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This World Unknown [Fantasy, Otome, GxB]

Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2016 3:31 pm
by ebi-hime
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Download:
You can download it on Steam for mac/linux/windows here, for $7.99!~
Or, if you prefer, you can also download the VN on itch.io, along with the demo!
The demo is 55k and comprises almost all of the game's common route.

Story:
Peace is scarce in the country of Aslande, and it has been at war with the neighbouring country of Eressia for centuries. When one battle ends, another inevitably begins, either months or years later. To Rhea, however, war is a distant concept; something she has heard about, but never witnessed. Born in a small, secluded village, Rhea occupies her life with more mundane concerns: her job at the local hospital, her playful bickering with her friend Asa, and her prayers for a successful harvest come autumn.

However, when Rhea's childhood friend, Luca, returns home to the village after fighting in one of Aslande's many wars, Rhea is suddenly faced with a problem. Why is Luca suddenly so cold, so distant? What did he see out on the battlefield, and how did it change him?

At the same time, new worries plague Rhea, as one of the patients at the hospital is suffering from a rather perplexing illness - and a failure to cure him could have some unpleasant outcomes...

About:
This World Unknown is a fantasy-themed otome game where the player assumes the role of the first person narrator, Rhea, and can romance four available guys. Which route you end up on depends on the choices made during the common route.
The character routes themselves are rather long, and have a lot of plot twists and world building (and lots and lots of characters).
The screen resolution is 1280x720.

Main Characters:

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Rhea:
Age: 17
A nurse at the local hospital. Rhea is a serious, hard-working young girl, but she gets flustered easily. She’s often too nice to her patients, and can get caught up talking to them instead of doing her job. She takes her faith very seriously, and prays at church almost every morning.

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Asa:
Age: 16
One of Rhea’s childhood friends. He wants nothing more than to be a cool, suave lady-killer, but (to his embarrassment) he has never had a girlfriend before. Even more humiliating, the only girl interested in him is Luca’s nine year old sister. He has a lot of strange, seemingly irrational phobias – particularly spiders and toads – and loathes carrots.

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Luca:
Age: 20
Another of Rhea’s childhood friends, he is looked up to as a big brother like figure, being the oldest of the three. He’s calm, thoughtful, and dependable in a crisis, and has a wealth of general knowledge. He joined the army one year ago, and returns a markedly different man. Just what did he do on the battlefield, and what did he see? Given he won’t say a word about what happened, it’s difficult to tell.

Garrett:
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Age: 15
A young boy staying at the local hospital with a broken leg. He claims he broke his leg during a march with the army, returning from the battlefield to the capital to report upon the progress of the war. Garrett is a very energetic boy who hates lying down or keeping still, though his boundless enthusiasm only hinders his recovery. Despite being such a young soldier, he is unerring cheerful and optimistic, and dreams of someday becoming a real hero.

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Valerian:
Age: 29
The doctor at the village hospital, Doctor Valerian is mistrusted by all as he was not born and bred in the village. He makes himself even more unpopular by being rude and abrasive, and his disdain for the church is markedly obvious. He appears haughty and aloof, but he has an unexpectedly childish side, and he enjoys arguing with people (but only if he can win the argument).

Side Characters:

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Clair:
Age: 16
A nurse at the hospital, Clair is cheerful and outgoing, always telling stupid jokes and getting into petty arguments with Doctor Valerian. She loves meat more than anything – so much so she sometimes raids the kitchen cupboards during her sleep. She doesn’t leave the hospital very much as the other villagers are wary of her, suspecting her to be a demon because of the two horns that protrude from the top of her head.

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Selene:
Age: 17
A seraph acting as the current head priestess of the church whilst her father, Sion, is ill. Selene is a shy girl who hates being in the spotlight, and finds it difficult dealing with the responsibilities that come with being a priestess. She’s very hard on herself, and often works herself into such anxious states she has panic attacks.

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Meirin:
Age: ???
A seemingly young woman who owns the village bakery, the Sacred Heart. She moved to the village at the time Doctor Valerian did, and the two appear to be very close, though the exact nature of their relationship is unknown. Given her pointed ears, it is obvious she is not a human being, but most people are too intimidated by her to ask. Meirin loves teasing people and is almost never seen without a sardonic smile, so it’s difficult to tell what she’s really thinking.

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Sion:
Age: 41
Selene’s father, the priest of the local church and the most respected man in the village. A strong public speaker, supremely confident, and unwavering in his beliefs. He was inflicted by a strange disease a few months ago, which aged him rapidly overnight, turning him into an enfeebled old man. Doctor Valerian is searching for a cure. It doesn't seem to be life-threatening, but...

There are several more characters (around 20 of them), but several of them only appear in certain character routes, and not in the common route. All these characters appear in the common route.

Screenshots:
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Walkthrough:
If you're having trouble accessing any of the character routes, you can take a look at the walkthrough here! ❤

Credits:
Writing, programming: Ebi-hime
Sprites: Adyrn (if you want you can look through her gallery and see all the sprites for this game... b-but wouldn't that be cheating?)
Music: Amachamusic & DLsite
SFX: Sounddogs, soundjay
Backgrounds: Various. There is a full list of every single BG used, and credited, in a .txt file with the game.

Re: This World Unknown [Fantasy, Otome, GxB]

Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2016 12:53 am
by missxtake
I've been waiting for this! It looks super good; congrats on releasing!

Re: This World Unknown [Fantasy, Otome, GxB]

Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2016 11:12 am
by ebi-hime
missxtake wrote:I've been waiting for this! It looks super good; congrats on releasing!
Thank yooou >_<
I've been waiting for this too...!

Re: This World Unknown [Fantasy, Otome, GxB]

Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2016 11:40 am
by Alysya
This looks nice. I kinda liked your older character art more.

Re: This World Unknown [Fantasy, Otome, GxB]

Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2016 5:13 pm
by ebi-hime
Alysya wrote:This looks nice. I kinda liked your older character art more.
Thank you!
If you're referring to Selly's art, I'm also fond of it - but I started TWU like a year before I started working on Asphyxia with Selly. Technically, the art is TWU is older XD;
In any case, I think this kind of art style suits the writing in TWU, because the writing is a lot less elaborate and ornate than some of my other things.

Re: This World Unknown [Fantasy, Otome, GxB]

Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2016 7:26 pm
by Googaboga
Congrats on the release! It's so rare to see an EVN over 300,000 words (for understandable reasons), that's super impressive.

Do you plan on releasing a walkthrough or hint guide?

Re: This World Unknown [Fantasy, Otome, GxB]

Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2016 1:25 pm
by Periwinkle
Okay but if the main character is a 17 year old child why is she able to romance a 29 year old man? That's really creepy

Re: This World Unknown [Fantasy, Otome, GxB]

Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2016 2:32 pm
by Alysya
ebi-hime wrote:
Alysya wrote:This looks nice. I kinda liked your older character art more.
Thank you!
If you're referring to Selly's art, I'm also fond of it - but I started TWU like a year before I started working on Asphyxia with Selly. Technically, the art is TWU is older XD;
In any case, I think this kind of art style suits the writing in TWU, because the writing is a lot less elaborate and ornate than some of my other things.
Ah, I see. Thanks for replying. :3 Maybe I'll get it... I am tempted!

Re: This World Unknown [Fantasy, Otome, GxB]

Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2016 2:33 pm
by Alysya
Periwinkle wrote:Okay but if the main character is a 17 year old child why is she able to romance a 29 year old man? That's really creepy
She's nearly of age, so I don't see the problem. There are tons of people (like me), who like romancing older guys (irl or 2d).

Re: This World Unknown [Fantasy, Otome, GxB]

Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2016 6:00 pm
by ebi-hime
@ Googaboga
I don't know if I'll release a walkthrough, because I think the VN is relatively straightforward. The choices are rather self-explanatory, I think.
And thank you! >///<

@ Periwinkle
Because I wanted to write it, that's why : I

Re: This World Unknown [Fantasy, Otome, GxB]

Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2016 9:29 pm
by Kirlett
What do you mean why? BECAUSE DR. VALERIAN IS HOT AS HELL. Hahahaha, sorry. I started playing yesterday in Steam. I like it so far, but I don't know if I'm going to the route I want. I think my choices point to the Doctor, but maybe I'm still in the main route.
I like all the guys except Luca. He bores me to death xD
Good work^^ I pity Selene, btw. Her father is the worst.
AND MEIRIN. I LOVE HER. She has a thing for Rhea e_e

Re: This World Unknown [Fantasy, Otome, GxB]

Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2016 6:26 am
by ebi-hime
Kirlett wrote:What do you mean why? BECAUSE DR. VALERIAN IS HOT AS HELL. Hahahaha, sorry. I started playing yesterday in Steam. I like it so far, but I don't know if I'm going to the route I want. I think my choices point to the Doctor, but maybe I'm still in the main route.
I like all the guys except Luca. He bores me to death xD
Good work^^ I pity Selene, btw. Her father is the worst.
AND MEIRIN. I LOVE HER. She has a thing for Rhea e_e
Val a best u///u He's my fav XD;;
I got one of my male friends to play it, and he was like "oh yeah, Val seems like the kind of character women would like, but he's not my thing"...
Then, when he finished the common route, he was like "OK, Val is my fav after all...!!!" XD;;
I'm pretty fond of Luca... He's not all that nice in the common route, though u_u
And Meirin seems pretty popular, too XD;; She was a lot of fun to write.

Re: This World Unknown [Fantasy, Otome, GxB]

Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2016 4:48 am
by Limabaen
I loved the demo, so I bought and played this game instead of studying for my exams :oops:
Actually, I thought I finished the 4 routes, but I haven't got the "finished all routes" achievement and I'm missing the last 5 cgs. Could you tell me how to get them?
Also, I'm pretty sure this is the longest otome vn I've read! There's a lot of lengthy bishoujo games but it seems like most otomes have stat raising or are mobage so it was super great to play something longer. I think my favourite character was Luca, but my favourite route was Valerian's because
It felt almost cathartic to finally find out what happened with Sion. I also enjoyed the fleshing out of characters we already knew too in that route.
I also liked Rhea as a protagonist because she doesn't readily fall into "weak otome protag", or "strong otome protag". She's not physically strong but I felt like she was a stable, emotionally resilient girl.
For the others routes:
I enjoyed them but I ended up shipping them with characters other than Rhea so whoops? Nen and Garrett are really cute, and on Asa's route I was inwardly praying that Meeko would end up with him instead haha
Are you going to make more long otomes? If so, I'm looking forwards to it :)
btw everyone was so cute, I'm tempted to draw some fanart once my exams are over

Re: This World Unknown [Fantasy, Otome, GxB]

Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2016 9:29 am
by ebi-hime
@ Limabaen

Oh, for the all routes achieve and the last few CGs, try turning off the game and then starting it again in Steam. I coded this achieve a bit weird, so after you finish all 4 routes it won't automatically unlock - but it should when you restart it after finishing all 4 routes. The last few cgs should also unlock after doing this.
If you try it, please let me know if it works u///u

I like Luca a lot too! I think he might not be so popular since he's such a jerk in the common route, but
he's a sweetie deep down u///u
Val's route was also fun to write. It feels like the 'final route' because it ties together most of the loose endings.
Nen and Garrett are actually my favourite pair from this story haha XD; I think they're better suited than Rhea and Garrett.
I also think Asa and Luca would be pretty cute together orz;;
I don't know if I will work on any long otome VNs in the future. I'll have to wait a bit and see what kind of feedback I get from TWU first. If I don't get enough monetary return it probably isn't worth it in the long run... though that sounds kind of cold hahah XD;;;

And thank you, that's very sweet of you u///u

Re: This World Unknown [Fantasy, Otome, GxB]

Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2016 11:57 am
by Kirlett
I have to say something: the music (parts of it) is bad, not because the songs are bad, but they hurt my ears with headphones (and no, it wasn't the volume). I'm not expressing myself crearly but it's difficult for me to do so in english T_T
It's... scratchy? A really sharp noise?
I had to silence the game sometimes because the music was giving mee headaches. Not all the songs, with some of them I have no problems and they're lovely. But there is one that is specially annoying. It usually plays at the hospital.