Wow... so I finally got thru the game and got all the endings... it took quite a while, but I must say that I really enjoyed this game!! Thx
Azure for the game!
Truly, unraveling the mystery was a fun and suspenseful ride. I really thought the replay value of this game was really high, too. For myself, after I finished 1 ending, I always wanted to continue playing to see more of the game, more of the mystery, more of the characters, more of everything, lol. In particular, what motivated each individual to act the way they do in the game.
Especially, Neo, Shuang, Zhuang and ChunXiang - they were a bit of a mystery to me... up until the final arc anyway. I honestly never would've guest that Zhuang'er was Shuang'er's doppel. I was actually shocked at that! I didn't see that coming at all, lol! I was kinda thinking he was her brother or something because I think Shuang, at one point, called him her brother, but I remember thinking at the time, that she's probably just saying "brother" because she views him like an actual blood-brother, or family member since they are really close.
As for the music of the game, I'd have to say that it was really well done, and I thought the majority of the tracks fit each scene appropriately.
Also, I'll take it,
Azure, that you might be a Star Wars fan,
given the references to Princess Leia and Luke! I also was a bit amused at the DBZ one where Neo brings up a final boss battle of Mirror God with power capacity of over 9000!
I wonder if I missed any other ones, lol.
Ok, putting all the great things about this game aside now... I have a list of err... some of the not-so good stuff that I'd like to mention:
1) I mentioned it before in my last post, but the grammar, spelling and sentence coherency could use some help. When the end credits were rolling, it looked like there were about 4 names there for proofreaders... I almost think maybe they were too scared to make changes to the original script, since by the end of the game, there were a good load of mistakes and incoherent sentences (please be mindful of verb tenses, subject-verb agreement and missing verbs, lol!). Did they even bother to run a spellchecker? That's always a must when proofreading. I remember one of the sentences from the game used a nonsensical word "deide," and I was like, "what is this sentence trying to say?" It took me several seconds before I realized that the word was probably supposed to be "decide." So yeah,
Azure, please remind those that proofread your work to at least use some kind of a spellchecker program. It'll help a great deal for your future projects and give grammar Nazi's (like myself) less ammunition to work with.
2) I noticed at least one American idiom and one saying that I believe u may be misusing:
-
"No can't do" should be "No can do." I wasn't going to mention this one, but since every time this expression came up in the game, it was always done this way, so I figured I should give ya the heads up on this just in case.
-
"using your own logic towards you" should be "using your own logic against you." This one actually made me laugh every time I saw it (since it was used incorrectly and it sounded so goofy to me), lol. Thankfully, I understood what you were trying to say, and I'm sure most native English speakers did as well.
There might have been more, but these 2 expressions just stuck out to me the most that I felt the need to harass u about them, lol. And so I have!
3) On occasion, there was a particular sound effect that I got used to hearing as the sound of someone getting killed, and the odd part was, that I'd hear that same sound effect used for other non-killing/non-violent purposes, so that actually sometimes confused me and made me wonder if a certain character just got killed or if something else happened. So basically, what I'm trying to say is, try not to use the same splattering sound when someone jumps off a building and splats on the ground, and the same sound effect when someone just passes out or faints.
... Now that I've said this, I can just imagine u creating a game now where blood-splattering sounds, sound the same as people shaking hands or hugging, LOL.
4) During the
End of the Inverted Soul route, when Yuri and his doppelganger were fighting (for the last time), it seemed that they were not effected when they hit each other. Even Jun hit the doppelgangar, too, but the real Yuri never felt anything. Just seemed a bit odd, I guess, that during the brawl, they didn't seem to share the physical pains that each one had. The same can be said with Zhuang, when he was busy beating on Shuang near the end of the
Denounement of the Inverted Soul path.
5) "Skip" feature doesn't always work with already-read text. I'm assuming this may be done on purpose, though, since it seemed like it would do this mostly when a new choice was selected. However, it seemed like even when the new text was done and over with, u still couldn't skip some of the overlapping (already-read) text until the entire scene was over. It wasn't really a big deal, but I thought I'd bring this up anyway.
Ok, putting all these not-so good things aside now (u may commence cheering that my constructive criticism... or whining, is over
), I would like to make a couple recommendations for your future projects:
1) Have some kind of a "Log" feature that keeps track of text that's been read during the game. This log wouldn't need to contain everything that's been read during the game, but should contain everything from the point your last "load" game was done. A better way to explain it would be to look at a visual novel game called
Koenchu!, that utilizes this feature perfectly. I first saw this idea in this game, and I thought it was quite helpful, since there would be times when I'd accidentally hit the "spacebar" and it'd move on to the next sentence before I even finished reading it. So basically, some kind of in-game text "log" would be awesome and helpful so players could always look back and reread certain sentences that they may have accidentally skipped, or if they just need to refresh their mind on things that were recently said.
2) I love how u have an ending gallery that displays the name of each particular route ending and the name of each arc. But what would make it even better is if u could re-play those endings again. Like if u could click on the name of one of the endings, and it would immediately take u to the scene where the last choice (for that particular route) was selected - that would be awesome!! I'm sure it might make for a little more work, but nonetheless, it would be a great feature to have!
Soyuki wrote:
Clifford
I really liked him at the beggining. But when i notticed we can't make him love us, becouse he'll always choose wheelchairgirl (i forgot her name ;_;) i was just like OH GOD WHYYY.
He's probably the best looking guy in this game And we are playing, playing and guess what?
HE WASN'T THAT HOT ALL THE TIME.
And when i see these glasses i think i just died a little.
Lol, his glasses actually reminded me of Melvin from Sailor Moon:
I actually liked Clifford a lot. He seemed like one of the most sane characters in the game, lol, and sane characters seem to be a little far and few between in this game, lol. Personally, I didn't really mind that Clifford never really showed any romantic interest in Lucia, even though, it kinda seemed like there were choices that hinted that Lucia was starting to like Clifford though, lol. Especially during Lucia's final fight with her doppelganger when she says, "I have Clifford, I am not afraid anymore!"
Clifford's reaction of "Huh?" was just priceless! I busted out laughing at that because I can just imagine him thinking "What the #^%$@ is she talking about!"
The only thing that could've made that scene better is if the camera panned over to Clifford's face so we could see his stunned reaction!
Oh, and the girl in the wheelchair is Shuang. She may have been a little cuckoo, but I actually really liked her as well. She had a very amusing little laugh, too, that lasted for about .2 seconds, lol. Aside from the best ending on the End of The Inverted Soul arc, I enjoyed Shuang and Clifford's best ending in the White Moon Reminiscence arc. I think I was happiest most with seeing them 2 get together than any other couple.
Soyuki wrote:
This sweetie is so creepy O.O
Lol. I can already tell from reading
Azure's responses to u, and from some of the witty dialogue from the game (particularly some of the dialogue between Lucia and Neo), that she has quite the sense of humor, and so u shouldn't take her responses too seriously. However, I will say that calling someone u don't really know, sweetie, or sweetie pie
is a bit... uncommon here in the U.S., lol. It's generally used as an endearing term for those romantically involved.
Anyway, if
Azure calls u sweetie pie again, just call her raspberry pie or blueberry pie in response!
Soyuki wrote:
So finally - this game was really nice and all like this, but i have a feeling like you want to put too much in one game. I just feel a little.. overwhelmed by all this story/characters. After all i would give 6.5/10 for this game. Graphics a little ruined good story these noses, oh my
Haha, the noses sometimes did look a little goofy looking, but they work. ^.^ <---Like my nose?
But seriously, each artist has their own style or preferred way of drawing things, so I was cool with it.
And ouch, a 6.5? In terms of enjoyment, I'd personally give it something like an 8.75 out of 10, as I actually did really enjoy the mystery aspect of the game a whole lot. I thought it was pretty cleverly written. All-in-all, I spent probably around 30 hours on this darn game, lol! ^___^
Azure, gimme back my 30 hours!
*shakes fist angrily*
Lastly, I noticed,
Azure, that u released another new game called Re-Set, I might have to give that game a shot, especially if the story is cleverly written as this one was. : )