You are doing quite well at the difficulty and gameplay, really. I am trying to make a "Sfw" run, but It's so hard to not ruin his heroic reputation! ...not that I am complaining.
(Spoilers ahead: Is it even possible to beat the stair guard?)
Theoretically yes. With the new difficulty balance though, I'm not sure I've managed to beat it in testing yet. Should probably double-check at some point to make sure it's very hard, but possible.
Excellent. I should probably still check eventually to make sure the difficulty is where I want it, but good to know I didn't end up accidentally walling it off.
A lovely game! Wanted to do something similar a while ago but I only have some programming skill, no art skills.
But it really caught me, after 1 hour of gameplay and a few boss battles I immediately donated for it! Keep doing your work, many people like it and would love to see further updates, including me! Keep the motivation up, 💪
Aww, thanks, I really appreciate it. Work continues, slow but steady.
And for what it's worth, that was pretty much the situation I was in about a decade ago: could write, could program (or easily learn), but no art. A lot of it's luck, but you'd be surprised how much progress you can make just chipping away and stockpiling little successes as you get them.
I just have a suggestion about the gameplay: is there a way for you to instead of resetting the fight's movement selection to the attack option and let it be in the last option you selected?
The gameplay is a bit slow once you start to use the earrings in battle, so you tend to just hold spacebar to accelerate the gameplay, but because the movement selection always resets to the attack option, it gets that error sound which is really annoying, and it's even more when you have to stop pressing spacebar and have to navegate through the movement options everytime it's your turn.
I agree having a "repeat last action" option would be helpful, but unfortunately RPGMaker's battle menu is a bit fragile, and moreso after all the stuff I'm doing with it. Defaulting to the same selection as last turn might also be possible, but actually getting it implemented and bugtested would probably be more trouble that it was worth. That said, I'll keep it in mind and may at least test to see just how much trouble it will be to get working.
Im having issues with downloading the game, I get to exactly 295 mbs and it instantly cuts out and says "Failed - Forbidden." Ive been downloading mods and other games all day and I cant get this to work for some reason.
You'd have to talk to Itch about that, as it's their servers. I would recommend clearing out your browser's cache, trying a different browser if you have one installed, and temporarily turning off your VPN if you have one, as many sites act flaky if they don't like the IP you're coming from.
No, no plans for Patreon, for a variety of reasons. Patreon works well mostly for people who can reliably put out a block of substantial content every month. This project I expect to mostly be: a given big release, followed by a couple months of bug patches and slight additions, followed by 7+ months of silence until the next big release. So for now I'm sticking to the plan outlined in the "Future Plans" post: this first one is free with optional charge, the next several will be a hard charge (probably $5), and when/if it's completed I'll bundle them all together.
Thanks for the quick reply, I was just wondering about Patreon because a lot of the other creators I follow on there tend to post votes from time to time for certain things such as what type of enemies they'll include. Regardless I'm already hooked by this early build and I'll be getting all the chapters you put out, games awesome. Would it be too early to ask if we'll see more baddies than just the boars?
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the Diezel fight (remember the "z" though, like the amp), tried to make it at least a bit more varied since it's the boss fight and all. And thanks, I really appreciate that.
have you considered making the option for a female protag? or maybe some genderbend/swap stuff? i feel like you could widen the appeal pretty cheaply this way with some minimal art edits (dont get me wrong i love the male protag this shit is my jam and theres precious little of it im just thinking in maketability terms)
Despite perceptions, it does seem that straight stuff tends to sell better in the furry space, probably for obvious demographic reasons. But gay is the vibe I'm on with this one, and I doubt I'll deviate from that. May do straight stuff in the distant future: I'm not against it, but there are things that make it less attractive.
Loved it! I got the bad ending and I couldn't be more satisfied. I can't wait to come back to it and get the "good" ending.
PS I figure it's not meant to be possible, or just very hard, but I managed to lose to normal enemies when in the slut state, and it just gave me the same third cutscene again. I figured there'd be a secret one! So that was a little disappointing. Also you can just sorta... take off the ear clips in the menu, which removes them from your model but has the same effect as having them on. I feel like that's not intentional? Other those that and some minor bugs though, I really have no complaints!
you get the bad ending and then just right after that you kind of "restart" and repeat the battle with the boss and win- is'nt that right? or am I missing an ending?
Nope, can't get more corrupted than 100%. As for the clips: they're a toggle to switch hypno stuff on and off in battle before you hit slut mode. After you hit slut mode, you get hypno'd regardless, which fits with the story.
Really nice but at the start i advice you to give the player two boars to fight instead of three. And keep the hp of enemies at 100. Maybe for the èlite boars, give them 200 or 150 hp max
Difficulty has been an ongoing discussion since release. The feedback on the initial version was almost unanimously that it was a bit too easy, which led to the current difficulty level. A lot of it comes down to personal taste as well: it's a bit of a "can't please everyone" thing. But I think it's about where I'd like it to be currently. Not ruling out some minor tweaks in future though.
the "reset" that happens when you lose but don't give in to diesel is a pretty decent solution, though getting through the guards once you've lost 3 times can be a bit of a slog. (not saying the game is hard i actually think it's in a good place i just tend to lose on purpose)
one thing i might suggest is just turning off the mandatory recovery of clothes after that 3rd loss, it's not like he's going to actually fight or keep them on lol.
i always love having the option (more or less) to choose the lewd option and i hope there are more "pink" dialogue choice in the future, reminds me a lot of third crises which explores similar themes quite well.
Of course, if the guard fight is taking too long, there's always an easier way. I may still implement something unique for trying to take on Diezel in "slut mode" (which I assume is what you meant by BCA; what on earth is BCA BTW?).
I may handle clothes a little more elegantly in future in general, this is just a basic setup.
And there definitely will be more...sex based problem solving as the series goes on. Lot of fun there.
This is a great game, probably the best use of this engine I've seen where it doesn't feel like you need to fight->lose to get scenes. Looking forward to what comes next!
Is it...normal that my saves well...dosn't save,it's been two time...does it have something to do with the fact i alt-f4 the game or is it my game who is bugged ?
Definitely not normal, no. Where are you alt-f4ing FROM? If you're in a menu at the time, that might theoretically cause some issue, but really, once you hit enter on the save it should be in place. If you want to be sure, just save, and then go to save AGAIN to check that the thumbnail and time for the slot you just saved to are correct. If it's not saving AT ALL that might be a permissions issue on the folder, but I'm not sure what would cause intermittent issues.
Ok this is weird...i come back from sleeping and the files that i tried twice to use after closing then opening the game are back in...like they dissapear then came back ahah...well it's still a good ending anyway thanks x)
Just wanted to throw in here that I beat the game real quick and I absolutely adored it! I liked the character designs, the dialogue, and the maps- RPG Maker games of this nature will tend to forego the actual mapping, so I'm glad that the placement of chests and the structure of The Docks made sense! I cannot wait to see what else you have in store in the future- but I shall make the sacrifice to wait patiently! Keep working hard and thank you for making this awesome game! (OuO)/ <3
I'm not the best mapper in the world, but I try to at least have them make sense and more or less give the right sense for where you are. And thanks, I certainly will.
By invisibility, you mean sprites missing during battle right? Where are you getting them? This is the second report of this on 0.2, and I THINK I have it patched for the next release, but let me know where it's cropping up.
For unknown reasons, on the third or fourth map, during a normal battle, Mezz's image disappears, but appears when he is under hypnosis and disappears again for a normal state.
Also, a few times after Mezz came, the sex scene is interrupted, but the status of being under hypnosis, pink mist, and "Guuuh..." actions, they are present in the action menu, and even moved to the next battle, where they disappeared, apparently, by the number of moves.
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The status/action of the Guuuh is not clear.It is clear that Mezz was fucked, and can't act for some time, but this is considered a move in the battle and can be repeated 2-4 times, till Mezz comes to normal.It's good that he is not being damaged at this time, because.he cannot answer, but he can then add some other actions of opponents that correspond to the moment, because they can somehow use his state, or at least text, if the game engine allows it (they look, or they think or planing or whatever).
Also not clear the logic of the process. The increase in life when a boar cums can still be explained somehow, but why does Mezz lose life points when he cums himself?It is clear that the rules of the game can be anything, but it would be nice to get explanations during the game in order to have a complete picture of what is happening.
(v0.2) I've noticed graphical bugs in the combat sprites before getting the first gate key. Small at first, but more obvious as other sprites flashed in place of the rabbit's hurt sprites, then the rabbit's attack sprites.
As if the game is pulling sprite information from other area's of it's memory.
More minor issues would be some missing collision on some walls and props. An example would be a wall-blood stain in one of the first rooms.
-On checking, this doesn't look universal (not seeing it on my saves in those areas), which means something specific to your playthrough caused it. The question is, what in particular? I have no idea what might be triggering that, but for now I've added cleanup code to the post-battle eval so Mezz's battle sprite should be reset to normal, either clipped or not as appropriate. Will be in with a bunch of other fixes when the next release eventually happens.
-So when Mezz cums, it can either just inflict damage, or (with the mashers) push him forward to downed state (kneeling). In either case, the hypno effect should stick around until he picks himself up. Are you saying he came and knocked himself all the way back to normal, but the mist and commands from the downed state remained? I took a look at the relevant code, and did see a few things that weren't matching, so some minor tweaks have been made. Hopefully that catches the bug.
-The downed/Guuuh state is intended to simulate Mezz attempting to recover while there's a lull in the fucking. The whole idea is that the boars aren't paying close attention to him, so additional dialogue/taunts wouldn't make sense. That said, going right back into fucking if he fails say 3 times might make it more interesting/raise the stakes a little, and help with flow/speed. Will consider.
-HP in the game has to serve as a metaphor for a lot of things, because it's not worth having half a dozen gauges. Rather than strictly "health", it's more like "ability to keep fighting". It's also leveraged as a carrot and stick: you'll do what increases it, and avoid what decreases it (unless you're trying to get event CG). This fits with the overall situation, which is that the clips are "training" Mezz. As such, being good and doing as you're told is rewarded with "HP" and energy, whereas resisting costs energy. Cumming "costs" "HP" because you're supposed to prioritize the boar's pleasure over your own, and because them getting an orgasm out of you is a little defeat. Think of it like successfully landed hit.
Or maybe it makes more sense to think of the battle system as two battle systems that hand off between themselves. The first is a traditional one: both sides inflict damage, and the one that runs out of HP first loses. The second is pleasure-based: both sides inflict pleasure, and the one that runs out of "HP" first loses (note that the boars leave once they're "satisfied," and Mezz can "win" this way.) Obviously what HP is technically changes during the handoff, but you have to forgive an imperfect metaphor.
Мaybe it would be better to do a reset not after, but before the battle? As far as I can see, bugs happen when several events occur at the same time, for example, Mezz came and the boar came. Or the boar came, Mezz came and was defeated because he had low HP. Apparently at such moments the logic of the game can go wrong. The last example, all three events happened in the battle in front of the stairs, and after the scene in the toilet, I rushed to choose an answer and started the battle again. Mezz started it in a Guuuh state (as he finished the previous one, because he came first theh boar came and then Mezz defeated), but at the same time there was active a hard knock and Guuuh in the action menu.
This is of course the exception, not the rule, but it can happen.
> The whole idea is that the boars aren't paying close attention to him, so additional dialogue/taunts wouldn't make sense.
I agree, but since a lot depends on random selection, it was often took for 3-4 turns, and invisible actions when the "missed" status was displayed on each turn.Additional dialogue in this case will at least add variety until Mezz returns to normal. ;)
Regarding HP this is realy complicated question. If Mezz prioritize the boar's pleasure over he's own, then he choose "Lets it happened". The boar cums and Mezz's lust grows, leading Mezz to cum too. It turns out a contradiction. Satisfying a boar, you involuntarily enjoy yourself, but if you cums yourself, you take damage. Player unable to control it. There is no choice during the battle to please only yourself or only the boar. At the same time, resistance only wastes energy, it can miss, but does not give Mezz an advantage, except for experience in case of victory. May be add a little extra experience in case of victory after resistance, and / or change the actions of the boar after resistance during the next hypnosis (other dialogues, pictures).
Effectively before and after battle reset are the same, as you can't start a new battle without ending the one you're in first. This bug does ring a bell though: think I might have seen it briefly, but it's one of the tricky ones because so many different conditions have to line up to trigger it. I'll do some more testing, but I THINK I have it caught at this point.
I think the mistake you're making with the HP thing is thinking it's all either one or the other, you either do the right thing and get rewarded or the wrong thing and get punished. In reality, the choices are a. do the wrong thing and get punished or b. Do the right thing and get rewarded, but also still punished (but less).
Using the resist skills is about buying time with energy. If you can get back to fighting, you can end the battle a lot faster (and with more "dignity") then if you fuck them all. Fucking your way to victory is "free", but it takes a lot longer, and raises your sex stats, which may have consequences later.
Thanks though, even if I don't use all it, I do appreciate feedback.
Flash dodge - description is Focus and escape next attack. Is it related to normal focus and recharge the energy?
Often during the second hypnosis in battle, if this happens, Mezz will have a struggle icon, although this action was not chosen.What does it mean in this case and how does it affect Mezza?
I also saw some dialogues in the resource files that I didn't see in the game (for example, the words of the boars "What's that smell?" and then two storylines) Did I miss something or are these preparations for future implementation?
No, no relation between the moves, although I suppose that is confusing language.
The icon you actually see on Mezz isn't struggle, although it's again confusing because it's the same one used for struggle in the menu. It's a "weakened" state after he gets up that lowers his defense slightly. I'll have to change up the icons.
That boar line is in-game: it's after you encounter them again after a loss. There are unused NPCs and test stuff in there too, so that accounts for the rest of it.
No brightness option unfortunately. I may fiddle with it some more, but I think it's roughly where I want it. Might add a very slight glow to Mezz just so he's easier to pick out on screen, but I kind of like being able to blend into the shadows. To be clear though, not all future maps will be this dark.
Oh there's a lot to explore with the lust gauge, have only scratched the surface. Wanted to get the basics set first though. Don't know how much more I'll do with it in this first chapter, but definitely planning to work with it more in future.
loved the game, currently playing, found a bug where struggle stays in the combat menu when you manage to beat a boar whle hypnotised, also will there be chastity cages in the future uwu
very nice game. enjoyed much of it. i whish there were more combat abilities so thats not so repetetive. fighting three boars over and over again is kinda Boring
Combat is a little basic in this one. Probably won't change too much too much more on that this chapter, but there should be a little more variety in the next one.
I played through this last night, and I utterly adored it. I found the characters to be good, the kinks fun, and I was very glad to find something a bit like Grove but targeting different kinks. It actually makes me want to do something like this myself, but that's nearly impossible, heh.
My only thing that I'd critique a bit is the music-volume. It's not unsuitable, but it is rather loud.
Hey, I thought the chances of me making a game were fairly small a few years ago, but here we are. Just gotta chop stuff into small pieces and build it slowly.
And yes, I recently discovered I had the game volume lowered a bit on my mixer, so everything's a bit louder than it should be. I may lower the overall volume a bit next release.
Ye, not sure how the taggin system works, but that sounds helpful. Also it is possible that there may be some females in the future. Right now it's bunny boi and the boars dudes lurking behind him on the couch.
Unfortunately no. I'm up for straight stuff as well, and in fact there are things you can do there that you just can't with m/m, but Cruel Serenade will probably stick to guys.
I made this account to comment on this game and say thank you!
Very interesting script, dialogues and implementation.And I hope the game will continue to develop and continue.It is clear that certain limitations are imposed by the capabilities of the game engine, but I would like to see more diverse scenes including M/M.A little more detail. There may be additional types of weapons, attacks or skills.
A small note, during the battle, some system messages are displayed simultaneously and quickly and you don’t have time to read them.
I really liked the different endings.But I didn't understand where the ear clips came from and what is the principle of their action. Maybe I missed the explanations during the game, but it's not clear how the boars use them to hypnotize Mezz.
Things will definitely be built out a bit more, although much of that will be in the next chapters/missions. I do plan on at least one more small content update to this one though. Speed of those messages is unfortunately an engine limitation, but it's nothing major.
As for the clips, and the story in general, a lot is still unexplained. It will be explored more in the following missions.
If I understand correctly, Mezz does not realize and does not remember what happens with him during hypnosis? Except for the bad ending (but even there are also doubts as to how Mezz could be adequate in the current situation).
Will it be possible in the future, for example, depending on the decisions made, his conscious choice of action. After all, it can be used this as a new skill or weapon. Seduce and bite, inflicting damage or even completely defeating the enemy? ))
I also really would like to see additional art based on the game, even if it will not be possible to insert them directly into the game itself.
BTW, what means "Delta" parameter in the "Experemental Notes"? Full memory errase after final defeating by Boss?
He remembers to varying degrees depend on how far gone he is. "Normal" for him is always a shell over the actual truth, but it starts out thick and becomes extremely thin by the time you hit "slut mode." Future updates may make this slightly more clear.
As for attacks: Fundamentally this is a game about corruption, so while sex "attacks" may be more of a thing in future chapters, they'll never be weaponized to the point of "turning the tide." In the current game for example, finishing off an enemy by cooperating leads to them leaving, but did you really "win"? What it means to win changes as Mezz changes, which is the idea.
Art unfortunately is the hardest part of all of this for me, so I'm happy just to get done what is needed for the game itself. There may be additional title screens and promotional art at some point though.
Delta means that there's a loop, and you're not starting at the beginning of it.
So I made this account just to comment on this game lol.
This is what I was really looking for tbh in terms of a M/M, gay game. Typically, all we have to choose from is either VN games or crappy, half-baked games that are silly than actually hot. But this did the trick.
Honestly, the best part to me was where you had to help the boar "relax" imo before the stairs. ;) Something about it was great considering Mezz was not hypnotized but still did it, idk, I liked it. The scene where he lost the fight there too was amazing as well. Of course, the hypnotized parts were great too as he was still oblivious to what was going on otherwise. I also like how it wasn't overwhelmed with femboy content either. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy it, but a lot of other gay games focus on femboy characters too much imo. We basically only either get bara or femboy character in gay games I feel like, so this was a nice diversion from that typical formula with this twinkish rabbit... one of the "endings" was still great though and I didn't mind that. ;)
I guess what I am wondering is, will there be other enemies other than the boars in the future? I certainly don't mind them, but I am curious. And you definitely don't have to do this, because I'm sure this would be a nightmare to potentially implement, but are you thinking of adding any scenes that aren't static as well? Jw on that lol.
You did a good job on it and I'm looking forward to more chapters in the future. :)
Yeah, agreed. Not to be a weeaboo, but there's this weird tendency in western porn games to try to turn everything into a joke. It's really obnoxious and grating, and while I'm no psychologist, it seems to come from a place of deep-seated insecurity about the subject matter. Humor has its place, but people need to relax and just let the game breathe.
On a similar token, I like "femboy" stuff, but the problem is that it's become "a meme." Not in the sense of being popular, but in the sense that popularity led to it being so flanderized by people who don't understand it that it's nearly become self-parody. Same with womb tattoos, same, really, with hypnosis itself.
Beyond that though, "femboy" is just too much of a lazy, ready-made template. IMHO people should just make characters with personality, and a sex appeal that arises from that. Templates get boring fast.
As for new enemies, there definitely will be. The plan right now is to aim for at least 3 each chapter that aren't just palette swaps, but we'll see how that ends up as development continues. Prooobably not any more enemies for this first one, but there will be a little extra content before I move on to the next mission/chapter.
No animation though. Good lord no. I'd like to get this game done in my lifetime.
Lol I figured that would be too much! I agree on your analysis though of tropes just being thrown together and then people just call it a day as well as the meme aspect. Maybe that's why I'm not into as much? Not sure, still enjoyed the way you went about it though. You actually flesh out the characters and that makes it interesting.
Also... little extra content? Now you got me excited lol. Sounds good dude.
oh oh! I was getting cyberpunk vibes from this! Especially some of the stuff alluded to in the prologue. But just saw on fa where you gave it a cyberpunk tag. Excited levels just went up.
To be clear, it's more of the grimy, lawless, mass-disparity of wealth and technology cyperpunk of Bladerunner or Robocop than the NEON EVERYWHERE AREN'T WE REBELLIOUS WE HAVE WEIRD HAIR JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE!!!1! of Cyperpunk 2077. And probably a bit subdued even then. But there is grimy, there is future tech, and there is a vast living standards gap. "Near Future Fantasy Sci-Fi" might also work.
Maybe Urban SciFi? hehe, but I gotcha, I'm just a sucker for near future tech stuff in general, y'know stuff that feels kind reachable. Like stylish earrings hehe
Welcome to RPGMaker. There's something very..."special" about the RNG in the engine, so every so often you get a very odd run of the same result. I've tried my best to mitigate the worst examples, but it does crop up at weird times. From what I've playtested the attack shouldn't break TOO terribly though; you just get a back run of luck once in a while. Certainly not enough to make the game unbeatable.
Ok, I absolutely loved it. I found a way to beat my way through the game that's easier than using any of the healing/energy items around the map, but even then it was still challenging.
And on the note of Bad Ends, there were't too many of them. If you lost a battle to one of the basic boars, you'd get a bad end, but that's what saves are for. And I liked that the same didn't happen with Mashers because they're a lot more difficult to beat. And of course the final battle has to have the option of a bad end.
My one complaint was that Mezz got rid of the ear clips. I hadn't expected him to keep wearing them, (Although I would have loved it if he did/players had the option to) but I was thinking he'd keep them as a souvenir of winning against the boars. I mean, logically, Mezz has a base of operations, and he could display the clips on a shelf or cabinet in said base. It just seems like the sort of thing he would do. Oh, well. I haven't seen anyone else share my sentiments in the comments, so it's possible I'm alone in my idea.
Actually, one other thing: when talking to the bartender boar, you have to click the counter in front of him, but it would make more sense to click his actual body to interact. Idk, that's more of a quality of life thing.
Not sure what you mean with the mashers, they should trigger the same defeat scenes as the others. To be clear, before you get the clips, it's just a hard Game Over when you lose. After you get them, you get scenes when defeated. If what you meant when you said you didn't like Bad Ends is that you didn't like hard Game Overs, I actually agree, which is why most of the defeats/scenes just spit you out somewhere rather than Game Over-ing. One of the recurring annoyances with a game like this is that you're playing it to get the scenes, but the scenes dump you into a Game Over, which wastes time and breaks flow. IMHO it works better, and is a lot more fun, if most of them just spit you out somewhere a little worse for wear.
The bartender actually IS directly interactable. The thing to understand about RPGMaker is that it's primarily a keyboard engine with some mouse/touch stuff bolted on. When you click on something, it just tries to translate that to the keyboard commands to move you to the item/NPC and hit the use key. So you can't click the bartender from the other side of the bar because there's no keyboard command that can do that: you can only interact with the counter, technically. If you go around to the other side of the bar however, you'll discover that you can indeed interact with the bartender by clicking on him.
tl;dr: mouse control is a convenience in RPGMaker games, but don't rely on it. They're really meant to be played with keyboard.
Getting rid of the ear clips is a storytelling thing: it helps put a nice bow on the ending. I'd also disagree character-wise: while taking a trophy makes sense, it wouldn't fit here. The implication of the epilogue is that even in victory, Mezz feels a little unnerved/disoriented by the whole thing, and is destroying the clips the same way you'd destroy a cursed item at the end of a horror movie. I woudn't worry too much though: like the board game in Jumanji, we may not have seen the last of the clips.
This was so much fun, the tone shifts between bun being a heroic badass and uh the other mode... hehe, was really well done. Legit spent hours thoroughly exploring this, had a playthrough where I took all the enemies out one way, and then the other. ;)
Eeexcelent. That was the hope with the second "mode." There's no gameplay reason to at the moment, but just having the ability to flip from fighting the enemies to "fighting" the enemies and leaning into it is fun. It's fun to...you know, role play, in a role playing game.
yea I see what you mean, but you are right it was absolutely fun having variety. If there was a way to block out spoiler text I'd go more into detail lol.
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You are doing quite well at the difficulty and gameplay, really. I am trying to make a "Sfw" run, but It's so hard to not ruin his heroic reputation! ...not that I am complaining.
(Spoilers ahead: Is it even possible to beat the stair guard?)
Theoretically yes. With the new difficulty balance though, I'm not sure I've managed to beat it in testing yet. Should probably double-check at some point to make sure it's very hard, but possible.
yes, I did it twice. It is realy hard, but possible. even on lvl 11
Excellent. I should probably still check eventually to make sure the difficulty is where I want it, but good to know I didn't end up accidentally walling it off.
To be honest, Diezel was much easier to defeat than the stair guards.
because he decided to 1 v 1 the bun, the stair guard summons a horde to take your ass
great game so far, with a few gripes. Looking forward to what you do with this.
Thanks!
Love the game, such hot and cute way of drawing! Congrats buddy ^-^
Thanks!
Can lessen the extra health when oponents nut, it gets really anoying when you are trying to loose
Will probably make intentional losing easier in future.
A lovely game! Wanted to do something similar a while ago but I only have some programming skill, no art skills.
But it really caught me, after 1 hour of gameplay and a few boss battles I immediately donated for it! Keep doing your work, many people like it and would love to see further updates, including me! Keep the motivation up, 💪
Aww, thanks, I really appreciate it. Work continues, slow but steady.
And for what it's worth, that was pretty much the situation I was in about a decade ago: could write, could program (or easily learn), but no art. A lot of it's luck, but you'd be surprised how much progress you can make just chipping away and stockpiling little successes as you get them.
Just finished the game and I loved.
I just have a suggestion about the gameplay: is there a way for you to instead of resetting the fight's movement selection to the attack option and let it be in the last option you selected?
The gameplay is a bit slow once you start to use the earrings in battle, so you tend to just hold spacebar to accelerate the gameplay, but because the movement selection always resets to the attack option, it gets that error sound which is really annoying, and it's even more when you have to stop pressing spacebar and have to navegate through the movement options everytime it's your turn.
Glad you're enjoying it!
I agree having a "repeat last action" option would be helpful, but unfortunately RPGMaker's battle menu is a bit fragile, and moreso after all the stuff I'm doing with it. Defaulting to the same selection as last turn might also be possible, but actually getting it implemented and bugtested would probably be more trouble that it was worth. That said, I'll keep it in mind and may at least test to see just how much trouble it will be to get working.
Great game! Really enjoyed it
Thanks!
Im having issues with downloading the game, I get to exactly 295 mbs and it instantly cuts out and says "Failed - Forbidden." Ive been downloading mods and other games all day and I cant get this to work for some reason.
You'd have to talk to Itch about that, as it's their servers. I would recommend clearing out your browser's cache, trying a different browser if you have one installed, and temporarily turning off your VPN if you have one, as many sites act flaky if they don't like the IP you're coming from.
Sorry if you've been asked this before but will you be setting up a Patreon to support the development of this game?
No, no plans for Patreon, for a variety of reasons. Patreon works well mostly for people who can reliably put out a block of substantial content every month. This project I expect to mostly be: a given big release, followed by a couple months of bug patches and slight additions, followed by 7+ months of silence until the next big release. So for now I'm sticking to the plan outlined in the "Future Plans" post: this first one is free with optional charge, the next several will be a hard charge (probably $5), and when/if it's completed I'll bundle them all together.
Thanks for the quick reply, I was just wondering about Patreon because a lot of the other creators I follow on there tend to post votes from time to time for certain things such as what type of enemies they'll include. Regardless I'm already hooked by this early build and I'll be getting all the chapters you put out, games awesome. Would it be too early to ask if we'll see more baddies than just the boars?
In the following chapters, yes. Probably no new enemies in this one though.
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the Diezel fight (remember the "z" though, like the amp), tried to make it at least a bit more varied since it's the boss fight and all. And thanks, I really appreciate that.
have you considered making the option for a female protag? or maybe some genderbend/swap stuff? i feel like you could widen the appeal pretty cheaply this way with some minimal art edits (dont get me wrong i love the male protag this shit is my jam and theres precious little of it im just thinking in maketability terms)
Despite perceptions, it does seem that straight stuff tends to sell better in the furry space, probably for obvious demographic reasons. But gay is the vibe I'm on with this one, and I doubt I'll deviate from that. May do straight stuff in the distant future: I'm not against it, but there are things that make it less attractive.
Just finished the game- WOW.
Aww, thanks. Glad people are liking it so far.
Loved it! I got the bad ending and I couldn't be more satisfied. I can't wait to come back to it and get the "good" ending.
PS I figure it's not meant to be possible, or just very hard, but I managed to lose to normal enemies when in the slut state, and it just gave me the same third cutscene again. I figured there'd be a secret one! So that was a little disappointing. Also you can just sorta... take off the ear clips in the menu, which removes them from your model but has the same effect as having them on. I feel like that's not intentional? Other those that and some minor bugs though, I really have no complaints!
you get the bad ending and then just right after that you kind of "restart" and repeat the battle with the boss and win- is'nt that right? or am I missing an ending?
I think he's talking about the losses vs the normal "mobs," not the boss.
Nope, can't get more corrupted than 100%. As for the clips: they're a toggle to switch hypno stuff on and off in battle before you hit slut mode. After you hit slut mode, you get hypno'd regardless, which fits with the story.
😈I loved❤️❤️❤️
Thanks!
is there any sex scenes in it thinking of downloading it
There are, yes.
LOVE IT!! i will wait the next update! <3
Thanks!
Does this game have NSFW scenes?
It does, yes. Thus "NFSW. 18+".
And how long does it take to show up? I didn't have the patience to wait lol
Its not too long, just gotta get the earclamps, loosing before getting this just results in a gameover.
Is it just losing a battle then?
Yup, like Seal said, gotta get the clips first.
Really nice but at the start i advice you to give the player two boars to fight instead of three. And keep the hp of enemies at 100. Maybe for the èlite boars, give them 200 or 150 hp max
Difficulty has been an ongoing discussion since release. The feedback on the initial version was almost unanimously that it was a bit too easy, which led to the current difficulty level. A lot of it comes down to personal taste as well: it's a bit of a "can't please everyone" thing. But I think it's about where I'd like it to be currently. Not ruling out some minor tweaks in future though.
Is there any way to be diesel when your in "BCA" mode? Or is this a point where you have to reset.
Theoretically it may be possible, just very, very slow. I may be putting some additional stuff in to handle that more elegantly in the future.
the "reset" that happens when you lose but don't give in to diesel is a pretty decent solution, though getting through the guards once you've lost 3 times can be a bit of a slog. (not saying the game is hard i actually think it's in a good place i just tend to lose on purpose)
one thing i might suggest is just turning off the mandatory recovery of clothes after that 3rd loss, it's not like he's going to actually fight or keep them on lol.
i always love having the option (more or less) to choose the lewd option and i hope there are more "pink" dialogue choice in the future, reminds me a lot of third crises which explores similar themes quite well.
Of course, if the guard fight is taking too long, there's always an easier way. I may still implement something unique for trying to take on Diezel in "slut mode" (which I assume is what you meant by BCA; what on earth is BCA BTW?).
I may handle clothes a little more elegantly in future in general, this is just a basic setup.
And there definitely will be more...sex based problem solving as the series goes on. Lot of fun there.
This is a great game, probably the best use of this engine I've seen where it doesn't feel like you need to fight->lose to get scenes. Looking forward to what comes next!
Thanks!
Is it...normal that my saves well...dosn't save,it's been two time...does it have something to do with the fact i alt-f4 the game or is it my game who is bugged ?
Definitely not normal, no. Where are you alt-f4ing FROM? If you're in a menu at the time, that might theoretically cause some issue, but really, once you hit enter on the save it should be in place. If you want to be sure, just save, and then go to save AGAIN to check that the thumbnail and time for the slot you just saved to are correct. If it's not saving AT ALL that might be a permissions issue on the folder, but I'm not sure what would cause intermittent issues.
Ok this is weird...i come back from sleeping and the files that i tried twice to use after closing then opening the game are back in...like they dissapear then came back ahah...well it's still a good ending anyway thanks x)
Hey, glad it turned out alright in the end.
Just wanted to throw in here that I beat the game real quick and I absolutely adored it! I liked the character designs, the dialogue, and the maps- RPG Maker games of this nature will tend to forego the actual mapping, so I'm glad that the placement of chests and the structure of The Docks made sense! I cannot wait to see what else you have in store in the future- but I shall make the sacrifice to wait patiently! Keep working hard and thank you for making this awesome game! (OuO)/ <3
Aww, thanks, I appreciate it.
I'm not the best mapper in the world, but I try to at least have them make sense and more or less give the right sense for where you are. And thanks, I certainly will.
Other than the Invis bug, this is pretty fun
By invisibility, you mean sprites missing during battle right? Where are you getting them? This is the second report of this on 0.2, and I THINK I have it patched for the next release, but let me know where it's cropping up.
Leaving a lust state with multiple enemies, only happened once so it's ok
Alright, will keep an eye on this in future playtesting.
Np
Small bug report:
For unknown reasons, on the third or fourth map, during a normal battle, Mezz's image disappears, but appears when he is under hypnosis and disappears again for a normal state.
Also, a few times after Mezz came, the sex scene is interrupted, but the status of being under hypnosis, pink mist, and "Guuuh..." actions, they are present in the action menu, and even moved to the next battle, where they disappeared, apparently, by the number of moves.
---
The status/action of the Guuuh is not clear. It is clear that Mezz was fucked, and can't act for some time, but this is considered a move in the battle and can be repeated 2-4 times, till Mezz comes to normal. It's good that he is not being damaged at this time, because. he cannot answer, but he can then add some other actions of opponents that correspond to the moment, because they can somehow use his state, or at least text, if the game engine allows it (they look, or they think or planing or whatever).
Also not clear the logic of the process. The increase in life when a boar cums can still be explained somehow, but why does Mezz lose life points when he cums himself? It is clear that the rules of the game can be anything, but it would be nice to get explanations during the game in order to have a complete picture of what is happening.
(v0.2) I've noticed graphical bugs in the combat sprites before getting the first gate key. Small at first, but more obvious as other sprites flashed in place of the rabbit's hurt sprites, then the rabbit's attack sprites.
As if the game is pulling sprite information from other area's of it's memory.
More minor issues would be some missing collision on some walls and props. An example would be a wall-blood stain in one of the first rooms.
Thanks for the report! Let's take a look here:
-On checking, this doesn't look universal (not seeing it on my saves in those areas), which means something specific to your playthrough caused it. The question is, what in particular? I have no idea what might be triggering that, but for now I've added cleanup code to the post-battle eval so Mezz's battle sprite should be reset to normal, either clipped or not as appropriate. Will be in with a bunch of other fixes when the next release eventually happens.
-So when Mezz cums, it can either just inflict damage, or (with the mashers) push him forward to downed state (kneeling). In either case, the hypno effect should stick around until he picks himself up. Are you saying he came and knocked himself all the way back to normal, but the mist and commands from the downed state remained? I took a look at the relevant code, and did see a few things that weren't matching, so some minor tweaks have been made. Hopefully that catches the bug.
-The downed/Guuuh state is intended to simulate Mezz attempting to recover while there's a lull in the fucking. The whole idea is that the boars aren't paying close attention to him, so additional dialogue/taunts wouldn't make sense. That said, going right back into fucking if he fails say 3 times might make it more interesting/raise the stakes a little, and help with flow/speed. Will consider.
-HP in the game has to serve as a metaphor for a lot of things, because it's not worth having half a dozen gauges. Rather than strictly "health", it's more like "ability to keep fighting". It's also leveraged as a carrot and stick: you'll do what increases it, and avoid what decreases it (unless you're trying to get event CG). This fits with the overall situation, which is that the clips are "training" Mezz. As such, being good and doing as you're told is rewarded with "HP" and energy, whereas resisting costs energy. Cumming "costs" "HP" because you're supposed to prioritize the boar's pleasure over your own, and because them getting an orgasm out of you is a little defeat. Think of it like successfully landed hit.
Or maybe it makes more sense to think of the battle system as two battle systems that hand off between themselves. The first is a traditional one: both sides inflict damage, and the one that runs out of HP first loses. The second is pleasure-based: both sides inflict pleasure, and the one that runs out of "HP" first loses (note that the boars leave once they're "satisfied," and Mezz can "win" this way.) Obviously what HP is technically changes during the handoff, but you have to forgive an imperfect metaphor.
Мaybe it would be better to do a reset not after, but before the battle? As far as I can see, bugs happen when several events occur at the same time, for example, Mezz came and the boar came. Or the boar came, Mezz came and was defeated because he had low HP. Apparently at such moments the logic of the game can go wrong. The last example, all three events happened in the battle in front of the stairs, and after the scene in the toilet, I rushed to choose an answer and started the battle again. Mezz started it in a Guuuh state (as he finished the previous one, because he came first theh boar came and then Mezz defeated), but at the same time there was active a hard knock and Guuuh in the action menu.
This is of course the exception, not the rule, but it can happen.
> The whole idea is that the boars aren't paying close attention to him, so additional dialogue/taunts wouldn't make sense.
I agree, but since a lot depends on random selection, it was often took for 3-4 turns, and invisible actions when the "missed" status was displayed on each turn. Additional dialogue in this case will at least add variety until Mezz returns to normal. ;)
Regarding HP this is realy complicated question. If Mezz prioritize the boar's pleasure over he's own, then he choose "Lets it happened". The boar cums and Mezz's lust grows, leading Mezz to cum too. It turns out a contradiction. Satisfying a boar, you involuntarily enjoy yourself, but if you cums yourself, you take damage. Player unable to control it. There is no choice during the battle to please only yourself or only the boar. At the same time, resistance only wastes energy, it can miss, but does not give Mezz an advantage, except for experience in case of victory. May be add a little extra experience in case of victory after resistance, and / or change the actions of the boar after resistance during the next hypnosis (other dialogues, pictures).
These are just ideas and thoughts. ;)
Effectively before and after battle reset are the same, as you can't start a new battle without ending the one you're in first. This bug does ring a bell though: think I might have seen it briefly, but it's one of the tricky ones because so many different conditions have to line up to trigger it. I'll do some more testing, but I THINK I have it caught at this point.
I think the mistake you're making with the HP thing is thinking it's all either one or the other, you either do the right thing and get rewarded or the wrong thing and get punished. In reality, the choices are a. do the wrong thing and get punished or b. Do the right thing and get rewarded, but also still punished (but less).
Using the resist skills is about buying time with energy. If you can get back to fighting, you can end the battle a lot faster (and with more "dignity") then if you fuck them all. Fucking your way to victory is "free", but it takes a lot longer, and raises your sex stats, which may have consequences later.
Thanks though, even if I don't use all it, I do appreciate feedback.
One more questions ;)
Flash dodge - description is Focus and escape next attack. Is it related to normal focus and recharge the energy?
Often during the second hypnosis in battle, if this happens, Mezz will have a struggle icon, although this action was not chosen. What does it mean in this case and how does it affect Mezza?
I also saw some dialogues in the resource files that I didn't see in the game (for example, the words of the boars "What's that smell?" and then two storylines) Did I miss something or are these preparations for future implementation?
No, no relation between the moves, although I suppose that is confusing language.
The icon you actually see on Mezz isn't struggle, although it's again confusing because it's the same one used for struggle in the menu. It's a "weakened" state after he gets up that lowers his defense slightly. I'll have to change up the icons.
That boar line is in-game: it's after you encounter them again after a loss. There are unused NPCs and test stuff in there too, so that accounts for the rest of it.
Reminds me of Grove
Cool :)
This game is everything I could have ever asked for. Can't wait for the next updat.
Aww, thanks!
great game, has potential, can’t wait for more to come out
Thanks!
Do you have a discord for the game?
Also will there be naked standing combat sprites for mezz?
Nope. No, I avoid Discord like the plague. Just watch me here, or over on FA if you're old-school.
And yes, that's one of the things that will almost definitely be in the next content update.
gameplay and setting question
will there be an option to change the brightness?
also will there be items to ower lust in the future between combat if ever
or bondage items?
No brightness option unfortunately. I may fiddle with it some more, but I think it's roughly where I want it. Might add a very slight glow to Mezz just so he's easier to pick out on screen, but I kind of like being able to blend into the shadows. To be clear though, not all future maps will be this dark.
Oh there's a lot to explore with the lust gauge, have only scratched the surface. Wanted to get the basics set first though. Don't know how much more I'll do with it in this first chapter, but definitely planning to work with it more in future.
loved the game, currently playing, found a bug where struggle stays in the combat menu when you manage to beat a boar whle hypnotised, also will there be chastity cages in the future uwu
Thanks! Hmm, will have to take another look at that, thought I had that one patched.
Maybe, but no promises. I tend to write scenes and mechanics as the setting suggests them.
very nice game. enjoyed much of it. i whish there were more combat abilities so thats not so repetetive. fighting three boars over and over again is kinda Boring
Combat is a little basic in this one. Probably won't change too much too much more on that this chapter, but there should be a little more variety in the next one.
I played through this last night, and I utterly adored it. I found the characters to be good, the kinks fun, and I was very glad to find something a bit like Grove but targeting different kinks. It actually makes me want to do something like this myself, but that's nearly impossible, heh.
My only thing that I'd critique a bit is the music-volume. It's not unsuitable, but it is rather loud.
Hey, I thought the chances of me making a game were fairly small a few years ago, but here we are. Just gotta chop stuff into small pieces and build it slowly.
And yes, I recently discovered I had the game volume lowered a bit on my mixer, so everything's a bit louder than it should be. I may lower the overall volume a bit next release.
Ye, not sure how the taggin system works, but that sounds helpful. Also it is possible that there may be some females in the future. Right now it's bunny boi and the boars dudes lurking behind him on the couch.
Unfortunately no. I'm up for straight stuff as well, and in fact there are things you can do there that you just can't with m/m, but Cruel Serenade will probably stick to guys.
Sure, I can add that in. And thanks!
Just wanted to add more to the compliment pile: This is fantastic! Please keep at it, and I'm looking forward to whatever you have in store.
Thanks! People have been very kind, and it's definitely appreciated.
I made this account to comment on this game and say thank you!
Very interesting script, dialogues and implementation. And I hope the game will continue to develop and continue. It is clear that certain limitations are imposed by the capabilities of the game engine, but I would like to see more diverse scenes including M/M. A little more detail. There may be additional types of weapons, attacks or skills.
A small note, during the battle, some system messages are displayed simultaneously and quickly and you don’t have time to read them.
I really liked the different endings. But I didn't understand where the ear clips came from and what is the principle of their action. Maybe I missed the explanations during the game, but it's not clear how the boars use them to hypnotize Mezz.
I look forward to continuing!Thanks! Glad you're enjoying the game so far.
Things will definitely be built out a bit more, although much of that will be in the next chapters/missions. I do plan on at least one more small content update to this one though. Speed of those messages is unfortunately an engine limitation, but it's nothing major.
As for the clips, and the story in general, a lot is still unexplained. It will be explored more in the following missions.
If I understand correctly, Mezz does not realize and does not remember what happens with him during hypnosis? Except for the bad ending (but even there are also doubts as to how Mezz could be adequate in the current situation).
Will it be possible in the future, for example, depending on the decisions made, his conscious choice of action. After all, it can be used this as a new skill or weapon. Seduce and bite, inflicting damage or even completely defeating the enemy? ))
I also really would like to see additional art based on the game, even if it will not be possible to insert them directly into the game itself.
BTW, what means "Delta" parameter in the "Experemental Notes"? Full memory errase after final defeating by Boss?
He remembers to varying degrees depend on how far gone he is. "Normal" for him is always a shell over the actual truth, but it starts out thick and becomes extremely thin by the time you hit "slut mode." Future updates may make this slightly more clear.
As for attacks: Fundamentally this is a game about corruption, so while sex "attacks" may be more of a thing in future chapters, they'll never be weaponized to the point of "turning the tide." In the current game for example, finishing off an enemy by cooperating leads to them leaving, but did you really "win"? What it means to win changes as Mezz changes, which is the idea.
Art unfortunately is the hardest part of all of this for me, so I'm happy just to get done what is needed for the game itself. There may be additional title screens and promotional art at some point though.
Delta means that there's a loop, and you're not starting at the beginning of it.
Then it remains to be patient and wait for updates and continuation!
Patience is the hardest part. :)
I wish you good luck to continue your work!
So I made this account just to comment on this game lol.
This is what I was really looking for tbh in terms of a M/M, gay game. Typically, all we have to choose from is either VN games or crappy, half-baked games that are silly than actually hot. But this did the trick.
Honestly, the best part to me was where you had to help the boar "relax" imo before the stairs. ;) Something about it was great considering Mezz was not hypnotized but still did it, idk, I liked it. The scene where he lost the fight there too was amazing as well. Of course, the hypnotized parts were great too as he was still oblivious to what was going on otherwise. I also like how it wasn't overwhelmed with femboy content either. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy it, but a lot of other gay games focus on femboy characters too much imo. We basically only either get bara or femboy character in gay games I feel like, so this was a nice diversion from that typical formula with this twinkish rabbit... one of the "endings" was still great though and I didn't mind that. ;)
I guess what I am wondering is, will there be other enemies other than the boars in the future? I certainly don't mind them, but I am curious. And you definitely don't have to do this, because I'm sure this would be a nightmare to potentially implement, but are you thinking of adding any scenes that aren't static as well? Jw on that lol.
You did a good job on it and I'm looking forward to more chapters in the future. :)
Hey, that's what I like to hear.
Yeah, agreed. Not to be a weeaboo, but there's this weird tendency in western porn games to try to turn everything into a joke. It's really obnoxious and grating, and while I'm no psychologist, it seems to come from a place of deep-seated insecurity about the subject matter. Humor has its place, but people need to relax and just let the game breathe.
On a similar token, I like "femboy" stuff, but the problem is that it's become "a meme." Not in the sense of being popular, but in the sense that popularity led to it being so flanderized by people who don't understand it that it's nearly become self-parody. Same with womb tattoos, same, really, with hypnosis itself.
Beyond that though, "femboy" is just too much of a lazy, ready-made template. IMHO people should just make characters with personality, and a sex appeal that arises from that. Templates get boring fast.
As for new enemies, there definitely will be. The plan right now is to aim for at least 3 each chapter that aren't just palette swaps, but we'll see how that ends up as development continues. Prooobably not any more enemies for this first one, but there will be a little extra content before I move on to the next mission/chapter.
No animation though. Good lord no. I'd like to get this game done in my lifetime.
Lol I figured that would be too much! I agree on your analysis though of tropes just being thrown together and then people just call it a day as well as the meme aspect. Maybe that's why I'm not into as much? Not sure, still enjoyed the way you went about it though. You actually flesh out the characters and that makes it interesting.
Also... little extra content? Now you got me excited lol. Sounds good dude.
Thanks for replying as well!
oh oh! I was getting cyberpunk vibes from this! Especially some of the stuff alluded to in the prologue. But just saw on fa where you gave it a cyberpunk tag. Excited levels just went up.
To be clear, it's more of the grimy, lawless, mass-disparity of wealth and technology cyperpunk of Bladerunner or Robocop than the NEON EVERYWHERE AREN'T WE REBELLIOUS WE HAVE WEIRD HAIR JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE!!!1! of Cyperpunk 2077. And probably a bit subdued even then. But there is grimy, there is future tech, and there is a vast living standards gap. "Near Future Fantasy Sci-Fi" might also work.
Maybe Urban SciFi? hehe, but I gotcha, I'm just a sucker for near future tech stuff in general, y'know stuff that feels kind reachable. Like stylish earrings hehe
had ton of trouble trying to get through this game and levling up
Proper difficulty is always a hard thing to pin down, but it shouldn't be THAT hard currently. Anything in particular that was giving you trouble?
the rabbit keeps missing when i am trying to attack the oppent he misses so god damn often i am really annoyed by it
Welcome to RPGMaker. There's something very..."special" about the RNG in the engine, so every so often you get a very odd run of the same result. I've tried my best to mitigate the worst examples, but it does crop up at weird times. From what I've playtested the attack shouldn't break TOO terribly though; you just get a back run of luck once in a while. Certainly not enough to make the game unbeatable.
how the fuck does it happen while through out an entire game
How often is it happening? He should be hitting at least 75% of the time.
Ok, I absolutely loved it. I found a way to beat my way through the game that's easier than using any of the healing/energy items around the map, but even then it was still challenging.
And on the note of Bad Ends, there were't too many of them. If you lost a battle to one of the basic boars, you'd get a bad end, but that's what saves are for. And I liked that the same didn't happen with Mashers because they're a lot more difficult to beat. And of course the final battle has to have the option of a bad end.
My one complaint was that Mezz got rid of the ear clips. I hadn't expected him to keep wearing them, (Although I would have loved it if he did/players had the option to) but I was thinking he'd keep them as a souvenir of winning against the boars. I mean, logically, Mezz has a base of operations, and he could display the clips on a shelf or cabinet in said base. It just seems like the sort of thing he would do. Oh, well. I haven't seen anyone else share my sentiments in the comments, so it's possible I'm alone in my idea.
Actually, one other thing: when talking to the bartender boar, you have to click the counter in front of him, but it would make more sense to click his actual body to interact. Idk, that's more of a quality of life thing.
Oh hey, glad you enjoyed it!
Not sure what you mean with the mashers, they should trigger the same defeat scenes as the others. To be clear, before you get the clips, it's just a hard Game Over when you lose. After you get them, you get scenes when defeated. If what you meant when you said you didn't like Bad Ends is that you didn't like hard Game Overs, I actually agree, which is why most of the defeats/scenes just spit you out somewhere rather than Game Over-ing. One of the recurring annoyances with a game like this is that you're playing it to get the scenes, but the scenes dump you into a Game Over, which wastes time and breaks flow. IMHO it works better, and is a lot more fun, if most of them just spit you out somewhere a little worse for wear.
The bartender actually IS directly interactable. The thing to understand about RPGMaker is that it's primarily a keyboard engine with some mouse/touch stuff bolted on. When you click on something, it just tries to translate that to the keyboard commands to move you to the item/NPC and hit the use key. So you can't click the bartender from the other side of the bar because there's no keyboard command that can do that: you can only interact with the counter, technically. If you go around to the other side of the bar however, you'll discover that you can indeed interact with the bartender by clicking on him.
tl;dr: mouse control is a convenience in RPGMaker games, but don't rely on it. They're really meant to be played with keyboard.
Getting rid of the ear clips is a storytelling thing: it helps put a nice bow on the ending. I'd also disagree character-wise: while taking a trophy makes sense, it wouldn't fit here. The implication of the epilogue is that even in victory, Mezz feels a little unnerved/disoriented by the whole thing, and is destroying the clips the same way you'd destroy a cursed item at the end of a horror movie. I woudn't worry too much though: like the board game in Jumanji, we may not have seen the last of the clips.
This was so much fun, the tone shifts between bun being a heroic badass and uh the other mode... hehe, was really well done. Legit spent hours thoroughly exploring this, had a playthrough where I took all the enemies out one way, and then the other. ;)
Eeexcelent. That was the hope with the second "mode." There's no gameplay reason to at the moment, but just having the ability to flip from fighting the enemies to "fighting" the enemies and leaning into it is fun. It's fun to...you know, role play, in a role playing game.
yea I see what you mean, but you are right it was absolutely fun having variety. If there was a way to block out spoiler text I'd go more into detail lol.