Devil Gene R is a simple story about a stubborn, young woman's family altercations amidst a more fantastical situation. The narrative segment displayed in the demo was selected because it display the greatest amount of character presence and diversity.
This demo serves the purpose of displaying the current progress and general ideas for the project while gathering feedback to ensure that the final product is the best that it can be. So I humbly ask that any and all give it a try, and if you do, please fill out this Quality Assurance Survey.
Note: there is language that might not be suitable for those under the age of 15.
I played the demo over the weekend and filled out the survey as requested.
I'm an aspiring writer and voice talent with a passion for literature and an unhealthy attachment to video games. I am also a seasoned typo-sniper. Inquiries are encouraged. Friendly chats are welcome.
"Always do what is right. It will gratify half of mankind and astound the other."
— Mark Twain
Well, I downloaded the demo for my Mac - had to do it three times before I was able to get it to open. The story is interesting, and the art is wonderful, but I am afraid that this story is just not for me, as I am not into the sword battle type of thing. Sorry. However, I wish you success in your endeavor.
philip
"One who has never made a mistake has never attempted anything!"
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and
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"Finish what you start"
Howdy there! I can't believe I didn't pick this up sooner (just been crazy busy recently.) I have finally finished playing through the demo, and here's my feedback:
1. I really love the animated backgrounds! (the dust blowing through the outlands, the flickering light on the city street) this to me, is a really nice touch, and helped pull me into the game & makes for an awesome setting. I'm so curious as to how you did this in Ren'Py?!
2. Although, I thought it was weird that the backgrounds & the sprites are so different from each other. The sprites are two dimensional, flat, and look like something pulled straight from an anime. The backgrounds, on the other hand, are 3-dimensional. I'm not really sure if this is constructive (sorry if it's not helpful) but in my opinion the contrast just strikes me as a little odd.
3. I loved the voice actors! All of them. Their expressions/emotion were nice and, in my opinion, well done and not too over the top/cheesy/amateurish.
4. In the first scene, when we're being introduced to this random male character, he says 'I bet you're thinking, "why didnt that idiot just meet me in person! >.<" right?' I think you can definitely drop the >.< It's not necessary, and is a little weird to see that expression in a visual novel. We can hear his voice and his tone, which is enough.
5. Why are there random words that are bolded in green/red text? Is there going to be a menu screen with more info about these things? Is there already one? If so, I couldn't find it..
6. After I beat raven, I have to fight her again? I quit playing after this, because I beat her any then I just had to battle her all over again!
Anyways, I really liked what I played. Good luck finishing the game!
I will warn you that some things I have to say may sound harsh or offending, but I am making it a point to make an honest review on this.
I suppose I'll start off with the positive things.
The art was very well done, I really liked it. I'm not sure about other people, but to me, art is very important in visual novels. For me to like the art this much is not very common when it comes to visual novels that are not professional.
Some of the voices, such as (what seems to be) the main character, Raven, I think was her name, and Gao have nice voices. Please do not confuse this with good audio quality, what I mean is strictly the voice actor's voice.
When I read about there being battle scenes, I immediately was disappointed, as I generally don't like them very much. However, the battle scene here was slightly different from what I had expected, so it was alright with me. Though, I do feel they ruin the visual novel feel of the game slightly, so I wouldn't put them in too often.
Now off to the more negative parts.
There are quite a lot of grammar issues there. I noticed typos as well.
While it may have been the point for her to look like this, and/or I may just be too sensitive to this, Gao's body seemed slightly out of proportion. Most women are pear shaped (not necessary very extremely), and other than that, they tend to be hourglass shaped. While Gao can still be considered an hourglass, I feel she was leaning more towards an upside down triangle, which is very unflattering for women. In comparison to the main character (or what seems to be, so far), her hips are far too slender, and I also feel her breasts are drawn very harshly, making it look strange and unnatural.
Gao's pronunciation of her own name (mostly her last name) is very bad. Most, if not all other characters also pronounce names wrong. I am aware of the fact that it's a bit unreasonable for me to want perfect pronunciations in languages foreign to the voice actors, but to me, if there is any voice acting in a visual novel, it's extremely important that it's good. Some of the pronunciations of names or words have made me cringe.
Another thing about the voice acting is that the audio from one character sounds different from the audio from another. Say, one character sounds like they're in a small room, and another is in a very large room. The way the audio sounds differs then, and that can be very distracting and unpleasant for some people. Also, some of the voice actors don't have very good microphones it seems to me. I understand that again it is unreasonable to want the audio to sound the same (I'm not sure what to call it, exactly, as it's not quite that), but for me, I would prefer no voice acting over bad voice acting, even if it's only one character that is a bit off.
Next up is the voice actors specifically. Most of them did a fairly good job sounding alright, but there was one thing that made me, again, cringe a bit. Nigatsu's voice sounds overly fake. If it weren't as overdone, it would have been alright, but this is way overdone. The way she sounds now is fake, and the voice does not suit the character if it's this high pitched.
About the background music, when the main character entered the more crowded part of the city, the audio seemed like it had suddenly started, it may be better to somehow have it fade in instead of starting abruptly like that.
I think that is just about everything I have to say. I apologize if any of this has been too harsh, unreasonable or otherwise offensive, as I stated before, I make it a point to give honest reviews.
