Opinions, Comments And Critique

[IcedFairy]

Feel free to say anything you want about our demo here. There's some stuff were still working on, some stuff we just can't do, and some stuff we've done and can't tell you about, but everything you say can give us a little bit more insight into what we still need done, and how to prioritize things.

[Mr. Obake]

About the option to choose. I always press 'enter' to move on the scene. The problem is that I keep doing so right after a dialogue box suddenly pop up. Of course, hitting enter repetitively will make you choose the 1st option.

I suggest the option dialogue box should only be assessable by clicking rather than pressing 'enter' button (and arrow key).

Edit: I have finished reading the whole demo. I like it very much. Keep up the excellent work!

[SleepKirby]

About the option to choose. I always press 'enter' to move on the scene. The problem is that I keep doing so right after a dialogue box suddenly pop up. Of course, hitting enter repetitively will make you choose the 1st option.

I suggest the option dialogue box should only be assessable by clicking rather than pressing 'enter' button (and arrow key).

Try the space bar instead. The space bar can advance the dialogue, but can't select choices.
Still, I'll see if there's a way to make that more intuitive. (For example, maybe you can't use Enter to select until you hit an arrow key.) And thanks for the feedback!

[Smoku]

Hello there, sirs. I noticed your demo by browsing the touhou image board on pooshlmer. Allow me to express great joy and a good impression by aiming to make a touhou VN.
Now for the reaction: At first I was pretty skeptical about everything. I'm a regular VN player/reader AND a big touhou fan and altough I keep dreaming of a connection, I couldn't believe one could come true. Especially not by un-proffesionals. BUT the first lines already were fine and although I saw the sprites on screenshots and didn't like them, they happened to look pretty good.

Good work. The story seems interesting, there are many choices and fun encounters in the game... I like it. I hope it'll turn out very good.
I like the music a lot, no complaints here.
Now for the complaining part...:
Although the sprites and backgrounds don't look bad, they look... I don't know, they don't seem to have this special "something". It's hard to describe, but it's the same feeling as if I was watching my brother's art: "something"'s missing and it's hard to say what that might be. Maybe some shading, some lighting... I don't know. Something. As for the backgrounds, some seem a little unfinished, a bit sketchy.
You could also use some changes in the quit screen (when you have the choice of "Yes" or "No" to exit the game). A simple blue screen isn't good.
Generally the art... As I said, it's missing "something" and I'm not sure I'd like to watch any sexual scenes (these can happen in the game in later acts, right?) in that art if it won't get... I don't know... "fixed".

And for suggestion... I just hope none of the girls will suddenly grow a penis, happen to be a futanari or a trap to begin with...


Well... that's all I can think of. I like this project and I wish you the best of luck. I'll surely get the full game when it comes out.

Also... how many paths do you want to involve? How many people could Marisa hit on? (there'll be any heterosexual romance involved?)


Oh, and, uh... I hear Katawa shoujo will be out in a few months (probably next year). The guys there are doing a superb job. Perhaps you could contact them and ask for just about anything you need. They are pretty experienced and seem sociable.

[Mars]

There are no "sexual scenes" as you put it, in Eastern Starlight Romance. It's supposed to be supported by humor and story. I just thought I'd throw that out there. There's also no heterosexual romance due to the fact that Touhou is 99.9% magical females. I'll let someone else answer the other questions.

[Smoku]

There are no "sexual scenes" as you put it, in Eastern Starlight Romance.

Well, that's great! The writing's marvelous and I'd like to add that this VN is warmly appreciated at the pooshlmer where one of your staff posted a thread http://pooshlmer.com/wakaba/res/469541.html

Good luck. I'll be waiting for the full version.

[Chippychan]

Had to read a bit to find out you had a forum. derp. Here's a copy pasta from my blog comment. Hope this helps you guys out!

"I believe this story has a lot of promise to it. Though this is my first step into VN territory I find myself drawn into this story you guys have set up. The music is wonderful, but when Flandre’s theme starts playing, after one loop, there would be a static beat that really hurt my ears when playing the game and it would do it after the song finishes and loops again. The sound effects when the birds chirped also sounded too out of place compared to the high-quality we’re hearing with the music and other sfx, it sounded too fake while the other effects blended in so well I didn’t find them to sound strange.

The characterization was fantastic and believable for a fan-made story. I really did feel for the characters and Marisa during the touching moments and the flat out hilarious ones. It takes a lot of good writing to make me smile or even smirk when it comes to media but this is on the right path and I do wish to see more if you guys could continue making it. Also being new to Touhou leaves me open to a lot of things but you didn’t go overboard with references that weren’t too hard to look up and as a newcomer I feel very welcomed with your story and set ups. The amount of detail and intellect in references to the real world and other games made me smile as well. This type of VN is more appealing then the usual hentai/romantic comedy stuff I see being written for the Touhou fandom and make it more adult without being too crude.

The music during the danmaku fights could be a bit more upbeat as well, since it sounds like it’s music before fight a boss in a mid-evil game rather then Touhou’s relaxed play fights. It sounds a bit too serious for most of the petty reasons the characters are fighting about.

I’ll replay it again with maybe some art critic and bugs if they show up. I hope this helps you guys out and motivates you to keep going. This VN is off to an excellent start and would be a real shame to not see come to its full potential.

Little Lady"

[Mixtape]

Thank you for your kind words, LittleLady.

Please do let us know if you find anything that sounds off, I'm especially interested in the SFX/music department. I'll try to find a substitute for the chirps.
The problem with Flandre's theme should already be taken care of by now, but I'll look it up again just to be sure. I'm still working on battle themes, it's hard to get them to sound like battle, but still not too serious or "epic". Back then I think we used the Voile theme just to have something.

[Omegahugger]

What a glorious day it is! Sorry, I am just overjoyed that someone are making a Marisa-centered Touhou dating sim. We have a fanbase huge enough to support several musicians, and yet one of these hasn't appeared before my eyes yet? A shame.

Now, on to the stuff that is actually relevant. I think, overall, that you did an awesome job with this. The stats seems like a nice idea (I haven't checked stuff out to see how exactly they work, but if they work like I think they do, it is awesome) and the writing and music was great. Sure, Voile might have been a bit misplaced (especially since it appearred alongside Alice when I first saw it), but otherwise I saw nothing wrong.

However, not everything is rosy here. I think Nitori was pretty out of character here. Actually, she seemed like a Nitori who had all her shynesss stripped away from her. I know that this is Touhou, and that characterizations therefore are a little shaky, but the shyness is one of the few things you can actually see in-game (she ran away once you first met her). The other characters at least felt right to me, and the ultimate yutaka was awesome.

Other than that, the only negative thing I can say has been said before by smoku. The artwork isn't perfect. However, I think that the rest of what you've done here far outweighs that. Heck, it even outweighs your portrayal of Nitori. That's a big compliment coming from me!
So fight on! It will be a great loss if this project were to die out.

P.S. Kudos on not bringing in any "sexual scenes". They aren't really needed in this story, and Visual Novels' dependency on them is beginning to annoy me. So that's another plus! C:

[Boke]

I absolutely loved the demo. Please don't abandon this project, I've been looking forward to the full version for months now!

[28JFJ]

Cant wait for the next demo, hope all is going well.
Its nice to see the art is improving judging by the latest screenshot. (I would like to help but im not really all that good yet<_<)
Its also nice that the border gap on the front page includes other characters besides Yukari

[28JFJ]

Well I just got the bad end in the demo.
I think you should make it somewat more dramatic by placing a CG for some bad ends or atleast put a blood effect or somthing.
For some reason I feel that Bad Ends should feel more rewarding. (Well you might be putting a "Teach me Keine-Sensei")
Also I think that saying Game Over doesnt really fit I think it should be a final word from Marisa or from her killer/the person who caused the bad end

[IcedFairy]

Well I just got the bad end in the demo.
I think you should make it somewat more dramatic by placing a CG for some bad ends or atleast put a blood effect or somthing.
For some reason I feel that Bad Ends should feel more rewarding. (Well you might be putting a "Teach me Keine-Sensei")
Also I think that saying Game Over doesnt really fit I think it should be a final word from Marisa or from her killer/the person who caused the bad end

Yeah. I admit that bad end was somewhat rushed. We'll do it better in the next demo. It probably won't be 100%, but it should be more fitting.

[VN Fairy]

However, not everything is rosy here. I think Nitori was pretty out of character here. Actually, she seemed like a Nitori who had all her shynesss stripped away from her. I know that this is Touhou, and that characterizations therefore are a little shaky, but the shyness is one of the few things you can actually see in-game (she ran away once you first met her). The other characters at least felt right to me, and the ultimate yutaka was awesome.

She opens up quite a bit as time progresses (presumably due to exposure to Marisa). After all, that same shyness shown in TH10, isn't so much in TH11, when she's Marisa's partner. Since this is set after TH11, Nitori is considerably less shy, as she had already become less so by TH11. Just to clear that up for you.

[silencian]

Not sure if this is the right place to post this but the... second time, I think, I ran into Koishi in the Palace of Earth Spirits...

Huh, well I shoudn't[sic] annoy Flandre. She likes me, and I'm not that stupid. Maybe I should help with her boredom. I'd see how I felt tomorrow.

Click to move on, and then...

Huh, well, I shouldn't annoy Flandre. She likes me, and I'm not that stupid. Maybe I should help with her boredom. I'd see how I felt tomorrow.

Someone corrected it but forgot to delete the original line?

[SleepKirby]

Ah. Yes. Well, that'll be fixed for whenever the next release is. >_>

[silencian]

And now for something that can at least be called commenting on it: amusing choice of music. 'With license to arrange'? XD

Now time to play through the demo again and not avoid Flan~.

[Sefam]

I guess I should leave my comments here since I'm permabanned from MotK for putting my nose where I shouldn't have. And I don't like to play something I enjoyed without giving feedback, it would feel hypocritical, because this ESR is really looking good.

I did one path through the entire demo. It's pretty interesting and milestones away from the last demo, thumbs up to everyone who worked on this project, the one thing that stands out in my opinion is how well the music blends in with the atmosphere of the game along with the art choices for the backgrounds. The game feels relaxing, and knows when to change tones, also a mention goes to the danmaku fights, they felt good, THEY FELT GOOD!

I also liked the choices given to the player for Marisa's actions, however, I also have a part of criticism about this. The choices are nice, but I feel that they are lacking to some extent. I know that this is a demo, but for the most part, the game felt on rails and it was frustrating to only be able to passively do what you wanted to do. For example, almost everytime you see Koishi, she talks to you about Reimu. The problem is that sometimes, you are simply unable to go interact with Reimu unless she happens to appear on the rail you're on. You are often given a bunch of choices on where to go, but sometimes you simply don't have the choice to go where you would like to actually go, in that regard, it seems hard to me to control my relationships with certain characters directly.

Another bit of criticism; I liked how some days the player gets to choose what she does for the rest of the day(Example: Keep working on the formula, go fairy hunting, work on danmaku), but a lot of these options feel they have no impact on the game. And if they do to a significant point, you don't feel that it's because of them, because you forget what you picked since the resulting dialog isn't very memorable compared to the rest of the game; they are often scenes with Marisa's house interior in the background and some text.

Also, I think it would also be fun to see later in the game decisions that can literally tear up a relationship with other characters, as in, decisions in which the player feels very hesitant to choose something.

[silencian]

I think those options generally affect your statistics (one option, buying some coffee, definitely leads to a charm bonus) in some way. And judging from all that's been said and Koishi's cryptic comments, the paths are going to branch out after meeting Byakuren. Buuuut I'm just guessing. XD

[IcedFairy]

Glad you enjoyed things Sefam. Graph worked hard to get those danmaku scenes up to snuff.

Unfortunately while I understand what you're looking for, it's really not possible with the game we're planning on. If we focused only on relationships and had a much shorter game then huge breaks like that would be possible, but given the scope of our project it's just impossible. We're going to be lucky to get all the simple paths and endings we've currently got planned. Adding a path where you annoy Alice so much she stops talking to you day 3 would make writing the game impossible.

We are planning some tweaks to show what those end of day choices do for you more clearly though.