Hi sageleaf, I agree with your critique of chapter 2 and it's feeling of redundancy. I think in my original plans, I didn't expect players to visit all the rooms, (since only one key item and 3 items total are only necessary to light the hearths) but in actuality most players will want to make sure they aren't missing anything. I'm glad you still stuck through it and enjoyed the characters.  Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts with me :). 

Ah it sounds like the alpha channel was desynching with the webm. I thought I fixed that issue but I guess it can still happen on other computers. Thanks for letting me know. And I appreciate you giving the demo a try :)

Spoiler ahead

Yes. You must part ways with your vassal at the catacomb door to complete chapter 3. At least temporarily. It's possible to reunite on the other side if you have confirmed either a friendship or romance (a special scene in the their room on the top floor of the castle should give you the option if your trust and/or attract is +30 and you have watched the previous 10point milestones) scenes continue to unlock up to 50 after confirming friendship or romance but are not required to complete the game to the good endings/epilogue. Hope that helps!

Oh Soul Onion does sound like a very interesting title lol. The font I chose definitely could have been cleaner. Thanks for checking it out anyway 😉

good job :)

Glad to hear you had fun with it! I do have some world stuffs, like maps, historical and cultural notes that I'm planning to add to future chapters. Info that shouldn't be mandatory for following the comic, but you may find it interesting. Thanks so much~

thanks for taking a look!

Ahahah...actually there is 16 chapters... I'm very glad to hear that you find my artwork distinctive. I still remember when anime/manga wasn't as popular and accepted as it is today and I was often told to stop drawing the way that I do by teachers and other well meaning adults. The first comics/mangas I ever read were by Rumiko Takahashi and CLAMP, so I think my paneling is heavily influenced by works like Ranma1/2 and X1999. I think the earliest influences are often the strongest and most persistent. Maybe my work feels very 1990s in that regard lol.

Aww thanks Emmy!

Long time no chat! Hope 2022 treats you well! <3<3<3

Ah, thanks so much for reading my ramblings and willingness to look at my older work! I'm sincerely flattered *^_^*. Best wishes to you. Your project Inverted Spire is looking superb~!

Hi Whimberly, Thank you so much for taking the time to try this demo and write your thoughts. I definitely want to explore this world that I built.  The beginning of this year I'm finally coming out of this long slump (though I'm still struggling with burnout and fatigue) I hope to share some more of my stories and characters soon~ Thanks again so much for your supportive words!

I apologize in advance, as I don't use Linux so I'm not sure if this works but doing a google search I found this. https://appuals.com/how-to-play-renpy-visual-novels-on-a-linux-machine/ Hope it's helpful!

Hi again RamiKoh!

Yes your old saves should still work! None of the older scripts have moved or disappeared. Just added text in a few places to hopefully give Ilyon's customized personality a wee bit more flavor. It always seems like a lot on my end because there's 6 options for every 1 line but I wonder if the player will notice XD;; I apologize in advance if it's not much. 

Hi Sayuri,

This game is such a mess I wasn't really sure it was worth revisiting in it's current state. Since you have asked though,  I will see if I can work through the disorganized code and update it in the near future. Thanks for feedback!

Hi Isawrites,

Thank you so much for trying out my game. I'm sorry that you encounter that bug! Thank you for reporting it.  I'm really happy to read that you enjoyed your time with the story and characters so far. I have a lot of plans for this project in the future~

Oh gosh, thank you so much for taking the time to try out my game. Your review was very generous! Best wishes~

Hi there! Thanks so much for trying out both the original SU and this parody game. I tried to make npcs remember choices but honestly it's getting a bit out of control, so I need to organize it better in the future lol. But it is important to me for the characters to behave as appropriately as I can manage. I am excited to read your comments and inquiries as I'd love to get into a deeper discussion about the world building. To answer some of your questions, there might be spoiler stuff ahead:

SPOILERS:

Two factors keep Ilyon from understanding what/who "Noctisse" is in the parody.

 1. One of the things that Ilyon discovers in the "void" in chapter 4 of SU is that although there are an infinite variety of variations of realities, 'threads' or the essence/composition of existence remain constant across all realities. The question becomes how much can realities differ within these parameter and are these differences ultimately meaningful? Technically 'Noctisse' on a 'thread' composition level is the same as she's always been.

2. Ilyon has always had a game of cat and mouse with Noctisse. He wouldn't normally dare 'analyze' her threads, as she would normally be able to detect this and find it intrusive.  It's only after he's suspicious enough of her that he dares "probe" her to discover that she's let down her guard/awareness and something has truly changed. This is when he begins to approach her in her dreams, since her thoughts are more transparent in her subconscious.

Hello Again! Thank you again for taking the time to share your thoughts. I love reading them.  Please let me respond to your feedback point by point.

 There may be spoilers in some of my answers~

1. I'm glad that you were able to enjoy the game as an experience despite it's many flaws in execution. I plan on leaving this version up even after I remake it, as I think it has it's own "charm" that may be lost in my attempt to refine it. I'm planning some pretty big narrative changes for the remake, so I think it will be interesting for someone like yourself to compare. There was a power imbalance that I am uncomfortable with, and I want to give the vassals more agency. I'm planning more character and relationship development outside of the ritual, before the epilogue so I hope that will help the reader to explore another side to the characters. To make room for this new expansion, relationship paths will be narrowed to two opposed to six.

2. I'm glad that you enjoyed Keska's character. As a creator and I mother, I feel like my characters are kind of like my children, so I can't favor one over the others. As far as the endings go, all of the empathy, power and logic routes share similar resolutions when it comes to Noctisse. In his empathy routes, Ilyon's companions attempt to "rescue" him from his complicated relationship with Noctisse. I suppose Ilyon made himself appear vulnerable enough to them that they felt inspired to "help" him. They probably also felt supported enough to act on their own personal grievances against Noctisse as well, considering she threatened them into the whole ritual thing to begin with. In his power routes, he takes more upon himself to challenge Noctisse directly and his logic routes, he cautiously tolerates Noctisse, deciding ultimately to bide his time. In all versions of the endings, Mikail does not like Noctisse and sees her as a threat to both himself and his cherished person.  He's not the type of person to consider nuance.  I'm sure he would personally rather she disappear forever regardless of Ilyon's chosen approach. I'm pleased you were able to pick up on that XD.

3. Thank you for pointing out the bug! I think there's a couple of those in Keska's path, since I made her path after Mikail's. I reused some of the scripts for an "outline" to follow and I must have accidentally left one of jumps to the wrong script. Sorry about that! Most of my friends are team Mikail, so I feel her path was not as well tested, lol.

4. The hearths in the tunnels are representative of destruction, reverence and preservation. The objects collected and used as fuel are representative of memories. Ilyon can only "destroy" the memories if his power is at a certain level. He can "revere" the memories if his empathy is high enough, and he can "preserve" them if his logic is at a certain level.  Fueling the flame grants Ilyon a large bonus to that corresponding trait.  I don't believe it's possible to have all three stats high enough at the same run through to use all three options, so at that point of the game, the player must commit to one trait of their two highest traits above the others.

5. My friend Kerry has composed all the music specifically for this game. She's played it extensively as I've been creating it, so she's very familiar with the story, themes and characters. We've also been friends for decades so she has a pretty good idea of how my brain works and my general sensibilities, lol. I feel like she always manages to nail the feeling I'm going for, even though I give her little to no direction. I'm really lucky to have her as a friend and composer!

Thank you again for this discussion, I enjoyed it ^^

Ah thank you so so much! It's nice to know that you are interested in seeing the variations of the story, even if it does get a bit repetitive at times. Truthfully I just love the options as a creator, as in other mediums, exploring these kinds of deviations is not always possible.  I really appreciate you sharing your enthusiasm and continued interest in my "Weaverse". It's healing my spirit ;). Hope you have a nice and enjoyable weekend and I look forward to reading more of your thoughts in the future~

Thank you so much! I so happy to know you are still following some of my work. I notice you have done a lot of work on Inverted Spire! Best wishes to your projects as well~

Hi there,

Thank you very much for taking the time to try out this game and share your thoughts.  I'm glad you liked the art and premise. I apologize for the rough mechanics. The long term design of the game is not meant to be locked by maximizing daily tasks. (ex. although it's possible to get Mikail to join on the third day, it's not necessary. Though there is some RNG involved that I would definitely be open to increasing odds of success, there are different ways of accomplishing these that may become easier as days and opportunities continue.) It's entirely my fault for not unlocking more days, as I wanted the "max" speed route available for those who manage to  maximize their resource management but it does make it very difficult to complete within the current parameters. If there's interest, I'll consider revisiting this project and making it more organized. I really need to improve the programming end of things to make it easier to update ^^;; Thank you again for your valuable feedback! I hope you will give my future projects/updates a try~

Hi there,

I'm so glad that you enjoyed your first play through. I spent a lot of time brewing over the characters and themes explored and I really hoped to create an overall introspective experience. I'm planning to go back and refine and focus my themes for clarity and impact. I hope you enjoy your next delve with Keska, and continue to watch this project grow in the future. Thank you again so much for trying out my game and taking the time to share your thoughts. It means a lot to me.

Hi Bez,

Thank you so much for trying out my game and including me in your review! I'm definitely keeping all this in mind as I plan my next move. I hope you enjoyed Otome Jam this year! Best wishes~

Hi Maki,

Yes, I remember your comments that you left on Soul Union! I still haven't gone back and fixed the tunnels yet, lol, but I've learned a lot from from this demo so I'm thinking about revisiting and reworking Soul Union to be more cohesive.  There are some things in the world lore that I'd like to define more clearly from the start and working on this expansion of the universe really made this more clear to me. That's so cool that you share things in common with Jou! I hope that you are able to find her relatable. I sure did have a lot of fun designing her clothes. Someday I'd like to make this story a trilogy with a human protagonist in the third installment ha!

Thanks so much for your feedback and I'm so glad you enjoyed this game so far. Take care and best wishes!

I'm so glad that you enjoyed what you've played so far and I hope you also enjoy Keska's route. I definitely want to revisit and develop this story and characters some more in the future. I would absolutely looove to see a fanart if you're so inclined! Thank you so much!!

Hi Eeuphy,

I'm not sure I fully understand what your stance is on this. I hesitated to speak about the word humble, because I think I have some pretty mixed feelings about it and I fear coming across disingenuous. Your comment just got me thinking and sorting through some of those feelings. Perhaps it was inappropriate to share online, given how awkward my delivery was. I don't believe confidence requires boasting or making declarations. I just believe personally I feel more comfortable with myself these days to take critiques in a more measured mindset. I don't consider myself humble but perhaps my responses don't communicate this. I had hoped to try and clarify why I feel this way but I may have ultimately failed. I do genuinely appreciate your continued communication!

Hi there!  Thank you so much for trying out my game and dropping me a note here.  Reith is so much fun to write and draw.  He's a bit more aloof outside of the dream ritual, so I hope you look forward to seeing more facets of his personality~

Thank you so much for your kind words. I'm so glad you liked the lore.  I've been building this world off and on for decades now.  Previous incarnations always felt unsatisfactory, so I spent more time than I've ever spent before making backgrounds and planning the overall look of the game.  I had hoped that it would pay off.  I also don't usually like minigames or stat raising if they keep me from progressing the story but I wanted to try to enhance the sense of exploration.  I'll continue to work on tweaking the systems to make it less burdensome for the player.  Thank you again for your time and feedback.  

Thank you for dropping by.  I hope to update in the near future~

Thank you so much for trying out my demo!  I really appreciate your time and thoughts, especially as a talented creator yourself.  I've been trying to get more direct with my story delivery and I'd like to think I'm making some progress on that front as well.  There's so much to work and improve upon, it's overwhelming sometimes!  I definitely learned a lot from this jam, though.  I hope you had a great game jam as well!

Hi Naomi, I didn't intend for the game to be too difficult.  This is my first attempt at adding point and click puzzles so I'm afraid I have to rework my approach.  Thank you for your patience and willingness! I am going to be reworking some of the energy system in the future, but if it helps in the meantime I can totally post a walk through ^^ I'd like to come up with something more polished but in the meantime, here is a crude video I made to help my collaborators.  I hope this helps! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qlj0dGBfzeNP4Q6QSk-Ooeu9lKaWnsWp/view?usp=shari...

Thank you so much for trying out the game.  I'm so glad that you enjoyed it.  I hope you will continue to follow these games as I continue to expand on this world.

Free to download at :   https://coffeedripstudios.itch.io/soul-labyrinth

This is my first time joining a game jam and adding point and click adventure elements to visual novels.

Thank you so much for your encouraging words!  I really learned a lot from my collaborators in this jam, so I'm glad you saw some improvement in the overall work.  I will definitely keep striving to get better and add more interesting things to my games going forward.  I hope you will continue to try them and share your thoughts.  Best wishes!

Hi Eeupy!

Thank you again so much for your thorough and thoughtful review.  Thanks to your screenshot I was able to correct that offending v_rooted = Fals typo.  I've gone ahead and made some color alteration that will hopefully make the glove easier to find.  Some of the other issues you mentioned, I will give a bit more time to consider fully.

As far as the boss encounter is concerned: The boss choices are related to which vassal is summoned.  ATM Seladre is not implemented so all answers lead to Reith.  This will be corrected in the future.

It is not possible in either Soul Union or Soul Labyrinth to get your vassal to hate you, (except in very, specific deal breaking question in Simion's and Grei's routes that were not implemented in current version). The ritual lore makes it very difficult for vassals to hate or even fully challenge their weavers, which is why I plan to make interactions take place inside and outside of the ritual in this sequel.  Ultimately these games are more about "bonding" and what kind of bond is created, than "liking/hating" by answering questions a certain way, so there are very few instances of making a definitively "wrong" choice.

Your concerns about the characters, their lack of appeal, or development are totally valid and I hear you.  I do plan on having a lot of personal growth for both of them in the future but they may not end up being to your preferences.  I hope by having other options available that you may end up having a good experience with some combination of characters but I can only keep trying and being mindful.

Thank you again so much for your thoughts. <3

I apologize if the warning was unclear.  Allow me to clarify.* Spoilers*

Once you go through the door, your relationship bond is set. There are no more oppertunities past the door to increase bond. I hope that helps clarify. Let me know if you have any more questions or concerns.

Thank you so much for your comment and im so glad that you gave my game a chance.  I know theres  endless choices with how you chose to spend your free time so im honored.  As for your question about chapter 3...Spoilers

Because Mikail did not enter the ritual seeking enlightenment, he cannot pass through the door.  If your friendship or romance bond is solid and confirmed, its possible to be reunited on the other side.

Oh i forgot to mention, if you are only wanting to play mikails story i reccommend giving his friendship routes a chance as well.  I strongly believe that friendships can be just as deep as romantic bonds and I tried very much to make all 6 possible endings with each companion unique, satisifying and reveal different aspects of their character.  I made sure to enable the skip function everywhere i could XD.

hi there and thanks so much for taking the time to share your experiences and thoughts about the characters, story and game.  Truly this is why I am making these games ^_^.  Im going to jump straight into spoilers so I dont forget to address your questions! Be warned spoilers ahead!

The garden, tunnels and fortess are loose references to persona, ego and shadow.   Ilyons outer mask of a calm and rational person, his understanding of himself as a person who has always desired to escape his sense of helplessness and his shame of being born somewhat a freak of nature.  The door is representative of his minds eye opening to beyond his sense of self.  Mikail in his current reality cannot follow him through the door because he is not seeking enlightenment, but was coerced into the ritual.  Yet somehow their bond transcends the singular reality and another Mikail who was searching for enlightenment and choose to be there was able to help Ilyon beyond the door.   He didnt become a different person, so he has somewhere in himself that same desire to find a higher meaning to his life and existence in the version that didnt pass the door, he just never pursued it.   It becomes a curious question, at what point does decisions and experiences completely change who you are?  In the case of power, empathy or logic, ilyon is still a variation of himself. But when his parents and cousin live, there is a different person "Caylis" whom Mikail does not recognize. Yet somehow both Caylis and Ilyon ended up in the ritual so maybe they are not so different lol.  I'll let you decide ^_~

Hi there,

The comic is a stand alone short story that I wrote years before making this game.  The game is only loosely influenced by previous iterations (some elements of world building are consistent.)  I would suggest playing the game and reading the comic only if you are curious to see how the idea developed and changed over the years.  Thank you so much for showing interest in my project.