*Spoilers below*
I played through the game and defeated the plant boss in the caves, but I only got to 18 completion (with 17 badges). I got the exotic flower from the butterfly gardener (and gifted it to Stripe) and got the big blue chest and a few red chests in hidden areas in the caves.
I have some questions:
Is there any way to cut down the thorns in the forest?
Is there a way to get the purple fruit east of the gardens in the forest?
There is a purple chest in a hidden area in the caves, but it looks inaccessible by a big chasm between the player and the chest. Can it be reached?
Is it possible to get all scenes in Stripe's animation, or is the last one not available for now?
Is there going to be an update to the demo?
I was following this VN for the past few months. I actually liked it quite a bit. The rosy and blue setting is beautiful, the majority of the characters act rather dignified, sophisticated, dependable, and mature (which is something that many other VNs abandon, unfortunately), and the music is dope af.
I did not play the 1.6 update yet, but I have some questions and ideas.
Wouldn't the leaves in the backgrounds connect to each other via stems? It would make more sense than having them detached and floating in the air.
Why does Lyall sparkle? Artistic choice?
I think the bottom of the windows could be slightly lower. The outside should be more visible.
Will there be skating, sledding, maple syrup chocolate (idk if Lyall can have that) pumpkin spice latte, or other wintry things? I think it is more immersive to ease the reader into the weather and daily activities of the characters during winter, especially as a build-up to the ball. You are already doing a good job describing autumn from the previous update.
I am suspecting that the Winter Solstice Ball would end up like a Cinderella-like dance between Lyall and the human. Oh man, that would be amazing and so romantic. Would it have winter-themed stuff like red ribbons, snowflake cut-outs, Christmas trees or some unique winter tradition, etc.?
Are Lyall and the human virgins? I hope they are.
I know you are still building the plot, as well as the world, politics, conflicts, character developments, sprites and backgrounds, and more. As others have stated, take your time. Life and school take top priority.
(This comment has spoiler alerts for Shoichi's route)
About the CG's again. Some of Shoichi's CG's has his head a little too flat (and probably Yuuichi's head as well), especially in the blowjob scene. It kinda bothers me how strange the top of Shoichi's head is. After his nose bridge, his forehead slopes upwards in a unnatural concave fashion rather than a convex fashion. If you search for "husky head side profile" (and "shiba head side profile"), you can see that real life dog skulls are convex and are definitely not concave. The top of all the canine characters' heads in this visual novel do not need to be very large and convex, but just convex enough to not look strange anymore.
I would recommend to make their foreheads juuust a little taller and convex. Trust me, I believe it will make all the CG's that have Shoichi's and Yuuichi's side profiles much better.
(This comment has a spoiler alert for Keisuke's route)
Okay, the Day 10 CG with Keisuke and Yuuichi eating cheesecakes irks me. Keisuke's face looks so strange, his nose and mouth look a little too small compared to the rest of his face. I think he should have a slllllightly bigger muzzle. I looked at the other CGs with Keisuke, and the karaoke CG with him singing may also be a contender for minor muzzle size adjustment.
I really enjoyed this visual novel! The UI, characters, backgrounds, art, music, writing, relationships, and nuances of Japanese culture and history are spectacular! There is little I can criticize about this game, but there a few things I would like to point out.
The current save/load menu contains 17x6 save spots. I would recommend having 20 to 30x6 or more save spots, since this game is going to be very long when completed and each of the date-able character routes are going to be very long too. You could also put numbers on the tennis balls in the save/load menu, for easier organization. Also, it would be nice to have the option to go back in the dialogue. Sometimes, I may miss something or proceed too quickly, and not having a button to backtrack and search for the dialogue in the library instead can be a bit tricky. I am aware that there may be a new UI for the next update, I am just giving ideas for a more complete menu and UI.
On to the flow of the writing (spoiler alert ahead). The only route I really want to mention is Shoichi's route. I have went through both the good and bad routes, and I am quite surprised with how much Yuuichi's relationship with Shoichi takes a drastic 180 if the player does not pick ALL of the right post-CS choices. The choices that could make or break are not really clear-cut. Many of the trickier choices are so gray and not black-and-white, so either choice could be correct. I know that fork in the road for the good and bad routes have not been fleshed out/developed yet, but I feel that there is an attempt to force a bad route into the story for the sake of having a bad route. It may be interesting to have a second route with less happy dialogue, but the current 0.38 update with this bad route does not fit in with the previous writing nor with the good route writing. Also, the bad route does not feel very "seamless" with the rest of the story's overall mood either, making it feel very off, especially with how much Shoichi's original character disappears (even more so with how he easily hurts Yuuichi).
In my opinion, there may not have to be a bad route, but just different dialogues, whether it be happy or unhappy. Unhappy dialogue does not mean that Yuuichi and Shoichi would eventually break up. Plus, Yuuichi and Shoichi are stubborn but not outright unkind. It would make more sense for their characters if they reconciled and patched up their relationship. Currently it feels like Shoichi's character and personality is fickle or inconstant. He may be in a personal dilemma, but I would never imagine him to be that unpredictable, far too much for his original character and personality.
Also, it would suck if there are images that are actually part of the bad ending for Shoichi's route, or other date-able characters' routes. Anyone who plays this visual novel would be curious on what those missing images in the gallery are and would force themselves to play through the depressing bad route to get the other images, which breaks immersion and sullies the memory of the good route for the sake of their curiosity. The game development may slow down as well because of the time it takes to write separate good and bad routes and endings. I just don't think there has to be such different routes.
I think it is okay and even good to have Tennis Ace to contain unpleasant dialogue to really flesh out Yuuichi and Shoichi's relationship and see how they can deal with those obstacles. Truthfully, it may make their relationship more interesting and romantic, because a relationship is not always pleasant or happy all the time, and not everyone can make the right decisions all the time. Such struggles makes things more meaningful and realistic, right? I like the happy dialogue too, because there is also the option to have a completely sweet story alongside a bittersweet story. Both kinds of dialogue, to me, seems more preferable (and uniquely romantic each way) than a forced good or bad route with bizarre changes to the writing and characters' personalities.
