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THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

I really enjoyed this VN for the most part. I liked that it reflects the lesser-shown realities of transitioning from online dating to real dating. I like how I can tell that the writer has been in similar circles to me, based off of the applications and subcultures that are mentioned. It seems like a very "write what you know" tale, and I love and appreciate that a lot. But I'm gonna have to agree with one of the other commenters and say that I got quite frustrated with Nica towards the end, to the point that it sort of soured the whole experience for me.

I feel she went in way too hard on Chun at the end. It reminded me of how my abuser talked to me in the past. Especially because... okay, maybe this is because Nica and I are just very different people, but I just don't think that Chun looking at her online presence to figure out what she would like is creepy. If she had bad intentions, it would be creepy, but Chun was just trying to pick places Nica would like and make sure she had a good time. I think calling this "stalking" is quite possibly the most purposefully uncharitable way you could interpret her actions. And, yes, looking at pick-up stuff would have been bad if Chun had understood the subculture she was looking at, but she moved from Hong Kong in 2019! It makes perfect sense that she wouldn't know the intricacies of niche misogynistic dating subcultures. The game even sort of acknowledges the possibility of the language/culture barrier having an effect on this, with Chun's line, "I'm sorry. What's a pick-up artist?"

Yes, it is understandable for Nica to be uncomfortable with all of this, but the way she goes about it is not it at all, in my opinion. Even if I do try to view Chun as someone creepy, their conversation just... it really, seriously reminded me of my conversations with my abusers.

I selected their dialogue, to hopefully better demonstrate their contrast, and show the issue with this part of their conversation.

Chun's dialogue:

• "I don't understand."
• "I'm... not following this conversation."
• "It's alright to be angry with me. Even though I don't know what I did wrong."
• "... It is?"
• "I didn't know what was not okay..."
• "I think I fucked this up in the worst way possible. I'm so sorry."
• "I... didn't know. They're the only things I could find on the subject."
• "I'm sorry. What's a pick-up artist?"
• "I didn't know I could do that..."
• "N-No, I always wanted to-"
• "... I didn't know about any of that."

Nica's dialogue:

• "I guess, but I didn't expect someone to record everything I said publicly like some kind of stalker."
• "Did they tell you to look up every detail about my life and figure out the perfect date scenario to fuck me?"
• "I can't believe this is the person I had a crush on for months. Someone who thinks about winning a girl's by doing pick-up artist stuff. And she doesn't even know she's doing it. This is so embarrassing."
• "The worst part is that I'm angry and scared of you. You could dox me anytime. You're a monster."
• "That's why I can't take you seriously at all. You're so stupid."
• "I didn't know who she was. She scared me so bad I couldn't sleep, and after that she just mellowed out. When she showed her true self to me, I learned who she was: a vulnerable person who wanted attention from me, a VTuber coming to London."
• "She doesn't know how to distinguish friendship, love, and just being a fan. If I had to put it bluntly, this poor girl doesn't have a life. She clearly doesn't know how to talk to people after a messy relationship, and that's why she feels that she needs to manipulate them into loving them. And without realizing what she did. There was no way she could keep up her disguise in real life, but she kept doing it. I hate her for that. I hate her for making me come here and humiliate me. I hate her for everything." (I'll come back to this set of dialogue in particular in just one moment.)
• "Do you remember Ann Radcliff? You should remember, since you did so much homework on me."
• "I think you went from terror to horror when we were out in London. But now that all that's done, you're just a comedy."
• "You did your research, and you still don't know me. And that's why it's funny. I find it kinda cute that you suck so bad at this."

Finally: I realize this wasn't the intention, but for a story which comes back over and over to leftist theory (and, if I recall correctly, mentioned neurodiversity by name), I find it shocking how they were able to include all of this, seemingly without thinking for a second how it might feel to read for an autistic person. The abusers that Nica reminded me of in this sequence were specifically peers who abused and harassed me for my autistic traits, and this is not a coincidence.

What Chun did was, essentially, overly-prepare for a social interaction she was scared for. She researched it, she scripted it. She misunderstood how Nica was feeling and would feel about certain things, and she misread social situations. Does that make her blameless? No. And I wouldn't say Chun is autistic-coded, either. But her preparation for this social situation is exactly what autistic people tend to do. Script, and research (in this case, from bad sources). In Chun's internal monologue, her putting on a front to be more agreeable is even something touched on earlier.

And what does Nica have to say about this? "You don't have a life. You don't know how to talk to people. You subconsciously mask and script in order to manipulate people into loving you, and the only reason it's subconscious is because you are stupid. You are a monster for this. You are a laughing stock, you are a comedy. You suck so badly at socializing, it's pathetic and amusing to me."

Again. I realize it was not the intention, at all. But that doesn't change the fact that it really really really sucked to read that, as an autistic person who masks and scripts social interactions. I feel the need to emphasize one last time: Nica in this scene reminds me of my abusers who abused me for my autistic traits. Many of her quotes her echo their sentiments extremely closely (especially the idea of "you failed at this social interaction so badly, even though you researched it? that's so funny, you're so pathetic and dumb").

I think the aim here was to make it clear that they are both deeply messed up people. Nica says some really cruel things, and Chun does some things that makes Nica really uncomfortable. I think it's supposed to even out, in theory. But intention does matter. Chun wanted to be make it so Nica would like her time in London, and heal her heart in the process. Nica said all of those things with the purpose of being cruel to Chun and hurting her.

If you want to make it seem less one-sided, you need to either make it so that Chun also has some expressedly bad intentions, or reel back Nica's dialogue with her a lot. As it is, that scene left me feeling so repulsed by Nica's verbal abuse towards Chun that I couldn't even feel happy that they didn't break up in the end.

It's a shame that I feel this way, as I did really enjoy 31st March, Midnight. I know this collective is capable of fantastic games. Hell, even the rest of the game is proof of this! But one particularly bad scene can sour a whole experience.

I hope that, in the future, you may consider how people with different backgrounds and neurotypes may feel reading your works, especially when using such harsh language.

Commenting here to re-emphasize the importance of using your voice. If you're USAmerican, sign the ACLU petition. If you're in the UK, sign the parliament petition. And, regardless of where you live, call your reps. Your message doesn't have to be well-put-together. You only need to be a number -- your goal is to be marked down as someone who called in about this particular issue.

It's likely we won't win this fight easily, but, in the end, the simple fact remains: there are more of us than there are of them.

This was posted to an indie web forum I frequent, and I thought it was a super cool way to approach making a shrine! (Definitely gonna be linking it on my personal site.) Then I realized that I recognized your name, and remembered that I wrote for you for a fandom exchange. Small world! Glad to see cannibalism-enjoying indie web representation, lol

HELL YEAH, THIS RULES

If you want me dead so bad, come and kill me yourself. Don't expect everything to be handed to you

This is super stylish and very relatable!!

Gonna print these out and start handing them out in front of the local Walmart like flyers. In the words of The Good Place, "More guys should be bi. It's [2025], like, get over yourselves!"

Also the Misha Collins inclusion with "sorry" written in the bi pride colors made me cackle.

A lot of emotional whiplash here, but I mean that extremely positively. From the hilarious, to the cringe, to the heartwarming... and of course, to "the sugary"

(This review contains spoilers!)

Had a ton of fun with this, as an ex-Christian who turned out to be a transgender of sorts, myself!!

I found myself relating a LOT to Angel, and I joked with my friends multiple times that it's because xir autistic like I am. So, of course, I lost my MIND with the reveal that xe actually is, lol. Not just that, but demiromantic, just like me!! We share the exact same thoughts on dating in general -- "how can you like me? we just met?? you people are so weird???" I've even pulled the "weaponizing my airheadedness to pretend I didn't understand what someone meant when they said they 'liked' me" move, lmao. These traits of mine, when shown in a character in a dating sim, are usually relegated to the non-datable NPC who's there for comic relief; the freakshow whose purpose is to be laughed at. To have them instead portrayed honestly, and as something that could even be desirable, made my heart grow three sizes this night~!

I also saw my younger self a LOT in Liam. Kudos to the writers -- you truly captured the Complete And Utter Behaviors only present in a repressed good-girl Christian turned alt trans queer. His final monologue in the honeymoon suite also very much got me In My Religious Trauma Feelings... Mourning that you used to be everything that your family and community wanted you to be, but you can't be that anymore if you want to be happy. So, seeking that validation in other places instead (ESPECIALLY online)... Woof

And, of course, Elias' plight of feeling like he has to prove he's still just as good at his job, and becoming a workaholic because of it, was ALSO a topic that hit home. Ough. I also really appreciated the representation for bigger boys!! Plus-size romance options are still shockingly rare in the dating sim space, so I do love to see it. Plus, the reveal in this route that Irene is, herself, potentially an egg had me HOLLERING. "Gender is confusing, and also I just wanna dress up in nice clothing, and men's fashion is so SAD" Girl. I fucking get it.

I generally appreciate Irene's internal monologues. The "religious girl who is Doing Her Best while in a crowd of queers" vibe are sooo palpable.

It feels like the topics covered in this game are things that are very close to the hearts of the team! From religion to queerness to the issue each character faces to even photography -- there were a few lines from Irene about her cameras that made me perk up, because it was something I'd never heard of before. Thank you for making this game! I had a blast.

This resonated with me so impossibly hard, as an autistic person. I have always thought that I could solve any problem, if I could just explain myself more, explain myself better, because I thought that other people just weren't understanding me. And if they understood me, then we could work out the problem.

It took me until I was an adult, and until years after my autism diagnosis, to realize that, no matter how much or how well I explained myself, nobody was ever going to understand me. No matter what way I whittled myself down.

This game feels like a take on the sort of despair and distress that comes with that sort of realization. Or, that's what it reminds me of.

The color choices and shapes are super striking!

GOD. JESUS. GOOD LORD. FUCK. TOO REAL MAN... TOO REAL. 5/5

I'm unfortunately late to this jam, so I'm just commenting my sentiments that I'm very interested in this jam being done again next year!

YES! I've had trouble putting into words what, exactly, bugs me about the modern idea / movement around "self care", and this is it!

I immediately thought of Li Speaks' videos on these topics when I saw this, and I was happy to see it mentioned as an inspiration, ha! Very nostalgic and the art is super cute.

I adore the concept! Unfortunately, it has a lot of glitches (or what I assume are glitches). For example, pressing "esc" to escape the minigame closes the game out entirely. I also selected to do the button press for the minigame, but, even after making sure it was set to that, the game continued to give me the mouse-based minigame. Additionally, going to the bike to interact does not end the night, as the game states it does, but it instead closes the game entirely. Turning off tutorials made it so I could not move upon entering the level. (If you want to fix these glitches post-jam, I'm on Windows.) It's a very fun game when I'm not being faced by these glitches, though!

Whew!! This put a lot of stuff into words that I struggled to for a long time. Great work!

This game features gorgeous UI, plenty of suitably meta moments (with visual novels being a huge theme through the game, and mentions of GameJams), and plenty, PLENTY of Feelings to go around, playing this was painful but so cathartic. That final sequence, fromJulie pitching the idea to Amy completing it, really was just brutal gutpunch after brutal gutpunch.

The irony and bitter reality in a game studio mostly filled with cishets making an LGBT+ game, then walking around laughing about how stupid their audience is, was also not lost on me, especially with Julie saying that the game was "made for people like Amy" when recommending it to her trans friend (likely while knowing all of this).

I also love the seeming Hatoful Boyfriend shoutout with the inclusion of what appears to be a parody VN dating sim about dating an animal, which is, in actuality, a greatly moving piece of art. (If anyone was put off by its parody-like nature, go check out Hatoful Boyfriend! It's a great VN with some surprising darkness to it.)

This game was an absolutely stunning experience, especially for this studio's (from what I can tell?) first fully completed game!! You lot have all definitely made a fan out of me, and I look forward to whatever you do next!

This is so sweet!!! Making sure that you knew they were characters outside of the slice that's able to be shown here was important to me, I'm so glad it came across <3! That sort of thing is why I added multiple lines that could be taken as throwaway, but establish that the two of them have known each other for a long time. Stuff like Kylian not having changed his favorite color since he was a little kid, and Asher remembering that.

Gay autism real!! (And that last line got me emotional about my own game, hehehe)

I saw this linked on your Neocities website, and the title and cover art immediately intrigued me. As promised in my email, as soon as I was done with webring applications for the day, I hopped over here! I ended up absolutely loving it!! The art is amazing, and I really loved the story of the game.

I liked that Agneau liked the people, more than the cult itself. That's a huge reason why a lot of people stay in cults and abusive religious situations; the community, less so than the beliefs. They love the people there, but they feel that the people don't love them back. That they love their title.

At first, I thought the mention of The Starful Hound "eating their gender" was going to be a silly throwaway jokey line, but it came back in the end, confirming it as a serious plotpoint. I love this idea for a nonbinary character, and that it seems to be quite literal, so to speak. This was before Agneau even knew of the cult. They just knew that one day, they encountered something grand, and woke up, no gender to be felt at all, where there once was. It was mentioned that they joined the cult because they were "kicked out of home". Was their sudden lack of gender why, I wonder? Trying to express this new feeling to others in their family making them face a transphobic disowning? Or perhaps I'm just thinking too hard about it, haha. But it feels like this is the order of events. The Starful Hound loved them and them alone, so she took their gender away. Transgenderism as a sign of being loved by the gods... What a wonderful thought.

Agneau wasn't sure that they were loved by their current family. It's not known if the cult was malicious towards its people in any way, or just ignorant, but the cult sure wasn't directing Agneau with instructions on how to survive the ordeal safely. But even if the churchgoers don't love them, the Starful Hound loves them. Their species doesn't matter to her; she loves them. This idea of unconditional love from a God, even (and especially) when they rebel against the church's ideas of what the "proper" way to worship is, also feels very LGBT. But I dedicate a way-too-large amount of my brainspace to media analysis for LGBT+ themes, so, again, I'm probably biased!

Anywhosies! These were my thoughts when I was playing this game. Needless to say, I found the game extremely fascinating, and quite resonant with my own experiences.

I have just one question, if I may ask. We know that "Agneau" is a title, given to many before it was bestowed onto the main character. Does the main character have a "real" name? I'm curious!

Thank you for putting this game together!

Sent a FRQ!

Artist and writer here! This view has me feeling very WAHHHH!! Thank you so much ;v;

I'm so glad that everything I wanted to put into the game's writing came across! You're spot-on about 'em both being written as queer (down to Kylian having a hunch, but not accepting it) and neurodivergent. As well as the themes of love and acceptance (both very intentional).

Thank you again for such your thought-out and kind review!

I'm an artist who would be down! You can find examples of my art here: https://artsy-azure.tumblr.com/

You can also check out a game I've previously done the artwork for, "ORGANS", on my itch profile!

This makes me want to go out and relax in the forest, even though I get eaten by bugs every time I try, ha!

A lot of this really, really resonated with me. I only played Yume Nikki recently, but about the process of coming out, and realizing, and pushing aside your desires... And the way everyone talked about Madotsuki... Especially about her wanting to prove that she could change... Then the description of your dream..... Whew. Got me in my feelings at 3am on a Monday morning.

(Also, the text for selecting the health drink made me laugh out loud.)

I want to make it very clear before I say what I'm going to say: I MEAN THIS IN THE MOST POSITIVE WAY IMAGINABLE!!!

This feels like something I would have made when I was a kid.

Maybe not a KID-kid, but like, mid-teens. I'm not that far off from that age (I'm just in my 20s!), but it reminds me of all of the best parts of my projects from that age. A story that's more small in scope, but very character-focused, and emotionally resonant, for that reason. (You even had an emotionally stunted blonde! That's, like, my favorite type of character, ha!) It feels like something that was made... how to say... unabashedly? I'm worried that this is coming off wrong, but I mean this all so, so positively!

I think what I'm trying to say is, it feels like something I would've made as a kid in that it knows exactly what it is and what it means to do, and it does it well. I think a lot of other stories like this pad it all out with a bunch of unnecessary filler, because that's what people think makes a story "good", is when a story is very... thorough, I suppose. (Which is a pattern of thinking I've often applied to my stories, which doesn't always help.)

But we didn't need to know the exact details of the magic system, and the exact details of Cain and Sammy's backstories. We got glimpses of what we needed for the story to be effective and resonant, and our imaginations fill out the rest. That's often the best way to write a story like this. The character writing is very strong, and I just generally had a darned good time with it!

I really loved this story! The art is gorgeous, the music is lovely, and I did notably like the sound effects for the buttons, hehe.

I didn't expect to come into this relating to Hijiri so much, but, as a writer myself, perhaps that was shortsided, haha. I can relate to both characters, actually -- Mayo's fan behavior and her tendency to not worry about the future (though I mostly tell myself to not worry about the future as a coping mechanism for anxiety, ha) and Hijiri's woes with creative burnout.

I was a little worried at multiple points about the direction the story was taken. I was worried that, with how Mayo was berating herself, she would end up bearing the narrative burden for the final conflict, with Hijiri's side of never being addressed. In fact, I was worried about Hijiri's nasty traits never truly being addressed. Thankfully, both of those things got proven wrong though!

The only issue I have with this VN is a rather minor complaint, and that's the subject of Hijiri's grandparents. I am about as white as white bread, so take my opinion with a grain of salt (especially given that I don't know the race of the author!), but I found it discomforting how it was established that Hijiri's grandparents were xenophobic / racist, and that they were then, in Hijiri's words, "Proven right". There are a number of ways this could've been addressed; they could have disapproved of Hijiri's father for a reason other than him being a foreigner, being the one that immediately jumps to mind. If you wanted to keep that plot point, you could've had Mayo respond when Hijiri said 'they were right' about her father, with something like, "But they were judging him based off of where he came from. They weren't 'right' for that." And then Hijiri could respond, "That is true." I dunno, something like that would've been a little less discomforting.

Other than that, though, I really enjoyed this VN and would recommend it in the future!

The base gameplay regarding the restaurant simulator part needs some quality-of-life improvements (fixing glitches regarding Z-selection especially), but the story and art is amazing! I'd love to see an art collection, or an option to download CGs! <3

When I saw this, I was slightly worried that the game would force you to be mean to Hana, because I know she's often the narrative joke in Repurpose. It made me happy that you could be nice to the poor girl, because I always felt for her, even in Repurpose! I usually feel really bad picking the mean options, but Hana being desperate, and thus not really caring how I acted, made it a lot better on my soul, haha. I loved the music, and Hana's dialogue made me giggle a few times irl. I've definitely been in Hana's place a few times. In her words, "She just like me for real, for real".

I will say, I noticed a few light coding errors. For example, when I had Hana call me by my username, the text in-game showed a 'u' before every instance. I assume this must've meant 'username' in the code? It's nothing drastic though.

Just finished the Second Session update, after meaning to get to it for a while! Got all the endings, too. Just like the OG release, I love the continued chill vibes. And, of course, the new character design is lovely, as per usual!

What I didn't expect going into this was all the FEELINGS! Without giving spoilers, I really related to Blue a lot. Not just in The Obvious Way, but also how he talks about his favorite fictional character.

I've always loved the concept of using succubus and incubus society in order to explore the ways that society puts pressure on people to be intimate. Including (and sometimes, especially) when you're someone who isn't interested in it! My face lit up with excitement when I found out that's more or less what this new route was exploring. It's very well-done, too! The issue is exasperated due to incubi/succubi (in theory...) being literally All About Sex, which is what makes it such great commentary on our real world.

I'm so happy that this game received this update! No pressure, obviously, but if you ever wanted to update and add even more stories, I would play every single one with great joy and fervour! <3

I was brought here from YouTuber Amelie Doree mentioning this game in one of her videos, and right off the bat, I'd like to thank you for not only the content warnings, but also the option to view a detailed version of those content warnings. Whether or some things may be potentially upsetting can be incredibly situational (I know it is for me), so it's a very thoughtful option to put into a game, and especially one like this.

I love the setup / "world" of this game, the interesting and unique ways this leads to how sexuality is viewed, and the pixel art (really added to the RPG feel)! That said, though, this game's most striking quality is its writing. You've taken very difficult-to-understand concepts (even and especially for the people who know them most intimately), and boiled them down to such easy, impactful language. It's a truly amazing feat, and everyone involved should be very proud.

I related to Melody a lot (he said, in a manner much like someone who had grown up Catholic and was taught that sexual desire was sin to punish), but even I have struggled to categorize these feelings. I still struggle with a deep sense of shame and self-hatred for these things, so playing this game was (and I mean this in an EXTREMELY positive way) like getting smacked across the face HARD every two seconds with a revelation about myself, all of which were often equal parts relieving and painful. Needless to say, I'm going to be laying on my back and staring at the ceiling for a LOOONG while after posting this review, lol!! It's a huge weight off of my shoulders to finally be able to understand this side of myself. I couldn't have reached that understanding without this game, and for that, I thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

Thank you for sharing this wonderful piece of art. I will be recommending it to anyone who will listen, whenever topics of fantasies of this nature come up.

Lovely music, lovely art, and a lovely story! <3

I decided to check this game out after watching a streamer play it, and have gotten all of the endings! I agree with everyone saying this is the type of quality I would expect to pay for. This is such effective horror, not in small part due to how based in real life it is.

I have one criticism and one criticism only: I would have liked to know that the selfie I chose at the start of the game would affect how I would be gendered. Maybe I could have assumed, but it seems to be getting popular to have ungendered appearance options, and have the player character referred to neutrally. Like the latest Splatoon, for example! It would've been nice to have had some sort of indicator that it will change how the character is referred to.

Other than that small nitpick, this game is REALLY excellent. I can totally see it taking off, if the stars align right. Phenomenal work!

Edit: I forgot, I wanted to talk about a glitch I found. Sometimes, when I quick save and then quick load on a screen with a choice, when I load it, it just shows the previous dialogue, and the choice doesn't come up. You aren't able to progress any further when this happens, to my knowledge.

I was a little confused on how to play at first, but once I got the hang of it, I had a really fun time playing this game! <3

The switching between warm and cool colors to show the sickness getting worse was extremely effective, and the graphics are so gritty. The font choice reflects this as well. Makes for a great atmosphere. Loved the usage of the rats on the floor to show what exactly the MC was dying from, as well (even though rats technically weren't the cause of the plague, they are still associated imagery). Great job!

Loved the graphics and environment here! I like that "out of time" could be applied to the demons playing their song, and the limit on the flashlight.

I agree with everyone on the comments page! The graphics are great. I think you should continue development and polish it.

This is a very good game! I love the "wiggling" effects, and the dialogue is very real. The art is lovely. My only issue is that there is no way to skip previously-seen dialogue, which makes getting all the endings a bit of a drag, especially because of the slow pace of the game.

The pixel art in this game is so charming! Short, sweet, and very teen boy-esque.