignoring the fact that your dad has alzheimer's and you're literally the only one left in the family who can take care of him. Good stuff, good stuff. 

Very interesting setup so far! Mafia and cults are really fun concepts, and I'm curious as to how you'll take it from here. I like that you have a strong aesthetic going on here, too. Interested in seeing more of how Apollo's identity leads to her becoming the mafia, and how she picked up Fio... Digging it so far :)

Really fun horror game. Love the gaslight gatekeep girlboss chaser mommy. What a great villain. 

Hits hard because of how realistic and yet casual it felt. It's not even about people actively being malicious (I mean, there's that too), but the way that politics trickles down to people's every day lives because of capitalism and selfishness is so, so real. Wish there were more than just 1000 words, honestly. Great work. 

Also I love love love the art style. 

The art in this game is incredible. The filter work on the backgrounds, the subtle animations, the layering of the various effects, plus the great textual descriptions really made this an experience. Also, thank you for making the text easy to read despite the huge amount of filters and effects going on.  

Story wise, I really enjoyed BEX as a character. BEX trapped in a carapace, obsessing over a missing mother figure, and taking that and reflecting it all back on to BJ... BEX's self-destructive behaviors... BEX's treatment of BJ reflecting the scientists' treatment of her... Both endings were devastating in their own way. Great work!

Wow it's only 6000 words and yet it's the most evil of the toxic yuris I've read so far. You should be proud of yourself for brewing up something this incredibly evil. Nice work. 

I didn't understand what mechsploitation gothic meant, but after reading this VN now I understood completely why you chose to describe it like that. What a fantastic mix of genres and concepts. Who knew gothic horror would map so well to the horrors of the depersonalization of being a soldier of war? The sense of alienation and unease, the unsettling character interactions, the feeling the powerlessness of the main character, the newtype ghosts, the reveal of what "flatline girls" meant at the end of the game.... Fun stuff.  

Really fun use of an unreliable narrator! It's a little rough in the beginning when it slammed me with a large number of characters, but once it got going it was cool how the mystery narrative developed. 

Spoilers below

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Really enjoyed the way it dropped hints at the plurality reveal. The way Polly was done was awesome (being a child, but into games that sound a little suspicious for a child to be into, but also there's a real child in the game). Luci was really interesting as well because at first the way they (forgot pronouns sorry) would just randomly appear in scenes felt like bad writing, but then the "bad writing" ended up being the biggest hint that multiple characters in the cast are sharing the same brainspace. Anyway, nice work.

exquisite vibes, good stuff

That was a lot of fun. Trying to understand how the themes tie together and what really happened made my brain go really fast. 

Absolutely crazy layered concepts going on in here, like the Shinto shrine turned into a Buddhist temple turned into a Christian school... Unreliable narrator and unreliable meta-narrator and unreliable narrative... Patchwork doll and the patchwork human.... The anti-mystery bit is really fun too. 

That was great! It felt like playing Animal Well again. The moss sticking slightly to walls is very satisfying. 

What a fantastic, well-polished little game! Love the graphics and enemy designs. Honestly this feels like it's made by a professional game studio instead of approximately 2 people. This is my first time playing bump combat, and it was fun learning the positioning and movement - the combat balance felt a bit like playing Undertale in the later regions. Took me 4.5 hours to beat because I'm rather mediocre at video games. I turned on all the easy mode options (the existence of which is very much appreciated). 

Really awesome work. Thanks for putting this out into the world. 

What an incredible little game. I played it when it first came out years ago and I'm still thinking about it even now.

Oh, what a lovely little story! It really captures the feeling of meeting with someone you can't see often because they live far away.