I don't usually leave reviews because I'm too shy to speak my thoughts, but I believe firmly this masterpiece deserves it.
English is not my first language so there might be some typos or poorly written sentences, please bear with me while I'm at it.
1. Which bachelor you liked the most and why?
I'll go with Mitra in this one. He was so sweet the entire time, a proper gentleman, he really cared about Tamara and was not an a*shole with her because she didn't have wings, plus he likes children and cares about his people; the kinda guy I like. I found myself looking for him from the start and I was so upset whenever I chose the wrong option and ended up in the scenes of Rama or Reksa that I had to load the game! (I don't like using walkthroughs, I try to get all the endings by myself, so things like that happen from time to time.)
I loved Mitra's scenes (my favourite is the one where they are at the festival and he proposes to Tamara by showing the full lenght of his wings. It's just, *sigh*, I really enjoyed the moment) and also his CGs (being the one where Tamara helps him take off his loosened feathers my very favourite.)
Far down, my second favourite was Reksa. I don't really like tsundere characters, I think they are annoying and often find myself yelling at my computer in frustration, and Reksa was not different. It was long before he finally stopped growling at me and I almost hoped there was an option to punch him in the throat, but then things started to change and he proved to be way sweeter than bitter. Reksa got angry whenever Tamara was being hurt or looked down on by the other komodos, not to mention when his evil buddy Purba tried to steal her from him, and it was really cute seing that growling beast suddenly losing his cool.
I liked his good ending the best.
In the third place would be Rama, and I really don't want to talk about him. He was a jerk.
Sorry man, I don't care if you had such a tragic past, it's no excuse for having that half-assed attitude. He was reckless, childish and resentful, and I just don't buy grown up people acting like that because they are in deny of an event of their past. Even the triplets have a tragic story and they are always laughing and playing and being cute, and they are children. Get over it, Rama.
I know it's absolutely unfair of me to be saying stuff like that since it's certainly not easy to recover from the deaths of a beloved brother and the woman you loved so bad, who was with child, especially when you suspect it was your adoptive family (meaning, the whole village) the one to blame for their deaths, but I just hated his character so I'm going to be unfair anyway.
But I'll be good and say I liked his design, especially the fact that he had broken wings. That was interesting!
2. What made you consider to play this game?
Reality is boring, so I tend to search for a good fantasy story to distract me. Sadly, most of the times I'm left disappointed because everything is too cliche or the story has inconsistencies or the characters are bad, but that wasn't the case with Nusantara. This game was extremely complete. It had the characters, the culture, the festivals, the gods, the species (like the avians and the komodos), the fitting music, the background stories, the side characters development... You didn't write a story, you built a world. I just loved every second I played.
I decided to give it a try with "Fantasy romance", and I knew I had fallen for the story even without downloading the game when I read the synopsis you wrote (great job with that! It was really catchy.) Also, I'm not going to lie, the character designs are hot as hell and I wanted to see how you handled their personalities.
I had played this game when you first released it (the one made with Novelty) and, since I decided to try and leave you some review, I'm going to play your RenPy version now. Because I loved it and want to play Nusantara all again from zero, without skippings and rediscovering all the CGs again ♥
3. Overall, what do you think about this visual novel? What element stands out the most?
Like I said, I loved everything of it, but the one thing I'd like to point out are the the small details!!
I played the game in this order Mitra - Reksa - Rama, and I realised about Asih and Yuda's earrings being each others feathers around halfway my first walkthrough (if I remember correctly, they actually explain it in Rama's route, right?) so I figured out they would be something like a wedding ring and I was actually jumping in joy when I read I was right. That kind of small details.
Just so you know, I ship Asih and Yuda SO F#CKING MUCH, THEY ARE LOVELY TOGETHER AND DESERVE TO BE HAPPY WITH A BUNCH OF TINY-WINGED KIDS.
Let's move on.
In both Mitra and Reksa's routes Rama suicides. I loved that because you never know what's going on in his mind unless you play his route (the only way to keep him alive and kicking). And when you start playing it A LOT OF THINGS MAKE SENSE FROM THE VERY BEGINNING, but I'm going to expand on this in the next question.
One more thing that deserves to be mentioned is the music. I LOVE THE MUSIC. The fit SO good in their scenes that they help a lot in the experience. My heart was pounding like crazy anytime there were fightings, a warmness envelopted me in the romantic-toned scenes while a dumb smile crossed my face and lots of giggles escaped my lips, and I actually found myself shivering in anticipation when you confront Purba in the last fighting scene.
Besides that, would you believe me if I told you more than once I ran the game just to have the menu theme playing while I did other stuff? Because I totally did -and DO- that!
4. Do you have any question or constructive critiques?
There are a few things I'd like to point out, if you allow me...
- I'm a sucker for bad endings so I was seriously (like, SERIOUSLY) frustrated Mitra didn't have one. I wish he did, I wanted to see that sweet man crying and broken, AND I SWEAR I'M GOOD IN THE HEAD, I just really love angsty endings. That's why I effin' loved the other two's bad endings. Great job making them, they felt tragic without being off. Rama's ending was something I was expecting but Reksa's ending I didn't see coming, and they were both handled perfectly. I also loved their CGs. I want moar bad endings, pls.
Given the amazing work you did with Rama and Reksa, may I ask why did you not make a bad ending for Mitra?
- I felt like Rama's route was very obvious and easy to guess, starting from the main menu image where he looks up to the sky. Totally expecting some drama stuff, which are never bad! Then, after I noticed about Asih and Yuda's earrings,
I instantly knew Rama had had an unrequited love and the feather hanging on his ear belonged to one of her wings, and somehow I foresaw that that woman he loved was in love with a brother of his and chose him instead, and that Rama wore a (beautiful, because it was beautiful) feather earring to honor his beloved girl because she probably had died, and since no one had ever mentioned Rama had a sibling, I'd supposed he had also died. That was my first theory at least. Obviously there was a huge chance I was wrong (like, the feather was not in fact from the wings of an unrequited love but from his actual wife wings, or she didn't choose his brother instead but another man who had no relation with Rama), but as I went on I saw I was not wrong at all. Besides that, his endings were predictable. Bad one where Tamara dies and he FINALLY loses it, and good one where he burns that pretty feather. Yeah, saw that coming.
But don't take me wrong, I'm not saying it was boring or even bad! They were amazing and fitting to his mental condition, it was only predictable, that's all. (Also, it could be that I tend to create characters to use in my books and one of them has a backstory awfully similar to his! Hahaha
)
-Also, about Rama...
His route was the last one I played, and like I said in the previous question, you start noticing a lot of AMAZING things while at it. The best example I can think of are the pigeons. OH MY GOD, AFTER I STARTED HIS ROUTE I KNEW THE PIGEONS WERE HIS BROTHER AND HIS BROTHER'S WIFE. THE MALE PIGEON EVEN HAS THE SAME EYE COLOUR AS HIM. AND IN MITRA'S AND REKSA'S ROUTE, WHEN RAMA COMMITS SUICIDE THERE IS A SMALL EVENT WHERE SOMEONE TALKS AND SAYS SOMETHING ABOUT "so you couldn't save him", AND IT HIT ME SO HARD WHEN I NOTICED IT WAS THEM. Wait, let me get on my feet and clap the sh#t out of your incredible ability of foreshadowing. The conection between the pigeons and Rama was the thing I fricking loved the most about his route, it was brilliant, and I mean it. It really blew my mind.
-Mitra is my favourite bachelor, and ironically enough his ending was the one I hated the most. That's because
come on, wasn't the Goddess supposed to do something for Tamara if she accomplished what was there to do? Tamara did okay, alright? Then DO SOMETHING FOR HER, WOMAN. Letting her stay in the place or giving her the chance to go back does NOT count as a gift! I was the whole game expecting her to give Tamara some wings of her own if she decided to stay (only for Mitra's route because he's the important one since he's the leader of the tribe; like, it wouldn't fit if she had wings in Reksa's route, and it would be prettier if she stayed human in Rama's.)
I had actually made every detail in my mind. Since completely white pigeons are believed to be the Goddess' pawns, she would give Tamara some perfectly white wings, which would be the most beautiful of all because no one has ever had feathers that white before, and it was a sign of the good she did for them all and it would be so encouraging having her as the leader's fiancée since it makes her look like a pawn of the Goddess herself, AND SHE ACTUALLY WAS. Also, Mitra showing proudly an all-white feather earring and Tamara having the most beautiful brownish-silver-coloured feather hanging from her ear is an image I'd like to keep locked in my mind forever. That was the ending I hoped to reach. I was extremely disappointed nothing of that happened, so I'm just going to pretend that was the actual ending xD
-Is there a meaning behind the character's tattoos or a special reason everyone seems to have a tattoo somewhere in their bodies except for Rama? Or is it just the way you designed them?
-And, to finish this beast of an answer, there's one thing I didn't quite understand... Who was the person Tamara was dreaming of at the begining of the VN? Was it Reksa? O maybe Rama having his wings broken? I can't really get to a conclusion. Would you please enlighten this poor, dumb girl?
5. Would I consider buying a visual novel of yours?
If your nexts projects are going to be as amazing, incredible and mind-blowing as this one, I would gladly give up my bank account for you... If I actually had anything in there.
The truth is, I don't have much money (not even a credit card of my own, only my parent's since I'm still a 18-year-old brat and I don't usually ask them for money), also the dollar in my country is freaking expensive, but I would certainly pay if I could afford it.
Keep the great work! I hope to find more small details in Nusantara: Bermuda Triangle like I did in The Legend of the Winged Ones. I know the new work is not a sequel of the previous one, but we still get to see the Goddess again, so I'll take it it's conected somehow (even if not directly.) Hopefully I'll be able to pay for it because I can't wait to play it!
Best regards and thank you for reading. I hope I didn't bore you!
EDIT: I noticed something you may want to know from your RenPy version of this game. When you first run the game and choose to go to the CG Gallery there's one image that shows there as if you had already unlocked it: Rama's good ending. Also, it appears to be the second out of two, because when you click on it the screen turns black and there's a message written in the middle that says "Image 1 of 2 locked", and if you click again you can perfectly see the one that would be the 2.
Besides that, Mitra is extremely hot. I just wanted to say it
