itch.io

aaa ;; your reply reminded me why comments are so important. i'm so glad that it made you feel better ;A;

as a writer, i am well aware that you are your own harshest critic, and seeing other people just. bein rude about something you put a lot of work into does not feel good!! but every ounce of effort you put into this game is pretty clear to anyone who's actually paying attention... and maybe has an idea of just how much work goes into a project like this. i know a lot of jam games have one person writing/programming and someone else doing art, so i can't even imagine the pressure of doing it all on your own;;;

good luck with your classes!! and i hope art block leaves you alone soon haha.

<:3)~ i made u this lil mouse as a token of my appreciation for ur game. i hope u like it, as i cannot draw

ok, first of all, some of the comments down here are dang rude. if you wanna give constructive criticism, at least learn to be constructive and not just mean, jeez.

for a first effort, this was pretty awesome, i gotta say! i really enjoyed the art style of the sprites, and the variances in personality between the characters. as you said in your note at the end, it was a bit rushed in places, but for doing something in one month, that's not really something that can be helped, haha.

i really relate to haru, as i am also a smol trans catboy with trust issues and a past abusive relationship :v but also, lupin really reminds me of one of my very first ocs so i had a huuuge soft spot for him. (not that i didn't like evren. he was great, too. snek.) i would really love to see you come back to this story someday and expand on these characters and the backstory like you talked about. paring down your story is really hard, especially when you have So Many Ideas and these characters live in your brain and you know more about them than anyone else does, so i applaud you for managing to make a coherent and touching story despite everything you had to leave out.

the backgrounds were a bit out of step with the rest of the art style, admittedly, but i didn't find them as "jarring" as a Certain Commenter seemed to, since i was, y'know, reading the story and looking at the sprites. (for the record, my favorite Look was haru's sleep-sweater. he looks. so smol.) also, the backgrounds were obviously something that was simplified due to the time constraint. (is it really that hard for people to understand the amount of work that goes into a game?)

overall! this game touched me in the feels, and i would be absolutely thrilled to see it expanded on if you get around to it (though i know how hard it can be when Life Is Happening). i could tell while playing it that there were elements hinted at that were stories you really wanted to tell! and i want to know them!!

tl;dr - you did a great job, and the only real complaint i have is that now i want to know more about these characters ;P <3

i definitely don't think it's weird to love things about your own characters ahaha. i'm definitely that way about mine! <3

i very rarely comment on things and honestly i have nothing coherent to say because i'm an emotional wreck but,, i loved this so muuuch - and i literally just started tearing up pls help.

i've loved literally every game you've put out (it was why i made an itch.io account in the first place, actually;;;) and i've definitely cried playing them (mochi's earlier experiences definitely hit home for me), but this!! was so!!! wholesome!!! despite periwinkle being so spicy haha

i've also been in love with pastille since first playing "syrup and the ultimate sweet," so getting to romance him (even from someone else's point of view) was a treat ;P

[spoils below for people who haven't played yet! GO PLAY IT IT'S GOOD]

seeing peri's mentality about committed relationships and how he came to think that way really resonated with me - i've been thinking a lot lately about how i get really emotional over romantic stuff, despite being on the aro spectrum. when peri talks about the relationship he had when he was young, and his insecurity about being "too intense," it just kinda. clicked for me. one of those "oh" moments about something that's really obvious in retrospect? as an autistic person, i get anxious of being too intense in platonic relationships, let alone romantic ones. that feeling of being "too much" for someone, especially when you're young and less experienced at life, definitely leaves an emotional mark.

i'm also pretty dang ace (demi? grey? generally,,, not thirsty???) so unlike peri, i haven't been much for casual flings, but i've definitely felt that loneliness that astragalus (is that her name??? my dyslexic ass had so much trouble with it adfhsl;;) describes in peri's magic. maybe this story made me so emotional because of where i'm at right now, in terms of... self-awareness, i guess? i never really let myself examine that feeling, but seeing it reflected in someone else is both comforting and uncomfortably eye-opening.

But Anyway - i love the way peri is written: outwardly confident, witty, hilarious, dramatic, flirty, absolutely fabulous, and completely unapologetic about all of the above, but still just as human and affected by emotions and insecurity as anyone else. i've seen similar characters handled with much less nuance; they tend to become "gag" characters, and it's disappointing.

the gender talk made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. as a transmasc person who enjoys dressing more feminine from time to time (but avoids doing so because of inevitably being misgendered), i love!! both of them!! and their senses of fashion. pastille's outfits in particular i found super adorable. the first date!!! the shop uniform (i love the kerchief so much on him)!!! the hairclip!!! the jacket!!! the star motif!! honestly all of his casual clothes are things i'd wear if i had the confidence lol

i also loved how often boundaries were discussed!! healthy communication!! we love to see it!!!!!

i'm sorry this is so long and ramble-y ladsfhj;alsjkf

TL;DR i love your work. thank you for providing us with such wonderful content!! i hope to see more from you soon!! (but also take care of yourself!! your worth is not defined by your productivity!!)

<3 kee

i've had an account on itch for quite a while (at least two years?) and yet this is the first time i've commented on a game.

i played through the whole thing (all endings and all possible species, though not all genders) in two days, and i enjoyed almost every minute of it. the pacing was just right, the tension, ash's inner monologue... the only things i regret are the order in which i played the routes, and that i didn't do my usual visual novel practice of aiming for the bad endings first, and those are both my own fault. the latter is a testament to how much i was enjoying it, though - i didn't want the bad endings. but, alas, i am a completionist. 

i also had waaaay to much fun with the customization options. i don't know how other people play, but i had a distinctly different appearance for each "ash" - my first "ash" was a shika with the medium skintone, black hair, and brown eyes; cubi!ash had the darker skintone, pink hair, and blue eyes; and reaver!ash had the pale skintone, silver hair, and red eyes. part of it for me, i think, is that i have brainweird and having that stark of a visible difference between them helps me remember which "ash" i'm playing as. but i'm also just a sucker for character customizers.

i played paris's route last. (i should have just played them in top-to-bottom order from the selection screen! dangit, past me!) but my first playthrough was shika!ash, so paris wasn't an option then and i have so many regreeeets. i loved that there were different endings for braums's route depending on what species you chose (and i love that reaver!ash is a snobby little shit sometimes), and that there are little interactions with everyone that change depending on which "ash" you're playing. i'm definitely a detail person, and stopping my skip-throughs as a different species to see how the dialogue had changed was always fun.

my personal favorite route was rafael's. it was the first route i played, so naturally it'll have that special place, but i think it'd still be my favorite regardless. i found it interesting how ash interacted with a love interest of their own species versus one of a different species, as well - for example, i liked rafael's route better overall when playing as shika!ash (i found the shared cultural moments really touching, because it was something neither of them had ever really had someone to share it with), but i really liked playing paris's with reaver!ash (perhaps because reaver!ash comes with considerably more snark - not that ash is ever lacking in the snark department).

overall - i dunno, it was okay, i guess. pfff, i sure hope you can tell i loved it. i might even wipe my save and replay it sometime. need to wait for the emotional scars from my last run to heal first, though. god and in the good end! you know! [spoiler] wouldn't have [spoiler]ed ash! so that [spoiler] wasn't even necessary!!! why'd you have to do that to me that hurted.