Charlatans[KN] [NaNoRenO 2015]

[clua]

I've been sketching some stuff, you know you can always see more on my dev blog! Warning: Almost all of them contains spoilers!

Mother's day special
Rule 63
Scars(nsfw? for nudity)
Priam and Sabine stuff
Stuff in game 1
Stuff in game 2
Things I wrote while I was making the game

Don't forget the poll is still active! :A:!

[Green Glasses Girl]

Juuuust finished! What a beautiful and refreshing VN! The art and programming were great.

The introduction was terrific. I think what falls short in a lot of EVNs are proper introductions. Using CGs and the text without a box for the beginning definitely immersed me - it's those little things that make the difference.

Karon was my favorite character (although Priam and Sabine had my favorite character designs). She was so feisty! And I laughed out loud anytime she delivered (or attempted) to give another character a slap to the face. What I am impressed with most is how complex all the characters were. That's some good writing right there. Karon and Priam had a nice dynamic.

What put me into a shock was when Karon "died" the first time, and the meeting with her father. At first I thought, "Aw, this is a be a nice, close moment between a daughter and her deceased father and-" AND THEN THAT KISS HAPPENED AND I CHOKED ON MY FOOD I WAS SNACKING ON. I ALMOST DIED.

A+++ for your fabulous work!

[Inkblot]

I actually really enjoyed it. Usually I don't think i'm a fan of kinetic novels but this completely changed my mind. You're super amazing!

[clua]

Green Glasses Girl
Thank you so much for playing! I'm glad you liked Karon, I was really worried because I was aware of how awful she was to...Everyone! XD

I'm not surprised you find that shocking! I didn't know if I should add the incest warning somewhere orz. That was indeed a near-death experience she had there, based on what a friend told me when she had a surgery and she was under anesthesia(She thought she was dying) so I decided to use it in game hahaha. Sorry for the choke :A:!!

Inkblot
Aw! Thank you so much for playing even if this kind of novels are not your thing! I was kind of aware that there are some people that doesn't like KN but I didn't know they were THAT disliked lol. I will have in mind for future works !

[clua]

Hey guys, I'm working on the extras part of Charlatans this whole month.
If anybody have more feedback for the game, I would be very grateful!

[Laiska]

I had a lot of fun playing this game! The designs were fantastic and the story was intriguing.

I super loved the stuttering effect you put on the devil Caronte's text, also. It gave it a great, unhinged feel.

The one critique I have is that because the conversations jumped around so much between characters, and because everyone has a very similar speaking style, it got confusing to figure out who was talking at times, even with their names on screen. I was constantly mixing up Priam and Sabine at the beginning, because for some reason it seemed like their names should be reversed? But I think that would be solved by differentiating how they speak a little bit.

[clua]

Laiska:

Thank you so much for the feedback! :A:!
At least for Sabine and Priam, they were supposed to speak differently like Priam speaks more flowery and Sabine less...But I think it's not that well done since you didn't find it different. I'm going to fix that in the following update.

I know some people might confuse the twins because of the names, expecting Sabine being the woman and Priam the man

But this is a trait that all four main characters have. The most concerned about it is Karon, that's why she doesn't use her full name :p

Thank you again!

[ppppantsu]

Just got to finish it today and it was absolutely beautiful thank you QAQ <3

[clua]

Just got to finish it today and it was absolutely beautiful thank you QAQ <3

:A:! No, thank you for playing!!

Guys I'm still working on the extras. You can see more progress here
Most important updates are these ones(Contains spoilers):
Several new sprites x x x
Some new characters x x
Current progress update

My pending list consist in everything art related, but CG(I'm leaving that at the end) Sprite art is all done! Moving to checking both art and coding problems.

[KM_KelliG]

I love this, I love this, I love this. It piqued my further interest of death that this is one KN that really hit the spot. Thanks for making this KN and I will wait for the 'coming soon' extra scenes. lol ! Good luck and congratulations on this wonderful project.

[TsukiShima]

Hey there clua! I finally got the chance to finish this KN and I have to say it is great!

I have to say the very strong point for this game is indeed the characters themselves. They are all lovable in their own way. I went ahead to vote on the poll, but while he is the lowest, Virgil is my favourite so far because to me, he's the mysterious of all (currently). I have a soft spot for him and I would love to see him more in action.

The story has an abstract meaning, I see. It took me some time to understand the overall story and what it's about, and if there is any message that is suppose to come across. It may be too high for some teen readers, but hey! That's the uniqueness of your style.

I don't think I have to press anything about your art and GUIs. They are perfectly fitting every time, and very eye catching. I, too, really like the moment a CG enters, it dialogues come in form of a subtitle.

It's a bit late but congratulation on this game! I'm looking forward for the next installment for this, good luck!

[Drewz]

Just finished playing it.
Absolutely loved it! The art is awesome and the writing even more so! The characters are likable in their very own way; may favorite being Priam and Virgil; although i liked Karon and Sabine too The KN is short but it honestly kept surprising me until the very end; thank you for sharing it with us ♥

I loved in the introduction when the screen turned black with 'Charlatan' in the middle of it. Very dramatic ♥
Omagosh, the dream scene with her father! I was thinking there will be some fluff between daddy and his little girl (like usual); was NOT expecting that!

I can't find the extra scenes tho even after completing the game :/

[clua]

Thank you to everyone for replying and sorry for the late response!
As an update, I just wanted to say Virgil's extra is almost done. It's quite long so I'm not sure if I should release an update with just his extra, then update it again when I have the other two. What do you think?
Here is a little progress update
Remember you can follow that and more here.
I will try to join Nanoreno this year too, I hope you enjoy the game if I manage to finish it :A:!

KM_KelliG
Aww, thank you for playing !

TsukiShima
Hello! Thank you for playing and also for telling me that Virgil is your favorite! That makes me really happy(I can't choose a favorite of the four, I like them all hehe)

Oh! Hehe, you are making me feel old! I did not have the intention to make it difficult for anybody, I hope it isn't! Also, I don't have the intellect to back some themes touched in the story. Fearing death and wonder what's after it is something that everybody got to think at least one time in their lives(I don't dare to say if there is a specific age for this. I've talked to people that questioned that at a very young age, in my case it was when I hit my 20s) I felt that could be relatable.

Thank you for your good wishes, it's never late! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Drewz
Haha, thank you for playing it!

The extra screen could be tricky to find if you play Charlatans in one playthrough and you don't manage to see the difference between the normal screen and the screen that appears after finishing the game(Sorry orz).
I will leave you a clue here :A:

Karon's soul is standing in the middle of the screen, hit her head and it will take you to the extra's screen.

[Hachiko]

How the hell did I missed this?? To think I skimmed this when it came out tsk... shame on me! *smacks self*

When I first found out the person who made TKOTT made a new game, I quickly went and downloaded this since I had fond memories of playing the game.

Lo and behold, I wasn't disappointed!

Okay, first of all, this game is clearly not about morals, since, 1) The relationship of Karon and her father. 2) The secret stuffs that Vigil and Priam did. Heck, even just the base personality of Karon herself makes you question if the games' characters'... "characters" are worth the effort of judging or not.

It's not.

Because the game has quite established itself as messed up - Karon's filthy rich so she, obviously, can do/treat people whatever/however she wants, and Priam, being obsessed with *spoilers* would go to such lengths to reach it etc etc. You would be tearing your hair up if you constantly try to judge their actions on which they *should* and *shouldn't* do, and perhaps this game would go more smoothly and enjoyable for you if you just accept them... "as so".

The character development stands out on this one - mind you that none of them would be very pleasant if you were to encounter them "IRL", but the interactions and inner-struggles among the female protagonists(/"antagonist") would be enough to brush aside their personality faults. I am still very curious as to what Priam saw in the end! It was like Inception again AHH! Or perhaps... what she saw was "too much" for our "mortal" eyes? Hahaha (Also, is there an underlying reason on why "that" has the same name as you-know-who? Is it a coincidence or is there more to it? If you don't mind can you share it to us I'm really curious if there's some more backstory to how they tie together )

One minor complaint is how inconspicuous the "extras" was - I wouldn't have found it if I didn't tinker around at the end hoping for some more (LOL) and by hovering my mouse at that silhouette because of my curiosity. @_@ Also, how some parts of them could have been included in the main story instead, like, some backstory of Karon's and some of Sabine's? Though I suppose it would have been hard to fit in Sabine's since it's mostly about Karon and her sister for the story.

(Oh and if you're curious, if I remember correctly, I think it was Karon's portrait that turned me off from immediately playing the game when I first saw it since I thought her hairdo was extremely ridiculous ahahaha. And since I'm not really huge on KNs....)

All in all, this game was really enjoyable for me, I had a lot of laughs, especially the inner-thoughts of some of our characters during their initial interaction with Karon haha, the extras at the end was fun too, I wished you "filled" the "slots" up! I would definitely recommend this for any who's looking for a nice KN!