Round the Mulberry Bush [BxG, despair]

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ebi-hime
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Round the Mulberry Bush [BxG, despair]

#1 Post by ebi-hime »

Image

A visual novel set in the late 18th century, about an impossible 'romance' between a young Lady and a stableboy.
Watch as their relationship falls apart over the course of seven long, lazy summers.

The is a kinetic novel, and has no choices. It is around 15k words long.

It can be downloaded for windows, mac, and linux here.

Sprite art by Esther.
Background art by Thai Chau.

Image

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I have a lot of free & commercial VNs available on Steam and itchio.io if you want to check them out! ☆

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somestrangecircus
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Re: Round the Mulberry Bush [BxG, despair]

#2 Post by somestrangecircus »

I did a full review of this game here, and a spoiler-filled ramble about what I thought of the ending here.

This is a great little read with an interesting take on the typical "star-crossed lover" romance, and is well worth your time to check out. Great job, ebi-hime!

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ebi-hime
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Re: Round the Mulberry Bush [BxG, despair]

#3 Post by ebi-hime »

somestrangecircus wrote:I did a full review of this game here, and a spoiler-filled ramble about what I thought of the ending here.

This is a great little read with an interesting take on the typical "star-crossed lover" romance, and is well worth your time to check out. Great job, ebi-hime!
Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it u///u
And, as for your comments...
Like you said, I wouldn't consider Oliver as an unreliable narrator, because the stuff he narrates is all stuff that genuinely happens... His unhealthy obsession with Mattie is the issue, and it depends on whether you want to read this as stemming from mental illness, or just intense jealousy/entitlement/whatever.

Though, the story was somewhat inspired by this song, that really does have an unreliable/possibly unhinged narrator.
I have a lot of free & commercial VNs available on Steam and itchio.io if you want to check them out! ☆

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Jerana
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Re: Round the Mulberry Bush [BxG, despair]

#4 Post by Jerana »

I made an account just so I could say this--

Don't judge me, but I actually started crying when I played this game. It hit so close to home (nothing bad, I promise) and I just have been through Oliver's situation and this game was really beautiful and well-written. Mega kudos to you.

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SeaOtter
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Re: Round the Mulberry Bush [BxG, despair]

#5 Post by SeaOtter »

I don't read kinetic novels very often so my opinion may be a bit skewed but overall, I feel there was something to be desired. I'm not very critical of the art or the music or the UI (all very smooth and lovely!) but as I got hooked into the story, there was a growing sense of ... narrowness?

I suppose this may be what you were going after when writing it out, but the story is very focused on Matilda. I point this out because Oliver himself seems like a much more interesting character (imho). We can glean a lot about him because he is the narrator. We can see he is extremely literate and extremely passionate, yet at the same time, very composed in thought and living as a lowerclass. I would very much enjoy seeing his interactions and observations in that time period and world.

But, again, I understand you wrote the story in this way for a specific reason. And it is spaced out quite well, with each part beginning and ending very naturally. It's interesting seeing this "love" grow to such a ... frightening size. Matilda is an evolving individual but Oliver and his feelings just stay the same. It actually sorta reminds me of Holden. God darn teenagers and their feelings. But nah, not really. It's a bit more complicated than that.

Anyways. Thank you for the read.

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ebi-hime
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Re: Round the Mulberry Bush [BxG, despair]

#6 Post by ebi-hime »

@ Jerana
Thank you, I'm glad you liked it u_u

@ SeaOtter
The artists did a very good job, it all looks so pretty o'3'o
And I'm glad you liked the GUI, it's not my strong point, haha XD;

Well, Oliver himself is pretty single-minded... So if the focus feels narrow, it's because he thinks about Mattie so much.
The story isn't really concerned with his interactions with anything else, so detailing these would seem unnecessary - but I'm glad you liked him as a character.
About Oliver's feelings - since he's narrating the story in past tense, looking back on what happened, I guess he might seem kind of static... I imagine, if I'd told in first person present instead of past, his tone would change a bit more with the passing of time, and so would some of the things he say.

Again, thank you - I'm glad you liked it u///u
I have a lot of free & commercial VNs available on Steam and itchio.io if you want to check them out! ☆

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