The Way We All Go [BxG, Horror, Romance] [Commercial]

[ebi-hime]

Updated with a full walkthrough to achieve all 20 endings, which can be found here n_n'

[The Chaos Entity]

Thank you!
Finally got around to trying to get the remaining endings. After my first try ended in ending 11 (I was so happy, yay! ^-^). I now have 1-8 and 10, and I am loving it. There us so much more to be seen with this VN when you go through each route... I think it's really amazing!
EDIT: Definitely gonna donate when I can!

[ebi-hime]

Thank you!
Finally got around to trying to get the remaining endings. After my first try ended in ending 11 (I was so happy, yay! ^-^). I now have 1-8 and 10, and I am loving it. There us so much more to be seen with this VN when you go through each route... I think it's really amazing!
EDIT: Definitely gonna donate when I can!

Aw, thank you n_n; I tried hard to disperse information and charater backstories throughout multiple endings, to make multiple playthroughs more necessary. I'm glad it seems to have worked n_n;;

[The Chaos Entity]

Ahhhh~
Just finished with all twenty endings, and I loved every minute of it!
I love all the characters as well :3
I love how realistic Lucy Sakata and Mr. Jougasaki are, and how sweet Atcchan's grandparents are - they made me laugh so often.
I also actually really like Tsuzumi, she was so charming! In a creepy, obsessive, hilarious kind of way. Even after what she does in one of the endings, I still find her impossible to dislike, she's just so funny and overdramatic.
The main girls themselves are each unique in their own way - and don't read like cliches at all.
My favourite is Noelle, as I stated earlier in the thread, and I stand by that. I can't really explain it very well... Or maybe I can, but I don't want to start a rant and look like Tzuzu...
But regardless, Noelle is certainly the character that spoke to me the most.
I also really like Eri. Her tsundereishness is hilarious, and those little moments where she squees over Atcchan were adorable.
Amu really came across as the biggest pillar in Atcchan's life, the one constant he took for granted. I recall you saying the yandere moments she had were almost cut... But if it means anything, they flow seamlessly to me, it seems to add depth to her in the moments we see them.
I DEFINITELY will be donating when I can... I just wish I could do more.
I mean... I'm a final-year art student, so I could provide CGs for free if you ever need them... When I get the programs for personal use >_>
And... I'm a voice actor? And I can sing too, actually...
Anyway! It's... God, almost ten here in the UK right now, yeesh, and I didn't even talk about one of my favourite characters yet!
Atcchan (is his name 'Atsushi' by the way =O? Just a guess). Atcchan, I felt, was a really tragic character most of the time. Maybe it's bias, hahaha, given that I've made similar mistakes to him in my past, and though I'm tall as hell, I also get regularly mistaken for a girl ._.
Bit I actually thought he was really interesting and sweet.
In fact, he delivers one of my favourite lines, when he calls Eri by her nickname and explains by basically saying 'hey, you all do it to me, why the hell not?'
Anyway! I just wanted to say thank you for the guide...
And thank you for the hand ^-^
Let me know if I can ever lend a hand.

[ebi-hime]

Aaw, thank you so much u///u I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Atcchan's grandparents and Amu's dad were really fun to write ahaha XD I kind of wish I could have gotten sprites for them, too (and Noelle's mother), because I think they have enough personality and presence in the story to warrant it, but finding people to do sprites of older characters is hard XD
And Tsuzumi was also a lot of fun XD I think the 'perverted little sister obsessed' character is actually fairly common in VNs, if they're male, but there aren't as many female versions of that character type.

In one of the ends where she gets Atcchan hit by the train, I had it planned so she was just trying to freak him out/intimidate him, and she didn't actually intend for him to get hurt. After that bad end, I was going to have a scene of her pacing around being like 'oh no, how am I going to explain this to everybody... Oh no, Eri will never talk to me again... It was so selfish that you let yourself get hit by a train like that, you idiot! You've ruined my life!' But it got cut XD

And, that is so sweet >w< Thank you! Your comment made me smile a lot ehehe n_n;; Having nice feedback makes all the work seem worthwhile!!! >w<
Although making it was a lot of fun anyway XD

And Atcchan's name is Atsushi XD Originally, I wasn't going to give him a name at all - the initial GUI I had was different, and it didn't have the header for character names when they were talking. But then I changed the GUI a lot, which made character names necessary, so I had to think of something to call him. And I decided to give him a nickname as a compromise.

Thank you. And I am glad the guide helped n_n;;

[The Chaos Entity]

*smiles brightly*

A-ha! So I was right!
I thought when Tsuzu yelled at Atcchan to get off if the platform that something was off.
I dunno whether that means I'm really good at reading between the lines, or you're really good at conveying your meaning through writing.
Hopefully, both!

And you're very welcome! I'm glad my comments made you smile :3
I have to say the same happened to me this morning when I found out you've recently released another game! And I fully intend to play through that too ^-^
As for Tsuzumi, I honestly found her really funny! Especially her speech in ending 20, that Eri effortlessly deflates.

[Skarn]

Finished all endings (with walkthrough help for 1,2,3,9,15 and 20).

And it was awesome.

When I first started the game, I immediately thought "Higurashi". Remote village, small school, girls with slightly sociopathic behavior... Even the chara design had an Higurashi feeling.

But despite this evident inspiration, this game is in no way a copycat. It tells his own story, far less centered on horror and far more on relationships. Most of the time, it talks about the weakness of the human hearth, cowardice, white lies, self-deception. The protagonist mistakes and doubts are believable, not exaggerated, and it is easy to understand him, to sympathize with him.

Some may argue that some characters are cliché (shy and depressive girl versus exuberant energetic one), but a cliché can be used for good with enough skill. And the really, really good writing transforms these tropes into awesomeness.

I have been especially touched by a scene in Noelle arc:

The bullying passage is so well-described it is actually quite hard to read. You can feel the suffering behind the words.

And Noelle has the worst teachers ever.

By some luck, I actually managed to avoid any violent death until the fifth or sixth ending I got. Which is good for me, as I preferred the slice of life and psychological moments to the slightly gore ones. Also some of the bad endings felt somewhat forced. In Higurashi, there is somehow an explanation for the hyper-violence of all protagonists. Here, if one deranged girl is credible, three seems too much.

As for the construction, I have no problem with complex branchings, but I found several reactions to be quite illogical:

Mainly, why is "Don't pry any further" a prerequisite for being able to ask Noelle questions about her painting?

But except for these small problems, this is good branching for a simple reason: Consequences.
In too many VNs with lots of choice, when you pick A instead of B, you just have two different lines of dialogue, then back on track until the very end, where you will discover that B gave you a -1 relationship point and changed the ending. These numerous choices do a very poor job at hiding a linear story.
Here, when you choose B, you actually have at least several new paragraphs of texts immediately, and sometimes a totally new part of the story is uncovered right after. Most of choices feel natural, they are not simply dropped anywhere to create a bad illusion of control.


In short, good VN, you should play it.

[CrimsonMoon]

This looks like a good game (200k words! Must've taken quite a while to write it). Will let you know what I think. Given all the good reviews, I can't wait to play this.

[ebi-hime]

Finished all endings (with walkthrough help for 1,2,3,9,15 and 20).

And it was awesome.

When I first started the game, I immediately thought "Higurashi". Remote village, small school, girls with slightly sociopathic behavior... Even the chara design had an Higurashi feeling.

But despite this evident inspiration, this game is in no way a copycat.

Aw, thank you! I am glad you liked it n_n;
There is quite a Higurashi feeling to the story, ahaha - especially with all the cicadas! Which may or may not have been deliberate. And all the forests.
I'm glad it is distinct enough from Higurashi, though (maybe all the choices help with that?)

The whole thing

with the rabbits

was also inspired by another one of Ryukishi07's visual novels, haha. I am a big fan.

Some may argue that some characters are cliché (shy and depressive girl versus exuberant energetic one), but a cliché can be used for good with enough skill. And the really, really good writing transforms these tropes into awesomeness.

Thank you. In my last two short VNs, I tried to write characters based on real human beings, as opposed to stock anime tropes, so I wonder if it makes the experience of reading any different, and if the characters 'feel' any different? I am interested to know...

By some luck, I actually managed to avoid any violent death until the fifth or sixth ending I got. Which is good for me, as I preferred the slice of life and psychological moments to the slightly gore ones. Also some of the bad endings felt somewhat forced. In Higurashi, there is somehow an explanation for the hyper-violence of all protagonists. Here, if one deranged girl is credible, three seems too much.

I know what you mean. I think some of the violence is kind of forced in some places. I think

it is the most credible for Noelle; for Tsuzumi, her 'bad end' is basically a joke (she wasn't ever intending to kill you, she just wanted to frighten you, and it went too far. She's just an idiot, haha), but with Amu, it does seem out of character and out of nowhere. In the original version of the story, Amu never yandere'd at all, she was always rather well-together - and I think it shows her 'bad ends' were last minute additions, haha. I think the bad ends add some depth to Amu's character, but the sudden violence isn't very fitting. I might go back and change it yet.
But when I call the game a 'yandere game', it makes me feel like I should put more violence in it... But then, it is at detriment to the storyline and the characters, aaa >_<

As for the construction, I have no problem with complex branchings, but I found several reactions to be quite illogical:

Mainly, why is "Don't pry any further" a prerequisite for being able to ask Noelle questions about her painting?

But except for these small problems, this is good branching for a simple reason: Consequences.
In too many VNs with lots of choice, when you pick A instead of B, you just have two different lines of dialogue, then back on track until the very end, where you will discover that B gave you a -1 relationship point and changed the ending. These numerous choices do a very poor job at hiding a linear story.
Here, when you choose B, you actually have at least several new paragraphs of texts immediately, and sometimes a totally new part of the story is uncovered right after. Most of choices feel natural, they are not simply dropped anywhere to create a bad illusion of control.

It's been a while since I read through this story myself, so I don't even remember what choices you need to make to get certain endings XD There are too many possible endings and too many choices! But some of the choices might be illogical (I think I made a couple of choices illogical on purpose just to make it harder, but that is quite a jerky and non reader-friendly thing to do, hahaha).

But yes, I don't like VNs which will give you several choices, but the text hadly changes after you have made them, and the story just continues exactly the same - and this happens a lot! It makes the choices seem so much less important, and makes the reader feel less involved, I think? Like 'it doesn't matter what I do, the same thing is going to happen anyway...'
I tried to structure a story where most choices actually have an impact (a few are just cosmetic though) and will give more than a few sentences of recognition. It can be hard though, since... more choices that create important changes to the story = more writing for the author to do. Especially in a story with lots of reveals, it can hard trying to think 'if they made this choice earlier back, they won't know this piece of information, so this part of the story might not make sense, so they'll have to learn this information some other way beforehand in another branch...' It was hard work, so I am glad it seems to have payed off XD
But thank you! I am glad you enjoyed it ^_^;;

This looks like a good game (200k words! Must've taken quite a while to write it). Will let you know what I think. Given all the good reviews, I can't wait to play this.

Thank you! I hope you enjoy it if you do play it!

[CrimsonMoon]

Played the game and the first ending that I got was

no. 2: Proof, which was Noelle killing Amu and gave me Amu's eyes. x_x That was kinda creepy, haha. Gramps are cute too, especially Chiyo. I imagine her face as a bright old lady.

Overall, the story was good, I like your use of words. The characters are distinguishable from one another. What I like the most is how you use encouraging words, reading the story is motivational. :3 I played since last week, and for one whole day last weekend, I played the game from morning until night (gotta admire my dedication, lol) and I still haven't gotten all of the endings, despite having the walkthrough. Up until now, I've read through 10 endings. Going to finish all of them this weekend.

Good job with the game! 200+k words is really impressive, it's got me hooked all day.

[ebi-hime]

Played the game and the first ending that I got was

no. 2: Proof, which was Noelle killing Amu and gave me Amu's eyes. x_x That was kinda creepy, haha. Gramps are cute too, especially Chiyo. I imagine her face as a bright old lady.

Overall, the story was good, I like your use of words. The characters are distinguishable from one another. What I like the most is how you use encouraging words, reading the story is motivational. :3 I played since last week, and for one whole day last weekend, I played the game from morning until night (gotta admire my dedication, lol) and I still haven't gotten all of the endings, despite having the walkthrough. Up until now, I've read through 10 endings. Going to finish all of them this weekend.

Good job with the game! 200+k words is really impressive, it's got me hooked all day.

Haha the grandparents were a lot of fun to write! They originally had more screentime, but I cut some of it out because they don't have sprites, and I thought the player might get bored staring at a static photographic background for too long...

Aw, I am glad you find it motivational! Some of the endings are, I suppose. Others, not so much XD Overall, it's probably a fairly positive story, though?
Um, there are so many spelling errors, etc, in the current version of the game though XD I have been editing it a lot over the last month to make the writing far better, and less... bad, haha XD But I'm not sure when the shiny and updated version will be finished (proof-reading such a large story takes so much time...)

Thank you, I am glad you liked it! n_n;;

[Ghost-Rain]

Ooh, I started playing this last night and I really liked it...

I still succumbed to using the guide after only getting a few endings though. I told myself that I wouldn't, but I did. I'll get all of the endings at least!

So far I have:

Liar, Proof, Self Defence, Blood Loss, Goodbye Kiss, Apology, Communication, and Promise

I got half of them on my own...and then there was the guide. Are there any good endings? Probably not, but I am curious. The story was really nice though. Stories I guess...? I've only even gotten around to the two obvious romance options, but both Noelle and Amu were really nice...until they start killing the protagonist. Well, was Noelle nice? I liked her at least. I was purposely trying to get Amu's 'good' endings, as I figured I would like Noelle better. (I wanted to get it out of the way, save dessert for last and all XD). -Surprisingly enough I actually did like Amu. I still liked Noelle more of course, but I definitely didn't dislike Amu.

I laughed a bit when I messed up a choice for ending 5.

I got ending 13 from changing one choice. Just one. It was an accident too.

You really made the choices actually matter didn't you? A lot of choices in VNs aren't that important, or at least enough to take notice of it.

Thank you for the great game! Time to go back and get the rest of the endings.

[ebi-hime]

Posting an update~
The game was just recently re-released on Steam. This new, updated version has more text, a couple of extra character routes, some new CG artwork, and updated GUI. The text was also proofread a great deal, and a lot of sentences were restructured/rewritten for better grammar and spelling.
The old version of the game, which was available on a pay what you want model through gumroad, is no longer available. Mainly because I don't want people to keep playing the old version, which isn't nearly as polished as the newer version.

[philip]

@ebi-hime

I downloaded this 7/7/2014, is there anything that I would be missing if I didn't get the latest version? It's a really engaging game, and I don't mind doing it, but don't want to do so if there isn't anything significant added/changed.

philip

[ebi-hime]

@ebi-hime

I downloaded this 7/7/2014, is there anything that I would be missing if I didn't get the latest version? It's a really engaging game, and I don't mind doing it, but don't want to do so if there isn't anything significant added/changed.

philip

There is 60k worth of new text. Some of this is implemented in new, short scenes that are scattered throughout the game, and there's also in an extra character route that can be unlocked after finishing Eri's good end.
So I guess there's about 25% more content.
The writing should also be a lot, lot better now. I combed through the script a couple of times, and rewrote an awful lot of the preexisting material. This rewriting doesn't really change the meaning behind the old text, though. It makes things a lot clearer, and more pleasant to read, but the storyline is pretty much exactly the same.
Oh, and there are also some minor changes you might not notice, like I completely re-did most of the transition effects, I added in more SFX, and I changed the GUI. There's also an extra you can unlock after completing the 21st ending. It's not a big extra, but some people might find it interesting.

If you're not sure to get the updated version or not, you can try downloading the demo and see what you think about it n_n;