Thanatos Contract: Episode I

[Jintoki]

Thanatos Contract is an episodic visual novel. The story centers around Virgil Birmire, a teenager whose family went through a terrible tragedy that killed his father and put his twin brother in a coma. Stuck with his alcoholic mother, Virgil finds escape through the message board Shiniablo. One day, his online friend Mistress Eternity asks to meet up in the real world in order to discuss a proposition. A friendly meeting turns dark quick as Virgil learns Mistress Eternity's true intentions and the reality of their friendship.

The game contains 962 screens of dialogue.
These screens contain a total of 11,835 words,
for an average of 12.3 words per screen.
The game contains 0 menus.

Windows: http://www.mediafire.com/?oarggoqvv7797iq
Mac: http://www.mediafire.com/?zrej5c9os2gxj20
Linux: http://www.mediafire.com/?54nf823n221cyih

Screenshots: http://zetachi.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d3e19kk, http://zetachi.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d3gwscq, http://zetachi.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d3gtvnt

If you give it a try, tell me what you think! I can handle harsh criticism.

[Nimuell]

I don't know why no one commented yet, but I really enjoyed first episode)
Right now is so late and I should go to sleep, so I'll write more detailed review later.
I just wanted to say that I liked it.
Characters art was especially nice, I really like this kind of style.
I can't say much about writing, since English is not my first language, but I kinda got into the atmosphere, so I guess the writing is not bad. The ending was a bit rushed though. The first episode ends... well... really suddenly. I understand it's supposed to be episodic, but still... somehow it felt incomplete to me.

Oh and I really loved the music. Especially the theme, where you see the map of the town.

[KomiTsuku]

Downloaded and playing through right now, will have a review later. I just wanted to say, before I forget, that I would highly recommend cleaning up the game folder before you release. A lot of those files increased the download size and weren't needed. Also, if you use music from newgrounds, you need to credit the musician. They were released under an attribution-noncommercial-share alike license. I'd also convert them to OGG, make the files smaller. Half the size is music alone. Just some advice.

Anyway, reading now. Momentary distraction complete.

[Jintoki]

Thanks for the input!

@Nimu-chan: Yeah, I kept agonizing over how I should end the first episode, so I agree that it ended a bit too sudden. I'll try to avoid that in the second episode.

@KomiTsuku: I did credit all of the songs in the credits of the game. Should I mark that elsewhere as well? And I guess I'm still kind of a noob, so I don't really know how to convert files to OGG...Heh. I'll look into it though for the second episode. Thanks for the suggestions!

[KomiTsuku]

Thanks for the input!

@Nimu-chan: Yeah, I kept agonizing over how I should end the first episode, so I agree that it ended a bit too sudden. I'll try to avoid that in the second episode.

@KomiTsuku: I did credit all of the songs in the credits of the game. Should I mark that elsewhere as well? And I guess I'm still kind of a noob, so I don't really know how to convert files to OGG...Heh. I'll look into it though for the second episode. Thanks for the suggestions!

You did? I must have missed the credits somehow. >.<; Disregard.

[Jintoki]

That's okay. It's actually kind of easy to skip the credits in the first episode if you aren't careful. Something else I need to fix for the second episode. XD

[Wright1000]

Have you started working on the second episode?

I hope it is released soon!!!

I liked the story.

[Watercolorheart]

Whoa! It's 150 MB? No wonder it's on Mediafire...

Downloading to my thumb drive, just expressing surprise over the size. Is that art assets, music assets, sounds, or both?

[Jintoki]

@Wright1000: Indeed, we have started work on episode II. We're hoping to have it done by August, but we're not entirely sure yet. Thank you very much!

@BCS: Yeah, as KomiTsuku pointed out, most of the size comes from the music. >_< I need to learn how to convert mp3 files to OGG so we don't have this issue pop up in episode II. Sorry, everyone.

[Jintoki]

I apologize for reviving an old topic and double-posting, but I made an updated version of Thanatos Contract Episode I that takes up less space (around 85 instead of 150mb), cleans up some of the spelling and grammatical errors, and fixes the credits so that they aren't skipped so easily: http://www.thanatoscontract.godsibb.net/download.html

I apologize for taking so long. We're still in the process of making Episode II, so I apologize if anyone is waiting for that release.

[Anna]

I played this through as well just now. I have to say that when I read he was going to that kind of forum, I was dreading for this to be a pile of emo-crap shoved upon me. However, you pleasantly proved me wrong :'D!

It started getting pretty interesting as soon as they entered the library and discussed things. The part in the café was cool too, though I have a critique about that: (spoiler)

The story was like 'nobody seemed that bothered by the masked man' or something at one point and I find that to be incredibly silly XD. He was wearing a demon mask, people should have been at the very least intrigued and I really don't think that discussing someone's death is possible in a café even if you make excuses like that. It's just strange that they would risk being found out there or becoming suspicious, while they went through all the trouble to privately discuss things in the back of the library.

(/spoiler)

I also agree that it ended too suddenly, because the moment where you ended it was the point where things became awesome. I really went like 'shit. Now what will they do?' and started wondering if they (spoiler)

could save Victor or not before it was too late. I found the music to be fitting as well!

(/spoiler) The fact that it just ended with that made me a sad panda, because I wanted to read on :<. With a big break between the ending and the next episode, I just think it might kill off some of the tension and excitement to read which I have now. It also felt like that was just the start of the real story, so cutting it off there felt unnatural.

As for the art, it's not a style I really find appealing, but I do think it fits the story.

So yes, please continue this and next time don't pull such a mean cliffhanger again haha.

[Jintoki]

Thank you very much for giving it a shot and for the critique! I apologize for not keeping up the momentum with the sequel. We've been having trouble with it for awhile, but I hope it will be worth it in the end. Once the second episode is out I'll try to move the third one out a lot quicker, since it will probably be the last one. Again, thanks!