itch.io

1. Are you enjoying Neil’s route, do you still like him/hate him?

With things looking up in Neil's route, my feelings towards him are as well. He's still a petulant kid but it's become endearing. I'm fond of him and look forward to seeing more!

2. How many fierce and kind points did you score for Neil?

I didn't play through his whole route this time (I lost my save file, by my own mistake) but I usually get three fierce points for every one kind point -- I can't help but return fire whenever he gets sassy.

3. How long did it take you to finish Neil’s first 20 chapters?

Probably about two hours?

4. What are your thoughts on Dimitri?

Seeing him all grown up was super exciting! Seeing the costume almost made me cry, I laughed so hard, but I'm really fond of his cute personality already! Also the fact that he works at a cat cafe really sold me on him. Poor Dimitri, though. I thought meeting the girl you had a crush on and finding out she was dating your brother was bad but meeting her in a cat costume might be worse.

5. How long did it take you to finish Dimitri’s first 3 chapters?

Less than half an hour?

6. Who’s your favourite guy out of Neil and Dimitri?

Just considering the first three chapters, Dimitri is my favorite. Overall, though, his 3 chapters can't really compare to Neil's 20.

7. What’s your favourite CG?

It was Neil's first CG but now it is absolutely, undoubtedly, Dimitri's first CG. That CG is an adorable blessing and I'm so happy you added it.

8. What’s your favourite chapter or scene?

Still really love Neil's masquerade chapter. It was so elaborate...

9. Which part made you actually feel happy/angry/flustered?

I think the scenes that gave me the biggest emotional reaction were the scene where Neil "broke things off" and the subsequent scene in chapter 20 where they made up.

10. What did you like more, creating clothes, dressing up the avatar, or reading the story?

Reading the story, definitely, but the clothing menus and dress up are super fun! I definitely look forward to designing for customers.

11. Even though Neil and Dimitri are the only two available options right now, who else are you interested in?

I'm probably most interested in James and Aiden, they both seem like interesting characters!

12. Overall comments about the game? Art? Writing? You name it!

Love the addition of the new bob hairstyle!

The lighting transition in the opera scene can move a little awkwardly, which is a nit picky detail but just something I jotted in my notes.

I really really love all of the sprite work but Evelin's sprites are some of my favorites? I'm not sure why honestly, something about the elegance of her sprites, but I really loved them.

Also I loved Dimitri's smirking sprite. He's so cute honestly.

Enjoy your holiday, by the way!

I'm glad to be able to type freely! Thank you for finding a solution, and so quickly!

After the cake scene and learning his mother is a pastry chef I fully associate Dimitri in all his adorable glory with confectioneries. Probably a cinnamon role, to adopt the trope.  Honestly all the progress you make in short intervals amazes me, already having about a third of his route  scripted is honestly awing. I'm definitely excited to have such foil characters as the Beta Bachelors: being able to break up Neil's route with a character as precious as Dimitri is refreshing, to say the least!

Of course, aha. I feel kind of silly typing it all out but I hope my feedback in any way assists!

That's totally reasonable! For now I'd consider it largely an after-thought but other than that I found the UI to be very easy to interact with.

Jerk characters seem to often be a hit with readers and not with their writers! That said I definitely wouldn't enjoy his route as much as I did without the ability to match his bickering. I think the bickering, at times, is very endearing it just frustrates me to see him jumping back and forth between affectionate and dismissive -- which is an understandable character trait considering his situation. I look forward to seeing him less guarded in the future!

I'll admit dating an ex's little brother is a kind of uncomfortable idea for me. Still, I think getting past that is something I won't be alone in facing, since along the route I imagine Joselina will also have some complicated feelings on the matter. I think it's a great way to draw up conflict around the relationship, though, and am definitely not adverse to exploring his route because of it. And, of course, I'm happy to see more of Sarah!

My suggestions for adding to the design and outfit categories are honestly just things I'm personally fond of. I really gravitate towards large sweaters and cardigans, blazers and jackets in general, crop tops, high-waisted bottoms, and combat boots but that's all personal taste. I'd also really love to see an a-line bob hair style on the longer side as an option for hair just because it happens to be my favorite style. Other than that nothing comes immediately to mind, I'm afraid!

1. Are you enjoying Neil's route, do you still like him/hate him?

I personally wasn't fond of Neil to begin but I've found myself really enjoying his route! I love argumentative relationships and bickering so there's that and I think the masque was an interesting twist and a fun way to spin the relationship and added a lot to the way they interact in chapters 13 and on.  His route is a little frustrating considering all the back and forth but I enjoy the drama and  the romantic moments are enough to keep me interested in what happens next. By the end of chapter 18 I think I've really come to love his route (although, as user Reiyane said, curse cliffhangers aha).

2. What are your thoughts on Dimitri's first two chapters? Do you want to read more?

I enjoyed reading about Joselina's time spent with Dimitri and found that even in only a short two chapters I left his route already very fond of him. The fact that Joselina was dating his brother does largely complicate my feelings toward his route but Dimitri on his own is a lovely character. I'm also very interested to see if he had anything to do with the reveal at the end of the second chapter.

3. Who's your favourite guy out of Neil and Dimitri? Or perhaps Alex?

Just going by first impressions my favorite character is Dimitri but overall I've warmed enough to Neil to consider him my favorite so far.

4. What's your favourite CG?

My favorite CG is probably Neil's first CG. It's such a silly but endearing moment in his route that kind of solidified the moment I started to appreciate his character as someone other than just a big ol' jerk.

5. What's your favourite chapter or scene?

My favorite chapter by far was the masquerade because it was such an interesting one, visually and from a story perspective. The setting, character designs, and interactions with Neil were all very enchanting and romantic.

6. Which part was the most romantic to you?

Same as above!

7. Out of all of the side characters, is there anyone you would want as a date option?

Probably Sarah? She's such a fun, spunky character and such a wonderful friend and her relationship with Joselina is just too sweet.

8. Did you at any point get stuck on a loading screen?

Not once!

9. Were you able to create clothing using the “Design” button?

Yes! I had no difficulties with the design feature.

10. Did you encounter any bugs while designing?

None I noticed.

11. Were you able to dress up your avatar using the “Outfit” button?

Perfectly!

12. Was everything easy to use, or were the menus too complicated?

I found the UI very clean and easy to navigate. Being able to scroll wheel through design menus was a nice touch! The only issues I had were with the naming screen? It seemed a little odd to backspace using right click but considering it's such a brief moment it isn't a big deal.

13. What did you like more, creating clothes, dressing up the avatar, or reading the story?

The story but I really enjoyed creating clothes and hope to explore the menus a bit more in the near future. I hope we'll have some story ties to the design system beyond just earning money, though? I think having to make chapter specific outfits or something like that would be a nice touch but definitely not necessary. I imagine making customer clothing will be fun in it's own right!

14. Most importantly, did you enjoy the game? :D

Absolutely! I had a great time in exploring the new features and really loved reading the new chapters!

I'll post my answers to the questions in the feedback thread, then! I completely forgot about those, aha,,

Dimitri is just absolutely adorable. Neil is definitely a handful (ah, haughty princely characters, how you frustrate me) but I think you did a good job at balancing his cold nature with warmer moments without making him seem completely unbelievable. I definitely appreciated the rainy moods and sprite changes, they really add atmosphere to the scenes. And oh, gosh, you backgrounds are so nice? I always end up pausing to admire them.

That makes sense! Aah now I feel silly for not realizing but in that case it all works very well!

Ooh, I hadn't even noticed that. I should have been looking more closely but I was too enthused about looking through all the options, aha.

I really enjoyed what's been added to Neil's route -- although I'm a little anxious to see how things at the opera go, considering where things left off between them.  And after playing the chapters I think you were definitely right about Dimitri. He is an absolute cutie, all blushing and sweetness. I really enjoyed this little taste of his route and look forward to seeing more especially seeing a certain someone get his comeuppance, hopefully.

Overall this seemed like a very successful, stable beta to me. The only issues I had were very slight layering issues in the design feature, namely that certain shirt hemlines are hidden behind skirts when designing a dress. I didn't personally notice anything else.

also i just realized there was a 1.0 feedback thread oops.

I'm an avid follower of this project, and have been for a long time, but I rarely see the betas early enough to feel my feedback would be useful. I just wanted to mention that the game is working fine so far and is stable. I was able to extract and run the application without issue and the design system works perfectly. I obviously haven't had a chance to test the whole design system but so far I haven't found any issues and the options so far are really great. To summarize, the beta looks great and definitely makes me excited for more! and i can't wait to read the next few chapters of neil and start dimitri's route so i think i'll jump on that now

Edit:  screenshots are also working perfectly!