Lads in Distress [GxB][Otome|Fairy Tale][NaNoRenO '16]

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Windchimes
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Re: Lads in Distress [GxB][Otome|Fairy Tale][NaNoRenO '16]DL

#61 Post by Windchimes »

@wijnen:
Hi again! Thanks for your comment, and for finishing the game! Since most of your comments are on Mer, I can't respond too much about it since I'm not the one who wrote Mer's route xD But I will pass on your comments to my writing partner. We really appreciate your comments so thank you again!

@january:
Hi! Thank you for playing our game and leaving a comment <3 We're glad to hear you enjoyed it, even though you're not a huge otome person haha.
Tbh, I'm quite surprised how many people are enjoying Mer's second ending. xDD Glad to know you also liked the ending!
Yeah, even though both Kumiho and I are otome fans, we also like it when there are friendship endings that aren't considered bad ends. Plus, the whole independent, don't need no man theme works very well with Princess Charming in this VN, so we have always decided since the beginning that there will be one ending that is friendship only yet ends on a happy note. xD I'm glad you enjoyed the ending.
We'll be re-doing the GUI for the expansion, but I will pass on that point of critique regarding the text color to our GUI artist. Thanks for pointing that out!

@clearlybeloved:
Hi! Thank you for playing and for commenting! :D We're happy to hear that you liked the game.
Haha, since Disney's version of The Little Mermaid is copyrighted, we actually must go with the original darker fairy tale. Same goes for the rest of the routes -- everything is based off the public domain version of the fairy tale. xD I'm slightly surprised more people didn't guess what would happen LOL
;_; Super happy to hear that Snow's your favorite <3 Had lots of fun writing him :"D
Yep, Nicholl route and more dragon scenes will be coming. They've been so popular among players, honestly, I'm really surprised xD
Thanks again for commenting!

@Lucid:
Hey there! Thank you for playing and leaving a comment! <3 Happy that you enjoyed the game.
;_; Your compliment about Princess Charming's character made us so happy haha. >< We had a lot of fun writing her, and we had hoped that the players would like her -- despite her flaws and cockiness. So thank you <3
Regarding your comments on Zel (wall of text ahead):
Actually, all of the points you mentioned are conscious choices on our part. There is less going on in Zel's plot, because each route has a specific, different feel and theme we're going for. Mer's is supposed to be the most intense/darkest/craziest. Snow's is more light-hearted/romantic, but still somewhat serious/mature. Zel's is supposed to be the most light-hearted, romance-heavy and fluffiest route with the most slice-of-life feel, because of all three princes, Zel's supposedly the cutest/sweetest. In the expansion though, since there will be 7 routes in total, we won't really be focusing on giving each route a different feel, so Zel's route will have more or less the same amount of action as the other routes.
As for witch and dragon, the former does indeed appear in the expansion and the dragon will have a larger role to play as well. Sorry you were disappointed you didn't get to find out about the witch! ;; As I mentioned previously in a few comments, a lot of these unanswered questions are deliberate. Firstly, it's because with a limited amount of time to write a limited amount of scenes, we didn't want to detract from the quality by stuffing too much information and details into the story, turning it into infodump after infodump (e.g. Snow's stepmom, the witch in both Snow/Zel's route...etc.) Secondly, we wanted to give the readers incentive to replay Mer/Snow/Zel's new routes in the expansion, because they will only find out the full story in the actual expansion. Most players probably won't notice in the end, but there are actually tiny hints/details scattered in the current story that sets up for the final expansion that will tie everything together, hopefully. xD
Dragon also did not appear as much as most people wanted because more dragon time = less Zel time, which we felt would affect the romance between Zel and Charming, as out of all the princes, Zel is the shyest and most scared, so there needs to be more time for a romance to develop between the two as compared to the other princes. He has always intended to be an important character in Zel's route, but that won't show as much until the future expansion. But trust me, he will be much more important in the final game ;D
Anyways! I'm super super happy to hear you liked Snow ;_; He was actually the least favorite prince in the original poll because everyone seems to dislike the flirty guy LOL Iwassoworried and I'm so glad Snow turned out to be a likeable person for the players! xD
I passed on your compliments of Mer's route to Kumiho, and she says thanks!
Actually, our entire game is based on public domain, not-Disney-version of fairy tales :"D So kudos to you for realizing it and expecting the dark twist. Mer's yandere face is definitely creepy ;_; I played through it twice for testing and said never again. LOL
Yep! We will hopefully have 5 CGs per route in the expansion at the least, along with maybe 1 or 2 chibi CGs per route? We'll see how that goes. But hopefully with more CGs, players will enjoy the game more! :D
;; Thank you for your compliment! We almost died writing x_x This version was originally only supposed to be 50k words LOL But there was just so much plot and details we wanted to include, and it pained me to even have to cut a few scenes I wanted to do from this version. In the end, it somehow turned out to be ~76k. I guess it was easier for us since we have two writers so we split the writing, but yeah, we almost died from writing so much LOL
(omgreally?) I'm not the person who selected the CC BGM for the game, so I didn't realize LOL I don't believeee anyone on the team has played Wadanohara before, but I'll ask again later to make sure. xD
Thank you! :D I hope you'll like Nicholl's route in the expansion and that we'll do him justice ;_; Thank you for your kind wishes, and all the compliments and helpful critique. <3

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Re: Lads in Distress [GxB][Otome|Fairy Tale][NaNoRenO '16]DL

#62 Post by Lucid »

[quote="Windchimes"][/quote]

Ahh, what you said about Zel's route makes sense. Now I'm looking forward to the expansion even more! I definitely plan on replaying everyone's routes once it comes out.
Seeing more of the dragon and witches, getting all of the nitty gritty details, and meeting 3 more unrevealed love interests?? yesplz 8D
Btw, about the song I wrote about earlier, I thought it was cool how it played the most on Mer's route, since Wadanohara takes in the ocean lol. I guess it really does fit a sea theme? I hope you keep it in the game, as I really do like the song. May I ask where the person who chose the BGM found it?


Unrelated, but I just noticed that you are one of the people working on Arena Circus. I played the demo for that as well, but I haven't finished it yet. It looks amazing so far though, and I'll leave feedback after I played through it all.

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Re: Lads in Distress [GxB][Otome|Fairy Tale][NaNoRenO '16]DL

#63 Post by Kumiho »

Lucid wrote:I recognized one of the songs used (the one that plays when you tell your parents who you're going to woo) from Wadanohara and the Great Blue Sea. It's called "Waltz of Destiny" in that game. I like that song, so I was happy to hear it lol. Has anyone on the development team played Wadanohara before? Just curious.
Hello! Nope, none of us have played Wadanohara before (as far as I know). but it definitely looks super fun! I'll try it out as soon as I'm done with finals @u@ Regarding the BGM, we found it from a Japanese stock BGM site called Ontama-M. Here is the direct link to the BGM, and here is the direct link to the site. The terms of list are stated in English on this LSF thread (control+F ontama!) We're assuming Wadanohara's devs got the BGM from the same source, haha! Feel free to use it (or any other songs from that site, obviously) for any of your own future VNs 8'D

Thanks so much for your interest in LiD omg <333

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Re: Lads in Distress [GxB][Otome|Fairy Tale][NaNoRenO '16]DL

#64 Post by Lucid »

Kumiho wrote:Hello! Nope, none of us have played Wadanohara before (as far as I know). but it definitely looks super fun! I'll try it out as soon as I'm done with finals @u@ Regarding the BGM, we found it from a Japanese stock BGM site called Ontama-M. Here is the direct link to the BGM, and here is the direct link to the site. The terms of list are stated in English on this LSF thread (control+F ontama!) We're assuming Wadanohara's devs got the BGM from the same source, haha! Feel free to use it (or any other songs from that site, obviously) for any of your own future VNs 8'D

Thanks so much for your interest in LiD omg <333
Thanks so much for the links!
By the way, if any of you do decide to play Wadonohara, be warned there's an unavoidable sexual assault scene before you can play the other endings. I wasn't aware of it before I played it, so I was very put off to say the least! There are also horror elements late-game despite the game's initial cutesy looks, so I don't recommend you play it if any those things greatly disturb you. Please be careful >.<

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Re: Lads in Distress [GxB][Otome|Fairy Tale][NaNoRenO '16]DL

#65 Post by Elowan »

Hi! This is the first game from NaNoRenO '16 I've played, mostly because I really liked the art style; but when I opened up the game I found that the writing was what kept me there. I enjoyed it a lot, especially the humor in the beginning! As of now I've only played Mer's route but wanted to leave feedback on it because the ending I got really confused me.

- In Prince Mer's character introduction, the image says it's been seven years since he returned from the woods; however, in the ending I got,
he said his blood sacrifice rituals had been going on for three years -- but those would be needed for keeping the body swap going on longer than a few days. Was it initially the fairy's power that kept him not needing that for four years, or was that a consistency error?
Also, his introduction image says that
he's now beloved by the common people, but ingame the common people despise him -- or was that just another lie he made up to move the wedding forward? OTL
- I didn't quite believe that in the ending
Princess Charming would forgive her suitor for being a dagger-crazed man trying to kill her on their honeymoon night, especially not this easily. That was my biggest qualm with the game, particularly as she had been fairly suspicious of him beforehand even as she learned affection for him; in her situation, I would absolutely not let that man continue to be king after that betrayal of trust, even if there were lots of clues leading up to it. This is doubly true because as Mer himself reveals, Charming is exactly the kind of royal he hates, and I don't believe that he really loves her -- that he values her kindness enough to be unable to kill her, yes, but not that he loves her after their 2-week courtship. As a side note, Mer's insane sprite was really impressive, and freaked me out a lot :shock:
- In the ending I got, it was never explained
why Prince Charming's voice works (though Nicholl's involvement is implied) and how the people reacted to it. I think that would be super interesting to know!
- Is the reason that
Mer's parents are distant during his wedding really because he didn't want to go back to them for the traditional month?
Sorry, I'm a little slow with implications TwT

All in all I enjoyed this game and Charming's personality a lot, despite my
confusion and discontent with Charming's reactions in the ending
. I really wish that Nicholl was one of the love interests, actually; I like him as a character a lot more than
Mer, actually
. But I acknowledge that some of his charm is because he's a loyal friend to Charming first and foremost, and those are short in otome games. :) The art was gorgeous and writing enjoyable; you guys have made a fantastic entry to the NaNoRenO '16 games!

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Re: Lads in Distress [GxB][Otome|Fairy Tale][NaNoRenO '16]DL

#66 Post by RoyalVillain »

I was instantly drawn to this game, both with the beautiful art and the concept behind it with the genderbent fairytale characters. I loved how well-written Charming was and she really appealed to me as the charismatic heroine. I particularly liked how little parts of her personality would change depending on the route chosen too. And the art is so well done! The sprites for Charming and the dragon were certainly my favourites and really wonderfully drawn, as were the backgrounds.

The order in which I played the routes were: Mer's 1st ending > Zel's 1st ending > Zel's 2nd ending > Snow's 1st ending > Snow's 2nd ending > Mer's 2nd ending

Of course, I was most drawn to Mer's route at first. I tend to have a fascination with the enigmatic, brooding characters and he seemed so shy and sweet at first, so
I really didn't expect him to turn out to be a yandere. XD
However, I admittedly was very thrown back about
how little effort it took for Charming to forgive him so easily after trying to kill her in her sleep with the dagger despite the suspicions she held for him all along. It was quite jarring to me as it such a large betrayal, really, just imagining it, not to mention the fact that there were hints dropped along the way, especially the beach scene with the dagger. I know that it must've taken a lot for Mer to not have gone along with it, and that he at least does care about her to quite some extent, but I don't quite believe that he actually does love her, especially since she's exactly the kind of royal that he hates. He betrayed my trust too, haha. So following from that, I don't think I could bring myself to ship the two of them together romantically, although Mer's route was certainly the most intriguing to me (albeit slightly rushed) - it definitely kept me on my toes! From the cuteness of the premise and the adorable set out of the GUI, I didn't expect things to turn so dark in this game, haha.
But that aside, that was the only thing which really stood out to me as off-putting at all.

On general terms for all routes, I did spot a handful of spelling/grammatical errors in there but they were by no means enough to detract me from the writing. The whole thing was very beautifully written.

Snow would be my favourite of the three, even though I'm not particularly fond of the flirtatious types and tend to steer well clear of them, but he was a pleasant surprise. I particularly enjoyed the fact that
the curse wasn't real and thought that it was a nice twist to the story, ESPECIALLY after having played Mer's first route upon first starting the game. Both Snow and Zel's routes were sweet and lighthearted, a refreshing change to the dark, horror movie-esque plot twists in Mer's - I admittedly started becoming over suspicious after playing Mer's route first, looking out for whatever dark turns would happen. XD
But I was very glad that and Snow's character really warmed to me, especially in his 2nd route. That being said, I really enjoyed the premise of a friendship-based ending for his 1st route as well and quite like the fact that
there was the open-ended element to it, that the reader could gauge for themselves whether or not he still held romantic feelings for Charming at the end.
Charming and Nicholl (shortly followed by Snow) were my favourite characters, for sure. I really enjoyed the genuineness behind the friendship between the two of them, and I look forward to seeing more of him in the full-length version of the game! I'm intrigued to see what a romantic route with him would be like, especially since I do have a weakness for the best friend characters in otome games. I'm also greatly anticipating more explanation/detail behind each prince's story, especially
the witches in Snow/Zel's routes, Snow's family and the curse put on Mer.
And of course, I look forward to more of the dragon in Zel's route - I really wouldn't have mind seeing more of him!

Congrats to you all on finishing the game and I'm eagerly looking forward to the full game - I'm honestly amazed that this was all done in just over a month, and with such a high word count!

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Re: Lads in Distress [GxB][Otome|Fairy Tale][NaNoRenO '16]

#67 Post by Windchimes »

@Lucid:
LOL Oh my god I was just about to play Wadonohara, so thank you for the warning! (H-horror? Damn I'm not good with horror. xD)

@Elowan:
Hey! Thanks for playing our game and for commenting! Sorry to hear you were confused by the ending xD Uhm I'm not actually the writer for Mer's route, so I'll ask her to pop by later to explain properly, but I'll answer some of the questions that I can answer.
Regarding how Mer's profile said he's loved by the common people, it was actually explained or at least implied heavily at some point in the game (during one of Mer's speeches explaining his life) that common people pretend they love him out of fear, because Mer's parents laid down a law against defamation of royalty, but everyone secretly hated Mer and talked about him behind his back.
We deliberately did not explain how Mer's voice was cured, but it was mentioned in the last scene before the first ending that Nicholl will look into the matter of his curse to save him. It also implies that Nicholl will figure out a cure to his voice. In the last scene before the second ending, Nicholl explicitly said that he will be able to figure out how to remove the spell on his voice within a month. We did not cover people's reactions to Mer regaining his voice in the ending because that's an event that happened between the last scene and the ending, and mentioning it deliberately in the ending didn't fit well, so we decided not to include that detail when it isn't very important to the overall story. Perhaps with more scenes in the expansion, we will consider including the reactions of the people as part of the later scenes!
I'll leave it mostly to my writing partner to respond to the remaining questions, but uhm one last response to your comment about Charming's reactions -- perhaps it's not that clear without more playthroughs, but actually, the choices are supposed to let the player determine Charming's personality in a sense. I can't explain too much without spoilers, but it's especially clear in Mer's second ending and Zel's route. What you choose determines how Charming's personality goes. Right now, pre-story, she's somewhat firmly in the middle of the spectrum of, say, kindness/forgiveness/trusting and suspicious/(another trait that I can't mention or else it'll give away the second ending). The player determines which end of the spectrum she swings towards. If the player gets the forgiveness ending, it's because the player (as Charming) continuously chose to be more forgiving, trusting and kind towards Mer, to give him the benefit of the doubt, and so in the end she chose to forgave him when she understood his actions stemmed from a place of desperation and terror, especially considering Mer couldn't bring himself to go through with the murder in the end. I'm sorry you were discontent with Charming's reactions! We kind of went for a "you determine Charming's personality and how she will react to things" approach with the choices, but I guess it didn't work out so well haha. We will try to make it better in the expansion!
Nicholl will be one of the love interests in the expansion! So if you liked him, keep an eye out for our final game! :D
Thank you again for commenting and for the compliments <3

@RoyalVillain:
Hey! Thank you so much for your comment and for playing our game <3 (And especially for all the compliments :"D) We're very happy to hear you enjoyed the game!
Haha, you definitely weren't the only one caught off-guard by Mer! It was really funny hearing some of the responses by players. xD
About your remarks on Charming's reaction to Mer: I actually just replied to a similar comment in this same comment! I don't want to copy and paste the same paragraph because it'll make this comment wayyyy too long, so if it isn't too much trouble, please read my response to the commenter right before yours <3 Though, admittedly, I'm not the writer of Mer's route, so please keep in mind that this is just my take on our rationale behind what happened, but it won't be as accurate as Kumiho's because she actually wrote it although we discussed it beforehand and agreed on it. I'll let her know about these comments and ask her to pop by with a better explanation later on!
I'm super happy to hear you liked Snow the most! ;-; It's surprising how much people seem to like him after playing the game, because originally Snow was like dead last on the poll for fan favorites LOL I'm glad you ended up enjoying his character and his first ending!
We've always wanted to make one ending where Charming is alone and unmarried because Charming is independent enough to deserve an ending where she's happily single. xD I could actually go deep into a long-winded explanation of the other million reasons behind why Snow was the only one with a friendship ending, but I'll spare you the pain of reading my rambles xD
Nicholl seems to be a huge favorite among players! I admit, I personally have a soft spot for the best friend type as well. xD
The full game is actually in progress already! (somuchforabreak) xD We will post a WIP thread in a month or two when more new stuff have been done, in case you would be interested!
Once again, thank you for commenting <3

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Re: Lads in Distress [GxB][Otome|Fairy Tale][NaNoRenO '16]

#68 Post by yoshibb »

1. Did you enjoy the game? Any thoughts/comments?
Yes, the art is gorgeous and I think it's a great concept with a lot of interesting characters. I have a few suggestions when it comes to the writing but I think most of the issues were simply because of the time constraint of Nano.
2. Who is your favorite character after playing the game?
Mer, but I also like Charming and Snow. Charming is also cool because there are a bunch of different personalities she can have through your choices.
3. Who did you pursue first, and who is your favorite love interest?
Both Mer, I really liked his character. I tend to go for the quiet guys first, too.
4. What ending did you get first?
Mer's forgiveness ending then the yandere ending xD
5. Is there anything in particular you would like to see in the expansion?
6. Other questions or points of critique?

Just gonna combine the last two questions. Firstly, I want to say I like the brutal ending with Mer
The only suggestion I have there is, since I would think Mer hates Charming by that point, I don't think he'd hesitate to kill her. I kinda think that she would have to physically stop him there with her magic and that might lend to how unhinged she's become if she ends up hurting him there, even if by accident. But overall, I really like that ending and I feel like the route and choices are good build up to what eventually happens
As for the forgiving ending
I personally never felt the loving connection between Mer and Charming, enough that they'd be able to overcome something like that. First, I think not spending any time in Water Kingdom was a missed opportunity. I think seeing Charming interact with and shut down the people talking about Mer behind his back would've helped their relationship. Also the part with the bandits, I think possibly setting that in a seedy part of the kingdom, a place kinda like where Mer was forced to live while he was a kid, that might help open her eyes to what's happening in those places too, so she empathizes (or rationalizes in her more brutal route) with those people/people like Mer.

Then, at the end, rather than him still thinking about going through with it, it might be interesting for him to refuse the fairy that cursed him despite the consequences, and have the fairy then possess him in order to get the job done. I feel like I'd be able to accept forgiving Mer and also the love that's grown between them, if Mer went along with the plot to begin with but then was wiling to die (which seems to be his worst fear) to protect her. Then it's simply a matter of the assassination attempt being out of his control.

Anyway, I don't want to seem like I disliked it. He was my favorite and I loved the cute moments they had and how hard he worked to master the illusion magic just to surprise her. His blushing is adorable too.
For Snow's route
I think a lot of this is likely going to be solved in the full version, but I'd love to have encounters with both the witch and his step mother. I feel like if she knew that Charming had chose him as her future husband, the step mother would've attempted to sabotage it. Maybe by kidnapping or even trying to kill him just so her son can stay in power. Plus, I'd just love to see Charming get to use her awesome magic and I love saving guys in games.

But I really liked their developing romance. Especially the dancing scene, I felt like that was very creative so show the fun side of Snow and also having an intimate moment between them.
Despite my text wall, I really enjoyed the game and that's why I just wanted to add my suggestions. I hope that it wasn't too much >.<. I still need to play Zel's route. Here's some fanart I did cause I loved them so much:

Image

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Re: Lads in Distress [GxB][Otome|Fairy Tale][NaNoRenO '16]

#69 Post by Windchimes »

@yoshibb:
Thank you very much for your comment! AND OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE FANART! It's beautifulllll. We're really honored <3
About the comments on Mer's route, I'll have to leave it to Kumiho to answer that since I didn't write that route. Thanks regardless!
As for Snow's route, I can't give away too much, but as I mentioned in previous comments, many of the unanswered questions regarding the witch/stepmother will be answered. It's a deliberate choice not to get into it in this game because otherwise, with the limited length/time, it'd turn into one infodump after another. I was already worried there was too much plot details and information stuffed in the game right now. xD
Once again, thank you for playing and for commenting! And the lovely fanart, of course! :D <3

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Re: Lads in Distress [GxB][Otome|Fairy Tale][NaNoRenO '16]

#70 Post by Alia »

1. Did you enjoy the game? Any thoughts/comments?
I did enjoy it.
I found it especially interesting that not only were the genders reversed, but also other attributes of the princes. Not-Rapunzel didn't want to be rescued, Not-Snow-Queen was a decent person, and Not-Little-Mermaid was a bad one.
2. Who is your favorite character after playing the game?
Princess Charming, but my second favorite is the dragon. For some time I held out hope that he was either a transformed prince or had a human form.
I kept telling Charming to ditch the guy who wouldn't leave the tower and see if the dragon happened to be prince of the Wings kingdom or something. Instead Charming chose to avoid giving the poor thing the magic lessons she'd agreed to. Sigh.
3. Who did you pursue first, and who is your favorite love interest?
Zel was first, since I really wanted to go on an adventure to rescue a prince.
Even though I wasn't truly happy with either of Mer's endings, his route was my favorite.
I loved the suspense in the first playthrough; trying to decide whether he was evil, good, or something in between. He had my favorite line of the game, too. Since I had gotten his #1 ending first I knew exactly what he was about, and when "What kind of ruler? A powerful one." got the response "I only want to marry you more now," I had to snicker.
My favorite love interest was Nicholl, even though he doesn't have a route yet. There was some serious chemistry between him and Charming, and their relationship (the friendship and hopefully also a romance) definitely deserves more time than could be given in someone else's route. I'm very glad he's planned to have one of his own in the extension.

4. What ending did you get first?
Zel #2.

5. Is there anything in particular you would like to see in the expansion?
The option for Charming to bail on the princes. Ditch Zel, kick Mer to the curb. As in, "Enough of you, I'm going to marry one of the suitors from my ball who doesn't have issues.
I felt Mer especially needed another option besides "I forgive you now" and "I torture you forever."
I'd also like seeing the fairytale motif of specific odd tasks that have to be done in order to achieve the happy ending, like spinning straw into gold, or sewing nettle shirts in silence, or cutting off the transformed prince's head, or the bunch of little things in "Willie's Lady."

6. Other questions or points of critique?
It might be hypocritical of me, but I found it a bit jarring that characters seemed to switch from speaking formally to informally between one sentence and the next.
The one thing that really confused me was
how in Mer's explanation scene after the near-murder, he says "Why have we come here?" and "Why, what is it?" in front of Nicholl, who doesn't seem to notice anything amiss until after Charming bubbles their ears and tells Mer to use his voice. If Mer's questions were meant to have been written on the illusory parchment, why didn't Nicholl realize Charming had taught Mer magic? Unless he thought Charming was somehow controlling the parchment for Mer, and if that's possible why would they have had to hide that they use it?

Thank you for sharing this game! I love fairytales and am excited to see what you guys do with LiD next.

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Re: Lads in Distress [GxB][Otome|Fairy Tale][NaNoRenO '16]

#71 Post by ArtemiS2 »

1. Did you enjoy the game? Any thoughts/comments?
yes! playing such a sassy, intelligent and confident MC was incredibly refreshing

2. Who is your favorite character after playing the game?
hm, can I say the dragon? lol he was just so beautifully drawn and his puppy-dog-esque personality was too irresistible. I also liked Charming's overall character
3. Who did you pursue first, and who is your favorite love interest?
Pursued Mer first but I think my favorite LI would be Snow, am a terrible sucker for the overtly flirtatious but heart of gold men >o< also voted below!

If you have time, please vote here for your favorite prince!
http://strawpoll.me/7292053

4. What ending did you get first?
got Mer's "good" ending...and then the yandere one...lol I kind of wished to see a continuation of the latter to see exactly how Mer was being treated...(• ε •)
5. Is there anything in particular you would like to see in the expansion?
hmm..already see you're working on a route for Nicholl (yay!! (づ。◕‿‿◕。)づ ) perhaps epilogues for the routes?
for instance with children, how the guy has improved the political state with neighboring kingdoms/grown as a king, if Mer ever uses the little magic he's learned against Charming since he's practiced it so darn much...ಡ_ಡ


6. Other questions or points of critique?
I absolutely LOVED the sprites! They were stunningly gorgeous! My only critique would be if the CGs resembled them a bit more? And naturally, more CGs in major plot points! Additionally, was there a resolution or reasoning behind the "witch" locking up Zel for so long? What was she going to do with him? Why? Where is she now? ಠ~ಠ

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Kumiho
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Re: Lads in Distress [GxB][Otome|Fairy Tale][NaNoRenO '16]

#72 Post by Kumiho »

As always, thanks so much to everyone for all the kind comments omg ;u; I really, really appreciate it!
Lucid wrote:
Aaaah, alright, I'll definitely look into that once I have the free time! 8') And thanks so much for the warning x') I'll keep it in mind OTL
Elowan wrote:
Thanks for all your notes! I'll put all my comments under one huge spoiler tag LOL
Yes, iirc it was stated before the ending split that it was the sacrifice of the Prince & the guards [from the bloodbath] that maintained Evian/Mer's transformation in the beginning. As for the people's reactions towards him, it's stated relatively early in the route that the people are in reality only perceived to like Prince Mer due to the King & Queen silencing their dissent.

As for Mer's endings, yeah, I totally agree ;u; I couldn't provide a proper transition due to the word count / time constraints orz. However, (and this is my bad for not being obvious) when Mer says he hates the selfishness etc., he's using the second person pronoun as a general pronoun x'D So it's not referring to Charming specifically, but nobles/monarchs on a broader level. Furthermore, his comments are all referring to his beliefs prior to meeting Charming.

As implied throughout certain scenes in the route, Mer's parents were distant not because he hadn't returned to the kingdom, but rather because there had been a lot of tension brewing to begin with ever since the fake "Prince Mer" returned to them. It was obvious to them that something was very wrong, and that their child had been altered in horrible ways, although they weren't sure of the details & tried at all cost to convince themselves that everything was alright with their child.
Seriously, thanks again for all the support and comments! <33
RoyalVillain wrote:
aaaaa thanks for all your kind comments! <3 And yeah, Mer's route was definitely super rushed as a result of time constraints orz ;u; I'll definitely try to expound on & fix the points you mentioned, and I'll try to make the romance more believable as well 8')
yoshibb wrote:
Oh my gosh, thanks so much for the compliments, and thanks again for the ridiculously amazing fanart I cant- @u@ Your art is amazingggg and the coloring style matches Elz's style as well omg. The two of them look so happy together and I'm slightly jarred by it LMAO and seriously, thanks so much, I can't get over your art @_@ And yeee, I'll def have the time to add more branching for the expansion, so Mer's reaction to and disposition towards Charming will definitely vary. Thanks for your suggestions! We'll definitely consider them for the expansion :)
Alia wrote:
Thanks for the comment! I'm glad you enjoyed the game! and LMAO YES. Dragon bae. Elz did a ridiculouslyyy amazing job on his sprite, and we had lots of fun writing him! 8') And aaa, I'm glad you enjoyed Mer's route 8') And aaa, sorry about the illusion issue! I totally forgot to move the dialogue after editing the previous stuff orz ;u; Thanks for catching it! <33 Sadly, the expansion routes have been decided for a while now, but we'll see what we can do ;) AND LMAOOO sadly I think most of the expansion bachelors have some issue they need to deal with, too. I think Nicholl's route is the one you're looking for
ArtemiS2 wrote:
eeee thanks for the comment & compliments! And yes omg @u@ elz did such a pro job on the dragon sprite (uh, actually, on all the sprites x'D) I cant-- and LMAO A CONTINUATION. I'm pretty sure Mer's second ending was the longest in the game by quite a bit LOL but I'll see if I can expound on it without inflating the word count ;o And thanks for your suggestions! I'll see what I can do *u*

As for the witch in Zel's route, she'll be showing up in the expansion for sure ;) I hope you enjoy what the team has planned for her! And yes, consistency will definitely be a priority for the expansion! So no worries there! 8')

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Re: Lads in Distress [GxB][Otome|Fairy Tale][NaNoRenO '16]

#73 Post by Alia »

Yoshibb,

In your picture I think Mer looks happy, and Charming looks
like she's balanced between "innocently happy" and "Imma eat your face,"
which is perfect. Although I wouldn't have thought of the second part if I hadn't played the game, so maybe I'm reading too much into it?
Anyway: cool.

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Re: Lads in Distress [GxB][Otome|Fairy Tale][NaNoRenO '16]

#74 Post by mysticichigo »

Having gotten one ending for each guy, I'm honestly torn between whether I liked Mer or Snow's route better. Both routes managed to actually surprise me, with
the curse being false in Snow's route and Mer's murder attempt.
I will say that, despite everything, I don't think I ever stopped being suspicious of Mer, so I guess the twist in his route wasn't quite as shocking to me.

Honestly, I don't think I have any criticism of Snow's route. I mean, Ikki was my favorite in Amnesia by far, so I think I just have a thing for surprisingly nice playboy types.

Mer's route did a lot of things well, but the explanation Mer gives of his actions near the end doesn't clear up quite enough points of confusion. For instance,
how exactly did Mer maintain the body swap for so long? And furthermore, what solution did Nicholl come up with that would let Mer survive longer than the two weeks? And does this kid have serious PTSD issues or something?
On a somewhat related note, it seems like you forget that Mer doesn't actually speak at certain points, i.e. when he uses italics in conversation with Charming. Written language tends not to have the same inflections as spoken words, so it wouldn't make much sense for anything to be italicized when it's only a written illusion? That's not the best example of what I'm talking about, but I feel this route may need certain revisions. That said, despite all my nitpicking, I think my conclusion is that I liked Mer's route a little bit better than Snow's, if only because I like things that are really dark.

As for Zel... I'll be honest, I just don't find him nearly as compelling as either of the other two. His innocence is refreshing to an extent, but I'm personally not all that fond of the 'kiddish' type. (Probably because in real life, every man I have a serious crush on is at least ten years older than I am. I guess I like 'real' men :lol: ) I was thinking there might be some twist in his route as well, like that the witch had cursed him or manipulated him in some way to be unable to leave the tower, but it ended up being fairly standard. It wasn't a bad route, but it wasn't as intriguing as either of the others.

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Re: Lads in Distress [GxB][Otome|Fairy Tale][NaNoRenO '16]

#75 Post by Kumiho »

mysticichigo wrote:
Thanks so much for all your comments!
Regarding your comments on Mer's route, they'll mostly be addressed in the expansion, when I'll have more time & a larger word count limit to work with :) Granted, I tried to leave them up for the readers' interpretations for now, in large part to help keep the VN pg LOL. And yes, I felt like some degree of trauma on Mer's part was only to be expected, since he (1) witnessed a massacre, (2) witnessed his parents' deaths, and (3) almost starved to death on several occasions. Hence how disjointed he was + his ultimate murder attempt.
As for the italics in Mer's dialogue, well... He was intentionally inflecting his words visually haha, just as I'm doing now -- sorry I never clarified! As for Zel's route, his route will involve quite a bit more drama & magic in the expansion! ;) So we hope that will help you enjoy his route a little more if you decide to give it another try then! Again, we're super flattered you enjoyed LiD!! <3 We hope you enjoy the expansion as well, and hopefully it addresses your complaints as well! <333

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