I've seemingly gotten softlocked in the deeper slime caverns looking for Kuno's knife. I defeated all the crimson slime dragons but can't progress or leave. The only interactable objects of note, are the chestplate which spawned the armoured slime and the slime plants in the corner that can't be passed.
Nice bait, Adastra does the same thing, arguably worse. Like in Adastra you get kidnapped, told your going to be a slave but it's dressed as "your my pet, now give me a hand job". Sure the MC in Adastra never meets any of the other slaves (Alexios doesn't count he's a spy) but you hear how the other races the wolves "uplift" are intentionally stunted to be lesser to the wolves. All so they can be used as slave labour or did you conveniently forget that part?
I wasn't even going to mention the art but the fact one character here has more sprites than the entirety of adastra combined.... yeah.
So why don't you tell us why you actually don't like this VN?
Yeah, those were things I noticed/wanted to address, I just didn't have the time to fix them to meet the submission deadline. Thank you for the feedback, it's constructive and will help polish the game up!
Kael aims for once a month but it is a once they are ready kind of deal. I'm perfectly happy with that as each update has been pretty big and it's never even been as long as two months between updates.
Not necessarily an Easter egg or at least not totally. One of the ancient names for Egypt was Khemet. Which is where both VNs get the name from. Similarly it's possible Avalan gets its namesake from Avalon which is come from Arthurian legend and is supposedly where excalibur was forged.
This VN does feature a m/m relationship. I don't know any straight VNs I'm afraid, best I can think of is in Echo you can be Bi (the main character was in a gay relationship before the start of that VN) and choose to route with a m/f relationship. The caveats to that is that route is unfinished and its one route out of 5, and Echo is also a horror VN. Oh and Blackgate has a straight relationship as well I think, but same situation as Echo except Echo does receive updates monthly where as Blackgate might get 2 new lines of story a month which is a shame.
Magic has been mentioned since the very start. One of the first things Ranok says to Caelan is that he thought blood magic might have been involved with him being there.
I don't remember exactly but I think when you download the new build when you try to install it, it should ask if you want to update that app. That'll keep your saves.
When you download a new update you can just copy all the files to where you have the game already and replace any files it asks. Saves will carry over regardless of what you do.
When the new update is out you can just replace the current files or if you want a fresh install the saves will just carry over no extra work required.
Caelan and Ranok are similar ages. Ranok just came of age because that's what lead him to find Calean. Meanwhile while Caelan can't remember how old he actually is he is certain he is considered an adult by human standards.
What a fantastic start for a furry visual novel. It takes it's time to set up the world and characters and it pays off. The characters have tons of charm and their sprites are really varied and expressive. The level of quality for this first build is outstanding and it's the passion project of just one person. The art and writing are all done by the same guy. The music is also really great, it's nice that there's a visual novel out there that isn't just using royalty free music. This is definitely a game you should check out, you won't regret it. (well maybe just that fact you have wait for the next update!)
This turned into a wall of text (sorry!) I'll post a TLDR at the end.
This game should come with a warning. It's very good. I played for about 8 hours barely stopping until had to stop because I was having an anxiety attack both from how intense the game was getting but also because of how little I'd taken care of my self. I came back to it the next day fresh and determined to make it to the end.
What an experience. I was enjoying the game immediately but was only taking it half seriously, The main character would react and I joked to myself about the dirty thing I would have said instead or the like but the game took itself seriously from the start. It takes time to set up the relationship between the MC and Amicus and gradually just as the story progressed Ilike the MC grew deep feelings for the characters in this game. It tugged my heartstrings and evoked genuine feelings of joy, despair, fulfillment and agony. It was emotional roller coaster and I was hanging on for dear life.
The art and sound were really well done. I loved the art of Amicus. He has plenty of varied expressions to help set the scene, though all characters did to be fair and there are occasional full scene artworks that are stunning.
There a few sci-fi tropes sure but they don't detract from experience and world building the game sets up. There was only one twist that came out of the blue, that felt like it only existed to create forced drama and it does serve to progress the plot well and does get explained fairly satisfactorily but at the time it was a little jarring. I did feel mostly the same way as the MC did, hurt and betrayed but I was also aware of how forced the whole situation was, so I guess part of the hurt was that the developers had stooped to that level for an emotional reaction. This is only a minor nitpick though as the whole experience was just incredible, I've read compelling VNs before but this one just steals the show.
I guess it's only to be expected, I really enjoyed Blackgate back in the day and this is from the team that formed to take on the side project to Blackgate, Echo. There's a reason why blackgate has lost momentum and basically died yet this game has far surpassed it. I haven't even tried Echo since some of the earliest builds but after playing this I will have to, though not for a while, I need time to process and sort out my head after this game.
If you are on this page looking at this game then just simply download it and play it. It's free, you would only be doing yourself a disservice by not giving it a go.
TLDR - It's an amazing, emotional game and you really should play it.
A fun little game. The art is very nice. I agree with some of the other comments, that adjusting the speed the slime moves when hooked would be nice. To take the game/idea further you could reduce how much reach the slime has or add moving platforms/hazards would help level diversity and help increase the difficulty for later levels
