RE: Alistair++

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Glasskitten
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Re: RE: Alistair (Otome dating sim/stats raising visual nove

#31 Post by Glasskitten »

How pretty! I hope if I can squeeze it onto my distractions list this month!

(I wonder if I should rename one of the characters in my little fantasy world in order to avoid confusion. He doesn't really want to be renamed...)
Grand list of things not officially canceled:
Salt -- the heartwarming story of brain-eating space worms
Tangent -- an epic poem and/or novel about a borderline-autistic Martian imp and her relationship with God
Kittens of the Darned -- a grimdark soap opera about sexy catgirls (Indefinitely postponed until I learn to draw and color realistically)
The Other Mary -- the most perfect fic about the most perfect Mary Sue EVER
Rockheart -- a short story about a monster who kills everyone
Corrupted -- a completely different short story about a monster who kills everyone (late Worst Visual Novel Ever)
Checkpoint 36a -- the transcription of a short multi-ending dream about time travel and undead schoolgirls
In Which the Princess is Kidnapped -- an entry in the "ordinary girl ends up in an alien universe and tries to save it" genre
Pictogram Scramble: Magical Friendship Bunny Ivy -- a Flash game about a magical girl making friends (Indefinitely postponed until I learn how friendship works)

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Re: RE: Alistair (Otome dating sim/stats raising visual nove

#32 Post by sake-bento »

Crystallized wrote:It crashes after I accuse Travis
when he tells me Derek is Alistair and he's a GM
T_T
I think I fixed it. If it doesn't work, I've posted a fix that seems to be working.
Foehn wrote: 5. There should be more Rivenwell Online content, since the VN revolve on this particular game
We were throwing around ideas of including a turn-based fighting game, but we scrapped it because it seemed like it would derail the plot a bit, and it wasn't feasible to make one within the timespan of two months.
Foehn wrote: 8. It necessitates walkthrough in order to get the ending you want, with all those high requirement score; so it's not balanced
It seems a lot of people got good ends entirely on accident. The general consensus is that it's very easy to win if you buy items, and nearly impossible if you don't. Items boost stats really quickly, and it's possible to finish the game with more than enough of each stat requirement.
Foehn wrote: Typos:
>after first 2nd choice: At lease (least)
>mall 2nd: What, I can't by ice cream (buy)
>pushing Travis for information: You really are too curious for you own (your)
>Shiro weekend: Since it's the weekened, (weekend)
>Shiro random morning event: The teacher turns back to the chalkboard; but the in-game CG is whiteboard >:|
Thank you~
Glasskitten wrote:How pretty! I hope if I can squeeze it onto my distractions list this month!

(I wonder if I should rename one of the characters in my little fantasy world in order to avoid confusion. He doesn't really want to be renamed...)
You should give your characters names that suit them. ^-^ If the name is good, it's okay to keep it. I hope you get the chance to play this.

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Re: RE: Alistair (Otome dating sim/stats raising visual nove

#33 Post by tooaya »

I do believe there are plenty of people who got good ends without a guide, and I don't believe all of them are on accident either. People would think VNs are easy, but they are not (at least, not the ones I've played), and we didn't want to make the game too easy anyway.

In my personal opinion, the game is quite challenging without a walkthrough, but it's not impossible, thus I believe it is quite balanced and its difficulty is one of the plus of the game.

I'll be fixing the sprites up in later releases, although Travis hair is designed to have one side "balder" than the other. lol

EDIT: forgot to mention: you get different e-mails depending on your choices in the game, so there are more mails than you might think. >3>

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Re: RE: Alistair (Otome dating sim/stats raising visual nove

#34 Post by Anvil Factory »

Derek
There's something about Derek's pants-in-pocket pose that seems so... skeevy, hahaha. It works for his character. Also, he's so... selective about his dye job; did he do it himself or go to a salon of some sort?

He's adorable when he blushes. So out of his element, ahahaha. It's a shame this game isn't longer. I would've liked to see how he deals with his parents and such.

I felt so bad when he got banned in the normal ending.
Shiro
I was wondering if we'd meet Fiona in RL. Man, I totally didn't expect Shiro to use a female avatar. I'm embarrassed that I didn't realize I obtained his ending! (I secretly wondered if there was a hidden GL ending.) I think it's adorable how both Merui and Shiro have masculine and feminine traits. It really adds some depth. I also kept thinking, "omg so moe" when he's blushing. :oops:

Also, I thought it was neat that Shiro's name is written in Japanese order. Along with his utterance of "itadakimasu," he seems to have pride in his culture. I love that he emails Merui about working on the project (UMMM). It must kill him to see her logged in when they have a project due. Ah, I'm really curious about how they first met on Rivenwell.
Travis
Glasses tsundere! I love this character type in men... in fiction. In any other case, I would want to smack one. Being A-OK with Merui in sweats also makes him pretty awesome in my book!

His clothes and glasses scream salary man or elite high school student to me. I mean this in the best possible way.

............GM. So that's how he's involved, hahaha. By the way, where did the inspiration for "Oda" come from? The historical figure? I like pretending that Travis is a One Piece fan.

Total tsundere, hahaha. :X
Just what does a DSP look like? :lol:

I kind of wish this game had a "harem" ending, if only because I want to everyone to have their issues resolved in a single path. Idealistic is me! That, and I'm not a one-man woman when I play games. :X

I really love the diverse poses. It's great to see that you guys didn't just flip them horizontally. It really bothers me when hair partings suddenly switch sides. The only exception I'd make is if the character is holding a comb in their character art.

All in all, great job! It's impressive that you guys pulled this off in two months.

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Re: RE: Alistair (Otome dating sim/stats raising visual nove

#35 Post by PrettySammy09 »

Hey there!

I downloaded this game and got all of the endings in around one day (but it pretty much took half my Sunday. XD) It was great! And YAY for Otome!

Stuff that Rocked:
- Overall, everything
- The art was, as many have said, professional quality! Great visuals!
- The interface and customization was fantastic! So polished.
- Merui was an endearing main character.
- Overall premise was super clever and engaging.


Stuff that Threw Me Off a Bit:
- I would've liked a "status" button on the main screen instead of having to go to menu to check it - that's such a nitpicky thing though.
While I'm personally not a huge fan of the stat-builder Ren'Ai game (it never really works for me that watching a lot
of TV will make a boy like me more), this was handled logistically well.

The only thing that threw me off a lot was when I, after getting bad endings two or three times, went a little bit back to try again, bought an item and was rewarded with Derek's good ending, despite making the exact same choices. (In fact, I had let him treat me to ice cream, not even getting his second CG or finding out he plays Rivenwall Online!)

Is there an unseen "affection" meter that is affected by the clothes you buy and the choices you make when talking to the guys? Cause that would make me feel like the choices in the scenes made a difference. I'd hate it if the stuff I bought and the TV I watched influenced my winning a guy more than how I treated him.

Plot and writing wise, I loved all the characters and the overall writing, but I felt that Shiro and Derek's endings were a little abrupt. I mean, Derek behaved pretty insincerely for nearly the entire time I knew him, so his "actually, I really like you for real" bit threw me a bit. Shiro, my online best buddy, seems to not want to talk about the fact that he and Merui have known each other for supposedly a while now. While I realize that it is indeed "embarrassing" to be caught playing a female character on a MMO, I sorta wanted to know more about his motivations for doing that. "It's embarrassing" felt like a cop-out. I mean, I loved the idea that the two of them had been close for a really long time before they even knew each other - that's a very sweet idea, the girlfriend who's always been there for you turning out to be the guy of your dreams. They didn't seem to care to talk about that much. Instead we got a relatively awkward talk about Shiro's family that made me think Shiro might've been a little more scary than I had thought... ^^;;;

Travis' ending was awesome. Very cool reveal and a more believable confession. :) (Although I sorta wanted Shiro to be Oda and Travis to be Fiona for some sick reason. XDDD)
Anyway, I REALLY loved this game. It's fantastic, great job~! It's so good to have a great Otome game in the Ren'Py library. :3

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Re: RE: Alistair (Otome dating sim/stats raising visual nove

#36 Post by risingdreams »

Dude, this game reminds me of .hack// for some bizarre reason. In other words: WIN.
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Re: RE: Alistair (Otome dating sim/stats raising visual nove

#37 Post by semewelamb »

Love, love love this game. The artwork was wonderful and I enjoyed all the characters so much that I can't even pick a favorite. LOL. Great job!

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Re: RE: Alistair (Otome dating sim/stats raising visual nove

#38 Post by Blue Lemma »

Great game! The premise is fresh and amusing, and Merui is a fun protagonist. (I want a Merui now :mrgreen: )

This game was walkthrough-bait for me, though... I tied getting an ending other than the bad ending and the normal ending about 3 times before I gave up and looked up the walkthrough.

Major props for
actually having one of the main suspects be Alistair. With mysteries like this, it's often tempting to make the culprit a secret/lesser 4th character you would never suspect.
The art is really great, and the UI really adds to the game. The Rivenwell Online world and email program added some nice depth and variety 8)

Complaint: No Merui fanservice! Waaaaaaaah! :cry: Well, what do you expect from a game made by girls? :wink:

Anyway, great stuff - thanks for sharing!
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Re: RE: Alistair (Otome dating sim/stats raising visual nove

#39 Post by Thee Forsaken One »

Blue Lemma wrote:Complaint: No Merui fanservice! Waaaaaaaah! :cry: Well, what do you expect from a game made by girls? :wink:
I wanted some but I was overruled. D:

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Re: RE: Alistair (Otome dating sim/stats raising visual nove

#40 Post by Blue Lemma »

Overruled?! Noooooooooooo, we were so close! Never give up! Fight for what you believe in! :mrgreen:

Maybe you could've swung sake-bento over to our cause if you supplied her with some sake :wink:
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Re: RE: Alistair (Otome dating sim/stats raising visual nove

#41 Post by Thee Forsaken One »

Unfortunately Tooaya is the artist. :P

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Re: RE: Alistair (Otome dating sim/stats raising visual nove

#42 Post by Blue Lemma »

Solution: Male artist *drafts Doomfest* :wink:

Seriously, though, that's some pro-level work you guys did.
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Re: RE: Alistair (Otome dating sim/stats raising visual nove

#43 Post by lepapillonrouge »

When I got online I was thinking "...hmm, maybe I should download a VN for fun," and I went into the Completed Games and clicked this. XD I was like, "WHOA lots of comments for something I've never seen before."

I'm excited, I can't wait to play it.
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Re: RE: Alistair (Otome dating sim/stats raising visual nove

#44 Post by Elinica »

I just finished my first run of the game (about 1 hour 40 minutes), and I must say, I've really had a lot of fun. I'm amazed at the quality of the game! The graphics are gorgeous, and the music is really fitting and wonderful. I'm excited to play again and try to find the other endings and CG's. I got the bad ending the first time, but that's ok.

I'm really amazed at how much you were able to acomplish in two months; this really feels like a professional game that you would buy. This is one of my favorite games I've ever played. In fact, if you ever put up a donation page, I would like to donate to your team. :)

Merui is an adorable protaganist! She has a really endearing design and a personality. The guys are really appealing, too. I'm a big fan of playing romance games where love blooms from animosity.

My personal wish would be a shoujo ai ending with Fionawings, ha ha. :lol:

Also, are you planning on adding to the game, or are you pretty much done with it as a project? Either way, it's really amazing what you've accomplished! I've bookmarked your deviantart and webpage to check on, thanks for spreading the word about your game! (I saw this over at the otome community at Livejournal, too.)

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Re: RE: Alistair (Otome dating sim/stats raising visual nove

#45 Post by Catoni15 »

This thing is amazing!

I finished and got all the endings already and I love this. The art alone makes me want to cry only due to the fact that I'm nowhere near that awesome and am insanely jealous. XP

Seriously, though, everything was so nice to look at. I liked the customized menus and everything. It really added to the playing experience.

Story writing's pretty tight. It was really entertaining and I found myself caring about what was going on. Merui, as someone else has already said, is a great protagonist. She was energetic enough, lively enough, to make her enjoyable without making her annoying or overwhelming.

The guys: Damn you, why did you make me like ALL of them? I'm not supposed to like ALL of them! ;___;

Meh, I forgive you. XP

But, more in depth about them:

Travis: I can't say that I like his name very much. Every time I see or hear the name "Travis" I think of trailer trash for some reason. It could just be that I knew a guy who was trailer trash by that very name. *shrug*.
When I started playing through his path I was wondering why he was making such a big deal about Merui going after Alistair in real life. He mentions the "possibly misconstrued as underage gambling" thing but then gets all scary mad at Merui. I was like, "Woah dude, calm down. It's a game! O_o;;". 'Course, then it started sounding like he was hiding something that had to do with the game. Again, I was like, "Dude, come on!". Once I found out it could get him kicked out of school I was like, "Oooooh". Then I could understand the big deal. XP
Back to the scary mad scene for a moment: When I heard the music kick in for it and saw Travis's reaction to Merui telling him about Alistair--good grief! I was scared for Merui's safety for a minute there! I'm not kidding! I thought he was gonna kill her or something! Haha. XDDD
Anywho...
I know I said I liked all three of them but Travis has to be my favorite.
His 3rd event CG was majorly sexy~
Derek:
I have to be totally honest--the only reason I guessed him first as Alistair was because of a wild guess. I had no idea who it was, really, when it was time to confront him. A lucky guess, and the fact that I had already eliminated Travis as a suspect early on (I was playing his path at the time). Once I learned he was Alistair on the first play through I started to wonder if the whole thing about his parents was just something he was throwing out there to play Merui. Turns out it was real, all right. Poor guy.
Somebody mentioned that Derek's ending seemed kind of abrupt and that his change from playing to sincere was odd (I think?). Anyway, I didn't think so. I think he's just used to acting the way he always does--forward, open and charismatic--but was forced out of it the moment Merui confronted him. I think he was trying to come to terms with it at the same time, too. Maybe he had no intention of saying anything until she came to him (or she to someone else if he pops up to confess--I didn't bother accusing anyone else when I played his path as I already knew it was him by that time).
I also find the art in the first post to be kind of telling in a subtle way. It is, after all, Derek's picture in the middle looking more...evil(?) than the other two. That was a nice touch by the artist (and you, sake, if you coordinated the art to be that way). I like that kind of small attention to detail.
Shiro:
I like Shiro, but he has to be my least favorite of all the guys. I think it might've been that I found him to be more boring than Travis and Derek. He spends a lot of time closed up and doesn't show much except every now and then (like the bitterness when Merui asks about his parents or the smiling he does occasionally). I dunno. I guess he just had less personality. *shrug*
I also didn't like the fact that he turned out to be FionaWings. I mean, it was a nice twist (did NOT see that coming! ^^) but...I don't know. It was just an 'eh' reaction for me. I'm tempted to chalk it up to personal preference. XP
He's a nice kid. I'm just sorry that's really ALL I have to say about him, though. ^^;
Oh, and his clothes are sexy. I want them~
Oh, and I found one typo/error kind of thing in the story that I don't think anyone else has pointed out yet (and if they have, apologies in advance):
When Merui refuses to help Travis with the computer tournament thing she gets an e-mail from him to apologize. If I remember right the left [ is missing from the sender name and the e-mail is actually signed with Derek's name, not Travis's.
Well, that's my thoughts on that. Again, awesome VN! I really enjoyed it and hope to see more of this quality in the future~<3
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