Dear Maneki Mushi, I blame you for this roller-coaster of emotions 😭 you made me go through! I missed reading mature stories that treat its darker themes seriously. I need to thank you for staying consistent with the tone of your story; it made so many scenes much more rewarding, reveals so much more intense, and character development so much more satisfying to witness.
Oh, and speaking of characters, do I need to mention how came to appreciate this colourful cast of characters you created? Just reading how they interacted with the Seren (and Seren with them), and how they interacted with each other was reminiscent of Dragon Age and Neverwinter Nights 2’s companions. The cast has great party dynamics and great banters, like in those old but gold rpgs. In my eyes, THJ has managed to capture the essence of rpg stories, with its characters, narrative writing, and beautiful story book like art that suits the aesthetic of a Hero’s Journey just perfectly.
I would want nothing more than to go into detail about the scenes and which characters made me tear up/cry, but I fear I would only end up babbling text walls of spoilers and gushy nonsense x’ ); so I'll wrap up my comment.
THJ hit all the right spots for me, that even after finishing the game, I still think about it. More people should know about it, and give it a go. You won't end up regretting it!
Thank you so much! I'm actually very inspired by those old rpgs and they're what gave me the idea for THJ in the first place, so I'm really happy that it's noticeable :)
I LOVED THIS GAME, its AMAZING. THANK YOU, for making this game, and completely for FREE. ive replayed it so many times, played all the routes! its so good!! thank you so much! i was just wondering, ive replayed so many times, but i cant seem to get the CGs in the top left corner in page 5 and 8, as well as the whole page of page 7? XD any tips?
(SPOILERS AHEAD) Page 5 top left corner: Ikemma's second kiss CG (occurs right in the same scene as the first, in Chapter 3) Page 8 top left corner: Star path version of the desert confrontation As for page 7 those are all the versions of the fight in Tamor, and I just realised they can't be unlocked because I misspelled their names :') I'll make a fix for that soon! Let me know if you're not able to unlock the page 5 and 8 CGs! I can't see any issues with them and they work for me, but it's weird you didn't get them.
hi again! thanks for the response, but the ones you described is the bottom left corner (for me, is it different?), i meant the ones above those two!
(SPOILERS)
i didnt realise you could attach images XD maybe this'll help? Thanks in advance, im gonna replay it again anyways haha, i seriously can't over this game, i first played when only chapter 1 was out, so i still genuinely thought seren was the hero for the longest time! the plot twist was really cool! again, thank you :)
oh that's so weird, it seems the CGs show up in a different order for different people? I thought they'd be in the same order as in my gallery! That makes it really hard to figure out which ones you might be missing, but what I can think of if you romanced everyone and went through both Sun/Star is you could be missing:
(SPOILERS) Thisbe's Leader check CG (unlocked by passing her leader check in Chapter 2's camp scene, some additional lines and the CG appear in Chapter 3)
Beca's Leader check CG (same as Thisbe but by passing her Leader check in Chapter 2)
Ikemma and Rhain's ending (unlocked by romancing Rhain, having Ikemma as your lover and choosing to leave the island)
The no romance ending (unlocked by not romancing anyone) (SPOILERS END)
Let me know if that helps! I'll include a full list of all CGs and their unlock conditions in the DLC booklet I'm working on but it's a shame our galleries are in a different order, makes it a lot less straight-forward.
Oo yes! the Ikenma and Rhain's ending is one of the ones i'm missing, although the other 3 i already have. Now i'm only missing the one is page 8 it seems, but oh well, thank you again for responding, it helped! i think i'll just wait for the DLC booklet then? thanks again!
aww man, you just broke my heart. this entire charade feels like a pre-packaged wound with salt attached. extra painful extra bitter, but for the better
i got to say i'm a bit disappointed at the end, a rude reminder that wound will leave a scar. but i guess there's no flawless tale with no struggle and a happy ending doesn't always a perfect ending.
Thank you :') I was aiming for bittersweet where hopefully the sweetness sticks around longer as you come to terms with the bitterness, so I hope it feels that way!
I already wrote a review, but I just wanted to say it's so gripping and compelling how, in the end, it's up to the player to interpret the last 5 years, Seren, and even her second journey. I love the comparison made with the poem, that her journey, the story, and Seren's role it can be interpreted in hundreds of different ways. Even Seren herself will never be able to know for sure. But I also really liked the point made in the last couple of lines of text, that regardless, everyone has to live with everything that has happened and keep moving forward. It doesn't really matter WHY things happened, just that they did. How do we move forward? How do we make things better? How do we work with our past actions, our guilt, and how do we absolve ourselves? What can we, personally, do to change anything at all?
SPOILERS IN REST OF COMMENT! LOOK AWAY! SPOILERS IN REST OF COMMENT! LOOK AWAY!
Personal thoughts: I think a "fairytale" ending would have been Seren's party overthrowing the cult. In my first playthrough I was hoping for it... But that's just not how things work in real life. The oppressive structures you grow up with are too powerful, too manipulating, too humiliating, too far-reaching to even think of trying, or to be able to succeed if you did. They're so realistically evil!!!!! God!!! And the problems in the world of The Hero's Journey wouldn't have been fixed with just the cult gone. I also thought it was amazing how compelling the two characters that leave depending on the route are. I mean like, I did the Sun path first, and then finding out you get to kind of make a family with E**** and B*** if you go for that in the Star path was sort of so. So. Emotion inducing...... But Thisbe was really. Like her accepting you trying to make things right and all. Wooly being representative and everyone accommodating him. I kind of wish you could still tell ****** the truth in the Star path because I felt so bad... Literally so bad. (Unless you can somehow and I missed that because there's a ton of variables here) But that's how human these characters were. I went for Aenora first since I'm a lesbian and I loved the development and the like, everything to do with the Sun path and her route in that. Becoming equals, etc. But I was so surprised how the Rhain route didn't feel like betraying her and hurting her badly. Well it did a little at first...but then it's like...no, this is human. And they're both great people :( I was also VERY surprised by Emrys' route but then it almost became my favourite (being gay married in a homophobic world makes Aenora surpass Emrys for me but it's close!) it's just like. Woah. And Everything about Y* K** is so SAD!!!!! Tragedy! With hope! Because that's what we need to get through all this.
SPOILERS END SPOILERS END
TL;DR: This game deserves AT LEAST one playthrough to the end. One of the most meaningful visual novels I've played in the last couple of years, which is really impressive for its length and price (free!). There is an incredible story within this game and one worth reading. The player has to decide on their personal interpretation of the events and the character, but the fact that there isn't a singular one is exactly what we have to do as humans and the things we live through. I'm also very willing to pay for any future DLC or any kind of "behind the scenes" content. Congratulations on completing the game!!
I'm so happy to hear you found the characters and themes compelling. I was a bit concerned some things would feel disappointing (not remembering everything, the cult being hinted at to start unravelling but not being swiftly defeated) but like you said, it's realistic. I also think it's important for the overall message; you can't make things completely right, defeat the cult and somehow undo the damage they've done (and still do), but you can lay the foundations for others to slowly become aware of its issues and turn against it.
For Aerona in the Star path, there's no way to tell her but I've tried to suggest she has a suspicion things aren't quite what they seem (though she doesn't understand the full extent of it), but decides to ignore this because it won't matter as much after the quest is over, and she's satisfied with her relationship with Seren feeling more secure and less imbalanced now. I think I wouldn't be able to handle the angst of it myself if I was a player though :')
It was important to me to show that Rhain and Aerona are friends despite their respective feelings for you/history with you! I'm glad it makes them seem more human.
I'm also super glad you liked Emrys, Beca, Thisbe and Wooly and their respective arcs! There's a lot of difficult themes there that I really wanted to execute respectfully and tastefully.
(SPOILERS END)
Thank you for taking the time to write this, it's really rewarding to see people feel strongly about this world, characters and story I created :)
Wow, absolutely wow. Personally, I felt I was able to deeply empathize with Seren. It was much a moving story with amazing imagery. The writing created such a serious and fragile atmosphere.
Thank you so much! "Serious and fragile atmosphere" is such a lovely way to describe it, that's exactly what I'm aiming for so I'm really happy to hear it :)
First I was aiming for Rhain then, I changed to Emerys and ended up with Ikemma in the end lol I AM REALLY CONFLICTED it wasn't an easy decision. Had to save a couple of times (╥_╥)
OKAY SO ITS 4 AM I FINISHED EMRYS ROUTE I AM CRYING BUT I MUST GO TO SLEEP NOW I WILL POST MY ACTUALLY THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS GAME AFTER I DO IKEMMAS ROUTE TOMORROW BUT IM JUST DROPPING TO SAY THAT I LOVE IT SO FAR THAT END CG OF EMRYS IS SO CUT E I MUST SLEEP
I finally finished this, only one route but I have no idea how I'm going to be able to go back and play another. That one choice... I feel like I can only make it one way because I can't bear the disappointment from a specific party member if I choose it another way. I tried but it broke my heart :(
This was really well made, I loved the twists and turns, the character development, all of it. You really made me care about these people. I went in thinking I'd romance one person and go this one route, then another made me care too much and I switched, and then it happened again!! Honestly I think that takes a lot of skill. I'm also really impressed with how much bug fixing work you're putting into this, but don't forget to take a break! Bug fixing is exhausting.
All in all, really awesome game, amazing story, well developed characters. I just wish I knew what old Seren was thinking about certain things, but I guess that's the thing.
You should be proud of yourself, and I can't wait to see if you have more games planned in the future. But I hope you take a break, you deserve it!
I'm so glad to hear both the choices and characters made you feel a lot of things! I really wanted the characters to feel real, complex and affected by your choices.
I'll ease off on the bug fixing :') I just felt really bad about there being some freezing that outright stop players from progressing further, but (hopefully) those are all taken care of now!
I'll make more games in the future and already have some ideas, but yeah, I need a break haha. THJ has been a lot of work and a pretty emotional experience, but I think the DLC will be easier and allow me to really conclude things in my head and take a nice refreshing break afterwards.
Nice game! Such a coincidence that one of the characters has the same name as the one I have been using for several years now. Because Aerona is not a common name. I was really surprised ^_^
I just started the first chapter and became completely engrossed in a matter of minutes. In fact, I like this game so much that I’m going to try to be patient and wait to play the rest until the whole game is finished - that way I can binge it!
Thank you so much for sharing this game! Best of luck with the next chapter (and whatever else is happening in your life). :P
I'm so glad you like it! The next chapter is coming along slowly (lots of plotlines to wrap up) so I could use the luck, haha. Thank you for your comment and for enjoying what you've played so far!
Hello! I absolutely love the game, and have been playing it for quite some time on PC, but lately I've been experiencing an issue where it won't allow me to save past a certain point. The save slots highlight where they're available, and if I select a previous save, it asks me if I'd like to overwrite. However, the data itself doesn't actually transfer. I've tried uninstalling, reinstalling, adding an exception to my antivirus, and running as administrator through the folder in explorer, but no dice. I've also checked permissions, and everything appears to be allowed, so I don't believe that's the problem. Sorry for the length of this comment, but if you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. Thank you!
I think I know what the bug is being caused by, and unfortunately it’s not something that can be fixed on your end! It has to do with how the game is saved/a limit on the amount of data one save can contain (so in your case, past a certain point the game decides the data's too big to save anymore; I have no clue why this is happening to you and not other players though).
I’m going to look into changing how my saves work while not losing everyone’s saves, but that’ll take quite some time. I'll work on that along with the Chapter 4 update!
Thank you for reporting this, and sorry for the trouble!
It currently has 3 out of the 4 planned chapters! I'm aiming to publish the last chapter late this year/in early 2022, and I'm also planning a small DLC after that, so it isn't too far off from being complete!
I am screaming. I am crying. I am hollering and making a nuisance of myself. This is too much emotion and I'm falling apart at the seams. Thank-you, excellent work.
Woolly and Thisbe leaving me was a lot and then it ramped up and ramped up—CECIL! BECA!—and then the game was like "remember that village we mentioned? SADDLE UP" and I had nothing but dread in my heart. I wait with terror and excitement.
I’m so glad you liked it! I cried a lot writing/editing Beca’s scenes this chapter so I’m happy the emotions are being conveyed and I’m not crying alone T_T
such an incredible experience playing this game<3 the storyline is so so so interesting, and i cant fucking wait to play the rest. like honestly, i usually never write comments, but like damn.. you've done such a good job, and i cant wait to see what else you have in store in the future! i cant seem to write anything useful other than praise, but that's because i honestly didn't find anything that could be improved, since it already was amazing, so.. praise is what you'll get :D
Aw thank you so much! Praise is very useful, it makes me really happy to see people enjoy my game and gives me a lot of motivation to keep working on it :)
this game looks so great, but I think I've run into a bug. On Mac, when I get to the part where it says "He still smiles when your sword meets his flesh" the game simply won't go forward and just freezes there. Also when if I click on the settings page, the game freezes on that screen. Ive tried re-downloading, but haven't been able to fix the error.
I'm looking into my error reports and it seems to be an issue with the mac not having the permission to access the files.
Could you try changing your permissions on the game app to enable "Read and write"? Right click on the game app (THJ1.2Mac.app) , select "Get info" and you'll see a window like in the image. Click the lock icon and then change your permission to allow "Read and Write".
hi, thank you for responding! I tried changing the permissions following your directions, but unfortunately it didn't seem to fix the bug for me. It is still freezing at that same spot, and the game also still freezes on the setting page. I tried to save the game to see what would happen, and it is also not letting me make a save.
Thanks for following up! It’s really a shame that some mac users seem to have this issue, I hope I can figure it out.
The game won't be able to do anything like unlock CGs, access settings or make saves since for some reason your computer isn't allowed to access some of the game's files, so what you're describing makes sense.
Another possible reason is that if you have an anti-virus, it might be blocking access to the game’s files. If you have one you can check its settings and the apps it allows, and set THJ to be allowed.
Heyy I had the same problem but I used something that worked on a couple of other games. So open the game on finder then clicked open package content after that click on the contents folder then the macOS folder then there will be this black box with green writing. Yeah, that's the game, the only difference is that if u click on that the game opens up on the terminal. So you click on the BlackBox and the terminal will pop up and the only thing you have to do afterwards is press enter. I tried it and it worked, so good luck to you.
Just finished chapter 2. I'm really liking this one! The characters are all really interesting, and there's some good worldbuilding and atmosphere. There's a tangible tension to a lot of the scenes, gives off an almost creepy kind of vibe that really pays off later as events unfold.
The dynamics between the different characters makes their interactions really enjoyable to watch too. I can't help but feel bad for Aerona. It's sad to think that it's possible to turn her away... I couldn't do it, I had to go with her. Those two are shaping up to be adorable together <3
HERE I WAS LIKE okay when is everything gunna twist. Who does it: maybe it isn't Ikemma, maybe it's Emrys, who's this, what does this have to do with—: AND THEN LO AND BEHOLD !! Looking back on when Aeona told me I went back to the cult like ohhh...okay....yeah okay this tracks way more !! It was such a satisfying heel turn on MY PART, right after I'd made plans to adopt an orphan and everything !! THIS IS SO MUCH I LOVE IT !!!
Played ch2 and I am thoroughly hooked now. This new chapter did a really good job in getting me to grow attached and care for characters (Wooly and Beca are TOO precious).
Also, I really like how you play upon the theme of perception and memory and how they influence each other.
As for the twist, I'm sure you hinted at it which gave me some inklings, but as the previous commenter said, it wasn't completely expected and shocked me once everything was revealed.
Such great content this update, very excited for continued development! I was going for Rhain at first but now I think I will simp for Ikemma and Emrys...I am a sucker for pretty faces.
I think a lot of players also switched to Ikemma and Emrys, judging from the survey results! I feel a bit bad for Rhain but I’m also glad that Emrys and Ikemma are compelling since they’re so important to the plot :)
I just played Chapter 2 and I am so hooked on the game! I love the graphics so much, and the characters are so well fleshed out and unique (Wooly is too adorableee). I certainly wasn't expecting that plot twist at the end of Chapter 2 so I will be looking forward to what's in store for the rest of the game!
In the end : I was not that interested in the romancable characters (even though they ARE interesting) until I saw Yi Kai. I really hope he is a RO. I want to know more about him, let's hope we'll see more memories with him inside <3 !
Plus : let's be honnest he looks like the younger version of Ikemma who is definitely on my list. Meeting him after the mountain debacle will be iteresting. In the good way ~.
Ok! So I managed to get the game up and running uwu here are my thoughts:
I LOVE LOVE the art!! Especially Seren's design. I love her armor--with its gold and blue, I feel those colors go so well together. and the design of the armor is so nice to look at as well <3 It gave me images of grandeur. I like Aerona's ruffles too. The backgrounds are beautiful as well. They set the mood well! I like Ikemma's powder blue garb. I bet it's really shimmery. Aerona's armor--it looked like oxidized copper with how it's so green. I also love that particular shade of green--very evocative of a watery world.
On the story--
Holy fuck are Seren's fans RABID. I didn't expect their intensity lol I might pick up more on a replay, but I wasn't sure why the villagers were so nuts over Seren. Like I know she saved them from evil (or something) but I didn't feel their craziness was warranted on their part, which is kinda sus. Like something more is going on to make her fans so crazy. 👀 👀 Of all the moments in the demo, this hit me hard and fast, and it really stuck with me!
The story was well written and held my interest very well! I never felt the urge to skip ahead, like I sometimes feel when paragraphs wear out their welcome. I am hooked!
I liked the main cast--I felt bad for Aerona. Poor lady, she felt so happy and it was snatched from her :( All the main cast need therapy tho.
Of the main cast, I'm most curious for Wooly--I wonder what his deal is. I tried to make us friends during the chapter--i feel that his and Seren's history is rocky. I jumped at every opportunity to defend him hehe I loved the fact that he used ASL (or whatever sign language the goatmen use). I am confused tho--is Ikemma romanceable? Or is Wooly? I know that Rhain and Aerona are but I was a bit confused about the third :3
anyways, great job!!! i'm looking forward to whatever u have planned :>
Thank you so much for the lengthy comment! It feels really rewarding to read all your thoughts about the art and story, and I'm really happy to see that the atmosphere and foreshadowing seem to have been conveyed properly!
Ikemma is romanceable, though his romance will work a bit differently from the others!
Chapter 2 will start to reveal some things about Wooly, Ikemma and the fans so I hope you'll enjoy that too :)
Sorry but I have downloaded the game on mac, but it freezes after ikemma dies. I go to settings and there aren't any numbers on resolution and after I change the skip to everything it freezes. Also when I try to save it won't let me.
Thanks for reporting this! I've just tested this on a mac and tried to replicate these issues. For the freezing issue, someone has reported the same issue on this part of the game before but I'm not able to replicate it so I don't know what the cause could be. Redownloading the game might help, since maybe the CG or sound effect is causing trouble. For the resolution, I'll try to look into whether I can change those settings in my next build because for now it seems to just be how the plugin works on mac! You can at least change to windowed mode by switching to fullscreen and then windowed again. I'm not sure what could be going on with the skip setting either, it's working for me. As for the save issue, do you mean that the icons on the textbox don't work, or that once you've entered the save menu, trying to save to a slot does nothing? If it's the former you can press the escape key to pull up the pause menu, which you can use to enter the save screen.
I just played chapter 1 and I really enjoyed it! Can't wait to find out who is the fourth love interest in chapter 2. It also makes me happy to see some Chinese words/elements, particularly towards the end of chapter 1. Can I ask where do you get the inspiration to incorporate eastern elements from?
I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
I love Chinese culture and learning about ancient China, so a lot of my inspiration just comes from reading about the history and finding interesting facts that enrich my setting and story!
The screenshots are from the Chapter 1 update that will be published soon! The files you can download right now are still the alpha demo (which has the old art style and less content). The files will be updated to the Chapter 1 release on Saturday 10th. Sorry for the confusion!
This demo is great! I love the graphics and I am intrigued with the love interests (is Wooly or Ikemma one of the love interests?) I can't wait to play the full game :))
I really enjoyed the demo. It's well written and I like the art. The scene with the commoners was suitably anxiety-inducing, and even tho I rarely go for women, Aerona is (so far) my favorite. I really felt bad for her.
Me, having to wave goodbye to Wooly: :((( Gonna miss my mystery goat boi
Amazing game, I'm really loving what we could see in the demo! Looking forward to seeing where this goes, I love the writing style and the premise of the story! It seems like a fascinating universe.
I'm so glad you like the story and characters! Ikemma's status is a bit of a spoiler but I can say you'll get to learn a lot about him in dreams and memories, and your relationship can have a different nature based on your choice. I hope that's not too vague haha
A huge amount of promise in this. I am really looking forward to how it develops. The writing seems intriguing and you manage the evocative emotions well, the panic caused by the surging crowd etc.. Obviously, very early days so I expect a lot will change and improve. . A big one that I am sure you will tackle is that the background to the inn's rough and cheap room and the bedroom you end up in is the same. Really hope this goes far as I love these kind of enticing tales with a different take on the heroic fantasy genre.
One question. You have written that this spans most of chapter one will subsequent chapters be longer? Or is this intended to be more of a compact tale?
Making different backgrounds for the house is on my todo list for sure!
I'm not the best at estimating scope/length but I suspect most chapters will have a higher word count than the first chapter, as each one will have a little subplot that can be resolved in different ways and lead to some variations. There'll also be some different scenes based on the two routes you can choose between and which love interest you pursue, and I do want to include a variety of endings based on all your choices, so I think the game will have a pretty long span if you replay it and explore the various options!
The first chapter itself is also likely to be longer than I expected, and the demo probably takes up half of it, rather than most of it.
Thank you for the kind words and for playing the demo :)
hi! this seems like a really cool game but I can't seem to get past a certain part of it! After I get to the part where it says "He still smiles when your sword meets his flesh" the game simply won't go forward and just freezes there. This is on the Mac version btw! Regardless, this looks like an awesome game!
ah that's so weird! I tested the game on a mac and I'm not getting any freezing/errors. Maybe try redownloading the game? there might an issue with the files the game needs at this particular point!
This was my cup of tea. Choices that may seem to be straightforward that leads different dialogue. Kept me engaged and wanting to know more on what happened to Ikemma and our HERO.
Well done maneki_mushi
Here's my gameplay for everyone to experience, Enjoy!
thank you so much for playing the demo and sharing! it was so helpful to see your real time reaction to the story and choices, I have lots of notes on things to improve and add in my next demo now. I'm glad you enjoyed it :)
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Dear Maneki Mushi, I blame you for this roller-coaster of emotions 😭 you made me go through! I missed reading mature stories that treat its darker themes seriously. I need to thank you for staying consistent with the tone of your story; it made so many scenes much more rewarding, reveals so much more intense, and character development so much more satisfying to witness.
Oh, and speaking of characters, do I need to mention how came to appreciate this colourful cast of characters you created? Just reading how they interacted with the Seren (and Seren with them), and how they interacted with each other was reminiscent of Dragon Age and Neverwinter Nights 2’s companions. The cast has great party dynamics and great banters, like in those old but gold rpgs. In my eyes, THJ has managed to capture the essence of rpg stories, with its characters, narrative writing, and beautiful story book like art that suits the aesthetic of a Hero’s Journey just perfectly.
I would want nothing more than to go into detail about the scenes and which characters made me tear up/cry, but I fear I would only end up babbling text walls of spoilers and gushy nonsense x’ ); so I'll wrap up my comment.
THJ hit all the right spots for me, that even after finishing the game, I still think about it. More people should know about it, and give it a go. You won't end up regretting it!
Thank you so much! I'm actually very inspired by those old rpgs and they're what gave me the idea for THJ in the first place, so I'm really happy that it's noticeable :)
I LOVED THIS GAME, its AMAZING. THANK YOU, for making this game, and completely for FREE. ive replayed it so many times, played all the routes! its so good!! thank you so much! i was just wondering, ive replayed so many times, but i cant seem to get the CGs in the top left corner in page 5 and 8, as well as the whole page of page 7? XD any tips?
Thank you for enjoying the game :)
(SPOILERS AHEAD)
Page 5 top left corner: Ikemma's second kiss CG (occurs right in the same scene as the first, in Chapter 3)
Page 8 top left corner: Star path version of the desert confrontation
As for page 7 those are all the versions of the fight in Tamor, and I just realised they can't be unlocked because I misspelled their names :') I'll make a fix for that soon!
Let me know if you're not able to unlock the page 5 and 8 CGs! I can't see any issues with them and they work for me, but it's weird you didn't get them.
hi again! thanks for the response, but the ones you described is the bottom left corner (for me, is it different?), i meant the ones above those two!
(SPOILERS)
i didnt realise you could attach images XD maybe this'll help? Thanks in advance, im gonna replay it again anyways haha, i seriously can't over this game, i first played when only chapter 1 was out, so i still genuinely thought seren was the hero for the longest time! the plot twist was really cool! again, thank you :)
oh that's so weird, it seems the CGs show up in a different order for different people? I thought they'd be in the same order as in my gallery! That makes it really hard to figure out which ones you might be missing, but what I can think of if you romanced everyone and went through both Sun/Star is you could be missing:
(SPOILERS)
Thisbe's Leader check CG (unlocked by passing her leader check in Chapter 2's camp scene, some additional lines and the CG appear in Chapter 3)
Beca's Leader check CG (same as Thisbe but by passing her Leader check in Chapter 2)
Ikemma and Rhain's ending (unlocked by romancing Rhain, having Ikemma as your lover and choosing to leave the island)
The no romance ending (unlocked by not romancing anyone)
(SPOILERS END)
Let me know if that helps! I'll include a full list of all CGs and their unlock conditions in the DLC booklet I'm working on but it's a shame our galleries are in a different order, makes it a lot less straight-forward.
Oo yes! the Ikenma and Rhain's ending is one of the ones i'm missing, although the other 3 i already have. Now i'm only missing the one is page 8 it seems, but oh well, thank you again for responding, it helped! i think i'll just wait for the DLC booklet then? thanks again!
aww man, you just broke my heart. this entire charade feels like a pre-packaged wound with salt attached. extra painful extra bitter, but for the better
i got to say i'm a bit disappointed at the end, a rude reminder that wound will leave a scar. but i guess there's no flawless tale with no struggle and a happy ending doesn't always a perfect ending.
anyway i'd say 10/10
Thank you :') I was aiming for bittersweet where hopefully the sweetness sticks around longer as you come to terms with the bitterness, so I hope it feels that way!
I already wrote a review, but I just wanted to say it's so gripping and compelling how, in the end, it's up to the player to interpret the last 5 years, Seren, and even her second journey. I love the comparison made with the poem, that her journey, the story, and Seren's role it can be interpreted in hundreds of different ways. Even Seren herself will never be able to know for sure. But I also really liked the point made in the last couple of lines of text, that regardless, everyone has to live with everything that has happened and keep moving forward. It doesn't really matter WHY things happened, just that they did. How do we move forward? How do we make things better? How do we work with our past actions, our guilt, and how do we absolve ourselves? What can we, personally, do to change anything at all?
SPOILERS IN REST OF COMMENT! LOOK AWAY!
SPOILERS IN REST OF COMMENT! LOOK AWAY!
Personal thoughts: I think a "fairytale" ending would have been Seren's party overthrowing the cult. In my first playthrough I was hoping for it... But that's just not how things work in real life. The oppressive structures you grow up with are too powerful, too manipulating, too humiliating, too far-reaching to even think of trying, or to be able to succeed if you did. They're so realistically evil!!!!! God!!! And the problems in the world of The Hero's Journey wouldn't have been fixed with just the cult gone.
I also thought it was amazing how compelling the two characters that leave depending on the route are. I mean like, I did the Sun path first, and then finding out you get to kind of make a family with E**** and B*** if you go for that in the Star path was sort of so. So. Emotion inducing...... But Thisbe was really. Like her accepting you trying to make things right and all. Wooly being representative and everyone accommodating him. I kind of wish you could still tell ****** the truth in the Star path because I felt so bad... Literally so bad. (Unless you can somehow and I missed that because there's a ton of variables here) But that's how human these characters were. I went for Aenora first since I'm a lesbian and I loved the development and the like, everything to do with the Sun path and her route in that. Becoming equals, etc. But I was so surprised how the Rhain route didn't feel like betraying her and hurting her badly. Well it did a little at first...but then it's like...no, this is human. And they're both great people :( I was also VERY surprised by Emrys' route but then it almost became my favourite (being gay married in a homophobic world makes Aenora surpass Emrys for me but it's close!) it's just like. Woah. And Everything about Y* K** is so SAD!!!!! Tragedy! With hope! Because that's what we need to get through all this.
SPOILERS END
SPOILERS END
TL;DR: This game deserves AT LEAST one playthrough to the end. One of the most meaningful visual novels I've played in the last couple of years, which is really impressive for its length and price (free!). There is an incredible story within this game and one worth reading. The player has to decide on their personal interpretation of the events and the character, but the fact that there isn't a singular one is exactly what we have to do as humans and the things we live through. I'm also very willing to pay for any future DLC or any kind of "behind the scenes" content. Congratulations on completing the game!!
Thank you so much for your lengthy comment!
(SPOILERS AHEAD)
I'm so happy to hear you found the characters and themes compelling. I was a bit concerned some things would feel disappointing (not remembering everything, the cult being hinted at to start unravelling but not being swiftly defeated) but like you said, it's realistic. I also think it's important for the overall message; you can't make things completely right, defeat the cult and somehow undo the damage they've done (and still do), but you can lay the foundations for others to slowly become aware of its issues and turn against it.
For Aerona in the Star path, there's no way to tell her but I've tried to suggest she has a suspicion things aren't quite what they seem (though she doesn't understand the full extent of it), but decides to ignore this because it won't matter as much after the quest is over, and she's satisfied with her relationship with Seren feeling more secure and less imbalanced now. I think I wouldn't be able to handle the angst of it myself if I was a player though :')
It was important to me to show that Rhain and Aerona are friends despite their respective feelings for you/history with you! I'm glad it makes them seem more human.
I'm also super glad you liked Emrys, Beca, Thisbe and Wooly and their respective arcs! There's a lot of difficult themes there that I really wanted to execute respectfully and tastefully.
(SPOILERS END)
Thank you for taking the time to write this, it's really rewarding to see people feel strongly about this world, characters and story I created :)
Wow, absolutely wow. Personally, I felt I was able to deeply empathize with Seren. It was much a moving story with amazing imagery. The writing created such a serious and fragile atmosphere.
Thank you so much! "Serious and fragile atmosphere" is such a lovely way to describe it, that's exactly what I'm aiming for so I'm really happy to hear it :)
First I was aiming for Rhain then, I changed to Emerys and ended up with Ikemma in the end lol I AM REALLY CONFLICTED it wasn't an easy decision. Had to save a couple of times (╥_╥)
haha that seems to happen to lots of players! fortunately that's what replaying is for ;)
OKAY SO ITS 4 AM I FINISHED EMRYS ROUTE I AM CRYING BUT I MUST GO TO SLEEP NOW I WILL POST MY ACTUALLY THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS GAME AFTER I DO IKEMMAS ROUTE TOMORROW BUT IM JUST DROPPING TO SAY THAT I LOVE IT SO FAR THAT END CG OF EMRYS IS SO CUT E I MUST SLEEP
:') thank you, I hope you'll like Ikemma's route as well!
I finally finished this, only one route but I have no idea how I'm going to be able to go back and play another. That one choice... I feel like I can only make it one way because I can't bear the disappointment from a specific party member if I choose it another way. I tried but it broke my heart :(
This was really well made, I loved the twists and turns, the character development, all of it. You really made me care about these people. I went in thinking I'd romance one person and go this one route, then another made me care too much and I switched, and then it happened again!! Honestly I think that takes a lot of skill. I'm also really impressed with how much bug fixing work you're putting into this, but don't forget to take a break! Bug fixing is exhausting.
All in all, really awesome game, amazing story, well developed characters. I just wish I knew what old Seren was thinking about certain things, but I guess that's the thing.
You should be proud of yourself, and I can't wait to see if you have more games planned in the future. But I hope you take a break, you deserve it!
I'm so glad to hear both the choices and characters made you feel a lot of things! I really wanted the characters to feel real, complex and affected by your choices.
I'll ease off on the bug fixing :') I just felt really bad about there being some freezing that outright stop players from progressing further, but (hopefully) those are all taken care of now!
I'll make more games in the future and already have some ideas, but yeah, I need a break haha. THJ has been a lot of work and a pretty emotional experience, but I think the DLC will be easier and allow me to really conclude things in my head and take a nice refreshing break afterwards.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
Me after reading Chapter 2:
lmao I'm so glad it had the intended effect
Nice game! Such a coincidence that one of the characters has the same name as the one I have been using for several years now. Because Aerona is not a common name. I was really surprised ^_^
Thank you! Haha that is a coincidence. Most of the cast has a Welsh name so they're all bit uncommon.
I just started the first chapter and became completely engrossed in a matter of minutes. In fact, I like this game so much that I’m going to try to be patient and wait to play the rest until the whole game is finished - that way I can binge it!
Thank you so much for sharing this game! Best of luck with the next chapter (and whatever else is happening in your life). :P
I'm so glad you like it! The next chapter is coming along slowly (lots of plotlines to wrap up) so I could use the luck, haha. Thank you for your comment and for enjoying what you've played so far!
Hello! I absolutely love the game, and have been playing it for quite some time on PC, but lately I've been experiencing an issue where it won't allow me to save past a certain point. The save slots highlight where they're available, and if I select a previous save, it asks me if I'd like to overwrite. However, the data itself doesn't actually transfer. I've tried uninstalling, reinstalling, adding an exception to my antivirus, and running as administrator through the folder in explorer, but no dice. I've also checked permissions, and everything appears to be allowed, so I don't believe that's the problem. Sorry for the length of this comment, but if you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. Thank you!
I think I know what the bug is being caused by, and unfortunately it’s not something that can be fixed on your end! It has to do with how the game is saved/a limit on the amount of data one save can contain (so in your case, past a certain point the game decides the data's too big to save anymore; I have no clue why this is happening to you and not other players though).
I’m going to look into changing how my saves work while not losing everyone’s saves, but that’ll take quite some time. I'll work on that along with the Chapter 4 update!
Thank you for reporting this, and sorry for the trouble!
I really appreciate you looking into the issue, and I'll keep checking back. Thank you for being such a lovely, talented creator.
This game looks great! How close is it to being completed btw?
It currently has 3 out of the 4 planned chapters! I'm aiming to publish the last chapter late this year/in early 2022, and I'm also planning a small DLC after that, so it isn't too far off from being complete!
I am screaming. I am crying. I am hollering and making a nuisance of myself. This is too much emotion and I'm falling apart at the seams. Thank-you, excellent work.
Woolly and Thisbe leaving me was a lot and then it ramped up and ramped up—CECIL! BECA!—and then the game was like "remember that village we mentioned? SADDLE UP" and I had nothing but dread in my heart. I wait with terror and excitement.
I’m so glad you liked it! I cried a lot writing/editing Beca’s scenes this chapter so I’m happy the emotions are being conveyed and I’m not crying alone T_T
such an incredible experience playing this game<3 the storyline is so so so interesting, and i cant fucking wait to play the rest. like honestly, i usually never write comments, but like damn.. you've done such a good job, and i cant wait to see what else you have in store in the future! i cant seem to write anything useful other than praise, but that's because i honestly didn't find anything that could be improved, since it already was amazing, so.. praise is what you'll get :D
Aw thank you so much! Praise is very useful, it makes me really happy to see people enjoy my game and gives me a lot of motivation to keep working on it :)
this game looks so great, but I think I've run into a bug. On Mac, when I get to the part where it says "He still smiles when your sword meets his flesh" the game simply won't go forward and just freezes there. Also when if I click on the settings page, the game freezes on that screen. Ive tried re-downloading, but haven't been able to fix the error.
I'm looking into my error reports and it seems to be an issue with the mac not having the permission to access the files.
Could you try changing your permissions on the game app to enable "Read and write"? Right click on the game app (THJ1.2Mac.app) , select "Get info" and you'll see a window like in the image. Click the lock icon and then change your permission to allow "Read and Write".
Let me know if that helps!
hi, thank you for responding! I tried changing the permissions following your directions, but unfortunately it didn't seem to fix the bug for me. It is still freezing at that same spot, and the game also still freezes on the setting page. I tried to save the game to see what would happen, and it is also not letting me make a save.
Thanks for following up! It’s really a shame that some mac users seem to have this issue, I hope I can figure it out.
The game won't be able to do anything like unlock CGs, access settings or make saves since for some reason your computer isn't allowed to access some of the game's files, so what you're describing makes sense.
Another possible reason is that if you have an anti-virus, it might be blocking access to the game’s files. If you have one you can check its settings and the apps it allows, and set THJ to be allowed.
Heyy I had the same problem but I used something that worked on a couple of other games. So open the game on finder then clicked open package content after that click on the contents folder then the macOS folder then there will be this black box with green writing. Yeah, that's the game, the only difference is that if u click on that the game opens up on the terminal. So you click on the BlackBox and the terminal will pop up and the only thing you have to do afterwards is press enter. I tried it and it worked, so good luck to you.
Just finished chapter 2. I'm really liking this one! The characters are all really interesting, and there's some good worldbuilding and atmosphere. There's a tangible tension to a lot of the scenes, gives off an almost creepy kind of vibe that really pays off later as events unfold.
The dynamics between the different characters makes their interactions really enjoyable to watch too. I can't help but feel bad for Aerona. It's sad to think that it's possible to turn her away... I couldn't do it, I had to go with her. Those two are shaping up to be adorable together <3
Either way, great game. Can't wait for chapter 3!
Thank you for playing and enjoying the game!
I don’t want players to feel too bad if they don’t pursue Aerona; in Chapter 3 she’ll have some dialogue about it and I swear it’s not too angsty!
I do really enjoy writing her romance scenes though, and I’m so glad you like them!
HERE I WAS LIKE okay when is everything gunna twist. Who does it: maybe it isn't Ikemma, maybe it's Emrys, who's this, what does this have to do with—: AND THEN LO AND BEHOLD !! Looking back on when Aeona told me I went back to the cult like ohhh...okay....yeah okay this tracks way more !! It was such a satisfying heel turn on MY PART, right after I'd made plans to adopt an orphan and everything !! THIS IS SO MUCH I LOVE IT !!!
Thank you!! I’m glad the reveal was a pleasant surprise (and not a betrayal haha).
OH MY GOD ITS SO GOOD ASDASDSFSDGKJLASDJ IM SIMPING NOW FOR EMRYS N IKEMMA IM SO EXCITED FOR THE NEXT CHAPTERS
Played ch2 and I am thoroughly hooked now. This new chapter did a really good job in getting me to grow attached and care for characters (Wooly and Beca are TOO precious).
Also, I really like how you play upon the theme of perception and memory and how they influence each other.
As for the twist, I'm sure you hinted at it which gave me some inklings, but as the previous commenter said, it wasn't completely expected and shocked me once everything was revealed.
Such great content this update, very excited for continued development! I was going for Rhain at first but now I think I will simp for Ikemma and Emrys...I am a sucker for pretty faces.
I’m glad you enjoyed the chapter!
I think a lot of players also switched to Ikemma and Emrys, judging from the survey results! I feel a bit bad for Rhain but I’m also glad that Emrys and Ikemma are compelling since they’re so important to the plot :)
I just played Chapter 2 and I am so hooked on the game! I love the graphics so much, and the characters are so well fleshed out and unique (Wooly is too adorableee). I certainly wasn't expecting that plot twist at the end of Chapter 2 so I will be looking forward to what's in store for the rest of the game!
Thank you so much for the comment! I’m glad the twist wasn’t obvious, I was a little concerned about that haha.
I loved it !
It was easy and fun to read.
In the end : I was not that interested in the romancable characters (even though they ARE interesting) until I saw Yi Kai. I really hope he is a RO. I want to know more about him, let's hope we'll see more memories with him inside <3 !
Plus : let's be honnest he looks like the younger version of Ikemma who is definitely on my list. Meeting him after the mountain debacle will be iteresting. In the good way ~.
Thank you for the comment, I'm glad you like the characters! Chapter 2 will introduce new characters and memories, I hope you'll enjoy those too :)
Ok! So I managed to get the game up and running uwu here are my thoughts:
I LOVE LOVE the art!! Especially Seren's design. I love her armor--with its gold and blue, I feel those colors go so well together. and the design of the armor is so nice to look at as well <3 It gave me images of grandeur. I like Aerona's ruffles too. The backgrounds are beautiful as well. They set the mood well! I like Ikemma's powder blue garb. I bet it's really shimmery. Aerona's armor--it looked like oxidized copper with how it's so green. I also love that particular shade of green--very evocative of a watery world.
On the story--
Holy fuck are Seren's fans RABID. I didn't expect their intensity lol I might pick up more on a replay, but I wasn't sure why the villagers were so nuts over Seren. Like I know she saved them from evil (or something) but I didn't feel their craziness was warranted on their part, which is kinda sus. Like something more is going on to make her fans so crazy. 👀 👀 Of all the moments in the demo, this hit me hard and fast, and it really stuck with me!
The story was well written and held my interest very well! I never felt the urge to skip ahead, like I sometimes feel when paragraphs wear out their welcome. I am hooked!
I liked the main cast--I felt bad for Aerona. Poor lady, she felt so happy and it was snatched from her :( All the main cast need therapy tho.
Of the main cast, I'm most curious for Wooly--I wonder what his deal is. I tried to make us friends during the chapter--i feel that his and Seren's history is rocky. I jumped at every opportunity to defend him hehe I loved the fact that he used ASL (or whatever sign language the goatmen use). I am confused tho--is Ikemma romanceable? Or is Wooly? I know that Rhain and Aerona are but I was a bit confused about the third :3
anyways, great job!!! i'm looking forward to whatever u have planned :>
Thank you so much for the lengthy comment! It feels really rewarding to read all your thoughts about the art and story, and I'm really happy to see that the atmosphere and foreshadowing seem to have been conveyed properly!
Ikemma is romanceable, though his romance will work a bit differently from the others!
Chapter 2 will start to reveal some things about Wooly, Ikemma and the fans so I hope you'll enjoy that too :)
Sorry but I have downloaded the game on mac, but it freezes after ikemma dies. I go to settings and there aren't any numbers on resolution and after I change the skip to everything it freezes. Also when I try to save it won't let me.
Thanks for reporting this! I've just tested this on a mac and tried to replicate these issues.
For the freezing issue, someone has reported the same issue on this part of the game before but I'm not able to replicate it so I don't know what the cause could be. Redownloading the game might help, since maybe the CG or sound effect is causing trouble.
For the resolution, I'll try to look into whether I can change those settings in my next build because for now it seems to just be how the plugin works on mac! You can at least change to windowed mode by switching to fullscreen and then windowed again.
I'm not sure what could be going on with the skip setting either, it's working for me.
As for the save issue, do you mean that the icons on the textbox don't work, or that once you've entered the save menu, trying to save to a slot does nothing? If it's the former you can press the escape key to pull up the pause menu, which you can use to enter the save screen.
Yeah, I redownloaded it but the same things happen. Anyways thank you for helping!
So I downloaded the file for windows, but it says I can't open it as an archive :o
Have you used Winrar to extract it?
It worked!! :o
I love the art design of this game.
I just played chapter 1 and I really enjoyed it! Can't wait to find out who is the fourth love interest in chapter 2. It also makes me happy to see some Chinese words/elements, particularly towards the end of chapter 1. Can I ask where do you get the inspiration to incorporate eastern elements from?
I'm so glad you enjoyed it! I love Chinese culture and learning about ancient China, so a lot of my inspiration just comes from reading about the history and finding interesting facts that enrich my setting and story!
I had no problem downloading and playing the demo, but for chapter 1 the Mac version keeps downloading as a document for me?
Thanks for reporting the issue! I've changed the upload and tested it on a mac and it works for me, could you tell me if it works for you?
Yup, it opens now. Thanks!
I'm confused why the art style look different in the screenshots compared the demo when have now?
The screenshots are from the Chapter 1 update that will be published soon! The files you can download right now are still the alpha demo (which has the old art style and less content). The files will be updated to the Chapter 1 release on Saturday 10th.
Sorry for the confusion!
This demo is great! I love the graphics and I am intrigued with the love interests (is Wooly or Ikemma one of the love interests?) I can't wait to play the full game :))
Thanks for playing the demo! Ikemma, Rhain and Aerona are the three LIs introduced so far, and a fourth will be introduced in Chapter 2
Aerona </3, I hope the hero remembers her soon..
I really enjoyed the demo. It's well written and I like the art. The scene with the commoners was suitably anxiety-inducing, and even tho I rarely go for women, Aerona is (so far) my favorite. I really felt bad for her.
Thanks for playing the demo!
miss goat boi. want to bang Ikemma, so of course, he dies first. 10/10 I'm a slut for tragedies.
Seriously, this is a very good demo! I loved the art and writing. Looking forward to the next demo!
Thanks Adam, I'm hard at work to reunite you with goat boi and Ikemma in demo 2!
Is the Hero's gender predetermined? Or can we choose?
The Hero, Seren, is predetermined in general! She's a woman, the one you can see in the cover and banner art.
Me, having to wave goodbye to Wooly: :((( Gonna miss my mystery goat boi
Amazing game, I'm really loving what we could see in the demo! Looking forward to seeing where this goes, I love the writing style and the premise of the story! It seems like a fascinating universe.
You'll get reunited with him soon in Chapter 1 and get to reveal a little bit of the mystery ;) I'm glad you liked the demo!
This is such a good demo, I love the art style and I am already questioning which one of my companions is a snake XD
I didn't have the heart to tell my fiance I'm not into girls, she 's too precious for that. Also is Ikemma dead because he is so intriguing? <3
I'm so glad you like the story and characters!
Ikemma's status is a bit of a spoiler but I can say you'll get to learn a lot about him in dreams and memories, and your relationship can have a different nature based on your choice. I hope that's not too vague haha
A huge amount of promise in this. I am really looking forward to how it develops. The writing seems intriguing and you manage the evocative emotions well, the panic caused by the surging crowd etc.. Obviously, very early days so I expect a lot will change and improve.
. A big one that I am sure you will tackle is that the background to the inn's rough and cheap room and the bedroom you end up in is the same. Really hope this goes far as I love these kind of enticing tales with a different take on the heroic fantasy genre.
One question. You have written that this spans most of chapter one will subsequent chapters be longer? Or is this intended to be more of a compact tale?
Making different backgrounds for the house is on my todo list for sure!
I'm not the best at estimating scope/length but I suspect most chapters will have a higher word count than the first chapter, as each one will have a little subplot that can be resolved in different ways and lead to some variations. There'll also be some different scenes based on the two routes you can choose between and which love interest you pursue, and I do want to include a variety of endings based on all your choices, so I think the game will have a pretty long span if you replay it and explore the various options!
The first chapter itself is also likely to be longer than I expected, and the demo probably takes up half of it, rather than most of it.
Thank you for the kind words and for playing the demo :)
hi! this seems like a really cool game but I can't seem to get past a certain part of it! After I get to the part where it says "He still smiles when your sword meets his flesh" the game simply won't go forward and just freezes there. This is on the Mac version btw! Regardless, this looks like an awesome game!
ah that's so weird! I tested the game on a mac and I'm not getting any freezing/errors. Maybe try redownloading the game? there might an issue with the files the game needs at this particular point!
This was my cup of tea. Choices that may seem to be straightforward that leads different dialogue. Kept me engaged and wanting to know more on what happened to Ikemma and our HERO.
Well done maneki_mushi
Here's my gameplay for everyone to experience, Enjoy!
thank you so much for playing the demo and sharing! it was so helpful to see your real time reaction to the story and choices, I have lots of notes on things to improve and add in my next demo now. I'm glad you enjoyed it :)
My pleasure! I’ll be sure to stay updated for when THJ comes on in full :)
I’m oozing with anticipation
Normally I'm not into Visual Novel but This Demo is really nice and well done ! Nice work
I'm waiting to see more
thank you, I'm glad to hear you liked it!