itch.io

Oh man thanks for the spoiler tag! !!!!SORRY TO ANYONE I SPOILED!!!!  I completely blanked on that, I'm an uber lurker so this is the first time I'm posting on a forum on itch but after I had filled out your game survey I saw that there wasn't a good way to format my suggestions so that you didn't just get a massive wall of text.  I'd recommend having a dev e-mail for bug reports, suggestions & such; I don't have a facebook that i could use to message you but since I found your game  here on itch I was able to submit my feedback. 

I'm very glad to hear that the characters do get more of a personality - as I said earlier, with such limited, (and rightfully so for a demo)  interactions it's difficult to  engage with the RO's on a deeper level to  find out their stories  and reasons for being . I mean we still haven't met the other RO's so even adding them into the dynamic and seeing how all of the characters interact with each other is something that will further develop the characters and I'm looking forward to.  

Glad to hear about the future translations and more polished English , if you need any assistance or suggestions on that front hit me up and I'd be happy to help however I can.  

Lastly, can I tell you how super happy I am to hear that I didn't come across as rude or aggressive. It's so difficult to convey tone via message but I really do want to give feedback to help you out and make this game  better. 

Cheers!

~klrtofu

Bugs
: Stuck  

in the tram - if I click the space bar too quickly to advance the text before checking out Don I get stuck

in the kitchen, again if I advance too quickly I get stuck

: Even though I lowered my voice volume at the house during the original introductions Spear had a couple of lines of dialogue that were at full volume 

: Not sure if bug or not but even though I noticed Don was reading Sherlock Holmes I didn't have a dialogue option that reflected that - although looking back he does ask if Don is a detective so maybe that was the extent of that interaction.

: Some animations aren't coded correctly I noticed a couple. Some that I remember were while talking to Karl on the Pale Mary, the text said Karl (blinking) and Main Character (rolling eyes) instead of their sprites doing the animations

: Not sure if a bug or not, but at the end of the boat ride Spear and MC's dialogue is automatic as in you don't need to tap space in order to advance dialogue

: I noticed at times that the game would show 'saving game data' but then when I would go to reload the game it would send me back to whatever point I manually saved the game

: Uh Rex's flappy mouth animation during his scene is kind of unsettling since it doesn't match up at all with his dialogue, like at all and it's on a noticible loop. I'm assuming this is because this is a demo but if not it needs some work

: There were times when a dialogue box was open (in the house) and I could and did reload which would cause the still open dialogue(from before the reload) to continue until finished despite the game being reloaded to an earlier save point. 

: When you reload a game it doesn't take you're settings into account-you have to go into the menu again and save it even though the bars reflect prior changes.

QoL
: Text speed option, please. Reading the words appear slowly makes my head hurt after a bit. 

: Multiple save slots - I like being able to have multiple saves in order to pursue different branches without having to restart the entire game from the beginning- especially since there's no skip text function

: Voice mute option - even when you lower the voice volume to the min (-30) you can still hear the characters

: The translation and localization of the English version has typos and is at times awkward and confusing, I can mostly make out the sentiment of what the characters are staying but not always and it takes me out of the immersion of the game when I have to figure out what the character means by what he is saying. For example, I still don't get why the MC was calling himself a bluebird while meeting Don, and I think it's something that was lost in translation. It's noticeable that this is a translation (not sure if this is due to the fact that this is a demo and understandably not yet fully polished)

: Please, please, please have a way to keep the menu up even if you disable saves at times. Or have more points in the game that give you an opportunity to save 

I quit the game 6+ times in frustration after arriving to the beach and embarking on the Pale Mary, I love to save, reload and explore all of my options (especially since you have the opportunity to talk to 4 contestants on the boat and meet RO Alex for the first time, I think-- at least I couldn't find where else he was) but when I wanted to reload I had to spam my space bar in order to skip all of Spear's intro, the walk to the house, it's subsequent introduction and finally  get to MC's room to finally be able to reload. It probably took me anywhere from 5-10 minutes everytime I wanted to explore a separate dialogue option, not to mention a separate RO. I finally just started hard quitting the game since it was faster because the option to go to the title menu was inaccessible as well. 

Even getting to settings was impossible at times which was annoying when I found out that if you change the settings at all during your playthrough but reload a save it'll default to the original settings, (which is wild because even though the voice volume was lowered to the lowest volume and the voice volume bar reflected that the voice had been lowered in the settings menu I still had to manually save my setting preferences again).

: Wasn't able to find Karl's third pic or Alex's first despite trying every option(pretty sure) 

: Also, as much as Rex wants to deny that he's not a drug dealer he's literally dealing drugs to the MC so I was a little confused by that line, like what do you see yourself as then- that might be a good way to develop his character as well as show MC some of his motivations.

: When looking at clues, I found that turning an item over took a bit too long, is there any way to speed it up a bit?

[  SPOILER WARNING] :p

Takeaway: 

I'm blown away by this game! I love the plot, character art, the backgrounds, the music, & most of the animations(Rex's mouth being the notable exception). The horror elements are creepy and disconcerting in the best way possible and the exploration and investigation aspects of this game look to be shaping into a really fantastic game play element that's sadly lacking in many VN's - it's extremely engaging and rewarding to hear that sound animation go off after you find a clue and explore it turning it over/looking more closely at it, etc and how it'll sometimes lead to flashbacks or more insight into MC or the world around him.

The story is engaging and the exploration element is really exciting - I spent way too much time clicking all over and trying to find everything. I can't wait until we get to use the items we collected - at the end of my first gameplay I felt like a magpie - like Ooh shiny, mine now. It's all mine!! Lol. 

The clues are great and the horror elelments are spooky and insightful while still forwarding the plot and making me second guess everything! The diary pages, specifically are fantastic - I love the way they give a glimpse, (at least I believe) into the psyche of the killer, who I'm pretty sure is the MC. I love how random things are scattered around that also develop that sense of mystery and not-rightness for example the chess pieces in the kitchen and the portrait over them. The symbolism and metaphor are poignant and introspective.

The RO's are promising - it's hard to really get much of a feel for them so far but they're shaping up to be diverse - I can't wait to find out more about them all. I've tried all of the routes and my current faves are Karl and surprisingly Alex, (didn't think I'd like him my first playthrough since I couldn't figure out how to meet him before boarding the Pale Mary and him being exclusively BTM which is usually the position that I play for my MC). 

I do think that the RO's need a little more individual personality instead of a dynamic personality - which I think is why I liked Alex and Karl the most - they feel most developed characterwise instead of fetishwise. 

For example Karl (Yaroslav) orphaned with a mysterious necklace appearing on his 18th birthday with a picture of his mother, How he's possibly a secret agent and the thing he values in a potential RO is honesty which is a mite hypocritical considering but alas. The first time you meet him the way to get him to like you is by objectifying him, whereas if you ask for more after finding his necklace he gets super defensive and closed off. His backstory is engaging and complex and I want to learn more about him, his motivations and what the project he came here for is. 

Alex, likewise has a perpetual foot-in-mouth disease almost always saying the wrong thing but earnestly and you can't say he doesn't speak what's on his mind. I really connected with his character on the balcony when he was describing what dormitory life was like and it gave me a good view into who this character is and what his beliefs and motivations are.

Whereas all I really got from the others was Frank is a cop. He's a cop, do you remember he's a cop. Oh and he lives with his mom. 

Don is a daddy, he'll be your daddy. He's a professor and writing a book and is super dominant and controlling but he's your daddy and you might solve mysteries together. 

Rex is the bad boy - look at his tattoos, bad boy Rex the guy dealing you drugs but who isn't a drug dealer. Oh and look how sweet he is - he's so concerned about your mental health and well being that he's not going to deal you anymore drugs...😅 oh, no actually he's still going to sell you the stuff that he thinks is rotting your brain but just not as much as last time. But look he has a sweet ass barcode tattoo on his dick because he's such a rebel.

That's not to say they aren't interesting- I did go through all of their routes but they felt more one dimensional than the other two RO's.

Again, this might just be because we haven't had enough time to form deeper interactions and explore more time with these characters,  but they feel like more oh you want a daddy here's Don and that's his identity. Especially considering that I had an extra interaction with both Frank and Don compared to Alex but I still feel like Alex's character was more defined and relatable.

Finally, can I please say, also how I love (and hate, in the best way possible) how guileless and thirsty the MC is.

Like when he asked Karl if he loved him yet after like the 3rd time actually talking to this dude I was just like man! you move so fast and you're super red-flag intense it's great but like I can totally see why you're still single dude like you started talking about being a mystical tree's bird soulmate after 5 minutes of conversation. 

Oof! And he's like that with most of the RO's like peeping at Frank, calling Don, Zeus and then a prince or a duke- Rex is the only one that was forward in their interaction, (dropping trou to show his favorite tattoo to a man he knew had no recollection of him) but it wasn't the first time they'd met MC so I can only imagine how that interaction went. Like man, chill a bit but don't because you're hysterically too much, also you're lucky that these guys think you're a cute dummy because if not that would be so cringe.

I can't wait to meet the rest of the RO's and to continue this investigation and try to find out who the killer is or at least uncover the conspiracy surrounding the burnt body!

Great job & best of luck to you I look forward to supporting your work and future projects!! 

~klrtofu