Very promising demo. I'm a huge fan of the aesthetic, especially how the visuals change after entering the first door.
One question: is the Kickling Village theme an original composition? I feel like I've heard it somewhere before.
I have mixed feelings about this one. The first playthrough was an easy 4/5. Great atmosphere, satisfying gameplay loop, and a unique experience with every doll. Some of them gave me actual chills; Andy's section was especially well done.
Going back for the other endings was what tanked my enjoyment. Even with the replay feature, this game is very tedious the second time around since there are no more surprises. The method of getting the 3rd and 4th endings is clever, but the novelty wears off after doing it once. If the true ending involved an especially difficult secret level, the tedium might be worth it, but the only reward for getting every ending is additional lore. In my opinion, this is not the kind of game that needs a story, especially one this confusing.
If I could give this game a 3.5/5, I would. Getting the other endings was a 3/5 experience, but the first playthrough was so solid that it would be unfair to rate it as such. I suppose this comment serves as both a critique of the game and a warning to future players.
Also, I would recommend removing the last screenshot from the info page since it's a spoiler.
Games like this one are why I continue to wade through the garbage heap that is the visual novel tag. Great work; I look forward to the full game.
A few things:
- Some dialogue boxes have names when they shouldn't and vice versa. The names sometimes don't work properly either; Dorothy's name changing to Mary after scrolling up and Vein's name being "???" for her entire introductory scene were the big ones that I noticed.
- The MC's personality is all over the place. They go from a spineless wimp in the first half to spitting game at Tempest and Vein within a few in-game days. I found it odd.
- Vein's face gives me Butch Hartman vibes, especially her open mouth smile. Her character is great, but her art sticks out to me.
A few things:
- Faster text and skippable dialogue would be amazing.
- There's a bug where getting killed in the staff corridor during the last chase despawns the dinosaur.
- Maybe add the option to turn off the CRT filter; not super important, but nice to have.
I also like that you can kill the survivors.
spoilers
It shows the personal motive behind the Dark Strangler's actions. Someone close to him was also a black lightning victim and the germination took them too, though it's unclear what happened to them after that. The Dark Strangler was killing the black lightning victims not only to stop the spread of the germination, but also to prevent anyone else from losing someone they care about to it.
I found kind of an odd bug. first, the Garr7C and Twenty17 badges aren't saving for me, which isn't a big problem in itself because the cheat room exists. However, with the amount of badges I have right now, getting them from the cheat room activates the Waker fight, which I already did. For some reason, the green diamond that skips the fight does not work when badges are granted with the cheat room; it just resets the room. It does work when using the fast travel trophy though.
This is easily the most impressive VN I've ever played. The amount of care put into every facet of the game is staggering. I hope you all take your time with this one.
I do have a question about the relationship standings though. Will it be possible to go from friends -> best friends -> crushes/BFFs -> partners -> fiances only through dialogue options without manually changing relationship standing between Steps? I ask this because I'm a huge sucker for the "best friends suddenly realize they're in love" trope and it would be far more satisfying to watch it play out naturally than to have it take place during a time skip.
It's an alright game. It has a great aesthetic and the ending sequence is cool, but the gameplay loop is pretty boring and the ending itself is sudden and unsatisfying. It creates more questions than answers.
Spoilers:
Unless there's an Easter egg back here that I didn't find, the player should not be able to go under this fence.
I really like how this story is written. The main character is very realistic, and I say that because I was just like him when I was his age. The other characters are also done very well, and the reader can easily understand their thoughts and motivations without having them directly spelled out. The music is great too.