Heartstring Bugs [dating sim, otome] (Guide's up)

[ixWishing]

@ixWishing: I'm really stuck if those solutions don't work. DirectX and software renderer work for almost everyone who tried. =(

I got it to work!
I just had to start from a new game ^^;;

[Vynuxys]

Okay, the renderer worked in displaying graphics :'D

I managed to get Chase's ending so far, though I'm missing one CG. Too lazy to try to get it for now.

I started a new game and I'm after Lucas, but for some reason no matter what I do, my Love impression doesn't rise? My friendship is nearly full, and his is over half. His Love is just over half, but mine is lower and I can't increase it. I ask him out on dates, I choose the blushy face in Tamera's house/other scenes with him, but it's stuck for nearly a year now o_o (in-game of course). I even tried choosing the obsessed face sometimes, still nothing. Is it another glitch? D:

[masakkali]

hey dear.................
i was one of the first few to download the game and i played it so much.....my pc kinda crashed.
thats why a little late reply.......
can i just say that i loooooove u!!!!! the game is aweeeeeeeesome..............!!!!
have finished chase and dimitri's route after playing nonstop last night............yaa i didn't even sleep!!!!
LOVE chase...........dimitri was not my type though.
i just wanna add i love your clothes..........i keep trying different combinations and spend all my money.
but venus u r a genius,and dont ever stop making games.heartstring bugs is one of the best otome games i have ever played.thank you so very much for your hard work.

[ixWishing]

Asdfghjkl.
I KNEW IT!
I KNEW THAT CHASE WAS A

Vampire or another Virus lifeform, LOL. My first guess was a virus lifeform though ;o.
Cause he kept saying "You humans" and he had the 'attraction h@x' LOL.
Well yeah the 'h@x' was due to his vampire bloodline~ And his sweat is sparkly!? Whuttt xD

But omg. The game overall took me like 5 hours to do one path x__x.
I got bored by the late 2nd year, so I decided to make Elly date all the guys, except for Blaze xD.
And then... they all broke up with her, except for Chase, LOL.
I swear you should include a harem ending / cg ;u;

Since the xmas scene where all the guys came over made me 'LOL'
I mean like omg, they were all fuming with jealously!

[Seigetsu]

Interesting game. I've played through Chase's route so far, and it was quite addicting. I like how your art has gotten a lot better since "Frozen Essence", and the script is generally error-free compared to your last game. Each character speaks with his/her unique tone, which adds to their personality. Just curious, does your game take place in fictional "Vancity"? I mean...there are "Stanreed Park" and "class N driver's license" and "provincial exams" and the "garbage collection strike"...it seems a little too much of a coincidence, haha.

[JunAir]

Hi there VenusEclipse,
First, Congratulations for this "Heartstring Bugs".
Hehe.. love the story (Chase part for now).

Second, i think i found some bugs at game(or just my illusion... )
I'm a Window User~

1. Occured at Park's Convenience Store, Have 9 money, Buy a Food price 9 money. Got -1 money..
2. (Unintentional coincidence) Stat Box disappear, Items cloth is not visible.. (got solution already)
3. About six emoticon,

a. Raise friendship impression
b. Lower friendship impression
c. Raise love impression and little friendship
d. Lower love impression and little friendship
e. Raise a lot love impression and obsession
f. Doesn't change impression

When i use option (c) at Chase (my target ),
it increased my impression (at friend impression bar, not love impression bar).
So, what does it actually stand for?
Is it something that i'm not seen through well or is it something that maybe not visible afterall ?

4. Ah yes,, about Naomi B'day.. Look like it mix up with Huang's
it was written July 16th, but not really , actually it was around *err forgot..

Third, Spoiler for "Chase" part.. hehe..
Chase like cloth or dress with color gray, and white, and prefer 1. elegant 2. pure 3. natural style .
Chase ending about Cologne Corporation (don't know this is good or bad one..) is great for me

Thanks again VenusEclipse for great game.

[nancie]

I downloaded this a couple weeks ago when it was released, and played for several days straight through, great title! It was well worth the wait. Sorry for the late response due to computer trouble I have not been able to respond. I was able to finish Chase, Blaze, Dimitri, Huang, and I started Lucas But was not able to finish before my puter crashed.I did get all the friend routes also (though I cheated and reloaded a save to achieve their endings)

I ran into a couple bugs during various routes:

1.) first year group project due on the 8th? The teacher chooses semi random partners at one point I was assigned Huang and Lucas, I got a traceback but lost it when my computer crashed (sorry) I believe it read "HuangProject not defined" or something of the like I was able to bypass it by hitting ignore but I got the error message for 3 screens before it went away successfully.
2.) when dating multiple guys you can go to the store and buy a piece of clothing and wear it for the first time and the said guy will say that you wore it last time you went out, or if you wore said outfit piece with a different guy the current one remembers?
3.) frequently talking about Huang before meeting him
4.)Random encounters with Vi would some times result in blushy faced girls flirting with you?
5.)Stat increases - I think there could be a chance modifier put in place, for example if you have 200 athletics and 3 stress - failing a full 5 days in a row should not be possible - and again if you reload the same save point for that week 2-3 times you could get a +3-4 point gain per day with no fails so point gains seem to be a completely random dice roll

ok now for a few personal opinions and thoughts-
Chase-

In his route I found his story to be very cute and his character quite lovable I even enjoyed his parents roll in the story well done. At first I shook my head at the sparkly vampire thing but I stayed with the story and was not disappointed in the least the ending was very well done. I also loved how when not in his route and he has a crush on you he is ever watchful of you on dates it was quite cute in a creepy sort of way made me laugh.

Blaze-

At first glance this is the character arc-type that I usually avoid or at least save till last, but he truly made me laugh and there was never a dull moment with him. (His reaction to you wearing a costume made me laugh so hard-awesome! And the birthday-suit OMG very entertaining!!!) The reactions from your friends and the jealousy scenes were great and his story was really heartfelt I can tell you put a lot of thought into his path development great work. His ending turned out to be my favorite by far.

Dimitri-

I had mixed feelings about him through his whole route, his personality was cute and his extra little scenes were fun making him a really likable character but his story line did not flow right for me there was not enough info about the other girlfriend to understand what was going on, it did start to make sense after but the way it unfolded felt very unnatural and forced, and the scene where she is taunting you at the school yard was a bit of overload on the emotional scale for me I'm not sure I could ever be that passive while being insulted. His ending was pretty cute though, Super turtle was awesome! Very nice.

Huang-

I found this route cute, sweet and surprisingly entertaining. At first I thought his would be the typical innocence route but I was pleasantly surprised at just how complex his personality was. This character was really well developed. His first jealousy scene was when I was hanging out with Dimitri (not in dating mode) and it was so cute to see him say "Oh so you are just friends" - made me stay exclusive to him in his route, it was a nice touch. His Halloween and Prom stories were great I like them a lot. His virus story was perfectly fitted to the rest of his route and I love how you resolved it in the end, I am curious how long it took to fine tune that route or if it just came to you right off the bat? Anyway the end story was perfect and the last CG was beautifully done I was quite impressed. (I like all his pictures the Valentine's one was beautiful as well the artist did well matching your art style.)

Lucas-

I have not gotten the chance to finish this route yet but my thoughts so far are that I like his character development and his story was beautifully handled I must say you did well broaching a very touchy subject and handling it well, I felt guilty after finishing his third year story for suspecting him of being shady for more reasons than I'd like to admit and the way you handled his reaction to it was great and made the story feel light and funny. His pervy scene at school was funny too, I ended up seeing a chase jealousy scene not sure if that was part of the static story or because of my relationship with him but it made me laugh. So over all I like what I've seen so far.(his theme music is the best - fits his persona well)

friends-

Alice - she is adorable- I friended her in every route, her end story was the best out of the three and the end picture was beautiful wow!
Naomi - I really liked her and I thought her ending was fitting though the thought of being intimidated by your best friend as and adult was a bit unnerving
Tamera - Her ending was fitting for her and the end picture was quite pretty

I have played your other couple of releases. I loved frozen essence, and the depth you went to developing that title. I can see just how much you have improved in both your writing and art since then, you have quite a talent in both I hope you decide to continue with future projects.

[VenusEclipse]

I'm super glad you guys had fun. =D!!!
I spend no more than 2 and a half hours per playthrough. When I hear it takes people 4-6 hours, I began to worry about the game length. I'm glad people play through just about every route though. Relieved. ^-^

@Vynuxys: The impression would rise a little bit each time, and add up. Is your results from a few in game weeks or over a year?

@Seigetsu: Yeah, pretty much, although I think much of those events happen around Canada. xD Hmm, I forgot I mentioned the garbage strike in the game, haha. So I don't remember which part of the dialogue it was part of.
I couldn't think of many date spots so I thought "Stanreed Park" has some good places for cheap dates.

@JunAir: Option C raises your love impression, and only a little bit of friendship over time. This MC impression is sorta making me second guess what I did, but people are still able to get their desired endings. I might increase the MC's impression raising part a tad in the future. And thanks about the birthday thing. ^^;

@nancie: You don't need to apologize for a review. I'm always happy to receive any, even if someone decided to write one months later. Huang's route took a while to adjust. After reading the first version, there wasn't a good conclusion. Then I realize that what I wrote was a bigger issue than I first intended. So I had to fix it before submitting it to the editor, just before the beta.
Writing didn't come easy with this project since a lot of events need to match up even if they appear out of order. I never keep what I wrote the first time. They end up being prototypes or drafts, and then when I found the perfect draft, the rest came more naturally.
And thanks for the reports. I'll look into them, especially the crash you found. It's probably only with the Lucas and Huang combo.

Edit: Stat increase have a default randomization. The way I did it is, the more stress you have, the more it increase the failure rate. The girls do get

the love bug when Vi overclocks his h@x on you.

xD.

[greenheartnellie]

Um, a little help with Chase...I'm missing the last CG xD All my stats are 300+ so I've passed the required 300 for academics and 175 for athletics. Why didn't I get the full ending (for that one last cg)?

[Vynuxys]

For the laughs, I chose my bday to be Nov 7th - same as Chase's. The game ignored my b-day completely and only played out his. Just thought I'd point it out, it didn't really affect the gameplay that much c:

Almost done with the game. Only two more endings to achieve left, and I'll try to give you a review if that's alright.

[Thelo]

@nipaa_kazuma
I asked a bud who lives in Quebec for some translations. He gave me about three to four variations of everything I asked for. Some of which are direct translations, which sound less natural from what I guess. Maybe it's just a few lines that seem unnatural to you? I would guess my pick from the choices given to me makes it awkward.

Hi, I'm currently playing Heartstring Bugs, and it's pretty entertaining so far, but I have to agree with nipaa_kazuma - Lucas's in-game "French" wasn't merely incorrect, it was unfortunately nearly incomprehensible. (I live in Montreal, Québec, and am a native speaker of French.)

I can help with a better translation if you're willing to tell what it was originally meant to say.

Edit: Oh, I just saw nipaa_kazuma's later post with good suggestions for corrections - these are right.

[VenusEclipse]

@nancie: Oops. I reread and misunderstood what you meant for the stats. It has a set randomness when your stress is almost non-existent. It just seemed to choose the fail activity for your play-through. Although it works most of the time from the tests done. It sort of seems wonky when it does what you experienced, but it works. ^^;

@Thelo: I went to ask the native speaker for new translations and had nipaa_kazuma look at them a few days ago. I have it all ready for the next update whenever I have time. Thanks for your offer. It's really nice of you. =D
What you saw that's "wrong" is in what she quoted, right? Or did you also find it in other places as well? If it's in what nipaa's post, then we're all set.

@Vynuxys: Hmm, I guess no one chooses to have their birthday on the same day as another character's often. I'll look into that. Thanks for bringing it up. I'll be waiting for your review, and you don't have to rush.

@greenheartnellie: Did you see his story cycle about his secret? It appears in the second half of third year (the exact times escape my head). His and your meter must be pretty full, with friendship around half. If you got the CGs from those, then the full ending will be available. Check the CG list in the guide.

[Thelo]

@Thelo: I went to ask the native speaker for new translations and had nipaa_kazuma look at them a few days ago. I have it all ready for the next update whenever I have time. Thanks for your offer. It's really nice of you. =D
What you saw that's "wrong" is in what she quoted, right? Or did you also find it in other places as well? If it's in what nipaa's post, then we're all set.

I've only seen one scene with French in it so far, which was the scene that nipaa quoted, so you seem to be on top of things for it! (If there are more scenes with French in them, I haven't seen them yet )

[WickedRaccoon]

i officially finished all the routes.man,that was one looooong game!!!! D8 but i loooove it!!!the clothes were absolutely cute (now i keep wondering where can i find these in real life Orz),the stats were fun,even though i got super mad whenever i saw the "fail" pop-up -_-.the plot was better than what i read at your blog!kept me interested all the way!
now,for the guys (warning,spoilers below):
Chase

hahaha,i loled so hard at two things here:the scene where he was sparkling and the MC said "that reminds me of something" (i though about the whole twilight vampire consept,but was like "nah,can't be"...turns out it was true after all q__q) and the scene in his house when MC gets all fangirly and...well...you know ^^ but overall,i enjoyed him

Lucas

well,he was okay,had a few nice moments.but i didn't finish his secret so i can't tell much.i want to know his secret but i'm too lazy to play again from the begining :''''D

Huang

oh my flying donkey!!!!he was soooo adorable in the valentine's date!!!i seriously fell for him!!when i found out his secret,i was amazed to see his real side.kind of the classic scenario for the shy guy,but still,he was one of my top favorites

Dimitri

i was so pissed when he broke up with MC and went after Natasha!!!! D:< i almost beat up my poor laptop.besides that,he was also an enjoyable guy

Blaze

hahahaha,my cheeks hurted from laughing when i tried to picture his "real" voice XD he was surely the funniest one in the game (or funniest by my opinion 0w0").he sure was a stubborn one.he's the next top favorite.but i'm still missing the last cg,so i'll replay his route again...someday..

Vi

oh my god!!!he was so cute!!!i just wanna pixel myself,jump in my screen and show him some loooove!!!he is the top-top favorite,and my first route to be completed!

Girls

there routes were normal.nothing too dramatic or boring.it was just right.but tell me.who does Alice marry after all? 0///0

overall,it was an awesome game!i think i found some typos,but i can't remember where ^^;; when i replay it,i'll comment again

[edeltine14]

I'll play this today D~