Made an account just to be able to leave a comment - I feel like indie creators (esp for sort of niche games) don't always get many reviews/feedback, but I think you deserve all the positive feedback you can get! This felt like such a labor of love, and it is amazing that this was released as a free game. Thank you so much for contributing to the male yandere material out there in English, there's definitely a dearth of it, like you said! Came here after reading some recommendations from Reddit for male yandere otome games (gotta scratch that itch every so often) and was so pleased to see a new one in the list!
SPOILERS
Kuro's a great character, and I think it was nice to see the yandere actually be so affectionate (since I feel in most games, there's the "courting" period and maybe a small period where they're actual affectionate and then something snaps). I'm a real sucker for all those kisses, esp ones where the LI does it suddenly/forcefully (not really like non-con per se since the MC does also like him, hopefully you get what I mean) so I think Student ended up being my favorite for that reason. That being said, my favorite plots were the detective and hidden routes (the layers in that last one, oh my goodness!)
I enjoyed reading the comments here about the plot and some of the behind the scenes processes. Makes sense then why I thought Kuro looked kind of girly/shota (e.g. in the mage route, I was like, doesn't that look like female breastplate armor??). No problem, though, because I got so immersed in the story, it didn't really matter. :) The VAs were also great, it was cool to see how many were actually involved in the credits! I feel like all the evil laughs were nailed, and Topper was so fun to listen to (it just fit so well!). The only bit of voice acting that I found a bit jarring was Rabbit - she sounded like a guy to me (can't remember if the VA was a guy or a girl, and I apologize, don't mean any offense). Can't forget about our protag Kuro - sometimes English dub esp for stuff like yandere can sound so cringey but he did a great job, particularly when Kuro gets more emotional/sad. It helped contribute to the feeling of yeah, sometimes he goes crazy but deep down, it's really because he loves you so much and he has all this other angst that you discover in the hidden route.
Speaking of the hidden route, like some other folks mentioned, I found it a bit harder to relate to og!MC and Shiro. I know Shiro has a reason to dislike the MC and Kuro clones but since he was acting like a jerk, I found myself being like, give me Kuro back, haha. In the grand scheme of things, though, it all makes sense and I think there's something to be said for playing as the "clone" the whole time.
Once I realized Anathema was actually Player and not MC, it was interesting to re-interpret everything the Architect said in light of that. Although I'm still a bit confused by what he means at certain bad ends when he says "better you than me" since it's not actually Player dying? Also, Architect, what's your deal with being so upset with me picking the sorta happy ending as my favorite? Surely if you've been watching me so long, you know there's no way I'm going to be like, oh yes, being a lifeless doll is totally my favorite, haha. (Not at all meant to be a slight on your writing, I'm just joking as to the seemingly twisted nature of the Architect)
I also thought it was neat how in the early routes such as Student, you get some bad ends where Kuro is like, oh no, what have I done! But iirc, that doesn't really happen in the later routes, which makes sense since he learns more and more about the system and how it works.
Alright, I think I'm rambling at this point, gonna end with a couple male yandere recs. I know you said you enjoyed MM, not sure if you've also played their other games, Dandelion and Nameless (I'm a fan of Tei from the latter, he's a bit more of the manipulative type). Also, have you heard of the Boyfriend to Death series? (there's 1 and 2, probably runs a bit more yangire than yandere imo but may be up your alley!) There are still some other games I have to catch up on, so we'll see. Anyway, thanks again for making such a great game, looking forward to more of your work in the future!
That's so sweet of you to make an account to leave such lovely feedback :3 I appreciate it more than I can put into words :D I'm so glad to hear that you enjoyed the game!
You're right that sometimes indie creators don't seem to get a whole lot of feedback, anything I receive always means a lot to me. I'm touched that you think I deserve all the positive feedback I can get :3 And I'm glad it felt like a labour of love, that's certainly one of the ways I would describe how I feel about it myself. You taught me a new word there with 'dearth'! I had to look that one up, haha, so that's something new I learned today :D Also, that's interesting to know that it's been recommended on Reddit. I do sometimes lurk there on r/otomegames, haha, but I had no idea it had been listed at any point, so that makes me happy to discover :3
SPOILERS
I'm super happy that you liked Kuro :3 I'm very protective of him and can't help but be saddened when people occasionally don't understand him because, deep down, he's such a sweetheart. I feel the same as you where you said you feel in most games there's the 'courting' period and then something snaps, haha. With SR, I really wanted the reader to know that this was genuinely a love story, despite all of the horror and despair x3 That was something that was very important to me to get across. Yeah, I know what you mean about the kisses, hehe :3 That's really interesting that you'd say the Student one was your favourite for that reason :o I don't recall anyone picking that as their favourite so far! I do kinda struggle with picking a favourite myself, especially when for me it would be kinda like picking a favourite child. haha. I do prefer some versions over others though.
That's cool that you also read through some of the other comments about the behind the scenes stuff :3 Yeah, I was very resource-limited, haha. That breastplate was actually one of two options... the other had giant sticking out bits for huge boobs, so that was a no go xD I would really love it if I could remake the entire game someday in the new engine that I'm using and hire an artist to redraw all the sprites in their own style. The VA's were so wonderful, I'm glad you enjoyed their performances :3 I'm so proud of them all + will be eternally grateful for the work they did on the project. Jacob had a lot of fun with Topper, and it certainly shows, haha. Rabbit was played by a guy, yeah. What happened was, I cast him to play the male version of the character in BxB version of the game that sadly won't be getting released. I had also cast someone for female Rabbit but, unfortunately, she never delivered her lines. I just decided to use his voice for the female version of Rabbit in the end since Rabbit's a magical creature anyhow. I can totally understand how that might be jarring though x3 And I know what you mean about how English voice acting can sometimes be a little cringe-worthy cos I've played my fair share of games like that, haha. Tim absolutely did Kuro justice though :3 He was so perfect for the role, and I agree that those emotional lines he delivered were very powerful. Some of them almost had me in tears! x3 He portrayed the character exactly as I intended, and I'm super happy to hear you think the same :D
I have to agree with you and the others who have mentioned it that OG MC + Shiro are less relatable than the clone x Kuro combo. It's not something I really thought about at the time of writing because I knew from the start how I wanted it to end, but I think it wound up becoming Kuro's story more so than Shiro's, even though they're linked. At least once things calmed down there, you could go wake up all the Kuro clones and be surrounded by Kuro's forever x3
As for the Architect's comments like you mentioned the: "Better you than me." Upon reaching certain bad ends. It's basically just him being a dick x3 And I guess, in a way, he's sort of presuming that the player is self-inserting (which I know isn't always the case, but that's how I tend to play, haha) so he's kinda just mocking the player for having caused the death of their character. And yeeeeah, the Architect is a pretty twisted dude as you say xD That's my favourite reaction of his when you choose that happy CG, kinda like a child throwing a tantrum, haha. As a side note though, that Dollmaker ending is one of my personal favourite 'bad ends' x3 I can't remember for sure, but I think I named that bad end after my dev name in the bad ends guide document, haha.
What you said regarding the Student route and Kuro's reactions to some of the bad end stuff, I'd love to claim that I did that on purpose, but it was unintentional, haha. I guess it came out that way because I wrote the routes in a particular order and then figured I would stack the route options in the same order that I wrote them, just allowing the player to pick whichever they wanted. I guess with what you said though, it would mean the order they're arranged in on the selection screen would be the recommended play order.
There's nothing wrong with rambling anyhow :D As you've no doubt noticed, I do rather a lot of it myself xD I really do appreciate you taking the time to leave your thoughts though, so thank you :3
As for the recommendations, they're always much appreciated! I have indeed played Dandelion and Nameless, and I have to agree with you, Tei is pretty darn awesome :P Actually, he's probably my favourite manipulative yandere character that I've read so far. I'd like to create a similar character myself at some point. He'd make a terrible being in reality, but he's wonderful as a fictional character, haha. I don't recall coming across that many characters like Tei, so if you know of any others, feel free to let me know! And yeah, I have dabbled in the BTD games :D They're certainly quite something! I did enjoy what I played of them, there was the odd scene that I found a little gross, but I mean, I had anticipated that anyways xD I played all of the routes in the first one, but I never actually finished the second. I got kinda stuck and I couldn't find any walkthroughs at the time, so being the lazy bugger that I am, I kinda just gave up >.< Is there any character in particular that you recommend I finish their route in BTD2? I've been told I would likely enjoy Black Wolves Saga, but haven't gotten around to checking it out yet, likewise with the yandere in Nightshade cos I've heard good things about him as well.
Anyways, thanks again for writing all of that up :3 I hope wherever you are in the world that you're managing to stay safe! Have a great week ^_^
Ah, thanks so much for responding! I would absolutely love to see what your version of a Tei-like character would be like! I've also still been searching for more like him. I think he's the only character I kept wanting to jump ship for in the other routes (I know some people were annoyed how he showed up in the other routes, but I was always like, yes, please, I would totally switch LIs if not for needing to actually finish the game, haha).
For BTD2, it's been a while but I think I preferred Vincent and Cain (Lawrence is interesting in an eerie kind of way, and Ren is...more of a masochist iirc?). Cain's route also has an extra hidden character mini route who is kinda similar to him.
I haven't played Black Wolves Saga yet either. It's a little more involved since the English is a fan translation as far as I'm aware, and I've just been too lazy so far to go through the extra steps to set it all up. Nightshade's yandere is in my opinion a touch underwhelming. Don't get me wrong, he definitely has some possessiveness/obsessiveness come through, but I found his route...not extreme enough for me, haha. The voice actor is fantastic, though, and does such a great job with the emotional lines. Not sure if you want to be spoiled as to which character (SPOILER: his name is Kuroyuki, what a coincidence!)
Anyway, hope you're staying safe and well, too! I'll post again if I remember/find any others (although a lot of the recent games I've seen mentioned are only on PS Vita which I don't have unfortunately), always nice to find fellow male yandere fans!
I think I would have to go back through Tei's route to refresh my mind on the character cos it's been a fair few years now since I played Nameless, but yeah, I think writing a similar character would be a lot of fun :D When I first played that, just going by sprite appearances, I thought Yuri was gonna be my favourite, but nope, Tei won, haha. He was a surprise too cos back then I purposely didn't look at character bios so that I could be surprised whenever I came across a yandere character. Nowadays, I tend to try and find out if a game at least has one in before deciding whether or not to play x3
I guess I should try and play more of BTD2 then! There must be plenty of guides out there by now :3 I noticed that Lawrence seems to get the most fan art, which intrigues me. I never got to see any of Ren back when I played, but I kinda imagined he'd be that way, haha.
Not feeling like bothering with the patch set up is one of the main reasons why I haven't managed to play through BWS as well! I'll get to it someday, I'm sure :3 It's probably the one that's been recommended to me more than anything else, so it would be a bit silly of me not to try it at some point. That's a shame about Kuroyuki though! I had heard that was the one cos when I was lurking on r/otomegames in the past, people didn't tag it with spoilers, haha. I'm not that fussed about things like that being revealed though so it's all good. I heard folk describe his route as very angsty more than anything. I know what you mean though, soft yandere routes are great and all, but I do prefer reading stuff that's more extreme x3 I used to look up rec lists online for male yandere characters in games, and a large majority of the ones I tried were pretty soft routes. I'll always be up for reading any kind of yandere route, but the best ones are the ones that make my jaw drop in shock xD At the same time, I'd love to see more villain routes too, even if they're not yandere. The first time I experienced something like that was when I played Hakuoki on my tablet years ago, and I was so stoked that you got that option (I played blind, and I got that as my first route x3)
Good to know about the voice actor for Kuroyuki anyhow! I was considering which game to play out of Nightshade and Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk whenever I next decide to start an otome. I was leaning towards Nightshade, but now I might go with Ashen Hawk instead, haha. I do have a PS Vita, thankfully :3 Managed to nab a used one years ago when I discovered the sheer amount of otome on there, though, it seems like that may be gravitating towards the Switch slowly, which I don't have >.< I mainly wanted one to check out the Diabolik Lovers series, but I still don't know how to feel about it. On paper, I should technically love it, but there are several things about it that irk me, one being how useless MC is xD
It is indeed always nice to find fellow male yandere fans :3 I feel like we sometimes get shoved in a dark little corner while everyone else fawns over the tsundere guys, haha. Have a lovely week!
Oh yeah, I forgot about Psychedelica, have seen it mentioned and been meaning to play it but haven't gotten a chance to. I will say, though, if you're not just looking for a yandere fix, I do think Nightshade is quite a good game. The plot is actually good, all of the voice acting is fantastic, and the characters generally well-written (plus endearing side characters!) I enjoyed pretty much all the routes, either for the character or for the plot, often both. And while the yandere in Nightshade is not that extreme, they built a surprisingly good and sympathetic rationale for why he acts the way he does.
FYI, I've been playing through 7'scarlet and while the yandere is a bit more extreme and -almost- there, he doesn't quite make it for me. The bad end is bad in a different way sadly. Still gonna finish the rest of the game for the plot and completionist's sake. I've heard Monochrome Heaven has a yandere so I'll add that to my list at some point, too. Oh, and since you do have a Vita, I'll recommend Period Cube to you because it sounds like that has gotten some thumbs up's yandere-wise. Enjoy!
I wasn't really all that enthralled by Black Butterfly, but I've heard I'm more likely to enjoy Ashen Hawk, haha. I just didn't really feel much for any of the characters in BB >.<
That's good that Nightshade is solid overall :3 I had heard quite a few people say they enjoyed every route, which seems to be a rare thing in otome, haha, so they must have done something right with it :D And I love it when yandere characters have a good reason behind why they are the way they are, so I'd probably love that route :3 It's been aaaaages since I played one where I genuinely enjoyed reading all the routes. I found finishing Collar x Malice quite painful cos I left the two characters I was least interested in until last, and their routes were even more boring than I anticipated >.<
I've not got 7'scarlet with it being a slightly newer title and my usual lack of disposable income, haha. Is it worth buying in a sale do you think? Not that I could even afford it then xD I'm not overly keen on the art either. "The bad end is bad in a different way sadly." That makes me curious, haha, but I guess I better not seek out spoilers in case I play it someday.
I've heard a lot of good stuff about Steam Prison, which I also don't have. I hadn't even heard of Monochrome Heaven, so that goes to show how far behind I am on keeping up with content >.<
I did quite enjoy Period Cube actually :3 It's been quite a while since I played it, and I can't remember whose route I enjoyed the most. If I'm remembering correctly, it wasn't who I thought would be my favourite (pretty sure it was a non-yandere)! MC was a bit annoying for me to self-insert with cos I've played plenty of MMOs xD
I think the Vita titles I own but haven't gotten around to playing yet are Code Realize + Norn9. The other stuff I haven't played yet in my backlog is on PC, which consists of Nightshade, Ashen Hawk, the new revamped Hakuoki games, BWS, Bad Medicine (though the English patch doesn't cover all routes and I was really bored with it anyway, haha), and a bunch of indie otome. I never did see past the base content of Mystic Messenger either! Just because the app became too large for my crappy phone to be able to download any updates >.< I had a founders pack for that with a physical box of stuff + lots of whatever the currency was for progression, and I don't have a clue what my account info I used would have been :(
So... I LOVE THIS GAME! ITS SO CUTE, WELL MADE, I LOVE THE CHARACTERS. Sad theres nothing that happens when you name the character Anathema. Also where did you get the name Anathema? Its a fitting name. I would love a sequel... or ten. I am obsessed with this game
Aww, I'm glad you like it :D Thanks so much for taking the time to play through it and comment <3 It means a lot to me :3
There is something that happens when you name MC Anathema :o but it's very subtle and only occurs in the final section (just a slight change in dialogue so not really a lot considering a player would have to start over with that as their name + get all the way to the end again to see the difference x3) it's awesome that you thought to try that cos I don't know how often people do, and I made that little easter egg in case anyone did, haha.
The name just came up when I was searching online about religious stuff like sins and such! I thought it was a fitting name :D
I do hope to remake the game in the new engine I'm now using at some point cos it will look a lot more polished and I could do more with it in general! So much work though to remake it from scratch >.< haha + I'd like to be able to get all the sprites drawn by one person so that the sprite art can be consistent throughout :3 I have no way of affording that right now though.
Tim has recently re-recorded some of Kuro's lines, so when I'm able, I'll be updating the game with his new takes :3 I'm just not able to use a computer that can handle the project load at the moment >.<
I'll need to replay it then! Which I really should anyway... And I am very happy to hear of a remake and Tim is a great Kuro I don't think I could hear Kuro played by any one else. And there is so much I would love to say but theres no real place to start
I just finished playing the game and after I click ??? from extras it takes me to this site https://rchitect.itch.io/dear-anathema/password and asks for password I tried everything but I don't understand what the password is can please tell me
Hey hey :3 Thanks for playing the game through to the end <3 I hope you enjoyed it.
Sure, I will put the password underneath this spoilers sign :3
SPOILERS
The password is: Anathema
You have to do it with the capital 'A' or it won't work. I just checked it on my phone to make sure the password hasn't expired or something, but it seems to work fine, so hopefully, it should work for you too :3
Thank you i forgot To try with capital 'A' sorry for the trouble and i really like Yandere character so i really enjoyed the game I'm looking forward to the other versions of the game and i really want to know more about the creepy voice and anathema
I don't have any art accs..) I'm glad you liked it)
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well,I really like him, he is one of my favorite characters(hope he really liked princess mc, and wanted to be with her not only because of the plan..) ,I also like Farro, he is sweet and kind , I love his voice and his shy feelings for mc are adorable(its somehow funny how I've mentioned them both, they are so different :D) But it seems they are both just a part of the program for reality simulation?...Its hard to think about them this way). And ofc Kuro is hasubando number 1( so don't kill me,Kuro :D).
ps. Sorry for occasion mistakes, my eng is not very good :)
Well, your art is really awesome :3 I wish I had art skills like that :D
I'm super glad you like Kai :3 I don't think Kai or Farro are very popular, so it's nice for them to get some love <3 But yeah, don't tell Kuro or he might get mad x3 hehe. Kuro would be incredibly happy to know that he is number 1 though \^_^/
SPOILERS
Even though Kai and Farro were part of the simulations and technically weren't real, they would have seemed very real to MC, so to her, they may as well have been real :3 Also, depending on what MC chooses to do at the end, she could use her power to bring back any of the characters from the simulations to live with her :D Heck, she could even implant their personalities into one of the clone bodies to bring them to life in reality if she really wanted to.
I think Kai had a pretty rough life with his upbringing and stuff, and he definitely has some genuine feelings for MC, so he's not 100% evil :3
No need to apologise anyhow, your English is great! :D
Heya :3 I wish I could help you, but unfortunately, Tyranobuilder games + macs just don't seem to get along very well at all :(
I don't know any actual statistics, but a lot of mac users seem to have this problem. It worked alright on my partner's old work macbook, but I have no idea if it's worked for anyone else on mac because I don't know enough people that use them to find out >.<
I did search online for help in the past + posted in the support forums for Tyrano on Steam. If you haven't already, you could try some of the suggestions on this page. There just doesn't seem to be any real solution to the issue though :( The English community manager for Tyranobuilder pretty much just stated that the devs say the problem is macs are awkward, and kinda just left it at that with no actual fix >.< Which is incredibly frustrating!
I'm hoping to be able to work with a new engine soon cos I'm getting pretty fed up with all the issues Tyrano has that don't seem to get fixed :(
I can't upload a browser version either because the game is too large to fit within itch.io's acceptable size guide for browser games.
I hope you can manage to find a fix somehow, and I'm really sorry that there's nothing I can do to help :( Thank you so much for your interest in the game + I hope you're managing to stay safe :3
Hi, I have a mac and have also ran into issues launching itch.io games before so I have become accustomed to looking into game files to find the problem. Unfortunately this game wasn't an easy fix like previous ones because it seems that the file needed to run the game is not a "unix executable" file. There is no way for mac user to play this game because the file is not unix executable, and instead only appears as a text file. I don't know how to solve this issue because I am not familiar with the software the game was made with, but hopefully this can help a little. I look forward to being able to play this game, so goodluck fixing it :)
Update: I converted the plain text file into a unix executable file (using the chmod +x command in terminal) and it still would not work. I believe there are still files missing that prevent just converting the file from working. This is the error message [9436:1123/152402:WARNING:shell_main_delegate.cc(231)] en-CA.pak file not found. [warn] kq_init: detected broken kqueue; not using.: Undefined error: 0
Thanks for the info + for checking out the game :3 I'm sorry you weren't able to get it working still in the end :(
Unfortunately, all these months down the line I'm still none the wiser as to what on earth I can possibly do to fix the issue >.< The support discussion I had open pretty much just ended with the support manager saying the devs of the software say that macs are awkward, that it'll work for some and not for others... Which is not exactly an acceptable solution! It's very frustrating that the support for the software just isn't there :(
This is one of the main reasons I'm giving up on using Tyranobuilder to make stuff. I've got a new engine now which will hopefully allow me to make games which will run on mac more reliably! I still need to learn how to use it though, and I probably won't be remaking SR on there for the foreseeable future cos it would just be too much work to remake it all in the new engine :( I do hope to completely remake it with new sprites in the future, but that'll be a long way off.
It sucks you're not able to play it either anyhow :( Really sorry about that! Thank you for the interest though + I hope you're managing to stay safe :3
Hi! this is my favorite visual novel and I have played many. I am in love with Shiro partly because he reminds me of Ukyo, my favorite character from Amnesia. I also like yanderes and darker stories like this, but it also had cute moments as well and Kuro's actions made sense so that he was lovable.
Spoilers
Who is the creepy voice that talks to the player whenever you get a bad ending? I get that Anathema is referring to us, but still
Hey hey! Thanks so much for playing through it + taking the time to comment :3 Your kind words means a lot + make me super happy to hear <3 Ukyo is my favourite character from Amnesia as well ^-^
SPOILERS
The owner of the voice that speaks to the player when you get bad ends and such doesn't have a proper name yet, but I tend to refer to him as the Architect :3 SR was sorta like his introduction. He'll be appearing again in some of the other games I make :D
No worries :3 Thanks for your support <3 I'm really glad you love SR! It took me a loooong time + lots of love to make it, haha.
I hope you will enjoy the other stuff I make as well :D I'm currently working on finishing the game I started ages ago for Yaoi Jam 2018 (it's called Clarity in Qualia) and while there is only a very old rough demo available from the jam for now, I'm in the middle of completely remaking the demo with new art and other stuff + there will be an otome version of the game too :3
OMG!!! I'm so excited to see it! I can tell you put a lot of effort and time into the game it's fantastic!! and I'm sure I'll enjoy the other stuff you make!!!
I just finished the game and I am soooooooooo MINDBLOWN. So I have lots of feels right now so idk if I could express them all but AAAHHHHHHH I love it I love Kuro very very much.
SPOILERS
Soooo ummm the Kuro that we spent all 5 routes with, I actually thought the same as you in that it was the Kuro that 26 meets in the room. I can't gandle him being dead soooo I like to think that he survived in the end amd found another MC that was a predecessor of 339 that did not get discarded. Idk I really want a happy ending for him. Alsoooo can I gush about the detective route Kuro? He and the Princess route Kuro werw my absolute favourites. But detective Kuro was my all time favourite. I really loved their sweet moments, especially at the end where they spend their last moment in the ferris wheel. But my favourite moment was at the end of the mage route where Kuro makes the MC promise to love him always even of she will forget him. Aahhhh I just love the passionate devotion Kuro has for the MC. The Kuro that was so enraged at the sight of 339, I felt so sad for him. I mean he got MARRIED to MC, that has got to hurt, finally being with your beloved in manitromony only to lose her. Aahhhh whyyyyyyy is wverything so painful.
Oh yeah, I'm curious about S****'s yandere level, even the doll maker's yandere level. And I'm guessing that the married Kuro's yandere levrl is very high?
Also, I really got creeped out at the voice calling tye MC Anathema, especially atvthe end where the game took over my whole screen when the voice said I can'tvescape from him. Ugghhhhh. I'm curious about who it is and how high his yandere level is, if he even has a yandere level.
Oh yeah even though the detective route is my favourite, the gamer route was the most insightful, like the parallels in it! Kuro saying he has feelings, and then thw MC in the hidden route saying she has feelibgs even if she was a clone, ughhhh that was good, like even the concept of merging realities and changing realities. This route reallt made sense to be the final one before the hidden one. Alssooo why is Kuro here having a change of heart ompared to the others? Alsoooo where does S****'s figure shouting at MC happen chronilogically? I mean he only said his words to og! MC so when did the end sequences after every route happen? I have a lot of questions right now haha. But really I love your game, the concept is good, the philosophy is interesting, and really intrigued me. It was awesome to see how it is tackled in game. And alsoooo S**** is hot sooooo yeah.
So TLDR, I love SR so much, and this is coming from someone who has played LOTS of visual novels: it is my all time favourite now
P.S. I love Kuro's voice, it really brought him to life and it fit the sprites so well. Also love the moments where it is so soft amd loving hehe.
Oohhhh yeah. I also really loved the music? Especially in the detective and hidden route, also the good end 1 was so epic and sweet and the music added to that, though the true end really deserved to be the best one and is really my favourite of the bunch. But that creepy voice, I have so many questions about it like....
SPOILERS
why Anathema? How is the MC a sacrifice cuz that's what Anathema means. How is he able to see everything? Were they lovers? At first I thought the voice was the more murderous side of Kuro, cuz in the mage route it was as if he had two personalities, like Ukyo from Amnesia. But is Anathema actually the player behind the screen? Aaahhh I really have a lot of questions huh?
I’m glad you loved the music :3 One of my favourite things to do is find the perfect music to match scenes, haha. I pretty much knew what I wanted to use before I wrote the story in full, and I listened to the various tracks while writing the scenes, cos having the atmosphere from the music really helps a lot with the writing :D
SPOILERS
As for the creepy voice who talks to Anathema, you pretty much hit the nail on the head with the last thing you said in your comment :3 He’s talking to the player behind the screen. His comments are all observations based on the choices that the player is making while playing the game. Then he decides to finally reveal himself :3 I can’t say too much cos I don’t wanna accidentally give any spoilers, haha, also I haven’t fully planned what’s going to happen yet, but it won’t be the last you see of him! I guess he’s supposed to be like a 4th wall breaking character? Essentially though, you, the player, are his Anathema :D
I hope I managed to answer your questions :3 If not (cos I know I kinda suck at explaining stuff xD) feel free to let me know, or ask any other questions that you have! Thank you so much again for taking the time to comment :3 I hope you’re managing to stay safe, and that you have an awesome week!
Hey hey! I’m super duper happy you loved the game :3 Thanks so much for taking the time to comment :D
SPOILERS
It would certainly be nice to think that that version of Kuro survived :3 He really deserved to after everything he went through! I’m glad you loved detective Kuro :3 Dollmaker Kuro ended up being my favourite, even though I didn’t think he would be, haha.
When it comes to yandere level, it’s kinda hard to judge I guess >.< There are so many different varieties of yandere these days that I can’t keep up x3 I guess Dollmaker Kuro would be one of the most yandere of all the Kuro’s. It’s hard to know if the angry one would still be classed as yandere or if he’s just gone into psycho territory, haha. I guess he probably is still yandere though since it’s his love for MC that’s messed him up so much! Then I think That S**** isn’t really a yandere at all. He’s just a regular dude in love who has had a super shitty life x3 He was in a lot of pain, but unlike the Kuro’s, it didn’t turn him yandere. I guess the Kuro’s were made yandere by all the horrible stuff that happened, and while S**** did have to watch it happen, he didn’t have to actively participate in stuff, so in a way, he was shielded from a lot of the pain over the years.
I’ll answer more about the creepy fella talking to Anathema in your other comment :3
With the gamer Kuro, I just wanted to have a little bit more variation in the endings of the original 5 routes since most of them end very similarly. Whether the Kuro from those 5 routes is the one that 26 meets in the white room or not, every Kuro is just trying their best to do what they can to enjoy the time they have with MC, even though they know it’s not going to last. Plus Kuro is always trying to think of all the possible things he can do that might make a difference. Also, while he has more awareness about the truth of what’s really going on than MC does, he is still not fully in control. It’s not really mentioned in the game, but Isaac also makes alterations to the Kuro’s as well as the MC’s, like slightly tweaking their levels of anger, levels of self-awareness, how much stuff they actually remember while going through simulations.
For the bits that come after the 5 main routes endings where S****’s figure is shouting at MC through the static, it’s kind of hard to explain what I meant for that to represent, but I will try :3 It is supposed to be S****, but rather than it being him actually talking to MC, it’s supposed to be more like it’s part of OG MC’s memories. All the clones come from OG MC, who is in love with S****, but Isaac takes that memory from all of the MC clones. When everything goes black, that’s meant to be like when the clones are in the sleep chamber, and they are dreaming. When the image of S**** appears through the static, it’s supposed to be like a part of MC’s mind trying to grasp at the memory of S**** that was erased. So even though Isaac tried to completely get rid of it, MC’s love/bond with S**** is so strong that he couldn’t completely get rid of the memory, and small fragments still remain :3 MC can’t remember who it is, but it’s like her mind’s way of attempting to remember what was stolen from her, and piece it back together. if that makes any sense.
I feel incredibly honoured that you would consider SR to be your favourite VN ❤
Ohh woooooow! So that really cleared things up for me and confirmed my suspicions. Sooo I'm guessing that S**** screaming for her to remember him was in the early days before she was cloned but when she was now in the chamber? Idk haha. But wow I appreciate them more now, cuz S**** was right, their bond never faltered.
But I am curious though, why was Kuro called Kuro? The MC was called by her name so why not S****? Was it because S**** or his father did not want S**** to be associated with the Kuros so they named him for the opposite thing to S****? But woowww so if Kuro saw everything and every route, he knows everything sooooooo that means that somehow dollmaker! Kuro also lives in him albeit indirectly. So even after all this time and up to the end S**** and MC were always together. But if that was the case, I get it why S**** would have such distate for the Kuros, it's his face and voice and its her likeness that he is seeing, he must have been so envious and mad at the Kuros watching them throughout the routes.
Really though, even now I still cry when I remember Kuro ahhhhh. This really is my favourite. The concept blew me away and the thought behind it, how every event was simulated and how it was all unraveled..wow it gave justice to the title. As a student who majors in Literature, the whole VN was cathartic to me when all the pieces lined up and the bigger picture was revealed. The plotholes in the routes and the little things that gave way to the main picture suddenly clicked. And the theme of Solipsism was really presented well. So yeaaah this fame is really unique. I have never encountered any other game such as this. And what I like best about it is that it's the same couple everytime, which is something I have been wanting to see in VNs, sooo I loved seeing their bond, even if it is so painful and tragic. So yeah, thank God for the true end.
I'm curious though what happens to all the other clones at the end. Will they set them free? Lol this is where I kinda like to think that Kuro from the five routes finds his own MC who was a predecessor of 339 (so it's technically the same girl he romanced) and they live happily together somewhere hehe.
P.S. since they all share the same face, I also like to think that since S**** now gas black hair, he'd let it grow and braid it...like a certain dollmaker hehehe. But despite this though, when I think of Kuro it's detective Kuro that comes to mind. Aahhh I like that version of him so much haha. Gosh, I really love Kuro.
Also...I am shocked that dollmaker is THE MOST yandere of them all. Like, the sweet boy is the most dangerous of them all!?!?!?! I am not surprised but oh my hahahaha
Lol I have so many replies hahaha but I just keep on remembering more to say and I just wanna keep on gushing haha.
SPOILERS
So ummm the moment where S**** and 339 meet in the white room. That moment was so surreal. Maybe it was the music too but, that moment was just so surreal to me, especially when they meet again in the room with Raine. Idk, it was as if I also felt the relief and awe in seeing traces of a beloved that was so far to reach.
When it comes to soft moments, the kiss scenes were just so nice. My favourite is a threeway tie between the first one in the detective route, the cg one in the gamer route (who knew Kuro could be spicy like that haha), and the desperate one between 339 and 13. Actually now that I think about it, every scene where Kuro and the MC are alone and in a romantic mood like Kuro dancing with her in the mage route or the sweet moment whete Kuro makes breakfast for MC in the detective route...aaahhhh they are just lovely, those soft moments really sold their chemistry to me. They really felt like two pìeople in love. And then the hidden route was just beautiful, even if it was the saddest one.
Oh yeah, I am curious about this but, when I got the good ending for the gamer route, I still have not gotten all the bad ends but I was able to access the hidden route anyways. I still went back ang got all the bad endings anyway before once again accessing the hidden route. Lol I'm just wondering how itvwas possible but hehe.
Also how was the MC able to travel back in time in the hidden route? Like that was reality already? How did she turn back time? Or was this part of the Solipsism part of the novel, that possibly even the hidden route is not real, that even that is only constructed in Anathema's mind. So yeaahh just curious about that. I'm still really curious though on the fate of the leftover clones hehe.
Alsoooo this might be obvious already but I am just really not sure. Sooo Raine and the director are not married? But they have a child together which is the blue haired girl, so I'm guessing that she is the youngest of the three. Lol, how would that feel though, that your siblings are actually lovers and that it is actually not forbidden cuz they are not related. Who was MC's father though? And who was S****'s mother? Sooo is S**** older than the MC? Alsoooo, I'm really curious about how they met and fell inlove, and if like the Kuros, S**** also has a bit, atleast a bit of a possesive streak. Haha I guess I'm really just too invested in the two. Sooo yeah sorry for the barrage of questions, I might have more if I remember haha.
It's interesting that you mention those parts as being surreal! For me when I was writing it, the parts where MC (clones and OG MC) is monologuing while inside the chamber during the hidden route were most surreal (because the music for those scenes just made me feel strange xD)
I'm glad that you enjoyed the softer, more romantic moments too :3 It was really difficult for me to tell if I had written them okay because I enjoy writing the darker stuff more, haha. I wanted there to be those bittersweet moments between them though to show just how in love the pair were/are <3
In regards to unlocking the hidden route, you don't technically have to see every single bad ending to unlock the hidden route :3 I can't even remember exactly how many bad endings there are now xD and not all of them have CGs. But I set the unlock requirement for the hidden route to be 5 or 7 less than the total amount of bad endings I think. There is also a bug/exploit which I kept in the game because some people were having issues with the way I've done the points and the save system. So the exploit is that you can view any bad end multiple times and it will still count towards the total needed to unlock the hidden route. You can technically just watch one bad ending 30 something times and unlock the hidden route to play x3
With the MC traveling back in time in the hidden route, like a lot of stuff in the hidden route, I kinda left it open to player interpretation on purpose because I didn't really want to just pick one absolute truth and tell people this is exactly what happened (I'm a terribly indecisive person, haha.) Some of the ways I was thinking it could be interpreted are:
1) Like you said in your comment, it could be part of solipsism, so the MC decides that she doesn't even have a way of proving what is real and what isn't, but instead of letting that upset her, she just accepts that her reality is whatever she is currently experiencing. (This one is the one I sorta had the MC talk about at the end, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's the absolute truth.)
2) Or like you said in your comment, it could all be part of Anathema's mind!
3) Another way you can look at it is just that simply none of it was real at all, and it was all just in her head. OG MC is the only thing that truly exists, and everything that happened was just part of her own imagined world... but that's a bit depressing x3
4) Oooor, you could even just say that Isaac's experiments were so successful that he created a superhuman who can actually control time somehow, haha.
There are probably more, but I have some brain fog at the moment so I can't think >.<
As for the relationship statuses of Raine, Isaac, Lilly, OG MC, and S****, I didn't really go into much detail in the game about their backstories and how everything came to be just cos I thought people might get bored if I did too much of a lore dump on them x3 I never actually gave any of the characters definite ages when I was writing, but you're pretty much right in what you said.
When the world was normal, Raine was in a relationship with MC's dad, who we don't get to hear about at all in the game, and Isaac was in a relationship with a woman who would have been S****'s mum, who we also don't get to hear about. At some point, they would both have lost their partner's in some way. Raine and Isaac were both scientists, so would have ended up meeting through work, and then MC and S**** came to meet and became a couple before the world went to shit. At some point, Raine and Isaac would have been good friends (possibly on/off lovers.) I kind of like to think that Raine had Lilly some years before everything went to shit. So Lilly would have grown up around MC and S****. It probably would have been quite a weird situation for her like you say, to know that her half-siblings were a couple. She likely would have felt somewhat left out and easily jealous. I like to think she was a teenager when everything went badly on the surface and they all had to go underground. I never specified how many years they were all stuck down there, but it would have been a lot. So Lilly would have done most of her growing up in the lab, separated from her half-siblings and manipulated by her dad.
I always imagined that S**** was older than the MC + that Isaac was older than Raine. Lilly would be a fair bit younger than MC and S****. Everyone in lab is older than they look though because they were using various methods to stay alive beyond natural means (like S****'s artificial implants Isaac made for him.)
As for how OG MC and S**** met, if I'm completely honest, I don't know x3 I had never really given it much thought before! When I was writing the story, I just kinda knew that I wanted to write about a couple with a bond that was so strong they could survive crazy amounts of hardship. So I just sorta thought of them as always having been in love, kinda like destiny pre-dertmined it, haha.
I never really gave it that much thought about whether S**** has a bit of a possessive streak like the Kuro's. I think that he probably has the capacity to become like them under the right circumstances, because at the end of the day, MC is the most important thing in the world to him, and I don't think he'd ever give up on the idea of being with her. We don't see what might have happened had OG MC rejected him upon waking up... that could be an interesting alternate route, haha. I was tempted to put a choice for something like that in there, but I decided I couldn't do it, because there was already so much suffering in the game, and to me, OG MC would never reject S**** so I decided that the player wasn't allowed to make any choice about their relationship, haha. I think it's possible he could snap in that sorta situation though!
There's no need to apologise anyhow :3 I don't mind answering questions + it's nice to discuss the game! I'm just happy that you enjoyed it so much <3
I can't say for sure that Dollmaker Kuro is the most yandere one, I'm happy to leave that one up for others to judge, but I definitely think he is the most messed up x3 He's the most innocent seeming of them all, but probably also the one most likely to do ANYTHING to keep the MC for himself, haha. Hence why he had that big ol mountain of clone body parts in his hideout which he thought he was 'fixing' >.< haha. Bless him!
I'm glad that my answers made sense! Cos I know I tend to ramble on a lot x3 haha.
SPOILERS
What you said about S**** screaming for MC before she was cloned is pretty spot on :D I mean, I didn't state it for certain in the game, so it's open to interpretation. It could be as you said, or it could just be that it's not technically S****, more like just part of the MC's subconscious memory fragments of him. Like her own memory telling her, you've forgotten something/someone important and you need to remember what it is. I don't mind it being either of those :3
As for why Kuro is called Kuro, you're pretty much right again with one of the things you said :3 Isaac was fine experimenting on OG MC and all her clones because she doesn't really mean anything much to him (kinda just a tool to use), whereas with S**** being his son, S**** means a lot more to Isaac, and he would prefer to sorta disassociate the Kuro's from his son.
That's the story reason anyhow.
Then there's the totally separate reason of just thinking of the general theme of black & white, light & darkness sorta thing. The Kuro's are all like twisted shadow versions of S****, but I couldn't just call the characters Black and White, cos that would sound a bit odd. So I decided to call them that in Japanese instead... it's terribly nerdy, I know >.< haha.
Yeah, poor S**** ended up becoming pretty twisted over time having to watch all of that going on, the poor guy :(
SR and Kuro are like my baby, haha, so it means so much whenever anyone says they really enjoyed playing it :3 I have suffered with anxiety and depression for most of my life, which has resulted in me having pretty crappy self-confidence, which then causes me to think negatively about anything I do. For example, there were many times (and there still are now) that my brain says what I'm doing sucks or isn't good enough >.< So when I hear positive comments, it really helps me to fight back against that negative part of me and help me believe in myself a little more! So thank you :3
I first heard the word Solipsism when I was playing Mass Effect 2. Thane mentioned it in a line and I just thought, wtf is that? I went to look it up immediately, ended up spending ages reading about it cos it was so fascinating, haha. I'll be honest, even now, I still find the concept a little difficult to wrap my head around >.< I wanted to be able to include it somehow though, even if I don't fully understand it!
If you take the true end as being 'reality', then I guess it would probably be a happy ending for everyone, including the clones :3 It's very open to interpretation what happened to them all, but I don't think that OG MC would have let anything bad happen to them. I like to think that they just let them freely live their own lives :D
This is probably alteasy ibvious but I'm also not really sure but is MC's canon name Anathema? Or us that name actually for the player? If that is so, does the og!MC have a canon name?
Alsoooo with your confirmation, yeaahh S****'s comment about Kuro having a black heart makes sense. I don't think that Shiro meant that line for dollmaker Kuro but to all the Kuros probably because of how they treated her in the bad ends. Alsoooo since they all came from S****, was the first Kuro before he was put in a simulation and experienced bad ends, not a yandere but slowly became one over the routes or was he tweaked to be a yandere from the very beginning thus them being a shadow if S**** from the very beginning.
In the Princess route, when Kuro disappeared, they took him out of the simulation right? How did he know that that particular scenario was nearing it's end? Was he getting instructions from Raine?
Also in terms of bad ends, my favourite ones happened to be in the mage route where the player did not find another way and just straight up knocked on the door. It's because Kuro said that she can do better next time. That actually clued me in somehow that he knows the MC can timetravel. Sooo does he retain those memories too? Of every bad end and then becomes happy when the player chooses the better choice? My other favourite is when the MC surrendered to the villain in the detective route and Kuro says that he can't live without her, and how when she rejected life, she rejected him. It was actually the voice acting in those parts that made it my favourite, but also, because it made me think of a hypothesis. Kuro just wants to save the MC by all means. But if she made a bad choice it's game over. Kuro wants to set things right (to save her or for her to love only him), but the only way to set things right is for the MC to have a bad end, thus letting her fix her mistake. But with Kuro's feelings, he sometimes goes overboard.
I can understand now though why there are so many bad ends. Out of all the VNs I've played, this ine of those which have the most hahaha. I guess I'm actually thankful that the CGs aren't as detailed as those in commercial VNs so atleast I don't have to actually see the bad ends jn a much more graphic manner. I've played many otome games in the past so I'm used to bad ends, but I don't really like violence or gore but it's fine for me in some cases IF they make sense in the overall plot of the story. Sooo I guess I just speed read the bad endings when they became a bit more graphic but as they are integral to the plot, I was able to bear with them albeit just speed reading a lot in some of them. (Oh yeah, kudos to the sound design, because that really added alot to the immersion) Oh yeah, there was this one bad end in the detective route that also really stood out to me, the one where the MC was trapped in the cell for so long. She enjoyed snow because it was cold. I think that it was her subconsciously remembering Kuro and how she missed him, cuz Kuro is icy to the touch hahaha. Actually that might actually be my favourite now that I think about it. It was moments like that that affirmed of their love for each other that pulled me in, be it in a bad end or in the lovely soft moments, those moments were the star of the game for me.
Alsooo now that I remember, I also enjoyed the different details on the similarities and differences between the Kuros, like all of them are cold to the touch, but the way they give power is different, like Detective route Kuro has to slit his palm and hold hands with the MC to transfer power, sooo it made them unique in their own. As if each route was a whole other life of its own, even if it was only just a simulation.
Another thing, I also liked that Kuro was kind and considerate in some times, like when he was makimg breakfast for the MC also that he tended to blush a lot and was even almost crying in soft moments. That kind of vulnerability and openness also sold me on how real the character felt, and how real their love was soooo yeah I really really love how you wrote the characters and their interactions.
I really like reading your explanations by the way hahaha and I'm happy that you explain them well too.
Now that I think about it, Kuro is actually similar to another otome game character that I also loved, Ukyo from Amnesia. They are both kind, loving, and protective of the MC. And it was the bad ends that drove them to their yandere side, or split personality in Ukyo's case. But they still try their best to save the MC. That just made me love Kuro more hahaha.
I'm three routes into SR, and I just wanted to say: thank you.
I play a lot of story-driven games, be it mystery or drama or romance, free or commercial, big or small budgets... A handful of times, I've come across titles made by small dev teams or dev persons trying their best to tell new, surprising stories in spite of the limited resources they had. Those particular games are few and far between, but they have always had a special place in my heart as a player, and they end up staying with me for years. So I was pretty excited when I came across your profile and read the description for this one. And it doesn't disappoint! <3
It's super obvious that a lot of love went into it. I really appreciate you going the extra mile and having an OP (which is super catchy, by the way, I've been singing it for several days). As I appreciate you wanting to include as many CG as you possibly could - I do agree with some of the other commenters, though, CGs aren't the most important feature in an otome. Plus, you can always add more later down the line should you want to and have more funds to dedicate to them. ^^
To me, the main point of interest is the story. And while it's not always perfect (the student route could've been more developed, for example, imho), I'm loving what you're doing so far. You have a pretty interesting concept to begin with, and you're using it in really clever ways -- I just can't wait to learn more about the bigger picture, but all the while, I never want to be done with this game, I'm too emotionally invested not to be sad when it's over. Finishing each route feels really bittersweet, which might be done on purpose?
And Kuro is... fascinating. I don't normally care for yanderes; in fact, I normally hate the trope, but the idea of a constant, invisible companion who's been with you since the very beginning of your life is really interesting. Such a relationship would be both desirable in a way, and a recipe for disaster. So, I find myself excusing a lot of things coming from him that I wouldn't if they came from garden-variety yandere characters (That, or it's just the fact that you write him so well and give him depth and layers, and that his VA is doing an amazing job). Either way, I'm weak for him, even at times when I really shouldn't...
So thank you for creating him. Thank you for making this game, for all the feelings and thoughts it spawned, and in advance for the other three routes (Detective/Gamer/???) which I'm sure will be a trip. Thank you for having the guts to carry the development process through to the end, which might not always have been easy. I love SR to bits already, and I'm glad it exists. And I'll definitely make sure to check your other works if I ever get back onto a PC. Hope you'll keep on being creative, and stay safe!
(PS: true story: I played Nintendogs as a tween; my first dog was a Shiba Inu I called 'Kuro'. So all the lines about him being a pet/a dog hit really weirdly. I think it says much about the strength of your character writing that I managed to overlook this and feel for this Kuro as intensely as I do. :D)
(Edited for clarity and to correct a couple of mistakes, because I'm not a native English speaker and wrote this at 3 A.M., still reeling from the end of the Princess route. Apologies if this comment is too long or confusing in any way ^^;)
Hey there! Thank you so much for taking the time to comment + for your kind words :D They're very appreciated <3
It's great that you play such a variety of games (and story-driven ones are my personal favourite to play too :3) and you decided to check SR out. I have a feeling a lot of people wouldn't touch it with it being a solo indie dev project with no funding, haha. So thank you for giving it a chance! I'm very honoured that you're enjoying it so far :D
I'm super happy you like the opening theme :3 There was a point where I was almost gonna give up on having one, cos the old version backing track just wasn't right >.< Then my boyfriend said he'd help make a brand new backing track. I had to change the lyrics a fair bit from what I originally had down in order to fit his track, but managed to keep the same meaning. It took weeks to make though xD
I totally agree in regards to the student route, haha. There's a reason for it, one being that it's not a setting that I particularly enjoy in stories, but my friend wanted me to write something in that sort of setting >.< I feel like because I'm not keen on that setting it had a lot less effort put into it than the other routes. On top of that, it was the very first route that I wrote, before I knew exactly where I wanted to take the story as a whole. By the time it got to the point that I was writing the ??? route, at least a year had passed since I wrote the student one xD I did toy with the idea of completely rewriting it since I wasn't happy with it, or leaving it out altogether, but my friend said I should just leave it as is x3 I do feel like it's not to the same standard as the other routes though >.<
The bittersweetness at the end of each route is indeed intentional :3 Hopefully, it'll all make sense when you get round to reading the ??? route :D I know the feeling about not wanting a game you're enjoying to be over. I had terrible trouble finishing the Mass Effect series for that reason xD It took me a long time to start 3. I kept going back and replaying 1 & 2, always too afraid to start 3 cos I knew it would bring me closer to the end of the story :( Of course, I cried when I did eventually play and finish 3, haha. The good news is, the last 3 routes you have left to play are the longest ones :D
I'm glad you find Kuro interesting :3 There's been a small amount of debate as to whether or not he's truly a yandere. It's a hard one to discuss really because I can totally see how some might think he's just a psycho if they come across certain bad endings in the initial routes without completing the game >.< I just hope that by the end of the ??? route anyone who is still playing will see that he's not a monster. I still personally think he fits the bill for a yandere, at least he's closer to that than any other character tropes that I know of, but I guess it's probably best for people to make up their own minds on that one.
Thank YOU for playing :3 When I was in the process of making it, because I struggle with anxiety and depression, I would sometimes tell myself that it was all pointless >.< but a little part of me would always fight back and say, no it's not. In the end, I came to the conclusion that as long as at least one person gets as much joy out of playing it as I did making it, then it was absolutely worth it. So whenever I receive a lovely comment like yours, it really warms my heart and means a hell of a lot to me :3
That's adorable that you had a dog called Kuro on Nintendogs :D My partner wants a shiba inu in real life, but I bet he wouldn't let me call it Kuro x3 Hehe, I can see how those lines would come across odd though!
I would never have known you weren't a native English speaker if you hadn't said :o Your English is brilliant! You don't need to apologise anyhow, it's not too long or confusing at all :3 I really enjoy reading any comments I get about the game.
I really hope that you continue to enjoy the routes that you have left to play through. I personally think that the ones you have left are the best 3 routes! Feel free to update your comment or write a new one as you progress through the game. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the other routes :D I hope you have fun with it! I also hope that you're managing to stay safe + having a wonderful week so far <3
I'd be happy to tell you what I thought of the last three paths, if/when the drive to play the game juuuust a little bit longer manages to be stronger than the fear of it being over ;:D (one more coincidence: as a Mass Effect superfan who has yet to properly finish ME3, I relate to everything you wrote to an almost frightening degree). You are doing a terrific job of introducing what's to come, though, and I really want to experience all of it! I think I'll get to Detective as soon as I have enough time to properly enjoy it. :) And then the others two, gradually.
On that note: boy oh boy, I did *not* think it was possible for me to get more hyped than I already was about the ??? route, but you somehow made that possible. Here's the thing: I LOVE true routes. They might be my favourite aspect of the genre (I think they're more of an otome thing than anything else, I'm not sure about many of those being in typically male-oriented dating sims...). So much so that if someone were to contact me tomorrow asking me to write a thesis on them, I'd be grateful. So much so that I'm currently teaching myself to code and write tiny multiple-choice stories for the sole purpose of one day being capable enough to release one specific game, which is basically just a huge pretext for having one of those :D (E.T.A.: 3430, if ever, given my current learning curve > <;) The idea of an entire dimension of the story not being accessible to the player at first is wild.
Kowing that, the fact that there is a true route in SR is reason enough for me to be giddy; doubly so because, judging from the game description, it seems pretty meaningful to the story as a whole and not there just because. And now you're teasing more character development, including a possible redemption arc, for our favourite Not-Yandere Yandere? Be still my heart.~
Again, this game has brought me so much joy already, and I'm not even at the halfway point. <3 If, as you wrote, making players happy was the mission you gave yourself when developing the game, then mission friggin accomplished.
I'll let you know when I'm done, then! In the meantime, thank you for sharing all of these details about your experience, as well as what went through your head during development. It was really interesting, and really pleasant to read. It's always neat to see how a project evolves from beginning to end. Also, getting SR all the way to release is all the more commendable given the effect anxiety/depression can have on productivity and the perception people have of their own work. All the kudos to you.
Have a lovely week as well (and then some ^^) and take care! <3
Hehe, well I hope you manage to finish ME3 someday too :3 I mean, I cried when it was all over, a lot xD But I'm so glad that I did finish it in the end. I think that I wasn't just scared of the story as whole being over, but also my Shep's romance with Garrus! In all the games I've ever played, Garrus remains my favourite romance option x3 I'm still hoping to play an otome someday with a LI that finally puts Garrus in second place, haha.
I'm a huge lover of true routes too :D I had no idea that it was more of an otome thing though :o That's really interesting! I wonder if that means when I finally release the BxG version of SR, dudes will be like, wtf?! at the true route x3 I think the first time I experienced something like it was when I played the otome game, Amnesia, and my mind was just blown xD It left so much of an impact on me that I just thought I have to make something like this someday, haha. Good luck with your learning and creating :D I'm sure you'll get there in the end! You're doing better than me... I'm too lazy to learn to code properly which is why I used Tyrano >.< haha.
Yeah, I don't wanna say too much regarding the true route stuff and accidentally spoil anything for you, but you're right, it is absolutely meaningful to the overall story rather than just there for the sake of it :3
Also, sorry for my slow reply x3 I didn't know whether I should actually reply or not! I'm kind of terrible at knowing when to stop a conversation xD In the end I just thought, why not? So feel free to tell me to shut up and go away, haha. Hope you've been well + having many super duper days :3 Stay safe <3
I can't open your game and I really don't understand why. So I have a 2019 macbook air with the latest update, I don't think it's a security problem and I tried to open both the standard and smaller version (also tried downloading it via MEGA, same problem).
This is the message I get every time I try to open the file, I read the "Known issues" file too and my problem doesn't seem to be listed. When I click on the little "?" I just get a blank white screen.
Hey hey! I'm really sorry to hear that you're having issues opening the game >.<
Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to be of much help :( I have never owned a Mac myself, so I don't really have any idea how they work. My boyfriend has a macbook for his work, so before I released the game, we tested it on his work macbook and it was all fine, but I have no idea what version his is or how old it is and stuff (I don't think it's particularly new though.) I can ask him, but I probably won't get a reply very quickly cos I'm at my dad's at the moment and my boyfriend doesn't respond to my messages much when I'm away xD
You're not the only person to have this issue though! I posted about it on the Tyrano support forums a while back when I was first told by someone using a mac that they couldn't get it to run on their device. The Tyrano devs themselves never got back to my support request >.< but other Tyrano users gave a few suggestions which I posted here. However, there's not much there to try, and you said you've looked at the document, which I think contains mostly the same info, so sadly, there's not much else I can suggest :(
It must be something to do with the way the game is packaged, but I don't know a whole lot about coding and stuff (which is why I chose to use Tyrano in the first place, haha.) The Tyrano devs haven't really given people who asked about it much in the way of help or answers to fix the issue. They sort of just concluded that it works for some people and not for others, then just left things at that >.< The following is a quote from one of the Tyrano (devs? not sure exactly who they are, but they're related in some official sort of capacity) people in response to a user support request:
'See if they are running mac or linux versions... they tend to have a love/hate relationship with nw.js and will sometimes work and sometimes not, just have them reboot their system and try again.'
That sorta suggests that they know there are issues there in general, but don't really know how to fix them for individual users. I guess it's probably very difficult to troubleshoot, and if I was a techy person, or had a studio with savvy people to turn to for advice, I might stand a chance of getting to the bottom of the issue, but as it is, I seem to be buggered T_T I will have to try and get a browser version of the game functioning at some point, so that those who can't launch it as a downloadable game will have an alternative option.
As a solo dev, it's very frustrating, because I put a hell of a lot of time and effort into the game, and then when I hear it doesn't work for some people who want to play it, and there's nothing I can do about it, it really sucks :( I'm sorry that there's not more I can do to help you. The Tyrano devs are well aware that there are issues with exporting games made using their software to Mac, but they just don't seem to be bothered about finding fixes for it. My support request was just sorta left hanging with no definite fix that works for everyone >.<
I know that's probably not the answer you were hoping for, but I really appreciate your interest in the game, and I'm sorry you aren't able to play it :( I hope that you have a lovely week + are managing to stay safe! :3
Sorry for the late response just started school a week ago TT. Uhh I am so bummed to not be able to try your game, it seems super interesting with great artwork. It's not the first time I had this problem so I kinda expected to be nothing else to do. Don't worry I understand your frustration, it's 100% valid. Hope to be able to play one day.
No worries, you don't need to apologise :3 You must have been super busy! I hope you're settling in okay with school, especially with how tough times are across the world at the moment.
Yeah, I know I already said it once, but I'm so sorry that I'm not of much use when it comes to troubleshooting that sorta thing :( It really sucks that you're unable to check the game out because it won't run >.<
I did also try to create an android app version, but I had to give up for now because it's so darn confusing! I might have another go at that sometime though, alongside trying to eventually get a browser version to function. I wanted as many people as possible to be able to play it, so it's a real bummer that it's only really working properly on windows.
Thanks again, stay safe, good luck with school, and I hope your week is awesome :3
Hello!! ^w^ I hope i'm not bothering you but I just finished up the game and I can't explain how AMAZING this game is. You see I'm a visual novel lover and lately I haven't found anything good but then I came across this and i was BLOWN AWAY. When I first came into this game I thought it was gonna be something that would shock me at times or have some cute/gore moments but I had so many emotions playing this game. Mostly Joy (( and screaming at the bad endings cuz DAMN! 🤣 ))
SPOILERS AHEAD
When i was playing these routes my favorite yandere ended up being the Kuro from the Mage route and I was a little upsetti when I had to part with him to go onto another route but my second favorite is definitely the Kuro from the detective route. I always had a love for Male Yandere characters and it's sad that there is not much out there for Male yanderes so when i found this I was beyond excited. I first decided to play the game normally then try to go for the ??? Route by triggering all the bad endings (( and lemme tell you, to get the bad ending with Kuro from the detective route by kissing Farro i was screaming my head off knowing the moment I stepped into my house I would have an angry yandere waiting to murder me! 🤣)) and once I unlocked the ??? Route I cannot look at the past Kuros/MC's the same again. I didn't really feel a connection to Shiro and the OG MC as I thought I would but I had a connection with 339 and 13 (( i think that's the Kuro with the braid)) and i cried for a few minutes when they died (( i was just praying they are together and happy wherever they are Q~Q )) Anywho~! Enough of my rambling (( since I ramble a lot 🤣)) I was hoping if you could answer a few questions of mine?
1. What happened to the MC's in the previous routes? Did they fail and end up being terminated like the other previous MC's? Or are they alive?
2. Why did Isaac only make a low number of Kuro's then MC's? I know Shiro hated the whole thing so I was wondering.
3. Since I'm an explorer I noticed that in the extras there is another ??? And I clicked on it and it took me a website that requires a password. Is there any hint to it? Or is it no longer available anymore?
I hope I didn't take too much of your time!! and i hope you can understand my rambling! 🤣 Thank you so much for making this game and helping me get this whole virus situation off my mind for a bit and I hope you are safe throughout these troubling times!
Hey hey! You're not bothering me at all :3 I really love hearing from you guys <3 It means so much to me when anyone takes the time to comment about the game ^-^
I'm super duper happy you enjoyed the game :3 I know it's not exactly your standard otome, but I'm really glad that there are people who still like it. Positive comments like yours really brighten my day, and as a sufferer of anxiety and depression, it can have a huge impact on my mood, so thank you very much for being so sweet <3
I'm a big VN fan myself and have also struggled to find stuff I really enjoy lately! I've got quite a big backlog built up which I've been working on very slowly, but it seems like a lot of the stuff I've been reading has been quite samey, almost as though all the characters are just copy pasted into a different setting and given a new look >.< I'm sure there will be something in my backlog that will blow me away though! I just have to be patient, haha. I feel very honoured that you consider SR to be amazing :3
It also makes me really happy to hear that the game helped distract you from the virus situation for a bit :3 Honestly, those last few months of making SR helped me deal with the lockdown due to the virus. I think if I didn't have the project to finish/work on, I might have gone insane x3 When the lockdown was announced, I was in pieces cos I was due to go back and visit my family, but that plan was ruined. I knew I wouldn't be seeing my family for ages (and we're super close to the point that my normal life involves traveling up and down the country between my boyfriend's place and my dad's so that I can live with both of em equally) so I was pretty devastated. Focusing on SR was a real saver for my sanity!
SPOILERS BELOW
Aww, that's cool that you liked mage Kuro the best :3 I don't think anyone else has mentioned him being a favourite so far! I really wish there was more male yandere content around since they tend to be my favourites in any games with romance, haha. I will always include at least one yandere romance option in any game I make in the future cos they absolutely need more love and attention :3
Speaking of yandere characters in general, it seems to be quite hotly debated what actually makes a yandere a yandere, and not just a psycho, or a yangire. I know Kuro isn't exactly a typical yandere, and that yandere characters generally wouldn't kill their S/O, but I'm really hoping that the ??? route explained things well enough for anyone who plays the game to see that Kuro isn't a monster at least x3 Cos I know one or two people started the game wanting yandere content, but got to a few bad endings and stopped playing cos they said Kuro isn't yandere >.< The trouble is, unless a player finishes the ??? route, they won't have the full picture, so I guess in that sense, Kuro could come across as a psycho instead of a yandere.
I would like to think 339 and 13 are happy :3 They got to go out on their own terms, and in a way, they both live on inside the heart of OG MC, so they're not completely gone from the world. They ended up becoming my favourite pair (339 and 13) so I think they accidentally stole the show from OG MC and Shiro x3
*High five* for the rambling :D I'm terrible for rambling on myself, haha. I don't mind people rambling at all, I just hope that you don't mind me rambling right back at ya xD I'm more than happy to answer questions :3 I know that in regards to the ??? route, I didn't actually write anywhere near as much of what was in my head into the final story, so there's a lot of backstory and stuff that never really got touched on in the game cos I was worried people would get bored if I did a big lore dump on em, haha.
1. I left this kinda open to the player the same as I did with not really stating for sure where the Kuro's from those routes ended up (mainly cos I couldn't decide for sure exactly how I wanted it to go.) It can certainly be interpreted that both the MC's + the Kuro's were terminated, but in my head, I liked to think that all the Kuro's were the weary Kuro that you meet in the white training room (the one you kill to set free), and all the MC's are number 26 (the protagonist who commits suicide to try and escape the whole cycle.) Meaning the pairs you play as in the initial 5 routes are all that particular Kuro and 26.
They are a successful pairing cos despite all the horrible stuff that happens during bad endings, that pair always make it to a good ending together :3 26 has her memory wiped each time, so she doesn't really have much awareness as to what's going on, whereas poor Kuro only gets partial wipes, so he pretty much remembers all the horrible stuff, but can't do anything to stop it, which is why he's so worn out and hollow when you see him in the white room.
However, where it gets kinda confusing in terms of stuff I didn't explain in the game, sometimes a unit may be destroyed even if it's successful due to various reasons. Isaac just keeps transferring the mindset of each successful version of the MC into a new body whenever old bodies begin to fail. And even though there were only 5 routes for the player to go through, in my head, this had been going on for a looooong time, so there would have been tonnes more simulations going on. 26 basically has the minds of every successful MC inside her + her own sort of consciousness too.
Then when 26 commits suicide, her experiences get transplanted to 339. Of course, Isaac always gets the lab workers to make tweaks so that the subjects only remember what he wants them to, but Raine interferes with that in 339, so that 339 can access all the experiences of 26 and the other MC's that were a part of her. That then happens again when 339's consciousness is transferred to OG MC to save her, so then OG MC is herself, but she also has countless versions of her clone's minds inside her head as well, including 339 and 26.
I'm sorry if that's super confusing x3 I know I just basically splurged all my head ramblings out there and I don't know if it makes much sense, haha. At the end of the day, I'm happy for people to interpret it the way they want to, but in my head, all those previous MC's the player plays as are a part of 26 in the ??? route, so in a way, they're alive still, and stay alive by being a part of OG MC at the end.
2. This is another thing I didn't really explain in the game, but in my head, there were about an even number of Kuro's to MC's in the lab. However, they went through more MC's than they did Kuro's since she was being more heavily tested than the Kuro's. So a lot of the Kuro's they made would have remained sorta in storage xD I was imagining that there were huge blocks of cells, separated into Kuro's and MC's, with some blocks just containing units that hadn't even been activated yet, and others being more like prison cells where awakened units were kept under tight control when not being tested. In the game, you only really see Isaac and Raine working there, plus the odd few unnamed lab workers, but in my head, I was thinking it was a huge lab with loads of workers doing the same experiments that Isaac was doing. It's just Isaac paid more attention to the candidates most likely to succeed, so the story focused on his work, rather than the countless unsuccessful trials going on throughout the rest of the lab.
In general though, the experiments were more focused on the MC than they were on Kuro, cos it was the MC that Isaac wanted to weaponise. The Kuro's were more like a tool used to cause extra pain and suffering for Isaac to extract I guess >.<
3. The page should still be available, and provided it's still functioning correctly, you should be able to access it using the password: Anathema (I think I set it so you have to type it like that was a capitol A at the start, cos it didn't give me options to allow multiple versions of the password.) There isn't a whole lot on the page just yet, but I plan on expanding it. For now, it's just a tiny little bonus :3
You absolutely didn't take too much of my time! As I said earlier, I really love to hear people's thoughts on the game, and I enjoy discussing it :3 Sorry for rambling on in my answers to your questions, and sorry if I didn't answer them particularly well >.< Feel free to ask away if you want anything clarified or you think of other stuff to ask :D
Thanks again for your kind words, they mean a hell of a lot to me <3 I hope you have a wonderful week + that you're managing to stay safe in this crazy world ^-^
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR REPLYING! And I really do think this game should get more recognition! (( i already told my sisters about it 🤣 )) I find everything about it beautiful and your answers to my questions are perfectly understandable don't worry! I will also definitely support any game you upload because thats how much I enjoyed this game! I look forward to what you plan in the future! Thank you again for replying and im glad I made you happy with my review! (( And * high fives* GLAD TO KNOW THERE IS MANY OF PEOPLE WHO RAMBLE AS MUCH AS I DO! 🤣😁)) I hope you have a wonderful day!
Thank YOU for playing and taking the time to comment :3 I hope your sisters enjoy it too if they decide to give it a go!
I'm currently working on the writing for CiQ (and there's gonna be an otome version as well as the original yaoi version I started for the jam) + a secret side project (which is part audio drama, part VN) haha. So hopefully, you'll enjoy those when they're released ^-^
Thank you again for your kind words and support :3 Hooray for ramble power xD Hope you have a wonderful day yourself!
Consider my mind officially blown :DHow you managed to put together such a heartwrenching game of this length as a solo dev for free (I presume this wasn't funded cos I couldn't find anything online about it) I don't know! It's clear a lot of love and work went into the project and it shows.
My biggest criticism is the art really. I alsmot didn't play at all cos I don't like the look of the sprites. I'm so glad I decided to give it a chance just for the story though cos it's the best VN I've read in ages!! All the big otome commercial releases have been pretty dull recently so it's nice to find something completely different. The writing is so much more engaging than the usual otome with the same boring descriptions of stuff in every game. Honestly if the art was nicer this would probably be my favorite VN of all time!
If anyone is reading this make sure you get the??? Route unlocked and get all the endings cos its just O.O I knew there was something going on but I guessed completely wrong what it was.
Spoiler
I already got tricked a few times when I thought the game was over and it wasn't cos there was that surprise bit at the end as well :P That dude is hella creepy but I love iiiiiit!!! Can't wait to see more about that mysterious character. That??? Route though is just awesome :D It's like a whole other standalone game! I thought it was gonna just be like a bonus little thing or something but it was like the length of all the other routes combined. Reminded me of new game + in rpgs!! I kinda wanted 13 and mc to live happily ever after cos they were my favorite pair so I will pretend the ending where they leave together is the true one T_T but I still loved the real true ending!!
I'm so sorry for my super slow reply! For some reason, I didn't get any kind of notification for your comment >.< so I only just saw it after getting notifications for a couple of other comments recently.
Thanks for taking the time to comment! I'm really glad you enjoyed the game :3 You're correct that it wasn't funded. The only money that went into it was what little I could afford from my own pocket, haha. Which for me (being perma poor) was actually quite a lot of money T_T The sprite creation software alone cost me over £100, as did the purchasing of background art and stuff, but it was still much cheaper than hiring artists, which I definitely couldn't afford >.<
I'm glad you decided to give it a chance too :3 As I've said in previous comments, I'm not particularly happy with the sprite art myself either, haha, sadly, it was pretty much my only option since I'm not a very good artist myself and lack the money to hire one. If I ever do happen to have the funds at some point, I'd love to remake the game with better sprites!
Just wanted to say I love this so much!!! Not finished it yet so will update with a proper review when I do. Really enjoying it so far and can't believe you would make such a unique and awesome game for free! The voice acting is just <3 I'm in love. Thank you for this!
Aww, I'm super glad that you're enjoying the game so far :3 I hope you continue having fun with it! It means a lot to me when anyone lets me know that they like it ^-^
Oh boy so i'm writing this as I play the last of the true route, (at least I THINK its the last....i got faked out once already e.e), so i'm sorry if this review is a bit disjointed as I literally just rolled out of bed and realized 'oh yeah, i need to scream into the void more about this game'.
So here we are! First the spoiler free stuff obviously.
Now knowing what I do about the hidden route most of my complaints about the main routes kinda fizzles out. Kuro's slight apathetic reactions despite supposedly being yandere, why tf kuro was drugging me at the end of every. goshdang. route, the plotholes i noticed in a few of the routes, all that pretty much evaporated once I got into the hidden route (bless my parents heart for not asking why I was screaming what the f at my monitor yesterday afternoon xD).
Overall, while hindsight is/was 20/20, for what they were revealed to be i feel like the main routes were perfect and a fun little trip into different worlds with my favorite yandere boi.
Then we got to the hidden route.
SPOILERS
Okay, hopefully the fresh eyes are gone now and I can rant because OH MY GOD.
Like i had nailed pretty quickly I was in a sort of simulation but I had not imagined the exact way in which I was correct. I assumed the hidden route was gonna be me busting out of my controlled stasis, tracking down kuro, and smooching him as we ran off into the sunset (which, i mean, there was an ending for that xD).
Boy do I miss those days of innocence.
So full disclosure, I haven't read the comments, so maybe we have some word of god clearing some of this up but I guess i'll get onto my main complaint.
Kuro 13 is very obviously not the one we experienced the routes with, and as Isaac said, he needed a bonded pair for his plan to work. I kind of get the feeling Student Route!Kuro (he looks the most simillair and lacks a number so i gotta make him some kind of alias) was the one we went through the routes with...so i was kinda dissapointed that he and 26(did i get the number right? xD) weren't the protagonists of the main story as i felt that through hell and high water bond didn't really transfer to 336 and 13.
SPEAKING OF 336 AND 13 HOW DARE YOU MAKE ME LOVE THEM AND THEN DO THAT!
God, once i got into 336 i was fighting my rapidly growing attatchment to 13 because I always assumed Shiro was the endgame but I did appreciate how neither he nor 336 were ever attracted to one another. The way he recognized she wasn't the woman he loved, despite sharing some memories, and she viewed herself as fundamentally a different person than her originator was a really nice twist on the usual way I see these stories go.
I was already planning out fairly humerous family dynamics between 336, 13, raine, lily, and shiro when the end of 336's route hit me like a gawddang truck. Not that I minded how it ended, there was never going to be a truly happy ending for the pair in the real world (or maybe in the desert ending the saved the world on their own rather casually, as 13 is rather good at combat and 336....well she's MC's final form).
But then after 336 and 13 sacrificed themselves I lost what remaining emotional ties I had to the character I was playing. Like Shiro is/was great and MC deserved to live after what she went through. But everything I felt after that just came down to empathy, i felt like I was reading a story rather than living it, which maybe was the whole point and i'm just an idiot.
And that concludes my review, final result: how dare you make me feel these feels
okay in all seriousness though xD This is/was an amazing ride and I fully intend to update this review when I finish the true end fully but as I kind of lost that emotional connection to the protagonist when she died to save her predecessor I figured this was a good time to sit down and compose my jumbled thoughts into a review/comment.
I've been following this project since I first found it posted as a game where the yandere love interest was the main focus (which huge props for pulling off and still managing to make engaging!) and i'm so glad to see it made it to completion, since it was a free game and all i had my doubts/worries, but this game has made me feel things that most commercial vn's rarely do nowadays, and much as I hate myself knowing what's in store I will definitely be back if/when the GxG version is out (would be back for the others but i really can't play a male protag xD)
Take care of yourself and have a great day! <3
Edit: I'm back, MC is happy, and I would very much like to bang/romance the mysterious voice even if it's a terrible idea kthxbai!
Hey hey! I read your comment/review when I first got up this morning, and it gave me a huge smile to start the day (especially that last PS bit xD That made me laugh out loud!) Thank you so much for sticking with SR all the way through to the end + taking the time to share your thoughts on it afterwards, it's much appreciated :3
I'm super glad you felt slightly differently about the main 5 routes after playing through the hidden one, as one of my main worries with this project is that people may not feel like getting that far, which will end up leading to misunderstandings >.< I guess I probably shouldn't say too much on that subject in case I accidentally manage to spoil something xD but the main point is, the hidden route is pretty essential to the overall story of the game, so without going through it, people could draw some very different conclusions about the story, and about Kuro in general. So yeah, thank you very much for choosing to complete the story!
SPOILERS AHEAD
I'm happy to hear that the theme/reveal of the hidden route still managed to surprise you somewhat, cos I wanted to give the reader some hints throughout the other routes that something wasn't quite right, but I didn't really know if I was maybe giving too much away to the point that people might guess exactly what was going on.
I don't know if you will have ended up reading any of the comments for possible clarification of anything since I'm only just getting a chance to write a response now, but if you did want to know the answers to a bunch of stuff related to the hidden route in more detail, I wrote quite a lot in a recent couple of comments in response to user Sayana34, and I think I also answered some stuff in earlier comments too :3 I would type out more stuff here, but I think I'd probably end up repeating myself a lot + rambling on like I usually do xD I hope you don't mind walls of text though, cos I'm still gonna respond to stuff I haven't covered before, haha.
I did cover the first main pairing of the hidden route with 26 + the Kuro who I tended to just refer to as the defeated/weary Kuro (the one whose throat you slit) in my reply to Sayana34, but I did kinda ramble a lot, so I'll try to summarise for a shorter answer x3 Basically, in my head, the Kuro who you go through the training with in the white room + slit his throat, is the "real" version of the Kuro you were with in the main 5 routes, BUT, only in my head xD I didn't say so in the story cos I couldn't decide if I wanted to state that as the absolute truth >.< Because in some ways I wanted those 5 main Kuro's to be various Kuro clones, rather than all the same one. So I guess the player can choose what they prefer to believe on that front x3 I'm sorry for killing them off so fast though! I mean, 26 technically survived by having some of her memories transferred to/becoming part of 339, haha, but I know it's not really the same thing. They were just kinda in the way when it came to wanting to tell 339 + 13's story >.< But yeah, if you wanna read a giant wall of text with more details, feel free to check out that other comment :3
In a roundabout way, Isaac's crazy plan kinda succeeded, though not really in the way he had intended. It was more like 339 + 13's sacrifice in order to save OG MC had the happy side-effect of creating the sort of weapon Isaac was trying to create. 13 definitely wasn't ideal for Isaac since he had essentially been discarded a long time ago. I guess 339 was closer to what he was hoping for in the MC (though he certainly didn't want all the non-compliance that came with 339 after what Raine did xD) I'm rambling again so I'll move on >.<
You're absolutely not an idiot for feeling the way you did regarding the switch to playing as OG MC with Shiro. I also covered the switch to them in my reply to Sayana34, as they pretty much said the same sorta thing as you regarding feeling that way towards playing as OG MC, haha. Now, I would love to be able to sit here and state that that was my intention to make the reader feel that way, but that would be a lie xD It's more like something that just happened by accident! >.< In a way, I'm kinda pleased that people feel somewhat detached from OG MC + Shiro's story at the very end. The way you put it, as though you're reading a story rather than living it, sorta seems like a fitting way for it all to end! I actually wish I had written it that way intentionally x3 I just like the fact that you can get into being the clones, but OG MC is like someone totally separate that you watch from afar, cos then it's like you're still one of the clones when it switches to OG MC, in the way that you've been transferred to her, and you're a part of her, but you're not her, you're a passenger rather than the driver.
I get that it could be seen as a bad thing too though, and it's my fault for getting way too attached to 339 + 13 when I was writing their story. The pair of them wound up becoming more important to me than OG MC + Shiro, and I guess that ended up showing in my writing of OG MC's final story. To me, 339 + 13 were the true heroes of the story, and without them, there couldn't have been anything close to a happy ending for everyone else. I reckon if the pair of em were selfish, and hadn't sacrificed themselves, they probably would've been capable of saving the world as they were, just the two of em! Man, I'm rambling again xD As I said though, feel free to check out the other comments if you're not bored with my rambling by now and want to read more detail, haha.
I'm super happy you enjoyed the game overall anyhow :3 It sounds like you're a similar kinda player to me, haha, I can't play as a male protagonist either x3 usually cos I'm self-inserting when I read VNs, so a male protagonist just kills immersion for me! I'm probably not gonna be releasing a GxG version anymore, cos it's just too much work :( however, I probably will make a version with female Kuro where the protagonist is gender neutral (and the same with male Kuro x gender neutral protagonist to replace the BxB version.)
In regards to your PS, you might get what you wish for someday xD I have a lot of future plans for that character, but haven't quite worked out how I wanna execute em yet, haha. So all I can say for now is, that definitely won't be the last you hear from him x3
Thanks so much again for taking the time to write up your comment/review, and for your support in general, it means a hell of a lot to me <3 Stay safe + have a wonderful week! :3
Hi! I especially made this account so that I could comment about this game and my god, I must say the game was quite mind boggling and till the end I was on the edge of my seat. It was so different from any other type of games I had played pertaining to this type of genre I.e. otome. Everytime i made any choices it was very hard to predict how the character interactions would be and everytime i would get anxious because i must say even the good choices would have a huge amount of angst to them before something good actually happens but that made this game even more than unique actually and it made me love it even more. Weirdly i digged the yandere ML a lot and i who usually avoids bad endings like plaque in any game secretly digged all those bad endings and enjoyed it immensely. They were very creative and fun to read. I loved princess route kuro the most for I found him the most sensible out of all kuros. I liked the fact that each character in the story had actual depth to them and lot of thought was put into constructing their character which makes us understand why kuro is the way he is. Although there are still some stuffs which I am a bit confused about and I want to ask about in the spoiler section below.
SPOILERS
Firstly I want to ask what happened to the kuros of other routes? I read in one of the comments replies before that you had in mind that all the kuros appearing in other routes were one and the same. So I was wondering what happened to that kuro, was it 13 that we saw or someone else altogether.
Secondly I felt kinda confused (although I may be a bit stupid to not have been able to catch it) that in order to create the ultimate weapon why was it necessary to run so many simulation trials as such and what was kuros role in that? I kinda get the fact the OG MC was designed biotechnologically to have those amazing super powers so her body became weaponized but I am still a bit lost about all those simulation trials and kuros role in it especially and why did shiro's organs stopped functioning? (my poor shiro!)
I feel there was lot of breaking of fourth wall right? I mean in the secret route even if we get some bad ends it would toggle up and my suspicions were confirmed especially after the true end. At first I thought that even the secret end was nothing more than some dream and after I am done with this route I will get some scenery change where I may finally confront the mysterious voice calling me anathema, i mean knowing this otome i felt it was highly likely but that was a v funny surprise.
I really wanted to know more about the backstory of OG MC and shiro relationship and their dynamics with isaac, Raine and Lilly even in a brief backstory. That would have made me feel more attached to the og characters more because as someone else said I still keep on feeling that 339 and 13 r the true protags in my heart because of sheer amount of attachment I felt for them and their not so cute love story hehe.
Lastly i greatly enjoyed the game and i must say i am so so surprised that it was a solo project without any kickstarter backup and to top it all it's free! In my opinion the story is so well written that it could easily become a commercial project and I wouldn't mind purchasing it. However, my only problem is regarding the sprites where I would have preferred a more mature looking kuro than the feminine one and more polished art work but hey I ain't complaining, the story more than makes up for it and plus it's free! I am really very happy and grateful that u put out such an amazing story for all of us to enjoy and I can see lots of thought had gone into it. Although the narrative sometimes felt like it was coming in bits and pieces especially when truth was slowly coming over to surface but it was also great in it's own way, it gave an atmospheric feeling to it and kept on building up the suspense till the climax and must I say the voice acting was so amazing especially the sound effects for kissing scenes haha and the opening and ending themes were amazing! U really broke the stereotypes of otome genre and also the cliched storyline which I was kinda expecting like the mc travelling to different dimensions or something like that. Thanks once again for this amazing game and sorry if somewhere I came off as a bit critical in my comments.
I will kinda stop with this long comment now haha, but I would be very happy if my confusions can be cleared and keep on doing the good work as ur really v talented!
Hey hey! Aww, thank you so much for taking the time to type out your thoughts on the game :3 I really appreciate it <3 I saw the notification of your post when I woke up this morning, and reading everything you wrote gave me a smile to start the day :D Sorry my reply is a bit slow >.< I started typing it out earlier, but then I was rambling on so much that I realised I had to stop to get other stuff done xD
I'm super glad you enjoyed the game :3 I guess the high amount of bad ends + the yandere-ness will put many people off >.< but it was important for me to show that Kuro isn't a monster.
I feel like if I had some kinda funding then I could have made the game even better, because I wasn't 100% happy with the sprites myself >.< Tim (who voiced Kuro) made a good point when I spoke to him that the sprites suit his voice pretty well, which I agree with :3 Buuuuut, at the same time, I feel like most of the Kuro's look a little too feminine. If I had the money to hire a sprite artist, I could have had Kuro look the way he did in my head while I was writing, but instead, I was stuck with doing my best using the creator I bought because it was the only thing I could afford, haha. It didn't really contain much to help you make male characters, so I had to try and make Kuro look as male as possible while using female parts xD Which is why the bodies look kinda odd, cos they're technically flat-chested female sprites (aside from you know who in the hidden route, cos that was the only male sprite body in the set!) >.<"
It makes me super duper happy that you think the story is of a commercial sorta standard :3 I think a lot of people pass over playing indie VNs (especially free ones) cos they just assume that they will suck/be low quality by default >.< So I'm glad you decided to give SR a chance \^_^/
You don't need to apologise anyhow :3 I really enjoyed reading your opinions, and constructive criticism is great because it's helpful to know what sorta things people like, and what they dislike about it for future projects :D It would be cool to remake the game in the future with better sprites, but it would require quite a lot of money I think because of how many there are >.<
I'm also glad you enjoyed the voice acting :3 A lot of people seem to be pretty put off by English voice acting because of bad dubs and stuff, haha, but I think the cast did an awesome job, and I'm so grateful that they gave their time to help me with the project! I guess a lot of VNs come from Japan, so people are used to hearing Japanese voice acting, but I love English voice acting too, so ideally, I'd love to have all my projects voiced in English. When it came to telling the voice actors to make kissing sounds in the script, I was so embarrassed to ask them to do that x3 but I guess it's all part of the job for them.
I'll go ahead and try my best to answer your questions below :3
SPOILERS
In regards to all the Kuro's that you meet in the initial 5 routes, I hadn't decided 100% on exactly what their place was in the hidden route. They could either be a bunch of different Kuro's that you don't actually meet, or, as you mentioned, they could all be the same Kuro. The same goes for the protagonist that you play as in those 5 routes I guess, it could be either way since I decided not to actually go into detail within the game. However, the way it was in my head was that the protagonist you play as in the first 5 routes is the same person, and the Kuro that you meet in those routes is the same Kuro. So in the hidden route, that particular pairing is considered a successful pairing :3 Whereas when you start the hidden route, you play as clones in the idol and cadet scenarios who are considered unsuccessful, and so they are terminated.
I always thought of it as though protagonist number 26 in the hidden route is the same protagonist you play as in the original 5 routes. The first Kuro you meet as 26 (the one whose throat you slit to set him free) in my mind, is the same Kuro that you were with in the other 5 routes. 26 knows that he's Kuro, but she doesn't really remember much else because of all the wipes, and poor Kuro is forced to remember everything, which is why he's so weary and defeated. That Kuro has been through the 5 routes with you that you play + many more that you don't get to see in the story, so he's kinda just given up on life cos he can't see a way out of just being treated like a lab rat. He still dearly loves the protagonist, but he's so broken down that he just does what Isaac tells him to by that point because he no longer has the will to resist.
That's how it was in my head, but if you think about it like that, it's kinda sad because you spent all that time with that particular Kuro, and in the end, the only way you could save him was to kill him >.< and killing him doesn't even save him because they can just transfer his consciousness to another unit. I figured it would be better to just be kinda vague about him in the end, because I wanted to move the story on to focus on 339 and 13's story together. In a way, I suppose 26 lives on in 339 since parts of her mind were transferred after she eventually kills herself. I probably didn't explain the significance of 26 committing suicide in the story either >.< cos she is doing it so that she can escape the cruelty of the world around her, but also, she's been pushed to resorting to that because of Isaac, and Isaac was waiting for one of the clones to make that move because he wants his weapon to be willing to sacrifice everything to save humanity.
Since you don't actually see what happens to that Kuro whose throat you slit, anything could have happened to him, though probably nothing too good xD In my head, he was just locked away again (like he usually would be in between training sessions) after 26 kills herself. Later on when Raine opens all the cell doors + sets the alarm off though, he would have been freed from his room. We never see that version of Kuro again though, so after he was able to get out, anything could have happened to him. I guess I probably should have given the poor guy a little more attention to help clear things up with his personal story!
Kuro number 13/Dollmaker is one of the oldest/first units in the lab. He went through a fair few simulations in the beginning, but ultimately, they decided he wasn't performing as well as they would like. At that point in time, they didn't have tonnes of clones, so rather than eliminating them, they would just sorta dump em in a part of the lab that wasn't used. So 13 was replaced, the experiments continued over the years, but instead of being deactivated like what happens to the newer clones while you're playing, 13 was just wandering around the restricted section on his own for years, which kinda made him even more messed up >.< So when they started dumping the failed protagonist clones down there, it finally gave 13 some company. That's when his obsession with trying to fix the broken protagonist clones started x3
In regards to running the simulations and such, you're not stupid at all, I didn't really explain it very well in the game :3 Isaac was pretty crazy, so he probably could have found a much easier/better way to build a weapon. The main reason he opted for the method he did, is just cos he had gone a bit mad xD None of this is explained in the game, but in my head, after it became too dangerous to live on the surface, OG MC + Shiro would have been living a fairly normal life together underground when Isaac was more stable. Isaac was trying to think of ways to fix his mistake, and after lots of failed attempts to eliminate the creature, he just went kinda insane and got the idea in his head to start using his own son, and his son's girlfriend. Raine would have just been a colleague at the time they first went underground, and she slowly fell in love with Isaac over time (before he went crazy xD) Anyways, I'm getting off-topic from your original question, sorry >.<
The reason they ran all the simulations was because they wanted to create some form of suffering between the protagonist clones and the Kuro clones. Isaac was super duper insane, and he was convinced that in order for the OG MC to be the ultimate weapon, her mind also needed to be altered, not just her body. He knew that OG MC and Shiro were deeply in love, and he thought that the perfect combo of that love + suffering would increase her powers exponentially. Isaac wanted the clones to suffer, but ultimately still love each other like the originals, so that he could implant all of that love and suffering from the clones into OG MC eventually. This is why you see the idol and cadet clones get scrapped, because they're not showing the right sort of emotions he wants to see in a scenario. Isaac just wanted to extract all the love and pain that he could from the pairings. Admittedly, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but Isaac is supposed to be kinda losing it. Although, I guess his plan actually kinda worked in the end, even if it wasn't exactly how he intended things to play out xD
Isaac still loves Shiro deeply, and can't bring himself to hurt him as much as he's happy to hurt the protagonist. Which is why he chose OG MC to be the weapon, not Shiro. He couldn't bring himself to potentially sacrifice his own son. So instead, in his own twisted way, he thinks he's kinda doing Shiro a favour by making him watch the progress of his experiment. The Kuro's are all forced to remember things, unlike the protagonist's, because much of the suffering Isaac wants is taken from them, not the protagonist. Isaac wants to watch the Kuro's try to save the protagonist over and over again in the scenarios, forcing them to sink into deeper despair when they realise that there's no way out. The Kuro's are in love with the protagonist, so they can't help but keep trying, even if they know they can never succeed. This is one of the reasons their love for the protagonist becomes more twisted over time. They have some idea as to what's going on, sometimes they wanna lose themselves in the simulations just so they can have some form of a life with the protagonist, even if it's only temporary. By repeatedly wiping the protagonist clones, it's like torture for the Kuro's, because they remember the love that they shared (from the faint memories they have of OG MC + Shiro) but the protagonist clones remember very little. So a lot of the suffering comes from the poor Kuro's trying to get the protagonist to love them again the way it should be. In the end, because the Kuro's get so messed up trying to pursue love, it results in all those bad ends for the protagonist, so then the protagonist is also suffering too, which gives more suffering for Isaac to extract from the protagonist as well as Kuro. It's weird, I know xD Blame Isaac for being so crazy x3
As for poor Shiro's organs ceasing to function, that was just because they had been underground for a very long time. I didn't really say specifically how long, but it would have been many, many years. By the time it's reached the point where the story within the game is taking place, Shiro is much older than he would've been when they first all went underground. Living underground in the lab for so many years with the same recycled air was pretty unhealthy, so a lot of the folk still alive down there have slightly modified bodies to survive. Isaac was able to solve the problem of Shiro's failing organs by creating artificial ones for him, but they're kind of experimental and not really designed for being used in the outside world where the air and stuff on the surface is different. Along with the organs, Isaac also made other modifications to Shiro (like the sword weapons he's able to summon.)
I was a little unsure as to whether or not to include all the fourth wall breaking stuff, but I decided to in the end. I kinda wanted the reader to feel similarly to how the protagonist would feel in that they couldn't exactly be sure of what was real and what wasn't. I find the concept of solipsism pretty fascinating, so a part of me wanted the final ending of the story to be that only the protagonist was truly real, everything else in her world was just part of her own mind. So while it did technically happen, it possibly only happened within her head, and she had no way of telling, but at the same time, I didn't want it to be that, which is why I didn't actually specify anything in particular xD So the ending is pretty open to interpretation I guess! The reader can decide for themselves what the truth is. I just kinda thought, it doesn't really matter if something is real or not, if you're living it, and you believe in it, that's enough because it's real to you. To be honest, I kinda confused myself in the end >.<" haha.
When it comes to the guy who is constantly breaking the fourth wall and calling the player by the name, Anathema, who you finally get to meet at the end, this is a character that I hope to develop over time :3 I want to try and feature him in most of the projects I work on somehow, so that players can slowly learn more about him over time, which is why it's kinda just like a little introduction in SR. I'm not 100% sure how I wanna have his story play out yet, but you definitely haven't seen the last of him :D
I feel you on the not having much of a connection to OG MC + Shiro front, haha. I should probably have tried harder to show more of their backstory. I think the reason it came out the way it did in the end was because I was supposed to care about them, but while I was writing the story, I ended up falling in love with 339 + 13 instead, so they kinda ended up stealing the show with their story. I kinda wanted to just end the game on the scene where 339 and 13 sacrifice themselves, but I figured that would be too cruel x3 If I had of had the resources, I think it would have been cool to have some flashback scenes of the past showing OG MC + Shiro + the others from before everything went to shit! I was very limited with what I could do with sprites though since I had to rely on creator software T_T haha. I would love to be able to work with artists in future who can draw sprites for me instead :3 If I had money, I would've hired an artist, but I'm incredibly poor >.< I tend to survive on a diet mainly consisting of 40p cans of baked beans xD I will try to use Kickstarter in the future though, because if I could get some kind of funding, it'd be a huge help, and would allow me to make things even better :3
But yeah, I totally get why people wouldn't care too much for OG MC + Shiro, I guess it's because I ended up not really caring about them that much either (compared to the other MCs + Kuro's anyways) so that ended up showing in my writing >.< In my heart I think 339 and 13 were the true heroes :3
I hope I managed to answer your questions :3 If not, feel free to keep asking away cos I don't mind at all! I know I kinda suck at explaining stuff cos I tend to just ramble on forever, and then I get myself lost and confused xD So yeah, feel free to ask anything else. Thank you once again for all your kind words! It really means a lot to me to know that you've enjoyed playing through the game, and I hope that you'll also enjoy my future projects too :D Aaaand, I'm sorry my reply ended up being so long x3 I'm so terrible for rambling, haha. Hope you have an awesome week, and that you're managing to stay safe! <3
Hi! Thanks for replying and I hope you are staying safe as well. I am quite happy that u answered my queries and cleared most of my confusion about the game's plot line. As I said earlier the game's plotline is quite rich but the narrative was coming in bits and pieces which made the story more atmospheric but the drawback was it does create a lot of confusion. I think if the writing style is more polished and fine tuned then the delivery will be more impactful and enriching. I do feel u should have explored more on the backstories so that we could have understood the plot better and the characters and their motivations as well, especially Isaac *coughs* the most controversial one and also the OG MC and Shiro, it would have made the story more enriching. When I read through ur reply I realised u have indeed dropped hints here n there regarding isaac going insane with his experiments about altering the personality of MC and also about past kuros in other routes but I think it would have been better if the story was little more explanatory about it so that it would have felt more enriching. I think it would have been interesting if there were side POV stories of important characters like kuro and isaac to get more 360 degrees view about the game which would have made the story more streamlined, however I do understand that would have been more difficult as such due to lack of resources but I hope u do consider it in future. Personal opinion but I really would have loved to see more of original kuro in main plotline as one of the protags as i felt a bit disconnected after spending so much time with original kuro and the 26 who was the mc in previous routes but they weren't given much showtime and the role was passed over to 339 and 13 (although I loved them a lot!). It would have been quite interesting if there was a section for character profiles haha like shiro, OG mc, isaac etc with ages and anything important, because u said shiro was quite older by the time game started and they had been living underground for many years which led to his organ failure, however xD the guy looked at best in 20's, even isaac who looks quite hot to be old *coughs* (although I am curious how old shiro and rest of the cast is?). As for the sprites,I do understand your dilemma because in detective route I had to convince myself that kuro is a guy and not some cute flat chested girl (thankgod for voice acting or else it would have been hard for me to think he was a guy), although guys other than kuro in other routes looked far more mature so I was wondering if u used some other softwares to create those sprites? I also, in fact kinda dig the idea the whole thing was nothing but a dream especially at the end when og mc is like it doesn't matter if it was a dream and u urself kinda confirmed it with entire solipsism concept. As I said earlier, I was more than ready to see that after finishing secret route I would get a scenario change and find this was all nothing but a dream and confront that mysterious voice in the end. I really do want to see more of that mysterious guy that ur planning on creating.
Lastly i want to say despite the drawbacks i mentioned above i do feel that the game is great in its entirety as the storyline is very rich and deep and even though there r certain cliched parts but at the same time it wasnt cliched at all! I really loved the fact that u broke the stereotypes of otome genre and fleshed out kuro so well. He was deranged but a balanced deranged where we can see he really is struggling not like completely weird and downright creepy like many other yandere mls we come across in other otomes. I personally feel if the drawbacks are taken care of then this game can be pegged as a commercial project with ease because it's really that good and has lots of potential for more fine tuning. I really do hope that maybe someday in future u think of releasing this game with polished artwork and sprites and more fine tuned storyline as a commercial one, I would be one of the first to buy it actually. I really look forward to your future projects because ur quite talented in ur story telling style and ur game making style is quite unique in itself and despite the lack of resources u did an amazing job. It was rough around the edges but I can just imagine how far u as a developer can go if provided with sufficient funds. I wish u luck with your future projects and see you growing further. I hope u advertise your work more because I do feel u deserve more recognition. All the best! And congrats on successful release.
PS: English isnt my first language so I am not sure if I was able to deliver my points properly but I hope you understand I was trying not to be too critical and even though u said ur fine with constructive criticism but I dont wanna hurt ur confidence so I hope u grow more in future and thanks again for this amazing game.
No worries! I really enjoy hearing feedback so everything you've said is much appreciated :3 Plus, hardly anyone discusses the story of SR, so it's nice to kinda talk about it a bit more :D
In regards to my writing, I think sometimes as well, when I have everything in my head, I can occasionally forget that the reader can't see inside my head to know everything that I know xD So I will be writing stuff down, and I think it makes sense because I know the full picture, but I forget that other people don't know the full picture >.< so that probably doesn't help with certain things being confusing as well, haha. I will try in the future to make more of an effort to go into detail with stuff so that the reader is better informed :3 One of the things that worries me sometimes is that if I go into too much detail, people would be bored. So I guess it would be good to find the right balance so it's enough detail to have a good understanding, but not so over the top that it becomes, dull, haha. Hopefully, my writing will improve over time, as I'm certainly no expert xD
I think side stories and POV stuff would be cool :3 Like you say, it would indeed help to give the reader more insight into the background of some of the characters that you don't learn that much about. If I ever do get the opportunity to remake the game sometime in the future, I'd absolutely think about adding that sorta thing in there.
With 26 and the Kuro/s from the original routes, I did kinda always plan to kill them off, mainly to show just how cruel the situation was x3 But I feel like I should have wrapped up that particular Kuro's story better, instead of just leaving him in limbo. So if I remake the game I will probably tweak that so that he has a proper ending to his personal story. I feel like I could have just written about 339 and 13 forever x3 It's weird, cos in the draft, I wasn't that attached to them! They were just another pair that were part of the story, but somehow, as I was writing the bits for 339 and 13, they just grew on me. They ended up becoming my favourite pair :3 By the end of writing, 13 wound up being my favourite Kuro, haha. I think Tim's voice acting was probably what swayed me on that! It just made me wanna give 13 a big hug.
As for character profiles, and more specifically, ages, I couldn't actually tell you how old the lot of them are because I never did settle on an exact age for any of the characters x3 I don't know why I didn't. Even when I was holding auditions for voice actors, I would just describe a character as young, or middle aged, stuff like that xD Most of the 'real' characters that are in the lab have modified bodies in some form, and would appear younger than they actually are, cos Isaac was experimenting with the clone tech to help extend their own lives using machine parts and stuff, but again, I never really mentioned that at all in the story >.< I will probably pay more attention to character profile stuff in the future though, and make proper profiles for any characters I come up with :3
You're absolutely correct that I did use other software for a lot of the side character sprites. Well, it wasn't really software like what I used for the MC's + Kuro's, it was more just like PSD files of base sprites with limited options for changing the hair and stuff. For the most part, all I could really do was change colours >.< That's why I only used that for more minor characters, because it didn't have anywhere near as many customisation options as the thing I used for MC's + Kuro's. It was pretty frustrating, because you can tell the art style is different between the sprites, but because I have the story taking place in various settings, it meant I needed a tonne of sprites to fit in with each setting, so it was the cheapest thing I could do T_T I couldn't use the creator software to make enough sprites either, cos that only had a limited number of body poses, and I pretty much used all of em up to make the MC's + Kuro's >.< which is why they're the only two that use that style. It was important for me that Kuro looked as unique as possible with the resources I had though, it just sucks that the people who made that software didn't include more options for creating male sprites :(
I don't know if you will have seen this before, as it's a pretty old post, but a looooong time ago, I was working with an awesome artist who was going to draw all of the sprites for me in her beautiful style. Sadly though, she got really busy with studies so she had to stop. The only sprite that was finished in the end was for student route Kuro, but it's soooo pretty <3 haha.
It would be a dream come true if one day I could somehow have all the sprites in the game looking as good as that!
It makes me super happy to hear the way you describe Kuro :3 Cos I know a lot of people don't like yandere characters due to how crazy most of them are, and I feel like yandere guys kinda get a bad name because of all the violence they tend to be associated with. So I really hoped that people would understand Kuro, and love him despite his faults. Cos the poor guy has been through a lot x3 He just wants to be with the MC cos he loves her from the bottom of his heart despite all the horrible stuff he's had to go through. Don't get me wrong, I love a good psycho too xD I just wanted to make sure Kuro was more than just a psycho, haha.
Maybe if I end up with money someday, I can remake the game and call it, Solipsism Reigns - Reborn, or something :3 My partner actually does some amazing art, but sadly, he doesn't really have the time to help me out with my projects >.<
Some of the voice actors I worked with on SR are thinking about making a small team sometime in the future to try and make some games, so I might not always be working on my own :3 I think working with a team would really help since I can't handle stuff like art, haha. I will probably try to use Kickstarter for my future projects though, so that I can try to make things better, instead of struggling with limited resources x3 Even if I don't get funded though, I will still try my best to make things work with what I've got! One of the things I find really difficult is advertising my stuff, because I don't really use social media much due to my anxiety >.< So I don't have much of a reach by myself, and rely on word of mouth from people who come across my stuff to spread the news, haha.
I would never have guessed that English isn't your first language! I'd say your English is better than many English people who I've spoken to online where it is their first language :D I really need to take some time at some point to learn another language myself! I started to learn Japanese a few years ago, but I stopped when I reached the paid levels of the tutoring site I was using cos I couldn't afford it >.< Anyways, I think you made your points very well :3 Also, I don't think anyone could ever hurt my confidence anyhow, because I never really had any to begin with xD I have had very low self-confidence + anxiety ever since I was a kid, but I am trying to work on it slowly ^-^
Thank you so much again for all of your kind words and support <3 They mean more to me than I can put into words \^0^/
Hi! I'm really interested in playing your game. I was wondering if you could make a Mega link. It's just because it would be a lot easier for me to download. I'm sorry for bothering you.
PS: Mi idioma materno es español, así que perdóname si me equivoqué en alguna palabra XD
Hey hey! Thanks for your interest in the game :3 I am just about to go to sleep, but I will look into uploading to Mega for you tomorrow :D It might take a while because the internet is quite slow here, haha, but I will hopefully have it ready by the end of tomorrow!
Also, I used Google translate for your PS, and if it was correct in translating your message, you didn't make any mistakes :3 I would never have known that English wasn't your first language if you hadn't said ^_^
You're welcome :3 I really appreciate your interest in the game :D I have just updated the page with download links for MEGA. I figured I might as well upload all current versions there in case others would prefer to download from MEGA as well!
Hey! I'm playing through your game right now and it's incredibly fascinating. But I've been wondering what character creation software you were using for the sprites? I saw you mention that in some of the comments but I'm curious as to what it was? It's recognizable yet foreign at the same time, haha.
For the sprites, it was a creator software I purchased years ago from a Japanese site I stumbled across somehow. I don't remember what the site was with it being so long ago, but I remember it saying that the people who made the software were called T.O.P (or something like that) cos they were the only English characters on the page, so it stood out.
I think it was a very popular product! I imagine that it's been used to make sprites for many games + other kinds of projects, so you probably would've seen the art style before :3 The great thing about the software though is that there are so many individual pieces to create hairstyles from, lots of eyes, lots of clothing and accessories, etc. that you can make some pretty unique sprites with it :D It's just a shame that they were mainly for making female sprites and not much available for male ones :(
It wasn't just a one off purchase though. I think I had to buy it in parts. Like each part has 1 base body and a whole bunch of stuff exclusive to that set. It wasn't particularly cheap, cos I think I paid about £150 for 10 sets to have enough base bodies for the number of sprites I needed. Still, I guess that's much cheaper than paying an artist to draw the sheer number of sprites I used, haha.
Since I can't actually read Japanese, it was a bit of trial and error to use it x3 The interface is simple though so you can just kinda figure out what does what by changing things and seeing what happens. It can be quite laggy sometimes >.< so it took a looooong time to make all my sprites, but I got there in the end xD
Also, I think they might have been designed for use with 18+ stuff cos you can take their clothes off, have em in some suspiciously suggestive naked poses, and make them pull ahegao faces, haha.
Sorry I can't be of more help >.< My memory kinda sucks x3 If it was all in English, I might've stood a better chance at recalling more info, but with everything being in Japanese, that's about as much as I can remember about it!
This looks absolutely interesting and charming. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get the game running. Similar to one of the previous commentors, I've tried accessing the game as administrator, waited for around 20 minutes, and downloaded the additional files, but no dice. The only thing that pops up is a window for nw.js... Though I'm not exactly the most literate when it comes to these things since I usually buy from steam/gog...
Regardless, hopefully I can get this game working because I really wanna read through it. It looks so unique! :)
Thanks for checking out the game and your interest in it :3 I'm sorry to hear you're having the nw.js issue as well :(
I'm guessing you're on windows since you said you downloaded the additional files, or did you download the mac version and try the fixes someone told me to get mac users to try? I only ask cos I've read on Steam support before that the issue is more common with games made using Tyrano on the mac versions, but I was wondering if it's just as much of an issue on windows as well >.<
It's so frustrating because I'm not a super techy person (hence why I used Tyrano in the first place, haha) so when the issues are to do with the way Tyrano itself works, I don't know how to help anyone, and it really sucks :( I wish there was more support available for Tyrano in general.
I'm going to try and get a browser release out to see if that can be an alternative version for those who can't play due to the nw.js issue! I just don't know how long it will take me to release it, because I'm staying at my dad's right now and only have my crap laptop to work on >.<
If you do manage to get it working before I can find any other fixes to try, please let me know what you ended up doing that made it work so I can share the possible solution with others having the issue :3
Just wanted to let you know that I've now released a smaller version in the hope that it will run for anyone having issues launching the original larger version :3 I have no idea if it will work >.< haha, but other Tyranobuilder users have suggested to me that it's often a memory issue when it fails to launch on random devices, so I figured it was worth a shot!
This looks really interesting and I really really want to play it because I like yandere charas... But unfortunately can't because my windows is 32bit... Thank you anyways for making this game, best luck to you!<3
Thanks so much for your interest and taking the time to comment :3 Does it not work for you on 32bit windows? :o My laptop runs 32bit windows and although it's very slow to launch, it does work in the end on there (my laptop has pretty crappy specs, haha.)
I hope you're able to play it somehow, cos it would suck if uou want to but can't >.<
Just wanted to let you know that I've now released a smaller version in the hope that it will run for anyone having issues launching the original larger version :3 I have no idea if it will work >.< haha, but other Tyranobuilder users have suggested to me that it's often a memory issue when it fails to launch on random devices, so I figured it was worth a shot!
Managed to get everything but the true and and two bad ends! I received the one that destroys and the one that simulates, but not the true, and I'm missing drowning in darkness and brief reunion.
I'll keep giving it a go, but in case I can't find it , I would definitely like some hints :p
SPOILERS BELOW
Honestly though I didn't much care what happens to the originals, I didn't play their story, so I didn't get attached to them... It seemed like a bit of a betrayal, LOL, which speaks about how attached you got me to all of the copies. I wonder if that'll change once I manage to find the true ending?
I do have a question, though- the Kuro in the different routes, how much does he remember each time? Are they different numbers each time, the same? He tells her to relax and trust him at the end, and he recognizes Big Bad in each of his disguises. Does this get answered in the endings I'm missing?
Also, who the fuck is voice over guy? Who's Anathema? I tried entering Anathema as my name to see if it got any easter eggs, but, sadly nope...
Awesome stuff, thanks for taking the time to comment :3 I'm happy to give you some hints or straight up tell you how to get those few ends that you're missing if you decide you need a hand! Just drop me an email here and I'll get back to ya as fast as I can: solipsismreigns@gmail.com
SPOILERS BELOW HERE ALSO
Hehe, I don't know if you'll care about the originals more when you get the true end or not x3 For me, I care more about 339 and 13/Dollmaker! They're kinda like the best couple to me, even though they're technically not the true versions.
As for Kuro throughout the different routes, I didn't actually ever say for certain if it's the same one, how much he remembers, etc. I kinda just left it up to whatever the reader wants to believe. In my head, it was the same one, and he remembers quite a bit, but is powerless to do anything about it, so he's slowly driven insane over time (which is why he sometimes goes yandere, haha.) It's kinda like in each new world, he's sorta refreshed, but he has much more awareness than the protagonist. In a way, his suffering is worse, cos he's forced to remember more. A part of me wanted to write that the first Kuro you meet as 26 in the ??? route (the one who you kill to set free in the white room) is the 'real' version of the Kuro from all of the other routes, but I decided not to in the end. As I said though, I didn't actually explain that in the story cos I wanted the reader to interpret whatever they like :3
As for the guy who calls you Anathema, I can't say too much cos I don't wanna accidentally spoil anything for you >.< haha. But what I will say is, more is revealed about him once you reach the true end :3 I'm so glad that you tried entering your name as Anathema though, because there is actually a small easter egg for doing that :D It's not much, just a slight difference in dialogue, but again, I won't say more, cos you'll only find it when you get the true end :3 Basically, there is a scene, and if you have your name as Anathema, it just changes one line in that scene as a teeny tiny easter egg, haha. You actually lose a choice if your name is Anathema though, it gets skipped and replaced by a different line, where normally there is a dialogue choice if your name is anything but Anathema.
Thanks so much for playing and commenting :3 Good luck with getting those last endings! And like I said, feel free to drop me an email if you decide you want some help ^_^
I had planned to also make BxB and GxG versions, but it's just too much work and I want to be able to put some time into other projects >.< I might release a version with a genderless protagonist though where you can choose which version of Kuro you want, cos that would be less time consuming.
Thanks for your comment and interest! Have a lovely day :3
Apologies if it's been asked I tried searching through the comments with little to no avail. I am wondering if my game is set to not let you access the config properly? There's things I like to change up like text speed, sounds etc when playing games - but the config button shows 4 buttons and 2 sets of repeated Japanese text. Any suggestions? :')
Hey hey! No worries :3 Are you opening the config when there's a moving/animated background present? There's an issue with Tyrano's layer loading that makes config show up rather strangely when opening it on a moving background >.< haha. If you open it on a regular background, you should be able to change things like text speed, force skip unread text, sound level of BGM, SFX, etc.
The same layering issue can also cause the name field and quick menu options to disappear when moving backgrounds are present and the game is in fullscreen mode, which is a weird one xD But keyboard commands can be used to access all the menus still and moving backgrounds generally aren't on screen for too long :3
If that doesn't work, would you mind taking a screenshot and emailing it to me so I can see what's going on :3 Thanks for playing!
Sorry I didn't get back sooner, I'm assuming it's because of being in the transition naming screen as you mentioned. Though there's an option to change up the bgm and se volume there's nothing about the voices in game. I'll have to assume it's part of se and try that for now. Thanks for the quick reply~
No worries :3 And yeah, any time there is a background that's moving or slightly animated, the config will be messed up, sadly >.< There aren't many animated backgrounds throughout the VN though so it's not too much of an issue to just open config on a regular background.
You're correct that the voices are under the same as SFX. Unfortunately, due to the way that Tyranobuilder works, there's no way for me to separate the voice lines from the general SFX so they all come under the same type and slider >.< It's pretty annoying really cos it means if someone wants to mute the SFX or lower the volume of them, then they'll also be muting or lowering the volume of all the voice lines as well. It would be better to have them completely separate, haha, but TB won't allow me to do that :(
hello there! I just downloaded the game but it is not opening what should i do? Like no matter how much i click run the game there is no response... (I even tried to run as administrator but it didn't work as well)
Hey there! Did you download the windows version, or the mac version?
Depending on your system specs and how much free memory is on your computer, it could take a long time to open the game window. On my PC, it opens after about 15-20 seconds, but on my old laptop, it takes around 7 minutes from clicking the game exe to it actually opening the game window >.< It's due to the large size of the game and the fact that it's manually packaged.
Hopefully, if you wait long enough, it should start eventually x3 The longest startup time I know of so far is around 9 minutes on a very old laptop. Thanks for your interest in the game, if you still can't get it to start, let me know, and I'll try to think of other things you could do to get it working :3
Is it the windows version, or the mac version? I know the mac version has more issues than the windows one, a Tyrano dev said mac can just be a bit dodgy with some of the stuff Tyrano uses >.< Also, how long have you waited after clicking the exe?
If it's the windows version and you've got plenty of free space on your drive, I don't really know what could be causing it to be unresponsive :( It's possible your PC might require some of the files that the Tyrano export tutorial said to delete. Cos the tutorial says to delete all the files in a certain folder, but if I do that, the game no longer opens on my PC! So that part of the tutorial is wrong >.<
That's a complete guess though cos it runs alright on my PC and laptop as it is so it's hard for me to think of anything else. I can't send you the files at the moment, as I don't have my PC set up here, but I'll try to get it set up later tonight and I'll upload the files here to see if that makes any difference. Once they're here to download, just paste them into the game folder. I'll also make a post when I get time about known issues and possible fixes :3 I'm just busy with family stuff at the moment so can't do it right now.
Just wanted to let you know that I've now released a smaller version in the hope that it will run for anyone having issues launching the original larger version :3 I have no idea if it will work >.< haha, but other Tyranobuilder users have suggested to me that it's often a memory issue when it fails to launch on random devices, so I figured it was worth a shot!
Just wanted to let you know that I've now released a smaller version in the hope that it will run for anyone having issues launching the original larger version :3 I have no idea if it will work >.< haha, but other Tyranobuilder users have suggested to me that it's often a memory issue when it fails to launch on random devices, so I figured it was worth a shot!
Hello! I just wanted to say this game looks super interesting :D I can't wait to check it out! I've never seen a game where the MC and the LI are in different stories! I think I'm going to play the student route first but I just have a little comment - I find the text a little difficult to look at when reading, especially because I think there's a dark text shadow underneath it? I was wondering if that could be disabled or if there could be different font choices to choose from? If not I'll just continue playing as it is!
Thanks for taking the time to comment :3 I'm glad you think it looks interesting :D
In regards to the text, I just used the default option on Tyranobuilder in the end in terms of font, style, and colour. I think I increased the size a little until it was comfortable for me to read. I did mess around with changing fonts, but none of them seemed as clear as this one to me, so I stuck with it.
Unfortunately, there's no way to edit the text display in the game options. If you're finding it too difficult to read I could change it in the project files themselves and upload it as an update for you though :3 It may take a while is the only thing, cos I don't have my PC set up here away from home and my crappy laptop can't handle the load >.< haha.
Aside from that, it might be possible for you to change the font yourself by swapping the actual font file for the game, buuuuut, I'd have to look into that cos I don't know if it might potentially mess up the text settings or anything cos I've never tried it before x3
If you do end up just playing it as it is, I hope you enjoy it :3
@cynnchan (so sorry if I got your name wrong!) I've managed to accidentally delete your comments >.< If you need me to repost the possible fixes thread for the NW.JS thing, just lemme know :3 Sorry about that! I was just trying to delete the first couple that you posted cos my last reply to you was showing up weird on the mobile site, missing letters off the edge of the screen, so I thought if I delete your first comments and my replies, it'll make the stack go back to normal... but instead, it just deleted everything >.<
Hmm, unfortunately, as I don't own a mac myself, I don't really have any way of testing and fixing any issues for mac that people come across :( I'm really sorry about that!
I know nothing about macs personally, so I can't even guess at things >.< All I know is that before uploading the mac version, my partner was able to test and run it on his work mac and all was fine. I'm not able to get him to do any further troubleshooting on his work mac though cos he'd get into trouble if his boss found out!
It would be great if I could have a browser game version as well, but I think the game is just too big for it to work :(
After reading your comment, I looked into the possibility of uploading it here on itch.io, as they allow the hosting of web games, but there are a few rules about hosting a browser game here and, unfortunately, the total size of my VN exceeds the allowance limits. It does say that you can contact them to have limits increased, but it says that they're there in order to make the best possible experience for players, and that browser games exceeding the limits will likely have poor performance in terms of load times, so it's recommended to just make it a downloadable game instead.
If I had the money to run my own site, then I'd attempt to host it there. Sadly, I don't even have enough money to feed myself most of the time xD I suffer from anxiety and depression, which prevents me from holding down a regular job, so my only form of income is from selling handmade items online, but I make less than minimum wage doing that >.< haha. So I can't afford that option.
I'd love to be able to make it available as a browser game, but it's looking like that probably won't be possible :(
Also, as I mentioned in the post I linked above, I've made a thread in the Tyrano support forums asking for help/suggestions to fix the problem you have. So hopefully, someone will reply with something to try :3
EDIT: Just wanted to let you know that someone on the Steam Tyrano support forums suggested this to me for anyone that can't get it to start on mac:
"Now, on Mac, I'm not sure if the problem is that people need to open the package with something like The Unarchiver instead of the native tool: https://theunarchiver.com/. That is a known issue. You might see if someone can test that method for you."
Since I've never had a mac, this doesn't really mean anything to me, haha, but it's something to try I guess :3
Just wanted to let you know that I've now released a smaller version in the hope that it will run for anyone having issues launching the original larger version :3 I have no idea if it will work >.< haha, but other Tyranobuilder users have suggested to me that it's often a memory issue when it fails to launch on random devices, so I figured it was worth a shot!
Okay, at this point I've gotten most of the way through the ??? route (just missing the true ending).
Overall I was extremely impressed by this game and story. A free game that is fully voiced with this level of detail and plot? Damn. I really like the premise of an otome game but with the same couple in extremely different settings, and I hope that more games try out this style in the future. Obviously having a plethora of love choices is fun, but I really enjoyed seeing the differences and similarities between MC and Kuro through every route, and slowly unlocking more of the overarching plot between the two. Plus its an interesting experiment on differences in character in alternate settings.
And of course as a big fan of yanderes, it was really great to have a whole game around that premise. Detective Route Kuro was my favorite.
I will note that you may want to make it more obvious above that to unlock the secret ending, you need to be on the same save file. I learned that after already having unlocked almost all the endings in different saves, which was unfortunate. For players, take lots of notes for the ??? route, tbh I'm usually a lazy walkthrough follower so had to actually make some effort here (and am still trying on the true ending), haha. The rest of the routes were pretty intuitive though, I liked getting to go back and rechoose instead of having to save every time. That was a nice mechanic.
I would have preferred Kuro's sprites to look more mature in the routes, but it didn't take away from the game enjoyment, just a preference. His and the MC's sprite variations are adorable though.
Cheers for taking the time to post a comment :3 It's much appreciated!
I'm so glad that you enjoyed the VN. The main reason I made it was because I adore yandere characters myself, and it didn't seem like there were that many male yandere types around compared to the sheer volume of female ones, especially not English speaking ones x3 So I kinda just wanted to write something where a male yandere character was in the spotlight.
Funnily enough, the Detective route was my favourite route to write :D
I'll go edit my post regarding unlocking the ??? route in a sec then and try to make it a little clearer. I suck at explaining stuff >.< haha.
If you need a hand unlocking the true ending and don't wanna spend ages trying various things, feel free to drop me an email as I don't mind telling you the unlock requirements :3 It's hard for me to really gauge how difficult it is to unlock certain things when I already know the answers to everything >.< I'm considering making a walkthrough or mini guide to help people out if they need it, cos I'm the type who tends to just go straight to walk through myself, haha. Some of you guys probably have pretty decent notes already though I guess!
You're not the only one who would have preferred Kuro's sprites to appear more mature :D haha, I wish they were too! I just didn't have much choice cos my art is pretty crappy, so I ended up using software I purchased to create them instead, and while I was able to highly customise the sprites to my liking that way, I was unable to change the overall style of them. If I could have afforded to hire an artist then I would've done, but I'm always poor x3 And with the sheer number of sprites I imagine it would've cost a hell of a lot to get someone to draw them all. People have told me to try Kickstarter next time I'm making a VN, so I think I'll give it a go, the big problem is that I don't really use much social media due to anxiety, so my reach is very limited >.< I'm not confident that many people would even come across a Kickstarter campaign I was running if I did try it, haha.
Thanks again :3 Good luck with getting the true end and I hope you enjoy it! Have a super duper week :D
SPOILER ALERT. PLEASE DO NOT READ IF YOU WANT TO FIGURE THIS GAME OUT FOR YOURSELF.
Oh. My. Goodness.
I started following Solipsism Reign's development because its initial premise was interesting. I have never seen an otome game that was yandere-centric. I thought at first that was all it was going to be, but once I downloaded it and started playing, I knew there had to be some overarching plot. And boy, was I unprepared for what this game threw at me. Kari, you’re a genius. You had me hooked for the entire time. I had no idea this game was going to be so deep. Playing through the initial five routes was really fun, and it was nice balancing my choices of dying by my enemies or by Kuro (Princess and Detective Kuro are my favorites in the first part). The kiss scene with Kuro in the Princess route had me blushing so much... And I just love everything about the Detective route! My sister loves the voice that plays when you get a bad ending, and when he calls you Anathema. She’s a little weird ;)
For the ??? route, my goodness, I just can’t describe how much I love it. The way it’s set up is amazing! I was so shocked to realise that the first half of the game didn’t really matter. It was all a simulation. Dying after trying to attack Isaac and finding myself at the title screen instead of Raine’s criticism and comforting voice really told me that I had to be in serious mode now.
I loved playing as the clones in the beginning and being so unaware of what on earth was happening. It hurt me so much to see Kuro suffer as he had to hurt the brainwashed 26 over and over... I was legit crying. And it took me two tries to realise that I had to click the knife… I felt so stupid, haha. I wish there was a way to save the angry Kuro… and right after he and MC made up… you can be really cruel, Kari.
I had a feeling that Raine was MC’s mom, but you delivered it perfectly with Lilly! And going through the whole route just to get that bad ending? What did I do wrong??? What do you mean by “certain events”??? I have a whole two page google doc with notes of this game, haha. I ended up trying all sorts of choice combinations to keep OG MC alive. What happens when I recognise Shiro but go outside and then come back? Does it matter if I refuse to hurt Kuro as 26 and then obey afterwards? It took me forever to realise that I had to go through the bad ends that triggered the restart mechanic that happened in the routes outside of ??? but get every other answer right to get the good ending.
I thought everything was going to be done and over with after OG MC woke up and she and Shiro lived happily ever after, but no, you pulled the rug out from underneath me again. I am amazed at your storytelling abilities, Kari, and you’ve got me really inspired to try to make my own VN. You’re my new role model :)
After giving my memories to OG MC, it felt more like I was watching her and Shiro instead of inserting myself. I had been suffering and journeying with 339 all this time that I got really attached and didn’t want to let go... 339’s story with 13 really brought me some tears, but even more smiles :)
I was so shocked (even though I shouldn’t have been) that Isaac made the monsters… and let them run rampant. My sister and I were making jokes about how the creature smoked so much his intestines were black, and that had us laughing for a good minute. And the ending? I was so happy that the monsters were eradicated and that Shiro and MC could be together, but so sad that MC and Shiro couldn’t retain their original bodies, it kinda felt like everything 13 and 339 worked for was in vain… that was the only thing that left me dissatisfied.
My favorite Kuros have got to be the one you meet as 26 and the one who accompanies you as 339. I wish there was a way to end the first Kuro’s suffering without killing him!!! He doesn’t show up after 26 dies :(
And lastly, this game hit all of my needs. I just love the intense love between Kuro and MC/ Shiro and MC! The characters are all so wonderful! Kuro’s definitely my fav, but I love Shiro, Raine, and Lilly too! Not so much Isaac… that’s a given, I think. The art was amazing, sprites and CGs and backgrounds! Please give my praise to the artists, I wish I could draw that well. The voice acting was excellent! So good! Smith has got me swooning over his voice, haha. I can’t forget about the sound effects, either! I was really grossed out sometimes… but they were great. And the writing? It just blows my mind how GOOD IT IS!!! It had me completely immersed in this dystopian world, and combined with the music, Kari, you achieved creating this world and dragging me into its depths.
My yandere needs: check
My dystopian world needs: check
My mystery needs: check
Girl, you checked everything off my list and more!!! I feel this giant hole in my heart now that I’ve finished this game :( You’ve ruined all other VNs for me!!! I can't enjoy them as much knowing this masterpiece exists!
One little thing that I really enjoyed about Solipsism Reigns is that the cursor becomes a butterfly. It was really amusing making it fly across the background, and putting it over people’s eyes to make it look like they were magical. Maybe that’s just the really childish part of me, haha.
I am so sorry this is so long!!! This is just a really long and stupid rant about a game that I’ve given my soul to, but I could find no other way to express my gratitude to you, Kari. I hope I’ve been using your name right. Cody is a great name, though!
Once I finally wrack up some dough I’m gonna give it all to you. You deserve it!
P.S. I’ll be waiting for my dearest cursed one, *wink wink*
P.P.S. I can understand why Kuro's number is 13 (unlucky and stuff...), but is there any reason why the MC copies were 26 and 339?
Firstly, I wanna say thank you so much for playing through SR, and also thanks for taking the time to write everything you did :3 I can't even put into words how happy I am to know that you enjoyed the game as much as you did! I really appreciate hearing your thoughts on it all.
Sorry it's taken me a while to reply to your comment. I'm visiting my family today after not having seen them for months cos of the lockdown, so I figured I should probably stay off of my phone for a bit, haha.
I guess I should also say that from this point on there will be SPOILERS in what I'm about to write here too, so anyone who is reading this and wants to avoid spoilers, don't read ahead :3
When I first started writing the story, I had a good idea of where I wanted to take it, but it wasn't until I'd finished writing that I realised just how long it had become xD It wasn't really my intention to create a VN as long as this, and probably wasn't the best thing to make for a first project, haha, but I find it hard to stop once I've started something so I just persevered with it! I loved making it, but man, it was painful sometimes when I was doing incredibly boring but necessary tasks x3
I'm a huge lover of yandere characters, usually villains too, haha, but only if they have a reason to be the way they are. I don't like it when a character is evil just for the sake of it, so with Kuro, it was important for me to tell a story that explained why he is the way he is :3
I'm glad you liked that particular romantic scene in the Princess route :3 I sometimes wonder if I included too much in the way of bad ends and horrible things happening, and not enough sweetness or romance >.< haha. But I love writing bad ends so much x3
The Detective route is also my favourite route :D I love scare mazes an awful lot, so it was extra fun writing a story including those, haha.
Your sister will be pleased to know that he will be making more appearances in the future then :P
I'm sorry there was no way to save that particular Kuro x3 I didn't mean to be so cruel with that, haha.
And I'm sorry you ended up getting that bad end so far into the route, I know that one is mean, but I just love having those kinda tragic bad ends x3 I'm glad you managed to figure out how to get past it though and carry on with the rest of the route :D Do you think I should write up a walkthrough or mini guide? Cos I tried to make it so the choices aren't super complicated, but it's difficult for me to tell how hard it actually is to unlock everything when I know exactly how to get everything >.<
I'm honoured that you think my storytelling/writing is so good :3 I've struggled with rubbish levels of self belief all my life, so no matter what I do, my stupid brain tells me I've done a crap job! >.< Hearing lovely comments like yours really helps me to fight back against those negative thoughts and actually start to believe in myself a little bit, so thank you ^-^ If you do decide to make and release a VN, you'll have to let me know so I can play it!
Yeeeeah, Isaac reeeeaaally fucked up! I don't know if he can ever truly be redeemed or forgiven after everything he's done, but at least he did something good in the end, haha. I had so much fun making the inside of the creature with all the black squelchiness x3 Out of everything in the game, I felt like those backgrounds and those sounds were the most atmospheric bit just cos they went perfectly together. Now you've said what you did about you and your sister joking about the creature smoking, I'll never be able to look at those scenes in the same way again xD
Regarding the ending, I was considering having Isaac save OG MC and Shiro by putting them into 339 and 13's bodies rather than just random units that were available, just so it was more like 339 and 13 lived on in OG MC and Shiro in a more physical representation. 339 and 13 aren't completely gone anyhow though cos a part of them does live inside OG MC, and if they hadn't made the sacrifice that they did, OG MC would have died before even regaining consciousness. I also debated making that a choice, for 339 to just say, nope, I'm not helping, and let OG MC die xD but I felt like that was too mean, haha.
To me, 339 and 13 are the real saviours of the story and my favourite protagonist and Kuro couple, even more than OG MC and Shiro :3 They did deserve better, but I wanted them to have a bittersweet ending x3 I'm sorry I'm so mean... I was actually going to be even crueller originally! I was only going to have bad, tragic, and bittersweet endings as final endings, and not include one that could be considered a genuinely happy end where OG MC and Shiro could actually be together in peace finally. I thought about it for a while, and decided that I couldn't bring myself to do it, haha. I also figured that anyone who played it would probably appreciate some form of happy ending after all of the pain and suffering throughout the journey, which is why I wrote the true end in the end :3 I'm still not 100% happy with the way I wrote the last scenes in the true end though >.<
My favourite Kuro ended up being 13, he just grew on me even though I preferred some of the others when I was writing it all! I think out of all of them, his story just breaks my heart the most. Then when Tim voiced him and brought him to life I just wanted to give 13 a big hug, haha.
Regarding the art, I made the sprites using a Japanese software that I purchased (because my art skills leave a lot to be desired xD) which was really awesome as it allowed me to choose the type of eyes, etc. and the hairstyles were pieced together from lots of tiny little bits of hair until they resembled a style, so that was fun! It took me a looooong time though with the sheer number of sprites I needed >.< The only thing I was frustrated with was not being able to make some of the Kuro's look more manly or mature, which was down to the software being quite limited when it came to more manly features, so most of the Kuro's appear somewhat feminine, haha. Destini Ruffin drew all of the CG art, so without her, I wouldn't even have been able to include a gallery feature :3 And the background art I purchased as resource packs. I had to buy a lot of background art to cover all the different world settings and I never have much money, but I spent all of what I had anyway cos I'm an idiot xD I will try stuff like Kickstarter in the future though to see if I can get a project properly funded cos I felt awful not being able to pay Destini for all the CGs or the voice actors for their time and incredible work as well.
I know what ya mean with feeling like you have a giant hole cos that's how I end up feeling after I've finished something I really enjoyed, like the Mass Effect series, I pretty much cried when I finally finished that, haha. To be honest, I nearly cried reading your comment cos it's just kinda overwhelming in the best way possible to know that you enjoyed SR so much :3
You don't need to apologise anyhow, I really enjoyed reading through your comment! If nobody took the time to let me know how they felt about the game I'd be completely in the dark, so it's great to know what you thought of it, and as I said, I appreciate you taking the time to write everything you did <3
As for my name, I don't really mind what people call me :3 Kari is the name I kinda chose for myself a long time ago because I didn't really wanna use Cody, haha, but now I don't mind, so you're welcome to use either!
To answer your question, 26 wasn't originally gonna be 26, I think she was 17 or something in the old story documents, but when I was typing up Jacob's script for Isaac I decided to change it to 26 just cos that was my age at the time. I'm 28 now though xD 339 wasn't 339 either, haha. I think she might've been 37, which was the door number for my dad's house, but I needed her number to be much higher so I changed that too. I can't remember what made me pick 339 though, I don't think it has any particular significance. 13 was actually a last minute change! I always referred to him affectionately as Dollmaker,
but his number was 404. I changed it to 13 like you say, cos of its connections with being an unlucky number, and cos I wanted his number to be lower to show the sheer amount of time he'd been awake.
Thank you again for all your kind words :3 Your support means the world to me! I plan to keep making VNs for as long as I can, cos I've got a lot of stories I wanna tell, so I hope I'll be able to create something in the future that enjoy just as much as SR :D
Hope you're managing to stay safe! Have an awesome week ^_^
After reaching one of the endings in ??? route (must have more than one?), I consider this VN incredible and entertaining to read.
At first, I was sure that the story was all about the same person (mc) reincarnating in different worlds but I was wrong. I was not counting on that plot twist!
It was fun keeping Kuro from killing the mc and knowing each world's story. I have no favorite Kuro for all of them (when not trying to kill people or the mc) are cute in their own way. Actually, I was counting on Kuro killing the mc right at the beginning. However, my first death was not by his volatile personality.
I've kept noticing little details that for me, enhanced the story and the mystery that kept growing more and more until I finally unlocked ??? route. What a great story, I really enjoyed it even if it left me feeling bittersweet at the end.
The mechanism to unlock the ??? route was really neat because, in my opinion, it was made right. This was the first time a VN "forced" me to get each ending and I did not felt as if it were a chore, instead, I was rewarded with a few hints that later I could use and try to piece them together (and cgs).
All in all, it was really worth playing and its presentation left me the impression of being a commercial project.
My thanks for creating this VN and if you ever consider making a commercial project I'll be interested. However, I'd really appreciate, if possible, the release of a Linux version in the future.
Thank you so much for taking the time to write such kind words! I really appreciate it <3 It means the world to me, and I'm super happy that you enjoyed playing the game :3
You are correct that there are multiple endings for the ??? route. You'll know when you've found the "true" ending, as the credits will play and you'll unlock an extras section with some bonus content :D
Unfortunately, I don't think it will be possible for me to release anything on Linux unless I use something other than Tyranobuilder to make the game, because it seems at the moment there is no support in Tyrano to release for Linux :( Sorry about that, it sucks I know >.<
Hehe, thanks for your kind words, they're very much appreciated :3 I'm hoping that the completed version will be much more polished than the old demo :D I've learned a fair bit since then (still have plenty of learning to do though!) I'm glad ya liked it :3
The funny thing is, I would actaully love to work day and night on it if I could xD I remember a time a couple of years ago where I could for a little while and it was great cos I made so much progress, haha. Nowadays I just spend ages wishes I could work on it but not getting the time T_T Though I'm almost done with the super important life things that I have to put first, so I should be able to finally get some proper serious time to work on VN stuff :D
I used to love reading VNs myself and playing other video games, but now I hardly play anything cos if I play something I feel guilty about it... a little voice in my head says that I could be using the time to work on my VN instead xD
It is super duper hard to motivate yourself to work on stuff like this cos even though it can be fun, a lot of it is pretty tedious so it's kinda difficult to find a balance between working on a project and having fun actually playing games >.<
With me I haven't gone about things in the best way, it'd be ideal to still play stuff and watch anime like you say, but once I got really into my project any time I tried to play a game I wound up just feeling bad that I could be working on my project instead :( So in the end I practically stopped gaming and reading and watching anime altogether! It was good for making project progress but then it feels more like you're just working and not having as much fun anymore xD
I think it's best if you can find a way to divide everything so that you still have the opportunity to make regular progress on a project but still have time set aside to just switch off and relax with other hobbies :3
I think you'll get there in the end, even if it doesn't seem like it at the moment! Sometimes even just doing the tiniest bit of work can give you that spark you need to get fired into action, haha. At the end of the day, stuff like this takes a hell of a lot of time and is a pretty difficult thing to achieve alone. It's doable cos other solo people have managed to release stuff, but when you think about it, most releases come from groups/teams. I hope you do manage to find a way to bring your story to life though :3
I'll be honest, I'm not overly happy with how Palette turned out! Haha. I'm glad I managed to have something finished in time to submit to the jam, but it's not really what I wanted to be, I just didn't have enough time to properly work on it >.<
Hope 2020 is off to a great start for you and good luck with your story!! :3
That's good to hear cos as long as you never give up, you'll get there eventually :3 Doesn't matter how long it takes cos it's not a race, just working bit by bit will get you finished in the end.
It's a good idea to note stuff like that down :3 I have a rough idea how long I've been building SR in Tyrano since it tells me my hours used on Steam, but I didn't keep track of how long it took me to write up the original story documents, make sprites, write scripts, cut audio for voice lines, etc. And all of that will have added up to hours upon hours and I have no idea how many other than lots xD
My memory is awful, if I don't make notes either on my phone, on the PC, or on actual sticky notes then I will end up forgetting things repeatedly >.< Even if I remember and tell myself, okay, remember you need to do this thing, I will just forget again still without notes, haha.
I definitely agree with you about noting down ideas too :3 I do it quite a lot cos again, my memory sucks, so if I didn't write stuff down the second I think of it I will forget! I have a list of ideas for future VNs and other projects I wanna work on, some more detailed, some just very basic, but it's better to have them written down for future reference.
It's good to have planning and a solid idea of where you wanna go with a project before starting it cos it helps ya sort things out in your head, even if planning takes a long time, it's super useful :3 With SR I started out with notes and drafts and then I moved on to writing each route one by one, I'd even planned what BGM was going where and actually listened to the BGM that would be playing in the game while I was writing the scene. That's something that really helped me out a lot because I could imagine the story better with the atmosphere that the music created :3 If you have good planning then it'll make things a lot easier to work on cos you'll always have your plans to look back on.
It doesn't really matter whether ideas are good or bad cos if you get them all written down you'll be able to sort through them all easier and decide which ones are suitable for working on more :3
I often wish I had started with a much smaller project than SR, SR is definitely too long for a first project but I didn't realise that when I started it >.< I should have kept the ideas for later on though and tried to create a smaller project first, haha. Like you say though, all you can do is keep going and be pleased with whatever progress you make :3 I still get angry at myself sometimes if I have set a goal to do a certain amount by the end of the day and I don't manage to get it all done, so I have to keep reminding myself that it doesn't matter, I did something, I made progress, that's what counts :3 Doing anything at all is better than doing nothing cos even if it's just a tiny bit, it's one step closer towards the end goal :D
Even if your motivation does fade, or life gets in the way, if you always have that passion inside you to make stuff then your motivation will come back at some point :3 SR got stuck on pause multiple times because life happened and I just couldn't work on it, it would have been released aaaages ago if not for that. The important thing is that you do what you can while the motivation is there ^-^
The few people who know me well all think I'm nuts for having worked on this for as long as I have xD They think I'm even more crazy when they remember that I'm not making any money out if it either, haha. These past few months I've been working on it for between 6-12 hours a day and it had almost become like an addiction! Which isn't particularly healthy but I can't help it :( working on this is what keeps me going. I found out late last year that I have ASD, the guy I saw said it used to be called high functioning autism or Aspergers, but that it's now just referred to as ASD... that might help to explain why this project is so important to me since he mentioned that people on the spectrum tend to have obsessive interests, haha.
I wouldn't bother with Palette, it's very short and not really something I'm happy with since it was just something I knocked up quickly as a Jam entry >.< I doubt I'll bother with Jams in the future because they just feel too rushed for me, haha. I don't think I could ever make anything I'd be content with considering the time restrictions of Jams. They can be a fun way to get motivated I guess but for the foreseeable future I just wanna focus on projects properly I think.
I hope that you're doing okay and that you're managing to stay safe with all the Coronavirus stuff that's going on, the world is extra crazy at the moment!
hey there. I apologize in advance for this might be a stupid question, but I saw the post about looking for a voice actor for protagonist's best friend, but when I went to the page, it said the auditions were over, but nobody seems to have been picked yet. Is it by any chance still ongoing?
No worries, it's not a stupid question at all :3 I completely forgot I posted a link to that audition page, as you say, the auditions did close and not all roles were filled by the end of the time I had them running! That particular page has expired but I am indeed still running auditions for the remaining roles (I also have a couple more minor characters to add at some point too.)
If you want to check out the current audition page you can find it here:
Hello! I have a question, where would one find a mac version of this game? I have found a windows version, and I can run that fine with wine, but the quality is worse than a normal mac version would be (Wine tends to run down the quality on games for some reason). If there is no mac version right now of the current release, I will still play the full game when it comes out. Your game looks very good, so I am excited to play it. Thank you for your time!
I did upload a mac version of the male Kuro voice demo alongside the windows demo, but I've been informed that it doesn't work as it should :(
The big problem is that I don't own a mac myself and I also don't know anyone in person who has one, so I've got zero way of testing anything for mac which sucks >.< Heck, I didn't even know there was a way to run windows stuff on mac!
There's no proper demo out at the moment anyhow so you're not missing out on anything much :3 The old playable demo containing 2 routes was removed since it uses old art resources that I'm no longer including. The current demo is literally just a reel of voice clips from male Kuro's voice actor.
I'll definitely be attempting to release the full game on mac when it's ready, but I'm not sure if it will work T_T I followed the software's export instructions for the demo (which are pretty much identical to the export instructions for windows) and yet it apparently didn't work so I'll probably need to find some help as to why exporting the project to mac isn't working correctly. I'll also be trying to release it in app form, but that will take some extra time after the PC release as it requires me to change some of the file formats and stuff.
I'm glad to hear that you're interested in the game though, it means a lot to me! :3 I shall try my best when it's ready for full release to get it working on as many platforms as possible :D
Thanks for the reply! I played through the demo, and although it is quite simplistic, I can see great potential in your project, and with such a passionate creator and a very intriguing idea, I am even more excited than I was before. I found the demo was on a game jam page (dunno if its still supposed to be there), and it worked fine on wine, luckily. I am glad to see that you are active with your community, I think that is very important for a person making a game, and you also haven't abandoned the project, which is a plus. Lots of game developers do that, sadly, and its always irritating when a cool project gets canceled because, well, it just suddenly stopped getting updates. Hope the game will be out soon, keep up the good work!
No worries, I'm always happy when people contact me about the project :3
Yeah, that demo is the outdated one that I removed from the main page since it's got loads of old art and other stuff that's no longer in the game now that I've acquired various assets. I figured I shouldn't delete it from the jam page though, because then it would like like I didn't submit anything for the jam, haha. But in that old demo all the character art, background art, and UI is just placeholder stuff that has been changed now, so it will look much better than in that demo once it's finally released in full! :D Comparing that old demo to the way the game is now, there's a huge difference in quality (at least I think so anyway xD)
I'm really glad that you think it seems worth your time to play through anyway :3 Half the reason I removed that old demo is because it's so crappy looking that I was worried people might think that's what the final release will look like and it'd put them off of playing the finished game xD So I'm relieved to hear that you don't feel that way even after trying it, haha.
I definitely won't be abandoning the project as I too know how much it sucks when that happens with an interesting sounding game :3 Besides, I've put well over 1000 hours into it at this point so if I just quit that would be a lot of wasted time >.< haha. I don't know the actual amount of time as I never bothered to count how long it took me to type up the story in a word document (it took months though), type out scripts, create characters etc. But in terms of putting the game itself together, I'm currently on 963 hours in the builder according to Steam xD
I also think it's important to be active when it comes to interacting with a community and believe me, I'm super grateful for every single person that shows interest in my project <3 I suffer from anxiety and depression, so the project is a big part of what keeps me going and the smallest bit of support means the world to me ^-^
I'm probably going to miss my release target that I set for myself, but unless something goes incredibly wrong it should definitely be out by the end of this year! (I'm still hoping to manage releasing it before winter.)
I can't wait for this game to come out! When it does I will finish the game.....most likely very fast since I really want to play it and I just like visual novels
I'm working like crazy to get it done, haha. Pretty much any spare second that I get in a day goes into working on the project :D I hope when I finally finish it that you'll have fun playing it ^_^
Aww thanks for the kind words :3 I'm glad that there are people out there who enjoy it!
Yeah I'm sorry, I'm veeeeery slow at working on this xD Some weeks I don't get to do a single thing because I'm too busy T_T I'm hoping to have all the writing finished by March 2018 otherwise I will lose Kuro's brilliant voice actor, which would be a real shame! After that I estimate it'll take another few months to put everything in game. The biggest challenge will be finding an artist for character art and CGs >.< With any luck I should get it completely finished sometime before Christmas next year! Haha. August 2018 is my release target, *fingers crossed* I can make it xD
The reason it's not been updated in ages is cos I'm working on this visual novel version instead. I'll eventually put all of the routes on Quotev as well, but up until recently this had priority.... Also, as the choices and points system get more complicated it becomes hard to work out how to do it on Quotev, I think it'll either have to be simplified there, or people will need to have a pen and paper or just take notes on a phone of how many points they've acquired xD
Because of some recent news though I won't be able to update the game in a long time as I need to hurry up and finish every single route's writing first; so I will probably put the new routes up on Quotev before they go into this visual novel version.
Aww thanks so much, your kind words are much appreciated <3
I'm glad you were able to get some enjoyment from the demo despite me having to rely on using free assets. Unfortunately I have no artistic talent whatsoever so I can't draw a single thing xD I'm thankful for all the creative commons stuff out there for people like me to use; but I wish I had money to pay some artists to make it more original!
I am indeed in need of VA assistance haha, tbh I don't know what's happening with 2 of the male voice actors voicing the male friend of the heroine and the villain... I've not heard from them in ages... Probably abandoned me T_T I have another route ready to be voiced but, there's no point sending out scripts to anyone because the guys playing the male friend and the villain haven't done the first 2 routes yet, and I can't afford to pay Tim who voices Kuro atm because I have practically no money >.< haha. I know for sure I need a different female voice to the people who are already involved because there's a moody fae/spirit character called Miri in the next route that's been written, so yeah if you're interested I can drop you an email when I've managed to put the route into the game and it's ready for voice stuff.
It is definitely hard to find time to work on it atm, I barely even get more than an hour per week anymore haha. It seems like an almost impossible task but I figure if I at least do something, it's gonna get finished eventually! xD Honestly though, just knowing that there are people out there who actually enjoy playing it in some way really helps keep me motivated :D because then I know I'm not just doing it for myself anymore and that other people can have fun too :3
My biggest fear is not being able to keep Tim around for the completion of the project, because it would suck if Kuro had to become voiceless :(
I wouldn't worry about not getting the hidden scene for now, it's not very good because I ended up rushing it haha, also it's the lowest point required hidden scene, so compared to the later ones it's always gunna be inferior haha.
It's good fun to have predictions and theories :3 as you say, I wouldn't put any spoilers anyhow, but what I can say without ruining anything is that, there are gunna be a lot of endings xD As with most visual novels the "true" ending is going to be the hardest one to get and will involve the player having to do a combo of things to even get it to trigger ^-^ plus once on the true route, there will still be bad endings that you can fall into whilst trying to get the true ending because I like to be evil like that mmmmwwahahahahahahaaaa :P
I really wish I could just will it into being though, it's pretty annoying having everything swimming around in my head and written on notes but then actually making it into a game takes an eternity!! xD
But yeah, thanks again, every kind word is like a little boost of inspiration to keep me working hard and make progress :3 I hope the future routes aren't disappointing haha.
Hmm that's weird >.< I just checked the MEGA and Google drive links on my phone after seeing your comment and they work for me, it won't let me check the split direct links though :(
If you tried every link and it still won't work I can always email you the Google drive link directly or something if you want :3 just drop me an email at kalamitykiss@live.com and I'll get back to you as soon as I can!
Finished playing this demo right now, and I must say it was a big surprise, and a real blast too haha!
So yeah, first things first, I usually really dislike games that don't have custom art (well, at least custom sprites). It bothers me when different styles are used, or when I see the same "characters" in various games. I mean, I understand why would you do that - not everyone can draw and / or commission artists. But while I'm not picky about art quality, using stock sprites is something that I can't get over... Now, as I said, "usually". I mean, it still bothers me here, but normally I wouldn't have even tried this game after seeing that. But it was SO intriguing that it was enough to make me bear with it and play anyway. And man I'm glad I did! Even though I can't wait for the updated art with expressions added for everyone and so on, I still got SO immersed that I almost forgot about the stock sprites! So kudos to that! And I also have to mention I like your music choices, especially for the mage chapter.
Now, back to what actually wanted to say. This game is really unique in so many things.
First of, I don't believe I've ever seen a game with a concept like this one, with this weird thing about travelling through different worlds and having a different backstory each time - even if it actually is part of a bigger plan, but still. I mean, I've played my fair share of games with travelling between worlds, but not executed that way. It was really refreshing! I really want to know what the hell is happening there!
It's also well... quite amazing that you've managed to make this into some kind of twisted and creepy magical girl!
Now, obviously, I have to mention Kuro. He's so demented oh dear, I can't even believe you put him as the (only!) love interest! Now, don't take me wrong, I wasn't complaining - I think he's awesome! I mean, he's creepy and twisted, but awesome. I like how he's written, and I like the fact he's the polar opposite of what you'd expect from the MC's love interest in that kind of story. Their relationship seem so unhealty and so sincere at the same time - it's really weird. Now, I'm used to otome games and I like characters like Kuro, so the only bad endings I got were from sheer curiosity (I didn't even try one in the Student chapter) - because of that, I guess I'm missing on lots of hints about the overall plot, but I still got to see that fascinating, sad and horrific thing when you choose to go downstairs (won't spoil the details, you know what I mean haha) . Thanks to this specific bad ending, I'm even more curious about Kuro.
It's also very interesting to see the MC being already in a relationship from the very beginning of a game. I don't believe I've ever seen that done before, unless it's an unsteady relationship where you'll end up deciding if she'll stay with the guy or fall in love with someone else - so it would still be a basically regular otome. I mean, it must exist in at least some game, but not that I know about, and since I've played lots of otome and BL games, I know what I'm talking about haha
Also, did I mention I love Kuro's voice acting? Well, now I did!
So yeah, basically, a very intriguing game that manages to keep me on edge and get me crazy involved.
Can't wait for the next demos and, of course, the full release! Keep up the good work and good luck. And also thank you for making this game!
Thank you so much for the kind words, I'm really glad you enjoyed it so far! :3
Using those sprites bothers me too haha, it's great that stuff like that exists for people like me who can't draw; but at the same time it's frustrating because I know how I want everything to look in my head, but I can't create it T_T
The sprites with expressions are still creative commons assets but they do look better than the ones without expressions. I actually commissioned someone to create custom art for Kuro, but I've not heard from her in a few weeks so maybe she's too busy to do it now or something.
As for Kuro, yeah the poor guy is kinda messed up but he really does love the MC bless him and by the time the game's finished it'll be explained how come he's the way he is :3 Going downstairs that you mentioned is probably my favourite scene so far actually! A lot of the story gets kinda boring for me when I'm reading it over and over again whilst testing stuff; but that scene still gives me chills xD
It's good to know that the game has unique points, because while I've played a lot of otome myself, I probably haven't gotten through as much as other people and I personally got bored of a lot of otome games because the romance was always the same (especially with the mobile app ones!) I prefer the ones where the plot comes first and the romance second. I was kinda worried that maybe people might think that it was wrong to do it that way, or wrong to only have the one romantic interest or something. At the end of the day I just wanted to make it the way I would like to play an otome haha, with lots of bad endings and focus on a yandere guy :3
Tim who voices Kuro does such a great job with the character, I really hope he will be alright to stick with the project because I can't imagine anyone else playing Kuro now!
The demo with all the swapped art is done but I'm still waiting on all the voice acting for those 2 routes to be done before I release it and since most of the voice actors have volunteered, I don't want to rush anyone because that'd be mean, haha. Also the next route (Princess) is just over half written, it's slow going because of how little time I get to work on it, but it's coming along :3
Thanks again for saying so many nice things about the demo, I really appreciate you taking the time to do that and it also gives me more drive to keep making it if other people are enjoying it too, instead of just me! xD
Well, having only one romance may be an issue - honestly, it really depends on how it's done, so yeah... In this case, I really like it!
And yay for bad endings! I'm writing my own game too, even though it'll have all gender romances (choice between a male or a female MC, and all gender options for both), but I'm also putting a lot in the overall plot and bad endiiiings! Bad endings are so fun to write haha
That's cool! I'll definitely play yours then because I'm just a huge sucker for bad endings :P anything tagged with lots of bad endings always goes straight onto my "I need to play this" list, haha.
Mine will eventually have the option to choose whether you play a male or female character and also which gender you want Kuro to be so you can have GxB, BxG, GxG and BxB; but it's probably only ever going to have that one romance in it because it just wouldn't really fit the plot if there were a range of romance options unfortunately.
I probably should've made the game with gender options from the beginning but I'm an idiot and have ended up going about it in an awkward way xD The plan was to finish the entire game as female heroine x male Kuro before working on the alternative gender options; but maybe that's not fair and I should finish each route for all the gender options before moving onto the next one! It'll end up being very expensive to try and get original art for all the characters though T_T haha.
In one route that's not in the demo yet, there is a different romance option besides Kuro, but it's not a "true" romance option, if that makes any sense!
Totally agree about bad endings being fun to write... Sometimes I even get fed up writing bits in between bad endings just because I can't wait to do the next bad ending xD
I think at this point, finishing the game with female MC and male Kuro would be the best - the other options will be more like an extra!
And yeah, from what I've seen of the story so far, it would be weird to put another true romance option, though I get what you mean with the one route with a romance that isn't a true romance. I think it may be interesting for many reasons, for example to see Kuro's reactions. Honestly, I don't think I would like to romance anyone else in this game anyway - at least "seriously". He's a great character and I'm really interested in the romance, so yeah...
And also, thank you for following me! I'm not ready yet to post public things about my game as I have a lot of work to do before, but well, you'll obviously get notified when I'll publish something!
xD haha yeeeeeah, he's kinda crazy that way! It's such a weird thing to be jealous of though, silly Kuro!! He can't help it bless him :3
You're not really missing out on too much if you don't see the hidden scene, it was very rushed because of the time left on the jam, so I'm not really happy with it! T_T I'll just make sure I edit it for the next release; which will be much sooner than planned since I'm changing the art xD but there should be more voice acting in it as well because some of the other cast members are getting closer to finishing scripts now :3 Once that edited version of the demo is out I'll get back to working on the next route!!
Glad you enjoyed it anyhow! <3 And I really appreciate you taking the time to comment, it makes me happy to know that someone other than myself can get something out of this ^-^
Yeah you're probably better off waiting, all the art will be different too then haha, but should be more immersive since everyone will have expressions :3
As of last night, all the main characters have now been cast and I'm writing up the last couple of scripts for the existing routes this weekend :D I was starting to think no females would audition, but it's all good now! Yeah Tim does a great job with Kuro, I loved his voice as soon as I heard his audition, I wish I had more money so I could pay him decently because he deserves a lot more than I can afford to give him!
I'm glad you're looking forward to playing more in the future :3 gives me more reason to keep pushing on! I'm actually a little torn on how to update the game... I was going to just keep releasing 1 new route at a time (and I'll try to have them fully voiced before they release, the only reason I released this one only partly voiced was because of the Jam closing date haha.) But then it occurred to me that people can't transfer their save data >.< and the final endings you get are dependant on various factors that would be in save files.... so that means if I release it route by route and people only play the new route in each demo, by the time it gets to the final route, it either won't be unlocked at all or people will only get super bad endings because they have no save data xD So they'd have to play through the entire game again when it's at it's final release, even if they played each route separately in the demos >.<
I'm a noob so I don't know how to deal with that! I guess I could just release a downloadable save file for people or something xD
Anyways, I'm rambling on again, sorry! T_T The next route I'd planned to write up fully is the Princess route, the only reason for that is because it won a poll I did over 6 months ago that only a few people voted on xD but I figured I better stick to it, otherwise there was no point in anyone voting, haha.
← Return to yandere adventure
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Made an account just to be able to leave a comment - I feel like indie creators (esp for sort of niche games) don't always get many reviews/feedback, but I think you deserve all the positive feedback you can get! This felt like such a labor of love, and it is amazing that this was released as a free game. Thank you so much for contributing to the male yandere material out there in English, there's definitely a dearth of it, like you said! Came here after reading some recommendations from Reddit for male yandere otome games (gotta scratch that itch every so often) and was so pleased to see a new one in the list!
SPOILERS
Kuro's a great character, and I think it was nice to see the yandere actually be so affectionate (since I feel in most games, there's the "courting" period and maybe a small period where they're actual affectionate and then something snaps). I'm a real sucker for all those kisses, esp ones where the LI does it suddenly/forcefully (not really like non-con per se since the MC does also like him, hopefully you get what I mean) so I think Student ended up being my favorite for that reason. That being said, my favorite plots were the detective and hidden routes (the layers in that last one, oh my goodness!)
I enjoyed reading the comments here about the plot and some of the behind the scenes processes. Makes sense then why I thought Kuro looked kind of girly/shota (e.g. in the mage route, I was like, doesn't that look like female breastplate armor??). No problem, though, because I got so immersed in the story, it didn't really matter. :) The VAs were also great, it was cool to see how many were actually involved in the credits! I feel like all the evil laughs were nailed, and Topper was so fun to listen to (it just fit so well!). The only bit of voice acting that I found a bit jarring was Rabbit - she sounded like a guy to me (can't remember if the VA was a guy or a girl, and I apologize, don't mean any offense). Can't forget about our protag Kuro - sometimes English dub esp for stuff like yandere can sound so cringey but he did a great job, particularly when Kuro gets more emotional/sad. It helped contribute to the feeling of yeah, sometimes he goes crazy but deep down, it's really because he loves you so much and he has all this other angst that you discover in the hidden route.
Speaking of the hidden route, like some other folks mentioned, I found it a bit harder to relate to og!MC and Shiro. I know Shiro has a reason to dislike the MC and Kuro clones but since he was acting like a jerk, I found myself being like, give me Kuro back, haha. In the grand scheme of things, though, it all makes sense and I think there's something to be said for playing as the "clone" the whole time.
Once I realized Anathema was actually Player and not MC, it was interesting to re-interpret everything the Architect said in light of that. Although I'm still a bit confused by what he means at certain bad ends when he says "better you than me" since it's not actually Player dying? Also, Architect, what's your deal with being so upset with me picking the sorta happy ending as my favorite? Surely if you've been watching me so long, you know there's no way I'm going to be like, oh yes, being a lifeless doll is totally my favorite, haha. (Not at all meant to be a slight on your writing, I'm just joking as to the seemingly twisted nature of the Architect)
I also thought it was neat how in the early routes such as Student, you get some bad ends where Kuro is like, oh no, what have I done! But iirc, that doesn't really happen in the later routes, which makes sense since he learns more and more about the system and how it works.
Alright, I think I'm rambling at this point, gonna end with a couple male yandere recs. I know you said you enjoyed MM, not sure if you've also played their other games, Dandelion and Nameless (I'm a fan of Tei from the latter, he's a bit more of the manipulative type). Also, have you heard of the Boyfriend to Death series? (there's 1 and 2, probably runs a bit more yangire than yandere imo but may be up your alley!) There are still some other games I have to catch up on, so we'll see. Anyway, thanks again for making such a great game, looking forward to more of your work in the future!
That's so sweet of you to make an account to leave such lovely feedback :3 I appreciate it more than I can put into words :D I'm so glad to hear that you enjoyed the game!
You're right that sometimes indie creators don't seem to get a whole lot of feedback, anything I receive always means a lot to me. I'm touched that you think I deserve all the positive feedback I can get :3 And I'm glad it felt like a labour of love, that's certainly one of the ways I would describe how I feel about it myself. You taught me a new word there with 'dearth'! I had to look that one up, haha, so that's something new I learned today :D Also, that's interesting to know that it's been recommended on Reddit. I do sometimes lurk there on r/otomegames, haha, but I had no idea it had been listed at any point, so that makes me happy to discover :3
SPOILERS
I'm super happy that you liked Kuro :3 I'm very protective of him and can't help but be saddened when people occasionally don't understand him because, deep down, he's such a sweetheart. I feel the same as you where you said you feel in most games there's the 'courting' period and then something snaps, haha. With SR, I really wanted the reader to know that this was genuinely a love story, despite all of the horror and despair x3 That was something that was very important to me to get across. Yeah, I know what you mean about the kisses, hehe :3 That's really interesting that you'd say the Student one was your favourite for that reason :o I don't recall anyone picking that as their favourite so far! I do kinda struggle with picking a favourite myself, especially when for me it would be kinda like picking a favourite child. haha. I do prefer some versions over others though.
That's cool that you also read through some of the other comments about the behind the scenes stuff :3 Yeah, I was very resource-limited, haha. That breastplate was actually one of two options... the other had giant sticking out bits for huge boobs, so that was a no go xD I would really love it if I could remake the entire game someday in the new engine that I'm using and hire an artist to redraw all the sprites in their own style. The VA's were so wonderful, I'm glad you enjoyed their performances :3 I'm so proud of them all + will be eternally grateful for the work they did on the project. Jacob had a lot of fun with Topper, and it certainly shows, haha. Rabbit was played by a guy, yeah. What happened was, I cast him to play the male version of the character in BxB version of the game that sadly won't be getting released. I had also cast someone for female Rabbit but, unfortunately, she never delivered her lines. I just decided to use his voice for the female version of Rabbit in the end since Rabbit's a magical creature anyhow. I can totally understand how that might be jarring though x3 And I know what you mean about how English voice acting can sometimes be a little cringe-worthy cos I've played my fair share of games like that, haha. Tim absolutely did Kuro justice though :3 He was so perfect for the role, and I agree that those emotional lines he delivered were very powerful. Some of them almost had me in tears! x3 He portrayed the character exactly as I intended, and I'm super happy to hear you think the same :D
I have to agree with you and the others who have mentioned it that OG MC + Shiro are less relatable than the clone x Kuro combo. It's not something I really thought about at the time of writing because I knew from the start how I wanted it to end, but I think it wound up becoming Kuro's story more so than Shiro's, even though they're linked. At least once things calmed down there, you could go wake up all the Kuro clones and be surrounded by Kuro's forever x3
As for the Architect's comments like you mentioned the: "Better you than me." Upon reaching certain bad ends. It's basically just him being a dick x3 And I guess, in a way, he's sort of presuming that the player is self-inserting (which I know isn't always the case, but that's how I tend to play, haha) so he's kinda just mocking the player for having caused the death of their character. And yeeeeah, the Architect is a pretty twisted dude as you say xD That's my favourite reaction of his when you choose that happy CG, kinda like a child throwing a tantrum, haha. As a side note though, that Dollmaker ending is one of my personal favourite 'bad ends' x3 I can't remember for sure, but I think I named that bad end after my dev name in the bad ends guide document, haha.
What you said regarding the Student route and Kuro's reactions to some of the bad end stuff, I'd love to claim that I did that on purpose, but it was unintentional, haha. I guess it came out that way because I wrote the routes in a particular order and then figured I would stack the route options in the same order that I wrote them, just allowing the player to pick whichever they wanted. I guess with what you said though, it would mean the order they're arranged in on the selection screen would be the recommended play order.
There's nothing wrong with rambling anyhow :D As you've no doubt noticed, I do rather a lot of it myself xD I really do appreciate you taking the time to leave your thoughts though, so thank you :3
As for the recommendations, they're always much appreciated! I have indeed played Dandelion and Nameless, and I have to agree with you, Tei is pretty darn awesome :P Actually, he's probably my favourite manipulative yandere character that I've read so far. I'd like to create a similar character myself at some point. He'd make a terrible being in reality, but he's wonderful as a fictional character, haha. I don't recall coming across that many characters like Tei, so if you know of any others, feel free to let me know! And yeah, I have dabbled in the BTD games :D They're certainly quite something! I did enjoy what I played of them, there was the odd scene that I found a little gross, but I mean, I had anticipated that anyways xD I played all of the routes in the first one, but I never actually finished the second. I got kinda stuck and I couldn't find any walkthroughs at the time, so being the lazy bugger that I am, I kinda just gave up >.< Is there any character in particular that you recommend I finish their route in BTD2? I've been told I would likely enjoy Black Wolves Saga, but haven't gotten around to checking it out yet, likewise with the yandere in Nightshade cos I've heard good things about him as well.
Anyways, thanks again for writing all of that up :3 I hope wherever you are in the world that you're managing to stay safe! Have a great week ^_^
Ah, thanks so much for responding! I would absolutely love to see what your version of a Tei-like character would be like! I've also still been searching for more like him. I think he's the only character I kept wanting to jump ship for in the other routes (I know some people were annoyed how he showed up in the other routes, but I was always like, yes, please, I would totally switch LIs if not for needing to actually finish the game, haha).
For BTD2, it's been a while but I think I preferred Vincent and Cain (Lawrence is interesting in an eerie kind of way, and Ren is...more of a masochist iirc?). Cain's route also has an extra hidden character mini route who is kinda similar to him.
I haven't played Black Wolves Saga yet either. It's a little more involved since the English is a fan translation as far as I'm aware, and I've just been too lazy so far to go through the extra steps to set it all up. Nightshade's yandere is in my opinion a touch underwhelming. Don't get me wrong, he definitely has some possessiveness/obsessiveness come through, but I found his route...not extreme enough for me, haha. The voice actor is fantastic, though, and does such a great job with the emotional lines. Not sure if you want to be spoiled as to which character (SPOILER: his name is Kuroyuki, what a coincidence!)
Anyway, hope you're staying safe and well, too! I'll post again if I remember/find any others (although a lot of the recent games I've seen mentioned are only on PS Vita which I don't have unfortunately), always nice to find fellow male yandere fans!
I think I would have to go back through Tei's route to refresh my mind on the character cos it's been a fair few years now since I played Nameless, but yeah, I think writing a similar character would be a lot of fun :D When I first played that, just going by sprite appearances, I thought Yuri was gonna be my favourite, but nope, Tei won, haha. He was a surprise too cos back then I purposely didn't look at character bios so that I could be surprised whenever I came across a yandere character. Nowadays, I tend to try and find out if a game at least has one in before deciding whether or not to play x3
I guess I should try and play more of BTD2 then! There must be plenty of guides out there by now :3 I noticed that Lawrence seems to get the most fan art, which intrigues me. I never got to see any of Ren back when I played, but I kinda imagined he'd be that way, haha.
Not feeling like bothering with the patch set up is one of the main reasons why I haven't managed to play through BWS as well! I'll get to it someday, I'm sure :3 It's probably the one that's been recommended to me more than anything else, so it would be a bit silly of me not to try it at some point. That's a shame about Kuroyuki though! I had heard that was the one cos when I was lurking on r/otomegames in the past, people didn't tag it with spoilers, haha. I'm not that fussed about things like that being revealed though so it's all good. I heard folk describe his route as very angsty more than anything. I know what you mean though, soft yandere routes are great and all, but I do prefer reading stuff that's more extreme x3 I used to look up rec lists online for male yandere characters in games, and a large majority of the ones I tried were pretty soft routes. I'll always be up for reading any kind of yandere route, but the best ones are the ones that make my jaw drop in shock xD At the same time, I'd love to see more villain routes too, even if they're not yandere. The first time I experienced something like that was when I played Hakuoki on my tablet years ago, and I was so stoked that you got that option (I played blind, and I got that as my first route x3)
Good to know about the voice actor for Kuroyuki anyhow! I was considering which game to play out of Nightshade and Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk whenever I next decide to start an otome. I was leaning towards Nightshade, but now I might go with Ashen Hawk instead, haha.
I do have a PS Vita, thankfully :3 Managed to nab a used one years ago when I discovered the sheer amount of otome on there, though, it seems like that may be gravitating towards the Switch slowly, which I don't have >.< I mainly wanted one to check out the Diabolik Lovers series, but I still don't know how to feel about it. On paper, I should technically love it, but there are several things about it that irk me, one being how useless MC is xD
It is indeed always nice to find fellow male yandere fans :3 I feel like we sometimes get shoved in a dark little corner while everyone else fawns over the tsundere guys, haha. Have a lovely week!
Oh yeah, I forgot about Psychedelica, have seen it mentioned and been meaning to play it but haven't gotten a chance to. I will say, though, if you're not just looking for a yandere fix, I do think Nightshade is quite a good game. The plot is actually good, all of the voice acting is fantastic, and the characters generally well-written (plus endearing side characters!) I enjoyed pretty much all the routes, either for the character or for the plot, often both. And while the yandere in Nightshade is not that extreme, they built a surprisingly good and sympathetic rationale for why he acts the way he does.
FYI, I've been playing through 7'scarlet and while the yandere is a bit more extreme and -almost- there, he doesn't quite make it for me. The bad end is bad in a different way sadly. Still gonna finish the rest of the game for the plot and completionist's sake. I've heard Monochrome Heaven has a yandere so I'll add that to my list at some point, too. Oh, and since you do have a Vita, I'll recommend Period Cube to you because it sounds like that has gotten some thumbs up's yandere-wise. Enjoy!
I wasn't really all that enthralled by Black Butterfly, but I've heard I'm more likely to enjoy Ashen Hawk, haha. I just didn't really feel much for any of the characters in BB >.<
That's good that Nightshade is solid overall :3 I had heard quite a few people say they enjoyed every route, which seems to be a rare thing in otome, haha, so they must have done something right with it :D And I love it when yandere characters have a good reason behind why they are the way they are, so I'd probably love that route :3 It's been aaaaages since I played one where I genuinely enjoyed reading all the routes. I found finishing Collar x Malice quite painful cos I left the two characters I was least interested in until last, and their routes were even more boring than I anticipated >.<
I've not got 7'scarlet with it being a slightly newer title and my usual lack of disposable income, haha. Is it worth buying in a sale do you think? Not that I could even afford it then xD I'm not overly keen on the art either. "The bad end is bad in a different way sadly." That makes me curious, haha, but I guess I better not seek out spoilers in case I play it someday.
I've heard a lot of good stuff about Steam Prison, which I also don't have. I hadn't even heard of Monochrome Heaven, so that goes to show how far behind I am on keeping up with content >.<
I did quite enjoy Period Cube actually :3 It's been quite a while since I played it, and I can't remember whose route I enjoyed the most. If I'm remembering correctly, it wasn't who I thought would be my favourite (pretty sure it was a non-yandere)! MC was a bit annoying for me to self-insert with cos I've played plenty of MMOs xD
I think the Vita titles I own but haven't gotten around to playing yet are Code Realize + Norn9. The other stuff I haven't played yet in my backlog is on PC, which consists of Nightshade, Ashen Hawk, the new revamped Hakuoki games, BWS, Bad Medicine (though the English patch doesn't cover all routes and I was really bored with it anyway, haha), and a bunch of indie otome. I never did see past the base content of Mystic Messenger either! Just because the app became too large for my crappy phone to be able to download any updates >.< I had a founders pack for that with a physical box of stuff + lots of whatever the currency was for progression, and I don't have a clue what my account info I used would have been :(
Have an awesome weekend! :3
So... I LOVE THIS GAME! ITS SO CUTE, WELL MADE, I LOVE THE CHARACTERS. Sad theres nothing that happens when you name the character Anathema. Also where did you get the name Anathema? Its a fitting name. I would love a sequel... or ten. I am obsessed with this game
Aww, I'm glad you like it :D Thanks so much for taking the time to play through it and comment <3 It means a lot to me :3
There is something that happens when you name MC Anathema :o but it's very subtle and only occurs in the final section (just a slight change in dialogue so not really a lot considering a player would have to start over with that as their name + get all the way to the end again to see the difference x3) it's awesome that you thought to try that cos I don't know how often people do, and I made that little easter egg in case anyone did, haha.
The name just came up when I was searching online about religious stuff like sins and such! I thought it was a fitting name :D
I do hope to remake the game in the new engine I'm now using at some point cos it will look a lot more polished and I could do more with it in general! So much work though to remake it from scratch >.< haha + I'd like to be able to get all the sprites drawn by one person so that the sprite art can be consistent throughout :3 I have no way of affording that right now though.
Tim has recently re-recorded some of Kuro's lines, so when I'm able, I'll be updating the game with his new takes :3 I'm just not able to use a computer that can handle the project load at the moment >.<
I'll need to replay it then! Which I really should anyway... And I am very happy to hear of a remake and Tim is a great Kuro I don't think I could hear Kuro played by any one else. And there is so much I would love to say but theres no real place to start
I just finished playing the game and after I click ??? from extras it takes me to this site https://rchitect.itch.io/dear-anathema/password and asks for password I tried everything but I don't understand what the password is can please tell me
Hey hey :3 Thanks for playing the game through to the end <3 I hope you enjoyed it.
Sure, I will put the password underneath this spoilers sign :3
SPOILERS
The password is: Anathema
You have to do it with the capital 'A' or it won't work. I just checked it on my phone to make sure the password hasn't expired or something, but it seems to work fine, so hopefully, it should work for you too :3
Thank you i forgot To try with capital 'A' sorry for the trouble and i really like Yandere character so i really enjoyed the game I'm looking forward to the other versions of the game and i really want to know more about the creepy voice and anathema
It's no trouble at all :3 I'm super glad that you enjoyed the game :D
There will definitely be more about the voice + Anathema in future games :3 I plan to include them/parts of their story in most of my main projects <3
Thanks for playing + stay safe :3
I just finished the game and it was awesome)
I've decided to make fan art)
Wow, that's absolutely gorgeous! Love it <3 Thanks so much for playing the game + creating such a beautiful piece of art :3
Makes me really happy to hear that you enjoyed it! I take it you're a fan of Prince Kai then? :D
Is there somewhere I can follow you so I can see more of your awesome art? :o
Stay safe <3
I don't have any art accs..) I'm glad you liked it)
SPOILERS
well,I really like him, he is one of my favorite characters(hope he really liked princess mc, and wanted to be with her not only because of the plan..) ,I also like Farro, he is sweet and kind , I love his voice and his shy feelings for mc are adorable(its somehow funny how I've mentioned them both, they are so different :D) But it seems they are both just a part of the program for reality simulation?...Its hard to think about them this way).
And ofc Kuro is hasubando number 1( so don't kill me,Kuro :D).
ps. Sorry for occasion mistakes, my eng is not very good :)
Well, your art is really awesome :3 I wish I had art skills like that :D
I'm super glad you like Kai :3 I don't think Kai or Farro are very popular, so it's nice for them to get some love <3 But yeah, don't tell Kuro or he might get mad x3 hehe. Kuro would be incredibly happy to know that he is number 1 though \^_^/
SPOILERS
Even though Kai and Farro were part of the simulations and technically weren't real, they would have seemed very real to MC, so to her, they may as well have been real :3 Also, depending on what MC chooses to do at the end, she could use her power to bring back any of the characters from the simulations to live with her :D Heck, she could even implant their personalities into one of the clone bodies to bring them to life in reality if she really wanted to.
I think Kai had a pretty rough life with his upbringing and stuff, and he definitely has some genuine feelings for MC, so he's not 100% evil :3
No need to apologise anyhow, your English is great! :D
Hi I'm having issues opening the game with my Mac. Whenever I try to open it, this message appears:
The application “Solipsism Reigns” can’t be opened.
I'm not quite sure what to do and I really wanna play. If anyone has advice on what to do, please let me know.
Heya :3 I wish I could help you, but unfortunately, Tyranobuilder games + macs just don't seem to get along very well at all :(
I don't know any actual statistics, but a lot of mac users seem to have this problem. It worked alright on my partner's old work macbook, but I have no idea if it's worked for anyone else on mac because I don't know enough people that use them to find out >.<
I did search online for help in the past + posted in the support forums for Tyrano on Steam. If you haven't already, you could try some of the suggestions on this page. There just doesn't seem to be any real solution to the issue though :( The English community manager for Tyranobuilder pretty much just stated that the devs say the problem is macs are awkward, and kinda just left it at that with no actual fix >.< Which is incredibly frustrating!
I'm hoping to be able to work with a new engine soon cos I'm getting pretty fed up with all the issues Tyrano has that don't seem to get fixed :(
I can't upload a browser version either because the game is too large to fit within itch.io's acceptable size guide for browser games.
I hope you can manage to find a fix somehow, and I'm really sorry that there's nothing I can do to help :( Thank you so much for your interest in the game + I hope you're managing to stay safe :3
Hi, I have a mac and have also ran into issues launching itch.io games before so I have become accustomed to looking into game files to find the problem. Unfortunately this game wasn't an easy fix like previous ones because it seems that the file needed to run the game is not a "unix executable" file. There is no way for mac user to play this game because the file is not unix executable, and instead only appears as a text file. I don't know how to solve this issue because I am not familiar with the software the game was made with, but hopefully this can help a little. I look forward to being able to play this game, so goodluck fixing it :)
Update: I converted the plain text file into a unix executable file (using the chmod +x command in terminal) and it still would not work. I believe there are still files missing that prevent just converting the file from working. This is the error message [9436:1123/152402:WARNING:shell_main_delegate.cc(231)] en-CA.pak file not found. [warn] kq_init: detected broken kqueue; not using.: Undefined error: 0
Thanks for the info + for checking out the game :3 I'm sorry you weren't able to get it working still in the end :(
Unfortunately, all these months down the line I'm still none the wiser as to what on earth I can possibly do to fix the issue >.< The support discussion I had open pretty much just ended with the support manager saying the devs of the software say that macs are awkward, that it'll work for some and not for others... Which is not exactly an acceptable solution! It's very frustrating that the support for the software just isn't there :(
This is one of the main reasons I'm giving up on using Tyranobuilder to make stuff. I've got a new engine now which will hopefully allow me to make games which will run on mac more reliably! I still need to learn how to use it though, and I probably won't be remaking SR on there for the foreseeable future cos it would just be too much work to remake it all in the new engine :( I do hope to completely remake it with new sprites in the future, but that'll be a long way off.
It sucks you're not able to play it either anyhow :( Really sorry about that! Thank you for the interest though + I hope you're managing to stay safe :3
Hi! this is my favorite visual novel and I have played many. I am in love with Shiro partly because he reminds me of Ukyo, my favorite character from Amnesia. I also like yanderes and darker stories like this, but it also had cute moments as well and Kuro's actions made sense so that he was lovable.
Spoilers
Who is the creepy voice that talks to the player whenever you get a bad ending? I get that Anathema is referring to us, but still
Hey hey! Thanks so much for playing through it + taking the time to comment :3 Your kind words means a lot + make me super happy to hear <3 Ukyo is my favourite character from Amnesia as well ^-^
SPOILERS
The owner of the voice that speaks to the player when you get bad ends and such doesn't have a proper name yet, but I tend to refer to him as the Architect :3 SR was sorta like his introduction. He'll be appearing again in some of the other games I make :D
Thank you for replying! I love this game so much I look forward to other creations of yours! :)
No worries :3 Thanks for your support <3 I'm really glad you love SR! It took me a loooong time + lots of love to make it, haha.
I hope you will enjoy the other stuff I make as well :D I'm currently working on finishing the game I started ages ago for Yaoi Jam 2018 (it's called Clarity in Qualia) and while there is only a very old rough demo available from the jam for now, I'm in the middle of completely remaking the demo with new art and other stuff + there will be an otome version of the game too :3
OMG!!! I'm so excited to see it! I can tell you put a lot of effort and time into the game it's fantastic!! and I'm sure I'll enjoy the other stuff you make!!!
I just finished the game and I am soooooooooo MINDBLOWN. So I have lots of feels right now so idk if I could express them all but AAAHHHHHHH I love it I love Kuro very very much.
SPOILERS
Soooo ummm the Kuro that we spent all 5 routes with, I actually thought the same as you in that it was the Kuro that 26 meets in the room. I can't gandle him being dead soooo I like to think that he survived in the end amd found another MC that was a predecessor of 339 that did not get discarded. Idk I really want a happy ending for him. Alsoooo can I gush about the detective route Kuro? He and the Princess route Kuro werw my absolute favourites. But detective Kuro was my all time favourite. I really loved their sweet moments, especially at the end where they spend their last moment in the ferris wheel. But my favourite moment was at the end of the mage route where Kuro makes the MC promise to love him always even of she will forget him. Aahhhh I just love the passionate devotion Kuro has for the MC. The Kuro that was so enraged at the sight of 339, I felt so sad for him. I mean he got MARRIED to MC, that has got to hurt, finally being with your beloved in manitromony only to lose her. Aahhhh whyyyyyyy is wverything so painful.
Oh yeah, I'm curious about S****'s yandere level, even the doll maker's yandere level. And I'm guessing that the married Kuro's yandere levrl is very high?
Also, I really got creeped out at the voice calling tye MC Anathema, especially atvthe end where the game took over my whole screen when the voice said I can'tvescape from him. Ugghhhhh. I'm curious about who it is and how high his yandere level is, if he even has a yandere level.
Oh yeah even though the detective route is my favourite, the gamer route was the most insightful, like the parallels in it! Kuro saying he has feelings, and then thw MC in the hidden route saying she has feelibgs even if she was a clone, ughhhh that was good, like even the concept of merging realities and changing realities. This route reallt made sense to be the final one before the hidden one. Alssooo why is Kuro here having a change of heart ompared to the others? Alsoooo where does S****'s figure shouting at MC happen chronilogically? I mean he only said his words to og! MC so when did the end sequences after every route happen? I have a lot of questions right now haha. But really I love your game, the concept is good, the philosophy is interesting, and really intrigued me. It was awesome to see how it is tackled in game. And alsoooo S**** is hot sooooo yeah.
So TLDR, I love SR so much, and this is coming from someone who has played LOTS of visual novels: it is my all time favourite now
P.S. I love Kuro's voice, it really brought him to life and it fit the sprites so well. Also love the moments where it is so soft amd loving hehe.
Oohhhh yeah. I also really loved the music? Especially in the detective and hidden route, also the good end 1 was so epic and sweet and the music added to that, though the true end really deserved to be the best one and is really my favourite of the bunch. But that creepy voice, I have so many questions about it like....
SPOILERS
why Anathema? How is the MC a sacrifice cuz that's what Anathema means. How is he able to see everything? Were they lovers? At first I thought the voice was the more murderous side of Kuro, cuz in the mage route it was as if he had two personalities, like Ukyo from Amnesia. But is Anathema actually the player behind the screen? Aaahhh I really have a lot of questions huh?
I’m glad you loved the music :3 One of my favourite things to do is find the perfect music to match scenes, haha. I pretty much knew what I wanted to use before I wrote the story in full, and I listened to the various tracks while writing the scenes, cos having the atmosphere from the music really helps a lot with the writing :D
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As for the creepy voice who talks to Anathema, you pretty much hit the nail on the head with the last thing you said in your comment :3 He’s talking to the player behind the screen. His comments are all observations based on the choices that the player is making while playing the game. Then he decides to finally reveal himself :3 I can’t say too much cos I don’t wanna accidentally give any spoilers, haha, also I haven’t fully planned what’s going to happen yet, but it won’t be the last you see of him! I guess he’s supposed to be like a 4th wall breaking character? Essentially though, you, the player, are his Anathema :D
I hope I managed to answer your questions :3 If not (cos I know I kinda suck at explaining stuff xD) feel free to let me know, or ask any other questions that you have! Thank you so much again for taking the time to comment :3 I hope you’re managing to stay safe, and that you have an awesome week!
Hey hey! I’m super duper happy you loved the game :3 Thanks so much for taking the time to comment :D
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It would certainly be nice to think that that version of Kuro survived :3 He really deserved to after everything he went through! I’m glad you loved detective Kuro :3 Dollmaker Kuro ended up being my favourite, even though I didn’t think he would be, haha.
When it comes to yandere level, it’s kinda hard to judge I guess >.< There are so many different varieties of yandere these days that I can’t keep up x3 I guess Dollmaker Kuro would be one of the most yandere of all the Kuro’s. It’s hard to know if the angry one would still be classed as yandere or if he’s just gone into psycho territory, haha. I guess he probably is still yandere though since it’s his love for MC that’s messed him up so much! Then I think That S**** isn’t really a yandere at all. He’s just a regular dude in love who has had a super shitty life x3 He was in a lot of pain, but unlike the Kuro’s, it didn’t turn him yandere. I guess the Kuro’s were made yandere by all the horrible stuff that happened, and while S**** did have to watch it happen, he didn’t have to actively participate in stuff, so in a way, he was shielded from a lot of the pain over the years.
I’ll answer more about the creepy fella talking to Anathema in your other comment :3
With the gamer Kuro, I just wanted to have a little bit more variation in the endings of the original 5 routes since most of them end very similarly. Whether the Kuro from those 5 routes is the one that 26 meets in the white room or not, every Kuro is just trying their best to do what they can to enjoy the time they have with MC, even though they know it’s not going to last. Plus Kuro is always trying to think of all the possible things he can do that might make a difference. Also, while he has more awareness about the truth of what’s really going on than MC does, he is still not fully in control. It’s not really mentioned in the game, but Isaac also makes alterations to the Kuro’s as well as the MC’s, like slightly tweaking their levels of anger, levels of self-awareness, how much stuff they actually remember while going through simulations.
For the bits that come after the 5 main routes endings where S****’s figure is shouting at MC through the static, it’s kind of hard to explain what I meant for that to represent, but I will try :3 It is supposed to be S****, but rather than it being him actually talking to MC, it’s supposed to be more like it’s part of OG MC’s memories. All the clones come from OG MC, who is in love with S****, but Isaac takes that memory from all of the MC clones. When everything goes black, that’s meant to be like when the clones are in the sleep chamber, and they are dreaming. When the image of S**** appears through the static, it’s supposed to be like a part of MC’s mind trying to grasp at the memory of S**** that was erased. So even though Isaac tried to completely get rid of it, MC’s love/bond with S**** is so strong that he couldn’t completely get rid of the memory, and small fragments still remain :3 MC can’t remember who it is, but it’s like her mind’s way of attempting to remember what was stolen from her, and piece it back together. if that makes any sense.
I feel incredibly honoured that you would consider SR to be your favourite VN ❤
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Ohh woooooow! So that really cleared things up for me and confirmed my suspicions. Sooo I'm guessing that S**** screaming for her to remember him was in the early days before she was cloned but when she was now in the chamber? Idk haha. But wow I appreciate them more now, cuz S**** was right, their bond never faltered.
But I am curious though, why was Kuro called Kuro? The MC was called by her name so why not S****? Was it because S**** or his father did not want S**** to be associated with the Kuros so they named him for the opposite thing to S****? But woowww so if Kuro saw everything and every route, he knows everything sooooooo that means that somehow dollmaker! Kuro also lives in him albeit indirectly. So even after all this time and up to the end S**** and MC were always together. But if that was the case, I get it why S**** would have such distate for the Kuros, it's his face and voice and its her likeness that he is seeing, he must have been so envious and mad at the Kuros watching them throughout the routes.
Really though, even now I still cry when I remember Kuro ahhhhh. This really is my favourite. The concept blew me away and the thought behind it, how every event was simulated and how it was all unraveled..wow it gave justice to the title. As a student who majors in Literature, the whole VN was cathartic to me when all the pieces lined up and the bigger picture was revealed. The plotholes in the routes and the little things that gave way to the main picture suddenly clicked. And the theme of Solipsism was really presented well. So yeaaah this fame is really unique. I have never encountered any other game such as this. And what I like best about it is that it's the same couple everytime, which is something I have been wanting to see in VNs, sooo I loved seeing their bond, even if it is so painful and tragic. So yeah, thank God for the true end.
I'm curious though what happens to all the other clones at the end. Will they set them free? Lol this is where I kinda like to think that Kuro from the five routes finds his own MC who was a predecessor of 339 (so it's technically the same girl he romanced) and they live happily together somewhere hehe.
P.S. since they all share the same face, I also like to think that since S**** now gas black hair, he'd let it grow and braid it...like a certain dollmaker hehehe. But despite this though, when I think of Kuro it's detective Kuro that comes to mind. Aahhh I like that version of him so much haha. Gosh, I really love Kuro.
Ooopss forgot to put spoilers haha
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Also...I am shocked that dollmaker is THE MOST yandere of them all. Like, the sweet boy is the most dangerous of them all!?!?!?! I am not surprised but oh my hahahaha
Lol I have so many replies hahaha but I just keep on remembering more to say and I just wanna keep on gushing haha.
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So ummm the moment where S**** and 339 meet in the white room. That moment was so surreal. Maybe it was the music too but, that moment was just so surreal to me, especially when they meet again in the room with Raine. Idk, it was as if I also felt the relief and awe in seeing traces of a beloved that was so far to reach.
When it comes to soft moments, the kiss scenes were just so nice. My favourite is a threeway tie between the first one in the detective route, the cg one in the gamer route (who knew Kuro could be spicy like that haha), and the desperate one between 339 and 13. Actually now that I think about it, every scene where Kuro and the MC are alone and in a romantic mood like Kuro dancing with her in the mage route or the sweet moment whete Kuro makes breakfast for MC in the detective route...aaahhhh they are just lovely, those soft moments really sold their chemistry to me. They really felt like two pìeople in love. And then the hidden route was just beautiful, even if it was the saddest one.
Oh yeah, I am curious about this but, when I got the good ending for the gamer route, I still have not gotten all the bad ends but I was able to access the hidden route anyways. I still went back ang got all the bad endings anyway before once again accessing the hidden route. Lol I'm just wondering how itvwas possible but hehe.
Also how was the MC able to travel back in time in the hidden route? Like that was reality already? How did she turn back time? Or was this part of the Solipsism part of the novel, that possibly even the hidden route is not real, that even that is only constructed in Anathema's mind. So yeaahh just curious about that. I'm still really curious though on the fate of the leftover clones hehe.
Alsoooo this might be obvious already but I am just really not sure. Sooo Raine and the director are not married? But they have a child together which is the blue haired girl, so I'm guessing that she is the youngest of the three. Lol, how would that feel though, that your siblings are actually lovers and that it is actually not forbidden cuz they are not related. Who was MC's father though? And who was S****'s mother? Sooo is S**** older than the MC? Alsoooo, I'm really curious about how they met and fell inlove, and if like the Kuros, S**** also has a bit, atleast a bit of a possesive streak. Haha I guess I'm really just too invested in the two. Sooo yeah sorry for the barrage of questions, I might have more if I remember haha.
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It's interesting that you mention those parts as being surreal! For me when I was writing it, the parts where MC (clones and OG MC) is monologuing while inside the chamber during the hidden route were most surreal (because the music for those scenes just made me feel strange xD)
I'm glad that you enjoyed the softer, more romantic moments too :3 It was really difficult for me to tell if I had written them okay because I enjoy writing the darker stuff more, haha. I wanted there to be those bittersweet moments between them though to show just how in love the pair were/are <3
In regards to unlocking the hidden route, you don't technically have to see every single bad ending to unlock the hidden route :3 I can't even remember exactly how many bad endings there are now xD and not all of them have CGs. But I set the unlock requirement for the hidden route to be 5 or 7 less than the total amount of bad endings I think. There is also a bug/exploit which I kept in the game because some people were having issues with the way I've done the points and the save system. So the exploit is that you can view any bad end multiple times and it will still count towards the total needed to unlock the hidden route. You can technically just watch one bad ending 30 something times and unlock the hidden route to play x3
With the MC traveling back in time in the hidden route, like a lot of stuff in the hidden route, I kinda left it open to player interpretation on purpose because I didn't really want to just pick one absolute truth and tell people this is exactly what happened (I'm a terribly indecisive person, haha.) Some of the ways I was thinking it could be interpreted are:
1) Like you said in your comment, it could be part of solipsism, so the MC decides that she doesn't even have a way of proving what is real and what isn't, but instead of letting that upset her, she just accepts that her reality is whatever she is currently experiencing. (This one is the one I sorta had the MC talk about at the end, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's the absolute truth.)
2) Or like you said in your comment, it could all be part of Anathema's mind!
3) Another way you can look at it is just that simply none of it was real at all, and it was all just in her head. OG MC is the only thing that truly exists, and everything that happened was just part of her own imagined world... but that's a bit depressing x3
4) Oooor, you could even just say that Isaac's experiments were so successful that he created a superhuman who can actually control time somehow, haha.
There are probably more, but I have some brain fog at the moment so I can't think >.<
As for the relationship statuses of Raine, Isaac, Lilly, OG MC, and S****, I didn't really go into much detail in the game about their backstories and how everything came to be just cos I thought people might get bored if I did too much of a lore dump on them x3 I never actually gave any of the characters definite ages when I was writing, but you're pretty much right in what you said.
When the world was normal, Raine was in a relationship with MC's dad, who we don't get to hear about at all in the game, and Isaac was in a relationship with a woman who would have been S****'s mum, who we also don't get to hear about. At some point, they would both have lost their partner's in some way. Raine and Isaac were both scientists, so would have ended up meeting through work, and then MC and S**** came to meet and became a couple before the world went to shit. At some point, Raine and Isaac would have been good friends (possibly on/off lovers.) I kind of like to think that Raine had Lilly some years before everything went to shit. So Lilly would have grown up around MC and S****. It probably would have been quite a weird situation for her like you say, to know that her half-siblings were a couple. She likely would have felt somewhat left out and easily jealous. I like to think she was a teenager when everything went badly on the surface and they all had to go underground. I never specified how many years they were all stuck down there, but it would have been a lot. So Lilly would have done most of her growing up in the lab, separated from her half-siblings and manipulated by her dad.
I always imagined that S**** was older than the MC + that Isaac was older than Raine. Lilly would be a fair bit younger than MC and S****. Everyone in lab is older than they look though because they were using various methods to stay alive beyond natural means (like S****'s artificial implants Isaac made for him.)
As for how OG MC and S**** met, if I'm completely honest, I don't know x3 I had never really given it much thought before! When I was writing the story, I just kinda knew that I wanted to write about a couple with a bond that was so strong they could survive crazy amounts of hardship. So I just sorta thought of them as always having been in love, kinda like destiny pre-dertmined it, haha.
I never really gave it that much thought about whether S**** has a bit of a possessive streak like the Kuro's. I think that he probably has the capacity to become like them under the right circumstances, because at the end of the day, MC is the most important thing in the world to him, and I don't think he'd ever give up on the idea of being with her. We don't see what might have happened had OG MC rejected him upon waking up... that could be an interesting alternate route, haha. I was tempted to put a choice for something like that in there, but I decided I couldn't do it, because there was already so much suffering in the game, and to me, OG MC would never reject S**** so I decided that the player wasn't allowed to make any choice about their relationship, haha. I think it's possible he could snap in that sorta situation though!
There's no need to apologise anyhow :3 I don't mind answering questions + it's nice to discuss the game! I'm just happy that you enjoyed it so much <3
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I can't say for sure that Dollmaker Kuro is the most yandere one, I'm happy to leave that one up for others to judge, but I definitely think he is the most messed up x3 He's the most innocent seeming of them all, but probably also the one most likely to do ANYTHING to keep the MC for himself, haha. Hence why he had that big ol mountain of clone body parts in his hideout which he thought he was 'fixing' >.< haha. Bless him!
I'm glad that my answers made sense! Cos I know I tend to ramble on a lot x3 haha.
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What you said about S**** screaming for MC before she was cloned is pretty spot on :D I mean, I didn't state it for certain in the game, so it's open to interpretation. It could be as you said, or it could just be that it's not technically S****, more like just part of the MC's subconscious memory fragments of him. Like her own memory telling her, you've forgotten something/someone important and you need to remember what it is. I don't mind it being either of those :3
As for why Kuro is called Kuro, you're pretty much right again with one of the things you said :3 Isaac was fine experimenting on OG MC and all her clones because she doesn't really mean anything much to him (kinda just a tool to use), whereas with S**** being his son, S**** means a lot more to Isaac, and he would prefer to sorta disassociate the Kuro's from his son.
That's the story reason anyhow.
Then there's the totally separate reason of just thinking of the general theme of black & white, light & darkness sorta thing. The Kuro's are all like twisted shadow versions of S****, but I couldn't just call the characters Black and White, cos that would sound a bit odd. So I decided to call them that in Japanese instead... it's terribly nerdy, I know >.< haha.
Yeah, poor S**** ended up becoming pretty twisted over time having to watch all of that going on, the poor guy :(
SR and Kuro are like my baby, haha, so it means so much whenever anyone says they really enjoyed playing it :3 I have suffered with anxiety and depression for most of my life, which has resulted in me having pretty crappy self-confidence, which then causes me to think negatively about anything I do. For example, there were many times (and there still are now) that my brain says what I'm doing sucks or isn't good enough >.< So when I hear positive comments, it really helps me to fight back against that negative part of me and help me believe in myself a little more! So thank you :3
I first heard the word Solipsism when I was playing Mass Effect 2. Thane mentioned it in a line and I just thought, wtf is that? I went to look it up immediately, ended up spending ages reading about it cos it was so fascinating, haha. I'll be honest, even now, I still find the concept a little difficult to wrap my head around >.< I wanted to be able to include it somehow though, even if I don't fully understand it!
If you take the true end as being 'reality', then I guess it would probably be a happy ending for everyone, including the clones :3 It's very open to interpretation what happened to them all, but I don't think that OG MC would have let anything bad happen to them. I like to think that they just let them freely live their own lives :D
I have another question haha
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This is probably alteasy ibvious but I'm also not really sure but is MC's canon name Anathema? Or us that name actually for the player? If that is so, does the og!MC have a canon name?
Alsoooo with your confirmation, yeaahh S****'s comment about Kuro having a black heart makes sense. I don't think that Shiro meant that line for dollmaker Kuro but to all the Kuros probably because of how they treated her in the bad ends. Alsoooo since they all came from S****, was the first Kuro before he was put in a simulation and experienced bad ends, not a yandere but slowly became one over the routes or was he tweaked to be a yandere from the very beginning thus them being a shadow if S**** from the very beginning.
In the Princess route, when Kuro disappeared, they took him out of the simulation right? How did he know that that particular scenario was nearing it's end? Was he getting instructions from Raine?
Also in terms of bad ends, my favourite ones happened to be in the mage route where the player did not find another way and just straight up knocked on the door. It's because Kuro said that she can do better next time. That actually clued me in somehow that he knows the MC can timetravel. Sooo does he retain those memories too? Of every bad end and then becomes happy when the player chooses the better choice? My other favourite is when the MC surrendered to the villain in the detective route and Kuro says that he can't live without her, and how when she rejected life, she rejected him. It was actually the voice acting in those parts that made it my favourite, but also, because it made me think of a hypothesis. Kuro just wants to save the MC by all means. But if she made a bad choice it's game over. Kuro wants to set things right (to save her or for her to love only him), but the only way to set things right is for the MC to have a bad end, thus letting her fix her mistake. But with Kuro's feelings, he sometimes goes overboard.
I can understand now though why there are so many bad ends. Out of all the VNs I've played, this ine of those which have the most hahaha. I guess I'm actually thankful that the CGs aren't as detailed as those in commercial VNs so atleast I don't have to actually see the bad ends jn a much more graphic manner. I've played many otome games in the past so I'm used to bad ends, but I don't really like violence or gore but it's fine for me in some cases IF they make sense in the overall plot of the story. Sooo I guess I just speed read the bad endings when they became a bit more graphic but as they are integral to the plot, I was able to bear with them albeit just speed reading a lot in some of them. (Oh yeah, kudos to the sound design, because that really added alot to the immersion) Oh yeah, there was this one bad end in the detective route that also really stood out to me, the one where the MC was trapped in the cell for so long. She enjoyed snow because it was cold. I think that it was her subconsciously remembering Kuro and how she missed him, cuz Kuro is icy to the touch hahaha. Actually that might actually be my favourite now that I think about it. It was moments like that that affirmed of their love for each other that pulled me in, be it in a bad end or in the lovely soft moments, those moments were the star of the game for me.
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Alsooo now that I remember, I also enjoyed the different details on the similarities and differences between the Kuros, like all of them are cold to the touch, but the way they give power is different, like Detective route Kuro has to slit his palm and hold hands with the MC to transfer power, sooo it made them unique in their own. As if each route was a whole other life of its own, even if it was only just a simulation.
Another thing, I also liked that Kuro was kind and considerate in some times, like when he was makimg breakfast for the MC also that he tended to blush a lot and was even almost crying in soft moments. That kind of vulnerability and openness also sold me on how real the character felt, and how real their love was soooo yeah I really really love how you wrote the characters and their interactions.
I really like reading your explanations by the way hahaha and I'm happy that you explain them well too.
Now that I think about it, Kuro is actually similar to another otome game character that I also loved, Ukyo from Amnesia. They are both kind, loving, and protective of the MC. And it was the bad ends that drove them to their yandere side, or split personality in Ukyo's case. But they still try their best to save the MC. That just made me love Kuro more hahaha.
Hello Melancholy Marionette!
I'm three routes into SR, and I just wanted to say: thank you.
I play a lot of story-driven games, be it mystery or drama or romance, free or commercial, big or small budgets... A handful of times, I've come across titles made by small dev teams or dev persons trying their best to tell new, surprising stories in spite of the limited resources they had. Those particular games are few and far between, but they have always had a special place in my heart as a player, and they end up staying with me for years. So I was pretty excited when I came across your profile and read the description for this one. And it doesn't disappoint! <3
It's super obvious that a lot of love went into it. I really appreciate you going the extra mile and having an OP (which is super catchy, by the way, I've been singing it for several days). As I appreciate you wanting to include as many CG as you possibly could - I do agree with some of the other commenters, though, CGs aren't the most important feature in an otome. Plus, you can always add more later down the line should you want to and have more funds to dedicate to them. ^^
To me, the main point of interest is the story. And while it's not always perfect (the student route could've been more developed, for example, imho), I'm loving what you're doing so far. You have a pretty interesting concept to begin with, and you're using it in really clever ways -- I just can't wait to learn more about the bigger picture, but all the while, I never want to be done with this game, I'm too emotionally invested not to be sad when it's over. Finishing each route feels really bittersweet, which might be done on purpose?
And Kuro is... fascinating. I don't normally care for yanderes; in fact, I normally hate the trope, but the idea of a constant, invisible companion who's been with you since the very beginning of your life is really interesting. Such a relationship would be both desirable in a way, and a recipe for disaster. So, I find myself excusing a lot of things coming from him that I wouldn't if they came from garden-variety yandere characters (That, or it's just the fact that you write him so well and give him depth and layers, and that his VA is doing an amazing job). Either way, I'm weak for him, even at times when I really shouldn't...
So thank you for creating him. Thank you for making this game, for all the feelings and thoughts it spawned, and in advance for the other three routes (Detective/Gamer/???) which I'm sure will be a trip. Thank you for having the guts to carry the development process through to the end, which might not always have been easy.
I love SR to bits already, and I'm glad it exists. And I'll definitely make sure to check your other works if I ever get back onto a PC. Hope you'll keep on being creative, and stay safe!
(PS: true story: I played Nintendogs as a tween; my first dog was a Shiba Inu I called 'Kuro'. So all the lines about him being a pet/a dog hit really weirdly. I think it says much about the strength of your character writing that I managed to overlook this and feel for this Kuro as intensely as I do. :D)
(Edited for clarity and to correct a couple of mistakes, because I'm not a native English speaker and wrote this at 3 A.M., still reeling from the end of the Princess route. Apologies if this comment is too long or confusing in any way ^^;)
Hey there! Thank you so much for taking the time to comment + for your kind words :D They're very appreciated <3
It's great that you play such a variety of games (and story-driven ones are my personal favourite to play too :3) and you decided to check SR out. I have a feeling a lot of people wouldn't touch it with it being a solo indie dev project with no funding, haha. So thank you for giving it a chance! I'm very honoured that you're enjoying it so far :D
I'm super happy you like the opening theme :3 There was a point where I was almost gonna give up on having one, cos the old version backing track just wasn't right >.< Then my boyfriend said he'd help make a brand new backing track. I had to change the lyrics a fair bit from what I originally had down in order to fit his track, but managed to keep the same meaning. It took weeks to make though xD
I totally agree in regards to the student route, haha. There's a reason for it, one being that it's not a setting that I particularly enjoy in stories, but my friend wanted me to write something in that sort of setting >.< I feel like because I'm not keen on that setting it had a lot less effort put into it than the other routes. On top of that, it was the very first route that I wrote, before I knew exactly where I wanted to take the story as a whole. By the time it got to the point that I was writing the ??? route, at least a year had passed since I wrote the student one xD I did toy with the idea of completely rewriting it since I wasn't happy with it, or leaving it out altogether, but my friend said I should just leave it as is x3 I do feel like it's not to the same standard as the other routes though >.<
The bittersweetness at the end of each route is indeed intentional :3 Hopefully, it'll all make sense when you get round to reading the ??? route :D I know the feeling about not wanting a game you're enjoying to be over. I had terrible trouble finishing the Mass Effect series for that reason xD It took me a long time to start 3. I kept going back and replaying 1 & 2, always too afraid to start 3 cos I knew it would bring me closer to the end of the story :( Of course, I cried when I did eventually play and finish 3, haha. The good news is, the last 3 routes you have left to play are the longest ones :D
I'm glad you find Kuro interesting :3 There's been a small amount of debate as to whether or not he's truly a yandere. It's a hard one to discuss really because I can totally see how some might think he's just a psycho if they come across certain bad endings in the initial routes without completing the game >.< I just hope that by the end of the ??? route anyone who is still playing will see that he's not a monster. I still personally think he fits the bill for a yandere, at least he's closer to that than any other character tropes that I know of, but I guess it's probably best for people to make up their own minds on that one.
Thank YOU for playing :3 When I was in the process of making it, because I struggle with anxiety and depression, I would sometimes tell myself that it was all pointless >.< but a little part of me would always fight back and say, no it's not. In the end, I came to the conclusion that as long as at least one person gets as much joy out of playing it as I did making it, then it was absolutely worth it. So whenever I receive a lovely comment like yours, it really warms my heart and means a hell of a lot to me :3
That's adorable that you had a dog called Kuro on Nintendogs :D My partner wants a shiba inu in real life, but I bet he wouldn't let me call it Kuro x3 Hehe, I can see how those lines would come across odd though!
I would never have known you weren't a native English speaker if you hadn't said :o Your English is brilliant! You don't need to apologise anyhow, it's not too long or confusing at all :3 I really enjoy reading any comments I get about the game.
I really hope that you continue to enjoy the routes that you have left to play through. I personally think that the ones you have left are the best 3 routes! Feel free to update your comment or write a new one as you progress through the game. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the other routes :D
I hope you have fun with it! I also hope that you're managing to stay safe + having a wonderful week so far <3
Hello again!
I'd be happy to tell you what I thought of the last three paths, if/when the drive to play the game juuuust a little bit longer manages to be stronger than the fear of it being over ;:D (one more coincidence: as a Mass Effect superfan who has yet to properly finish ME3, I relate to everything you wrote to an almost frightening degree).
You are doing a terrific job of introducing what's to come, though, and I really want to experience all of it! I think I'll get to Detective as soon as I have enough time to properly enjoy it. :) And then the others two, gradually.
On that note: boy oh boy, I did *not* think it was possible for me to get more hyped than I already was about the ??? route, but you somehow made that possible. Here's the thing: I LOVE true routes. They might be my favourite aspect of the genre (I think they're more of an otome thing than anything else, I'm not sure about many of those being in typically male-oriented dating sims...). So much so that if someone were to contact me tomorrow asking me to write a thesis on them, I'd be grateful. So much so that I'm currently teaching myself to code and write tiny multiple-choice stories for the sole purpose of one day being capable enough to release one specific game, which is basically just a huge pretext for having one of those :D (E.T.A.: 3430, if ever, given my current learning curve > <;) The idea of an entire dimension of the story not being accessible to the player at first is wild.
Kowing that, the fact that there is a true route in SR is reason enough for me to be giddy; doubly so because, judging from the game description, it seems pretty meaningful to the story as a whole and not there just because. And now you're teasing more character development, including a possible redemption arc, for our favourite Not-Yandere Yandere? Be still my heart.~
Again, this game has brought me so much joy already, and I'm not even at the halfway point. <3 If, as you wrote, making players happy was the mission you gave yourself when developing the game, then mission friggin accomplished.
I'll let you know when I'm done, then! In the meantime, thank you for sharing all of these details about your experience, as well as what went through your head during development. It was really interesting, and really pleasant to read. It's always neat to see how a project evolves from beginning to end. Also, getting SR all the way to release is all the more commendable given the effect anxiety/depression can have on productivity and the perception people have of their own work. All the kudos to you.
Have a lovely week as well (and then some ^^) and take care! <3
Hehe, well I hope you manage to finish ME3 someday too :3 I mean, I cried when it was all over, a lot xD But I'm so glad that I did finish it in the end. I think that I wasn't just scared of the story as whole being over, but also my Shep's romance with Garrus! In all the games I've ever played, Garrus remains my favourite romance option x3 I'm still hoping to play an otome someday with a LI that finally puts Garrus in second place, haha.
I'm a huge lover of true routes too :D I had no idea that it was more of an otome thing though :o That's really interesting! I wonder if that means when I finally release the BxG version of SR, dudes will be like, wtf?! at the true route x3 I think the first time I experienced something like it was when I played the otome game, Amnesia, and my mind was just blown xD It left so much of an impact on me that I just thought I have to make something like this someday, haha. Good luck with your learning and creating :D I'm sure you'll get there in the end! You're doing better than me... I'm too lazy to learn to code properly which is why I used Tyrano >.< haha.
Yeah, I don't wanna say too much regarding the true route stuff and accidentally spoil anything for you, but you're right, it is absolutely meaningful to the overall story rather than just there for the sake of it :3
Also, sorry for my slow reply x3 I didn't know whether I should actually reply or not! I'm kind of terrible at knowing when to stop a conversation xD In the end I just thought, why not? So feel free to tell me to shut up and go away, haha. Hope you've been well + having many super duper days :3 Stay safe <3
Hello,
I can't open your game and I really don't understand why. So I have a 2019 macbook air with the latest update, I don't think it's a security problem and I tried to open both the standard and smaller version (also tried downloading it via MEGA, same problem).
This is the message I get every time I try to open the file, I read the "Known issues" file too and my problem doesn't seem to be listed. When I click on the little "?" I just get a blank white screen.
I hope you can help with my problem,
Have a great day,
Calcifer
Hey hey! I'm really sorry to hear that you're having issues opening the game >.<
Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to be of much help :( I have never owned a Mac myself, so I don't really have any idea how they work. My boyfriend has a macbook for his work, so before I released the game, we tested it on his work macbook and it was all fine, but I have no idea what version his is or how old it is and stuff (I don't think it's particularly new though.) I can ask him, but I probably won't get a reply very quickly cos I'm at my dad's at the moment and my boyfriend doesn't respond to my messages much when I'm away xD
You're not the only person to have this issue though! I posted about it on the Tyrano support forums a while back when I was first told by someone using a mac that they couldn't get it to run on their device. The Tyrano devs themselves never got back to my support request >.< but other Tyrano users gave a few suggestions which I posted here. However, there's not much there to try, and you said you've looked at the document, which I think contains mostly the same info, so sadly, there's not much else I can suggest :(
It must be something to do with the way the game is packaged, but I don't know a whole lot about coding and stuff (which is why I chose to use Tyrano in the first place, haha.) The Tyrano devs haven't really given people who asked about it much in the way of help or answers to fix the issue. They sort of just concluded that it works for some people and not for others, then just left things at that >.< The following is a quote from one of the Tyrano (devs? not sure exactly who they are, but they're related in some official sort of capacity) people in response to a user support request:
'See if they are running mac or linux versions... they tend to have a love/hate relationship with nw.js and will sometimes work and sometimes not, just have them reboot their system and try again.'
That sorta suggests that they know there are issues there in general, but don't really know how to fix them for individual users. I guess it's probably very difficult to troubleshoot, and if I was a techy person, or had a studio with savvy people to turn to for advice, I might stand a chance of getting to the bottom of the issue, but as it is, I seem to be buggered T_T I will have to try and get a browser version of the game functioning at some point, so that those who can't launch it as a downloadable game will have an alternative option.
As a solo dev, it's very frustrating, because I put a hell of a lot of time and effort into the game, and then when I hear it doesn't work for some people who want to play it, and there's nothing I can do about it, it really sucks :( I'm sorry that there's not more I can do to help you. The Tyrano devs are well aware that there are issues with exporting games made using their software to Mac, but they just don't seem to be bothered about finding fixes for it. My support request was just sorta left hanging with no definite fix that works for everyone >.<
I know that's probably not the answer you were hoping for, but I really appreciate your interest in the game, and I'm sorry you aren't able to play it :( I hope that you have a lovely week + are managing to stay safe! :3
Hello,
Sorry for the late response just started school a week ago TT. Uhh I am so bummed to not be able to try your game, it seems super interesting with great artwork. It's not the first time I had this problem so I kinda expected to be nothing else to do. Don't worry I understand your frustration, it's 100% valid. Hope to be able to play one day.
Have a wonderful day<3
No worries, you don't need to apologise :3 You must have been super busy! I hope you're settling in okay with school, especially with how tough times are across the world at the moment.
Yeah, I know I already said it once, but I'm so sorry that I'm not of much use when it comes to troubleshooting that sorta thing :( It really sucks that you're unable to check the game out because it won't run >.<
I did also try to create an android app version, but I had to give up for now because it's so darn confusing! I might have another go at that sometime though, alongside trying to eventually get a browser version to function. I wanted as many people as possible to be able to play it, so it's a real bummer that it's only really working properly on windows.
Thanks again, stay safe, good luck with school, and I hope your week is awesome :3
Hello!! ^w^ I hope i'm not bothering you but I just finished up the game and I can't explain how AMAZING this game is. You see I'm a visual novel lover and lately I haven't found anything good but then I came across this and i was BLOWN AWAY. When I first came into this game I thought it was gonna be something that would shock me at times or have some cute/gore moments but I had so many emotions playing this game. Mostly Joy (( and screaming at the bad endings cuz DAMN! 🤣 ))
SPOILERS AHEAD
When i was playing these routes my favorite yandere ended up being the Kuro from the Mage route and I was a little upsetti when I had to part with him to go onto another route but my second favorite is definitely the Kuro from the detective route. I always had a love for Male Yandere characters and it's sad that there is not much out there for Male yanderes so when i found this I was beyond excited. I first decided to play the game normally then try to go for the ??? Route by triggering all the bad endings (( and lemme tell you, to get the bad ending with Kuro from the detective route by kissing Farro i was screaming my head off knowing the moment I stepped into my house I would have an angry yandere waiting to murder me! 🤣)) and once I unlocked the ??? Route I cannot look at the past Kuros/MC's the same again. I didn't really feel a connection to Shiro and the OG MC as I thought I would but I had a connection with 339 and 13 (( i think that's the Kuro with the braid)) and i cried for a few minutes when they died (( i was just praying they are together and happy wherever they are Q~Q )) Anywho~! Enough of my rambling (( since I ramble a lot 🤣)) I was hoping if you could answer a few questions of mine?
1. What happened to the MC's in the previous routes? Did they fail and end up being terminated like the other previous MC's? Or are they alive?
2. Why did Isaac only make a low number of Kuro's then MC's? I know Shiro hated the whole thing so I was wondering.
3. Since I'm an explorer I noticed that in the extras there is another ??? And I clicked on it and it took me a website that requires a password. Is there any hint to it? Or is it no longer available anymore?
I hope I didn't take too much of your time!! and i hope you can understand my rambling! 🤣 Thank you so much for making this game and helping me get this whole virus situation off my mind for a bit and I hope you are safe throughout these troubling times!
Hey hey! You're not bothering me at all :3 I really love hearing from you guys <3 It means so much to me when anyone takes the time to comment about the game ^-^
I'm super duper happy you enjoyed the game :3 I know it's not exactly your standard otome, but I'm really glad that there are people who still like it. Positive comments like yours really brighten my day, and as a sufferer of anxiety and depression, it can have a huge impact on my mood, so thank you very much for being so sweet <3
I'm a big VN fan myself and have also struggled to find stuff I really enjoy lately! I've got quite a big backlog built up which I've been working on very slowly, but it seems like a lot of the stuff I've been reading has been quite samey, almost as though all the characters are just copy pasted into a different setting and given a new look >.< I'm sure there will be something in my backlog that will blow me away though! I just have to be patient, haha. I feel very honoured that you consider SR to be amazing :3
It also makes me really happy to hear that the game helped distract you from the virus situation for a bit :3 Honestly, those last few months of making SR helped me deal with the lockdown due to the virus. I think if I didn't have the project to finish/work on, I might have gone insane x3 When the lockdown was announced, I was in pieces cos I was due to go back and visit my family, but that plan was ruined. I knew I wouldn't be seeing my family for ages (and we're super close to the point that my normal life involves traveling up and down the country between my boyfriend's place and my dad's so that I can live with both of em equally) so I was pretty devastated. Focusing on SR was a real saver for my sanity!
SPOILERS BELOW
Aww, that's cool that you liked mage Kuro the best :3 I don't think anyone else has mentioned him being a favourite so far!
I really wish there was more male yandere content around since they tend to be my favourites in any games with romance, haha. I will always include at least one yandere romance option in any game I make in the future cos they absolutely need more love and attention :3
Speaking of yandere characters in general, it seems to be quite hotly debated what actually makes a yandere a yandere, and not just a psycho, or a yangire. I know Kuro isn't exactly a typical yandere, and that yandere characters generally wouldn't kill their S/O, but I'm really hoping that the ??? route explained things well enough for anyone who plays the game to see that Kuro isn't a monster at least x3 Cos I know one or two people started the game wanting yandere content, but got to a few bad endings and stopped playing cos they said Kuro isn't yandere >.< The trouble is, unless a player finishes the ??? route, they won't have the full picture, so I guess in that sense, Kuro could come across as a psycho instead of a yandere.
I would like to think 339 and 13 are happy :3 They got to go out on their own terms, and in a way, they both live on inside the heart of OG MC, so they're not completely gone from the world. They ended up becoming my favourite pair (339 and 13) so I think they accidentally stole the show from OG MC and Shiro x3
*High five* for the rambling :D I'm terrible for rambling on myself, haha. I don't mind people rambling at all, I just hope that you don't mind me rambling right back at ya xD I'm more than happy to answer questions :3 I know that in regards to the ??? route, I didn't actually write anywhere near as much of what was in my head into the final story, so there's a lot of backstory and stuff that never really got touched on in the game cos I was worried people would get bored if I did a big lore dump on em, haha.
1. I left this kinda open to the player the same as I did with not really stating for sure where the Kuro's from those routes ended up (mainly cos I couldn't decide for sure exactly how I wanted it to go.) It can certainly be interpreted that both the MC's + the Kuro's were terminated, but in my head, I liked to think that all the Kuro's were the weary Kuro that you meet in the white training room (the one you kill to set free), and all the MC's are number 26 (the protagonist who commits suicide to try and escape the whole cycle.) Meaning the pairs you play as in the initial 5 routes are all that particular Kuro and 26.
They are a successful pairing cos despite all the horrible stuff that happens during bad endings, that pair always make it to a good ending together :3 26 has her memory wiped each time, so she doesn't really have much awareness as to what's going on, whereas poor Kuro only gets partial wipes, so he pretty much remembers all the horrible stuff, but can't do anything to stop it, which is why he's so worn out and hollow when you see him in the white room.
However, where it gets kinda confusing in terms of stuff I didn't explain in the game, sometimes a unit may be destroyed even if it's successful due to various reasons. Isaac just keeps transferring the mindset of each successful version of the MC into a new body whenever old bodies begin to fail. And even though there were only 5 routes for the player to go through, in my head, this had been going on for a looooong time, so there would have been tonnes more simulations going on. 26 basically has the minds of every successful MC inside her + her own sort of consciousness too.
Then when 26 commits suicide, her experiences get transplanted to 339. Of course, Isaac always gets the lab workers to make tweaks so that the subjects only remember what he wants them to, but Raine interferes with that in 339, so that 339 can access all the experiences of 26 and the other MC's that were a part of her. That then happens again when 339's consciousness is transferred to OG MC to save her, so then OG MC is herself, but she also has countless versions of her clone's minds inside her head as well, including 339 and 26.
I'm sorry if that's super confusing x3 I know I just basically splurged all my head ramblings out there and I don't know if it makes much sense, haha. At the end of the day, I'm happy for people to interpret it the way they want to, but in my head, all those previous MC's the player plays as are a part of 26 in the ??? route, so in a way, they're alive still, and stay alive by being a part of OG MC at the end.
2. This is another thing I didn't really explain in the game, but in my head, there were about an even number of Kuro's to MC's in the lab. However, they went through more MC's than they did Kuro's since she was being more heavily tested than the Kuro's. So a lot of the Kuro's they made would have remained sorta in storage xD I was imagining that there were huge blocks of cells, separated into Kuro's and MC's, with some blocks just containing units that hadn't even been activated yet, and others being more like prison cells where awakened units were kept under tight control when not being tested. In the game, you only really see Isaac and Raine working there, plus the odd few unnamed lab workers, but in my head, I was thinking it was a huge lab with loads of workers doing the same experiments that Isaac was doing. It's just Isaac paid more attention to the candidates most likely to succeed, so the story focused on his work, rather than the countless unsuccessful trials going on throughout the rest of the lab.
In general though, the experiments were more focused on the MC than they were on Kuro, cos it was the MC that Isaac wanted to weaponise. The Kuro's were more like a tool used to cause extra pain and suffering for Isaac to extract I guess >.<
3. The page should still be available, and provided it's still functioning correctly, you should be able to access it using the password: Anathema (I think I set it so you have to type it like that was a capitol A at the start, cos it didn't give me options to allow multiple versions of the password.) There isn't a whole lot on the page just yet, but I plan on expanding it. For now, it's just a tiny little bonus :3
You absolutely didn't take too much of my time! As I said earlier, I really love to hear people's thoughts on the game, and I enjoy discussing it :3 Sorry for rambling on in my answers to your questions, and sorry if I didn't answer them particularly well >.< Feel free to ask away if you want anything clarified or you think of other stuff to ask :D
Thanks again for your kind words, they mean a hell of a lot to me <3 I hope you have a wonderful week + that you're managing to stay safe in this crazy world ^-^
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR REPLYING! And I really do think this game should get more recognition! (( i already told my sisters about it 🤣 )) I find everything about it beautiful and your answers to my questions are perfectly understandable don't worry! I will also definitely support any game you upload because thats how much I enjoyed this game! I look forward to what you plan in the future! Thank you again for replying and im glad I made you happy with my review! (( And * high fives* GLAD TO KNOW THERE IS MANY OF PEOPLE WHO RAMBLE AS MUCH AS I DO! 🤣😁)) I hope you have a wonderful day!
Thank YOU for playing and taking the time to comment :3 I hope your sisters enjoy it too if they decide to give it a go!
I'm currently working on the writing for CiQ (and there's gonna be an otome version as well as the original yaoi version I started for the jam) + a secret side project (which is part audio drama, part VN) haha. So hopefully, you'll enjoy those when they're released ^-^
Thank you again for your kind words and support :3 Hooray for ramble power xD Hope you have a wonderful day yourself!
Consider my mind officially blown :DHow you managed to put together such a heartwrenching game of this length as a solo dev for free (I presume this wasn't funded cos I couldn't find anything online about it) I don't know! It's clear a lot of love and work went into the project and it shows.
My biggest criticism is the art really. I alsmot didn't play at all cos I don't like the look of the sprites. I'm so glad I decided to give it a chance just for the story though cos it's the best VN I've read in ages!! All the big otome commercial releases have been pretty dull recently so it's nice to find something completely different. The writing is so much more engaging than the usual otome with the same boring descriptions of stuff in every game. Honestly if the art was nicer this would probably be my favorite VN of all time!
If anyone is reading this make sure you get the??? Route unlocked and get all the endings cos its just O.O I knew there was something going on but I guessed completely wrong what it was.
Spoiler
I already got tricked a few times when I thought the game was over and it wasn't cos there was that surprise bit at the end as well :P That dude is hella creepy but I love iiiiiit!!! Can't wait to see more about that mysterious character. That??? Route though is just awesome :D It's like a whole other standalone game! I thought it was gonna just be like a bonus little thing or something but it was like the length of all the other routes combined. Reminded me of new game + in rpgs!! I kinda wanted 13 and mc to live happily ever after cos they were my favorite pair so I will pretend the ending where they leave together is the true one T_T but I still loved the real true ending!!
Keep up the good work :D
I'm so sorry for my super slow reply! For some reason, I didn't get any kind of notification for your comment >.< so I only just saw it after getting notifications for a couple of other comments recently.
Thanks for taking the time to comment! I'm really glad you enjoyed the game :3 You're correct that it wasn't funded. The only money that went into it was what little I could afford from my own pocket, haha. Which for me (being perma poor) was actually quite a lot of money T_T The sprite creation software alone cost me over £100, as did the purchasing of background art and stuff, but it was still much cheaper than hiring artists, which I definitely couldn't afford >.<
I'm glad you decided to give it a chance too :3 As I've said in previous comments, I'm not particularly happy with the sprite art myself either, haha, sadly, it was pretty much my only option since I'm not a very good artist myself and lack the money to hire one. If I ever do happen to have the funds at some point, I'd love to remake the game with better sprites!
Thanks so much for playing + stay safe :3
Just wanted to say I love this so much!!! Not finished it yet so will update with a proper review when I do. Really enjoying it so far and can't believe you would make such a unique and awesome game for free! The voice acting is just <3 I'm in love. Thank you for this!
Aww, I'm super glad that you're enjoying the game so far :3 I hope you continue having fun with it! It means a lot to me when anyone lets me know that they like it ^-^
Happy reading + stay safe :3
Oh boy so i'm writing this as I play the last of the true route, (at least I THINK its the last....i got faked out once already e.e), so i'm sorry if this review is a bit disjointed as I literally just rolled out of bed and realized 'oh yeah, i need to scream into the void more about this game'.
So here we are! First the spoiler free stuff obviously.
Now knowing what I do about the hidden route most of my complaints about the main routes kinda fizzles out. Kuro's slight apathetic reactions despite supposedly being yandere, why tf kuro was drugging me at the end of every. goshdang. route, the plotholes i noticed in a few of the routes, all that pretty much evaporated once I got into the hidden route (bless my parents heart for not asking why I was screaming what the f at my monitor yesterday afternoon xD).
Overall, while hindsight is/was 20/20, for what they were revealed to be i feel like the main routes were perfect and a fun little trip into different worlds with my favorite yandere boi.
Then we got to the hidden route.
SPOILERS
Okay, hopefully the fresh eyes are gone now and I can rant because OH MY GOD.
Like i had nailed pretty quickly I was in a sort of simulation but I had not imagined the exact way in which I was correct. I assumed the hidden route was gonna be me busting out of my controlled stasis, tracking down kuro, and smooching him as we ran off into the sunset (which, i mean, there was an ending for that xD).
Boy do I miss those days of innocence.
So full disclosure, I haven't read the comments, so maybe we have some word of god clearing some of this up but I guess i'll get onto my main complaint.
Kuro 13 is very obviously not the one we experienced the routes with, and as Isaac said, he needed a bonded pair for his plan to work. I kind of get the feeling Student Route!Kuro (he looks the most simillair and lacks a number so i gotta make him some kind of alias) was the one we went through the routes with...so i was kinda dissapointed that he and 26(did i get the number right? xD) weren't the protagonists of the main story as i felt that through hell and high water bond didn't really transfer to 336 and 13.
SPEAKING OF 336 AND 13 HOW DARE YOU MAKE ME LOVE THEM AND THEN DO THAT!
God, once i got into 336 i was fighting my rapidly growing attatchment to 13 because I always assumed Shiro was the endgame but I did appreciate how neither he nor 336 were ever attracted to one another. The way he recognized she wasn't the woman he loved, despite sharing some memories, and she viewed herself as fundamentally a different person than her originator was a really nice twist on the usual way I see these stories go.
I was already planning out fairly humerous family dynamics between 336, 13, raine, lily, and shiro when the end of 336's route hit me like a gawddang truck. Not that I minded how it ended, there was never going to be a truly happy ending for the pair in the real world (or maybe in the desert ending the saved the world on their own rather casually, as 13 is rather good at combat and 336....well she's MC's final form).
But then after 336 and 13 sacrificed themselves I lost what remaining emotional ties I had to the character I was playing. Like Shiro is/was great and MC deserved to live after what she went through. But everything I felt after that just came down to empathy, i felt like I was reading a story rather than living it, which maybe was the whole point and i'm just an idiot.
And that concludes my review, final result: how dare you make me feel these feels
okay in all seriousness though xD This is/was an amazing ride and I fully intend to update this review when I finish the true end fully but as I kind of lost that emotional connection to the protagonist when she died to save her predecessor I figured this was a good time to sit down and compose my jumbled thoughts into a review/comment.
I've been following this project since I first found it posted as a game where the yandere love interest was the main focus (which huge props for pulling off and still managing to make engaging!) and i'm so glad to see it made it to completion, since it was a free game and all i had my doubts/worries, but this game has made me feel things that most commercial vn's rarely do nowadays, and much as I hate myself knowing what's in store I will definitely be back if/when the GxG version is out (would be back for the others but i really can't play a male protag xD)
Take care of yourself and have a great day! <3
Edit: I'm back, MC is happy, and I would very much like to bang/romance the mysterious voice even if it's a terrible idea kthxbai!
Hey hey! I read your comment/review when I first got up this morning, and it gave me a huge smile to start the day (especially that last PS bit xD That made me laugh out loud!) Thank you so much for sticking with SR all the way through to the end + taking the time to share your thoughts on it afterwards, it's much appreciated :3
I'm super glad you felt slightly differently about the main 5 routes after playing through the hidden one, as one of my main worries with this project is that people may not feel like getting that far, which will end up leading to misunderstandings >.< I guess I probably shouldn't say too much on that subject in case I accidentally manage to spoil something xD but the main point is, the hidden route is pretty essential to the overall story of the game, so without going through it, people could draw some very different conclusions about the story, and about Kuro in general. So yeah, thank you very much for choosing to complete the story!
SPOILERS AHEAD
I'm happy to hear that the theme/reveal of the hidden route still managed to surprise you somewhat, cos I wanted to give the reader some hints throughout the other routes that something wasn't quite right, but I didn't really know if I was maybe giving too much away to the point that people might guess exactly what was going on.
I don't know if you will have ended up reading any of the comments for possible clarification of anything since I'm only just getting a chance to write a response now, but if you did want to know the answers to a bunch of stuff related to the hidden route in more detail, I wrote quite a lot in a recent couple of comments in response to user Sayana34, and I think I also answered some stuff in earlier comments too :3 I would type out more stuff here, but I think I'd probably end up repeating myself a lot + rambling on like I usually do xD I hope you don't mind walls of text though, cos I'm still gonna respond to stuff I haven't covered before, haha.
I did cover the first main pairing of the hidden route with 26 + the Kuro who I tended to just refer to as the defeated/weary Kuro (the one whose throat you slit) in my reply to Sayana34, but I did kinda ramble a lot, so I'll try to summarise for a shorter answer x3 Basically, in my head, the Kuro who you go through the training with in the white room + slit his throat, is the "real" version of the Kuro you were with in the main 5 routes, BUT, only in my head xD I didn't say so in the story cos I couldn't decide if I wanted to state that as the absolute truth >.< Because in some ways I wanted those 5 main Kuro's to be various Kuro clones, rather than all the same one. So I guess the player can choose what they prefer to believe on that front x3 I'm sorry for killing them off so fast though! I mean, 26 technically survived by having some of her memories transferred to/becoming part of 339, haha, but I know it's not really the same thing. They were just kinda in the way when it came to wanting to tell 339 + 13's story >.< But yeah, if you wanna read a giant wall of text with more details, feel free to check out that other comment :3
In a roundabout way, Isaac's crazy plan kinda succeeded, though not really in the way he had intended. It was more like 339 + 13's sacrifice in order to save OG MC had the happy side-effect of creating the sort of weapon Isaac was trying to create. 13 definitely wasn't ideal for Isaac since he had essentially been discarded a long time ago. I guess 339 was closer to what he was hoping for in the MC (though he certainly didn't want all the non-compliance that came with 339 after what Raine did xD) I'm rambling again so I'll move on >.<
You're absolutely not an idiot for feeling the way you did regarding the switch to playing as OG MC with Shiro. I also covered the switch to them in my reply to Sayana34, as they pretty much said the same sorta thing as you regarding feeling that way towards playing as OG MC, haha. Now, I would love to be able to sit here and state that that was my intention to make the reader feel that way, but that would be a lie xD It's more like something that just happened by accident! >.< In a way, I'm kinda pleased that people feel somewhat detached from OG MC + Shiro's story at the very end. The way you put it, as though you're reading a story rather than living it, sorta seems like a fitting way for it all to end! I actually wish I had written it that way intentionally x3 I just like the fact that you can get into being the clones, but OG MC is like someone totally separate that you watch from afar, cos then it's like you're still one of the clones when it switches to OG MC, in the way that you've been transferred to her, and you're a part of her, but you're not her, you're a passenger rather than the driver.
I get that it could be seen as a bad thing too though, and it's my fault for getting way too attached to 339 + 13 when I was writing their story. The pair of them wound up becoming more important to me than OG MC + Shiro, and I guess that ended up showing in my writing of OG MC's final story. To me, 339 + 13 were the true heroes of the story, and without them, there couldn't have been anything close to a happy ending for everyone else. I reckon if the pair of em were selfish, and hadn't sacrificed themselves, they probably would've been capable of saving the world as they were, just the two of em! Man, I'm rambling again xD As I said though, feel free to check out the other comments if you're not bored with my rambling by now and want to read more detail, haha.
I'm super happy you enjoyed the game overall anyhow :3 It sounds like you're a similar kinda player to me, haha, I can't play as a male protagonist either x3 usually cos I'm self-inserting when I read VNs, so a male protagonist just kills immersion for me! I'm probably not gonna be releasing a GxG version anymore, cos it's just too much work :( however, I probably will make a version with female Kuro where the protagonist is gender neutral (and the same with male Kuro x gender neutral protagonist to replace the BxB version.)
In regards to your PS, you might get what you wish for someday xD I have a lot of future plans for that character, but haven't quite worked out how I wanna execute em yet, haha. So all I can say for now is, that definitely won't be the last you hear from him x3
Thanks so much again for taking the time to write up your comment/review, and for your support in general, it means a hell of a lot to me <3 Stay safe + have a wonderful week! :3
Hi! I especially made this account so that I could comment about this game and my god, I must say the game was quite mind boggling and till the end I was on the edge of my seat. It was so different from any other type of games I had played pertaining to this type of genre I.e. otome. Everytime i made any choices it was very hard to predict how the character interactions would be and everytime i would get anxious because i must say even the good choices would have a huge amount of angst to them before something good actually happens but that made this game even more than unique actually and it made me love it even more. Weirdly i digged the yandere ML a lot and i who usually avoids bad endings like plaque in any game secretly digged all those bad endings and enjoyed it immensely. They were very creative and fun to read. I loved princess route kuro the most for I found him the most sensible out of all kuros. I liked the fact that each character in the story had actual depth to them and lot of thought was put into constructing their character which makes us understand why kuro is the way he is. Although there are still some stuffs which I am a bit confused about and I want to ask about in the spoiler section below.
SPOILERS
Firstly I want to ask what happened to the kuros of other routes? I read in one of the comments replies before that you had in mind that all the kuros appearing in other routes were one and the same. So I was wondering what happened to that kuro, was it 13 that we saw or someone else altogether.
Secondly I felt kinda confused (although I may be a bit stupid to not have been able to catch it) that in order to create the ultimate weapon why was it necessary to run so many simulation trials as such and what was kuros role in that? I kinda get the fact the OG MC was designed biotechnologically to have those amazing super powers so her body became weaponized but I am still a bit lost about all those simulation trials and kuros role in it especially and why did shiro's organs stopped functioning? (my poor shiro!)
I feel there was lot of breaking of fourth wall right? I mean in the secret route even if we get some bad ends it would toggle up and my suspicions were confirmed especially after the true end. At first I thought that even the secret end was nothing more than some dream and after I am done with this route I will get some scenery change where I may finally confront the mysterious voice calling me anathema, i mean knowing this otome i felt it was highly likely but that was a v funny surprise.
I really wanted to know more about the backstory of OG MC and shiro relationship and their dynamics with isaac, Raine and Lilly even in a brief backstory. That would have made me feel more attached to the og characters more because as someone else said I still keep on feeling that 339 and 13 r the true protags in my heart because of sheer amount of attachment I felt for them and their not so cute love story hehe.
Lastly i greatly enjoyed the game and i must say i am so so surprised that it was a solo project without any kickstarter backup and to top it all it's free! In my opinion the story is so well written that it could easily become a commercial project and I wouldn't mind purchasing it. However, my only problem is regarding the sprites where I would have preferred a more mature looking kuro than the feminine one and more polished art work but hey I ain't complaining, the story more than makes up for it and plus it's free! I am really very happy and grateful that u put out such an amazing story for all of us to enjoy and I can see lots of thought had gone into it. Although the narrative sometimes felt like it was coming in bits and pieces especially when truth was slowly coming over to surface but it was also great in it's own way, it gave an atmospheric feeling to it and kept on building up the suspense till the climax and must I say the voice acting was so amazing especially the sound effects for kissing scenes haha and the opening and ending themes were amazing! U really broke the stereotypes of otome genre and also the cliched storyline which I was kinda expecting like the mc travelling to different dimensions or something like that. Thanks once again for this amazing game and sorry if somewhere I came off as a bit critical in my comments.
I will kinda stop with this long comment now haha, but I would be very happy if my confusions can be cleared and keep on doing the good work as ur really v talented!
Hey hey! Aww, thank you so much for taking the time to type out your thoughts on the game :3 I really appreciate it <3 I saw the notification of your post when I woke up this morning, and reading everything you wrote gave me a smile to start the day :D Sorry my reply is a bit slow >.< I started typing it out earlier, but then I was rambling on so much that I realised I had to stop to get other stuff done xD
I'm super glad you enjoyed the game :3 I guess the high amount of bad ends + the yandere-ness will put many people off >.< but it was important for me to show that Kuro isn't a monster.
I feel like if I had some kinda funding then I could have made the game even better, because I wasn't 100% happy with the sprites myself >.< Tim (who voiced Kuro) made a good point when I spoke to him that the sprites suit his voice pretty well, which I agree with :3 Buuuuut, at the same time, I feel like most of the Kuro's look a little too feminine. If I had the money to hire a sprite artist, I could have had Kuro look the way he did in my head while I was writing, but instead, I was stuck with doing my best using the creator I bought because it was the only thing I could afford, haha. It didn't really contain much to help you make male characters, so I had to try and make Kuro look as male as possible while using female parts xD Which is why the bodies look kinda odd, cos they're technically flat-chested female sprites (aside from you know who in the hidden route, cos that was the only male sprite body in the set!) >.<"
It makes me super duper happy that you think the story is of a commercial sorta standard :3 I think a lot of people pass over playing indie VNs (especially free ones) cos they just assume that they will suck/be low quality by default >.< So I'm glad you decided to give SR a chance \^_^/
You don't need to apologise anyhow :3 I really enjoyed reading your opinions, and constructive criticism is great because it's helpful to know what sorta things people like, and what they dislike about it for future projects :D It would be cool to remake the game in the future with better sprites, but it would require quite a lot of money I think because of how many there are >.<
I'm also glad you enjoyed the voice acting :3 A lot of people seem to be pretty put off by English voice acting because of bad dubs and stuff, haha, but I think the cast did an awesome job, and I'm so grateful that they gave their time to help me with the project! I guess a lot of VNs come from Japan, so people are used to hearing Japanese voice acting, but I love English voice acting too, so ideally, I'd love to have all my projects voiced in English. When it came to telling the voice actors to make kissing sounds in the script, I was so embarrassed to ask them to do that x3 but I guess it's all part of the job for them.
I'll go ahead and try my best to answer your questions below :3
SPOILERS
In regards to all the Kuro's that you meet in the initial 5 routes, I hadn't decided 100% on exactly what their place was in the hidden route. They could either be a bunch of different Kuro's that you don't actually meet, or, as you mentioned, they could all be the same Kuro. The same goes for the protagonist that you play as in those 5 routes I guess, it could be either way since I decided not to actually go into detail within the game. However, the way it was in my head was that the protagonist you play as in the first 5 routes is the same person, and the Kuro that you meet in those routes is the same Kuro. So in the hidden route, that particular pairing is considered a successful pairing :3 Whereas when you start the hidden route, you play as clones in the idol and cadet scenarios who are considered unsuccessful, and so they are terminated.
I always thought of it as though protagonist number 26 in the hidden route is the same protagonist you play as in the original 5 routes. The first Kuro you meet as 26 (the one whose throat you slit to set him free) in my mind, is the same Kuro that you were with in the other 5 routes. 26 knows that he's Kuro, but she doesn't really remember much else because of all the wipes, and poor Kuro is forced to remember everything, which is why he's so weary and defeated. That Kuro has been through the 5 routes with you that you play + many more that you don't get to see in the story, so he's kinda just given up on life cos he can't see a way out of just being treated like a lab rat. He still dearly loves the protagonist, but he's so broken down that he just does what Isaac tells him to by that point because he no longer has the will to resist.
That's how it was in my head, but if you think about it like that, it's kinda sad because you spent all that time with that particular Kuro, and in the end, the only way you could save him was to kill him >.< and killing him doesn't even save him because they can just transfer his consciousness to another unit. I figured it would be better to just be kinda vague about him in the end, because I wanted to move the story on to focus on 339 and 13's story together. In a way, I suppose 26 lives on in 339 since parts of her mind were transferred after she eventually kills herself. I probably didn't explain the significance of 26 committing suicide in the story either >.< cos she is doing it so that she can escape the cruelty of the world around her, but also, she's been pushed to resorting to that because of Isaac, and Isaac was waiting for one of the clones to make that move because he wants his weapon to be willing to sacrifice everything to save humanity.
Since you don't actually see what happens to that Kuro whose throat you slit, anything could have happened to him, though probably nothing too good xD In my head, he was just locked away again (like he usually would be in between training sessions) after 26 kills herself. Later on when Raine opens all the cell doors + sets the alarm off though, he would have been freed from his room. We never see that version of Kuro again though, so after he was able to get out, anything could have happened to him. I guess I probably should have given the poor guy a little more attention to help clear things up with his personal story!
Kuro number 13/Dollmaker is one of the oldest/first units in the lab. He went through a fair few simulations in the beginning, but ultimately, they decided he wasn't performing as well as they would like. At that point in time, they didn't have tonnes of clones, so rather than eliminating them, they would just sorta dump em in a part of the lab that wasn't used. So 13 was replaced, the experiments continued over the years, but instead of being deactivated like what happens to the newer clones while you're playing, 13 was just wandering around the restricted section on his own for years, which kinda made him even more messed up >.< So when they started dumping the failed protagonist clones down there, it finally gave 13 some company. That's when his obsession with trying to fix the broken protagonist clones started x3
In regards to running the simulations and such, you're not stupid at all, I didn't really explain it very well in the game :3 Isaac was pretty crazy, so he probably could have found a much easier/better way to build a weapon. The main reason he opted for the method he did, is just cos he had gone a bit mad xD None of this is explained in the game, but in my head, after it became too dangerous to live on the surface, OG MC + Shiro would have been living a fairly normal life together underground when Isaac was more stable. Isaac was trying to think of ways to fix his mistake, and after lots of failed attempts to eliminate the creature, he just went kinda insane and got the idea in his head to start using his own son, and his son's girlfriend. Raine would have just been a colleague at the time they first went underground, and she slowly fell in love with Isaac over time (before he went crazy xD) Anyways, I'm getting off-topic from your original question, sorry >.<
The reason they ran all the simulations was because they wanted to create some form of suffering between the protagonist clones and the Kuro clones. Isaac was super duper insane, and he was convinced that in order for the OG MC to be the ultimate weapon, her mind also needed to be altered, not just her body. He knew that OG MC and Shiro were deeply in love, and he thought that the perfect combo of that love + suffering would increase her powers exponentially. Isaac wanted the clones to suffer, but ultimately still love each other like the originals, so that he could implant all of that love and suffering from the clones into OG MC eventually. This is why you see the idol and cadet clones get scrapped, because they're not showing the right sort of emotions he wants to see in a scenario. Isaac just wanted to extract all the love and pain that he could from the pairings. Admittedly, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but Isaac is supposed to be kinda losing it. Although, I guess his plan actually kinda worked in the end, even if it wasn't exactly how he intended things to play out xD
Isaac still loves Shiro deeply, and can't bring himself to hurt him as much as he's happy to hurt the protagonist. Which is why he chose OG MC to be the weapon, not Shiro. He couldn't bring himself to potentially sacrifice his own son. So instead, in his own twisted way, he thinks he's kinda doing Shiro a favour by making him watch the progress of his experiment. The Kuro's are all forced to remember things, unlike the protagonist's, because much of the suffering Isaac wants is taken from them, not the protagonist. Isaac wants to watch the Kuro's try to save the protagonist over and over again in the scenarios, forcing them to sink into deeper despair when they realise that there's no way out. The Kuro's are in love with the protagonist, so they can't help but keep trying, even if they know they can never succeed. This is one of the reasons their love for the protagonist becomes more twisted over time. They have some idea as to what's going on, sometimes they wanna lose themselves in the simulations just so they can have some form of a life with the protagonist, even if it's only temporary. By repeatedly wiping the protagonist clones, it's like torture for the Kuro's, because they remember the love that they shared (from the faint memories they have of OG MC + Shiro) but the protagonist clones remember very little. So a lot of the suffering comes from the poor Kuro's trying to get the protagonist to love them again the way it should be. In the end, because the Kuro's get so messed up trying to pursue love, it results in all those bad ends for the protagonist, so then the protagonist is also suffering too, which gives more suffering for Isaac to extract from the protagonist as well as Kuro. It's weird, I know xD Blame Isaac for being so crazy x3
As for poor Shiro's organs ceasing to function, that was just because they had been underground for a very long time. I didn't really say specifically how long, but it would have been many, many years. By the time it's reached the point where the story within the game is taking place, Shiro is much older than he would've been when they first all went underground. Living underground in the lab for so many years with the same recycled air was pretty unhealthy, so a lot of the folk still alive down there have slightly modified bodies to survive. Isaac was able to solve the problem of Shiro's failing organs by creating artificial ones for him, but they're kind of experimental and not really designed for being used in the outside world where the air and stuff on the surface is different. Along with the organs, Isaac also made other modifications to Shiro (like the sword weapons he's able to summon.)
I was a little unsure as to whether or not to include all the fourth wall breaking stuff, but I decided to in the end. I kinda wanted the reader to feel similarly to how the protagonist would feel in that they couldn't exactly be sure of what was real and what wasn't. I find the concept of solipsism pretty fascinating, so a part of me wanted the final ending of the story to be that only the protagonist was truly real, everything else in her world was just part of her own mind. So while it did technically happen, it possibly only happened within her head, and she had no way of telling, but at the same time, I didn't want it to be that, which is why I didn't actually specify anything in particular xD So the ending is pretty open to interpretation I guess! The reader can decide for themselves what the truth is. I just kinda thought, it doesn't really matter if something is real or not, if you're living it, and you believe in it, that's enough because it's real to you. To be honest, I kinda confused myself in the end >.<" haha.
When it comes to the guy who is constantly breaking the fourth wall and calling the player by the name, Anathema, who you finally get to meet at the end, this is a character that I hope to develop over time :3 I want to try and feature him in most of the projects I work on somehow, so that players can slowly learn more about him over time, which is why it's kinda just like a little introduction in SR. I'm not 100% sure how I wanna have his story play out yet, but you definitely haven't seen the last of him :D
I feel you on the not having much of a connection to OG MC + Shiro front, haha. I should probably have tried harder to show more of their backstory. I think the reason it came out the way it did in the end was because I was supposed to care about them, but while I was writing the story, I ended up falling in love with 339 + 13 instead, so they kinda ended up stealing the show with their story. I kinda wanted to just end the game on the scene where 339 and 13 sacrifice themselves, but I figured that would be too cruel x3 If I had of had the resources, I think it would have been cool to have some flashback scenes of the past showing OG MC + Shiro + the others from before everything went to shit! I was very limited with what I could do with sprites though since I had to rely on creator software T_T haha. I would love to be able to work with artists in future who can draw sprites for me instead :3 If I had money, I would've hired an artist, but I'm incredibly poor >.< I tend to survive on a diet mainly consisting of 40p cans of baked beans xD I will try to use Kickstarter in the future though, because if I could get some kind of funding, it'd be a huge help, and would allow me to make things even better :3
But yeah, I totally get why people wouldn't care too much for OG MC + Shiro, I guess it's because I ended up not really caring about them that much either (compared to the other MCs + Kuro's anyways) so that ended up showing in my writing >.< In my heart I think 339 and 13 were the true heroes :3
I hope I managed to answer your questions :3 If not, feel free to keep asking away cos I don't mind at all! I know I kinda suck at explaining stuff cos I tend to just ramble on forever, and then I get myself lost and confused xD So yeah, feel free to ask anything else. Thank you once again for all your kind words! It really means a lot to me to know that you've enjoyed playing through the game, and I hope that you'll also enjoy my future projects too :D Aaaand, I'm sorry my reply ended up being so long x3 I'm so terrible for rambling, haha. Hope you have an awesome week, and that you're managing to stay safe! <3
SPOILERS BELOW
Hi! Thanks for replying and I hope you are staying safe as well. I am quite happy that u answered my queries and cleared most of my confusion about the game's plot line. As I said earlier the game's plotline is quite rich but the narrative was coming in bits and pieces which made the story more atmospheric but the drawback was it does create a lot of confusion. I think if the writing style is more polished and fine tuned then the delivery will be more impactful and enriching. I do feel u should have explored more on the backstories so that we could have understood the plot better and the characters and their motivations as well, especially Isaac *coughs* the most controversial one and also the OG MC and Shiro, it would have made the story more enriching. When I read through ur reply I realised u have indeed dropped hints here n there regarding isaac going insane with his experiments about altering the personality of MC and also about past kuros in other routes but I think it would have been better if the story was little more explanatory about it so that it would have felt more enriching. I think it would have been interesting if there were side POV stories of important characters like kuro and isaac to get more 360 degrees view about the game which would have made the story more streamlined, however I do understand that would have been more difficult as such due to lack of resources but I hope u do consider it in future. Personal opinion but I really would have loved to see more of original kuro in main plotline as one of the protags as i felt a bit disconnected after spending so much time with original kuro and the 26 who was the mc in previous routes but they weren't given much showtime and the role was passed over to 339 and 13 (although I loved them a lot!). It would have been quite interesting if there was a section for character profiles haha like shiro, OG mc, isaac etc with ages and anything important, because u said shiro was quite older by the time game started and they had been living underground for many years which led to his organ failure, however xD the guy looked at best in 20's, even isaac who looks quite hot to be old *coughs* (although I am curious how old shiro and rest of the cast is?). As for the sprites,I do understand your dilemma because in detective route I had to convince myself that kuro is a guy and not some cute flat chested girl (thankgod for voice acting or else it would have been hard for me to think he was a guy), although guys other than kuro in other routes looked far more mature so I was wondering if u used some other softwares to create those sprites? I also, in fact kinda dig the idea the whole thing was nothing but a dream especially at the end when og mc is like it doesn't matter if it was a dream and u urself kinda confirmed it with entire solipsism concept. As I said earlier, I was more than ready to see that after finishing secret route I would get a scenario change and find this was all nothing but a dream and confront that mysterious voice in the end. I really do want to see more of that mysterious guy that ur planning on creating.
Lastly i want to say despite the drawbacks i mentioned above i do feel that the game is great in its entirety as the storyline is very rich and deep and even though there r certain cliched parts but at the same time it wasnt cliched at all! I really loved the fact that u broke the stereotypes of otome genre and fleshed out kuro so well. He was deranged but a balanced deranged where we can see he really is struggling not like completely weird and downright creepy like many other yandere mls we come across in other otomes. I personally feel if the drawbacks are taken care of then this game can be pegged as a commercial project with ease because it's really that good and has lots of potential for more fine tuning. I really do hope that maybe someday in future u think of releasing this game with polished artwork and sprites and more fine tuned storyline as a commercial one, I would be one of the first to buy it actually. I really look forward to your future projects because ur quite talented in ur story telling style and ur game making style is quite unique in itself and despite the lack of resources u did an amazing job. It was rough around the edges but I can just imagine how far u as a developer can go if provided with sufficient funds. I wish u luck with your future projects and see you growing further. I hope u advertise your work more because I do feel u deserve more recognition. All the best! And congrats on successful release.
PS: English isnt my first language so I am not sure if I was able to deliver my points properly but I hope you understand I was trying not to be too critical and even though u said ur fine with constructive criticism but I dont wanna hurt ur confidence so I hope u grow more in future and thanks again for this amazing game.
SPOILERS
No worries! I really enjoy hearing feedback so everything you've said is much appreciated :3 Plus, hardly anyone discusses the story of SR, so it's nice to kinda talk about it a bit more :D
In regards to my writing, I think sometimes as well, when I have everything in my head, I can occasionally forget that the reader can't see inside my head to know everything that I know xD So I will be writing stuff down, and I think it makes sense because I know the full picture, but I forget that other people don't know the full picture >.< so that probably doesn't help with certain things being confusing as well, haha. I will try in the future to make more of an effort to go into detail with stuff so that the reader is better informed :3 One of the things that worries me sometimes is that if I go into too much detail, people would be bored. So I guess it would be good to find the right balance so it's enough detail to have a good understanding, but not so over the top that it becomes, dull, haha. Hopefully, my writing will improve over time, as I'm certainly no expert xD
I think side stories and POV stuff would be cool :3 Like you say, it would indeed help to give the reader more insight into the background of some of the characters that you don't learn that much about. If I ever do get the opportunity to remake the game sometime in the future, I'd absolutely think about adding that sorta thing in there.
With 26 and the Kuro/s from the original routes, I did kinda always plan to kill them off, mainly to show just how cruel the situation was x3 But I feel like I should have wrapped up that particular Kuro's story better, instead of just leaving him in limbo. So if I remake the game I will probably tweak that so that he has a proper ending to his personal story. I feel like I could have just written about 339 and 13 forever x3 It's weird, cos in the draft, I wasn't that attached to them! They were just another pair that were part of the story, but somehow, as I was writing the bits for 339 and 13, they just grew on me. They ended up becoming my favourite pair :3 By the end of writing, 13 wound up being my favourite Kuro, haha. I think Tim's voice acting was probably what swayed me on that! It just made me wanna give 13 a big hug.
As for character profiles, and more specifically, ages, I couldn't actually tell you how old the lot of them are because I never did settle on an exact age for any of the characters x3 I don't know why I didn't. Even when I was holding auditions for voice actors, I would just describe a character as young, or middle aged, stuff like that xD Most of the 'real' characters that are in the lab have modified bodies in some form, and would appear younger than they actually are, cos Isaac was experimenting with the clone tech to help extend their own lives using machine parts and stuff, but again, I never really mentioned that at all in the story >.< I will probably pay more attention to character profile stuff in the future though, and make proper profiles for any characters I come up with :3
You're absolutely correct that I did use other software for a lot of the side character sprites. Well, it wasn't really software like what I used for the MC's + Kuro's, it was more just like PSD files of base sprites with limited options for changing the hair and stuff. For the most part, all I could really do was change colours >.< That's why I only used that for more minor characters, because it didn't have anywhere near as many customisation options as the thing I used for MC's + Kuro's. It was pretty frustrating, because you can tell the art style is different between the sprites, but because I have the story taking place in various settings, it meant I needed a tonne of sprites to fit in with each setting, so it was the cheapest thing I could do T_T I couldn't use the creator software to make enough sprites either, cos that only had a limited number of body poses, and I pretty much used all of em up to make the MC's + Kuro's >.< which is why they're the only two that use that style. It was important for me that Kuro looked as unique as possible with the resources I had though, it just sucks that the people who made that software didn't include more options for creating male sprites :(
I don't know if you will have seen this before, as it's a pretty old post, but a looooong time ago, I was working with an awesome artist who was going to draw all of the sprites for me in her beautiful style. Sadly though, she got really busy with studies so she had to stop. The only sprite that was finished in the end was for student route Kuro, but it's soooo pretty <3 haha.
https://melancholy-marionette.itch.io/solipsism-reigns/devlog/33357/double-update-part2-otome-art-introduction
It would be a dream come true if one day I could somehow have all the sprites in the game looking as good as that!
It makes me super happy to hear the way you describe Kuro :3 Cos I know a lot of people don't like yandere characters due to how crazy most of them are, and I feel like yandere guys kinda get a bad name because of all the violence they tend to be associated with. So I really hoped that people would understand Kuro, and love him despite his faults. Cos the poor guy has been through a lot x3 He just wants to be with the MC cos he loves her from the bottom of his heart despite all the horrible stuff he's had to go through. Don't get me wrong, I love a good psycho too xD I just wanted to make sure Kuro was more than just a psycho, haha.
Maybe if I end up with money someday, I can remake the game and call it, Solipsism Reigns - Reborn, or something :3 My partner actually does some amazing art, but sadly, he doesn't really have the time to help me out with my projects >.<
Some of the voice actors I worked with on SR are thinking about making a small team sometime in the future to try and make some games, so I might not always be working on my own :3 I think working with a team would really help since I can't handle stuff like art, haha. I will probably try to use Kickstarter for my future projects though, so that I can try to make things better, instead of struggling with limited resources x3 Even if I don't get funded though, I will still try my best to make things work with what I've got! One of the things I find really difficult is advertising my stuff, because I don't really use social media much due to my anxiety >.< So I don't have much of a reach by myself, and rely on word of mouth from people who come across my stuff to spread the news, haha.
I would never have guessed that English isn't your first language! I'd say your English is better than many English people who I've spoken to online where it is their first language :D I really need to take some time at some point to learn another language myself! I started to learn Japanese a few years ago, but I stopped when I reached the paid levels of the tutoring site I was using cos I couldn't afford it >.< Anyways, I think you made your points very well :3 Also, I don't think anyone could ever hurt my confidence anyhow, because I never really had any to begin with xD I have had very low self-confidence + anxiety ever since I was a kid, but I am trying to work on it slowly ^-^
Thank you so much again for all of your kind words and support <3 They mean more to me than I can put into words \^0^/
Hi! I'm really interested in playing your game. I was wondering if you could make a Mega link. It's just because it would be a lot easier for me to download. I'm sorry for bothering you.
PS: Mi idioma materno es español, así que perdóname si me equivoqué en alguna palabra XD
Hey hey! Thanks for your interest in the game :3 I am just about to go to sleep, but I will look into uploading to Mega for you tomorrow :D It might take a while because the internet is quite slow here, haha, but I will hopefully have it ready by the end of tomorrow!
Also, I used Google translate for your PS, and if it was correct in translating your message, you didn't make any mistakes :3 I would never have known that English wasn't your first language if you hadn't said ^_^
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ANSWER! I really appreciate that you even take your time for answer me. Also, I look forward to play your game. <3
You're welcome :3 I really appreciate your interest in the game :D I have just updated the page with download links for MEGA. I figured I might as well upload all current versions there in case others would prefer to download from MEGA as well!
I hope you enjoy the game :3
Stay safe ^_^
You're such a sweetheart! Thank you so much!
Hey! I'm playing through your game right now and it's incredibly fascinating. But I've been wondering what character creation software you were using for the sprites? I saw you mention that in some of the comments but I'm curious as to what it was? It's recognizable yet foreign at the same time, haha.
Hey hey! Thanks for checking out the game :3
For the sprites, it was a creator software I purchased years ago from a Japanese site I stumbled across somehow. I don't remember what the site was with it being so long ago, but I remember it saying that the people who made the software were called T.O.P (or something like that) cos they were the only English characters on the page, so it stood out.
I think it was a very popular product! I imagine that it's been used to make sprites for many games + other kinds of projects, so you probably would've seen the art style before :3 The great thing about the software though is that there are so many individual pieces to create hairstyles from, lots of eyes, lots of clothing and accessories, etc. that you can make some pretty unique sprites with it :D It's just a shame that they were mainly for making female sprites and not much available for male ones :(
It wasn't just a one off purchase though. I think I had to buy it in parts. Like each part has 1 base body and a whole bunch of stuff exclusive to that set. It wasn't particularly cheap, cos I think I paid about £150 for 10 sets to have enough base bodies for the number of sprites I needed. Still, I guess that's much cheaper than paying an artist to draw the sheer number of sprites I used, haha.
Since I can't actually read Japanese, it was a bit of trial and error to use it x3 The interface is simple though so you can just kinda figure out what does what by changing things and seeing what happens. It can be quite laggy sometimes >.< so it took a looooong time to make all my sprites, but I got there in the end xD
Also, I think they might have been designed for use with 18+ stuff cos you can take their clothes off, have em in some suspiciously suggestive naked poses, and make them pull ahegao faces, haha.
Sorry I can't be of more help >.< My memory kinda sucks x3 If it was all in English, I might've stood a better chance at recalling more info, but with everything being in Japanese, that's about as much as I can remember about it!
I hope you enjoy the rest of the game :3
This looks absolutely interesting and charming. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get the game running. Similar to one of the previous commentors, I've tried accessing the game as administrator, waited for around 20 minutes, and downloaded the additional files, but no dice. The only thing that pops up is a window for nw.js... Though I'm not exactly the most literate when it comes to these things since I usually buy from steam/gog...
Regardless, hopefully I can get this game working because I really wanna read through it. It looks so unique! :)
Thanks for checking out the game and your interest in it :3 I'm sorry to hear you're having the nw.js issue as well :(
I'm guessing you're on windows since you said you downloaded the additional files, or did you download the mac version and try the fixes someone told me to get mac users to try? I only ask cos I've read on Steam support before that the issue is more common with games made using Tyrano on the mac versions, but I was wondering if it's just as much of an issue on windows as well >.<
It's so frustrating because I'm not a super techy person (hence why I used Tyrano in the first place, haha) so when the issues are to do with the way Tyrano itself works, I don't know how to help anyone, and it really sucks :( I wish there was more support available for Tyrano in general.
I'm going to try and get a browser release out to see if that can be an alternative version for those who can't play due to the nw.js issue! I just don't know how long it will take me to release it, because I'm staying at my dad's right now and only have my crap laptop to work on >.<
If you do manage to get it working before I can find any other fixes to try, please let me know what you ended up doing that made it work so I can share the possible solution with others having the issue :3
Just wanted to let you know that I've now released a smaller version in the hope that it will run for anyone having issues launching the original larger version :3 I have no idea if it will work >.< haha, but other Tyranobuilder users have suggested to me that it's often a memory issue when it fails to launch on random devices, so I figured it was worth a shot!
This looks really interesting and I really really want to play it because I like yandere charas... But unfortunately can't because my windows is 32bit... Thank you anyways for making this game, best luck to you!<3
Thanks so much for your interest and taking the time to comment :3 Does it not work for you on 32bit windows? :o My laptop runs 32bit windows and although it's very slow to launch, it does work in the end on there (my laptop has pretty crappy specs, haha.)
I hope you're able to play it somehow, cos it would suck if uou want to but can't >.<
Just wanted to let you know that I've now released a smaller version in the hope that it will run for anyone having issues launching the original larger version :3 I have no idea if it will work >.< haha, but other Tyranobuilder users have suggested to me that it's often a memory issue when it fails to launch on random devices, so I figured it was worth a shot!
thank you so much! i'll try downloading it again:)
Holy bats! This was an adventure! If you like Horror and Male Yanderes, this VN is for you~! :D
Thanks for taking the time to comment! <3 I'm glad you enjoyed the VN :3
Managed to get everything but the true and and two bad ends! I received the one that destroys and the one that simulates, but not the true, and I'm missing drowning in darkness and brief reunion.
I'll keep giving it a go, but in case I can't find it , I would definitely like some hints :p
SPOILERS BELOW
Honestly though I didn't much care what happens to the originals, I didn't play their story, so I didn't get attached to them... It seemed like a bit of a betrayal, LOL, which speaks about how attached you got me to all of the copies. I wonder if that'll change once I manage to find the true ending?
I do have a question, though- the Kuro in the different routes, how much does he remember each time? Are they different numbers each time, the same? He tells her to relax and trust him at the end, and he recognizes Big Bad in each of his disguises. Does this get answered in the endings I'm missing?
Also, who the fuck is voice over guy? Who's Anathema? I tried entering Anathema as my name to see if it got any easter eggs, but, sadly nope...
Awesome stuff, thanks for taking the time to comment :3 I'm happy to give you some hints or straight up tell you how to get those few ends that you're missing if you decide you need a hand! Just drop me an email here and I'll get back to ya as fast as I can: solipsismreigns@gmail.com
SPOILERS BELOW HERE ALSO
Hehe, I don't know if you'll care about the originals more when you get the true end or not x3 For me, I care more about 339 and 13/Dollmaker! They're kinda like the best couple to me, even though they're technically not the true versions.
As for Kuro throughout the different routes, I didn't actually ever say for certain if it's the same one, how much he remembers, etc. I kinda just left it up to whatever the reader wants to believe. In my head, it was the same one, and he remembers quite a bit, but is powerless to do anything about it, so he's slowly driven insane over time (which is why he sometimes goes yandere, haha.) It's kinda like in each new world, he's sorta refreshed, but he has much more awareness than the protagonist. In a way, his suffering is worse, cos he's forced to remember more. A part of me wanted to write that the first Kuro you meet as 26 in the ??? route (the one who you kill to set free in the white room) is the 'real' version of the Kuro from all of the other routes, but I decided not to in the end. As I said though, I didn't actually explain that in the story cos I wanted the reader to interpret whatever they like :3
As for the guy who calls you Anathema, I can't say too much cos I don't wanna accidentally spoil anything for you >.< haha. But what I will say is, more is revealed about him once you reach the true end :3 I'm so glad that you tried entering your name as Anathema though, because there is actually a small easter egg for doing that :D It's not much, just a slight difference in dialogue, but again, I won't say more, cos you'll only find it when you get the true end :3 Basically, there is a scene, and if you have your name as Anathema, it just changes one line in that scene as a teeny tiny easter egg, haha. You actually lose a choice if your name is Anathema though, it gets skipped and replaced by a different line, where normally there is a dialogue choice if your name is anything but Anathema.
Thanks so much for playing and commenting :3 Good luck with getting those last endings! And like I said, feel free to drop me an email if you decide you want some help ^_^
Is there a GxG or GxB one by any chance? since it said BxG, i assumed there are many different versions. Thank you for reading. <3
This page is for the GxB version (released) with a female protagonist x male Kuro: https://melancholy-marionette.itch.io/solipsism-reigns
And this page is for the BxG version (work in progress) with a male protagonist x female Kuro: https://melancholy-marionette.itch.io/solipsism-reigns-bxg
I had planned to also make BxB and GxG versions, but it's just too much work and I want to be able to put some time into other projects >.< I might release a version with a genderless protagonist though where you can choose which version of Kuro you want, cos that would be less time consuming.
Thanks for your comment and interest! Have a lovely day :3
(so late aaa) Okay thank you so much! I'm currently waiting for the game to download and I'm very excited! ❤
Apologies if it's been asked I tried searching through the comments with little to no avail. I am wondering if my game is set to not let you access the config properly? There's things I like to change up like text speed, sounds etc when playing games - but the config button shows 4 buttons and 2 sets of repeated Japanese text. Any suggestions? :')
Hey hey! No worries :3 Are you opening the config when there's a moving/animated background present? There's an issue with Tyrano's layer loading that makes config show up rather strangely when opening it on a moving background >.< haha. If you open it on a regular background, you should be able to change things like text speed, force skip unread text, sound level of BGM, SFX, etc.
The same layering issue can also cause the name field and quick menu options to disappear when moving backgrounds are present and the game is in fullscreen mode, which is a weird one xD But keyboard commands can be used to access all the menus still and moving backgrounds generally aren't on screen for too long :3
If that doesn't work, would you mind taking a screenshot and emailing it to me so I can see what's going on :3 Thanks for playing!
Sorry I didn't get back sooner, I'm assuming it's because of being in the transition naming screen as you mentioned. Though there's an option to change up the bgm and se volume there's nothing about the voices in game. I'll have to assume it's part of se and try that for now. Thanks for the quick reply~
No worries :3 And yeah, any time there is a background that's moving or slightly animated, the config will be messed up, sadly >.< There aren't many animated backgrounds throughout the VN though so it's not too much of an issue to just open config on a regular background.
You're correct that the voices are under the same as SFX. Unfortunately, due to the way that Tyranobuilder works, there's no way for me to separate the voice lines from the general SFX so they all come under the same type and slider >.< It's pretty annoying really cos it means if someone wants to mute the SFX or lower the volume of them, then they'll also be muting or lowering the volume of all the voice lines as well. It would be better to have them completely separate, haha, but TB won't allow me to do that :(
hello there! I just downloaded the game but it is not opening what should i do? Like no matter how much i click run the game there is no response... (I even tried to run as administrator but it didn't work as well)
Hey there! Did you download the windows version, or the mac version?
Depending on your system specs and how much free memory is on your computer, it could take a long time to open the game window. On my PC, it opens after about 15-20 seconds, but on my old laptop, it takes around 7 minutes from clicking the game exe to it actually opening the game window >.< It's due to the large size of the game and the fact that it's manually packaged.
Hopefully, if you wait long enough, it should start eventually x3 The longest startup time I know of so far is around 9 minutes on a very old laptop. Thanks for your interest in the game, if you still can't get it to start, let me know, and I'll try to think of other things you could do to get it working :3
I am having trouble opening it as well. I have a newer PC and there is just no response when clicking.
Is it the windows version, or the mac version? I know the mac version has more issues than the windows one, a Tyrano dev said mac can just be a bit dodgy with some of the stuff Tyrano uses >.< Also, how long have you waited after clicking the exe?
If it's the windows version and you've got plenty of free space on your drive, I don't really know what could be causing it to be unresponsive :( It's possible your PC might require some of the files that the Tyrano export tutorial said to delete. Cos the tutorial says to delete all the files in a certain folder, but if I do that, the game no longer opens on my PC! So that part of the tutorial is wrong >.<
That's a complete guess though cos it runs alright on my PC and laptop as it is so it's hard for me to think of anything else. I can't send you the files at the moment, as I don't have my PC set up here, but I'll try to get it set up later tonight and I'll upload the files here to see if that makes any difference. Once they're here to download, just paste them into the game folder. I'll also make a post when I get time about known issues and possible fixes :3 I'm just busy with family stuff at the moment so can't do it right now.
EDIT: I made this post. It includes the files I mentioned earlier, plus a few other suggestions:
https://melancholy-marionette.itch.io/solipsism-reigns/devlog/154575/known-issues-potential-fixes
As I said in the above post I linked, I've also asked for fix suggestions in the Tyrano support forum :3
Just wanted to let you know that I've now released a smaller version in the hope that it will run for anyone having issues launching the original larger version :3 I have no idea if it will work >.< haha, but other Tyranobuilder users have suggested to me that it's often a memory issue when it fails to launch on random devices, so I figured it was worth a shot!
Just wanted to let you know that I've now released a smaller version in the hope that it will run for anyone having issues launching the original larger version :3 I have no idea if it will work >.< haha, but other Tyranobuilder users have suggested to me that it's often a memory issue when it fails to launch on random devices, so I figured it was worth a shot!
Hello! I just wanted to say this game looks super interesting :D I can't wait to check it out! I've never seen a game where the MC and the LI are in different stories! I think I'm going to play the student route first but I just have a little comment - I find the text a little difficult to look at when reading, especially because I think there's a dark text shadow underneath it? I was wondering if that could be disabled or if there could be different font choices to choose from? If not I'll just continue playing as it is!
Thanks for taking the time to comment :3 I'm glad you think it looks interesting :D
In regards to the text, I just used the default option on Tyranobuilder in the end in terms of font, style, and colour. I think I increased the size a little until it was comfortable for me to read. I did mess around with changing fonts, but none of them seemed as clear as this one to me, so I stuck with it.
Unfortunately, there's no way to edit the text display in the game options. If you're finding it too difficult to read I could change it in the project files themselves and upload it as an update for you though :3 It may take a while is the only thing, cos I don't have my PC set up here away from home and my crappy laptop can't handle the load >.< haha.
Aside from that, it might be possible for you to change the font yourself by swapping the actual font file for the game, buuuuut, I'd have to look into that cos I don't know if it might potentially mess up the text settings or anything cos I've never tried it before x3
If you do end up just playing it as it is, I hope you enjoy it :3
@cynnchan (so sorry if I got your name wrong!) I've managed to accidentally delete your comments >.< If you need me to repost the possible fixes thread for the NW.JS thing, just lemme know :3 Sorry about that! I was just trying to delete the first couple that you posted cos my last reply to you was showing up weird on the mobile site, missing letters off the edge of the screen, so I thought if I delete your first comments and my replies, it'll make the stack go back to normal... but instead, it just deleted everything >.<
Hmm, unfortunately, as I don't own a mac myself, I don't really have any way of testing and fixing any issues for mac that people come across :( I'm really sorry about that!
I know nothing about macs personally, so I can't even guess at things >.< All I know is that before uploading the mac version, my partner was able to test and run it on his work mac and all was fine. I'm not able to get him to do any further troubleshooting on his work mac though cos he'd get into trouble if his boss found out!
Oh, that's understandable! Do you maybe ever plan putting it on the web with flash player then?
It would be great if I could have a browser game version as well, but I think the game is just too big for it to work :(
After reading your comment, I looked into the possibility of uploading it here on itch.io, as they allow the hosting of web games, but there are a few rules about hosting a browser game here and, unfortunately, the total size of my VN exceeds the allowance limits. It does say that you can contact them to have limits increased, but it says that they're there in order to make the best possible experience for players, and that browser games exceeding the limits will likely have poor performance in terms of load times, so it's recommended to just make it a downloadable game instead.
If I had the money to run my own site, then I'd attempt to host it there. Sadly, I don't even have enough money to feed myself most of the time xD I suffer from anxiety and depression, which prevents me from holding down a regular job, so my only form of income is from selling handmade items online, but I make less than minimum wage doing that >.< haha. So I can't afford that option.
I'd love to be able to make it available as a browser game, but it's looking like that probably won't be possible :(
I doubt anything here will help, but I've just created a post with possible fixes for various issues:
https://melancholy-marionette.itch.io/solipsism-reigns/devlog/154575/known-issues-potential-fixes
Also, as I mentioned in the post I linked above, I've made a thread in the Tyrano support forums asking for help/suggestions to fix the problem you have. So hopefully, someone will reply with something to try :3
EDIT: Just wanted to let you know that someone on the Steam Tyrano support forums suggested this to me for anyone that can't get it to start on mac:
"Now, on Mac, I'm not sure if the problem is that people need to open the package with something like The Unarchiver instead of the native tool: https://theunarchiver.com/. That is a known issue. You might see if someone can test that method for you."
Since I've never had a mac, this doesn't really mean anything to me, haha, but it's something to try I guess :3
Just wanted to let you know that I've now released a smaller version in the hope that it will run for anyone having issues launching the original larger version :3 I have no idea if it will work >.< haha, but other Tyranobuilder users have suggested to me that it's often a memory issue when it fails to launch on random devices, so I figured it was worth a shot!
NO SPOILERS BELOW
Okay, at this point I've gotten most of the way through the ??? route (just missing the true ending).
Overall I was extremely impressed by this game and story. A free game that is fully voiced with this level of detail and plot? Damn. I really like the premise of an otome game but with the same couple in extremely different settings, and I hope that more games try out this style in the future. Obviously having a plethora of love choices is fun, but I really enjoyed seeing the differences and similarities between MC and Kuro through every route, and slowly unlocking more of the overarching plot between the two. Plus its an interesting experiment on differences in character in alternate settings.
And of course as a big fan of yanderes, it was really great to have a whole game around that premise. Detective Route Kuro was my favorite.
I will note that you may want to make it more obvious above that to unlock the secret ending, you need to be on the same save file. I learned that after already having unlocked almost all the endings in different saves, which was unfortunate. For players, take lots of notes for the ??? route, tbh I'm usually a lazy walkthrough follower so had to actually make some effort here (and am still trying on the true ending), haha. The rest of the routes were pretty intuitive though, I liked getting to go back and rechoose instead of having to save every time. That was a nice mechanic.
I would have preferred Kuro's sprites to look more mature in the routes, but it didn't take away from the game enjoyment, just a preference. His and the MC's sprite variations are adorable though.
Overall great job, MM!
Cheers for taking the time to post a comment :3 It's much appreciated!
I'm so glad that you enjoyed the VN. The main reason I made it was because I adore yandere characters myself, and it didn't seem like there were that many male yandere types around compared to the sheer volume of female ones, especially not English speaking ones x3 So I kinda just wanted to write something where a male yandere character was in the spotlight.
Funnily enough, the Detective route was my favourite route to write :D
I'll go edit my post regarding unlocking the ??? route in a sec then and try to make it a little clearer. I suck at explaining stuff >.< haha.
If you need a hand unlocking the true ending and don't wanna spend ages trying various things, feel free to drop me an email as I don't mind telling you the unlock requirements :3 It's hard for me to really gauge how difficult it is to unlock certain things when I already know the answers to everything >.< I'm considering making a walkthrough or mini guide to help people out if they need it, cos I'm the type who tends to just go straight to walk through myself, haha. Some of you guys probably have pretty decent notes already though I guess!
You're not the only one who would have preferred Kuro's sprites to appear more mature :D haha, I wish they were too! I just didn't have much choice cos my art is pretty crappy, so I ended up using software I purchased to create them instead, and while I was able to highly customise the sprites to my liking that way, I was unable to change the overall style of them. If I could have afforded to hire an artist then I would've done, but I'm always poor x3 And with the sheer number of sprites I imagine it would've cost a hell of a lot to get someone to draw them all. People have told me to try Kickstarter next time I'm making a VN, so I think I'll give it a go, the big problem is that I don't really use much social media due to anxiety, so my reach is very limited >.< I'm not confident that many people would even come across a Kickstarter campaign I was running if I did try it, haha.
Thanks again :3 Good luck with getting the true end and I hope you enjoy it! Have a super duper week :D
SPOILER ALERT. PLEASE DO NOT READ IF YOU WANT TO FIGURE THIS GAME OUT FOR YOURSELF.
Oh. My. Goodness.
I started following Solipsism Reign's development because its initial premise was interesting. I have never seen an otome game that was yandere-centric. I thought at first that was all it was going to be, but once I downloaded it and started playing, I knew there had to be some overarching plot. And boy, was I unprepared for what this game threw at me. Kari, you’re a genius. You had me hooked for the entire time. I had no idea this game was going to be so deep. Playing through the initial five routes was really fun, and it was nice balancing my choices of dying by my enemies or by Kuro (Princess and Detective Kuro are my favorites in the first part). The kiss scene with Kuro in the Princess route had me blushing so much... And I just love everything about the Detective route! My sister loves the voice that plays when you get a bad ending, and when he calls you Anathema. She’s a little weird ;)
For the ??? route, my goodness, I just can’t describe how much I love it. The way it’s set up is amazing! I was so shocked to realise that the first half of the game didn’t really matter. It was all a simulation. Dying after trying to attack Isaac and finding myself at the title screen instead of Raine’s criticism and comforting voice really told me that I had to be in serious mode now.
I loved playing as the clones in the beginning and being so unaware of what on earth was happening. It hurt me so much to see Kuro suffer as he had to hurt the brainwashed 26 over and over... I was legit crying. And it took me two tries to realise that I had to click the knife… I felt so stupid, haha. I wish there was a way to save the angry Kuro… and right after he and MC made up… you can be really cruel, Kari.
I had a feeling that Raine was MC’s mom, but you delivered it perfectly with Lilly! And going through the whole route just to get that bad ending? What did I do wrong??? What do you mean by “certain events”??? I have a whole two page google doc with notes of this game, haha. I ended up trying all sorts of choice combinations to keep OG MC alive. What happens when I recognise Shiro but go outside and then come back? Does it matter if I refuse to hurt Kuro as 26 and then obey afterwards? It took me forever to realise that I had to go through the bad ends that triggered the restart mechanic that happened in the routes outside of ??? but get every other answer right to get the good ending.
I thought everything was going to be done and over with after OG MC woke up and she and Shiro lived happily ever after, but no, you pulled the rug out from underneath me again. I am amazed at your storytelling abilities, Kari, and you’ve got me really inspired to try to make my own VN. You’re my new role model :)
After giving my memories to OG MC, it felt more like I was watching her and Shiro instead of inserting myself. I had been suffering and journeying with 339 all this time that I got really attached and didn’t want to let go... 339’s story with 13 really brought me some tears, but even more smiles :)
I was so shocked (even though I shouldn’t have been) that Isaac made the monsters… and let them run rampant. My sister and I were making jokes about how the creature smoked so much his intestines were black, and that had us laughing for a good minute. And the ending? I was so happy that the monsters were eradicated and that Shiro and MC could be together, but so sad that MC and Shiro couldn’t retain their original bodies, it kinda felt like everything 13 and 339 worked for was in vain… that was the only thing that left me dissatisfied.
My favorite Kuros have got to be the one you meet as 26 and the one who accompanies you as 339. I wish there was a way to end the first Kuro’s suffering without killing him!!! He doesn’t show up after 26 dies :(
And lastly, this game hit all of my needs. I just love the intense love between Kuro and MC/ Shiro and MC! The characters are all so wonderful! Kuro’s definitely my fav, but I love Shiro, Raine, and Lilly too! Not so much Isaac… that’s a given, I think. The art was amazing, sprites and CGs and backgrounds! Please give my praise to the artists, I wish I could draw that well. The voice acting was excellent! So good! Smith has got me swooning over his voice, haha. I can’t forget about the sound effects, either! I was really grossed out sometimes… but they were great. And the writing? It just blows my mind how GOOD IT IS!!! It had me completely immersed in this dystopian world, and combined with the music, Kari, you achieved creating this world and dragging me into its depths.
My yandere needs: check
My dystopian world needs: check
My mystery needs: check
Girl, you checked everything off my list and more!!! I feel this giant hole in my heart now that I’ve finished this game :( You’ve ruined all other VNs for me!!! I can't enjoy them as much knowing this masterpiece exists!
One little thing that I really enjoyed about Solipsism Reigns is that the cursor becomes a butterfly. It was really amusing making it fly across the background, and putting it over people’s eyes to make it look like they were magical. Maybe that’s just the really childish part of me, haha.
I am so sorry this is so long!!! This is just a really long and stupid rant about a game that I’ve given my soul to, but I could find no other way to express my gratitude to you, Kari. I hope I’ve been using your name right. Cody is a great name, though!
Once I finally wrack up some dough I’m gonna give it all to you. You deserve it!
P.S. I’ll be waiting for my dearest cursed one, *wink wink*
P.P.S. I can understand why Kuro's number is 13 (unlucky and stuff...), but is there any reason why the MC copies were 26 and 339?
Firstly, I wanna say thank you so much for playing through SR, and also thanks for taking the time to write everything you did :3 I can't even put into words how happy I am to know that you enjoyed the game as much as you did! I really appreciate hearing your thoughts on it all.
Sorry it's taken me a while to reply to your comment. I'm visiting my family today after not having seen them for months cos of the lockdown, so I figured I should probably stay off of my phone for a bit, haha.
I guess I should also say that from this point on there will be SPOILERS in what I'm about to write here too, so anyone who is reading this and wants to avoid spoilers, don't read ahead :3
When I first started writing the story, I had a good idea of where I wanted to take it, but it wasn't until I'd finished writing that I realised just how long it had become xD It wasn't really my intention to create a VN as long as this, and probably wasn't the best thing to make for a first project, haha, but I find it hard to stop once I've started something so I just persevered with it! I loved making it, but man, it was painful sometimes when I was doing incredibly boring but necessary tasks x3
I'm a huge lover of yandere characters, usually villains too, haha, but only if they have a reason to be the way they are. I don't like it when a character is evil just for the sake of it, so with Kuro, it was important for me to tell a story that explained why he is the way he is :3
I'm glad you liked that particular romantic scene in the Princess route :3 I sometimes wonder if I included too much in the way of bad ends and horrible things happening, and not enough sweetness or romance >.< haha. But I love writing bad ends so much x3
The Detective route is also my favourite route :D I love scare mazes an awful lot, so it was extra fun writing a story including those, haha.
Your sister will be pleased to know that he will be making more appearances in the future then :P
I'm sorry there was no way to save that particular Kuro x3 I didn't mean to be so cruel with that, haha.
And I'm sorry you ended up getting that bad end so far into the route, I know that one is mean, but I just love having those kinda tragic bad ends x3 I'm glad you managed to figure out how to get past it though and carry on with the rest of the route :D Do you think I should write up a walkthrough or mini guide? Cos I tried to make it so the choices aren't super complicated, but it's difficult for me to tell how hard it actually is to unlock everything when I know exactly how to get everything >.<
I'm honoured that you think my storytelling/writing is so good :3 I've struggled with rubbish levels of self belief all my life, so no matter what I do, my stupid brain tells me I've done a crap job! >.< Hearing lovely comments like yours really helps me to fight back against those negative thoughts and actually start to believe in myself a little bit, so thank you ^-^ If you do decide to make and release a VN, you'll have to let me know so I can play it!
Yeeeeah, Isaac reeeeaaally fucked up! I don't know if he can ever truly be redeemed or forgiven after everything he's done, but at least he did something good in the end, haha. I had so much fun making the inside of the creature with all the black squelchiness x3 Out of everything in the game, I felt like those backgrounds and those sounds were the most atmospheric bit just cos they went perfectly together. Now you've said what you did about you and your sister joking about the creature smoking, I'll never be able to look at those scenes in the same way again xD
Regarding the ending, I was considering having Isaac save OG MC and Shiro by putting them into 339 and 13's bodies rather than just random units that were available, just so it was more like 339 and 13 lived on in OG MC and Shiro in a more physical representation. 339 and 13 aren't completely gone anyhow though cos a part of them does live inside OG MC, and if they hadn't made the sacrifice that they did, OG MC would have died before even regaining consciousness. I also debated making that a choice, for 339 to just say, nope, I'm not helping, and let OG MC die xD but I felt like that was too mean, haha.
To me, 339 and 13 are the real saviours of the story and my favourite protagonist and Kuro couple, even more than OG MC and Shiro :3 They did deserve better, but I wanted them to have a bittersweet ending x3 I'm sorry I'm so mean... I was actually going to be even crueller originally! I was only going to have bad, tragic, and bittersweet endings as final endings, and not include one that could be considered a genuinely happy end where OG MC and Shiro could actually be together in peace finally. I thought about it for a while, and decided that I couldn't bring myself to do it, haha. I also figured that anyone who played it would probably appreciate some form of happy ending after all of the pain and suffering throughout the journey, which is why I wrote the true end in the end :3 I'm still not 100% happy with the way I wrote the last scenes in the true end though >.<
My favourite Kuro ended up being 13, he just grew on me even though I preferred some of the others when I was writing it all! I think out of all of them, his story just breaks my heart the most. Then when Tim voiced him and brought him to life I just wanted to give 13 a big hug, haha.
Regarding the art, I made the sprites using a Japanese software that I purchased (because my art skills leave a lot to be desired xD) which was really awesome as it allowed me to choose the type of eyes, etc. and the hairstyles were pieced together from lots of tiny little bits of hair until they resembled a style, so that was fun! It took me a looooong time though with the sheer number of sprites I needed >.< The only thing I was frustrated with was not being able to make some of the Kuro's look more manly or mature, which was down to the software being quite limited when it came to more manly features, so most of the Kuro's appear somewhat feminine, haha. Destini Ruffin drew all of the CG art, so without her, I wouldn't even have been able to include a gallery feature :3 And the background art I purchased as resource packs. I had to buy a lot of background art to cover all the different world settings and I never have much money, but I spent all of what I had anyway cos I'm an idiot xD I will try stuff like Kickstarter in the future though to see if I can get a project properly funded cos I felt awful not being able to pay Destini for all the CGs or the voice actors for their time and incredible work as well.
I know what ya mean with feeling like you have a giant hole cos that's how I end up feeling after I've finished something I really enjoyed, like the Mass Effect series, I pretty much cried when I finally finished that, haha. To be honest, I nearly cried reading your comment cos it's just kinda overwhelming in the best way possible to know that you enjoyed SR so much :3
You don't need to apologise anyhow, I really enjoyed reading through your comment! If nobody took the time to let me know how they felt about the game I'd be completely in the dark, so it's great to know what you thought of it, and as I said, I appreciate you taking the time to write everything you did <3
As for my name, I don't really mind what people call me :3 Kari is the name I kinda chose for myself a long time ago because I didn't really wanna use Cody, haha, but now I don't mind, so you're welcome to use either!
To answer your question, 26 wasn't originally gonna be 26, I think she was 17 or something in the old story documents, but when I was typing up Jacob's script for Isaac I decided to change it to 26 just cos that was my age at the time. I'm 28 now though xD 339 wasn't 339 either, haha. I think she might've been 37, which was the door number for my dad's house, but I needed her number to be much higher so I changed that too. I can't remember what made me pick 339 though, I don't think it has any particular significance. 13 was actually a last minute change! I always referred to him affectionately as Dollmaker,
but his number was 404. I changed it to 13 like you say, cos of its connections with being an unlucky number, and cos I wanted his number to be lower to show the sheer amount of time he'd been awake.
Thank you again for all your kind words :3 Your support means the world to me! I plan to keep making VNs for as long as I can, cos I've got a lot of stories I wanna tell, so I hope I'll be able to create something in the future that enjoy just as much as SR :D
Hope you're managing to stay safe! Have an awesome week ^_^
After reaching one of the endings in ??? route (must have more than one?), I consider this VN incredible and entertaining to read.
At first, I was sure that the story was all about the same person (mc) reincarnating in different worlds but I was wrong. I was not counting on that plot twist!
It was fun keeping Kuro from killing the mc and knowing each world's story. I have no favorite Kuro for all of them (when not trying to kill people or the mc) are cute in their own way.
Actually, I was counting on Kuro killing the mc right at the beginning. However, my first death was not by his volatile personality.
I've kept noticing little details that for me, enhanced the story and the mystery that kept growing more and more until I finally unlocked ??? route. What a great story, I really enjoyed it even if it left me feeling bittersweet at the end.
The mechanism to unlock the ??? route was really neat because, in my opinion, it was made right. This was the first time a VN "forced" me to get each ending and I did not felt as if it were a chore, instead, I was rewarded with a few hints that later I could use and try to piece them together (and cgs).
All in all, it was really worth playing and its presentation left me the impression of being a commercial project.
My thanks for creating this VN and if you ever consider making a commercial project I'll be interested. However, I'd really appreciate, if possible, the release of a Linux version in the future.
Thank you so much for taking the time to write such kind words! I really appreciate it <3 It means the world to me, and I'm super happy that you enjoyed playing the game :3
You are correct that there are multiple endings for the ??? route. You'll know when you've found the "true" ending, as the credits will play and you'll unlock an extras section with some bonus content :D
Unfortunately, I don't think it will be possible for me to release anything on Linux unless I use something other than Tyranobuilder to make the game, because it seems at the moment there is no support in Tyrano to release for Linux :( Sorry about that, it sucks I know >.<
Hehe, thanks for your kind words, they're very much appreciated :3 I'm hoping that the completed version will be much more polished than the old demo :D I've learned a fair bit since then (still have plenty of learning to do though!) I'm glad ya liked it :3
The funny thing is, I would actaully love to work day and night on it if I could xD I remember a time a couple of years ago where I could for a little while and it was great cos I made so much progress, haha. Nowadays I just spend ages wishes I could work on it but not getting the time T_T Though I'm almost done with the super important life things that I have to put first, so I should be able to finally get some proper serious time to work on VN stuff :D
I used to love reading VNs myself and playing other video games, but now I hardly play anything cos if I play something I feel guilty about it... a little voice in my head says that I could be using the time to work on my VN instead xD
Sorry for my slow reply!
It is super duper hard to motivate yourself to work on stuff like this cos even though it can be fun, a lot of it is pretty tedious so it's kinda difficult to find a balance between working on a project and having fun actually playing games >.<
With me I haven't gone about things in the best way, it'd be ideal to still play stuff and watch anime like you say, but once I got really into my project any time I tried to play a game I wound up just feeling bad that I could be working on my project instead :( So in the end I practically stopped gaming and reading and watching anime altogether! It was good for making project progress but then it feels more like you're just working and not having as much fun anymore xD
I think it's best if you can find a way to divide everything so that you still have the opportunity to make regular progress on a project but still have time set aside to just switch off and relax with other hobbies :3
I think you'll get there in the end, even if it doesn't seem like it at the moment! Sometimes even just doing the tiniest bit of work can give you that spark you need to get fired into action, haha. At the end of the day, stuff like this takes a hell of a lot of time and is a pretty difficult thing to achieve alone. It's doable cos other solo people have managed to release stuff, but when you think about it, most releases come from groups/teams. I hope you do manage to find a way to bring your story to life though :3
I'll be honest, I'm not overly happy with how Palette turned out! Haha. I'm glad I managed to have something finished in time to submit to the jam, but it's not really what I wanted to be, I just didn't have enough time to properly work on it >.<
Hope 2020 is off to a great start for you and good luck with your story!! :3
That's good to hear cos as long as you never give up, you'll get there eventually :3 Doesn't matter how long it takes cos it's not a race, just working bit by bit will get you finished in the end.
It's a good idea to note stuff like that down :3 I have a rough idea how long I've been building SR in Tyrano since it tells me my hours used on Steam, but I didn't keep track of how long it took me to write up the original story documents, make sprites, write scripts, cut audio for voice lines, etc. And all of that will have added up to hours upon hours and I have no idea how many other than lots xD
My memory is awful, if I don't make notes either on my phone, on the PC, or on actual sticky notes then I will end up forgetting things repeatedly >.< Even if I remember and tell myself, okay, remember you need to do this thing, I will just forget again still without notes, haha.
I definitely agree with you about noting down ideas too :3 I do it quite a lot cos again, my memory sucks, so if I didn't write stuff down the second I think of it I will forget! I have a list of ideas for future VNs and other projects I wanna work on, some more detailed, some just very basic, but it's better to have them written down for future reference.
It's good to have planning and a solid idea of where you wanna go with a project before starting it cos it helps ya sort things out in your head, even if planning takes a long time, it's super useful :3 With SR I started out with notes and drafts and then I moved on to writing each route one by one, I'd even planned what BGM was going where and actually listened to the BGM that would be playing in the game while I was writing the scene. That's something that really helped me out a lot because I could imagine the story better with the atmosphere that the music created :3 If you have good planning then it'll make things a lot easier to work on cos you'll always have your plans to look back on.
It doesn't really matter whether ideas are good or bad cos if you get them all written down you'll be able to sort through them all easier and decide which ones are suitable for working on more :3
I often wish I had started with a much smaller project than SR, SR is definitely too long for a first project but I didn't realise that when I started it >.< I should have kept the ideas for later on though and tried to create a smaller project first, haha. Like you say though, all you can do is keep going and be pleased with whatever progress you make :3 I still get angry at myself sometimes if I have set a goal to do a certain amount by the end of the day and I don't manage to get it all done, so I have to keep reminding myself that it doesn't matter, I did something, I made progress, that's what counts :3 Doing anything at all is better than doing nothing cos even if it's just a tiny bit, it's one step closer towards the end goal :D
Even if your motivation does fade, or life gets in the way, if you always have that passion inside you to make stuff then your motivation will come back at some point :3 SR got stuck on pause multiple times because life happened and I just couldn't work on it, it would have been released aaaages ago if not for that. The important thing is that you do what you can while the motivation is there ^-^
The few people who know me well all think I'm nuts for having worked on this for as long as I have xD They think I'm even more crazy when they remember that I'm not making any money out if it either, haha. These past few months I've been working on it for between 6-12 hours a day and it had almost become like an addiction! Which isn't particularly healthy but I can't help it :( working on this is what keeps me going. I found out late last year that I have ASD, the guy I saw said it used to be called high functioning autism or Aspergers, but that it's now just referred to as ASD... that might help to explain why this project is so important to me since he mentioned that people on the spectrum tend to have obsessive interests, haha.
I wouldn't bother with Palette, it's very short and not really something I'm happy with since it was just something I knocked up quickly as a Jam entry >.< I doubt I'll bother with Jams in the future because they just feel too rushed for me, haha. I don't think I could ever make anything I'd be content with considering the time restrictions of Jams. They can be a fun way to get motivated I guess but for the foreseeable future I just wanna focus on projects properly I think.
I hope that you're doing okay and that you're managing to stay safe with all the Coronavirus stuff that's going on, the world is extra crazy at the moment!
Sounds and looks very interesting, will be keeping an eye on this project!
I'm glad ya think so! Thanks for the support :3
hey there. I apologize in advance for this might be a stupid question, but I saw the post about looking for a voice actor for protagonist's best friend, but when I went to the page, it said the auditions were over, but nobody seems to have been picked yet. Is it by any chance still ongoing?
No worries, it's not a stupid question at all :3 I completely forgot I posted a link to that audition page, as you say, the auditions did close and not all roles were filled by the end of the time I had them running! That particular page has expired but I am indeed still running auditions for the remaining roles (I also have a couple more minor characters to add at some point too.)
If you want to check out the current audition page you can find it here:
https://www.castingcall.club/projects/solipsism-reigns-original-visual-novel
Thanks for your interest and I hope you have an awesome weekend! :D
Hello! I have a question, where would one find a mac version of this game? I have found a windows version, and I can run that fine with wine, but the quality is worse than a normal mac version would be (Wine tends to run down the quality on games for some reason). If there is no mac version right now of the current release, I will still play the full game when it comes out. Your game looks very good, so I am excited to play it. Thank you for your time!
Hey hey :3 Thanks for your question!
I did upload a mac version of the male Kuro voice demo alongside the windows demo, but I've been informed that it doesn't work as it should :(
The big problem is that I don't own a mac myself and I also don't know anyone in person who has one, so I've got zero way of testing anything for mac which sucks >.< Heck, I didn't even know there was a way to run windows stuff on mac!
There's no proper demo out at the moment anyhow so you're not missing out on anything much :3 The old playable demo containing 2 routes was removed since it uses old art resources that I'm no longer including. The current demo is literally just a reel of voice clips from male Kuro's voice actor.
I'll definitely be attempting to release the full game on mac when it's ready, but I'm not sure if it will work T_T I followed the software's export instructions for the demo (which are pretty much identical to the export instructions for windows) and yet it apparently didn't work so I'll probably need to find some help as to why exporting the project to mac isn't working correctly. I'll also be trying to release it in app form, but that will take some extra time after the PC release as it requires me to change some of the file formats and stuff.
I'm glad to hear that you're interested in the game though, it means a lot to me! :3 I shall try my best when it's ready for full release to get it working on as many platforms as possible :D
Thanks for the reply! I played through the demo, and although it is quite simplistic, I can see great potential in your project, and with such a passionate creator and a very intriguing idea, I am even more excited than I was before. I found the demo was on a game jam page (dunno if its still supposed to be there), and it worked fine on wine, luckily. I am glad to see that you are active with your community, I think that is very important for a person making a game, and you also haven't abandoned the project, which is a plus. Lots of game developers do that, sadly, and its always irritating when a cool project gets canceled because, well, it just suddenly stopped getting updates. Hope the game will be out soon, keep up the good work!
No worries, I'm always happy when people contact me about the project :3
Yeah, that demo is the outdated one that I removed from the main page since it's got loads of old art and other stuff that's no longer in the game now that I've acquired various assets. I figured I shouldn't delete it from the jam page though, because then it would like like I didn't submit anything for the jam, haha. But in that old demo all the character art, background art, and UI is just placeholder stuff that has been changed now, so it will look much better than in that demo once it's finally released in full! :D Comparing that old demo to the way the game is now, there's a huge difference in quality (at least I think so anyway xD)
I'm really glad that you think it seems worth your time to play through anyway :3 Half the reason I removed that old demo is because it's so crappy looking that I was worried people might think that's what the final release will look like and it'd put them off of playing the finished game xD So I'm relieved to hear that you don't feel that way even after trying it, haha.
I definitely won't be abandoning the project as I too know how much it sucks when that happens with an interesting sounding game :3 Besides, I've put well over 1000 hours into it at this point so if I just quit that would be a lot of wasted time >.< haha. I don't know the actual amount of time as I never bothered to count how long it took me to type up the story in a word document (it took months though), type out scripts, create characters etc. But in terms of putting the game itself together, I'm currently on 963 hours in the builder according to Steam xD
I also think it's important to be active when it comes to interacting with a community and believe me, I'm super grateful for every single person that shows interest in my project <3 I suffer from anxiety and depression, so the project is a big part of what keeps me going and the smallest bit of support means the world to me ^-^
I'm probably going to miss my release target that I set for myself, but unless something goes incredibly wrong it should definitely be out by the end of this year! (I'm still hoping to manage releasing it before winter.)
I can't wait for this game to come out! When it does I will finish the game.....most likely very fast since I really want to play it and I just like visual novels
Aww, that's awesome and I'm glad to hear it! :3
I'm working like crazy to get it done, haha. Pretty much any spare second that I get in a day goes into working on the project :D I hope when I finally finish it that you'll have fun playing it ^_^
I'm 99.99% sure I will enjoy it
This game is amazing!! I can't wait for the full release of this.
Well... I have to because it kinda takes forever to make a game. So yeah...
Aww thanks for the kind words :3 I'm glad that there are people out there who enjoy it!
Yeah I'm sorry, I'm veeeeery slow at working on this xD Some weeks I don't get to do a single thing because I'm too busy T_T I'm hoping to have all the writing finished by March 2018 otherwise I will lose Kuro's brilliant voice actor, which would be a real shame! After that I estimate it'll take another few months to put everything in game. The biggest challenge will be finding an artist for character art and CGs >.< With any luck I should get it completely finished sometime before Christmas next year! Haha. August 2018 is my release target, *fingers crossed* I can make it xD
Thanks again! <3
If you're looking for an artist, I will attach these links https://destiniuchiha.deviantart.com/gallery/ https://www.tumblr.com/blog/destiniuchiha and see if my style of art will assist you. Contact me at sasukegirl782@gmail.com ( it's kinda embarrassing email if you ask me.) You don't have to pay me, I don't mind doing it for free.
If you already found a another artist, that's fine.
Keep up with the good work. :D
Where you the one who wrote a story called
"Never Alone Yandere Spirit Guardian x Reader"
On Quotev?
Yep that was me, haha :3
The reason it's not been updated in ages is cos I'm working on this visual novel version instead. I'll eventually put all of the routes on Quotev as well, but up until recently this had priority.... Also, as the choices and points system get more complicated it becomes hard to work out how to do it on Quotev, I think it'll either have to be simplified there, or people will need to have a pen and paper or just take notes on a phone of how many points they've acquired xD
Because of some recent news though I won't be able to update the game in a long time as I need to hurry up and finish every single route's writing first; so I will probably put the new routes up on Quotev before they go into this visual novel version.
Aww thanks so much, your kind words are much appreciated <3
I'm glad you were able to get some enjoyment from the demo despite me having to rely on using free assets. Unfortunately I have no artistic talent whatsoever so I can't draw a single thing xD I'm thankful for all the creative commons stuff out there for people like me to use; but I wish I had money to pay some artists to make it more original!
I am indeed in need of VA assistance haha, tbh I don't know what's happening with 2 of the male voice actors voicing the male friend of the heroine and the villain... I've not heard from them in ages... Probably abandoned me T_T I have another route ready to be voiced but, there's no point sending out scripts to anyone because the guys playing the male friend and the villain haven't done the first 2 routes yet, and I can't afford to pay Tim who voices Kuro atm because I have practically no money >.< haha. I know for sure I need a different female voice to the people who are already involved because there's a moody fae/spirit character called Miri in the next route that's been written, so yeah if you're interested I can drop you an email when I've managed to put the route into the game and it's ready for voice stuff.
It is definitely hard to find time to work on it atm, I barely even get more than an hour per week anymore haha. It seems like an almost impossible task but I figure if I at least do something, it's gonna get finished eventually! xD Honestly though, just knowing that there are people out there who actually enjoy playing it in some way really helps keep me motivated :D because then I know I'm not just doing it for myself anymore and that other people can have fun too :3
My biggest fear is not being able to keep Tim around for the completion of the project, because it would suck if Kuro had to become voiceless :(
I wouldn't worry about not getting the hidden scene for now, it's not very good because I ended up rushing it haha, also it's the lowest point required hidden scene, so compared to the later ones it's always gunna be inferior haha.
It's good fun to have predictions and theories :3 as you say, I wouldn't put any spoilers anyhow, but what I can say without ruining anything is that, there are gunna be a lot of endings xD As with most visual novels the "true" ending is going to be the hardest one to get and will involve the player having to do a combo of things to even get it to trigger ^-^ plus once on the true route, there will still be bad endings that you can fall into whilst trying to get the true ending because I like to be evil like that mmmmwwahahahahahahaaaa :P
I really wish I could just will it into being though, it's pretty annoying having everything swimming around in my head and written on notes but then actually making it into a game takes an eternity!! xD
But yeah, thanks again, every kind word is like a little boost of inspiration to keep me working hard and make progress :3 I hope the future routes aren't disappointing haha.
Have a great weekend! <3
I can't download the game...
Hmm that's weird >.< I just checked the MEGA and Google drive links on my phone after seeing your comment and they work for me, it won't let me check the split direct links though :(
If you tried every link and it still won't work I can always email you the Google drive link directly or something if you want :3 just drop me an email at kalamitykiss@live.com and I'll get back to you as soon as I can!
Finished playing this demo right now, and I must say it was a big surprise, and a real blast too haha!
So yeah, first things first, I usually really dislike games that don't have custom art (well, at least custom sprites). It bothers me when different styles are used, or when I see the same "characters" in various games. I mean, I understand why would you do that - not everyone can draw and / or commission artists. But while I'm not picky about art quality, using stock sprites is something that I can't get over... Now, as I said, "usually". I mean, it still bothers me here, but normally I wouldn't have even tried this game after seeing that. But it was SO intriguing that it was enough to make me bear with it and play anyway. And man I'm glad I did! Even though I can't wait for the updated art with expressions added for everyone and so on, I still got SO immersed that I almost forgot about the stock sprites! So kudos to that! And I also have to mention I like your music choices, especially for the mage chapter.
Now, back to what actually wanted to say. This game is really unique in so many things.
First of, I don't believe I've ever seen a game with a concept like this one, with this weird thing about travelling through different worlds and having a different backstory each time - even if it actually is part of a bigger plan, but still. I mean, I've played my fair share of games with travelling between worlds, but not executed that way. It was really refreshing! I really want to know what the hell is happening there!
It's also well... quite amazing that you've managed to make this into some kind of twisted and creepy magical girl!
Now, obviously, I have to mention Kuro. He's so demented oh dear, I can't even believe you put him as the (only!) love interest! Now, don't take me wrong, I wasn't complaining - I think he's awesome! I mean, he's creepy and twisted, but awesome. I like how he's written, and I like the fact he's the polar opposite of what you'd expect from the MC's love interest in that kind of story. Their relationship seem so unhealty and so sincere at the same time - it's really weird. Now, I'm used to otome games and I like characters like Kuro, so the only bad endings I got were from sheer curiosity (I didn't even try one in the Student chapter) - because of that, I guess I'm missing on lots of hints about the overall plot, but I still got to see that fascinating, sad and horrific thing when you choose to go downstairs (won't spoil the details, you know what I mean haha) . Thanks to this specific bad ending, I'm even more curious about Kuro.
It's also very interesting to see the MC being already in a relationship from the very beginning of a game. I don't believe I've ever seen that done before, unless it's an unsteady relationship where you'll end up deciding if she'll stay with the guy or fall in love with someone else - so it would still be a basically regular otome. I mean, it must exist in at least some game, but not that I know about, and since I've played lots of otome and BL games, I know what I'm talking about haha
Also, did I mention I love Kuro's voice acting? Well, now I did!
So yeah, basically, a very intriguing game that manages to keep me on edge and get me crazy involved.
Can't wait for the next demos and, of course, the full release! Keep up the good work and good luck. And also thank you for making this game!
Thank you so much for the kind words, I'm really glad you enjoyed it so far! :3
Using those sprites bothers me too haha, it's great that stuff like that exists for people like me who can't draw; but at the same time it's frustrating because I know how I want everything to look in my head, but I can't create it T_T
The sprites with expressions are still creative commons assets but they do look better than the ones without expressions. I actually commissioned someone to create custom art for Kuro, but I've not heard from her in a few weeks so maybe she's too busy to do it now or something.
As for Kuro, yeah the poor guy is kinda messed up but he really does love the MC bless him and by the time the game's finished it'll be explained how come he's the way he is :3 Going downstairs that you mentioned is probably my favourite scene so far actually! A lot of the story gets kinda boring for me when I'm reading it over and over again whilst testing stuff; but that scene still gives me chills xD
It's good to know that the game has unique points, because while I've played a lot of otome myself, I probably haven't gotten through as much as other people and I personally got bored of a lot of otome games because the romance was always the same (especially with the mobile app ones!) I prefer the ones where the plot comes first and the romance second. I was kinda worried that maybe people might think that it was wrong to do it that way, or wrong to only have the one romantic interest or something. At the end of the day I just wanted to make it the way I would like to play an otome haha, with lots of bad endings and focus on a yandere guy :3
Tim who voices Kuro does such a great job with the character, I really hope he will be alright to stick with the project because I can't imagine anyone else playing Kuro now!
The demo with all the swapped art is done but I'm still waiting on all the voice acting for those 2 routes to be done before I release it and since most of the voice actors have volunteered, I don't want to rush anyone because that'd be mean, haha. Also the next route (Princess) is just over half written, it's slow going because of how little time I get to work on it, but it's coming along :3
Thanks again for saying so many nice things about the demo, I really appreciate you taking the time to do that and it also gives me more drive to keep making it if other people are enjoying it too, instead of just me! xD
Well, having only one romance may be an issue - honestly, it really depends on how it's done, so yeah... In this case, I really like it!
And yay for bad endings! I'm writing my own game too, even though it'll have all gender romances (choice between a male or a female MC, and all gender options for both), but I'm also putting a lot in the overall plot and bad endiiiings! Bad endings are so fun to write haha
That's cool! I'll definitely play yours then because I'm just a huge sucker for bad endings :P anything tagged with lots of bad endings always goes straight onto my "I need to play this" list, haha.
Mine will eventually have the option to choose whether you play a male or female character and also which gender you want Kuro to be so you can have GxB, BxG, GxG and BxB; but it's probably only ever going to have that one romance in it because it just wouldn't really fit the plot if there were a range of romance options unfortunately.
I probably should've made the game with gender options from the beginning but I'm an idiot and have ended up going about it in an awkward way xD The plan was to finish the entire game as female heroine x male Kuro before working on the alternative gender options; but maybe that's not fair and I should finish each route for all the gender options before moving onto the next one! It'll end up being very expensive to try and get original art for all the characters though T_T haha.
In one route that's not in the demo yet, there is a different romance option besides Kuro, but it's not a "true" romance option, if that makes any sense!
Totally agree about bad endings being fun to write... Sometimes I even get fed up writing bits in between bad endings just because I can't wait to do the next bad ending xD
I think at this point, finishing the game with female MC and male Kuro would be the best - the other options will be more like an extra!
And yeah, from what I've seen of the story so far, it would be weird to put another true romance option, though I get what you mean with the one route with a romance that isn't a true romance. I think it may be interesting for many reasons, for example to see Kuro's reactions. Honestly, I don't think I would like to romance anyone else in this game anyway - at least "seriously". He's a great character and I'm really interested in the romance, so yeah...
And also, thank you for following me! I'm not ready yet to post public things about my game as I have a lot of work to do before, but well, you'll obviously get notified when I'll publish something!
xD haha yeeeeeah, he's kinda crazy that way! It's such a weird thing to be jealous of though, silly Kuro!! He can't help it bless him :3
You're not really missing out on too much if you don't see the hidden scene, it was very rushed because of the time left on the jam, so I'm not really happy with it! T_T I'll just make sure I edit it for the next release; which will be much sooner than planned since I'm changing the art xD but there should be more voice acting in it as well because some of the other cast members are getting closer to finishing scripts now :3 Once that edited version of the demo is out I'll get back to working on the next route!!
Glad you enjoyed it anyhow! <3 And I really appreciate you taking the time to comment, it makes me happy to know that someone other than myself can get something out of this ^-^
Yeah you're probably better off waiting, all the art will be different too then haha, but should be more immersive since everyone will have expressions :3
As of last night, all the main characters have now been cast and I'm writing up the last couple of scripts for the existing routes this weekend :D I was starting to think no females would audition, but it's all good now! Yeah Tim does a great job with Kuro, I loved his voice as soon as I heard his audition, I wish I had more money so I could pay him decently because he deserves a lot more than I can afford to give him!
I'm glad you're looking forward to playing more in the future :3 gives me more reason to keep pushing on! I'm actually a little torn on how to update the game... I was going to just keep releasing 1 new route at a time (and I'll try to have them fully voiced before they release, the only reason I released this one only partly voiced was because of the Jam closing date haha.) But then it occurred to me that people can't transfer their save data >.< and the final endings you get are dependant on various factors that would be in save files.... so that means if I release it route by route and people only play the new route in each demo, by the time it gets to the final route, it either won't be unlocked at all or people will only get super bad endings because they have no save data xD So they'd have to play through the entire game again when it's at it's final release, even if they played each route separately in the demos >.<
I'm a noob so I don't know how to deal with that! I guess I could just release a downloadable save file for people or something xD
Anyways, I'm rambling on again, sorry! T_T The next route I'd planned to write up fully is the Princess route, the only reason for that is because it won a poll I did over 6 months ago that only a few people voted on xD but I figured I better stick to it, otherwise there was no point in anyone voting, haha.
If that did work it would be super helpful! Haha, I'll definitely have to test that in future! Cheers for pointing it out :3
Knowing my luck it won't work and will end up crashing the game xD But yeah, it's certainly worth looking into before I upload the next version!