The Blind Griffin [Historical] [Otome] [NaNoRenO 2015]

[MaiMai]

I beat it!!! That was fun and I really appreciate all the effort the team put into this game for NaNo. Props to every one of you!

I don't think I have the brain to write up a thoughtful response in terms of the story since for me it was fairly straightforward

except for Gio who did pleasantly surprise me even if the element of magic drugs felt a little sudden; still it worked since he does hide under a facade, so the player wouldn't know otherwise

.

Alex and his cape were my favorite, he was really heart warming. (And that dumb cape, why do I love it so much...)

[Tazou]

Welp, I made this account only to comment on this wonderful project. And well...Me and my friend are like dying over here cause the writing is good enough to make us want to write fanfiction LOL (mostly really angsty ones). Good job team for causing that to happen.

That aside, I kind of wish there was more display of their magical abilities besides the ones that were shown. I dunno, my fantasy-writer mind was getting ahead of itself considering this is a one month project and how much time is used into making all of it. It'd be cool if in the artbook it showed images of the gang using their power or something.

I thought the use of all the different languages was adorable as well as the slang.

[KittyKatStar]

Aaah, it was so good, the writing was amazing and the art. <3 <3 The setting was fantastic and it felt so organic. Great job everyone. <3

[blusterblue]

I loved the music in the game and the backgrounds were seriously gorgeous.

The old couple was especially adorable.

From the beginning, I was interested in Emi, because he's truthfully the "type" of guy that I like in these games - slightly tsundere and expressive, lol - and I really enjoyed his route. I'm glad I chose it first

, partly because it was the order that the endings started in (which really pleased me because I'm weird like that) and mostly because I felt it was the most straightforward plot out of the guys. Or, I mean, the easiest to guess? Considering his temper and his personality, it was clean and simple to connect the dots quickly in the story.

I took Gio's route next and liked it but tbh, he reminded me too much of my Italian teacher and it felt weird, lol. I'm glad you put the part where

he wonders if he smiled right. I have depression, and I've experienced putting up an act many times, and you captured how it felt perfectly.

Finally, I took Alex's route, and my heart just <333333333333 like oh my god child please let me just hold you. I wasn't expecting to like him this much at all, just appreciate his easiness at being flustered but like oh my god?????

I can relate a lot to him as I was also kind of well known around the people I had to grow up with and there were always expectations for me that I couldn't meet, as well as the fact that I'm not straight. Him standing up to his parents means a lot to me, as I haven't done the same yet.

But like, everything about him was just !!!precious in ways that I cannot describe properly at the moment.

I wish we could have known Marie better. I adored her, and I wish she had gotten more screentime. I loved Vivi's and Emi's friendship, and I liked that there were friendship endings. I wish there was a way so that in the romantic endings the

Blind Griffin could stay together though. And the bad endings were so bad!!! By which I mean they were really well done!!! Emi's just sort of tore my heart apart the most I think, with the way he was already broken before he died. I was so scared that there would be a sprite for his body, I'm so glad that there wasn't! (Ending 10 had to be the second worst though, with that mention of heartaching!

I hope this review didn't seem too long!! You guys did a great job, and I always look forward to your newest projects!

[Skit]

We generally don't provide walkthroughs for our game, but if it helps, here's some hints. Each guy has three endings and there's three choices per route. So you need to get 1 point to unlock ending 10, 2 points for the guy's friendship ending, and 3 points for their romantic ending.

Ahh i see thx!

[kassikatastrofy]

I loved this!!! I was so excited for this to come out and you did not disappoint!!

[Hoosha]

Grr the game is so laggy and slow on my laptop. I literally closed all my processes like Google Chrome and Skype but the game's still T.T laggy and the music jumps and the mouse is laggy and jumps when it moves too. Do you guys have any suggestiiiions

[sasquatchii]

Wow. I just finished my first play through, and I am blown away! I can't believe you guys created this awesome game in such a short amount of time. Everything just felt amazingly polished and put together. I am going to spoiler my thoughts so I don't ruin it for anyone who hasn't played it yet!

The writing was SO fun to read! I love how you guys threw in descriptions for the slang. I knew what most of the terms meant but the descriptions were just so silly and playful that I read them all anyways

And oohhh my gosh, the artwork!! So pretty! And there was a lot of it, too, you guys were definitely not slacking! There is so much variety with all of the backgrounds, expressions, and character sprites. Well done.

Also, the music was awesome. And it was amazingly cohesive and the different songs went very well together! I like it so much that I've been listening for it for the last 2 hours and am still listening to it now

Also, the best thing about the game is how the artwork + music + writing work together to create this three dimensional world and fully-fleshed out characters. I was really excited to be immersed in that world and learn more about the characters. (Who are all just so friggin adorable and likeable, damnit! Seriously. This is the first VN that I've played where I really liked ALL the characters this much.)

So yeah, I have nothing negative to say about this game. I'm just awed and amazed and also the teensiest bit jealous at the sheer awesomeness of it. It was very fun to play, and everything about it was obviously well thought out. A lot of love went into this game.

I can't wait to see what you all come up with next

[sonorousgem]

Amazing job! Everything was really well done and professional. You guys are so talented! ^.^
Just from a player's perspective, I really liked the diverse cast, everyone was just so great haha...
Also, I guess the story was pretty straightforward, but the choices to me were pretty difficult, I had to really use my brain (thinking, what a horror! ).

I was surprised I got all the romantic endings first... now I have to go back to get the other ones!

[SkyBlueAzure]

In regards to Marie:

I think that you get to an inkling to what her specialization is in Gio's bad ending (Burned Out Hope). I may be wrong, but I think that her job is to remove people's memories who fail the test because they say to her that a) [Marie] has the hardest job and b) the protagonist asks Marie if [when you lose your memories] it hurts. So again, I could be wrong, but I think that her power is 'dark' magic because she removes memories and places them in the 'dark'.

Is that right (or maybe it's supposed to be super obvious and I'm just over thinking things), or are we going to be left in the dark forever?


I also I absolutely loved the game. I thought that it was incredibly thought out and really fun to play multiple times. I even particularly enjoyed the bad/sad endings (even though I generally play them just to get the CG's).

My favourite pathway was Emilio because I thought that it was so adorable.

I love relationships that are built on mutual 'hatred' and misunderstandings.

I can't help that I'm a sucker for that stuff. I still have to do his bad/sad path and I'm kinda' dreading it, but also really looking forward to it!

Thank you so much for making this game - it's obvious that you put a ton of work into it!

[Auro-Cyanide]

@Hoosha, could you please let us know what you are trying to run the game on and if you've had any previous problems with Ren'Py games of a similar size? Thank you!

*squeals* omg, you are all so great, thank you for commenting! *Hoards all the comments and clutches them to my chest* Seriously, this type of thing makes all the work worth it! I have literally saved the nice comments so I can look back at them while I work on things to motivate me. I'm so glad you have enjoyed the game ^_^

As for Marie, I believe Lore will be writing a short story about her so maybe more will be revealed then! We all really wished we could have done more with the story and characters because we love them so much, but Nano kind of restricts that possibility hahaha

Oh, and as promised, for winning the popularity poll here is a picture of Alexei with bunny ears for Easter! I hope you’re all happy, you made him cry. Again.

[MaiMai]

My day has been made.

[FruitSeller]

AHHH
This was amazinggggg ahhhhh
I can't evennnnnnnnnnn

Alexei's Romantic Ending just ahhhh. I know Russian myself so I'm like squealing through the entire thing and and and and and I can't even. Gio was also really cute, but I only got his bad ending, neutral ending, and his version of ending ten. I also really liked Emi but I haven't ventured into his yet. But all of them are extremely well made and and and aahhhhh.

[Hazel-Bun]

This was a fun and well thought out read really love the guys and their different personalities, as well as the coloring on the sprites and outfits in general! Also, that picture haha made my day! MC is great as well and I loved the diversity in random name choices.

[qirien]

Lovely game! The GUI, backgrounds, and characters are just so beautiful and perfectly match the writing. The music was fun, and I loved all the 20's slang!

But... it doesn't snow in San Francisco (I grew up near there). Maybe 1" every 35 years... but the snow on the backgrounds is so beautiful, I can't complain too much!

I wish we got to see/hear more of Vivi! Would love to see her as a protagonist someday...

I liked the idea of romantic, friendship, and sad endings. Would have loved to see more of the magic and how they used it in everyday life! But, yeah, in one month it's amazing you put in as much detail about the setting and characters as you did. Thanks for sharing!