I played through this whole game (and saw both instances of author notes) and enjoyed it a lot! The different 'routes' were fun on their own and had enough unique between them to stand out even if they deliberately shared a lot, but it was the overarching connection that really brought it all together in a satisfying way. Very cool and nice story!
I also really like the art by mossinasi! I really like all the characters have bones worked into their designs, on top of being nicely connected, it also just looks really stylish. I'm envious of the gravekeeper's fashion sense.
And yes, mossinasi's art is gorgeous! I'd wanted to work with her ever since I read a couple of her own VNs; I'm really glad I had the opportunity to do that here! I love Miss Gravedigger's clothes too; she's very fashionable for a girl who digs graves all day!
this was quite an unbelievable experience to read esp. when I finished it just now at 3:40 am in my time (just me alone in my thoughts while I just finished a game that made me ponder way too much about mortality lol), and by the end I felt so floored, though one thing I wish was possible is to also... help the witch? it might sound insane to say but I also wanted the witch to never feel alone as well.
This is a very late reply, but thank you so much! I'm sorry it kept you awake so long hahaha, I hope you were able to catch up on your lseep later! I'm glad you enjoyed it, even if the ending for poor Miss Witch wasn't too cheerful ;;;
I'm getting ideas for a VN called "I'm not like other girls" about a female lead who eats bugs and glass or something... I'm going to make the most "I'm not like other girls" girl of all time............
I just did the shore route and it really moved me. The art is simple but really evocative, the writing atmospheric and whimsical at the same time, and the music... let me just say that it made me very happy to see it's downloadable here. Can't wait to do the other routes and I'm struggling if I should do them now or savor the experience over two-three evenings.
In my understanding, meady would've got what she wanted, and flowey would've too, but meady already went sorta crazy, so things turned out like that. They both just wanted a friend. It's just that for meady, it got too lonely there.
I wish it would've worked out.
Maybe it would've if flowey was stubborn on her original request, to be friends with meady.. it seems simpler to get meady to tone it down than to make a friend in her world, though that may just be because it's what I know more of.
The mead is brewed with red, green, and blue. The ingredients and the product are comparable, though the example is with a reversed equation.
I absolutely loved the artstyle and the narration, however, I think I had the most fun in the secret ending part of the game (after you play through all routes). I loved the ANs, the way it was presented to us (albeit I sometimes found it a little too lengthy, despite loving every word of it)--it was certainly a neat experience.
i was hooked by the description of the game (cannibalism with a heart....cmon i Had to get it), stayed for the amazing writing and characters!!! i want them all so badly oh my LORD
The game is alright, the art style and intro really looked interesting, tho I was disappointed by it because it did have alot of unnecessary text(it was good writing) but it did get boring eventually, the characters look pretty and everything about them is just muah, tho I didn't finish the game because I got bored It certainly isn't the game for me but if you like a game with alot of detail put into it then go for it, personally I was just a bit bored of it.
A short VN title featuring an immersive atmosphere. Streamed it some time ago, Ebi-Hime's writing style is always top notch! I also adored the mechanics pattern of this game.
Hi! I found this on twitter and thought I'd check it out. Just wanted to let you know, the apks don't work. Tried on two devices and once you select the language (English) it crashes out and won't open again.
I tested the Android build on my phone and it does work. I mentioned it here already, but it's a common problem that the game will close itself down after selecting your language. I was able to play the whole VN from start to finish without any problems other than that.
I've talked to a couple of other Ren'py devs, and they told me they also had problems with their games not launching/shutting down randomly when played on Android. I think this might be a common-ish problem with .apks built in Ren'py, but I'm not 100% sure. The issue could also be that the VN isn't optimised very well for Android, which admittedy was a bit of an afterthought.
In any event, I'm glad you were able to get it working!
Holy shit this is so fricking good!!! The characters, the music, the story, everything is just so dark yet surreal it is literally amazing. Easy 100/10
Goodness gracious, that was quite the surprise. I really wasn't expecting that ending, though I did have my suspicions about the narrator being their own character. I really enjoyed this work. You wrote in your note that the mermaid was the weakest storyline, but I still liked it quite a bit. Her backstory wasn't as fleshed out as the gravedigger's, and her character wasn't as pronounced as the princess's, but the death depicted in her ending was so visceral I think it will stick with me for a long time. I was also fond of the witch. Knowing the story is written from her perspective really changes things. The fact that the protagonist never had her own dialogue and that the narrator, who was quite opinionated, would occasionally speak in first-person did not escape me.
The use of choices rather than a text box being used for Rosette's dialogue really made it feel as if she had become her own person. Her and Meada being the only named characters further solidified the feeling of being alone, with the other characters being nothing more than puppets on a string.
I also find the uniform Rosette wears to be quite interesting, as well as the mentions that she is "not from this world". This seems to reference the fact that she is in a created world. I believe she may come from one that's similar to ours. However, the mentions of her being well-bred and seemingly implied to be a noble make this a bit unclear. Of course, those statements don't actually come from her, do they?
The point of the matter is I enjoyed this game. The writing was phenomenal, the art was pleasing, and the real-life photos were edited in a way that didn't clash with it. Not to mention the music and the textbox details (maybe it's odd to point out, but I really did enjoy the textbox, especially the button sounds); all in all, it makes for a brilliant and immersive experience.
Dark, atmospheric fairytale with beautiful music. I liked how different routes provided small pieces of the protagonist' backstory. It made me want to find out about what had happened to her and who she was running away from. Be careful what you wish for...
This was absolutely amazing! Your writing is so elegant and beautiful, inspiring and haunting! I write fanfiction in the 2nd person, and the narration of this, of the narrator being a character in of itself, just blew my mind! Again, inspirational! I have some things to read, it seems, because the works that inspired you must be worth the time if they led to this work of art! I'm also amazed that you did this in a month! Even if you had the grave digger and princess' ideas stewing for years, the execution (haha) of it as a whole is just wow! <3 gah, again, beautiful work! Thank you so much for sharing it <3
Thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoyed it! I had a lot of fun playing around with the VN medium in this story in particular. I tend to write pretty straightforward linear VNs which aren't too many steps removed from novels, so this was a fun challenge!
[THE FOLLOWING COMMENT CONTAINS SPOILERS, BE WARNED! SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOIL-I need to breath, hold on-SPOILER SPOILER]
I absolutely love big pompous words, chef's kiss. My vocabulary expanded by 1000%
So I played the game one day, and then played it again quite a while later, I had forgot if MC was a lady and was asking myself, then I discovered the protagonist was a lady and the game referred to the main character as me, I felt chills and said "Ooo~ I am a girl". Right at that moment I remembered that the game had done the same thing the last time I played and I had answered the exact same way.
I have to thank the artists for making the princess thingy skeletons and not what is actually written, thank you
I skipped the first notes not because I didn't notice it, but because I realized the gallery had one image missing and decided to try the new game before reading the absolute behemoth that text seemed like
My first was the gravedigger, and I really liked her, but according to the amount of screenshots I took (23), she was my favorite by and large (10 of her, 5 of gravedigger, 3 of mermaid and the rest other stuff)
This is now my favorite VN
When gravedigger started, well, grave digging, I literally had a panic attack, so thank you.
The most impactful was the one I first started with, gravedigger, I felt one of those chills that make your arm hair go up when I was thinking about when she was going to dig us and said "Do they get happily married first?" (I read the trigger warnings and thus was spoiled about what but not when) Normally I complain about my mom having way too many google tabs open but this game made me open 36 new tabs, just to look up words! I love this and ought (wink) to review all of them until I know them as well as the lines in my hand. Or is it palms of my hand in english?
Yeah, I think this about sums it up, thank you for such a great VN.
Wow, I loved this game so so much. All three stories were just lovely, and I enjoyed their tying back together. I do wish I'd taken the "accept" option for each of them when they were presented, but not doing so just means I get to play again! Incredible work!
Finally got around to playing this, this has to be one of my favourite visual novels of yours. It was incredibly atmospheric, every character stood out and the writing was brilliant (especially love the use of the narrator, that was completely unexpected). Took me a bit of time to figure out how to get that last CG but it was such a clever trick, I love it when devs use the gameplay as part of the story. Beautiful game, you did such amazing work with it.
Just finished the game and tbh I had no idea what I was getting myself into so when the first ending happened I was so flabbergasted ( I chose to go to the village first) after that I realize how the stories were gonna go. I overall enjoyed the game nonetheless. :))
I really enjoyed playing this, amazing job! It can be tough to find yuri with darker themes so this was definitely a treat. The structure and ending was very satisfying and the length was just right for a nice afternoon read. I also thought the artwork and designs were great, everyone was super cute :) Thanks for creating and sharing this! I think I'll be thinking about this one for a long time.
All the characters are so pretty ToT... and oh geez, it really is so lonely here.
spoiler:
My favourite is probably the princess or the witch (one and the same?)
Didn't realize there was a true ending, but replayed it after reading the extra notes -although Medea undoubtedly made Rosette suffer, it can be understood from the story that her way of love is misunderstood and not generally accepted. I felt something when she mentioned that a witch's love was too much to bear ;-;
I just finished this game and I'm utterly in love with it!! Beautiful game with a lovely soundtrack and I loved the way it was paced. Unlocking the final ending and CG felt so satisfying and I really enjoyed the narration, prose and the twists. Everything added up together in a very neat and satisfying way also. Thank you so much for making this game, I had so much fun playing!!
I am SO glad my friend has recommended me this game. I couldn't put it down, honestly, I was so engulfed by the writing, the art, the music... the twist and turns. But since it's over... for better or for worse, I do feel quite a bit lonely.
Haha, thank you, I know I can restart, and I will soon enough. I will replay this game many many times. Your writing is so eloquent! It's so captivating despite the fact that it was sometimes a little hard to understand. But that is because English is not my first language. Even so. I've learned so much about writing in general and styles, and how to execute different ideas and put together a banger of a story. You may have inspired me further to write and publish my own creations. Thank you for that! And I'll make sure to check out the books you've mentioned in your notes! ;)
God, what a GORGEOUS game - musically, graphically in terms of both art and UI, and of course narratively. I've been enjoying seeing the updates on the "yandere yuri game" on Twitter for a while, and it absolutely did not disappoint. I felt myself getting invested in the relationship building up each time, despite knowing that it was going to end poorly, and I loved the characterisation of both the MC and narrator threaded throughout building an air of wider mystery.
Lots of gushing under cut I just enjoyed the evening I spent with this A LOT.
[Spoilers for 100% completed]
First, amused and glad to see my "getting Grey vibes from GD-chan" reactions wasn't JUST my extreme LEMII Case Files brainrot coming to the fore, and indeed, I enjoyed the noted FGO textbox inspiration - it definitely had the intended effect of making it feel like I was, like, helping the protagonist have her impact on her narrative, and it was a neat way of playing around with the idea of her, well, enacting her influence on someone else's created world. Also, like, I had a fun moment with the "Mephistopheles" -> "Me" hint even if I didn't have the penny drop until the reveal. It's always fun to see how different stories play around with the concept of everyone's favourite Woman Scorned Witch, whether it's in name alone or "it's Medea from the myths!" or, like, a vague blend as I got as the vibe from this work. Classical Medea is definitely the kind of Toxic Bisexual who would trap a little girl in the torment nexus in pursuit of a lover who'll never leave her, after all.
SPEAKING OF, God, I really loved how even from early on Rosette had a very strong personality; bullied and anxious and withdrawn, but also reckless and stubborn and honestly a bit of a snob. It really added to the second person narration and mostly-kinetic nature of the routes - we push the buttons but we're not really MAKING her decisions, she is, and Rosette, bless her, is a messy disaster gay teen. I was so overjoyed in the final ending when she stands up for herself, and how pitiful she reduced Medea to being in the wake of her deciding that enough was enough. I'm really glad you decided to go with the NG+, it was really powerful stuff. (Also, like, invoked a lot of the same cathartic feelings that milk+visual's Soundless did for me and Things That Made Me Feel The Way Soundless Did are always positives)
the first "ending" of a route i played i was absolutely heartbroken, amazing writing
i played through the main game and through the "new game plus", and then went back to check on medea as far as i could. i loved how the notes of the game changed after every extra ending, it was like it was reading my mind and what i was wondering each time.
I do have a question though, what exactly did Medea do to Rosette in the beginning that made her run away?
Thank you so much! I'm glad that you enjoyed your time with it; it's always nice to hear that >_<
And thank you for being considerate and including all that space in your comment so as not to spoil anything too, even though I've been pretty bad about not spoiling things in the replies myself haha ;;
Speaking of spoilers...
I'm glad that most people seemingly have discovered there's more to the story than the very first 'loop' of the narrative haha; I was a bit worried people would read to the first ending, think that was it, and then quit out of the story without seeing everything ;w; Thank you for being so considerate and wanting to check up on Medea haha ;;
And yeah, I thought it would make sense to include two lots of notes with the story: the first being on the general inspirations and themes, and the second on some more specific details about the characters' names (which I couldn't include in the first round of notes for obvious reasons). I think I rambled in the notes a bit (I think both notes combined are like 3k or something lol) so I'm glad they were interesting!
I was kind of vague about the specifics of the story, but I think Medea decided to trap Rosette in a magical fantasy world removed from her own reality so ~they can be together forever~, and she's trying to escape, having realised she might not want to be shackled to the company of an amoral witch for all eternity lol
Thank you again for taking the time to write such a lovely comment; it's appreciated!!!
Her conduct was shockingly poor, I agree, but you can't be too hard on her. She *is* a princess, after all: she never had to worry about minding her manners, and she leant how to mingle with us commonfolk haha ;;
(At least a certain other character is considerate enough to drug you before doing anything heinous lol.......)
Played the castle route to IGSLH and looking forward to playing the other two routes along with any other secrets in wait. The Princess is quite the charming character! ^o^
Thank you very much for checking this VN out, and for making a video about it! It's appreciated! <3 And I agree: I think the princess is very charming too!
Personally love the Gravedigger the most out of the three lovely ladies. I feel that she has the most backstory along with the most amount of qualities that both the protagonist, and the player possibly can relate to. Thank you for making It get so lonely here, ebi-hime, the yandere-ness is very subtle with each characters's way of killing the protagonist which any sane person would feel is not only horrible but unnatural. <3
Hi! I'm very excited to play this VN, the design looks gorgeous and there is really not enough darker yuri with yandere aspects out there. However, I just wanted to mention something, the text is pretty hard to read, it might just be my dyslexia and poor eyesight. But the shadow under the text blurs all the letters together. I just wanted to mention it, because it makes the game kind of unreadable.
Are you talking about how the text appears in the screenshots on the Itch.io page, or have you downloaded the game and tried to play it? I think the text is a bit harder to parse on the screenshots than it actually is in-game, because taking screenshots in Ren'py compresses the image quality a bit.
If you're finding the text difficult to read in-game, I can try to add a toggle to change the font colour in the preferences menu when I have the time (though it might take me a while).
In any case, I'm sorry if this causes any inconvenience!
Sorry, I should have specified, it's for in-game! I tried to read it but the pink border? Or background shadow? Around the text makes it fuzzy around the edges, which blurs the characters together, especially after trying to read it for a few minutes. Thank you for considering adding an accessibility option! It's a really lovely VN so I'm really looking forward to reading it!
Alright, I'll make a note of it. I'll probably have to recode the options menu to accommodate any extra options, so it might take me a bit of time. I'll put it on my to-do list and I’ll see if I can get around to it during the next couple of weeks.
Once again, I'm sorry for the inconvenience, and thank you for pointing this problem out! It’s appreciated!
Alright, it took a little while, but I've uploaded a new build of the VN which gives you the option to change the font to a plain black and it removes the outline around the text. Let me know if this is more legible!
Sorry this reply is so late but thank you so, so so much for going out of your way to add this accessibility option! Hopefully when things wind down in my life I'll finally have the time to sit down and read this and your new M/M VN too!!
Hello! I finally started to play this, thank you so much for adding the accessibility feature with the fonts. and I love it so much- the atmosphere created by the art, UI, background music and sound effects all comes together so well. And I love the tone of the writing, how well it captures the story-teller vibe but without taking the reader out of the PoV.
I am just having one issue. The game screen flickers black? Sometimes it's just the CG section of the game that flickers- at first I thought it was intentional in the beginning, to show the protagonist is running through the woods blindly- but then the screen including the UI started to flicker black. It happens every other second when the text or CG changes.
I haven't been able to figure out what would be causing this- I'm playing on the latest update of Windows 11 on a brand new laptop released last year, in window mode with no other options besides the font changed from default. I was wondering if anyone else had reported this?
The screen flickering is a commonly reported Ren'py issue which tends to happen on newer computers/laptops. I'm not 100% sure what causes it, but it's a problem with Ren'py itself, not the game.
If you encounter this issue with any other Ren'py VNs, you can check this post here for some advice on how to fix it.
I'm glad you enjoyed the VN other than that, though!
It was... kinda traumatic. Well, very. But beautiful tho... And I realised that I`ve been stupid for not reading a description. But, I guess, someone has to be that one person. ^^```
Aaaa, I apologise for any trauma inflicted ;a; I tried to warn for all of the potentially upsetting content that's present in the story on the Itch.io page, but perhaps I should have included the same warnings in-game as well upon booting it up. I was a bit hesitant about doing that because of potential spoilers, but that would be better than inadvertently upsetting people...
I'm glad you thought it was beautiful regardless, though!
I am just sensitive, and...well was in some toxic relationships, perhaps that`s why I was so involved emotionally. But all feelings is good when you play something.. When you can`t feel anything it`s kinda ... meh You are amazing with making people feel smt with your content <3
whoa. the bleak, empty atmosphere in this is just great. loved the unclear sense of place and time too, reminded me of Series of Unfortunate Events. but the true ending is what had me kneeling. super cathartic, just amazing stuff
Thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoyed it! And yes, I was trying to be pretty vague with the timeline on purpose to add to the sense of ~mystery~ haha I was pretty deliberate about not referring to specific days of the week, too, or months of the year, or using any dates. I combed through the script after I wrote it to try and remove any mentions of specific time-related words (apart from years, I think) to enhance the atmosphere a bit more. I'm glad it was effective!
This game is just AMAZING! Your writing style is fantastic and the combination of your writing and your artist's style really brings these fairytale to life in such a unique way, I couldn't stop playing until I had seen all endings!
I basically glanced over the extra (unlockable) and I am glad I saw that there's even MORE and I had almost missed it. I'm so happy that I looked twice and didn't close this game without going for the remaining content.
I was so blown away when I had unlocked 100%, it was such a satisfying experience! ^^
Aa thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it! ;a;
I did specifically add that extra CG in there so people would see that the CG gallery isn't finished after their first run through. I thought it'd make them feel more compelled to start the game up again to see if there's anything they missed. I'm glad it worked!
I'm glad unlocking everything felt satisfying, too, even if I was a bit mean and I subjected the reader to the tedium of having to do a lot of skipping haha ;;; (Then again, you have to skip in a lot of multi-route VNs anyway, so I suppose it's a common aspect of the medium...)
(Will talk about spoilers in this reply just in case someone reads this!!!)
I wasn't bothered by the skipping at all, it felt just right! I expected the hidden stuff to be at the end of each route and I set the game so only seen content would be skipped and it would stop at new scenes. That made it obvious when I reach a choice where new content was unlocked. It didn't feel bothersome or too much, it was just right and I was glad I was able to skip through in high-speed bc I was so curious for the true ending! I honestly enjoyed this game so much even tho I knew that there would be so much suffering (it was a yanjam submission afterall!!) but I still had to keep on going. I think the Gravedigger was my fav, even tho there was so much phobia in this story, but maybe that was what made that one so exciting?? Ahhh XD
I just finished playing through the game and it was such an enjoyable experience!
The whole atmosphere you created through the visuals, the soundtrack and the writing is so immersing! I really, really love your writing style and the way you told this story in this VN in particular!
Thank you so much, ebi!
{Spoiler-ish}
Especially the twist at the end of the game was out of this world! - I couldn't restrain myself from gasping and screaming at the monitor!
Wow, I really enjoyed this VN! The story, art, and music all came together to a perfect fairytale feeling. Especially liked the final twist, and how you came up with the story in the notes!
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I played through this whole game (and saw both instances of author notes) and enjoyed it a lot! The different 'routes' were fun on their own and had enough unique between them to stand out even if they deliberately shared a lot, but it was the overarching connection that really brought it all together in a satisfying way. Very cool and nice story!
I also really like the art by mossinasi! I really like all the characters have bones worked into their designs, on top of being nicely connected, it also just looks really stylish. I'm envious of the gravekeeper's fashion sense.
Thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
And yes, mossinasi's art is gorgeous! I'd wanted to work with her ever since I read a couple of her own VNs; I'm really glad I had the opportunity to do that here!
I love Miss Gravedigger's clothes too; she's very fashionable for a girl who digs graves all day!
this was quite an unbelievable experience to read esp. when I finished it just now at 3:40 am in my time (just me alone in my thoughts while I just finished a game that made me ponder way too much about mortality lol), and by the end I felt so floored, though one thing I wish was possible is to also... help the witch? it might sound insane to say but I also wanted the witch to never feel alone as well.
This is a very late reply, but thank you so much! I'm sorry it kept you awake so long hahaha, I hope you were able to catch up on your lseep later!
I'm glad you enjoyed it, even if the ending for poor Miss Witch wasn't too cheerful ;;;
so good but the "not like other girls" dialogue in village girl's story PAINED me
I'm getting ideas for a VN called "I'm not like other girls" about a female lead who eats bugs and glass or something...
I'm going to make the most "I'm not like other girls" girl of all time............
NO PLEASE
I just did the shore route and it really moved me. The art is simple but really evocative, the writing atmospheric and whimsical at the same time, and the music... let me just say that it made me very happy to see it's downloadable here. Can't wait to do the other routes and I'm struggling if I should do them now or savor the experience over two-three evenings.
In my understanding, meady would've got what she wanted, and flowey would've too, but meady already went sorta crazy, so things turned out like that. They both just wanted a friend. It's just that for meady, it got too lonely there.
I wish it would've worked out.
Maybe it would've if flowey was stubborn on her original request, to be friends with meady.. it seems simpler to get meady to tone it down than to make a friend in her world, though that may just be because it's what I know more of.
The mead is brewed with red, green, and blue. The ingredients and the product are comparable, though the example is with a reversed equation.
I absolutely loved the artstyle and the narration, however, I think I had the most fun in the secret ending part of the game (after you play through all routes). I loved the ANs, the way it was presented to us (albeit I sometimes found it a little too lengthy, despite loving every word of it)--it was certainly a neat experience.
i was hooked by the description of the game (cannibalism with a heart....cmon i Had to get it), stayed for the amazing writing and characters!!! i want them all so badly oh my LORD
ALSO ALSO are fanarts of the characters allowed?
Aa thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoyed the story! ;a;
And yes, I allow art of my characters! If you want to draw them, I'd be very flattered!
The game is alright, the art style and intro really looked interesting, tho I was disappointed by it because it did have alot of unnecessary text(it was good writing) but it did get boring eventually, the characters look pretty and everything about them is just muah, tho I didn't finish the game because I got bored It certainly isn't the game for me but if you like a game with alot of detail put into it then go for it, personally I was just a bit bored of it.
depending where you stopped, you could use the "control" or "tab" buttons to skip text you read before.
A short VN title featuring an immersive atmosphere. Streamed it some time ago, Ebi-Hime's writing style is always top notch! I also adored the mechanics pattern of this game.
Hi! I found this on twitter and thought I'd check it out. Just wanted to let you know, the apks don't work. Tried on two devices and once you select the language (English) it crashes out and won't open again.
Edit: tried on both android 12 and 13
I tested the Android build on my phone and it does work. I mentioned it here already, but it's a common problem that the game will close itself down after selecting your language. I was able to play the whole VN from start to finish without any problems other than that.
I may have had a bad install. Removed it, redownloaded it and reinstalled it. It crashed again but this time opened up the second time of loading.
I also got the PC version working on Joiplay so it wasn't a problem in the end. Only a little way through but loving it so far!
I've talked to a couple of other Ren'py devs, and they told me they also had problems with their games not launching/shutting down randomly when played on Android. I think this might be a common-ish problem with .apks built in Ren'py, but I'm not 100% sure. The issue could also be that the VN isn't optimised very well for Android, which admittedy was a bit of an afterthought.
In any event, I'm glad you were able to get it working!
Holy shit this is so fricking good!!! The characters, the music, the story, everything is just so dark yet surreal it is literally amazing. Easy 100/10
Spoilers included
Goodness gracious, that was quite the surprise. I really wasn't expecting that ending, though I did have my suspicions about the narrator being their own character. I really enjoyed this work. You wrote in your note that the mermaid was the weakest storyline, but I still liked it quite a bit. Her backstory wasn't as fleshed out as the gravedigger's, and her character wasn't as pronounced as the princess's, but the death depicted in her ending was so visceral I think it will stick with me for a long time. I was also fond of the witch. Knowing the story is written from her perspective really changes things. The fact that the protagonist never had her own dialogue and that the narrator, who was quite opinionated, would occasionally speak in first-person did not escape me.
The use of choices rather than a text box being used for Rosette's dialogue really made it feel as if she had become her own person. Her and Meada being the only named characters further solidified the feeling of being alone, with the other characters being nothing more than puppets on a string.
I also find the uniform Rosette wears to be quite interesting, as well as the mentions that she is "not from this world". This seems to reference the fact that she is in a created world. I believe she may come from one that's similar to ours. However, the mentions of her being well-bred and seemingly implied to be a noble make this a bit unclear. Of course, those statements don't actually come from her, do they?
The point of the matter is I enjoyed this game. The writing was phenomenal, the art was pleasing, and the real-life photos were edited in a way that didn't clash with it. Not to mention the music and the textbox details (maybe it's odd to point out, but I really did enjoy the textbox, especially the button sounds); all in all, it makes for a brilliant and immersive experience.
Dark, atmospheric fairytale with beautiful music. I liked how different routes provided small pieces of the protagonist' backstory. It made me want to find out about what had happened to her and who she was running away from. Be careful what you wish for...
this was so lovely! getting the last cg was really satisfying too 💜
This was absolutely amazing! Your writing is so elegant and beautiful, inspiring and haunting! I write fanfiction in the 2nd person, and the narration of this, of the narrator being a character in of itself, just blew my mind! Again, inspirational! I have some things to read, it seems, because the works that inspired you must be worth the time if they led to this work of art! I'm also amazed that you did this in a month! Even if you had the grave digger and princess' ideas stewing for years, the execution (haha) of it as a whole is just wow! <3 gah, again, beautiful work! Thank you so much for sharing it <3
Excellent work, I loved the art, the atmosphere, the writing, the plot (and the ending twist was a clever use of the medium).
Thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I had a lot of fun playing around with the VN medium in this story in particular. I tend to write pretty straightforward linear VNs which aren't too many steps removed from novels, so this was a fun challenge!
[THE FOLLOWING COMMENT CONTAINS SPOILERS, BE WARNED! SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOIL-I need to breath, hold on-SPOILER SPOILER]
I absolutely love big pompous words, chef's kiss. My vocabulary expanded by 1000%
So I played the game one day, and then played it again quite a while later, I had forgot if MC was a lady and was asking myself, then I discovered the protagonist was a lady and the game referred to the main character as me, I felt chills and said "Ooo~ I am a girl". Right at that moment I remembered that the game had done the same thing the last time I played and I had answered the exact same way.
I have to thank the artists for making the princess thingy skeletons and not what is actually written, thank you
I skipped the first notes not because I didn't notice it, but because I realized the gallery had one image missing and decided to try the new game before reading the absolute behemoth that text seemed like
My first was the gravedigger, and I really liked her, but according to the amount of screenshots I took (23), she was my favorite by and large (10 of her, 5 of gravedigger, 3 of mermaid and the rest other stuff)
This is now my favorite VN
When gravedigger started, well, grave digging, I literally had a panic attack, so thank you.
The most impactful was the one I first started with, gravedigger, I felt one of those chills that make your arm hair go up when I was thinking about when she was going to dig us and said "Do they get happily married first?" (I read the trigger warnings and thus was spoiled about what but not when)
Normally I complain about my mom having way too many google tabs open but this game made me open 36 new tabs, just to look up words! I love this and ought (wink) to review all of them until I know them as well as the lines in my hand. Or is it palms of my hand in english?
Yeah, I think this about sums it up, thank you for such a great VN.
Wow, I loved this game so so much. All three stories were just lovely, and I enjoyed their tying back together. I do wish I'd taken the "accept" option for each of them when they were presented, but not doing so just means I get to play again! Incredible work!
Finally got around to playing this, this has to be one of my favourite visual novels of yours. It was incredibly atmospheric, every character stood out and the writing was brilliant (especially love the use of the narrator, that was completely unexpected). Took me a bit of time to figure out how to get that last CG but it was such a clever trick, I love it when devs use the gameplay as part of the story. Beautiful game, you did such amazing work with it.
Just finished the game and tbh I had no idea what I was getting myself into so when the first ending happened I was so flabbergasted ( I chose to go to the village first) after that I realize how the stories were gonna go. I overall enjoyed the game nonetheless. :))
I really enjoyed playing this, amazing job! It can be tough to find yuri with darker themes so this was definitely a treat. The structure and ending was very satisfying and the length was just right for a nice afternoon read. I also thought the artwork and designs were great, everyone was super cute :) Thanks for creating and sharing this! I think I'll be thinking about this one for a long time.
boring
All the characters are so pretty ToT... and oh geez, it really is so lonely here.
spoiler:
My favourite is probably the princess or the witch (one and the same?)
Didn't realize there was a true ending, but replayed it after reading the extra notes -although Medea undoubtedly made Rosette suffer, it can be understood from the story that her way of love is misunderstood and not generally accepted. I felt something when she mentioned that a witch's love was too much to bear ;-;
I just finished this game and I'm utterly in love with it!! Beautiful game with a lovely soundtrack and I loved the way it was paced. Unlocking the final ending and CG felt so satisfying and I really enjoyed the narration, prose and the twists. Everything added up together in a very neat and satisfying way also. Thank you so much for making this game, I had so much fun playing!!
I am SO glad my friend has recommended me this game. I couldn't put it down, honestly, I was so engulfed by the writing, the art, the music... the twist and turns.
But since it's over... for better or for worse, I do feel quite a bit lonely.
Thank you very much for taking the time to check it out! It's gratifying to know that people liked it enough to recommend it too! >_<
And the VN does give you the option to restart, at least, so the characters don't technically have to be lonely forever ;w;
Haha, thank you, I know I can restart, and I will soon enough. I will replay this game many many times.
Your writing is so eloquent!
It's so captivating despite the fact that it was sometimes a little hard to understand. But that is because English is not my first language.
Even so. I've learned so much about writing in general and styles, and how to execute different ideas and put together a banger of a story. You may have inspired me further to write and publish my own creations. Thank you for that!
And I'll make sure to check out the books you've mentioned in your notes! ;)
This game was beautifully put together. The ambience of the game is immersive and the story is intriguing. 10/10
Thank you very much for taking the time to make a video on it! I'm glad you enjoyed it! >_<
You're welcome, you did a great job with this game.
God, what a GORGEOUS game - musically, graphically in terms of both art and UI, and of course narratively. I've been enjoying seeing the updates on the "yandere yuri game" on Twitter for a while, and it absolutely did not disappoint. I felt myself getting invested in the relationship building up each time, despite knowing that it was going to end poorly, and I loved the characterisation of both the MC and narrator threaded throughout building an air of wider mystery.
Lots of gushing under cut I just enjoyed the evening I spent with this A LOT.
[Spoilers for 100% completed]
First, amused and glad to see my "getting Grey vibes from GD-chan" reactions wasn't JUST my extreme LEMII Case Files brainrot coming to the fore, and indeed, I enjoyed the noted FGO textbox inspiration - it definitely had the intended effect of making it feel like I was, like, helping the protagonist have her impact on her narrative, and it was a neat way of playing around with the idea of her, well, enacting her influence on someone else's created world. Also, like, I had a fun moment with the "Mephistopheles" -> "Me" hint even if I didn't have the penny drop until the reveal. It's always fun to see how different stories play around with the concept of everyone's favourite Woman Scorned Witch, whether it's in name alone or "it's Medea from the myths!" or, like, a vague blend as I got as the vibe from this work. Classical Medea is definitely the kind of Toxic Bisexual who would trap a little girl in the torment nexus in pursuit of a lover who'll never leave her, after all.
SPEAKING OF, God, I really loved how even from early on Rosette had a very strong personality; bullied and anxious and withdrawn, but also reckless and stubborn and honestly a bit of a snob. It really added to the second person narration and mostly-kinetic nature of the routes - we push the buttons but we're not really MAKING her decisions, she is, and Rosette, bless her, is a messy disaster gay teen. I was so overjoyed in the final ending when she stands up for herself, and how pitiful she reduced Medea to being in the wake of her deciding that enough was enough. I'm really glad you decided to go with the NG+, it was really powerful stuff. (Also, like, invoked a lot of the same cathartic feelings that milk+visual's Soundless did for me and Things That Made Me Feel The Way Soundless Did are always positives)
absolutely amazing!!! spoilers below
the first "ending" of a route i played i was absolutely heartbroken, amazing writing
i played through the main game and through the "new game plus", and then went back to check on medea as far as i could. i loved how the notes of the game changed after every extra ending, it was like it was reading my mind and what i was wondering each time.
I do have a question though, what exactly did Medea do to Rosette in the beginning that made her run away?
ps thank you so much for making this game!!
Thank you so much! I'm glad that you enjoyed your time with it; it's always nice to hear that >_<
And thank you for being considerate and including all that space in your comment so as not to spoil anything too, even though I've been pretty bad about not spoiling things in the replies myself haha ;;
Speaking of spoilers...
I'm glad that most people seemingly have discovered there's more to the story than the very first 'loop' of the narrative haha; I was a bit worried people would read to the first ending, think that was it, and then quit out of the story without seeing everything ;w;
Thank you for being so considerate and wanting to check up on Medea haha ;;
And yeah, I thought it would make sense to include two lots of notes with the story: the first being on the general inspirations and themes, and the second on some more specific details about the characters' names (which I couldn't include in the first round of notes for obvious reasons).
I think I rambled in the notes a bit (I think both notes combined are like 3k or something lol) so I'm glad they were interesting!
I was kind of vague about the specifics of the story, but I think Medea decided to trap Rosette in a magical fantasy world removed from her own reality so ~they can be together forever~, and she's trying to escape, having realised she might not want to be shackled to the company of an amoral witch for all eternity lol
Thank you again for taking the time to write such a lovely comment; it's appreciated!!!
Escaped the witch, also the princess coulda maybe like at least killed me in my sleep first?? (Those cannibals, so inconsiderate!)
Her conduct was shockingly poor, I agree, but you can't be too hard on her. She *is* a princess, after all: she never had to worry about minding her manners, and she leant how to mingle with us commonfolk haha ;;
(At least a certain other character is considerate enough to drug you before doing anything heinous lol.......)
Played this a few days ago and it took me over 6 hours but it was so worth it. Had a blast.
Aaa I'm sorry that it ate up so much of your time haha ;;
I'm glad it was worthwhile in the end though; thank you!
Oh no it's not a bad thing at all because the game was so good. Had a blast. Looking forward to more of your future projects.
I loved this so much. Fun, well written, tugged on my heartstrings.. and ultimately tragic. Enjoyed every minute of it.
Thank you very much! I'm glad you liked it! >_<
Played the castle route to IGSLH and looking forward to playing the other two routes along with any other secrets in wait. The Princess is quite the charming character! ^o^
Thank you very much for checking this VN out, and for making a video about it! It's appreciated! <3
And I agree: I think the princess is very charming too!
Now I'm torn. Want to read it for myself but your narration is killer also...
Thanks for the vids!
Hi! I'm very excited to play this VN, the design looks gorgeous and there is really not enough darker yuri with yandere aspects out there. However, I just wanted to mention something, the text is pretty hard to read, it might just be my dyslexia and poor eyesight. But the shadow under the text blurs all the letters together. I just wanted to mention it, because it makes the game kind of unreadable.
Are you talking about how the text appears in the screenshots on the Itch.io page, or have you downloaded the game and tried to play it?
I think the text is a bit harder to parse on the screenshots than it actually is in-game, because taking screenshots in Ren'py compresses the image quality a bit.
If you're finding the text difficult to read in-game, I can try to add a toggle to change the font colour in the preferences menu when I have the time (though it might take me a while).
In any case, I'm sorry if this causes any inconvenience!
Sorry, I should have specified, it's for in-game! I tried to read it but the pink border? Or background shadow? Around the text makes it fuzzy around the edges, which blurs the characters together, especially after trying to read it for a few minutes. Thank you for considering adding an accessibility option! It's a really lovely VN so I'm really looking forward to reading it!
Alright, I'll make a note of it. I'll probably have to recode the options menu to accommodate any extra options, so it might take me a bit of time. I'll put it on my to-do list and I’ll see if I can get around to it during the next couple of weeks.
Once again, I'm sorry for the inconvenience, and thank you for pointing this problem out! It’s appreciated!
Alright, it took a little while, but I've uploaded a new build of the VN which gives you the option to change the font to a plain black and it removes the outline around the text. Let me know if this is more legible!
Sorry this reply is so late but thank you so, so so much for going out of your way to add this accessibility option! Hopefully when things wind down in my life I'll finally have the time to sit down and read this and your new M/M VN too!!
Hello! I finally started to play this, thank you so much for adding the accessibility feature with the fonts. and I love it so much- the atmosphere created by the art, UI, background music and sound effects all comes together so well. And I love the tone of the writing, how well it captures the story-teller vibe but without taking the reader out of the PoV.
I am just having one issue. The game screen flickers black? Sometimes it's just the CG section of the game that flickers- at first I thought it was intentional in the beginning, to show the protagonist is running through the woods blindly- but then the screen including the UI started to flicker black. It happens every other second when the text or CG changes.
I haven't been able to figure out what would be causing this- I'm playing on the latest update of Windows 11 on a brand new laptop released last year, in window mode with no other options besides the font changed from default. I was wondering if anyone else had reported this?
The screen flickering is a commonly reported Ren'py issue which tends to happen on newer computers/laptops. I'm not 100% sure what causes it, but it's a problem with Ren'py itself, not the game.
If you encounter this issue with any other Ren'py VNs, you can check this post here for some advice on how to fix it.
I'm glad you enjoyed the VN other than that, though!
It was... kinda traumatic.
Well, very.
But beautiful tho... And I realised that I`ve been stupid for not reading a description. But, I guess, someone has to be that one person. ^^```
Aaaa, I apologise for any trauma inflicted ;a;
I tried to warn for all of the potentially upsetting content that's present in the story on the Itch.io page, but perhaps I should have included the same warnings in-game as well upon booting it up. I was a bit hesitant about doing that because of potential spoilers, but that would be better than inadvertently upsetting people...
I'm glad you thought it was beautiful regardless, though!
I am just sensitive, and...well was in some toxic relationships, perhaps that`s why I was so involved emotionally. But all feelings is good when you play something.. When you can`t feel anything it`s kinda ... meh
You are amazing with making people feel smt with your content <3
whoa. the bleak, empty atmosphere in this is just great. loved the unclear sense of place and time too, reminded me of Series of Unfortunate Events. but the true ending is what had me kneeling. super cathartic, just amazing stuff
Thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
And yes, I was trying to be pretty vague with the timeline on purpose to add to the sense of ~mystery~ haha
I was pretty deliberate about not referring to specific days of the week, too, or months of the year, or using any dates. I combed through the script after I wrote it to try and remove any mentions of specific time-related words (apart from years, I think) to enhance the atmosphere a bit more. I'm glad it was effective!
About to play this, but in advance I will say I adore the textbox design. Reminds me of some of the fun layouts in PC98 games.
The UI for this VN is really aesthetic overall! The UI designer did a really good job; I couldn't be happier with how it turned out!
This game is just AMAZING! Your writing style is fantastic and the combination of your writing and your artist's style really brings these fairytale to life in such a unique way, I couldn't stop playing until I had seen all endings!
I basically glanced over the extra (unlockable) and I am glad I saw that there's even MORE and I had almost missed it. I'm so happy that I looked twice and didn't close this game without going for the remaining content.
I was so blown away when I had unlocked 100%, it was such a satisfying experience! ^^
Aa thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it! ;a;
I did specifically add that extra CG in there so people would see that the CG gallery isn't finished after their first run through. I thought it'd make them feel more compelled to start the game up again to see if there's anything they missed. I'm glad it worked!
I'm glad unlocking everything felt satisfying, too, even if I was a bit mean and I subjected the reader to the tedium of having to do a lot of skipping haha ;;;
(Then again, you have to skip in a lot of multi-route VNs anyway, so I suppose it's a common aspect of the medium...)
(Will talk about spoilers in this reply just in case someone reads this!!!)
I wasn't bothered by the skipping at all, it felt just right! I expected the hidden stuff to be at the end of each route and I set the game so only seen content would be skipped and it would stop at new scenes. That made it obvious when I reach a choice where new content was unlocked. It didn't feel bothersome or too much, it was just right and I was glad I was able to skip through in high-speed bc I was so curious for the true ending! I honestly enjoyed this game so much even tho I knew that there would be so much suffering (it was a yanjam submission afterall!!) but I still had to keep on going. I think the Gravedigger was my fav, even tho there was so much phobia in this story, but maybe that was what made that one so exciting?? Ahhh XD
I just finished playing through the game and it was such an enjoyable experience!
The whole atmosphere you created through the visuals, the soundtrack and the writing is so immersing! I really, really love your writing style and the way you told this story in this VN in particular!
Thank you so much, ebi!
{Spoiler-ish}
Especially the twist at the end of the game was out of this world! - I couldn't restrain myself from gasping and screaming at the monitor!
Thank you so much! ;a;
And thank you for your work on the UI, too: you did a great job! It looks stunning! ♥
this was really fun and i liked it a lot <3
Thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoyed your time with it! >a<
Wow, I really enjoyed this VN! The story, art, and music all came together to a perfect fairytale feeling. Especially liked the final twist, and how you came up with the story in the notes!
Thank you! I had a lot of fun working on it! \o/