God bless you

Aaaa, such a bittersweet story, Chim! I was teary-eyed all the way through ( especially with such soft, lovely art!! ). Fearing the judgement of god despite how non-sinful our queerness feels is something I can relate to fr 🥹🥹🤲🏻

There's a lot to unpack due to how well-thought out the narrative is ( glad the other reviews already touched on them! ✨ ), so I'll just focus on this; Though I feel Romaine and Juliet are one of the lucky few to be accepted by those around them regardless, I like this narrative design choice to focus on the internalized religious homophobia instead; that no matter how much society accepts us, the believes and fears we grew up with is still hard to shake off. When I still believed in God, it really did feel like someone was judging my every thought, my every move. It was paranoia-inducing. Even now, I still have some flashes here and there, especially the verses I was forced to memorize, coming and going like intrusive thoughts. 

Romaine and Juliet are really strong to keep holding on to their believes whilst also staying true to themselves. Doesn't make the rest of us weak, of course. They simply decide to undertake this heartbreaking mission, a purgatory of their own making. I don't agree with it since it can do a number on your mental well-being, but I do respect it nonetheless. We have to live our own paths, after all.

And with Romaine and Juliet by each other's side, I'm sure they can make that path as sweet as can be. Maybe even forget that watchful eye for one brief blissful moment at a time. Together 🥰💞

I'm really excited to see something like this! I'm a celibate queer Christian, and this is the first time I've seen a story that's anything like mine represented in a game. Everything from the flowery idealized atmosphere to the fixation on not having "lustful desires" as a reaction to being treated like a predator feels like an echo of parts of me that I haven't seen reflected in media before. I think this is also the first queer narrative I've seen that presents religiously-motivated celibacy as a real option on equal footing with the alternative. The narrative takes Romaine's internal conflict seriously no matter what choices she makes, and doesn't shame her for any of them. That's something I really appreciate.

The way you use the term "love" in this story really caught my eye. The impression I get is that Romaine's community defines love in a way that's very marriage-centric but doesn't actually leave room for a strong theological understanding of why marriage should be thought of as exclusively heterosexual. It's a worldview I've seen in some real-world religious spaces, and it feels very "You can't have it. No, we won't tell you what 'it' is or why you can't have it. It should be obvious." I feel like the modern concept of love is very, very different from how many religious worldviews traditionally think about love and sexuality, but most straight religious people never have to confront that conflict because the standard life trajectory of "get married, have kids, live happily ever after" is superficially compatible with both worldviews. It's very interesting to see a character actually wrestling with how her community thinks about love and having to decide what to do with the fact that the values she's been taught don't align with one another.

Anyway, good visual novel. It's very bittersweet, but still beautiful, much like the journey it represents. Best of luck on your own journey!

I was somewhat expecting a more heart-breaking ending, but in a way I'm happy it didn't go that way. Sometimes it is like that, and the only thing standing between you and your happiness is your fear of what might happen. This was very sweet, I love your art!

It was so sweet! And sad! And poetic! With flowery visuals and wording! 🥺🌸

I'm not religious and I've never been so I can't fully comprehend Romaine's struggles but I really feel for her. We can change a lot of what we do and how we live our lives but we have no control over who we love. And trying to go against your feelings for the sake of what you believe in seems like torture. (I'm happy there is a compromise to be found, tho! even if it's not perfect)

Also, the art is very pretty! I love the pink palette and the little roses in the menu, it's a cute detail!

oh... i crode ToT i'm bi and while my religion doesn't disallow me, my parents are homophobic so i still relate a lot with romaine...

the game was beautiful! it touched me quite deeply

Maaaaaan(gender neutral).... it would been nice if they grew up with a more accepting church/temple, I think in a same religion there can be so much variety of interpretation but if by their already solid believes their love is "bad", there is no "actually the original text says..." or "in this place we don't consider it sin" that would get them out of there mentally, at least not in little time.

I think it's really cool how the idyllic scene contrasts with the internal sense of guilt (nice particle leaves by the way!), even if everything is dreamy and rose colored it can't feel perfect because something that brings so much meaning to their lives forbids the love that should make them happy and that reciprocal love becomes a sweet, sweet course destined to hurt if they stay together or they part ways.

I do get some free speeches of how I'm going to hell from time to time under my window some Sundays (not directed specifically to me, we just have some very passionate "street preachers" in the area)... No church habit needed to hear about eternal damnation!! So even if a little I get the "your mere existence as you're is a sin" existential dread, not nice at all.

Ahhhh... Chim, this was beautiful... I feel so strangely conflicted after playing it. Like... they were together and happy but constantly are plagued by this sense that, as the text puts it, they're "hostages" and constantly trying to "make up" for their love so as to be forgiven. So I'm happy that they were able to find each other but saddened that their life and love are always clouded by this overhanging veil of illicitness.

Congrats for making a game that ties my heart in knots once again sigh... 😞💔

Everything about the presentation though was just absolutely beautiful. The gorgeous artwork with the wash of pink palette. The soft blowing leaves. The superimposed text. And the gentle yet melancholic music. It creates such an ethereal yet almost mournful vibe, which I suppose is quite symbolic of their whole relationship.

I chose to confess first. Then thought if I didn't confess I'd get a different ending, but was actually pleasantly surprised that it led to Juliet confessing first, which I hadn't expected. I thought it was very sweet and I liked getting to see the different side of it and the changes in their conversation.

Overall just really beautiful. Really poignant. Really heart-wrenching. A wonderful experience that will live in (and plague) my heart 💕

🥺

This was a lovely game, and it brought up a question I hadn’t considered before. Usually, when I’ve heard about religious homophobia, it was in the context of how you shouldn’t push your beliefs on others. If your religion says you can’t do a certain thing, then okay, you can’t do that, but you can’t make anyone else follow those rules.

But what if it’s you who wants to break those rules? What if it’s you going against your own beliefs? As Chattercap mentioned, what if your very existence goes against your own beliefs? How do you handle that? My first impulse would be to say maybe you were taught wrong; maybe it isn’t a sin! But I imagine you can’t just twist your beliefs around for your own convenience. It just doesn’t seem right to make God say whatever you want Him to.

Others in this scenario might decide the whole religion is wrong and reject it, but for someone like Romaine, it isn’t so simple. They’d be throwing away a deeply important part of their life, something that, like Romaine says, brought them a lot of good things!

So I appreciate your look at an issue that isn’t brought up often. It was bittersweet, and as others have said, I liked how none of the endings were perfect solutions.

The art was gorgeous, by the way! I loved the mix of colors and the falling leaf effect.

I have tried all three possible endings. Fortunately, it's not too sad. I chose 'I don't want to be a shadow' because it's too difficult to give up after meeting my true love. Regardless of whether anyone opposes it or not, even if the ultimate fate is a tragic ending, we still need to love. Although I say this, the situation of lesbian women in reality is still difficult and awkward, and many people can only engage in secret relationships. Being open and honest can indeed be a significant challenge.

The game is great. The artistic style is very dreamy. The animation of Juliet shedding tears is done pitifully. I also specifically found background music to listen to once. excellent.

The game screen stops at the beginning, and the background music is still playing, but no start button appears

i don't know how to start the game,which key to start?or click something?any help?

The art is very soft and pretty (I really liked the animated effect of the falling leaves) and I'm pleasantly surprised that there's a couple of endings which aren't too bleak. I'm not sure if it's exactly uplifting but it feels fairly hopeful despite the subject matter.

When your beliefs tell you that you shouldn't exist - what is there to believe?

I really adored this reflection on religion and homosexuality. While I'm admittedly not overly familiar with this topic, in the past I've found such discussions steeped in the "technicalities" - whether homosexuality is actually forbidden, why it might be permitted, the verses and phrases and texts that regulate the permissibility of such acts. So what I found beautiful about this game in particular is how it mostly ignores this, instead opting to explore the emotions and inner conflict of someone struggling between the desire to love and the desire to be loyal to their religion. 

The prose is gorgeous - simple, but poetic. The feelings conveyed are beautiful in their rawness and sincerity - from Romaine's longing for Juliet, to her confusion and sadness over the fact that she will never be able to act on these feelings. Of course, I adore the naming - Romaine (Romeo) and Juliet - very fitting for a story about "forbidden love" (especially considering that this is a love that is socially forbidden, even though not in the typical Romeo and Juliet sense). The BGM is perfectly chosen - slow and pensive, wavering between sweet and melancholic. The slowness almost evokes a feeling of being lost in time, like how time seems to be moving in slow motion during this moment between Romaine and Juliet. 

The visuals are absolutely gorgeous - I love the contrast between the minimalistic GUI and text and the lush, extravagant, fantastical coloring used for Juliet. It really draws your eyes to her as she is the most striking thing on screen - mimicking how Romaine is also entranced by Juliet. The entire aesthetic evokes a very dreamlike feel. The saturated pink (too saturated to be natural) really evokes a truly "rose-colored" reality - one that is both fairytale-like and also a bit uncanny/unnatural - as if this is a world in which only Juliet and Romaine exist. The slightly blurred background and the rough pencil strokes used for Juliet contribute to this surreal/dreamy vibe, and the blues and greens of Juliet's coloring contrast very well with the saturated pink of the background. The sparkles and the green leaves floating across the screen offer a lot of contrast to the pink background and a lot of depth to the scene. (I also really like the slight green tinge to the background of the UI - SPECIFICALLY if you enter it from the gameplay. It offers a great visual contrast with the pink text but also a slightly eerie vibe - almost reminiscent of death). 

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What I appreciate most about the aesthetic is how much it contrasts with the actual writing. The aesthetic is extremely fairytale-like, and yet the story itself is anything but a fairytale - it has no clean resolution, nor a happy ending. It is romantic to the extreme, and yet there is also an underlying, pervasive sense of melancholy. 

Romaine has been utterly in love with her friend for years, and Juliet actually reciprocates her feelings, despite being engaged to a man. It's a dream come true. Even when they come out, they are accepted by their community - everything seems like it should be happily ever after. And yet, each ending has a bittersweet taste. Because no matter how accepting their families are, no matter how much they love each other, no matter how well things go for them - there is an underlying sense that their god, their religion does not accept them. That they are sinning, simply by existing. And while I'm not personally familiar with this conflict (being neither religious nor having to deal with homophobia in my daily life), I was struck by this sense of discomfort - this feeling that, no matter what, their existence is wrong. The feeling of confusion that Romaine experiences reminded me a lot of other games about religious trauma that I have played. That you want to be good and obey your god, but you don't understand his orders; you want an answer from him, an explanation WHY these teachings are written, but you receive none. And in the end you're forced to either disobey and sin, or blindly follow - not exactly knowing if it's the right thing to do, or why this is a command you must follow in the first place.

The three endings are very fitting - in the first, Juliet and Romaine simply accept their love and try to find happiness with themselves, even if they are unsure if their god actually accepts them. In the second, they acknowledge that their love is wrong, but they try to do good in order to make up for it, resolving to be together, even in sin. And in the last, Romaine refuses Juliet, unable to live contrary to her god's teachings. Even then, she is uncertain of her choice, and she wonders if she would have been happier with Juliet. She concludes that she will never be happily married to anyone, but resolves to try her best to be happy despite that - ultimately putting her happiness in the hands of her god. All three are explored with nuance, and none are presented as a perfect answer. Yet, none of them are presented as wrong, either. There is no judgment, no clear answer - because there isn't one. As is the case in reality, this is a problem with no solution - you simply have to try your best to live with whatever choice you make, and try to be happy in spite of it. It's a simultaneously bittersweet and surprisingly optimistic/empowering resolution. I also love the addition that, no matter what, Juliet breaks off her marriage and decides to live true to herself, even if Romaine chooses to stay in the closet. It's a ray of light, even in the "darkest ending" - reassurance that you can be true to yourself and there will be people who accept you.

Overall, it's a beautiful game. It would be difficult to call any of the endings "happy" - but in the end, I think it would be a disservice to do so. Presenting an entirely happy ending would be fantasy, one that does not reflect the reality of people struggling with their beliefs and their sexuality. In the end, if you are told that you shouldn't exist - all you can do is exist, and try your best to be happy as best you can. Fantastic job to the dev (and thanks for giving me the privilege of editing and betaing the project!) 

A great game! The story was touching, the writing was poetic, and the art really helped sell all of it. Thank you for making this!