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HELLO, gosh 😭 I'm so happy to hear that 🥹The game was based on a pretty similar (anxiety-ridden) part of my own life 😅  so I'm really glad that it rings true to your experience too 🥹 Your praise is too kind, thank you 😭 (and hehe the VAs did SO fantastically, they were absolutely perfect for the roles!)

I really can't express how much comments like this mean to me 💦 As a creative, I'm always so happy when someone can feel understood through my work 😭 Again, thank you so much for playing and taking the time to comment, and I'm so glad that you enjoyed playing 🥹

AH yes unfortunately I didnt release an Android build for Kanau, once I release all 3 it will be out for Android 🫡 I hope you enjoy it then, and thank you for the kind words! 😊 

DANG that is very high praise, thank you so much 😭😭😭 I really did want to paint both Nelli and Raku as highly flawed but still sympathetic, so I'm glad to hear that 🥹 I'm really grateful that you played, and I hope that you enjoy the next game! ☺️

😂 Hopefully they're interesting things! Thank you for playing!! 

I actually started implementing it after "The Perfect Woman"! So all the projects I release from now on should have the feature! 

😭 THANK YOU for reading my rambling, I'm so honored that you took the time!! And honestly that's a very fair question 🤔 I decided to leave the ending largely up to the player's decision and what they envision for how Yumeko's story plays out after the fact. Whether she gets captured by the police, or if her body runs on power and she runs out of battery 😂 or if she finds other robots in a similar position and goes to live with them... Personally I like to think that she eventually finds a friendly human that helps her navigate her new life 😊 and even if she's not very experienced, her cognition has advanced enough that people think that she's human (but maybe I just want her to have a happily ever after 😂)

Hello, hello!! Oh gosh, thank you so much 🥹 That's so kind of you! Unfortunately with the way that I coded the game, I didn't incorporate a way to easily change the language 😓 I've updated this with my current games, but MindMindMind was made with old code, sadly 😭 so I think it would be a bit difficult to implement! Thank you so much for offering, though 😭 it is too kind!!!

GOSH you made an account just to post this 😭 I'm very touched, thank you! And I completely agree, I didn't originally design the game with VA in mind, but it ended up being an INTEGRAL part of the experience, in my opinion! All of the VAs were utterly fantastic and I couldn't have asked for a better cast. Thank you again for playing (and for shouting out my post-mortem as well, gosh!) and I hope that my next game is fun to play, too! 😄

Thank you for the kind words 😂 I really appreciate it, and I'm glad that you enjoyed playing! 

I won't respond to most of this except to say that I have different beliefs, and my beliefs are reflected in the stories that I choose to tell. I would advise that you not interact with my work since it will only upset you. However, I will say that I do not appreciate you leaving such a lengthy, mostly irrelevant comment on my game, which you have not bothered to play. Most of all, I do not appreciate that you have made such broad statements about my character and beliefs (most of which are frankly untrue). It is massively disrespectful to me, and I will not tolerate these sorts of comments. I am leaving this comment up to make a point, but I will delete them in the future. 

Gosh, thank you so much for playing, I'm glad that you enjoyed it! 🥹 I do know that sometimes people "understand" what Geist is right from the start 🤣 but I do love it when it takes a little bit of time to "click" and there's the "ah-ha" moment of "so THAT'S what that jerk is!" It's too true, sometimes it takes some time to realize that everyone is too wrapped up with their own troubles to care too much about how awkward you're being 🤣 I'm glad that you found the ending satisfying 🙏 after an entire game of listening to him, I hope it was worth it! 😆

Yes! They were truly so kind 😭 You can find all their socials linked in the "Credits" section above, or in the "Credits" section in game! I really recommend checking them out, they're all wonderfully talented!

Gosh, that's very kind of you 😭 I'm really glad you enjoyed (and found the ending surprising 😂) I was truly so lucky that so many fantastic voice actors volunteered to work on this project! Thank you again for playing and taking the time to comment! 

THANK YOU, Kalei is one of my favorite love interests that I've written, and I'm glad I did the topic justice! 😊

OHH gosh you are too kind, thank you for checking out another one of my games!! 😭 💦 💦  (Ohh very correct regarding Geist!) I'm really glad that you enjoyed it and touched that you saw your own experience in the story; I based the game a lot on my past self, and so it's been really validating to hear that people shared similar experiences, or that they realized things about themselves by playing. It really makes me glad that it was a worthwhile story to tell 🥹  I wish you the best of luck with your own Geist 💪 and thank you again for playing and taking the time to leave your thoughts! 

GOSH THANK YOU 😭😭 the voice actors did UTTERLY FANTASTIC, I was so lucky to work with them!! 

And thank you so much 😭 I don't deserve the praise! I'm really glad that Nelli's prickliness made sense in the end 😂 And ohh well that's a bit of an (open) secret... 

====SPOILER FOR KANAU===

Raku knows Nelli from before college, but Nelli only "met" him in college. I cover this part in Kanau, which is the prequel (you can play it on itch too, it's linked above 😂) 

Thank you again for playing and taking the time to comment 🥹 

Gosh THANK YOU, I'm really happy that the representation was good 😭 (and that you're in a much better place now 😂 when I look back now, allowing yourself to be controlled by your fears is really the scariest thing 😂) Thank you so much for playing ☺️ 

THAT'S VERY FAIR 😂 It is a "kinetic" visual novel (i.e. a VN without choices), but I understand that's not everyone's cup of tea. But since it was a prologue there was really only one way for it to go 😂 so adding choices felt a bit odd somehow. I do agree about giving people more options though 🤔 my next releases I'll be working more on adding more endings 💪 (this is a weakness of mine 😂) Thank you for playing, and I'm glad you enjoyed the story even if you wished there were choices!

Oh they do both (so $100 fee plus 30% of the sales). It's a reasonable ask and the $100 prevents the platform from being flooded with spammers, but unfortunately it makes it difficult to justify putting free games on there 😅 I do plan to release some games with DLC  🤔 hopefully it goes well 😂 

LOL it's interesting reading your play-by-play impressions... 😂 I am glad that you got the overall impression that I wanted and thought it was a good hook ("why is Nelli acting like this, what is going on, and why is she being so mean to her bf, who is nothing but nice to her? And certainly not just because she's a tsun...") 🤭 I hope you find the endings interesting! 

And thank you for your compliments on the writing and art 😭 this was my second game that I released and my first game that was properly finished, and I wasn't really that confident at the time 💦 (I have gained a bit of confidence since then and I think I've improved a bit as a dev! 💪 Hopefully LOL)

Oh gosh 😂 I am flattered someone took the time! And AHH makes sense, I see! The demo (i.e. the first 2 games) should come on Steam sometime in the next few months (I just need to find the time to put the new build together 😂 )! And ohh yes! Unfortunately Steam charges a $100 fee for every submission, and this trio of games in particular will be free (hmm mainly because it was originally intended to be free, and also because of the content that it deals with, I wouldn't want to charge money for it), so I figured I'd save $200 by submitting them as a trilogy instead of individual titles lolol but I do intend to release some more yan flavor games that will be separate 😊 A couple more early this year, and maybe one later in the fall! All of them will have romantic endings of some flavor or another, but I've been in a tragedy mood, so we'll see how happy they are... I hope that you enjoy when you get to play 😊

Oh gosh I'm flattered 😭 and so glad you found it there! I've been holding off the Steam release since it's a trio of three games total and I need to refactor them into one package for Steam 😂 so the first two games got released here first, but the last installment will be released close to simultaneously!

I hope you enjoy 😊 

Ah that's how it's flagged because it's not signed (i.e. I didn't pay to have it approved by Microsoft or Apple)/delivered through the app store. It is perfectly safe to download! If it still bothers you, you can play it through the official itch app. 

Thank you so much!! You're too kind 🥹 I'm glad that you enjoyed it! 

GOSH that's too kind 😭 thank you!!! I'm glad you enjoyed!

AHHHH thank you kona, you are too kind 😭 when I put them all next to each other I did like looking at them all, all of the different game aesthetics turned out pretty different 😂 It almost makes me want to make each game with a different color theme so that when I put them together next year it will be rainbow colored LOL 

GOSH thank you for the well wishes 💦 I'm very grateful 🥹 I hope that your own plans go well this year, too! 

Happy new year! 😊 And thank you, I'll try!! 

AWW thank you yinny 😭😭😭 you're too kind!! I hope it's fun 💦

OH GOSH you played this one too 🥹 Thank you so much!!! I'm currently working on the last game which is about 3x as long as Karamu and Kanau combined, so it will take me a bit of time 😂  But it has quite a bit more romance 🥰 I hope you enjoy it! I'm also working on a spinoff that's quite romance/thriller focused as well! Thank you again for playing and taking the time to leave your thoughts 😭 

Ack I'm sorry 😭 hopefully it works in the next update! I do plan on making an Android build for MMM sometime in the future (basically I'll have to remove the animations for it, but I don't think it should affect the experience too much), but unfortunately it will take a bit of time so it's on the backburner for the time being 💦

A MASTERPIECE you're far too kind, thank you 😭 I'm really glad that you were surprised 🤭 and that you felt like it was overall well balanced! It was my first time writing a shorter game like this one, and when I made it I worried a lot about the balance between the romance and horror elements 😂 And oh gosh 😭 I'm happy that you like the art too, I was really insecure about it at the time 💦 (I think I've gotten a bit better, but I still have a ways to go!) And judging from my other comments I don't think anyone will judge you 😂 (Raku is one of my favorite LIs, I won't lie 💦) THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR PLAYING and taking the time to comment, it really means the world to me! 😭

Oh I'm glad to hear that! I used Godot 4!

AHHHH thank you for playing!! And gosh I'm sorry, I made this after I switched to a new engine and couldn't get Android builds to work. Since then I refactored my code and I think I can make Android builds again. I plan to release a third game this year, and I'll be making a "bundled" version with all 3 games that will (hopefully) be available on Android, so hopefully you can play it then! 😭 Sorry for the inconvenience! 

GOSH that is high praise, thank you so much 😭 thank you for playing! 

(Thank you for giving me the honor of editing this game!)

UTFS is always consistently good, and I have to say that Kein:UberLeben hits PARTICULARLY hard in the emotional department. 

It goes without saying, but the game is INCREDIBLY polished, as always. The UTFS games are always consistently high quality, with stunning animations, stellar voice acting, beautiful artwork, and a sleek and satisfying GUI. Details like the movements of the mechs, or the characters getting out of the mechs, or Micah running around - all add so much life and dynamicism to the format. The sprites are particularly well rendered this time around, with the gradient in the characters' hair adding a nice bright pop of color that makes them stand out in the dystopian landscape. I especially loved Yiska and Cain's designs, whose colors were especially well executed. I won't comment much on the writing since I did edit it 😂 but I found it beautifully written, and the emotions were particularly compelling in the last scene. The VAs also did an utterly fantastic job - each of their voices perfectly matched their characters, and the performances really enhanced the script in a way that I didn't expect (for instance, the wooden recitation of Mari's dramatic introduction to the recruits really sold how inexperienced she is at this and how much she rehearsed). I particularly enjoyed Hoshea, Ilias, and Kenan's first scene, which had a lot of fun dialogue and good interplay between the VAs (even though it was Hoshea's first appearance, you could garner so much about him from the way his VA delivered his lines!) 

While all of the UTFS entries have been consistently interesting (and very different) with fascinating worldbuilding and a "grand scope," I particularly enjoyed Kein:UberLeben because of the strength of its character writing. It focuses on a smaller cast than usual, building on characters that we're familiar with from other titles (BCS and Re-Idealize) with a tight web of relationships between the main 4: Aaron, Cain, Mari, and Yiska. This really allows for strong characterization of its leads, even in a short timeframe.

====SPOILERS====

All 4 of the main leads have a fairly strong connection to each other - Aaron/Yiska and Mari/Cain are married, of course, but Mari and Aaron also lead the colony together, and Cain and Yiska are very good friends. This complicates things, as Aaron holds a grudge against Cain for the crimes of their father - associating his half-brother with his father's misdeeds. It's a bitter irony considering how kindhearted Cain actually is - and while Mari tries to keep out of it, Yiska attempts to mend the bond between the brothers. It's well-written interpersonal conflict that adds a lot of depth to the characters and instantly makes you invested in their story. When the chance to mend this relationship is ripped away, it feels truly devastating. Throughout the story the parallels between Aaron/Yiska and Mari/Cain are quite apparent - with Yiska and Cain being the "rock" for their respective spouses - which also makes the climax all the more tragic, as Cain/Yiska, these figures of comfort and reliable support, are brutally murdered. Aaron's sense of hopelessness and guilt at having contributed to his wife's death is palpable, and it's heartwrenching to see Mari confronting Aaron, both having endured the same loss.

It was good to see the return of a few familiar faces - Aaron, Ester, Micah, Mari and Kenan - and it was interesting seeing how the events of this game affected them in the future - Aaron, Micah, and Mari, in particular. Here, Micah is bright and full of joy, with loving parents, frolicking around the warrior colony, seemingly unaware of its dangers. However, after his experiences, he becomes the jaded, bitter kid in BCS, even though he still has a good heart. Mari didn't change as dramatically, but here she is much more stern, and you can tell how young and inexperienced she is. In BCS, she has mellowed out quite a bit (and I like to think that she took on a few of her late husband's better qualities). You see a lot of different sides of Aaron, in particular - he treats his wife with surprising tenderness, and his bitterness towards his half-brother is both frustrating but also understandable. I especially liked the "good cop bad cop" dynamic between Mari and Aaron, as Aaron softens some of her harder edges. Kenan's appearance here helps to dispel a lot of his mystique from BCS, as we learn why his reaction towards Micah was so conflicted - and why he seems more softhearted than his compatriots. Overall, the game does a fantastic job of giving you more insight into these familiar faces and adds depth to their characters that also explains why they act the way they do in BCS.

Among the relationships, I thought that Cain's relationship with his son, Micah, was a standout. The story starts with Cain chasing Micah through a factory playing hide and seek, unable to bring himself to stop his son from playing in an environment with a lot of dangerous equipment. It's really fitting symbolism and a good parallel for what happens later - as Cain wants to preserve Micah's smile, to shelter him from the world's harsh realities - even if it means exposing his son to danger. Ironically, it is Cain's softness towards Micah that turns out to be the worst for him. By indulging in Micah's play and agreeing to bring him on patrol, Cain unintentionally exposes Micah to the worst pain imaginable, and a trauma that he will never forget. Throughout you can't help but feel for Cain - as he wants the world to be safe and perfect for his child, but the reality is that it isn't, and he can't protect his son from the world's dangers. Even at the end, he's helpless to do anything but to tell Micah to close his eyes - to shield himself from reality, praying that the soldiers won't find him - as he stays strong for his son, even as he's dying. This resilience in the face of utter hopelessness and despair really made Cain one of my favorite characters in the franchise, despite only appearing here. 

I'll touch briefly on the "villains" of the story - Hoshea, Ilias, and Kenan. Ilias is a familiar face from Re-Idealize, but while he appeared to be a reliable father there, here it seems like he's a bit clumsy, and definitely the "unreliable" one of the group. Hoshea puts on a "composed" air but it's clear how lowly he thinks of everyone - the rebels, and even his fellow soldiers - and his warped worldview, seeing humans essentially as animals, is clear. Kenan puts on a cold appearance, but he has the softest heart of them all. They're painfully humanized - even moreso than the "villains" of BCS. During the introduction, they interact, not as colleagues, but as a group of friends that has clearly known each other for a long time (although it's clear that, despite their closeness, their relationship is a bit strained). After everything is said and done, Ilias is so horrified that he vomits, and Kenan also shows some remorse - yet they methodically continue to do their jobs. You hate them for what they've done, but they're so human that it's also HARD to hate them. It really plays into the grayness of the UTFS universe, as both sides have characters that you can empathize with and root for.

Overall, this was FANTASTIC. Narratively, it is incredibly tight and complex, with nuanced and compelling characterization combined with an utterly devastating emotional climax. It is personally one of my favorites from the UTFS franchise, and I'm honored to be part of it. Fantastic work! 

DANG HOW DID YOU RELEASE NINE GAMES THIS YEAR, I kept thinking that we got to the ending but then realized "OH WAIT that released this year too..." It was a great year for you (which is funny because I also recall you were going to take it easy in the latter half LMAO), and it seems like next year will be no less productive... WE'RE GETTING THE PHANTOM BL FGHFGHFG and good luck with yaoi jam again, fourth time's the charm... 

OHH hello 😊 Gosh I'm really honored, thank you so much 😭 I'm really glad that the gradually unfolding mystery was interesting 🤭 I really love putting in little hints and details, so it makes me happy when people pick up on them 😭💦💦 and I'm so glad that you found the illustrations pretty too 💦 I was really insecure about my art at this time so that means so much! 

There's actually a prequel that's released (Kanau) that you can find on my page! And I plan on releasing a sequel sometime next year (to make it into a trilogy 🙌)The script and VA for that one are already done, so I just need to work on the coding and art assets!

Thank you so much for playing and for taking the time to leave your thoughts! 🥹

GOSH you are too kind 🥹💦💦 Thank you so much for playing and taking the time to comment! 😭

OH thank you so much! 😭💦💦

AHHH GOSH thank you for picking it up Kona, I'm so honored that you took the time to play 😭💦 (And thank you again for checking the Linux build, gosh, it was such a huge help!) FGHFGH YOU'RE TOO KIND, I do want to make sure that the reading experience is as comfortable/enjoyable as possible 😭

=======SPOILERS==========

OHH thank you so much!! I'm glad that it was enjoyable even without prior familiarity with the myth, I was rather worried about that 😓 and I'm happy that it inspired people to check out the original! 😂

AHHH I'm glad that the vibe was unsettling! I do love horror but I struggle with making things "scary" 💦 this was my first attempt at making a properly "scary" game (I'm not sure if I REALLY succeeded 💦 but at the very least I think it's scarier than Karamu? 😂) I'm also glad that you found Yumeko to be intriguing! While AI is pretty controversial in the world nowadays 🤣 I do find the idea of "robots" and "what it means to be human/conscious" to be quite an interesting question... and a particularly fascinating thing to explore in fiction!

(I'm glad fghfghgf I do explore some edgier/darker topics in my games, but I do hope that people can feel at ease/comfortable while they play!)

OHHHH I am very happy that you noticed the voice actors!! And that it's clear why there are three of them when you get to the endings! (Admittedly it was partially a logistical thing 😂 since I didn't want to burden one VA with too many lines - but I also really wanted to evoke the feeling of a Greek chorus, with each narrator representing one of the three endings!) The VA wasn't planned at the start but I am so glad that I added it (and found such talented and wonderful people to work with), I don't think it would have been half as good with their contributions.

Thank you again for playing, Kona!! 😭 And for taking the time to comment, it really means so much to me!