The Daughters of the Sun

Yush! Managed to play your game after sooo long! So sorry and thank you for the wait 😭🤲🏻💞 Anyways--

The Daughters of the Sun is so beautifully tragic! They truly don't deserve to be put in this position just because their ancestor snitched on an affair. Tragedy of a patriarchal society indeed 😭 Idk if there's more to it though, since schools in my country don't teach Greek mythology, so I'm often lost with these things, haha x'3 

But from what I've read here and understand, I really enjoyed it! And you wrote everything so beautifully! I feel the most for Ariadne. She seems too sweet and innocent to be roped into all this 😩🤲🏻

So, 10/10 for the writing! Short, yet still impactful. Great job, Chim! 🥳✨💞 I also ADORE the art direction. It's awesome how they look like completely different characters with just palette and face feature variations. Not even my face blindness surfaces here. That's really saying something 😳👌🏻 And the BG is GORGEOUS!! I love how the sun in the back frames Phaedra, like there's backlighting of the sun behind her. Really ties in great with her being the daughter of the sun 😭🤲🏻✨💞💞💞

Same goes with the voice acting! Just one VA and yet they all sound distinct?! Whoa! I'm impressed 🤯✨

As for improvement feedback~ There's really not much to say besides some minor typos and the music not sounding loud enough for me at 100% volume 😂 I suspect you didn't optimize it for non-head/earphone users like me? 🙉 Completely understandable tho since people like me are rare, lol. I don't use them unless absolutely necessary since they're uncomfortable to wear. So yeah, you might wanna keep non-wearers like me in mind for next time. Up to you though! 🥰💞

But yeah, solid 9/10 game for me! Great job, Chim and Justine! I'll be looking forward to playing the sequel tomorrow 😁🤲🏻💞💞

So curious what Hippolytus thinks about all this 👀

I knew the myth but I never thought too hard about Phaedra and her connection to Ariadne and Pasiphae. At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to play this game (Or technically read this game.) but I have no regrets! You did a great job of depicting the myths of the daughters of the sun, showing their connection to Aphrodite, and I enjoyed the writing greatly! The voice actress did an awesome job too! Overall, I really enjoyed this!

The art was beautiful and I wasn't really well versed in the myth, I was happy I got to play it. The voice acting is really great as well!

I really like how the myth was told!! Also, the use of the sprite by changing the colors to represent each daughter is very clever. That's so cool AHHH!! The art and the voice acting were both amazing as well! Great game :D

Just realized that I forgot to drop an actual comment LOL ^^;

But as I said earlier, great game Chim! Interesting myth you've drawn from and well executed by everyone involved. Yay you!! <3

I knew the myth so I was aware of where the story was directing towards, but this entry is beautiful nonetheless. The symbolism (yes, I caught the color of the statues), the general color of the background and sprites (going to a warm color only once) and especially the voice acting and writing really sell the tragedy to the player. It's hearbreaking to see those women being abandoned by the sun but they sure aren't forgotten! 
A really good game, Chimerique! Bravo!

Just absolutely beautiful. Everything about this was so well put together, from the choice of music, to the excellent casting of such a talented VA. Using one person capable of portraying three, as well as the colored sprites, was SO UNIQUE! I really appreciate how poetic all your games are, but this one really takes the cake for me (so far!).

It feels like a play, and I loved watching her expression slowly become more withered and broken. Even this itch page is beautiful!! How the game fades into the background and itch page art....

Chim, you truly are a master of visual novels, writing, and art. <3

Great visual novel, heart breaking. :(

A tragic story wonderfully told in a way that was like taking a trip to the theatre. The voice actor did a phenomenal job and the anguish of Phaedra could be felt through the expressions! Great job all-around!

I love that feminist reinterpretations of classical mythology are having a moment right now. Lovely art and nice use of color, really captures the classical vibe. (I'm not sure whether the text is yours or from Racine; fabulous and well-integrated either way.)

I never thought I’d see Racine in a VN someday… And it was so so good!!

The staging focused on the monologue, the voice acting, the slow text speed worked so well together, I’ve never seen a VN reproduce the feeling of theatre so well like this!

And that helplessness, the writing was so good… Now I’m just wishing I could read a full rendition of a classical tragedy you made, ahah.

There's some really nice voice acting and UI in this one. Using one sprite with different colour alts for different characters was very clever; a really neat way of working with the jam's rules.

Also, I'm impressed all three characters were voiced by the same person; I thought they were three different VAs, your voice actor did such a good job!

The writing is really nice, emotional, and evocative too. This feels very polished all around; you did a great job!

Even as someone who really enjoys Greek Mythology, I hadn't heard of this tragedy before; so learning of it through this visual novel was a delight. 

I find it amazing how with one sprite you made three different characters, and how the voice actress interpreted all of it. Her voice truly worked wonders to accompany this story, letting us feel her pain more than ever.

The art, too, was stunning! I like the choice of monochromatic palettes for it, it's striking!

Honestly, I myself am interested in making retellings of Greek Myths in VNs (I have a specific one in mind...) so seeing a piece of a tragedy brought to the medium makes me quite happy!

Oh my! What a beautiful tragedy! The VA did such a great job portraying such emotions, and it's a great use of a single sprite to represent the daughters. I'm happy I got to experience such a great narrative!

Honestly, you are blowing me away with these JAM entries. Love the voice acting, and it was such an amazing experience! (One sprite for many characters truly work wonders)

aaaaaaaaa this was such a moving experience!! The art & writing combined with the music and amazing voice acting was very captivating.
I have to admit I am usually someone who speeds through VNs, skipping over voiced dialogue once i've read the text (I have adhd and bugs for brains) but for this I HAD to sit through it all properly! 
The use of colour to convey the different characters was such a smart way of working with the limitations o2a2 presents! beaauutifull presentation overall, amazing work!! 👏👏

(also I am blown away by how well you managed to fit such a comprehensive story in under 1k words!??!)

Sad and poetic, I liked it a lot 🥲

Loved the clever use of the very limited assets, and the overall composition of the scene! You went the minimalistic route, but I think it works so well, because the focus is on the character, as it should be. (I liked the sprites very much, too, and you managed to create three (!) different characters with just one base, which is super impressive!)

Also, I can't end this comment without complimenting the fantastic voice acting. Not only the sheer range of voices (you could've fooled me if I didn't know it was one person lol), but the emotions are raw and believable, and they complete this very artistic piece. 👌

Amazing job, Chim 💕

The quality was IN FACT TOP TIER! Justine literally couldn't have been a better choice they delivered each and every line brilliantly! But, it's a symbiotic relationship, the script is wonderfully nihilistic-ly beautiful. A tormented woman's final thoughts, presented in such a soliloquy way was just so much fun!

The presentation can not be understated here, honestly, I feel like the piece shone so much brighter due to the limitations, (and not just because you wrote about the "Daughters of the Sun" hehe) which is the beauty of this jam!

I will probably reread a couple times because I'm not familiar with the original work and I am trying to make sense of it all, but even without the full scope I entirely bought into the emotion and betrayal Phaedra felt from Aphrodite, for herself and her sisters.

This is so fantastic! It's crazy you did this in such a short amount of time, you had a vision and you DELIVERED. Huge pat on the back to you and Justine friend <3

i love this, this is RAW, this was GREAT, justine really did it justice *wink wink*

It was great!

The change of color, the different expressions, attitude and the voice acting made them so distinctive from one another!!

I also really like the background!!

Those poor women in myths, it's feels like a man can do something bad and a random woman passing by will be punish instead of him (well it's kinda worst because in so many cases they are the victim AND get punished)

All I can really say after playing this was WOW, this was an absolutely stunning experience! The lines beautifully communicate the emotions of the three characters, from Ariadne's hopeful romanticism to Pasiphae's shame to Phaedra's indignation at Aphrodite's deeds. Overall the script was VERY tightly written, with extremely good pace and flow. Even for someone not very familiar with the myth like myself, I found the story to be emotionally evocative and moving.

Extremely clever use of the "one sprite" to represent the three different characters. Not only did it enable the writer to portray the three different characters within the jam constraints, but it also helped to communicate that while they are different people, ultimately all of the "daughters of the sun" had the same hellish, tragic fate. I really applaud the use of the same voice actress for the same reason! VERY well-designed game for O2A2!

This game was EXTREMELY well polished, and I loved the entire aesthetic. The color palette was gorgeous, with the use of different colors to represent the daughters and the gold tints in the background for Phaedra (I also really liked how the gold faded out to black and white to communicate when Pasiphae and Ariadne were speaking). The bold, saturated colors really stood out well against the black background. The sprite is gorgeous (I love the hair), and all three versions are beautifully expressive. The choice for the background music track was very good. The voice acting was ABSOLUTELY STUNNING, and the actress did a fantastic job portraying all three women as distinct characters. 

Slight spoilers - I thought that the themes were quite interesting and in line with what I know of Greek mythology! Aphrodite punishing the daughters instead of Helios despite being a victim of a patriarchal society herself, and Phaedra ultimately blaming Zeus, the father of the problems that led to this horrific fate. I think that it reframes tragedies that would normally be blamed on the women involved (Ariadne for her betrayal, Pasiphae/Phaedra for their lust, Aphrodite for her curses) instead on society/factors outside of their control, which I found to be quite fascinating!

Overall the dev can give himself a pat on the back! Racine would be proud (probably)!

What a stunning game! The voice acting was divine, and the writing ✨ chef's kiss!

I also loooved how expressive Pasiphae, Ariadne and Phaedra were—the tears, the snot, they were everything!

(This also rekindled my love for Greek mythology so THANK YOU!)

EDIT: Also, I played this in browser and I'm happy to report it ran flawlessly 😁

Oh my actual gosh. This was breathtakingly beautiful!!! The design, the art, the music, the voice acting -- literally everything! I feel like I've just witnessed an absolutely beautiful and heartbreaking work of art; one that continues to gouge away at my heart even as I sit here now writing this comment... 💦

Like. Just. OK the design??? How it really brought to life the feeling of a Greek tragedy just in the composition? And the style of your gorgeous art? And the COLOR USE! In love with how you used the different colors to differentiate the three of them (and what a clever way to use the jam restrictions lkdjaldskfa). It's like. So simple. But so effective. Honestly just dripping with style all the way down to its code LOL

The music choice? SPOT ON. At times it practically felt like it was harmonizing with the voice. Literally gave me chills.

AND THE FREAKING VOICE ACTING IS SOOOOOOOOO GOOD. My gosh the emotiveness in those lines! Absolutely heartbreaking, heartwrenching, heart-cut-into-a-million-pieces-ing. Not only that but to play the three different characters and have them feel so distinct! Honestly just an amazing job.

I admit I didn't really know much about the story of Phaedra (or her mother and sister) before this. I know like, some of the main Greek myths and stories but not a ton of them. So this was really cool to kind of like, get this little introspective piece about a not-so-oft talked about myth. The poem is so beautiful and filled with so much vivid imagery!

GUH.

ANYWAY.

Absolutely fantastic! This was such a moving experience. Just beautiful and haunting. Thanks for moistening my eyes yet again!! 😭💦💕

This isn't a game. This is an experience. That's all I'm gonna say, five stars, goodnight