Do you get to play through all the first evening scenes eventually or do you get to only choose one? I find them all very endearing. I find Sarah's adorable and Sam's flushes out the characters so well. (Have not done lord Ashley's yet.) But I am curious to know. It will be an unfortunately difficult choice to make if I only get to choose one. Also so far very great game, even the non nsfw parts are very enjoyable.
Once you get to camp, each night you'll get an option to view the earlygame lewd scenes (temple, house) regardless of what you picked! The choice you made early will occasionally pop up in the character interactions though. Glad you're having fun!
This is a bit of an early review, but I feel like I need to express what I have experienced so far. I actually have quite a bit of criticism for this game. It is not uncommon for me to be the only one complaining about a game/story, but I knew I would have to do it when I saw all of the glowing responses that seemed too good to be true...
The writing is actually the most conflicting part of this game for me. While the amount of work done on this game is incredible (most major visual novels of comparable size are using multiple (ghost) writers and yet this is a solo-project that is more ambitious than famous visual novels from Japan that cost $40 or more), the writing is inconsistent in many ways. First of all, after meeting the first five characters, it feels like too many characters are going to be girls and all of them are basically idiots. The main character sounds pretty normal, but the dialogue from the girls so far is way too off from the setting. Everyone is talking like they are casually chatting on the Internet and there are even lines that approach meme humor. And everyone is way too sarcastic as if they are not actually experiencing half of the things that are happening. Metatron is an exception to the rule, but it feels like you are just restraining your tendency to write characters that way by writing as little dialogue as possible for her. You also claim that she thinks really fast, but nothing she said so far displayed rapid thought beyond human levels and she is in some ways slow to be reasonable.
The descriptions on the other hand, tend to be very serious and like a literary classic, but they also can do a pretty poor job at explaining things and the background image of the area can feel detached from all of the descriptions. It can be really hard to tell how the scene is flowing and sometimes words are dropped to the extent that it feels like thoughts were forgotten. And character motivations and personalities can seem so inconsistent. There is this one scene that sticks out in my mind where Ashley walks backward in fear or something (the description was not clear) and then Sarah randomly said something like "How incorrigible!" when Sarah had been talking like everyone else up until that point. There also is the fact that the first thing we learn about the main character is how they wanted to save the world even if there was no apparent threat... Yet, everyone including the main character treats it as a joke and a childish thing that should be forgotten even though the adventure has clearly become real at the beginning of the story. And the description of characters' thoughts and reactions can be so anime, as in people reacting in ways they should not just because certain anime-esque situations come up that are always presented the same way in an anime. Basically, the characters seem like they are held back because of constant playful aggression, sarcasm and "obligatory" actions. Oh yeah, and the main character talks to his best friend with male terms, which seems like such a modern and unnecessary way to express a friendship. And why does Sam feel so much remorse over her actions when she was so careless in a completely important and special situation as if none of it mattered? It came across as completely fake to me. Lastly, I am almost certain that Metatron gets compared to an alien, but why would any of these characters come from a culture where they think about aliens? Some of the descriptions gave me the impression that beings already are capable of interplanetary travel, as well...
One last oddity I noticed is that sentence structure is quite wild. There are some crazy run-on sentences, some which switch perspective or subject in a way that clearly should be a new sentence. And then other sentences were really short.
I am probably nitpicking way too much, but I just wanted to get these things off my mind and maybe hear some background as to why these things may have been written. On another note, I have a pretty strong vocabulary, but this story has brought up like 15 words that I did not know or was unsure about, so far. I feel like the intense vocabulary (mainly in descriptions) is what is impressing so many people. I guess, there are also quite a few descriptions that are beyond my ability to write or imagine that employ that vocabulary.
Edit: Oh, one last thing. I do not understand why everyone "rips in half with a glare". This is the most consistent phrase in the writing and is really bad hyperbole and feels like only one character should be doing it. And the main character is kind of grating with how they use a swear word in a bunch of sentences that should be more calm.
I agree, you’re nitpicking. If anything, it’s mostly hyperbole and reads as if you simply did not take the time to read what the game presented.
Take your mention of “rips in half with a glare” apparently being the most consistent phrase in the game for example. Out of 15 instances of the word “glare” appearing in the game as of version 0.22e, only two instances are ones that mention “rips in half” in any capacity. Of these, one appears in lost_temple.rpy on line 841 and the other in post_lost_temple_shenanigans.rpy on line 1563. In other words, your complaint is about two instances in the introduction of Ashley, Sarah and Metatron, when the game currently has some 20-25 hours of gameplay and is around 310 thousand words.
Regarding Metatron thinking fast, keep in mind that it is the player character who suspects that she does. He even says as much on line 1434 in lost_temply.rpy: “— giving her near-instant planning earlier you suspect that she just thinks really fast.” Nor is the player character specified as a reliable narrator either, as far as I’m aware, and given it’s in a first-person perspective. Anything we as players experience will be limited by it. Still, thinking fast does not constitute replying fast, if anything, were I to speculate, you’d be easier to get lost chasing potential eventualities that may occur because you have so much time to reply. Regardless, it is not out of character for Metatron, so it does not matter.
Regarding your mention of Ashley walking backwards in fear, because apparently the description was not adequate enough, what was difficult to understand about them following a corridor and “running into a wall. Figuratively speaking, in your case; literally in Ashley’s, since she was walking backwards.”? That was why Sarah said “You are absolutely incorrigible.”, because Ashley do as Ashley does. Not only does this fit Sarah’s vocabulary, as established earlier when the player meets them, but also Ashley’s character as can be clearly seen in the same introduction. This is unlikely to be a unique first-time act, which is further reinforced by Sarah reacting like she does this often.
Alien does not necessarily mean extraterrestrial, I’d recommend checking the definition before commenting on such.
Likewise, as an example of the above, not every sentence needs to be short or long. They can be adapted as needed. Metatron’s introduction being a good example, it is something alien to what the player character knows and serves it well with a deeper description of it. Meanwhile, Ashley being Ashley does not necessarily mean she needs an expansive description, short and to the point can not only work but also make things better, given how they’re executed.
The vocabulary of the game is pretty good, it has good descriptions of situations, varied word use and some less common words nowadays. This does not detract from the story, people are able to use contextual clues to figure out words they don’t know most of the time either given fluency as a base requirement. But this is subjective, I personally met no words I didn’t already know, but what does that matter? Likewise, your comment on cursing is also massively subjective. I personally do not like cursing, but it is commonplace nowadays and is not something that is uncommon to occur in both calm and less calm situations.
TL;DR: The writing of this game is one of its best points, get your hyperbole outta here.
Your criticism is definitely hyperbolic here. All of my complaints were valid and you are just bandwagoning because of how little you value honesty and justice. Even if the exact phrase only came up twice, that is still within a short span of time and I am 90% sure there was a phrase or two approximating it. And you are retarded if you think my knowledge of English is too limited to understand that alien can mean outsider. The context of the sentence definitely comes across as more like an extraterrestrial. Even if it was not, it is still a ridiculous statement for someone who clearly has not traveled much and seen many things to act like she was especially outlandish compared to the world at large. There are a lot of people who stand out as strange in the story and this kind of dialogue shows a lack of awareness of how the characters would fit into their world.
Generally, the writing improves after the first stretch of the game. I can not remember having any real complaints about the rest that I played except that they decided to use Atlantis as the name of an underwater city while everything else seems to have original naming.
Siofra has definitely been a good learning experience when it comes to balance. After the changes in 22e I think she's in an okay place, tough but rewarding to beat down. The mastered skills definitely add to her challenge haha.
Thank you! I still have a ways to go as a writer, I know I could improve on making them MORE unique, but that is something I try to keep in mind when writing each character. I feel like truly unique 'voices ' for each character is a hallmark of really good writing, and what I aspire to.
So I beaten Siofra somehow after being caught off guard by her 3rd form, basically Metatron is a support angel lmao. I had a question about channeling abilities, can you turn those off without resetting them? I don't wanna risk losing my mastery if I reset.
I hear Metatron has helped quite a few people through that battle haha, Sarah was my backup there.
What do you mean resetting? You keep the masteries if you disable autocast, but if they give a stacking buff (say, 1% mitigation a turn) that buff will reset. Let me know if that doesn't answer the question.
I noticed you can manually disable the ability during battle but afterwards it re-enable, so I thought there was another alternative way to properly enable/disable. The reset function I mentioned is "respec" in menu.
But I'm glad I've found and played this game, very much am enjoying, Metatron, Celica and Ashley are probably my favorite characters, but I do love the side-story and romance for all, especially Sam's.
If you rightclick and go to Abilities, you can disable autocast for the ability as well! If you respec the ability entirely, yes, you will lose Mastery progress.
Glad you're enjoying the game! They're all good girls (Maya is questionable), and Sam is a lovable dork
REALLY GOOD GAME, HAVE A HAPPY LIFE, ALSO, WHY IS THIS GAME SO GOOOOOD YOU ASK?, I DUNNO BUT I'VE BEEN PLAYING THIS MASTERPIECE FOR 4 DAYS STRAIGHT (excluding the time i slept because my mom forces me to otherwise no pc for the rest of my life) BUT THE GAME IS GOOOOOD AAAAAAAAA have a nice day
Nice!! On the music, uhh, I don't know if I can do that, some of it I commissioned for the game but a lot of it is free-use content from various sites/artists, some of which might have rules against that. The About page links to the sources for most music, if there's a particular one you're looking for I can try to help too!
Off-topic from the music, but are there any plans for any non-magic uses of aether, nether, and abyssal (assuming abyssal abilities going to be implemented in the future)?
To some degree, probably. Aether and Nether are so inherently magical it's hard to separate them too much, but non-mages should get to play with the fancy stuff too. Any particular thoughts you had in mind?
Since it's a corruption and you lose parts of your humanity through using aether, I was thinking some passives or traits specifically for physical type damage. Just a surface thought, you know what to do best as the author.
Additionally, in most fantasy settings there is aura for the physical type users and mana for magic type. Disregard this if you're not planning on introducing aura, but if you are planning on introducing aura, maybe the nature of the aura can be tainted by aether, nether, or abyssal forming new types of abilities that primarily do the damage type of the corresponding corruption.
A little question, if my corruption was already capped whilst my trust are not that high thus losing the chance of getting more from Metatron as I've done the training and lewd (and yes my corruption got capped onto 20 which is low). Is there any other way to get a Aether corruption if ever I reach the sufficient amount of high level trust?
Right now, all corruptions are hardcapped at 20 currently. To go beyond that you'll need to make a certain choice that isn't ingame yet. When the possibility of raising it higher happens, you'll have more options to do so.
There are some games which are visual novels and then there's ones like this which are visual NOVELS!
Seriously though, the writing alone in this game is in a class of its own among the titles available on this site and that's before you mention the great art, music and, last but not least, the battle system.
It strikes such a good balance between actually showing you things and letting you imagine them as you would reading a book.
I can't really blame the creators of games which use English that's barely held together as it's rarely their native language, but it is just such a joy to play something with this much thought and effort put into its storytelling. I could be nitpicky and mention that it feels like there is a bit too much swearing at times and that there are a few "thens" instead of "thans", but I won't even if I just did.
I'm only finished with the first day of the story so far, but am itching to continue on with it.
Those are very kind words, thank you! Always makes me happy to hear people enjoying the game, especially as an amateur indie dev with no artistic talents, it's been an uphill battle to try to make it look and play well haha.
I write using a mix of typing and Speech to Text to try to save my hands, so there are definitely gonna be more errors than if I hand-typed everything. I'm always open to typo reports!
Ah, I see, that's really cool! I've never really heard of anyone doing that before, but it does indeed seem like a good way to get the words down if you know what to say.
I'll definitely be tagging along for the ride and enjoying the coming updates and such.
Haha, I have no experience of writing novels myself but I can imagine the toll it must take on a prodigious wordsmith such as yourself.
I played a little bit more today and I must say that the sheer depth of thought of your characters has left no small impression on me. I know a lot of people, myself partly included, come to these types of games to find something they can't in everyday life, but this one has given me something I can take back and improve it with. Those are the best kinds of stories, aren't they?
If I didn't already say it, thank you for creating this game.
Yeah... the game is about 330k words right now, which is about 5-7 novels in length, written in a bit under two years. Doing that by hand would have killed me.
I definitely think the characters are the main draw of the game. I just love trying to write people, or rather letting them write themselves. Always makes me happy to hear people are really enjoying them, or the questions raised.
I don't like writing as a way to moralize, but asking questions and leaving them unanswered, trying to make the reader consider it too, is really fun and fulfilling. Dune had that effect on me a while back!
But yeah, glad you enjoyed, and thank you once again for the kind words and enthusiasim~
my favorite character is celica hope you make more content to do with her in the future. great game love the story and the gameplays fun too. lewds are just an added (great) benefit,
Oh yeah there'll definitely be more Celica, next update will have some and she's one of my favorite characters to write. Glad you enjoyed the game so far!
downloaded game all text just a bunch of yellow lines cant play also web browser version crashes at the magic circle part near the beggining want to play your game but i cant hope you can fix soon (p.s. im using the 32 bit application)
I've never heard of that bug. What system are you on? Did you try running it in 64-bit, aka just DivineDawn.exe? I know Renpy is moving away from supporting 32-bit systems, but I *think* 7.5 still supports them.
im on windows 8 and have a crappy lenovo thinkpad that gets stuck in a boot loop if i try to update it to windows ten it isnt capable of running x64 programs
Sorry to hear that. As far as I know, Renpy 7.5 is still compatible with Windows 8 and x32 bit systems, but may not be able to handle low amounts of RAM - I think it requires 500mb or so? That said, I'm not super knowledgeable about that stuff, Renpy handles most of it for me. Are you able to play other recent Renpy games?
i havent really tried other renpy games but i tried to play the browser version again and it let me without crashing for a bit but then it crashed again when i got to the black orb thing it seem im able to play for short periods of time before it crashes and reloading the page doesnt fix it
Yeah, none of these issues happen normally, in web or downloadable. I hate to say it, but it sounds like renpy might not be quite as compatible with older/weaker systems as they advertise.
What kinds of crashes are you getting anyways? Like are these actual error messages, or the game shuts down, or what?
"After reading latest stuff" I'm curious on what to expect from "butterfly mom", - whether she's a think first or a think last character. Looking forwards to new scenes with Sarah, given she and I relate so well. (Under-confident)
Been meaning to ask, will minor choices have an effect at all? Like, you watch Sarah's fashion show when picking who to hang around after the temple in the beginning, will somewhere down the line she does another fashion show full of confidence? Or when you first have fun with Sam, if you didn't confront her that night, it's more awkward than if you did? I know it's probably more work for ya, but I do love it when choices from earlier have minor changes down the road. Suppose it's going to depend a little on who it is though - Ashley seems to be "Sam 2.0" so I don't think choosing her or not will change much, outside of how much she's pranking Metatron!
I'm gonna start writing Rosalyn later this week hopefully, so... we'll see how she comes out exactly haha. Hopefully unique and fun!
Sarah's last scene is one of my favorites so hopefully she'll please~
Minor choices do have a fair number of callbacks, but they're not always obvious ingame cuz there's no popup. Celica has a *lot* of line swaps in her Wind training especially, based on your relationship progress with her, some of your choices throughout it, etc. Sam will remember if you confronted her outside the house or not. Ashley's stuff with Metatron gives you a few extra lines if you spoke with Maya or Metatron enough to learn much about their martial arts.
It's not perfect and not always telegraphed, but they're fun and I try to keep up with them when it's relevant!
Doing a lot of time-related stuff isn't likely though, it's harder to track.
Is it just me or does the game not run on Mac? I downloaded it and it contains the game files not inside the Mac application, but next to it in folders, which apparently MacOS is not happy about?
I've gotten some scattered reports that the mac unzipper apparently gets confused sometimes, but that it works after retrying? I don't have a mac to test on but as far as I know most people can play it fine there.
Thank you, I'll look into the bug and try to fix it for next update! Glad you enjoyed, I've been making great progress this update so next one should be pretty chunky!
Aw, thank you! It's a very iterative process, I'm slowly trying to make the game look and play as nicely as possible. Just gotta get a better-looking UI... eventually...
Speaking of UI, should I put up the mockup soon, or wait until you switch into gameplay mode after your writing brainstorm has passed?
I don't know if you are the type who focuses on one thing at a time, or prefer allowing things to simmer at the back of your mind. It is my preference to not interfere with your writing, which elevates DD.
Depending on the scale of the changes, the artist I was going to work with on new UI, and how this update goes, it may be weeks or months before I do much UI stuff.
Righto, below is a general idea of what I got in mind. Hopefully the walls of fortified text aren't too overbearing.
(Viewing the image in its own tab might be a good idea, for visual clarity)
Going from what I consider least controversial or difficult, and working towards the biggest pains in the backside...
1 - The face icons for the allied characters can have a function. The idea is that by clicking on a allied face, the player adjusts the level of Threat the party exudes. In this picture, Samantha has 40% Threat, in what I call "Introvert Mode". Ashley is drawing aggro, through "Extrovert" mode at 60%. Clicking on either portrait would shift around the threat level - "Neutral Mode" splits things evenly between these two. Assuming that in-battle party sizes don't change, this should be relatively easy to implement and be accessible for players. Each portrait has a colored border to indicate their threat mode, along with some text in the picture to precisely display the threat level. Some enemies might dole out particular aggro states onto characters, so that text will be important for that.
2 - In the center, we have a row of faces. They are used for tracking the speed of characters during the turn - the person most left is fastest, those towards the right are slower. The arrows and chevrons indicate to whom a character's actions are directed. Ashley's green arrow means that she is supporting Samantha in some fashion. Kuril is directly attacking Samantha, and Sam herself is using an area ability on the party. Kandros is directly supporting Kuril, but his ability is also causing harm to the party. I think this overall concept would be useful for organizing battles.
3 - On the left is the Skill Tray. The icons most to the left indicate the most basic ability of each action category, and each column represents an element. Neutral, Wind, Fire, Water, Earth, Aether, Nether, and Abyss (not present yet). Each row represents a range of abilities that have a specialty or cost. For example, the Focused and Group melee options might have a cooldown system attached and minimal MP cost.
I do not know how many abilities you want the player to have, but I do have a philosophy on the matter: Too many not only clutters a potential interface, but also makes it harder to design battles - you wouldn't know what sort of action a player might wish to pursue. With the action categories of "Focused Melee", "Group Melee", "Condensed Magic", "Area Magic", "Defensive", and "Eromancy" in this tray, there is at least 64 actions. A GUI is a canvas for game designers, and like with a painting, it is possible to lose focus if you cram too much stuff.
Players won't easily understand how to play the game effectively if you have too many options, so it can be a potential lose-lose for both designer and player.
4 - Utilities. We are moving into gameplay ideas. The concept here is that the MC has a "utility belt", where he keeps potions, wands, runestones, grenades, ect. Unlike abilities powered by mana or waiting for a cooldown, these items cannot be normally restocked during battles and adventures, except at rest points. This should help make the concept of utility items a powerful thing, and also gives Aspasia a specialty during conflict - she might have the ability to resupply the player in a pinch.
5 - Attunement. Honestly, I do not like the current purpose of Attunement in the game - it is a cap on learning stuff, which doesn't excite me. I think it would be cooler as a mechanic during battles. The idea being, the player can enter a state where they are effectively an elemental Super Saiyan, kinda like the Avatar from Last Airbender.
6 - Focus. This is a resource pool that powers events and what I call "escalation". The first, is to spend points to activate encounter or companion events during the battle. Say, for example, Aspasia generating a item, to counter a goblin mage's fireball spell, or maybe lure enemies off the field for a bit. Basically stuff that is specific to encounters or friends, that other mechanics are not built for.
Escalation is basically the player activating the masteries of an action, and each activation earns points towards upgrading the masteries the move can unleash. While attuned and using a move of the same element, the masteries are further enhanced.
When it comes to gathering Focus, I am thinking defensive actions can generate these points. By not being hurt, the MC is gathering their thoughts and momentum to make a play of some kind. Be it a finishing move or buying time for a friend, you need to not be on the backfoot. Aside from that, the numbers on the far-right on the Skill Tray represents independent focus points that an action category has gathered. This gives a player a general focus pool, then specialized focus pools to help encourage move diversity.
7 - Lust. I am thinking that Lust could affect moves. For example, Kuril's "Jaws" action in the mockup could become "Hump" if he gets too amorous. While this may be a bit uncomfortable for Metatron, being dry-humped by a giant shark is probably preferable to being introduced to his maw. Kandro's "Healing Rain" turning into a "Milky Rain" would undoubtedly be very helpful for our succubi companions. Of course, turnabout is fair play...
That is quite the proposal! I can safely say that I don't intend to do anything of that scale in the near future, but some were already planned and possibly easy enough (turn order) that you may see fragments sooner rather than later.
Utilities are already ingame, just not used much - Aspasia's alchemy is all adventure-capped (she has an ability to replenish them) as is your healing potion.
Started anew to see what has changed, got to everyone getting to the road trip but haven't actually headed towards Badon yet at all, just the intro to camp. I love Amnelis and how she's flirty, and also very much a goofball! Doesn't seem to understand self-preservation though... Given how flirty she is, probably another Daughter of Gaea that's lewdable!
One thing, I have to wonder if you start with something - say, a longsword and light armor - will you be able to switch out once you reach Badon? I initially wanted a Mana Blade but found the mana cost of stuff a little too steep so restarted with a longsword. Once I reach Badon, wouldn't mind upgrading a bit but not sure if switching weapons will be problematic because of skills. Armor shouldn't be an issue for upgrading though.
You can swap weapons and armor anytime in camp! Go to Progress, Equip, and you can set your primary and secondary weapons, which can then be swapped between freely in battle!
Glad you're liking Amnelis, I had a lot of fun writing her and am looking forward to more. Her first CG is already in progress and looking NICE.
And Sarah is still good - will definitely give her some love this update!
I quite like the characters. the writing is definitely sometimes a mouthful, sometimes over explain the plot, and sometimes is just a little over the top, but i think that just adds onto the charm. I especially like the characters, none more than Metatron. The dive into what it is to be and to feel is a concept im very attached to. The exploration of her character wrapping around human life and concepts while having trouble dealing with her own is just great to read, and seeing the glimpses of those emotions are also just phenomenal. I'm looking forward to more on this. Good job so far!!!
TBH, at some point I want to go back over the temple writing a bit more - it drags a little there at times.
Glad you're generally enjoying it though! Metatron and the Aether magic stuff gives me a lot of room to explore weird stuff and try to get fancy, I absolutely love writing all that. It's been really fun seeing people fall for Metatron, I'm grateful I got a chance to finally realize a character that had been stuck in my head for almost 10 years now!
Thank you for the kind words, hopefully next update will have more Metatron!
Topic idea regarding Metatron: do angels eat? I am guessing that fancy core of hers can normally sustain her, but the damage to it might force her to try out this strange stuff called "stew".
Now I wonder: How exactly does one gain Abyssal Corruption? I know you can’t gain any right now, but now I wonder how one can get it in future updates.
This game is something else. I love the humor and the story and of course the scenes. The OST is also really nice. I noticed the dialogue changes in the text when you have different partners, or when you and/or your partner have an ability or not (like the ina healing aftermath). It's a very high quality game from the lot of them I've played!
Won't lie, I'm always happy to hear people like the OST - probably the most effort for something most don't notice haha. Glad you're enjoying the rest of it too! And yes, the dialogue swaps aren't always obvious, but I've had a lot of fun throwing them in and seeing which people notice; I feel like (done well) it really makes the full thing feel more immersive, whereas the times I make poor assumptions jerk people out of the illusion. It's been an interesting learning experience!
I disagree about not noticing music. It can sometimes really define a game - the OG System Shock 1 is very unique compared to most, since it has a techno track in a horror setting. Same goes for La-Mulana, The World Ends With You, and so many others...
Assuming that you are making the music yourself, keep it up. Every piece, be it excellent or failure, will make you a better creator.
When it comes to the tailored interjections, I appreciate that. It certainly helps ensure that Celica, Metatron, and Samantha are distinct beings rather than meat suits that say the same thing.
I think music is important, yeah, I just mean that most people aren't going to play an adult game looking for music - it seems to be pretty common to just mute immediately - so sometimes it feels like it doesn't get much attention.
The music is commissioned or under free-use mostly, but I've always wanted to learn to make music electronically - I used to play piano pretty well and adore music in general. Maybe someday! I just don't know where to get started with the electronic stuff lol.
I guess you can try out a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), and see if you can punch out a score or dozen? DAW-wise, I hear that Reaper is very good, and you can basically ignore the nag screen every 60 days until you feel ready to commit to buying. That said, Reaper is intended for professional creators, so you will have a learning curve. Cakewalk is a freeware option that isn't as powerful, but less intimidating.
Anyhow, I keep music on for VN games - they are a genre I use for immersion and empathy, so the music is important for me. Other games, especially action, puzzle, or simulation titles, I lower the music while listening to podcasts. Each player has unique relationships to their gameography.
Interesting - I'll look into them both! Thanks for sharing, I've heard of DAWs before but didn't know anything about that. I'd love to be able to make some music, that and writing are my favorite types of creativity.
And yeah, if the game doesn't have terrible music, I almost always listen to it. Lotta porn games out there don't even try though.
Ha when I found Ina I was questioning my sanity, now seeing your pfp it makes sense. I’ve just got to ask, and maybe it will be answered when I get further in, would she be somehow connected to that abyssal corruption bar in the future. I totally get it if that isn’t connected to your vision for the game, I just thought it was interesting along with the eldritch sound of some things like the description of the insight stat, thanks for all the hard work.
Ina's name is definitely a bit of homage to our priestess, but that's as far as I went - anything more and it starts lurching too close to plagiarism. So no abyssal relation with her, and she won't be a priestess of the old ones.
Other characters may end up closer to that niche though, I do think Hololive Ina's design is fantastic and something along those lines could work in the setting! Just not obviously Ina.
Abyssal will get its own, hopefully unique stuff - though the Lovecraftian vibes aren't too subtle I admit!
Is Lust going to have moves & mechanics for standard battles, or will battle types remain discrete from each other? I have been wondering if Eromancy would be a thing in this setting.
Honestly, not sure. The original plan was to go a little more CoC and mix them together, but it didn't really feel right in practice. I'll probably move sex battles over to the vanilla battle system, but still keep a distinction between sex battles and normal battles in terms of available moves.
Battle-fook systems are wily beasts, especially when combined with situations that call for lethal force. Mind, I suppose that a bit of eromancy to...distract...an enemy could leave them open to a fatal blow.
Speaking of Ero-battles, you might want to check out Monster Girl Dreams on Itch. I suspect that you and most fans of Divine Dawn would enjoy that one, what with being text-heavy and usually light-hearted. That particular game made it law of reality that genuine harm cannot be dealt between people. That makes sex the way to resolve conflict.
I used to mod MGD, actually. I made Waifupocalypse if you're familiar with that mod. I don't think the barrier would work in DD, it's a very different setting.
Yeah that makes sense. A good bit of something Lovecraftian , especially if it has a unique touch is always interesting, also the Metatron and Maya scene was super cute. Hope you have a good day
I think you answered this in a previous comment, however I can't recall what the answer was; I was looking to sorta have my character learn a wide variety of magic, including both Nether and Aether, however I don't want to make any hard choices about what route I'm wanting to go, and the growing Aether and Nether corruption from learning magic plus a few of the lines has me a bit concerned that I might accidently get locked into a path inadvertently; am I safe to learn Aether or Nether magic without being locked into a route, or s that something that I have to be cautious and aware of that at some point I will either have to make a choice or accept what I have?
I absolutely hate surprise gotchas, so you won't be locked into a path without warning.
It's fine to dabble in both Aether/Nether, but down the road if you choose to pursue either corruption to its peak, there will be two (clearly labeled) progressive choices you have to make about aether/nether corruptions, and a third route of trying to master both, each of which will have its own ups and downsides.
I made an account just for this but please please let aspasia teach us about alchemy so that we can use her moveset aswell (also alchemist seems cool and quite OP in this game)
If we are going for the alchemy class, then we should not for get about equivalent exchange, just an example ice type flask throw lowers your intiative for the next turn, the burning flask throw drains your health about 0.5 per use, that's just my suggestion also are you perhaps a fellow takodachi???
"Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return."
Haha, that's an interesting idea - I was toying with it on Aspasia's potion restock ability, it costs a fair bit of health. I could see the PC having something similar, using blood to refill on battle. I could see alchemy skills having a misfire chance as well. Will see how it goes when I update it!
And yes, I like... most of the hololive girls honestly, but Ina is so damn comfy to watch. Especially from behind, so I can look at her back.
Hmm… I already beat my first playthrough and now I want to play as a character that uses Dual Daggers and favors inflicting the bleeding status with both his daggers and wind magic. The issue is that his wind magic isn’t gonna be that good as I won’t be able to boost his focus stat as I’m focusing on Dexterity, Magic, and Agility.
Also… I noticed that my Frenzy stack didn’t change despite using Dearh Blossom in battle.
Wait it was just updated now? Huh… Well alright then. I have only been playing the game for only a couple of days and I already have a few builds I want to try out:
Manablade with all elements, including Aether and Nether to cover all future weaknesses.
Dual Dagger focused on bleeding.
Spear focus on getting critical hits while weaken enemies’ defense and mitigation
For the most part no, the system is set up but I'm still trying to figure out how to display it in a way that's not too much verbal diarrhea but still conveys useful info. Once I figure that out, they will.
A thought on that: Maybe give the enemies an glowing aura that shrouds them, with a pattern and color that resembles the element in question. EG: A martial artist who specializes in Earth Bending has pebbles rotating around their image, or a Pyrolisk with a red haze.
This would also allow you to give elemental phases for enemies or multiple elements that combine patterns. The big downside is that it would require TLC to look right for each creature, and might cost money.
The simpler route is to give enemies a dedicated "game space" for their status info, including elemental strengths or weaknesses. In that case, maybe a tiny picture of the element with an up/down arrow + sword/shield, as appropriate to the creature characteristics.
I guess one of the mechanical questions about the whole thing is how elemental preferences work for characters. Say, an enemy that doles out fire damage, also be vulnerable to the same? I am thinking in this something like having a flamethrower backpack that can go kaboom.
Or perhaps a “Monster Book” for players to look through? Like once they face an enemy, the game reveals information about the enemy like a brief description for players to read and a lists of their element resistance. One way would be to make most of the resistance unknown until the players discovers them by chance or by logic. Like those elemental fairies would be strong against their own elements, but vulnerable to their opposites.
Wouldn't be a bad idea. Right-clicking on a enemy could open up a detailed Beastiary with unlocked details and lore. (bestiary is the correct spelling, but I prefer "beast". It just makes more sense.)
So still no one to teach earth magic yet. Also I noticed that there is no Mana Blade Skill for Fire and Aether. Then again, it did say it’s only compatible with MOST elements, so I guess those two are the ones mana blade isn’t great with.
Yes, earth magic teacher (Alicia - art done and a patreon preview) will be in the next 1-2 updates. Mana Blade was kind of experimental, I'll add more to it over time depending on initial feedback, especially if people liked the mana juggling aspect of it.
Well I got to say I rather enjoy it. I always enjoyed going for a Spellsword build, but I always worry I might run out of mana for the skills, but Siphon Strike managed to fix that worry. Also the base skills for the Mana Blade really seems to synchronize with the other elements. However, I always have trouble wether to go for Insight for extra damage or Agility for evasive and fast tactics. I hope that Mana Blade gets more work done on it.
You're exactly right - the base skills offer a decent baseline kit and synergy with the special stuff for each element!
Mana Blade already gives some free defense/resist penetration, so I think it's safe to go for Agility/Vitality (defensive) or Focus/Dexterity (crit) depending on whether you want to be tanky, focus on spells, or focus on skills. Cuz you still have access to the full Longsword skillset too.
Nether exists, the existing skill is called Dhampir. But you need the Nether Initiate trait to access it, so it's not available at the start. More skills for every element will come over time.
Well I'm having fun with the new update so far. The option to create y own class is also a plus. But um... I would like some advice on fighting Siofra. I haven't really fought her before until now and her final phase is kind of kicking my ass.
For an idea on what is going on, I am playing as a the Tank of the party with the Sword and Shield as my main weapon and Heavy Armor as my armor set. My strength and Vitality is maxed out to get their benefits. Also I have five points in Insight and the rest going into Magic.
The reason for the magic is I want to have access to both Aether and Nether magic, mainly to be able to use healing magic and the debuff magic.
Ok so, Siofra is actually just difficult - the first real boss so to speak (sorry, abomination). SO don't feel bad if it takes a bit of effort.
The catch with her is that she has 3/3.5 phases, and you want to play them carefully.
In general, take down the summons ASAP, if she phase swaps while one of the wisps is up you're probably gonna have a bad time.
In her final phase, she gets the infinite scaling version of Smoulder you have access to, so you're on a time limit. The tankier your party is the longer you have to burn her down, someone like Sarah can help with survivability, but in general you have to nuke her as fast as possible. Stuns help.
Since Siofra and her summons do pure magic damage, it may be worth trying Unarmored for the extra mana regen to afford an extra channel (maybe), or looking into any resistance traits if you don't have them? One of the new shield abilities, when mastered, also grants an OK AOE heal that can help you top up going into phase 3. Make sure you have any source of healing/regen possible, like Lifestream from water magic and the regen trait.
Party-wise, I did it with Sarah, I've heard Aspasia is actually really good against her, and Ashley might be good for the lifesteal/poison/damage debuffs as well.
A somewhat amusing oversight: Siofra's portrait in some scenes only shows her bottom half - the picture is placed so high, that her torso is out of sight.
Aside from that, I have the impression her dialogue portrait might be too tall, as it clips onto the status bars.
When her portrait is low enough, something felt off to me. Looking more closely, there is a feeling that her image is a bit...square? I think it is because one of the flames at the top suddenly cuts off. I tend to be a stickler for odd details like that. Dunno if that sort of thing is worth mentioning?
Feature request: it would be cool if characters with multiple outfits could change them each day, such as the Succubi and their civilian wear. Bonus points if certain sentimental items are kept, such as Ashley's choker.
The read/unread icon for interactions is much appreciated. It is a QOL feature that should be in games with repeatable conversations. It kinda cheapens dialogue if I accidentally reread it, which sucks because I want to care for Samantha and friends.
Siofra thing fixed for whenever next mini update is!
I'll think about the portrait image, it's tough to get those all about the same size/dimensions.
Outfit changes are possible, but there aren't many alts and for the most part they tend to wear the new one as possible (ex. Sarah isn't likely to use her old outfit unless necessary, since she doesn't like it).
Glad you like the icon! It was kind of a random idea that has been a real hit so far it seems like.
Thoughts on lore and Aspasia. These things are not significant, but more a record that you have an odd player on your hands.
In Badon, I went shopping with Ashley, but the products - t-shirts and the like, stood out as anachronistic, because the setting initially seemed to be an medieval fantasy sort of thing. It got me thinking, "how are the shirts made?" Having no ingame answer, my speculation was thus: they are mass-produced items, that are sewn together by golems in a Triangle-Shirtwaist sort of location...but with magical runes to imprint images onto the products. Maybe those golems are very crude copies of Juno's angels, employing a core and magi-tek circuitry that are roughly hewn?
Second set of thoughts, regard Aspasia. One of my initial questions after encountering her was "what are you made of, and is it deadly to organic life?" This is because she is composed of a silvery substance. The immediate candidates that came to mind was Mercury and Lead. As a human, that is concerning because those materials are not known for encouraging healthy living. Dunno if the MC is aware of hazardous materials, but that was my first worry concerning the lady. Not that she was a predator slime or hawking wares to rando forest travelers, but that she might inadvertently be poisoning people by just being around them.
Moving on, I was very pleased with Celica's love scene. The artist did an excellent job, the ahegao was satisfying, and the writing helped convey that Celica was starting to emerge from her shell of negativity, if only for a time. I am looking forward to spending more time with her, be it lectures or lecherous.
Haha, no worries~ I love worldbuilding, so if anything I'm glad to talk about it.
For the higher tech - the setting varies WILDLY on tech levels. The MC comes from somewhere that is pretty low level (though they do have a functional grandfather clock - so 1700-1800s), but Badon is one of the biggest trade cities in the world and has access to much more stuff.
There's a bit of Avatar: Korra where the proliferation of low-level magic has made some forms of production and lifestyle much easier, for example healing magic makes the average life expectancy much longer than it was in the middle ages IRL and earth/water magic can make farming pretty reliable.
On the opposite end of the scale, Mage-Colleges can be full on floating cities, and mages combine science and magic to push the boundary on things that wouldn't even be possible in our modern 2022 world. Some of that trickles down, much of it doesn't. Across the setting, a lot of places are still somewhere in the 1700-1800s range, sometimes even tribal (ex. the beast tribes), but rudimentary guns (Firewands) are somewhat used by desert mages.
It's intentionally not *just* generic 1700s stuff, but obviously I had to pick a rough timeframe for the default.
Aspasia has a lot of control over the exact material she's made of, so she might be able to turn into mercury, though that would probably be a bad idea during a slime bath LOL
And nice, glad you liked the Celica stuff! Good play on words too. I really like Celica, she's a lot of fun to write.
I have been noticing a trend with slimes, especially in hentai games: They consistently have the most fatal abilities and consequences if they don't feel merciful. Drowning, acid that can selectively destroy materials, able to grapple and vore protagonists outright, jellyfish paralysis or electrical eel capabilities in some cases.
From a human perspective, a person like Aspasia seems like Gaea's answer to the question "What if Mother Nature REALLY wanted you dead?"
When it comes to civilization at large, I suspect that slimes are also treasured craftsmen. Selective destruction offers slimes a role in manufacturing goods - they can potentially carve wooden logs into precise shapes, or jiggle their acidic bodies to separate materials into pure concentrate.
Looking forward to Aspasia being expanded. There are many ways for her and the world to show their interwoven depths.
Yeah - slimes, especially if they can control their bodies effectively, can be absolutely terrifying.
Terrifyingly hot, in particular.
Aspasia is one hell of an alchemist, both because of her mind and her unique body composition. Most slimes lack either to her degree, but they can do some pretty cool stuff too! I'm hoping to spend a lot more time on Aspasia next update, where I just want to write, instead of all the mechanics bullshit that has been fucking me this update lol.
I'm not sure, but Aspasia seems...broken, like she's too powerful. Struggling to beat Siofra with Metatron, so switch her out with Aspasia. RNG was a little nicer (no 4 straight encounters with the huge toads!) but still, Siofra, at her final stage, was no match for Aspasia. Heck, the MC went down fairly early in the final stage and Aspasia still beat Siofra pretty easily. Is Aspasia meant to be overpowered, is it just she does well against the denizens of the deep forest, or because of her skillset she seems overpowered?
Wording choice after a challenge with Siofra makes me wonder if somewhere down the line the MC and Siofra are going to hook up for some fun times! Heck, the MC's boinking angels, succubi, beastkin, and humans, why not a daughter of Gaea?
Huh, you're the first person who's said Aspasia seems OP outside of sparring. It kinda makes sense for this encounter - HP% damage, occasional freezes, tanky enough to survive for a while all make her pretty good there.
That said, she has absolutely no support abilities, crit, mastery, or equipment, so she's pretty mediocre for most content tbh. I'd always take Sarah over her.
And yes, Siofra will definitely be lewdable, as well as the nymph getting introduced soon, may not be immediate though. I have an unhealthy number of ideas already LMAO.
I think it's just Aspasia seemed to handle Siofra as easily as she did that made me think she's OP. I tend to not use her, choosing to stick with Metatron, Sarah, or Celica (depending on situation) but though I'd give Aspasia a chance and was thinking "geez that was easier than I thought it'd be!"
Also, outside of Metatron, only Celica really says anything about Maya headpats. Everyone else doesn't say anything when the option to headpat Maya occurs. Maya needs more headpat love!
Well, she's probably the best specialist at 1v1 battles currently. Eventually, she'll get an update to have more varied abilities and masteries - probably when I make alchemy usable by the player?
But hey, glad it worked out for you on the boss homie.
And yes, when I update Maya intro a bit, will definitely give more headpat lines.
Having gotten the max relationship with Metatron and Celica, I have found their sex scenes to be adorable, funny, and very well written. I can completely see a Metatron/Sarah/MC threesome down the road! I'd like to see a Celica/Sam/MC threesome just to see if they could, yanno, cooperate on something, but that might end badly for the MC...
I'd noticed that the later boss fights are multi-battle. The fight to save Ina(tm) was a few fights, and the fight against Sofra is at LEAST 4 fights (please tell me I was on the last round with her), are you intending to make most of the boss fights multi-battle? The fight to save Ina made sense, because it was "fended off the goons? Fine, I'm next", but Sofra seems to be either bored or the next boss fight is going to be super tough, given she seems to be taking the MC more seriously each round.
Dorky fashion model succubus teaching out of her element angel about sex I found funny and adorable. :)
Glad you liked both girls! Yeah, MetaSarah is something I really want to do, I've been slowly setting it up but gotta get that payoff eventually.
Siofra is 3 distinct phases, with a 0.5 if you count the summon during her first phase. She's definitely intended to be hard - I've referred to her as the 'first real boss' because everything previous was designed to make it easy or at least pretty doable, whereas Siofra (even after her nerfs LOL) can still absolutely ruin your run in phase 3. You were her first 'boss fight' so to speak, and she realized she was having fun LOL
Not every future boss will be the same, but even the temple boss had certain things happen at various HP percentages, the wolf had its super Mark to dogpile the target, etc. Future bosses will have their own mechanics, like minions you don't want to target, near-invincible bosses that take damage when you kill minions, etc. Ideally, it'll be more than just HP bars. But I can definitely say that most won't be as difficult as Siofra.
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Do you get to play through all the first evening scenes eventually or do you get to only choose one? I find them all very endearing. I find Sarah's adorable and Sam's flushes out the characters so well. (Have not done lord Ashley's yet.) But I am curious to know. It will be an unfortunately difficult choice to make if I only get to choose one. Also so far very great game, even the non nsfw parts are very enjoyable.
Once you get to camp, each night you'll get an option to view the earlygame lewd scenes (temple, house) regardless of what you picked! The choice you made early will occasionally pop up in the character interactions though. Glad you're having fun!
Putta lotta more time into it, very good. I love this novel.
Nice, glad you enjoyed! Thanks for the nice comment
This is a bit of an early review, but I feel like I need to express what I have experienced so far. I actually have quite a bit of criticism for this game. It is not uncommon for me to be the only one complaining about a game/story, but I knew I would have to do it when I saw all of the glowing responses that seemed too good to be true...
The writing is actually the most conflicting part of this game for me. While the amount of work done on this game is incredible (most major visual novels of comparable size are using multiple (ghost) writers and yet this is a solo-project that is more ambitious than famous visual novels from Japan that cost $40 or more), the writing is inconsistent in many ways. First of all, after meeting the first five characters, it feels like too many characters are going to be girls and all of them are basically idiots. The main character sounds pretty normal, but the dialogue from the girls so far is way too off from the setting. Everyone is talking like they are casually chatting on the Internet and there are even lines that approach meme humor. And everyone is way too sarcastic as if they are not actually experiencing half of the things that are happening. Metatron is an exception to the rule, but it feels like you are just restraining your tendency to write characters that way by writing as little dialogue as possible for her. You also claim that she thinks really fast, but nothing she said so far displayed rapid thought beyond human levels and she is in some ways slow to be reasonable.
The descriptions on the other hand, tend to be very serious and like a literary classic, but they also can do a pretty poor job at explaining things and the background image of the area can feel detached from all of the descriptions. It can be really hard to tell how the scene is flowing and sometimes words are dropped to the extent that it feels like thoughts were forgotten. And character motivations and personalities can seem so inconsistent. There is this one scene that sticks out in my mind where Ashley walks backward in fear or something (the description was not clear) and then Sarah randomly said something like "How incorrigible!" when Sarah had been talking like everyone else up until that point. There also is the fact that the first thing we learn about the main character is how they wanted to save the world even if there was no apparent threat... Yet, everyone including the main character treats it as a joke and a childish thing that should be forgotten even though the adventure has clearly become real at the beginning of the story. And the description of characters' thoughts and reactions can be so anime, as in people reacting in ways they should not just because certain anime-esque situations come up that are always presented the same way in an anime. Basically, the characters seem like they are held back because of constant playful aggression, sarcasm and "obligatory" actions. Oh yeah, and the main character talks to his best friend with male terms, which seems like such a modern and unnecessary way to express a friendship. And why does Sam feel so much remorse over her actions when she was so careless in a completely important and special situation as if none of it mattered? It came across as completely fake to me. Lastly, I am almost certain that Metatron gets compared to an alien, but why would any of these characters come from a culture where they think about aliens? Some of the descriptions gave me the impression that beings already are capable of interplanetary travel, as well...
One last oddity I noticed is that sentence structure is quite wild. There are some crazy run-on sentences, some which switch perspective or subject in a way that clearly should be a new sentence. And then other sentences were really short.
I am probably nitpicking way too much, but I just wanted to get these things off my mind and maybe hear some background as to why these things may have been written. On another note, I have a pretty strong vocabulary, but this story has brought up like 15 words that I did not know or was unsure about, so far. I feel like the intense vocabulary (mainly in descriptions) is what is impressing so many people. I guess, there are also quite a few descriptions that are beyond my ability to write or imagine that employ that vocabulary.
Edit: Oh, one last thing. I do not understand why everyone "rips in half with a glare". This is the most consistent phrase in the writing and is really bad hyperbole and feels like only one character should be doing it. And the main character is kind of grating with how they use a swear word in a bunch of sentences that should be more calm.
Too long didn't read
gamer reviwer.
I agree, you’re nitpicking. If anything, it’s mostly hyperbole and reads as if you simply did not take the time to read what the game presented.
Take your mention of “rips in half with a glare” apparently being the most consistent phrase in the game for example. Out of 15 instances of the word “glare” appearing in the game as of version 0.22e, only two instances are ones that mention “rips in half” in any capacity. Of these, one appears in
lost_temple.rpyon line 841 and the other inpost_lost_temple_shenanigans.rpyon line 1563. In other words, your complaint is about two instances in the introduction of Ashley, Sarah and Metatron, when the game currently has some 20-25 hours of gameplay and is around 310 thousand words.Regarding Metatron thinking fast, keep in mind that it is the player character who suspects that she does. He even says as much on line 1434 in
lost_temply.rpy: “— giving her near-instant planning earlier you suspect that she just thinks really fast.” Nor is the player character specified as a reliable narrator either, as far as I’m aware, and given it’s in a first-person perspective. Anything we as players experience will be limited by it. Still, thinking fast does not constitute replying fast, if anything, were I to speculate, you’d be easier to get lost chasing potential eventualities that may occur because you have so much time to reply. Regardless, it is not out of character for Metatron, so it does not matter.Regarding your mention of Ashley walking backwards in fear, because apparently the description was not adequate enough, what was difficult to understand about them following a corridor and “running into a wall. Figuratively speaking, in your case; literally in Ashley’s, since she was walking backwards.”? That was why Sarah said “You are absolutely incorrigible.”, because Ashley do as Ashley does. Not only does this fit Sarah’s vocabulary, as established earlier when the player meets them, but also Ashley’s character as can be clearly seen in the same introduction. This is unlikely to be a unique first-time act, which is further reinforced by Sarah reacting like she does this often.
Alien does not necessarily mean extraterrestrial, I’d recommend checking the definition before commenting on such.
Likewise, as an example of the above, not every sentence needs to be short or long. They can be adapted as needed. Metatron’s introduction being a good example, it is something alien to what the player character knows and serves it well with a deeper description of it. Meanwhile, Ashley being Ashley does not necessarily mean she needs an expansive description, short and to the point can not only work but also make things better, given how they’re executed.
The vocabulary of the game is pretty good, it has good descriptions of situations, varied word use and some less common words nowadays. This does not detract from the story, people are able to use contextual clues to figure out words they don’t know most of the time either given fluency as a base requirement. But this is subjective, I personally met no words I didn’t already know, but what does that matter? Likewise, your comment on cursing is also massively subjective. I personally do not like cursing, but it is commonplace nowadays and is not something that is uncommon to occur in both calm and less calm situations.
TL;DR: The writing of this game is one of its best points, get your hyperbole outta here.
Your criticism is definitely hyperbolic here. All of my complaints were valid and you are just bandwagoning because of how little you value honesty and justice. Even if the exact phrase only came up twice, that is still within a short span of time and I am 90% sure there was a phrase or two approximating it. And you are retarded if you think my knowledge of English is too limited to understand that alien can mean outsider. The context of the sentence definitely comes across as more like an extraterrestrial. Even if it was not, it is still a ridiculous statement for someone who clearly has not traveled much and seen many things to act like she was especially outlandish compared to the world at large. There are a lot of people who stand out as strange in the story and this kind of dialogue shows a lack of awareness of how the characters would fit into their world.
Generally, the writing improves after the first stretch of the game. I can not remember having any real complaints about the rest that I played except that they decided to use Atlantis as the name of an underwater city while everything else seems to have original naming.
It's interesting that rebattling Siofra many times, she'll also master her own skills, somehow still pretty challenging as lv 45
Siofra has definitely been a good learning experience when it comes to balance. After the changes in 22e I think she's in an okay place, tough but rewarding to beat down. The mastered skills definitely add to her challenge haha.
Where do I go after going through Deepwood's Verge? Or is it until there until it's updated?
That's it for now. 23 will add the next combat area and continue the plot!
Alright, good game btw. I love how unique the dialogues each of the character has.
Thank you! I still have a ways to go as a writer, I know I could improve on making them MORE unique, but that is something I try to keep in mind when writing each character. I feel like truly unique 'voices ' for each character is a hallmark of really good writing, and what I aspire to.
So I beaten Siofra somehow after being caught off guard by her 3rd form, basically Metatron is a support angel lmao. I had a question about channeling abilities, can you turn those off without resetting them? I don't wanna risk losing my mastery if I reset.
I hear Metatron has helped quite a few people through that battle haha, Sarah was my backup there.
What do you mean resetting? You keep the masteries if you disable autocast, but if they give a stacking buff (say, 1% mitigation a turn) that buff will reset. Let me know if that doesn't answer the question.
I noticed you can manually disable the ability during battle but afterwards it re-enable, so I thought there was another alternative way to properly enable/disable. The reset function I mentioned is "respec" in menu.
But I'm glad I've found and played this game, very much am enjoying, Metatron, Celica and Ashley are probably my favorite characters, but I do love the side-story and romance for all, especially Sam's.
If you rightclick and go to Abilities, you can disable autocast for the ability as well! If you respec the ability entirely, yes, you will lose Mastery progress.
Glad you're enjoying the game! They're all good girls (Maya is questionable), and Sam is a lovable dork
Oh, thank you so much, now i can have endless mana
REALLY GOOD GAME, HAVE A HAPPY LIFE, ALSO, WHY IS THIS GAME SO GOOOOOD YOU ASK?, I DUNNO BUT I'VE BEEN PLAYING THIS MASTERPIECE FOR 4 DAYS STRAIGHT (excluding the time i slept because my mom forces me to otherwise no pc for the rest of my life) BUT THE GAME IS GOOOOOD AAAAAAAAA have a nice day
Glad you had fun, thanks for commenting!
I stayed up all night playing this game, it's that good! Also, is there by any chance a playlist for the music used?
Nice!! On the music, uhh, I don't know if I can do that, some of it I commissioned for the game but a lot of it is free-use content from various sites/artists, some of which might have rules against that. The About page links to the sources for most music, if there's a particular one you're looking for I can try to help too!
Off-topic from the music, but are there any plans for any non-magic uses of aether, nether, and abyssal (assuming abyssal abilities going to be implemented in the future)?
To some degree, probably. Aether and Nether are so inherently magical it's hard to separate them too much, but non-mages should get to play with the fancy stuff too. Any particular thoughts you had in mind?
Since it's a corruption and you lose parts of your humanity through using aether, I was thinking some passives or traits specifically for physical type damage. Just a surface thought, you know what to do best as the author.
Additionally, in most fantasy settings there is aura for the physical type users and mana for magic type. Disregard this if you're not planning on introducing aura, but if you are planning on introducing aura, maybe the nature of the aura can be tainted by aether, nether, or abyssal forming new types of abilities that primarily do the damage type of the corresponding corruption.
A little question, if my corruption was already capped whilst my trust are not that high thus losing the chance of getting more from Metatron as I've done the training and lewd (and yes my corruption got capped onto 20 which is low). Is there any other way to get a Aether corruption if ever I reach the sufficient amount of high level trust?
Right now, all corruptions are hardcapped at 20 currently. To go beyond that you'll need to make a certain choice that isn't ingame yet. When the possibility of raising it higher happens, you'll have more options to do so.
I see, I guess I'll pay no heed for it as of now. My curiosity was fulfilled, thank you.
Hi! I wanna know something about this weekly update thing: is it just announcements or you already put it into the game?
Just progress reports. I do daily progress reports on discord and weekly on patreon/sites, so people know what I've been working on.
I've started doing weekly Patreon betas, but they're not polished enough for public releases.
Actual releases are usually *around* once a month.
Thank you
There are some games which are visual novels and then there's ones like this which are visual NOVELS!
Seriously though, the writing alone in this game is in a class of its own among the titles available on this site and that's before you mention the great art, music and, last but not least, the battle system.
It strikes such a good balance between actually showing you things and letting you imagine them as you would reading a book.
I can't really blame the creators of games which use English that's barely held together as it's rarely their native language, but it is just such a joy to play something with this much thought and effort put into its storytelling. I could be nitpicky and mention that it feels like there is a bit too much swearing at times and that there are a few "thens" instead of "thans", but I won't even if I just did.
I'm only finished with the first day of the story so far, but am itching to continue on with it.
Cheers!
Those are very kind words, thank you! Always makes me happy to hear people enjoying the game, especially as an amateur indie dev with no artistic talents, it's been an uphill battle to try to make it look and play well haha.
I write using a mix of typing and Speech to Text to try to save my hands, so there are definitely gonna be more errors than if I hand-typed everything. I'm always open to typo reports!
Ah, I see, that's really cool! I've never really heard of anyone doing that before, but it does indeed seem like a good way to get the words down if you know what to say.
I'll definitely be tagging along for the ride and enjoying the coming updates and such.
Yeah, it took some practice. I think typing it out is still better, but my hands just can't handle writing multiple novels a year lol.
Here's to a bright future for the game though!
Haha, I have no experience of writing novels myself but I can imagine the toll it must take on a prodigious wordsmith such as yourself.
I played a little bit more today and I must say that the sheer depth of thought of your characters has left no small impression on me. I know a lot of people, myself partly included, come to these types of games to find something they can't in everyday life, but this one has given me something I can take back and improve it with. Those are the best kinds of stories, aren't they?
If I didn't already say it, thank you for creating this game.
Yeah... the game is about 330k words right now, which is about 5-7 novels in length, written in a bit under two years. Doing that by hand would have killed me.
I definitely think the characters are the main draw of the game. I just love trying to write people, or rather letting them write themselves. Always makes me happy to hear people are really enjoying them, or the questions raised.
I don't like writing as a way to moralize, but asking questions and leaving them unanswered, trying to make the reader consider it too, is really fun and fulfilling. Dune had that effect on me a while back!
But yeah, glad you enjoyed, and thank you once again for the kind words and enthusiasim~
Ya know using stable diffusion will probably help a lot with making more art for new stuff and in scene artwork
I don't intend to do that, I'm fine commissioning people for art.
adding on to my previous review the soundtrack is great and my favoritee song so far is the song that plays whenever you talk with celica
That's my favorite too! I had it commissioned just for her, it's one of my favorites in the game. Really fits her perfectly.
my favorite character is celica hope you make more content to do with her in the future. great game love the story and the gameplays fun too. lewds are just an added (great) benefit,
Oh yeah there'll definitely be more Celica, next update will have some and she's one of my favorite characters to write. Glad you enjoyed the game so far!
downloaded game all text just a bunch of yellow lines cant play also web browser version crashes at the magic circle part near the beggining want to play your game but i cant hope you can fix soon (p.s. im using the 32 bit application)
gonna leave the application running incase it just isnt done loading or something
I've never heard of that bug. What system are you on? Did you try running it in 64-bit, aka just DivineDawn.exe? I know Renpy is moving away from supporting 32-bit systems, but I *think* 7.5 still supports them.
im on windows 8 and have a crappy lenovo thinkpad that gets stuck in a boot loop if i try to update it to windows ten it isnt capable of running x64 programs
Sorry to hear that. As far as I know, Renpy 7.5 is still compatible with Windows 8 and x32 bit systems, but may not be able to handle low amounts of RAM - I think it requires 500mb or so? That said, I'm not super knowledgeable about that stuff, Renpy handles most of it for me. Are you able to play other recent Renpy games?
i havent really tried other renpy games but i tried to play the browser version again and it let me without crashing for a bit but then it crashed again when i got to the black orb thing it seem im able to play for short periods of time before it crashes and reloading the page doesnt fix it
Yeah, none of these issues happen normally, in web or downloadable. I hate to say it, but it sounds like renpy might not be quite as compatible with older/weaker systems as they advertise.
What kinds of crashes are you getting anyways? Like are these actual error messages, or the game shuts down, or what?
"After reading latest stuff" I'm curious on what to expect from "butterfly mom", - whether she's a think first or a think last character. Looking forwards to new scenes with Sarah, given she and I relate so well. (Under-confident)
Been meaning to ask, will minor choices have an effect at all? Like, you watch Sarah's fashion show when picking who to hang around after the temple in the beginning, will somewhere down the line she does another fashion show full of confidence? Or when you first have fun with Sam, if you didn't confront her that night, it's more awkward than if you did? I know it's probably more work for ya, but I do love it when choices from earlier have minor changes down the road. Suppose it's going to depend a little on who it is though - Ashley seems to be "Sam 2.0" so I don't think choosing her or not will change much, outside of how much she's pranking Metatron!
I'm gonna start writing Rosalyn later this week hopefully, so... we'll see how she comes out exactly haha. Hopefully unique and fun!
Sarah's last scene is one of my favorites so hopefully she'll please~
Minor choices do have a fair number of callbacks, but they're not always obvious ingame cuz there's no popup. Celica has a *lot* of line swaps in her Wind training especially, based on your relationship progress with her, some of your choices throughout it, etc. Sam will remember if you confronted her outside the house or not. Ashley's stuff with Metatron gives you a few extra lines if you spoke with Maya or Metatron enough to learn much about their martial arts.
It's not perfect and not always telegraphed, but they're fun and I try to keep up with them when it's relevant!
Doing a lot of time-related stuff isn't likely though, it's harder to track.
Is it just me or does the game not run on Mac? I downloaded it and it contains the game files not inside the Mac application, but next to it in folders, which apparently MacOS is not happy about?
I've gotten some scattered reports that the mac unzipper apparently gets confused sometimes, but that it works after retrying? I don't have a mac to test on but as far as I know most people can play it fine there.
holy fucking shit take my wallet! 9/10 ( a bug limited it from a 10. one of the duel dagger abilities causes an exception error.)
Glad you enjoyed! If you remember which ability it was that caused the issue, I'll look into fixing it for next update.
yeah sorry The ability was "Bloody Ripper" gonna be donating soon so can't wait to see how this game develops have a great day mate!
Thank you, I'll look into the bug and try to fix it for next update! Glad you enjoyed, I've been making great progress this update so next one should be pretty chunky!
Very nice gameplay and great artwork
Glad you enjoyed, thanks for taking the time to comment!
Very good gameplay with some nice features, couldn't ask for much more
Glad you enjoyed! I'll keep on with the updates so there can always be more haha.
Dang the improvements, It's been awhile since I've played this game and came back with huge iimprovements!! 5 stars!
Aw, thank you! It's a very iterative process, I'm slowly trying to make the game look and play as nicely as possible. Just gotta get a better-looking UI... eventually...
Speaking of UI, should I put up the mockup soon, or wait until you switch into gameplay mode after your writing brainstorm has passed?
I don't know if you are the type who focuses on one thing at a time, or prefer allowing things to simmer at the back of your mind. It is my preference to not interfere with your writing, which elevates DD.
Depending on the scale of the changes, the artist I was going to work with on new UI, and how this update goes, it may be weeks or months before I do much UI stuff.
Fire away, I'll let it simmer!
Righto, below is a general idea of what I got in mind. Hopefully the walls of fortified text aren't too overbearing.
(Viewing the image in its own tab might be a good idea, for visual clarity)
Going from what I consider least controversial or difficult, and working towards the biggest pains in the backside...
1 - The face icons for the allied characters can have a function. The idea is that by clicking on a allied face, the player adjusts the level of Threat the party exudes. In this picture, Samantha has 40% Threat, in what I call "Introvert Mode". Ashley is drawing aggro, through "Extrovert" mode at 60%. Clicking on either portrait would shift around the threat level - "Neutral Mode" splits things evenly between these two. Assuming that in-battle party sizes don't change, this should be relatively easy to implement and be accessible for players. Each portrait has a colored border to indicate their threat mode, along with some text in the picture to precisely display the threat level. Some enemies might dole out particular aggro states onto characters, so that text will be important for that.
2 - In the center, we have a row of faces. They are used for tracking the speed of characters during the turn - the person most left is fastest, those towards the right are slower. The arrows and chevrons indicate to whom a character's actions are directed. Ashley's green arrow means that she is supporting Samantha in some fashion. Kuril is directly attacking Samantha, and Sam herself is using an area ability on the party. Kandros is directly supporting Kuril, but his ability is also causing harm to the party. I think this overall concept would be useful for organizing battles.
3 - On the left is the Skill Tray. The icons most to the left indicate the most basic ability of each action category, and each column represents an element. Neutral, Wind, Fire, Water, Earth, Aether, Nether, and Abyss (not present yet). Each row represents a range of abilities that have a specialty or cost. For example, the Focused and Group melee options might have a cooldown system attached and minimal MP cost.
I do not know how many abilities you want the player to have, but I do have a philosophy on the matter: Too many not only clutters a potential interface, but also makes it harder to design battles - you wouldn't know what sort of action a player might wish to pursue. With the action categories of "Focused Melee", "Group Melee", "Condensed Magic", "Area Magic", "Defensive", and "Eromancy" in this tray, there is at least 64 actions. A GUI is a canvas for game designers, and like with a painting, it is possible to lose focus if you cram too much stuff.
Players won't easily understand how to play the game effectively if you have too many options, so it can be a potential lose-lose for both designer and player.
4 - Utilities. We are moving into gameplay ideas. The concept here is that the MC has a "utility belt", where he keeps potions, wands, runestones, grenades, ect. Unlike abilities powered by mana or waiting for a cooldown, these items cannot be normally restocked during battles and adventures, except at rest points. This should help make the concept of utility items a powerful thing, and also gives Aspasia a specialty during conflict - she might have the ability to resupply the player in a pinch.
5 - Attunement. Honestly, I do not like the current purpose of Attunement in the game - it is a cap on learning stuff, which doesn't excite me. I think it would be cooler as a mechanic during battles. The idea being, the player can enter a state where they are effectively an elemental Super Saiyan, kinda like the Avatar from Last Airbender.
6 - Focus. This is a resource pool that powers events and what I call "escalation". The first, is to spend points to activate encounter or companion events during the battle. Say, for example, Aspasia generating a item, to counter a goblin mage's fireball spell, or maybe lure enemies off the field for a bit. Basically stuff that is specific to encounters or friends, that other mechanics are not built for.
Escalation is basically the player activating the masteries of an action, and each activation earns points towards upgrading the masteries the move can unleash. While attuned and using a move of the same element, the masteries are further enhanced.
When it comes to gathering Focus, I am thinking defensive actions can generate these points. By not being hurt, the MC is gathering their thoughts and momentum to make a play of some kind. Be it a finishing move or buying time for a friend, you need to not be on the backfoot. Aside from that, the numbers on the far-right on the Skill Tray represents independent focus points that an action category has gathered. This gives a player a general focus pool, then specialized focus pools to help encourage move diversity.
7 - Lust. I am thinking that Lust could affect moves. For example, Kuril's "Jaws" action in the mockup could become "Hump" if he gets too amorous. While this may be a bit uncomfortable for Metatron, being dry-humped by a giant shark is probably preferable to being introduced to his maw. Kandro's "Healing Rain" turning into a "Milky Rain" would undoubtedly be very helpful for our succubi companions. Of course, turnabout is fair play...
That is quite the proposal! I can safely say that I don't intend to do anything of that scale in the near future, but some were already planned and possibly easy enough (turn order) that you may see fragments sooner rather than later.
Utilities are already ingame, just not used much - Aspasia's alchemy is all adventure-capped (she has an ability to replenish them) as is your healing potion.
I'll consider the rest.
Started anew to see what has changed, got to everyone getting to the road trip but haven't actually headed towards Badon yet at all, just the intro to camp. I love Amnelis and how she's flirty, and also very much a goofball! Doesn't seem to understand self-preservation though... Given how flirty she is, probably another Daughter of Gaea that's lewdable!
One thing, I have to wonder if you start with something - say, a longsword and light armor - will you be able to switch out once you reach Badon? I initially wanted a Mana Blade but found the mana cost of stuff a little too steep so restarted with a longsword. Once I reach Badon, wouldn't mind upgrading a bit but not sure if switching weapons will be problematic because of skills. Armor shouldn't be an issue for upgrading though.
Sorry Amnelis, Sarah's still my favorite!
You can swap weapons and armor anytime in camp! Go to Progress, Equip, and you can set your primary and secondary weapons, which can then be swapped between freely in battle!
Glad you're liking Amnelis, I had a lot of fun writing her and am looking forward to more. Her first CG is already in progress and looking NICE.
And Sarah is still good - will definitely give her some love this update!
Sure, let me know if it happens again!
I quite like the characters. the writing is definitely sometimes a mouthful, sometimes over explain the plot, and sometimes is just a little over the top, but i think that just adds onto the charm. I especially like the characters, none more than Metatron. The dive into what it is to be and to feel is a concept im very attached to. The exploration of her character wrapping around human life and concepts while having trouble dealing with her own is just great to read, and seeing the glimpses of those emotions are also just phenomenal. I'm looking forward to more on this. Good job so far!!!
TBH, at some point I want to go back over the temple writing a bit more - it drags a little there at times.
Glad you're generally enjoying it though! Metatron and the Aether magic stuff gives me a lot of room to explore weird stuff and try to get fancy, I absolutely love writing all that. It's been really fun seeing people fall for Metatron, I'm grateful I got a chance to finally realize a character that had been stuck in my head for almost 10 years now!
Thank you for the kind words, hopefully next update will have more Metatron!
Of course! The fact that you're breaking out into other molds is something that gives the writing a lot of life as well. Keep it up!!
Topic idea regarding Metatron: do angels eat? I am guessing that fancy core of hers can normally sustain her, but the damage to it might force her to try out this strange stuff called "stew".
Now I wonder: How exactly does one gain Abyssal Corruption? I know you can’t gain any right now, but now I wonder how one can get it in future updates.
Without any spoilers; it's more of a midgame thing. There'll be a sexy option for it (of course) and some other ways!
This game is something else. I love the humor and the story and of course the scenes. The OST is also really nice. I noticed the dialogue changes in the text when you have different partners, or when you and/or your partner have an ability or not (like the ina healing aftermath). It's a very high quality game from the lot of them I've played!
Won't lie, I'm always happy to hear people like the OST - probably the most effort for something most don't notice haha. Glad you're enjoying the rest of it too! And yes, the dialogue swaps aren't always obvious, but I've had a lot of fun throwing them in and seeing which people notice; I feel like (done well) it really makes the full thing feel more immersive, whereas the times I make poor assumptions jerk people out of the illusion. It's been an interesting learning experience!
I disagree about not noticing music. It can sometimes really define a game - the OG System Shock 1 is very unique compared to most, since it has a techno track in a horror setting. Same goes for La-Mulana, The World Ends With You, and so many others...
Assuming that you are making the music yourself, keep it up. Every piece, be it excellent or failure, will make you a better creator.
When it comes to the tailored interjections, I appreciate that. It certainly helps ensure that Celica, Metatron, and Samantha are distinct beings rather than meat suits that say the same thing.
I think music is important, yeah, I just mean that most people aren't going to play an adult game looking for music - it seems to be pretty common to just mute immediately - so sometimes it feels like it doesn't get much attention.
The music is commissioned or under free-use mostly, but I've always wanted to learn to make music electronically - I used to play piano pretty well and adore music in general. Maybe someday! I just don't know where to get started with the electronic stuff lol.
I guess you can try out a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), and see if you can punch out a score or dozen? DAW-wise, I hear that Reaper is very good, and you can basically ignore the nag screen every 60 days until you feel ready to commit to buying. That said, Reaper is intended for professional creators, so you will have a learning curve. Cakewalk is a freeware option that isn't as powerful, but less intimidating.
Anyhow, I keep music on for VN games - they are a genre I use for immersion and empathy, so the music is important for me. Other games, especially action, puzzle, or simulation titles, I lower the music while listening to podcasts. Each player has unique relationships to their gameography.
Interesting - I'll look into them both! Thanks for sharing, I've heard of DAWs before but didn't know anything about that. I'd love to be able to make some music, that and writing are my favorite types of creativity.
And yeah, if the game doesn't have terrible music, I almost always listen to it. Lotta porn games out there don't even try though.
Ha when I found Ina I was questioning my sanity, now seeing your pfp it makes sense. I’ve just got to ask, and maybe it will be answered when I get further in, would she be somehow connected to that abyssal corruption bar in the future. I totally get it if that isn’t connected to your vision for the game, I just thought it was interesting along with the eldritch sound of some things like the description of the insight stat, thanks for all the hard work.
Ina's name is definitely a bit of homage to our priestess, but that's as far as I went - anything more and it starts lurching too close to plagiarism. So no abyssal relation with her, and she won't be a priestess of the old ones.
Other characters may end up closer to that niche though, I do think Hololive Ina's design is fantastic and something along those lines could work in the setting! Just not obviously Ina.
Abyssal will get its own, hopefully unique stuff - though the Lovecraftian vibes aren't too subtle I admit!
Is Lust going to have moves & mechanics for standard battles, or will battle types remain discrete from each other? I have been wondering if Eromancy would be a thing in this setting.
Honestly, not sure. The original plan was to go a little more CoC and mix them together, but it didn't really feel right in practice. I'll probably move sex battles over to the vanilla battle system, but still keep a distinction between sex battles and normal battles in terms of available moves.
Battle-fook systems are wily beasts, especially when combined with situations that call for lethal force. Mind, I suppose that a bit of eromancy to...distract...an enemy could leave them open to a fatal blow.
Speaking of Ero-battles, you might want to check out Monster Girl Dreams on Itch. I suspect that you and most fans of Divine Dawn would enjoy that one, what with being text-heavy and usually light-hearted. That particular game made it law of reality that genuine harm cannot be dealt between people. That makes sex the way to resolve conflict.
I used to mod MGD, actually. I made Waifupocalypse if you're familiar with that mod. I don't think the barrier would work in DD, it's a very different setting.
Yeah that makes sense. A good bit of something Lovecraftian , especially if it has a unique touch is always interesting, also the Metatron and Maya scene was super cute. Hope you have a good day
Thanks bud, you too!
MetaMaya is super cute and I want to write so much more LOL
We prefer to call them 'petite~'
But yes, both cute, Celica has tons of stuff and Maya will get more soon!
Another update? I guess it must be for some bugs.
I think you answered this in a previous comment, however I can't recall what the answer was; I was looking to sorta have my character learn a wide variety of magic, including both Nether and Aether, however I don't want to make any hard choices about what route I'm wanting to go, and the growing Aether and Nether corruption from learning magic plus a few of the lines has me a bit concerned that I might accidently get locked into a path inadvertently; am I safe to learn Aether or Nether magic without being locked into a route, or s that something that I have to be cautious and aware of that at some point I will either have to make a choice or accept what I have?
I absolutely hate surprise gotchas, so you won't be locked into a path without warning.
It's fine to dabble in both Aether/Nether, but down the road if you choose to pursue either corruption to its peak, there will be two (clearly labeled) progressive choices you have to make about aether/nether corruptions, and a third route of trying to master both, each of which will have its own ups and downsides.
Can you add platforms? Then one can search for Android Tag and find this.
For the files themselves? Or somewhere else? Sorry, the itch backend is kinda confusing, and I'm kinda dumb.
When you click on "More Information" it says for which platform it is. Did you already Do that or did I not See that?
I'll be honest here, I have no idea how that works, and I don't see an obvious way to edit it.
It MIGHT be auto-filled, related to which platforms I designate each file belonging to?
It looks like it says the platforms currently tho, near the top
Well, everything is fine now anyway.👍
I made an account just for this but please please let aspasia teach us about alchemy so that we can use her moveset aswell (also alchemist seems cool and quite OP in this game)
That is the intent! I'll be expanding alchemy and making it teachable over time, no exact ETA yet!
If we are going for the alchemy class, then we should not for get about equivalent exchange, just an example ice type flask throw lowers your intiative for the next turn, the burning flask throw drains your health about 0.5 per use, that's just my suggestion also are you perhaps a fellow takodachi???
"Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return."
Haha, that's an interesting idea - I was toying with it on Aspasia's potion restock ability, it costs a fair bit of health. I could see the PC having something similar, using blood to refill on battle. I could see alchemy skills having a misfire chance as well. Will see how it goes when I update it!
And yes, I like... most of the hololive girls honestly, but Ina is so damn comfy to watch. Especially from behind, so I can look at her back.
Hmm… I already beat my first playthrough and now I want to play as a character that uses Dual Daggers and favors inflicting the bleeding status with both his daggers and wind magic. The issue is that his wind magic isn’t gonna be that good as I won’t be able to boost his focus stat as I’m focusing on Dexterity, Magic, and Agility.
Also… I noticed that my Frenzy stack didn’t change despite using Dearh Blossom in battle.
You'll just have to avoid Kovomancy, Aeromancy doesn't have focus scaling so you can still use it full power!
And yeah, the stack reduction mechanic wasn't working for all abilities, fixed in 22d which I recently uploaded
Wait it was just updated now? Huh… Well alright then. I have only been playing the game for only a couple of days and I already have a few builds I want to try out:
Manablade with all elements, including Aether and Nether to cover all future weaknesses.
Dual Dagger focused on bleeding.
Spear focus on getting critical hits while weaken enemies’ defense and mitigation
just to name a few
I have a question: Do enemies have elemental weaknesses in the game? If so, how exactly do we go about figuring it out?
For the most part no, the system is set up but I'm still trying to figure out how to display it in a way that's not too much verbal diarrhea but still conveys useful info. Once I figure that out, they will.
A thought on that: Maybe give the enemies an glowing aura that shrouds them, with a pattern and color that resembles the element in question. EG: A martial artist who specializes in Earth Bending has pebbles rotating around their image, or a Pyrolisk with a red haze.
This would also allow you to give elemental phases for enemies or multiple elements that combine patterns. The big downside is that it would require TLC to look right for each creature, and might cost money.
The simpler route is to give enemies a dedicated "game space" for their status info, including elemental strengths or weaknesses. In that case, maybe a tiny picture of the element with an up/down arrow + sword/shield, as appropriate to the creature characteristics.
I guess one of the mechanical questions about the whole thing is how elemental preferences work for characters. Say, an enemy that doles out fire damage, also be vulnerable to the same? I am thinking in this something like having a flamethrower backpack that can go kaboom.
Or perhaps a “Monster Book” for players to look through? Like once they face an enemy, the game reveals information about the enemy like a brief description for players to read and a lists of their element resistance. One way would be to make most of the resistance unknown until the players discovers them by chance or by logic. Like those elemental fairies would be strong against their own elements, but vulnerable to their opposites.
Wouldn't be a bad idea. Right-clicking on a enemy could open up a detailed Beastiary with unlocked details and lore. (bestiary is the correct spelling, but I prefer "beast". It just makes more sense.)
So still no one to teach earth magic yet. Also I noticed that there is no Mana Blade Skill for Fire and Aether. Then again, it did say it’s only compatible with MOST elements, so I guess those two are the ones mana blade isn’t great with.
Yes, earth magic teacher (Alicia - art done and a patreon preview) will be in the next 1-2 updates. Mana Blade was kind of experimental, I'll add more to it over time depending on initial feedback, especially if people liked the mana juggling aspect of it.
Well I got to say I rather enjoy it. I always enjoyed going for a Spellsword build, but I always worry I might run out of mana for the skills, but Siphon Strike managed to fix that worry. Also the base skills for the Mana Blade really seems to synchronize with the other elements. However, I always have trouble wether to go for Insight for extra damage or Agility for evasive and fast tactics. I hope that Mana Blade gets more work done on it.
You're exactly right - the base skills offer a decent baseline kit and synergy with the special stuff for each element!
Mana Blade already gives some free defense/resist penetration, so I think it's safe to go for Agility/Vitality (defensive) or Focus/Dexterity (crit) depending on whether you want to be tanky, focus on spells, or focus on skills. Cuz you still have access to the full Longsword skillset too.
Well what if one wishes to be able to use Aether or Nether magic with the mana blade?
Nether exists, the existing skill is called Dhampir. But you need the Nether Initiate trait to access it, so it's not available at the start. More skills for every element will come over time.
Well I'm having fun with the new update so far. The option to create y own class is also a plus. But um... I would like some advice on fighting Siofra. I haven't really fought her before until now and her final phase is kind of kicking my ass.
For an idea on what is going on, I am playing as a the Tank of the party with the Sword and Shield as my main weapon and Heavy Armor as my armor set. My strength and Vitality is maxed out to get their benefits. Also I have five points in Insight and the rest going into Magic.
The reason for the magic is I want to have access to both Aether and Nether magic, mainly to be able to use healing magic and the debuff magic.
Ok so, Siofra is actually just difficult - the first real boss so to speak (sorry, abomination). SO don't feel bad if it takes a bit of effort.
The catch with her is that she has 3/3.5 phases, and you want to play them carefully.
In general, take down the summons ASAP, if she phase swaps while one of the wisps is up you're probably gonna have a bad time.
In her final phase, she gets the infinite scaling version of Smoulder you have access to, so you're on a time limit. The tankier your party is the longer you have to burn her down, someone like Sarah can help with survivability, but in general you have to nuke her as fast as possible. Stuns help.
Since Siofra and her summons do pure magic damage, it may be worth trying Unarmored for the extra mana regen to afford an extra channel (maybe), or looking into any resistance traits if you don't have them? One of the new shield abilities, when mastered, also grants an OK AOE heal that can help you top up going into phase 3. Make sure you have any source of healing/regen possible, like Lifestream from water magic and the regen trait.
Party-wise, I did it with Sarah, I've heard Aspasia is actually really good against her, and Ashley might be good for the lifesteal/poison/damage debuffs as well.
A somewhat amusing oversight: Siofra's portrait in some scenes only shows her bottom half - the picture is placed so high, that her torso is out of sight.
Aside from that, I have the impression her dialogue portrait might be too tall, as it clips onto the status bars.
When her portrait is low enough, something felt off to me. Looking more closely, there is a feeling that her image is a bit...square? I think it is because one of the flames at the top suddenly cuts off. I tend to be a stickler for odd details like that. Dunno if that sort of thing is worth mentioning?
Feature request: it would be cool if characters with multiple outfits could change them each day, such as the Succubi and their civilian wear. Bonus points if certain sentimental items are kept, such as Ashley's choker.
The read/unread icon for interactions is much appreciated. It is a QOL feature that should be in games with repeatable conversations. It kinda cheapens dialogue if I accidentally reread it, which sucks because I want to care for Samantha and friends.
Siofra thing fixed for whenever next mini update is!
I'll think about the portrait image, it's tough to get those all about the same size/dimensions.
Outfit changes are possible, but there aren't many alts and for the most part they tend to wear the new one as possible (ex. Sarah isn't likely to use her old outfit unless necessary, since she doesn't like it).
Glad you like the icon! It was kind of a random idea that has been a real hit so far it seems like.
I don't wanna do an announcement yet, but the final beta is ongoing and full release here should be Sunday or Monday!
I'm very excite!
Well by the looks of it, the new version hasn’t been updated yet. So I guess it’s gonna be tomorrow.
Yeah, decided to do one last beta to catch a few recurring bugs, going well and should be pretty stable tomorrow!
Any particular time you will be releasing it?
Uploading as we speak!
Thoughts on lore and Aspasia. These things are not significant, but more a record that you have an odd player on your hands.
In Badon, I went shopping with Ashley, but the products - t-shirts and the like, stood out as anachronistic, because the setting initially seemed to be an medieval fantasy sort of thing. It got me thinking, "how are the shirts made?" Having no ingame answer, my speculation was thus: they are mass-produced items, that are sewn together by golems in a Triangle-Shirtwaist sort of location...but with magical runes to imprint images onto the products. Maybe those golems are very crude copies of Juno's angels, employing a core and magi-tek circuitry that are roughly hewn?
Second set of thoughts, regard Aspasia. One of my initial questions after encountering her was "what are you made of, and is it deadly to organic life?" This is because she is composed of a silvery substance. The immediate candidates that came to mind was Mercury and Lead. As a human, that is concerning because those materials are not known for encouraging healthy living. Dunno if the MC is aware of hazardous materials, but that was my first worry concerning the lady. Not that she was a predator slime or hawking wares to rando forest travelers, but that she might inadvertently be poisoning people by just being around them.
Moving on, I was very pleased with Celica's love scene. The artist did an excellent job, the ahegao was satisfying, and the writing helped convey that Celica was starting to emerge from her shell of negativity, if only for a time. I am looking forward to spending more time with her, be it lectures or lecherous.
Haha, no worries~ I love worldbuilding, so if anything I'm glad to talk about it.
For the higher tech - the setting varies WILDLY on tech levels. The MC comes from somewhere that is pretty low level (though they do have a functional grandfather clock - so 1700-1800s), but Badon is one of the biggest trade cities in the world and has access to much more stuff.
There's a bit of Avatar: Korra where the proliferation of low-level magic has made some forms of production and lifestyle much easier, for example healing magic makes the average life expectancy much longer than it was in the middle ages IRL and earth/water magic can make farming pretty reliable.
On the opposite end of the scale, Mage-Colleges can be full on floating cities, and mages combine science and magic to push the boundary on things that wouldn't even be possible in our modern 2022 world. Some of that trickles down, much of it doesn't. Across the setting, a lot of places are still somewhere in the 1700-1800s range, sometimes even tribal (ex. the beast tribes), but rudimentary guns (Firewands) are somewhat used by desert mages.
It's intentionally not *just* generic 1700s stuff, but obviously I had to pick a rough timeframe for the default.
Aspasia has a lot of control over the exact material she's made of, so she might be able to turn into mercury, though that would probably be a bad idea during a slime bath LOL
And nice, glad you liked the Celica stuff! Good play on words too. I really like Celica, she's a lot of fun to write.
I have been noticing a trend with slimes, especially in hentai games: They consistently have the most fatal abilities and consequences if they don't feel merciful. Drowning, acid that can selectively destroy materials, able to grapple and vore protagonists outright, jellyfish paralysis or electrical eel capabilities in some cases.
From a human perspective, a person like Aspasia seems like Gaea's answer to the question "What if Mother Nature REALLY wanted you dead?"
When it comes to civilization at large, I suspect that slimes are also treasured craftsmen. Selective destruction offers slimes a role in manufacturing goods - they can potentially carve wooden logs into precise shapes, or jiggle their acidic bodies to separate materials into pure concentrate.
Looking forward to Aspasia being expanded. There are many ways for her and the world to show their interwoven depths.
Yeah - slimes, especially if they can control their bodies effectively, can be absolutely terrifying.
Terrifyingly hot, in particular.
Aspasia is one hell of an alchemist, both because of her mind and her unique body composition. Most slimes lack either to her degree, but they can do some pretty cool stuff too! I'm hoping to spend a lot more time on Aspasia next update, where I just want to write, instead of all the mechanics bullshit that has been fucking me this update lol.
I'm not sure, but Aspasia seems...broken, like she's too powerful. Struggling to beat Siofra with Metatron, so switch her out with Aspasia. RNG was a little nicer (no 4 straight encounters with the huge toads!) but still, Siofra, at her final stage, was no match for Aspasia. Heck, the MC went down fairly early in the final stage and Aspasia still beat Siofra pretty easily. Is Aspasia meant to be overpowered, is it just she does well against the denizens of the deep forest, or because of her skillset she seems overpowered?
Wording choice after a challenge with Siofra makes me wonder if somewhere down the line the MC and Siofra are going to hook up for some fun times! Heck, the MC's boinking angels, succubi, beastkin, and humans, why not a daughter of Gaea?
Huh, you're the first person who's said Aspasia seems OP outside of sparring. It kinda makes sense for this encounter - HP% damage, occasional freezes, tanky enough to survive for a while all make her pretty good there.
That said, she has absolutely no support abilities, crit, mastery, or equipment, so she's pretty mediocre for most content tbh. I'd always take Sarah over her.
And yes, Siofra will definitely be lewdable, as well as the nymph getting introduced soon, may not be immediate though. I have an unhealthy number of ideas already LMAO.
I think it's just Aspasia seemed to handle Siofra as easily as she did that made me think she's OP. I tend to not use her, choosing to stick with Metatron, Sarah, or Celica (depending on situation) but though I'd give Aspasia a chance and was thinking "geez that was easier than I thought it'd be!"
Also, outside of Metatron, only Celica really says anything about Maya headpats. Everyone else doesn't say anything when the option to headpat Maya occurs. Maya needs more headpat love!
Well, she's probably the best specialist at 1v1 battles currently. Eventually, she'll get an update to have more varied abilities and masteries - probably when I make alchemy usable by the player?
But hey, glad it worked out for you on the boss homie.
And yes, when I update Maya intro a bit, will definitely give more headpat lines.
Having gotten the max relationship with Metatron and Celica, I have found their sex scenes to be adorable, funny, and very well written. I can completely see a Metatron/Sarah/MC threesome down the road! I'd like to see a Celica/Sam/MC threesome just to see if they could, yanno, cooperate on something, but that might end badly for the MC...
I'd noticed that the later boss fights are multi-battle. The fight to save Ina(tm) was a few fights, and the fight against Sofra is at LEAST 4 fights (please tell me I was on the last round with her), are you intending to make most of the boss fights multi-battle? The fight to save Ina made sense, because it was "fended off the goons? Fine, I'm next", but Sofra seems to be either bored or the next boss fight is going to be super tough, given she seems to be taking the MC more seriously each round.
Dorky fashion model succubus teaching out of her element angel about sex I found funny and adorable. :)
Glad you liked both girls! Yeah, MetaSarah is something I really want to do, I've been slowly setting it up but gotta get that payoff eventually.
Siofra is 3 distinct phases, with a 0.5 if you count the summon during her first phase. She's definitely intended to be hard - I've referred to her as the 'first real boss' because everything previous was designed to make it easy or at least pretty doable, whereas Siofra (even after her nerfs LOL) can still absolutely ruin your run in phase 3. You were her first 'boss fight' so to speak, and she realized she was having fun LOL
Not every future boss will be the same, but even the temple boss had certain things happen at various HP percentages, the wolf had its super Mark to dogpile the target, etc. Future bosses will have their own mechanics, like minions you don't want to target, near-invincible bosses that take damage when you kill minions, etc. Ideally, it'll be more than just HP bars. But I can definitely say that most won't be as difficult as Siofra.