Okay, so because I'm super lazy and I've been writing down notes, this will probably read very stream-of-conciousness. These are pretty much just my thoughts while playing the demo, with some additions afterward. I apologize. (Also, please excuse any egregious formatting errors, this is literally my first post on this forum and one of my first forum posts in general - I usually follow the 'lurk moar' way of life, haha.)
"the night air smells a lot cleaner than the air I'm used to" Is the duenkhy society less industrialized? Or in a different area with different infrastructure? - Never mind, this is answered later, Jun lived by a highway. I would be interested to hear of any differences of that sort, though. And how exactly where they lived was created, since they moved off of their original planet. I mean, I can't imagine the humans building this suburbia for them, at least not if the seeming mutual distaste has always existed. Did the humans just move away from certain areas? Did it just become informally segregated? Did the duenkhy build it for themselves, copying the local human style? If so, why would they do that? Is the style different from their home world, did they lose their cultural roots, or do they just want to fit in?
"we still treat each other as strangers. As monsters." This makes me wonder if there were any particular incidents between humans and duenkhy that caused animosity, or if it's just the normal capacity to hate and fear that which is different from oneself.
The colors and design of the textbox kind of confused me a little bit. I mean, I thought that the background and heart was really cute, but for me it really skewed my perception of Jun to the feminine side; given that the GUI is sort of her perception of the word, the vehicle by which we access her thoughts and the world of the game, the fact that the color and design are traditionally 'feminine', made me perceive her as definitely more on the feminine side of androgynous, if not outright female. Since you said you wanted to convey a non-binary/genderfluid character, I think it might be beneficial to consider that angle and possibly do something more gender neutral. Of course, it's definitely possible that you agonized over those choices and I'm just being an ass by bringing my preconceived notions of gender into here. If so, I deeply apologize. If that actually is worthwhile, the other thought I had was that maybe the background/color of the text box could change with the route the player chooses? Feel free to shoot me down mercilessly if that is a terrible idea and/or way too much work.
"You can do anything as long as you have comfortable underwear and sturdy socks." "even I can't resist the charms of miniature stuff" I think I love Jun. Actually, maybe part of the reason that I see Jun as on the feminine side is that I can relate to them on multiple levels, and I identify as female, hmm...
The comment about 'could barely change her hairstyle' - does this indicate that her gender fluidity/androgyny has been a point of contention in human world? If the mask is enough to 'pass' without question- is the duenkhy world more tolerant of/sensitive to differences on the whole? or are its prejudices just a different sort?
Please feel free to ignore me but for some reason Cassius' sprite looks like he's kinda hunched over... I think it's that his arms are in front more than to the side?... Other than that I absolutely love his design! I just can't with him, he seems so cute and sweet. I just want to hug him.
I believe someone mentioned this earlier as well, but I think it would be a good idea to really make a distinction between Tor and Cassius' characters, especially considering that they're both shy, Jun meets them one after another and their body language is sort of similar with the hands pressed together. Tor still does seem to be more outgoing, though that might be because he's sort of in his element and comfortable with performing the IT magic. It makes me wonder how differently Cassius might have come across if Jun met him while he was on his home turf...
Calisto - First, I ADORE his tattoos. I'm a sucker for tattoos (really wish I could think of a good one for myself XP) and his are so awesome, I love the symmetry and intricacy, and I wonder what their origin is, if his species generally has them, if they're personal, what they represent etc.. And okay, I guess that the duenkhy are not more sensitive about differences what with how Calisto is questioning Jun? But maybe he's just feeling rude, haha. At least he apologized. By the end of the conversation I liked him a lot more than I thought I would. His care for Lady wins points, plus he seems a little bit snarky, which I will unabashedly admit is one of my favorite character traits.
Oh, Shawn. I feel so bad for him! Also, I definitely laughed at the 'roadpasses' with the 3BS. I feel you bro, I almost never get streetpass(ed?) when I'm on my 3DS XD. He's another character who deserves a hug. I'm interested to learn more about him, since I don't feel like I got much more than 'reclusive gamer escaping reality(?)' out of him.
Rafael is an interesting character, I feel like there's some of hidden depths to plumb, but that there are probably some conversational minefields there, what with Jun not knowing much about robots with AI (/biological robots?). I do love the idea of teaching him how to cook.
Wow, Krystoff has quite an entrance! He seems to be sort of mysterious and a bit of an asshole right off the bat. What's this about not having 'formally' met before, and that he knows Jun's name without being introduced?! Creepy. OOH, well that makes more sense than him stalking me, but. Still. Rude. Yet I kind of love him. Lol, I feel like he and I could enjoy being terrible together. He's my favorite, other than maybe a tie with Calisto.
This is probably not useful in any way and might just be me, but the transition noise, while I think that it's meant to be like a timer or a clock or something, just always reminds me of an old fashioned light with a pull cord being turned off and on. Maybe I'm just weird.
Also, just a note, I didn't really get a romantic vibe from the prologue - though I have no idea what degree of vibe you were aiming for. It makes sense, since Jun doesn't really know any of them beyond a brief meeting, but to me it felt like Jun was just settling into the community and finding new friends, not particularly noticing them in a romantic manner. Of course, there's plenty of room for that in the actual story, I don't need to put the cart before the horse while the horse is still being readied!
Overall, I really enjoyed the demo, and in particular the character designs were awesome, and I could feel the hints of real people beyond the tropes, especially with Lady and Calisto. (OH, and I can't believe I forgot to mention, mad kudos for making Lady awesome and not just Plot Device, I love her.) Sorry for this terribly rambling compilation of thoughts, I hope it isn't TOO incoherent. And good luck in college, I'm moving into dorms myself very shortly