itch.io

Really cool game, especially for a solo effort. I love the aesthetic and the mechanics here, and most of the guns feel good to use. There's some things about it that I'm not a huge fan of, but they're all super minor things, as the core gameplay and enemy types are great.

 It's a bit easy to get hit by 15 bullets in quick succession, going from full health to almost dead and with only the pistol in less than a second. And I'd like if the losing-weapons-when-you-take-too-much-damage mechanic was more lenient, since it's almost impossible to survive when you have only the pistol in any wave past like, wave 4. For the weapons themselves, I think the chaingun has too little ammo before it has to reload-- I'd honestly rather it have twice as much ammo and take twice as long to reload or something-- and if an enemy is close to you while you use the 4th weapon, the explosion from your weapon can block you from seeing incoming bullets for a sec, which is kinda scary. Super shotgun is awesome.

But either way, this game is really fun. I couldn't get past wave 7, but it seems like I've seen most of the content? Looking forward to seeing more of this.

This story's really interesting, and I'm excited to see where you go from here. The way the story is written feels like a fairy tale, and I really like that about it. Also, do you plan on having multiple "cases", or just the Moriya Shrine crew storyline? I think having several storylines for this idea would be cool.

I like the background and portraits, including the ones for Kanako and Suwako. To be totally honest, if you do a full-game version of this I'd prefer if Kanako and Suwako looked like that, just more detailed. The fact that these characters are literally portrayed as the animals they're themed around is really cute, and adds to the whimsical fable vibe.

Like MedalHunter said, it just sorta ends without anything getting resolved. Kinda sad, but I'll be there for the continuation if it ever comes out.

Funny game. I liked the Purple boss's barrier attack and such. I think having to press Spacebar to shoot is kinda silly when your shots are aimed with the arrow keys. It's easier to just have pressing the arrow key shoot in the direction you wanna go in than have to hold Spacebar all the time. Raymoo's movement speed could be faster as well, and I still don't understand what Flanders is supposed to do. Also, are you supposed to beat the boss or does it just time out? I couldn't tell if I was hitting her. The art is cute, and the music hurts my ears in the best way possible.

The Reimumania is powerful yet dangerous-- handle it with care, 'lest it tear you apart from the inside. Keep on training, so you may someday learn to harness this gift.

Fun game, and rad for being made by one person. Straightforward but good controls & mechanics, though I wish the secondary attacks did more damage. You get showered in ammo for them, but they feel ineffectual. I like the enemy types and patterns, with most of Yuugi's being pretty fun to dodge. Seeing the title animation with all intrigued me with all its different environments, and I'm looking forward to seeing those in the full game.

Cool game. Controls felt nice, though the dash is a bit unwieldy. The patterns were rad and I quite liked the way dashing worked with them. The story is pretty funny, and I liked Cirno's gratuitous cussing-- it's weirdly in-character for her, I think. My only real issue was how short it was. Pretty cute for what it is.

Fun danmakugame. I really like the magnetize concept with the switching, and timeslow is a good replacement for bombs. The use of Faint Dream makes me very happy. Nice patterns as well, though they do feel a bit samey-- and it's a bit sad how small the lazers in the "master spark" spells are. The story is real short without much theme usage, and the lack of original art is a bit sad, but besides that this game's pretty cool.

Amazing pixel art, epic music, awesome movement. I really liked being called a menace to society. Everything feels great to do, and every minute of playing I forget this is even a jam game.

Level design feels nonlinear, but I'm not sure if it actually is? It seems like there's multiple paths, but there might only be one path you're "supposed" to go on. On my first attempt I died in some kinda castle area, and had to go all the way back. On my 2nd attempt I went a different route and found a door that was clipping into the floor, and it took me straight to the boss. Did I enter a dev shortcut?

The camera seems... not exactly zoomed in, but like it moves in a way that makes it feel really zoomed-in, and it results in a lot of somewhat blind jumps. I wish there were checkpoints and Nue did damage when you sent her foreward.

Really cool game though. The art really carries it, and the gameplay is super smooth.

Rad danmakugame. The sprites have a lot of polish and there's quite a few of them, given the timeframe. Kinda awesome that you added two more character sprites for one spell. The music was rad and the patterns were really-well done, with enough of them present to feel like a pretty substantial game. The final bosses' patterns were by far the best ones, but each boss had their own cool gimmick, and I appreciated how they all moved in interesting ways for at least one pattern. I liked the dialogue, though parts of it felt a bit too cheesy-- it's hard to explain and a bit rich coming from someone with my tastes in stories, sorry.

Like the previous commenter said, the lack of background changes between stages/nonspell portions was pretty noticeable. Even just a color change to the same background can go a long way. But at the same time, there's not really any location changes, so it's fine. Besides that, I kinda wish you had a slightly longer invincibility time after getting hit or switching characters, considering theres no bombs. Also, I think the visible player hitbox is too small. It's more accurate to the actual size of the hitbox than what the official games do, but even without the window being small I think I'd have to squint to see it, and at that point it's no help at all. Maybe making the player character's sprite smaller would solve it too. And one last thing, the characters seem to be paired up mainly because they come from the same game a couple stages apart, and while that's neat I'd have liked to see something a bit more out-there.

Okay sorry, this review might sound negative for all that flaw-listing, but keep in mind these are real minor nitpicks. The core game here is really good, and I admire how you were able to put so much danmaku in here.

"What do you think?"

Love is formed in selfishness, and the act of loving is sacrifice. Each given sacrifice may be worth it, maybe not. But without taking a risk like that, we're left with little to gain. Love is, in this framework, a matter of if the sacrifices are worth it. I believe, yes, they are. A love without sacrifice is indulgence. Yet, "love is sacrifice" isn't quite complete in my eyes. Love with only sacrifice isn't a risk, but a burden. There must be a push and pull of indulgence and duty. Days when you can just lay in the sun, and days full of exhausting work. Lie down for you whole life, and those who love you will have far too large a weight to carry to keep that love. Do nothing but work your whole life, and sooner or later you will snap, unable to keep loving indefinitely. I find the former to be detestable, and the latter (virtuous as it is at face value) tragic when necessary and shortsighted when not. Love is living between a state of giving and receiving, and... my ideal kind of love is both at once. Where the feeling that comes from giving-- the feeling that your love is making a difference, enriching those you love-- is its own reward; and, of course, everyone involved has to be giving & nurturing. No love can be like that ideal all the time, for we all have selfishness and limits. But when it does happen, it's wonderful. And what little I've seen of that wonder leads me to believe that love is ultimately good, and worth the hardships that will always come with it.

"Are you still searching for something?"

Yeah. Real uh... real bad. I'm kinda lonely. Sorry. Aha, this ain't phrased so well anymore huh... I uh... don't have the time or energy to get into it right now. Ha ha, that's a facade ain't it? I'm just too uncomfortable with telling you this. And I also wanna be done with this game. Is that okay? I don't know if that's okay. I'm scared to love. Or maybe just prone to complacency with my current situation. Love is hard, and I'm pretty lazy. Dunno, maybe a day will come when I start loving full-time. Love hurts, but not loving hurts in a different way.

"Congratulations!"

no u

Text maker here. Thanks for reading, and I'm glad you liked it!

I kinda wish there was more about Kana and Kotohime's time together. Months of interactions get skipped over, but maybe their friendship is cute enough to warrant a couple more scenes depicting it.

Yeah, you're right on the suddenness of Latter Part's ending. Sorry Keine got so sidelined there. I had contemplated having another scene or two involving Keine, exploring her relationship with Mokou and leading in to the final scene a little better. But there was basically no chance we were going to get a sprite for Keine in time, and I wasn't very confident in writing her as a character. It's the same deal with Reisen, though at least we could reuse a (beautiful) sprite from another project for her-- Keine had no such luck.

The bullet hell section was going to become a selectable option in the menu, but we ran out of time. Maybe we'll add one in an update.

Thanks for reading, and for the positive & negative feedback. It's much appreciated.

Yeah, I wish we did more with Reisen. There were three things holding me back from having her be a main main character. First, I knew from the start that we probably weren't gonna get decent art for her in time, and I didn't want to give her tons of emotional stuff when she looks like a cardboard cutout. Second, it seems she gets a lot of characterization and development in 14.5 thru 15.5, and I haven't played any of those games, so I'm not very confident in writing her. And third, as you guessed, Kotohime's perspective-- she's not present in the moments where Kana and Reisen's relationship develops, so all she sees is that years passed and now they're all sweetey-lovey. Still, I agree that it's a crime Reisen gets sidelined so hard here.

For the epilogue...

ROT13:

Lbh'er abg ernyyl "zvffvat pyhrf" be nalguvat yvxr gung. Gur rcvybthr vf fhccbfrq gb yrnir lbh jvgu zber dhrfgvbaf guna lbh fgnegrq jvgu, naq jung npghnyyl unccraf vf hc gb lbhe bja crefbany vagrecergngvba.

Bar guvat V jvyy fnl: Lbh'er evtug nobhg gur ybaryvarff gurzr. Xbgbuvzr vf fbegn qrirybcrq ivpnevbhfyl guebhtu gur bgure punenpgref. Xnan'f frnepu sbe n ybivat ubzr, Ervfra'f vfbyngvba sebz gur bgure zbba enoovgf (juvpu fnqyl qbrf abg trg rkcyberq urer), Xnthln'f frys-vasyvpgrq frpyhfvba, naq Zbxbh'f eryhpgnapr gb yrg tb bs n tehqtr gung ab ybatre unf gb thvqr ure npgvbaf. Nyy bs gurfr gebhoyrf ner ersyrpgrq va Xbgbuvzr va gur Rcvybthr.

Gubhtu, gb zr, Xbgbuvzr orvat n cevaprff jvgu birecebgrpgvir cneragf vfa'g rknpgyl n jvfu fur unf. Zber yvxr n jnl gb uvqr ure ybaryvarff va cynva fvtug. Sebz gur jnl fur gnyxf nobhg ure cneragf, nyy gurl frrz gb qb vf xrrc ure sebz vagrenpgvat jvgu gur bhgfvqr jbeyq. Yvxr Xnan fnlf, gurl'er gur "zbafgre va ure pybfrg. Fbzrguvat gb cebwrpg nyy gur srne naq fnqarff bagb."

Really cool game. The writing is fantastic, and there's so much of it! Everyone's all distinct, the plots are varied and interesting in their own way, and the nonverbal choice system is just awesome. Shoutouts to the way Cirno speaks, it's so goshdang cartoony. I have no idea how her "accent" would actually sound, but through text alone she's got tons of bombastic energy.

Music-- yay! It's tami, and wow, I could barely recognize her stuff. This soundtrack felt incredibly different from the work she did for the Kotohime games. A lot bouncier and more cartoony. Though, maybe you could've done a slower track or two, or placed them differently? Some songs seem oddly upbeat during serious moments. Don't worry though, it's still a 5/5 to me.

Great sprites, and there's a lot of them. Fun backgrounds, too. But one kinda distracting thing is that the expressions seem very off in places. Characters are often crying when a more subdued emotion would work better, and some faces look just plain unfitting for the dialogue. And nobody's getting (physically) hurt here, so what's with the bandages? It's quite a nitpicky complaint, but I think facial expressions are really important for more subtle characterization and development in a VN-- a picture tells a thousand words, and all.

I was only able to get Ichirin's good ending on my first go, but then I went back and got Aya's and Wriggle's good endings as well, as the correct choices seemed obvious in retrospect. I still don't know which choice branches in the Prismrivers' story get you the good ending, let alone what the right options are... and I think that's kinda cool. In general, I really like how the choices are made, as well as what effects each choice has.

Though, I have a question about Wriggle's route. ROT13: Cnegjnl guebhtu Jevttyr'f ebgr, Pveab nfxf "V qvqa'g qb abguva' jebat, qvq V?" be fbzrguvat gb gung rssrpg. Naq, ba zl vavgvny cynlguebhtu, V jvfurq gb cvpx "Sbetvirarff" ohg qvqa'g, fvzcyl orpnhfr "V sbetvir lbh" naq "lbh qvq abguvat jebat" ner irel qvssrerag fragvzragf. V flzcnguvmrq jvgu Pveab'f zbgvingvba, rira vs ure rkrphgvba jnf xvaqn ohttrerq-- ohg gung xvaq bs ahnapr vfa'g ernyyl cerfrag jura nfxrq "V qvqa'g qb abguva'jebat, qvq V?", naq V gubhtug vs V rssrpgviryl fnvq "lrf" gb gung, fur'q frr vg nf na rkphfr gb qb vg nyy gur rknpg fnzr oyhag jnl bire naq bire ntnva. Vs fur unq nfxrq fbzrguvat gb gur rssrpg bs "Qb ln ng yrnfg trg jurer V'z pbzva' sebz?" be "Jung V qvq jnfa'g GUNG onq, evtug?" V cebonoyl jbhyq'ir cvpxrq "sbetvirarff". Jnf guvf fyvtug qvfpercnapl vagragvbany?

Aya's route in general seemed pretty rushed. Sure, the stuff that Aya talks about is really interesting, but it felt super fast. It just seems weird that a famous journalist who has stoically kept their inner workings hidden for presumably hundreds of years would be so incredibly honest and open and introspective and articulate about their identity crisis with a mute girl they met five minutes ago. It was a little jarring, and almost makes me wonder if Kokoro has some sort of hidden ability to make people around her more directly express their emotions-- I'm pretty unfamiliar with her, so that just may actually be the case. The the ending also felt a little outta nowhere. I dunno if that's intentional, considering being really fast is Aya's whole deal, but it was really distracting. That said, I don't know how to make it all feel more natural, considering this entire VN happens in a single day.

That same overly-open-ness shows up in the Wriggle chapter as well, and serves to make that section feel... kinda dragged out? Not necessarily by the events, but in the way the characters talk about them. It feels like most of the scenes involve one or more characters directly explaining why they did what they did in the previous scenes. With so many characters interacting and bouncing off each other and going through drama, I think a slightly more show-don't-tell approach would help here. Especially considering the childish vibe of these characters, they really don't need to be so good at articulating their feelings. Let the characters' actions (and facial expressions) speak for themselves a little more.

Sorry there's so much criticism here, or if my tone comes across as annoying or snooty. This is an awesome game, and I'm still giving it a 4 or 5 stars in every non-gameplay category.

In short, 'twas emotionally adventurous.

Thank you for reading, and sorry for exposing you to such a large dose of TeruMoko. I really tried to make Latter Part feel believable even if you don't ship 'em. It almost felt like my duty, since I find their relationship really interesting, both in and out of a romantic context. And besides CILR Chapter 4, almost everything I've seen them in has either characterized their dynamic as black-and-white hatred, or radically changed their personalities to make the TeruMoko pairing work.

For the fire scene, all I can say is... it's not as literal as you're probably thinking.

You're right, "Kotohime" is just a title. Only Kana knows her real name.

Thanks for playing, and, uh... sorry about the emotional devastation. I didn't know it'd hit so hard. This was initially supposed to be a much more lighthearted romp with many more characters, but the lack of art assets and some real-life stuff forced me to really narrow my focus down to the parts that I was personally most invested in. And those parts happen to be... a little painful.

Anyways, in your VOD you tried to find my Twitter and couldn't. I don't have a Twitter or anything like that, but I am on Discord, if that means anything.

Luyuu#2800

This isn't my first time writing a story longer than 15 minutes, but it's my first time finishing one. I have several "Chapter 1"s of stories that never got continued, usually because I either went way too ambitious with my plans or doubted myself and gave up early on. With this game jam, I only had time to buckle down and write the thing. Though even still, until now I haven't written anything that was longer than Former Part alone-- even I can barely believe that I wrote all this in two weeks.

Speaking of that, the long wait for release was only there because we were trying to fix an unavoidable crashing bug in the danmaku minigame, and trying to get Kaguya's sprite drawn when all our artists were super busy and/or exhausted. You have my word that over 95% of the writing & coding was done before the deadline. Though I took the extra time to rewrite some lines and extend the Mokou section of the epilogue a little, no new scenes were added.

Thanks on the danmaku patterns, by the way. My main goal with them was expressing the emotions of the story, rather than giving players a challenge. It's nice to know you found them fun to dodge on top of that.

And finally... damn. Watching the VOD gives me a funny feeling I dunno how to articulate. "Thank you" doesn't feel like enough anymore. The closest phrase I can think of is "I'm gonna cry."

The game is out now. Thanks a million for your patience.

We are winning! The game is out now. Sorry that it took us so long to release it, but we ran into a lot of trouble along the way. Hopefully it's worth the wait.

It's out now, just so ya know! Sorry for the wait.

Oh my gosh, this is so cool. Awesome, amazing, epic, whatever word you wanna use. Where do I start, uhh...

This game plays so awesomely, it's all so freakin' cool! Shanghai controls super fluidly and has a pretty good variety of attacks (and it seems you're planning to add more?). The enemies are interestingly designed, and the ability to jump turns the combat from a button-masher into a really cool game of hid-&-run and reacting to enemy attack animations (at least for me). I played Normal mode this time, just cuz it took a while a grasp on the controls, but I'll be sure to go for Hard once the update comes out. It feels like I've barely scratched the surface of how to play this game, despite reaching the end of the demo and fighting (almost?) all the enemies.

Sure, there were a couple bugs-- one time an encounter started for an enemy that was on the other side of a wall, and one time Shanghai landed on the ground and then just kinda froze up until she was hit by an attack. Sadly, I don't remember exactly where these were.

The dialogue was fun as heck too, in just about every scene. Not too much to say personally, but it's just full of charm and expressiveness and... everything, really.

Visually, musically... oh my gosh. It's just so so good.  The animations, the sprites, the 3d, the fact that the battle maps are just small sections of the dungeon-crawling map, it's just so amazing! I can't even dock points for the unfinished animations-- Shanghai turning into a stick figure is honestly quite cute. Some of the 3d feels slightly blocky, but that may have been intentional, and besides... this is a game maker game! how did you do that!?

In short, 'twas absolutely INSANE how did you do all this mostly BY YOURSELF in a MONTH‽‽‽

Playing Version 0.3.1. Really nice aesthetic-- I dig PC98 stuff. Though, why do you switch between Meiling and PC98 Reimu when using a bomb? I liked the ghostie attacks, and the final pattern from Orange-Duck-Alice. Though I'm assuming Orange-Marisa's patterns aren't finished, since she's defeated in like 5 seconds. Music is awesome too, and befitting of the vibe.

The writing is fun, and I liked the way it approaches the discussion of aromanticism-- at least until the boss, it's more about explaining romance than explaining aro-ness, and that's kinda the reverse of what I expected. Though, the part with Marisa felt a little silly. Dunno exactly what it is, but while the banter itself was well-written, the role of "bossfight who assumes romantic love is the only kind of love" seems like it might work better for another character. On another note, I really like the character profiles in the readme, and the comments in the music room.

In short, 'twas ducking awesome (im sorry)

Pretty crazy. You got so many characters and combinations. I like how quickly everything goes by, as well as how over-the-top some attacks get. There's a lot of stuff here, and you did a good job.

But I wasn't able get too far, because I couldn't figure out how to make new ships. I press tab, select "New Ship", and nothing happens-- using the arrow keys makes a sound like it's moving a cursor, but there's no visible menu, and pressing Z does nothing. Because of this, when getting to an enemy that's immune to the attacks of both my characters, I can't damage them at all and lose my only pair. Is this a bug, or am I missing something obvious here?

In short, 'twas arcade-like in a good way.

Wingman Shou, eh? It's pretty cool. Super good visuals and music that give all the scenes and characters tons of extra personality. And those crazy text effects just might be my favorite part.

Even though I have next to no exposure to most of these characters, they're very well-written and likable here. The endings were all very sweet, and I liked how the minigames played into the characters' dilemmas. The minigames themselves were a mixed bag for me though--  Blackjack was alright, but like some others have said, it was super hard to tell who I was controlling in the Karaoke segment.

Super minor thing that may-or-may-not matter at all: It seems like you swapped Lyrica's personality with Lunasa's? Going off PCB's dialogue and their segments in Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red, Lunasa manages the ensemble and takes things relatively seriously, while Lyrica simply plays from the heart and jumps at the opportunity to make a friend. But Lyrica in the flashback seems to talk & act just like Lunasa-- it kinda caught me off-guard.

(Aha.... sorry half the review is about a character that shows up for 10 seconds in a flashback)

In short, 'twas heartwarming.

Being 3D instantly makes this game stand out, and it also showcases a good grasp on controls and challenge. Good variety of enemies, and some fun little level-design puzzle bits. The Wriggle segment and entering the SDM stood out especially. I also liked the Hedge Maze area, what with its MASSIVE GATLING GUNS and MOTORBIKES. Reimu's shield ability was nice as well, though I think it'd be extra cool if the shield damaged enemies when touching them.

Fun writing, especially with that somewhat memey dialogue for the final boss. The simple visuals aren't super appealing to me personally, but I won't hold that against the game-- it works for what it tries to homage.

That said, many aesthetic parts of this game felt kinda... flat. Some parts add to an atmosphere, like the lack of music for most of it. But the attacks could've used a bit more weight, for both the player and enemies-- even just a sound effect for the gohei slap would've gone a long way. And in general, I feel some of the less eventful areas of the game could be shrunk down, so walking through them takes a bit less time.

In short, 'twas very good in most areas, but lacked a bit of punch.

This is the best thing I've ever heard. Every single line made my smile grow ever-larger. A beautiful story told in the most immaculate way possible. That scream from Saki at the end... brings a tear to my eye.

In short(er), 'twas magical.

Quite the ride. From only having read the first five Hifuu CDs, I don't have too much attachment to Merry and Renko as characters... but this game might be changing that. They're written in a way that's very fun to read, and I'd love to see an episodic series like this. The Hifuu Club seems very well-suited to this genre/medium.

Visuals are great too. Merry and Renko look so cool here... dunno what it is, but the art style fits them to a tee, and complements the tone of the story. And I loved the real-photo backgrounds (you certainly did it way better than me), as they really fit right in and added to the atmosphere. The music's real chill and well-made, befitting of the gameplay.

All the elements combined give it such a great atmosphere. It felt refreshing after so many games full of bright colors and magic battles.

My only issue is that it could've been a little more puzzle-y. All the steps for progression were just kinda lying right in front of you, and AFAIK there's no way to fail. It was fun exploring the ship, but that's all the point-and-click brought to the table for me.

In short, 'twas smooth, spooky, and super [insert boat pun here]

I'm really bad at rhythm games, so there's not too much for me to say here. I liked the art and how the notes were presented-- had a way more relaxed vibe than other rhythm games I've played.

While I don't think the songs themselves were very hard, some of the notes seemed harder to hit than they should've been-- as other people have mentioned, the notes get kinda bunched up, which makes them a little hard to distinguish. Also, the timing for hitting notes seems kinda early. On another note, it was really hard for me to tell when an incoming note was supposed to be held. There's a visual indication, of course, but it often passed me by and I'd "miss" the holding-note because I thought it was a normal tapping-note.

In short, 'twas very cute but hard for me to get to grips with.

Cute little RPG (?) Roguelike (?) Hydlide clone (???). I like the "turn-based" system there, though it has its faults. I found that the best way to deal with most enemies was to open the door and attack the enemies with the knife as they walked through the doorway single-file. It was pretty consistent, but not a super fun way to approach the combat.

Also, it was really hard to tell what some of the potions and spells did. There was a golden staff weapon that seemed to do abysmal damage and only work at 1 range. The game didn't let me bring Reimu with me at all-- it just defaulted to Aya every time. And I still have no idea what the hourglass R-key thing does Apparently it skips a turn, but walking into a wall just does the same thing. Maybe it's more useful than it seems, though I'll have to play the game again to know. I'm not gonna do that now, because like some others, I got softlocked upon getting to Remilia. The cutscene played, and then the stage went black and I couldn't move. Pretty sad, as I was looking forward to the bossfight.

Nice writing too, though it often feels a little long-winded. You mention that you were trying to make this like a visual novel, but I think a bit more presentational flair would help. The fact that you can see the gameplay while the characters are talking, as well as the story stuff being automatically skipped after your first time reading, makes it all feel a lot less important. I think having a skip dialogue button (or if there is one, telling the player what it is) would help.

Like Aeon said, it was hard to tell what the enemy ranges were, and I didn't even notice that some enemies could heal others until reading the other comments. And yeah, there could've been a lot less enemies in the SDM. It got pretty repetitive, and the gameplay became more about how many health potions would show up in chests than much skill or strategy.

In short, 'twas likable yet unpolished.

While I worked on this project with Aeon, I have seen very little of the actual writing and gameplay of this among us vr experience-- our games have basically nothing to do with each other storywise. So... this is mostly blind. And wow, I like it a lot! It's got a fun & unconventional story, the characters (especially Kotohime) are both incredibly verbose yet distinct, and it feels like every other line has some obscure reference that I'm only halfway catching-- I should probably read through it again just to understand half the stuff being said. I think the battle section could've been cooler in some way. Not sure exactly how though.

There's a whole lot more to say about this, but for some reason my mind is blanking right now. Great freakin' job on everything.

In short, 'twas an among us vr experience.

Unlike Aeon, I am an epic hardcore retro gamer girl who has beaten gotten to the final level of Battletoads without cheating, so I was able to beat this game without cheats (on my second try). I liked the different powerups, though they're so much more powerful than your normal shots that they trivialize encounters like the Wriggle fight. Maybe that's okay, though? The game screen was sorta zoomed in, but I could manage just fine.

Also it seemed like the Master Spark got way bigger as the Yuuka fight went on, which was nice. Though I do wonder if you could've introduced attacks other than the master spark for the final fight, and either made Yuuka's health lower or given a powerup in the middle of the fight to compensate.

Beautiful audio as well. Brings a tear to my eye.

In short, 'twas nostalgically arcadelike.

I loved the writing in this. It had some  personality and a nice little arc. I'm not too familiar with Kyouko and Mystia, but they were cool characters and their relationship was fun to watch. Echoing ghostguts's thoughts, I was pleasantly surprised by how gay it was. Though, I think the stint of drama before the epilogue could've been better led-up-to. Maybe it was and I just didn't notice the foreshadowing, but I think one more scene showcasing Mystia favoring the band over her relationship wtih Kyouko would help.

As a side note, I love it when Touhous interact to outside world technology with curiosity and wonder. For some reason, stuff like this always gets me to smile--

I had found a few issues with the textbox. First off is that pressing spacebar instantly skips text even if it's still scrolling-- it should probably just made that text scroll instantly, so pressing spacebar again moves you on to the next line. Putting the narrator's name at the start of narration seems kinda unnecessary, and at first it got me confused on what was dialogue and what was narration. Also, the  last line of text in any given textbox always scrolls more slowly than the first-- is that intentional?

Also, this looks weird.

As for the songs, I think there should be more customizability with the controls, as well as a visual indication of a note having been hit (like the note lighting up). Also, the first song had a weirdly long silence at the end. And then, like Kiroko mentioned... some songs were mostly loud static. For me it was the song before and after the fourth rhythm section.

Also...

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In short, 'twas a rockin' story with a lot of technical issues.

Played Arcade mode, and... yeah like what Aeon said, it's rather fast. I quite enjoy the speed, but many things (for example, the wave of bullets from the bottom of the screen at the start) feel kinda cheap. And yeah, the bullets can be a bit hard to see at times.

Awesome visuals and aesthetic. This one goes super far with the pride imagery, and I love it for that. Also, the patterns themselves are so pretty; I can see you really appreciate the beauty of danmaku.

I think the bombs are too powerful, or at least you get too many of them. Even in Arcade mode, they turn a huge challenge into something that's mostly skippable. Rinnousuke & Remilio's huge deathbomb window don't help matters. I ended up setting the lives to 999 and playing it bombless just to appreciate the patterns. Speaking of, I quite liked those patterns, especially Chimata's 2nd and 4th. Those were visually interesting and forced you to move in different ways and keep track of several different things. That said, I feel more could've been done to spice up the final pattern, as it's mostly just moving left and right in rhythm.

In short, 'twas beautifully extravagant... but extravagance is a double-edged sword.

Short and sweet Kirby clone. Nice controls and attacks, though the horizontal movement could be a lot faster. I like how you incorporated the kiss-your-partner-to-restore-health bit. Nice little touch. Marisa helping attack enemies is really cool, though it might've been a good idea to either give her more health or make her hitbox tiny-- she died and came back 3 times in the Rumia fight, and I couldn't do much to stop it.

In short, 'twas adorable.

Nice sidescrolling runner with a cute aesthetic. Great music and art-- the art style in particular reminds me of those really cool Nitrome flash games.

I liked the various obstacles (like Marisa and that bus), and how you sometimes had to think on your feet to dodge them. One thing I noticed is the PRIDETIME letters are really really easy to get. Seems like they're supposed to be an intentional break in the action, but gameplay-wise I don't fully see the point of it. Even so, I welcome the inclusion, since the art and music for the bonus level is so nice.

In short, 'twas pleasant and polished.

Short little VN here. I think the concept is neat and it's written well enough, but a little more could've been done with it. Letty kinda just does the same things that Reimu and Marisa and Sakuya did. Might've been more fun if she encountered other characters instead of Chen and Alice, or if she did something special with the spring instead of just returning it like normal.

I like the art and music quite a bit, and the characters' faces were charming to me (like this one)

In short, 'twas cool.

Wow that was awesome. Feels like a classic Sonic game on overdrive, what with the super fast speed, running on walls, and multiple paths. I loved the opening cutscene (the art in general) and... oh my that's some great movement. Just moving around feels so good, I'd love to play a longer game with these controls. Though like Kevin Mink said, walljumps felt a little awkward, likely because they were really short.

The first boss was kinda hard to hit in the second phase, which was fine for me but might be pretty annoying if you're trying to speedrun it like the game clearly wants you to.

I loved the final boss as well. Possibly the greatest challenge I have ever faced in gaming.

In short, 'twas hyper-slick.

Really awesome in just about every way, while being complete by the deadline!

First off, I really love the Gayzing, both storywise and mechanically. Just perfection. Though, I do wish gayzing some bigger attacks (like the final boss's red projectiles [you know the ones]) gave you several gayze points, just so the reward for gayzing them matches the danger.

Really nice story as well, in just about every sense. It's got a nice beginning, middle, and end, with everyone having lots of charming characterization and banter. The ending in particular was so cute. also some of the dialogue makes me think i accidentally ripped you off in my game so sorryyyyy

Same with the art-- they're so much of it, and it's all so cute. Everyone's got so much personality, and feels distinct from how the more standard anime-ish art depicts them.

The hitboxes for some bullets seemed slightly off, though that may just be me being bad at dodging. You get a lot of health, so it's not a huge detriment-- I was still able to beat it without losing once. Also, I think a run button would really help with some areas, considering they're pretty barren overall. The biggest example being the part where you have to defeat all the ghosts to clear the barrier.

In short, 'twas epic.

Yeah, having weapons from the Touhou games would help a lot. Even just reskins would go a long way. As for enemies, there can probably be more variation in enemies types than the main series, since everyone just resurrects in this world. You could probably use species like tengu and kappa and regular ol' human.

I think it'd help to integrate more Touhou characters into this world even if they're not plot-relevant or assassination targets. For example, in this universe Alice could be a robotic-soldier manufacturer who sells her creations to various companies & branches, and some levels could have her dolls as generic enemies. Maybe they'd have less health than other enemies (like so weak that even your starter gohei oneshots them?) but be way more sensitive to noise. I think something like that, applied to a handful of characters, would really elevate the worldbuilding.

Never played Hotline Miami, but this seems like that but Touhou-ified. After a bit of time sucking at the game, I got into the groove of things and it turned out pretty fun.

Ended quickly, but it's got pretty much everything for a full-length game, besides the levels. Weapons and controls feel great to use, and it's got this crazy fast-paced energy to it. The shop and augment systems seem pretty cool too, though I couldn't get enough money to afford much (at least, not without grinding). 

The story/setting is basically the total opposite of canon Touhou, and that's really cool. I love all the satire of exploitative labor culture and conservative America's stupidity and capitalism. The writing & characterization was great too, and I particularly enjoyed the whole "everything sucks but i gotta work" vibe with Reimu. Fun for the whole family, innit?

 That said, maybe there could be more integration of Touhou stuff? These characters not fitting in is clearly intentional, but I think there could be a few more things like the Shield Doll item-- usage of Touhou objects & powers in gameplay & story. Or maybe some more inclusion of the characters and youkai types as enemies-- there's enough Touhou characters that some of them could easily be used as assassination targets. Dunno, maybe that's already planned for the full game.

The visuals... wow. All the filters are really cool, though they did make it hard to see important things at times, so I toned them down quite a bit. Thanks for making them so customizable in the settings. The cutscene art wasn't the cleanest, but it's got a lotta personality.

One thing I noticed was how easy it is to be relatively stealthy. As long as you aren't shooting a loud gun, you can do pretty much anything. An enemy can be two meters away from their coworker being butchered, and not notice because they're not looking directly at the bloody mess. It's really funny, but maybe makes things too easy? Still not sure, especially considering this is only the first three levels.

In short, 'twas very promising.

Got the True Ending. Pretty fun little game, with great art & atmosphere. I have mixed feelings on the questions themselves-- I really liked the ones that had nothing to do with Touhou, but the ones about official characters were a little... basic.

Also it seems like the dialogue system is slightly broken? Some sentences are supposed stop in the middle and continue after you click... but instead the whole sentence repeats. At first I thought it was an intentional writing thing, but now it seems like a bug.

I loved the character writing as well, by the way. Real fun stuff.

In short, 'twas spookily charming.

Really interesting story and concept. I was pleasantly surprised to see a game that goes more (for lack of a better word) meta with Touhou and identity. I just wish it went on a little longer and that the characters were more obscure.

Awesome art for the selfies, and the gameplay pixels worked well too. Same with the music, both in sound and song choice-- I always love seeing PC98 songs appear.

In short, 'twas short, sweet, and unique.

Simple little matching game, à la Mean Bean Machine. I like the way you move the chocolates.

I'm really bad at Match 3 games so I couldn't even get to 30,000 points. As far as I know, the only thing that changes is the songs. The songs themselves are awesome, but I do wish the background colors changed for each song, or something in that nature. Might be pretty cool if the later songs added another chocolate color.

Very minor thing here-- I think the "How to Play" screen doesn't need to appear when you first start playing the game, considering it's already in the main menu.

In short, 'twas rather barebones, yet enjoyable for what it was.