First off the art is gorgeous! Just utterly beautiful designs for both the characters and the setting, especially when building up horror. Also I like the little instances of animation, it makes the eyes incredibly unsettling. The use of font colours and animations is also really good, it adds a lot of emotion to what's being said and the highlighting of certain words made me very uncomfortable.
I really enjoyed the writing here, it was a lot of fun and full of personality while still building a lot of dread throughout. Our protagonist feels very realistic and relatable, a lot of the things they said were things I'd probably say in that situation. It was very easy to connect and feel bad for everything they went through. I actually winced at how bad the limbs were broken and when describing the feeling of the eyes you painted some very unsettling images that made me feel like I was going a bit mad (eyes crawling inside you is not a mental picture I ever wanted, and that's coming from someone who loves body horror). The world building too is something that I need more of, the little details you give raise so many questions. Magic is an established thing that is known to have side effects and only a few people use it, plus multiple fantasy races live in this world, yet technology has also got to the point of putting camera lenses in people's eyes? I am fully invested in this particular story but I would be open to seeing more stories in this setting to see more of how the world works.
Corvin of course is the highlight. Will fully admit I downloaded this because of the yandere tag (I'm a bit of a sucker for these kind of stories) but I don't think I've ever read a yandere story where the love interest starts out as terrifying and then reveals their nice side. It genuinely caught me off guard, especially because just like the protagonist Corvin feels really genuine and relatable. He wasn't Mr Perfect and Charming straight off the bat; he got frustrated and anxious and genuinely felt like someone trying his best to help in a bad situation, even when he made things worse. After my first playthrough I felt nothing but warmth towards him and honestly forgave the horror he put me through. Then I replayed it to see the dialogue options I missed it reminded me of his line "When you wake, you will forgive me.", and now I'm starting to think I got manipulated. It's been a long time since a character made me feel like that, which is a testament to how well-written he is. Unsure what to expect from him going forward but I am here for it!
I don't think I have enough words to describe how much I love this. I will be eagerly waiting to see what happens next and I'm excited to see any other work you release. This has immediately shot up there as one of my favourite visual novels.
So I've finally got around to playing the new version with Day 2 and I wanted to share my thoughts again.
First off, I'm quite late getting to this as I've not been very good and keeping track of the games I'm following. The last time I played this game it was still ShadowDrop so I will admit it was very weird going through Day 1 again and seeing all the changes. I fell in love with ShadowDrop and can still remember it vividly; it did not take me long to see where changes were made and how that affected the tone of the story. There seems to be less horror in the beginning than what there was originally (the comparison of the peaceful Abyss to the absolute nightmare fuel of the first appearance of the purple eyes is a good example) and while Orion is still an absolute sweetheart who I just want to see happy, he's not quite the Corvin I originally got attached too. I can't even put my fingers on why as many things are similar if not the same, perhaps it's just because I met Corvin first. There's also no longer that feeling of 'did I get manipulated?' that I felt before, though I will fully admit that could have been me reading too much into one specific line rather than anything intentional in the story.
(Also don't think I didn't notice 'Corvin' being reintroduced at the end of Day 2; I actually squeed when I saw his name).
Now I need to stress that this is not a criticism of what you've done here. Far from it, the changes you've made still create a fantastic experience and clearly fit the tone of the story and characters you've developed going into Day 2. And Day 2 was fantastic! I loved how much more worldbuilding is being brought up, all this talk about the Celestials is fascinating. Ravi is a delightful addition, not quite what I was expecting when he first got introduced but somehow even better. And his interactions with both the MC and Orion were fantastically written. Speaking of which, THAT ENDING CONFRONTATION WAS INTENSE! The gorgeous art, the writing, the music... I almost forgot I was playing a visual novel with how swept up I was. Amazing way to end the day with plenty of potential moving into further days.
Being 100% honest there is a part of me that's sad some of the elements I loved from ShadowDrop and wanted to see more of are no longer there in this current version, but I still adore Moondrop and Sundew. If I hadn't played ShadowDrop and had started with this version I am certain I would still have fallen in love with it just as deeply. This is a wonderful story and I am thoroughly excited to see how it develops further.
I must admit, a huge reason for almost all of the changes was because I thought the game was way too similar to Mushroom Oasis. I seriously wanted to deviate hard from my initial inspiration because as much as I love MO, making my game a reskin of that one isn’t proper etiquette. Hence why there’s so many new things! However I think my hastiness to make things different made me rush things a little, which is a common critique I’ve seen of Day 2’s ending so far. So there’s gonna be a tiny rewrite to have it make more sense. I want to be more original and myself with my game creations. I am so thankful for MO being around to inspire me to start making games at all, and I’ll continue to be inspired by it to keep on making more stuff that’s my own!
I get the changes can be jarring and I can understand if not everyone is into it. PSA to all players, that’s cool if you’re not! But I think the direction I’m going will be better in the long run!
And about Corvin! Yep, he’s a bird now. And still a Nyxling! I recently decided to make the old Corvin from the previous game canon to this game’s universe as well. So Orion the moon boy and Corvin the shadow boy are both around! There’s 2 corvins because why not.
thank you so much for enjoying my reboot, it means the world to me!
Ah I see. While I do see the inspiration from Mushroom Oasis I did feel the original ShadowDrop was still enough of it's own thing to not feel like a reskin, but I completing understand the feeling of not wanting your own work to be too similar to it's inspiration. And as I said I do enjoy what you've created here, so I'm still incredibly excited to see how this story goes :D
Also really? That's actually Corvin? I thought it was just a cheeky reference, that's so cool!
Thank you very much for understanding, these comments mean so much!
And about the bird! It's actually a DIFFERENT Corvin! It's hard to explain but there's Corvin the bird and Corvin the actual Nyxling. I explained it better on my tumblr but TLDR is that Orion and Corvin both exist in the same world now, since ppl loved Corvin so much. Hoped this clears things up!
Hi! I finally had the time to play this game and can I just say you did an amazing job! I could tell you put a lot of work into it, and it was really fun to see the bits and pieces you've mentioned working on in the past few weeks get implemented into the game :-D! The Mychael plushie was a lovely surprise, I didn't expect to see him there haha!
I loved the intro sequence during the bus ride, where we get to see MC's inner thoughts and see a bit of their personality. The subtle worldbuilding is a nice touch too (camera lenses in your eyes?? hello???) and once we enter the mountains I was really immersed in the writing with mentions of magic and monsters. MC really was having the worst day of their life, R.I.P.
Corvin definitely feels complex to me; he's quick to react and doesn't try to hold back from expressing himself, which is refreshing in my opinion. I'm wondering if there's a bigger rivalry going on between him and the wolves (a wolfman??? maybe?? there's mentions of a second love interest hehe).
Admittedly I recognize some familiar story beats but! I can't wait to see how you continue the story with your own personal twist! Congratulations on getting it out, I look forward to seeing how the story progresses from here :-D
Aaaa this is such an honor oh my god :D thank you so much for playing, it took ages and I'm so happy my biggest inspiration likes it! I do plan on changing things up in terms of gameplay and story structure, love interest 2 (who I'm designing now) should be introduced on the second day and i want to expand on the town a bit more, which is going to take a ton of work but I think I got this! I'm going to do my best!
Thank you again for playing my game and I am so excited to give out more!
The influence of Mushroom Oasis is incredibly heavy here, but that's definitely not a complaint!
A cozy-feeling yandere game with an inhuman creature in the middle of nowhere who helps you out when you get hurt could never be something I would be tired of! The nod for Mychael with the little plushie is hilarious, and it makes me think that in some twisted way him and Corvin are friends across time and space because they're both pretty similar on multiple levels from the sound design to the shared consideration of the MC's food preferences :D
Still, the way his powers fully manifest was very well drawn out, the way the eyes were shaped and had a few differences was very nice, especially when you had them slightly looming at the bottom of the screen when they needed to, very chilling!
Corvin is pretty off-putting yet charming, definitely with a bit of attitude amongst his understandable surprise at being treated with even a shred of decency.
It's kind of sad that everyone thinks of him as cursed, yet I will admit I wouldn't be super thrilled about feeling my body and especially soul ripping into pieces either just because he was hungry XD
Still, becoming friends with him seems like a nice choice, the fact that he saved our life at all is something I am grateful for, especially with how the game goes into talking about what happened to us falling off that cliff. The fact that we as the MC even got up at all is kind of astounding, but that's the remarkable thing about the human spirit I suppose!
I'm really curious to find out more about the MC, with the stock they put in the blog and think about it before anything else makes me think they don't have a lot of friends aside from Ronald, and no family to speak of, which makes me think that if things go well (or unwell) with Corvin there wouldn't be much of an issue with them being at the mountain for a more sustained period.
The artistry in the backgrounds was wonderfully done, it really gave the home a kind of dungeon-esque quality that I really enjoyed, and the mountain shots were nicely done (Dunno what the MC was talking about with how unsatisfied they were with the pictures of snowy trees, they looked really nice!)
The world also seems pretty unique as there was mentions of cameras in the eyes and portal trains, along with mentions of obviously non-human creatures being all around to the point where there are laws and rules about how to treat humans considering how the magic works in this world.
I cannot wait to see more of the Urban Fantasy you seem to have cooked up, it's very different <3
I also kind of laughed when Corvin and the MC both noticed they didn't have a shadow and both panicked for different reasons, it was very kind of him to give it back so soon after realizing he forgot X)
All in all a very nice Demo and I am very excited to see what will show up in the future, take your time, hydrate not die-drate and I'll be keeping an eye (Ha!) out for this one!
Mushroom Oasis was actually what inspired me to make the game, hence the cameo and food options! I actually never considered having a variety of food choices for the player until I played the game, so I wanted to try it! I have a lot more plans to flesh out the story, Corvin, and that future second love interest (I hope to have him appear in day 2!) and I’m working as hard as I can, so thank you so much for being interested! I appreciate it a lot!
HE'S SO SWEET! What a nice demo! Congrats on releasing it! <3
SPOILERS(?)
Friend-shaped eyes! I want to gently hold them, look at them—adorable! round! I don't know why my maternal instincts kicked in, but my god, did they! Hopefully it won't be the death of me!
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aaaa thank you so much for the video!!! this means so much!
I'm working on the next update right now and I hope to have something new soon!
I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS GAME!!!
First off the art is gorgeous! Just utterly beautiful designs for both the characters and the setting, especially when building up horror. Also I like the little instances of animation, it makes the eyes incredibly unsettling. The use of font colours and animations is also really good, it adds a lot of emotion to what's being said and the highlighting of certain words made me very uncomfortable.
I really enjoyed the writing here, it was a lot of fun and full of personality while still building a lot of dread throughout. Our protagonist feels very realistic and relatable, a lot of the things they said were things I'd probably say in that situation. It was very easy to connect and feel bad for everything they went through. I actually winced at how bad the limbs were broken and when describing the feeling of the eyes you painted some very unsettling images that made me feel like I was going a bit mad (eyes crawling inside you is not a mental picture I ever wanted, and that's coming from someone who loves body horror). The world building too is something that I need more of, the little details you give raise so many questions. Magic is an established thing that is known to have side effects and only a few people use it, plus multiple fantasy races live in this world, yet technology has also got to the point of putting camera lenses in people's eyes? I am fully invested in this particular story but I would be open to seeing more stories in this setting to see more of how the world works.
Corvin of course is the highlight. Will fully admit I downloaded this because of the yandere tag (I'm a bit of a sucker for these kind of stories) but I don't think I've ever read a yandere story where the love interest starts out as terrifying and then reveals their nice side. It genuinely caught me off guard, especially because just like the protagonist Corvin feels really genuine and relatable. He wasn't Mr Perfect and Charming straight off the bat; he got frustrated and anxious and genuinely felt like someone trying his best to help in a bad situation, even when he made things worse. After my first playthrough I felt nothing but warmth towards him and honestly forgave the horror he put me through. Then I replayed it to see the dialogue options I missed it reminded me of his line "When you wake, you will forgive me.", and now I'm starting to think I got manipulated. It's been a long time since a character made me feel like that, which is a testament to how well-written he is. Unsure what to expect from him going forward but I am here for it!
I don't think I have enough words to describe how much I love this. I will be eagerly waiting to see what happens next and I'm excited to see any other work you release. This has immediately shot up there as one of my favourite visual novels.
Aaaa thank you so much! This means so much to me!
So I've finally got around to playing the new version with Day 2 and I wanted to share my thoughts again.
First off, I'm quite late getting to this as I've not been very good and keeping track of the games I'm following. The last time I played this game it was still ShadowDrop so I will admit it was very weird going through Day 1 again and seeing all the changes. I fell in love with ShadowDrop and can still remember it vividly; it did not take me long to see where changes were made and how that affected the tone of the story. There seems to be less horror in the beginning than what there was originally (the comparison of the peaceful Abyss to the absolute nightmare fuel of the first appearance of the purple eyes is a good example) and while Orion is still an absolute sweetheart who I just want to see happy, he's not quite the Corvin I originally got attached too. I can't even put my fingers on why as many things are similar if not the same, perhaps it's just because I met Corvin first. There's also no longer that feeling of 'did I get manipulated?' that I felt before, though I will fully admit that could have been me reading too much into one specific line rather than anything intentional in the story.
(Also don't think I didn't notice 'Corvin' being reintroduced at the end of Day 2; I actually squeed when I saw his name).
Now I need to stress that this is not a criticism of what you've done here. Far from it, the changes you've made still create a fantastic experience and clearly fit the tone of the story and characters you've developed going into Day 2. And Day 2 was fantastic! I loved how much more worldbuilding is being brought up, all this talk about the Celestials is fascinating. Ravi is a delightful addition, not quite what I was expecting when he first got introduced but somehow even better. And his interactions with both the MC and Orion were fantastically written. Speaking of which, THAT ENDING CONFRONTATION WAS INTENSE! The gorgeous art, the writing, the music... I almost forgot I was playing a visual novel with how swept up I was. Amazing way to end the day with plenty of potential moving into further days.
Being 100% honest there is a part of me that's sad some of the elements I loved from ShadowDrop and wanted to see more of are no longer there in this current version, but I still adore Moondrop and Sundew. If I hadn't played ShadowDrop and had started with this version I am certain I would still have fallen in love with it just as deeply. This is a wonderful story and I am thoroughly excited to see how it develops further.
Aww thank you a lot, this means so much!
I must admit, a huge reason for almost all of the changes was because I thought the game was way too similar to Mushroom Oasis. I seriously wanted to deviate hard from my initial inspiration because as much as I love MO, making my game a reskin of that one isn’t proper etiquette. Hence why there’s so many new things! However I think my hastiness to make things different made me rush things a little, which is a common critique I’ve seen of Day 2’s ending so far. So there’s gonna be a tiny rewrite to have it make more sense.
I want to be more original and myself with my game creations. I am so thankful for MO being around to inspire me to start making games at all, and I’ll continue to be inspired by it to keep on making more stuff that’s my own!
I get the changes can be jarring and I can understand if not everyone is into it. PSA to all players, that’s cool if you’re not! But I think the direction I’m going will be better in the long run!
And about Corvin! Yep, he’s a bird now. And still a Nyxling! I recently decided to make the old Corvin from the previous game canon to this game’s universe as well. So Orion the moon boy and Corvin the shadow boy are both around! There’s 2 corvins because why not.
thank you so much for enjoying my reboot, it means the world to me!
Ah I see. While I do see the inspiration from Mushroom Oasis I did feel the original ShadowDrop was still enough of it's own thing to not feel like a reskin, but I completing understand the feeling of not wanting your own work to be too similar to it's inspiration. And as I said I do enjoy what you've created here, so I'm still incredibly excited to see how this story goes :D
Also really? That's actually Corvin? I thought it was just a cheeky reference, that's so cool!
Thank you very much for understanding, these comments mean so much!
And about the bird! It's actually a DIFFERENT Corvin! It's hard to explain but there's Corvin the bird and Corvin the actual Nyxling. I explained it better on my tumblr but TLDR is that Orion and Corvin both exist in the same world now, since ppl loved Corvin so much. Hoped this clears things up!
Hi! I finally had the time to play this game and can I just say you did an amazing job! I could tell you put a lot of work into it, and it was really fun to see the bits and pieces you've mentioned working on in the past few weeks get implemented into the game :-D! The Mychael plushie was a lovely surprise, I didn't expect to see him there haha!
I loved the intro sequence during the bus ride, where we get to see MC's inner thoughts and see a bit of their personality. The subtle worldbuilding is a nice touch too (camera lenses in your eyes?? hello???) and once we enter the mountains I was really immersed in the writing with mentions of magic and monsters. MC really was having the worst day of their life, R.I.P.
Corvin definitely feels complex to me; he's quick to react and doesn't try to hold back from expressing himself, which is refreshing in my opinion. I'm wondering if there's a bigger rivalry going on between him and the wolves (a wolfman??? maybe?? there's mentions of a second love interest hehe).
Admittedly I recognize some familiar story beats but! I can't wait to see how you continue the story with your own personal twist! Congratulations on getting it out, I look forward to seeing how the story progresses from here :-D
Aaaa this is such an honor oh my god :D thank you so much for playing, it took ages and I'm so happy my biggest inspiration likes it!
I do plan on changing things up in terms of gameplay and story structure, love interest 2 (who I'm designing now) should be introduced on the second day and i want to expand on the town a bit more, which is going to take a ton of work but I think I got this! I'm going to do my best!
Thank you again for playing my game and I am so excited to give out more!
This game is really awesome <3
The influence of Mushroom Oasis is incredibly heavy here, but that's definitely not a complaint!
A cozy-feeling yandere game with an inhuman creature in the middle of nowhere who helps you out when you get hurt could never be something I would be tired of! The nod for Mychael with the little plushie is hilarious, and it makes me think that in some twisted way him and Corvin are friends across time and space because they're both pretty similar on multiple levels from the sound design to the shared consideration of the MC's food preferences :D
Still, the way his powers fully manifest was very well drawn out, the way the eyes were shaped and had a few differences was very nice, especially when you had them slightly looming at the bottom of the screen when they needed to, very chilling!
Corvin is pretty off-putting yet charming, definitely with a bit of attitude amongst his understandable surprise at being treated with even a shred of decency.
It's kind of sad that everyone thinks of him as cursed, yet I will admit I wouldn't be super thrilled about feeling my body and especially soul ripping into pieces either just because he was hungry XD
Still, becoming friends with him seems like a nice choice, the fact that he saved our life at all is something I am grateful for, especially with how the game goes into talking about what happened to us falling off that cliff. The fact that we as the MC even got up at all is kind of astounding, but that's the remarkable thing about the human spirit I suppose!
I'm really curious to find out more about the MC, with the stock they put in the blog and think about it before anything else makes me think they don't have a lot of friends aside from Ronald, and no family to speak of, which makes me think that if things go well (or unwell) with Corvin there wouldn't be much of an issue with them being at the mountain for a more sustained period.
The artistry in the backgrounds was wonderfully done, it really gave the home a kind of dungeon-esque quality that I really enjoyed, and the mountain shots were nicely done (Dunno what the MC was talking about with how unsatisfied they were with the pictures of snowy trees, they looked really nice!)
The world also seems pretty unique as there was mentions of cameras in the eyes and portal trains, along with mentions of obviously non-human creatures being all around to the point where there are laws and rules about how to treat humans considering how the magic works in this world.
I cannot wait to see more of the Urban Fantasy you seem to have cooked up, it's very different <3
I also kind of laughed when Corvin and the MC both noticed they didn't have a shadow and both panicked for different reasons, it was very kind of him to give it back so soon after realizing he forgot X)
All in all a very nice Demo and I am very excited to see what will show up in the future, take your time, hydrate not die-drate and I'll be keeping an eye (Ha!) out for this one!
Mushroom Oasis was actually what inspired me to make the game, hence the cameo and food options! I actually never considered having a variety of food choices for the player until I played the game, so I wanted to try it!
I have a lot more plans to flesh out the story, Corvin, and that future second love interest (I hope to have him appear in day 2!) and I’m working as hard as I can, so thank you so much for being interested! I appreciate it a lot!
HE'S SO SWEET! What a nice demo! Congrats on releasing it! <3
SPOILERS(?)
Friend-shaped eyes! I want to gently hold them, look at them—adorable! round! I don't know why my maternal instincts kicked in, but my god, did they! Hopefully it won't be the death of me!
Eeee thank you!!!