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oh my goshhh ;;7;;; thank you so much,, YEAH.. since it's my first VN there art for sure things I could have done better, knowing what I know now. (Especially the code LMAO) but!! I'm so glad the story was enjoyable for you! :')
A lot of my VN writing inspo comes from Butterfly Soup, which has a very down-to-earth and slice of life feeling to it. I'm super happy you enjoy it!! And that you like the characters!! My blorbos... LNSLFKGJ Thank you thank you for playing my games!! ;;7;;

(to answer your question, spoilers for ritenuto below)

Firstly, omg... that's so exciting :eyes_emoji:SHJFLKSH

Anyway, ultimately the dream of trying to become a Famous Artist fit for History Books grew to be too heavy on Chip in Ritenuto. And at the end of the game, he learns to slow down and spend his time valuing what is more important to him presently, rather than constantly worrying about The FutureTM.

In Dolce, he's at a pretty content space where he's more casually focused on his art projects/contests on the side rather than making it his whole thing. Plus, he's more communicative than before? So instead of shutting himself out in some perfectionist hell, he'll ask others for opinions to help him finish. And if it's not "perfect" that's okay.

Also, I feel like he's begun to like teaching students and interacting with them, so his work no longer feels like just a Thing He Has To Do To Survive. It's like, he's got lots of things he cares about now rather than zero-ing in on the One Thing that Defines His Existence and Worth (art) like before SLKFJGSHSFLG

Wawawawawa Thank you so much for playing! ;;7;; Yeah, it gets to be a lot to keep track of, even I peek at the key myself and I came up with the dang thing

But thank you again, I'm glad you enjoyed the story 🥹🥹

ALTER... ;;7;; this is so sweet

Thank you so much for leaving such a great review, and thank you for playing the game! I've been trying hard to try and improve my writing skills and I feel like it went through a lot with Ritenuto. I'm glad the story resonated with you ;;;;7;;;;

OOO yay!!! Thank you so much for playing :>

I hope you get around to making a part 2 👁👁, I remember seeing your face before and I think you've played spadille in the past as well! Thank you for all the support :>>> 

Thank you! (And yes, he is aHdhekd)

Oh my gosh, thank you so much for the wonderful review!! ;;7;;

I'm so happy that you enjoyed the game, I agree that pacing is really important when it comes to "romance" here and I'm happy you enjoyed the story! I did a lot of proofreading and quality control so I'm glad it paid off!!

I too wish to see more of Chip and Viv together but alas-- that is how it is with indie projects (ueueu the sound of crying) But thank you thank you so much for playing! <3

ueueu Thank you!! I'm so glad you had fun! And yea, I really wanted to convey the contrast between the two environments tysm for noticing :>

I can see Torch being a little neurodivergent lol. And Magnet as well. They weren’t written with that in mind particularly, but if you can relate to them, that's great :> 

and, if you wanna see them smooch... well

https://bsky.app/profile/xiruo.bsky.social/post/3m2fgidmf6k2p

Thank you so much! Cause there's an emphasis on shops and buying stuff, I tried to put a lot of focus on the shopping aspect and 'things to do' in the mall. And I'm glad you liked the UI as well! Graphic design is not my passion but it could be, WHEEZE

Lock is for sure a bit much, I do not blame you for keeping your distance. TBH, I would too lol

PFFTHH Thank you for playing!! I'm also someone who's eye starts twitching a little if there isn't enough stuff going on during a game www-- curse the current online short-form media and attention span reducing atmosphere... 

I totally see the package collecting game's faults for sure LOL, Renpy isn't exactly built for this.. so when you're walking in a straight line, it's so easy to like... Not See Anything Happen. orz Sadly, that seems to be how the cookie crumbles. Or like, how the game engine........ defaults.

The audio at the end is definitely quieter... I had do a few stupid things in order to get the dialogue at the end to display like I wanted it to, which probably contributed to that. But not too hard to fix!

Again, thank you so much for playing! And yes, keep Lock in the box. :3c

;;7;; !!! Thank you!! I'm honestly so happy that you're having fun with it! JLKSJFG It was a lot of fun to create and yea... the cards are the best part. (Don't tell the pretzel dog I said that LMAO)

PFFHLKSFT Thank you so much!! qwq 

I have a bad(?) habit of adding in 'gimmicks' to games that I come up with, and the package collection thing is definitely one of them LOL. But yay! I'm glad it's doing it's job! I wanted to make something simple enough for a jam but interesting enough for it to be played a couple times without being too tiring SDJLFGKS

Thank you, thank you for playing!! ;;7;;

Thank you! Aaa I'm so glad everything came out as cohesive! I really do put all my everything into Spooktober-- usually taking a week off from work at the start... so. 🤣🤣

I really wanted to emphasize "cool mall with lots of neat things to buy" since part of the theming is like.. the draws of consumerism (and also gambling) so everything needed to be kinda interesting and stuff people would wanna earn money to get :P 

Then when it came to the ending, since part of the story is resolved with the final scene ww, it also needed to be strong enough to end the story on a high note! I think I blacked out while working on it HSJDN I only came back to reality when I was done... 🤣🤣

Thank you again so much for playing ;;;7;;; !! And also for going through and getting both endings too! <3

Thank you so much for playing! ;;7;; Honestly, because things were getting kind of high stakes, it took a while for me to come up with a decent ending lol 😭😭😭 I'm glad you enjoyed your experience though!

And dw-- I also realized after having to test the game over and over (and going through the whole thing multiple times) that the maze minigame does lose it's novelty after while WHEEZE I kinda chalked it up to "haha now its like an actual job, huh" a real its a feature not a bug moment BSJDNFM

Also, about the voice line mistake... I know :(((( It's not the VA's fault! He read it correctly, I was the one who realized too late that there was a typo in the lines and then it was too late to rerecord at that point 🥲🥲 I figured I'd change the script at least so it'll maintain the logic lol

But yea! Thank you so much for playing!! Honestly after finishing I've been thing about the world building a lot ww Everything is making me want to revisit it

Aaa thank you so much!! ;;7;;;

I know minigames can be hit or miss with people HSSJDJFK so I'm glad it was incorporated well into the themes of the story! (That was the goal lmao)

Ueue Im so glad you enjoyed the characters, voice acting, and music! Putting everything together felt like magic HSHSJDN The team did a really good job!

Thank you again! ;;7;;

Hmmm I could guess a million reasons for why it broke like that LOL

But! It should be fixed now in the new 1.2.7 version!! :>

Let me know if you run into any other issues, thank you for the report!! <3

oh man nOOOO

Could you tell me where this was? What case were you guys on? And what was the discussion? Or did this happen for every single one?

AA Thank you! ;;7;; I really wanted to make this game as smooth as possible, I'm so glad it was a good experience! And ww I also love the budding relationship of Lock and Torch lol--

About Magnet, the not heavy spoiler is that it's implied from dialogue during their free time events and mostly resolved within the ending credits for the good ending. (The Remembered ending.) 

Otherwise... if you want a full explanation, translate the spoiler text here from hexadecimal to text:

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

https://cryptii.com/pipes/hex-decoder

OO Thanks so much for playing man! I'm so glad you had fun with it! And JLSKFGJ thank you for all the praise too LOL

If you're feeling confused by the way, False Memory is one of the "bad" endings. It's essentially the same as the good ending, just the credits are a bit different. (With [REDACTED] at the very end. The good ending answers some of the cipher text as well.) No need to make another video or anything LOL, just wanted to let you know that there's a bit more to the story!

But yea! I loved hearing your thoughts and experiences, thank you so much again!! :>

Thank you so much! ;;7;;

I really wanted to sell (ha) a complete mall experience and have the wackiness juxtaposed with more serious stuff from the letters. I'm so glad you had fun! 

And yea, the gui this time was 🤸 the heart and soul LOL 

so true

EE Thank you!! ;;7;;

Oh man, doing things in renpy is all fine and good as long as you never see my mess of code LMAO But it's so worth it!! I'm so glad you enjoyed!!

Also yes, gay people real... HSHSHHD thank you for noticing even though they never got to smooch 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️

WHEEZE, finally !!! disposable income!! LMAO

Thank you! This game is so very MenuTM and I wanted to make sure they were good. Thank you so much for playing ;;7;;

AHAHQHWHDH This is why you bring in your gacha addict friends to test your game, you'll discover loopholes to crush early on 🕺

JSLKFGJSH OH YEA!! >:3c It's really fun, trust me I made it

LET'S GO GAMBLING !!!

Ohhhh yea. I think I forgot to check that when I updated the game files. )-)o Every time, man.
(And yes, the PC version also works with Linux.)
Thank you for letting me know! It should be good now.

Thank you!! ;;7;;;

The POV swap and comics were a lot of extra effort lmao, but so worth it !!

Thank you!! <3

You can unlock the last two scenes (the epilogue) by doing all of the free time extra conversations! :>

HLSFKJGS WOOO
THANK YOUUUUUU !!! <3

Thank you again! :>>

Yeah, aro stories are hard to come by. (Especially in mainstream media) But at least among the indie community, we're writing it all LOL

OOOOO this is so cute!!! Thank you so much for playing! I'm super glad you had fun and all the animals were interesting! :>>

Thank you!! :> (I also can't wait)

WOOO Thanks for playing!!! I'm glad you had fun :>>>

Yeah and I agree, that rat guy is such a jerk. /lovingly

(As for the spoiler stuff)

Yeah, I'd say it's just their personalities that clashed with the victim/culprit status. When I was planning it, I shuffled around the characters on a board under I got setups/pairings that made sense. :P It's really important to me in a game with a large cast that every character has some kind of weight some where. So Dog and Monkey, even though they aren't directly involved they were like... background involved in some cases instead. LMAO

Aw, thank you for playing!! (Yeah there's some heavy danganronpa inspiration LMAO) <3

Oh yeah! I know... that bug... ;;7;; I've fixed it now in the latest version lmao.

Originally everything worked fine actually, but after a few bug fixes to the menu screens the photos got messed up... and then while fixing the photos the text got messed up LMAO. That's the mistake of rushing to fix bugs... you start making new bugs. )-)o

But thank you for letting me know!! :>

It goes it a set order like how it is on the guide! :> Thank you for playing <3

LMAO We all have our tastes HJSLFGKJSH

Thank you for playing!! <3 :>

omg THANK YOU ;;O;;!! I'm glad you you liked it! :>

If you download the "Zodiac Paradigm Promo" folder and unzip it, there is a folder inside with all the sprites from the game!! Happy editing :>>>!!

omg LKJASFGKLS Thank you!! I'm so happy you're having fun with it!

I hope your friends also have a fun time >w>

Thank you so much for streaming!! I loved watching your reactions to the characters and the cases LKSFJGSH ;;;7;;; 

I gotta try and catch you live again soon! :>