1. Did you enjoy the game? Any thoughts/comments?
YES. Most certainly yes~! It was really really refreshing for so many reasons. A MC who flirts easily and has confidence in herself and her ability to handle the situation? <3 A princess who wants to be responsible and isn't a docile flower and is in fact pretty stubborn? <3 Knowing what you want and how to spin it so that people will agree with you? <3 Great art? <3 Constant playful back and forth? <3 Choosing between arranged marriages and proceeding to fall in love (or occasionally not)? <3
I liked Charming carrying Snow over the threshold and flying around in Zel's route and deciding she could take care of herself in Mer's route. The chibis were really cute in the developer notes screen, the music was selected pretty well, and the shading for the characters and backgrounds is gorgeous. Every twist was really clever, in a way that felt neither forced nor obvious. I liked Snow's cheesiness and lack of awareness about it. Mmmm, tasted like cheddar. I liked Charming teaching magic a lot. Zel's "are you an angel???" and distress from that is fun.
Charming going yandere enough to steal a trophy or two was really fun! As well as Nicholl's horror and then reluctant loyalty. I have a ton of sketches made for that end and some of the foreshadowing. "I want to marry you even more now", Mer you murdering son of a gun. I liked how in Snow's friendship mode Charming was in "political" mode the whole goddamn time, it was great. "not really into him but ready to do the marriage thing and also thinks he's a decent person", how I appreciate thee. As well as the one where she is into him, folk dancing was sweet. The dragon's glee over his new teacher was cute, and Zel deciding he'd go anywhere as long as Charming was there was super adorable. <3 I liked that the fairy lied to Mer about needing to kill a non-fairy. I mean I'm assuming that they're not so different it wouldn't work, and it was just an attempt to keep the new monster from murdering her. The "you can't curse a mirror I stg" twist was also fun. I'm curious if Zel's witch and Snow's witch are the same?
2. Who is your favorite character after playing the game?
Charming, then Nicholl. I am a giant sucker for pining and the slightly playful yet responsible ones, and I loved Charming's personality throughout pretty much all its iterations. If she was a separate entity from the PC I'd go for her, ha ha. Of the love interests, Snow was the most sane, and I laughed at Mer the most (dark sense of humor...).
3. Who did you pursue first, and who is your favorite love interest?
My first target was Zel. Long hair, literally saving a prince from a tower, what can I say. I'm a sucker for both. Plus I wanted to see how you date a boy who isn't even at the ball. My favorite was Mer, largely due to his second ending and overall darkness.
4. What ending did you get first?
My first end was the Zel adventure end. I let Charming be chill and ask Zel to explain himself and try to please him rather than push him to improve things. I was disappointed that Dragon never did get his lessons, but it was still fun.
5. Is there anything in particular you would like to see in the expansion?
Nicholl pining in most routes, Charming being her charming self, longer routes with better integration of plot and character and flirting. I doubt it's gonna happen, but Charming running off with the destitute merchant's son/daughter (Beauty and the Beast) and building a financial/trading fortune before flouting tradition and banging. More creative uses of magic in route! I love how creative it got, with Snow's "curse" and Mer's myriad problems/illusions and Charming just making real food to dine on with Zel. (and Nicholl's half-fae blood and faerie vs human magic abilities). Charming beating up thugs is fun, more of that!
6. Other questions or points of critique?
Zel has a bad case of inexpressive face, by which I mean I feel like his expressions are pretty much blushing, not blushing, eyes open, eyes closed, and teary eyes. Mer's sprites keep having his mouth open like he's talking when he should be a mute for 90% of the route, and it's a little distracting at first, even though I can dismiss some of it to surprised gaping mouth. Snow is constantly in his ball clothes and it isn't commented on that I remember, which gives me the impression he works in that village in those clothes, which is bizarre. I don't feel like Zel's integration into the list was done very well. Why bother inviting someone who's dead from a kingdom that's dissolved? (to intrigue Charming with someone theoretically harmless?) I think it'd go better if it was a thought that Charming just couldn't let go of when she thought of cursed princes, or if the list got placed in exactly the wrong part of a book to give her that idea. Zel being unable to read well seems odd when he has very little to do besides read books and daydream. It felt like in an attempt to make him more cutesy and innocent he just ended up being infantilized. The back and forth between "go home" and "I can't but not saying why nope" took up a lot of space for what it added. I think once the witch is in there it will be better, especially if Charming suspects he's under a spell or something and assumes wrong about his reasoning. I'd like for there to be more plot, or Zel making Charming a flower crown or something.
In Snow's route, it felt a little forced how "Charming jumps to the worst conclusion, Snow immediately proves there was no reason to even worry" kept happening. The bonding was nice, though.
I feel like the dichotomy between "forgive everything immediately" and "blood for the blood gods" is pretty severe in Mer's route. I feel like a third end where Charming lets him leave and he dies/is killed trying to sacrifice someone would be good, but I also see that you guys are going for two ends for everyone, and it's an unsatisfying way for the romance to end. So I guess a slight variant end where you get end one but Charming's thoughts/dialogue are more calculated than totally trusting would work well for that.
It wasn't immediately clear to me in the save screen that you can click on stars to go to the next page of save slots, but I'm not sure how to make it clearer.
Some kind of "and this is what happened to the other princes" would be nice, maybe a little interaction with each other. Like Snow marrying one of his lovers as the deadline looms, or a mention of expansion into the anarchy of the "Forest Kingdom" by Lunar or some other country, or a scandal as Mer follows one of the magic Lunar Nobles and tries to kill them before he has to leave. A sense that everything is still happening elsewhere would be nice.
And I know there's so much I loved that I can't immediately think of an example of, too~ I'd like to thank everyone for producing this VN