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.
Hi Taumi, thanks for sharing your thoughts! And it would have been really nice indeed for Romaine and Juliette, but that actually was the point of the game haha: it is complicated to conciliate the two, and most of the time, you can't. So, what is there to do? Try your best, no matter what your choice is!
I am glad you appreciated the art (and the leaves effect loool, it was a struggle to think of a way to make them noticeable without making them overbearing), and that was the idea: have everything look very sweet because, well, in any other context, it would have been a perfect romance scene: Juliet and Romaine love each other, they confess it... and yet, there is something blocking it.
And yes dfvgfdfvb it actually reminds me of a preacher in the train, who started his preach by saying: "The world is bad!! Celebrities turn out to be sexual offenders! There is global warming! An economic crisis!" and concluded his looong enumeration by saying: "But fortunately, there is JESUS", it was so unexpected for me that I burst out laughing dfvgdfg
Thanks for sharing your feedback Taumi, I appreciate it a lot!!
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 💕
I do feel very conflicted too about the game, I won't lie haha, because, well, there is no perfectly happy ending in the end, and I don't think the conflict can be resolved; just trying your best to be happy and to limit the dooming feeling, whether it is guilt or regret.
And I'm happy you enjoyed the presentation! It was meant to be very very sweet, but only to contrast with the less idyllic situation Romaine is going through.
And yes, even I wanted to confront Romaine to what she could be missing on even if she didn't confess, it was in theme, unfortunately for her!
Thanks again for all these kind words, I was so unsure about releasing the game (I think I wasn't that anxious about a game ever since High School Lolita lol), so I'm glad it was a touching experience!
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.
Hey Omega! Thanks for this lovely feedback on the game!
And you overall worded the difficulty of the game very well! For exemple, Islam or Judaism forbid the consumption of pork, but now, I'm sure most Muslims or Jews don't mind other people eating pork, so yeah, to each their rule as long as you don't force anyone! But now, when the problem is within you... it is more difficult, and I wanted to explore the inner conflict indeed, rather than everything exterior (societal expectations, family, "church" or anything similar).
And thank you for the art! I overall tried to get closer to my traditional art style for this game, and I'll admit I quite like the results in terms of colour too! Thanks for the kind words and for sharing your thoughts, Omega, they mean a lot, and they were very interesting to read!
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.
Hey! Thank you so much for the kind words about the game, I'm happy you enjoyed it!!!
And I agree with you, I think most gay people I know from religious households tend to hide their relationship from their family. Admittedly, this game wanted to tackle the conflict not with the family (as it is more often portrayed), but an inner conflict between the characters and their faith, which you illustrated quite well with "even if the ultimate fate is a tragic ending, we still need love", and I'm happy you allowed Romaine to experience her love!
Thanks for trying the game and sharing your thoughts, this means a lot!
great!The game is running very well now, and the start button has been loaded.thank you very much！I can finally start playing this fantastic game, I've been looking forward to it for a long time.
Hey! What platform are you playing on? Anyway, when you launch the game, you should automatically get to the main menu (after some loading if you're playing on the browser or android versions), which looks like this (if you're on Android, the "Help" and "Quit" options shouldn't be there)
Then, you just have to click on "Start" to start the game, and click anywhere on your screen, but on the icons at the top right corner in-game to play the game! If you successfully launch the game, this should be the first thing you see after the main menu:
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.
Hey Ebi, thanks a lot of trying this game! I'm glad you appreciated the art! And yes, that was the main conflict while writing it lol: I didn't want the game to be excessively optimistic, because I think it would be idealistic rather than realistic, but I also didn't want it to be all terrible and that's it. So hopeful is the right word, indeed!
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).
==========SPOILERS===========
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!)
Hey Chatter, thanks for the long feedback per usual!
Overall, what can I say but that I appreciate all your compliments, and that I'm very grateful you accepted to edit and beta the game!
You overall caught my artistic intention; I wanted everything to be excessively dreamlike, only to have them contrast with a bitter reality, with a fatality from which you can't escape: the eyes of God (dang, when I phrase it like that, I realise this is very VERY RACINE-like again, I can't escape the doom either fvgfdfg). And good catching on the name loool, I couldn't not go with a Romeo and Juliet reference here; and beyond the obvious "forbidden love" reference, it was also just to add to this dreamlike, fictional feel, contrasted with reality.
And thanks, I really enjoyed making the art for it (not so much the GUI, I gotta admit)! Overall, I wanted it to look closer to my traditional art style in terms of colouring, since I tend to go crazy with colour pencils loool, but yes, I wanted to keep the GUI as minimal as possible, so that the focus is on Juliet only!
Regarding the writing, you caught it all: there can't be a perfect resolution, and whatever the decision Romaine takes is, it isn't judged: in the end, all that matters is that she attempts to be happy on her own terms, whatever these are. But, whatever the decision is, there is a drawback, a conflict that will never cease to exist, since Romaine's very existence somehow is the conflict... which is kind of depressing to think about lol, and I hope the game is more optimistic than that looool
Once again, thanks for all your kind words and your support, they really mean the world!!!
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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.
Hi Taumi, thanks for sharing your thoughts! And it would have been really nice indeed for Romaine and Juliette, but that actually was the point of the game haha: it is complicated to conciliate the two, and most of the time, you can't. So, what is there to do? Try your best, no matter what your choice is!
I am glad you appreciated the art (and the leaves effect loool, it was a struggle to think of a way to make them noticeable without making them overbearing), and that was the idea: have everything look very sweet because, well, in any other context, it would have been a perfect romance scene: Juliet and Romaine love each other, they confess it... and yet, there is something blocking it.
And yes dfvgfdfvb it actually reminds me of a preacher in the train, who started his preach by saying: "The world is bad!! Celebrities turn out to be sexual offenders! There is global warming! An economic crisis!" and concluded his looong enumeration by saying: "But fortunately, there is JESUS", it was so unexpected for me that I burst out laughing dfvgdfg
Thanks for sharing your feedback Taumi, I appreciate it a lot!!
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 💕
Hey Carrot, thanks for your feedback!
I do feel very conflicted too about the game, I won't lie haha, because, well, there is no perfectly happy ending in the end, and I don't think the conflict can be resolved; just trying your best to be happy and to limit the dooming feeling, whether it is guilt or regret.
And I'm happy you enjoyed the presentation! It was meant to be very very sweet, but only to contrast with the less idyllic situation Romaine is going through.
And yes, even I wanted to confront Romaine to what she could be missing on even if she didn't confess, it was in theme, unfortunately for her!
Thanks again for all these kind words, I was so unsure about releasing the game (I think I wasn't that anxious about a game ever since High School Lolita lol), so I'm glad it was a touching experience!
🥺
next step is to release a hug romaine simulator 😞😞
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.
Hey Omega! Thanks for this lovely feedback on the game!
And you overall worded the difficulty of the game very well! For exemple, Islam or Judaism forbid the consumption of pork, but now, I'm sure most Muslims or Jews don't mind other people eating pork, so yeah, to each their rule as long as you don't force anyone! But now, when the problem is within you... it is more difficult, and I wanted to explore the inner conflict indeed, rather than everything exterior (societal expectations, family, "church" or anything similar).
And thank you for the art! I overall tried to get closer to my traditional art style for this game, and I'll admit I quite like the results in terms of colour too! Thanks for the kind words and for sharing your thoughts, Omega, they mean a lot, and they were very interesting to read!
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.
Hey! Thank you so much for the kind words about the game, I'm happy you enjoyed it!!!
And I agree with you, I think most gay people I know from religious households tend to hide their relationship from their family. Admittedly, this game wanted to tackle the conflict not with the family (as it is more often portrayed), but an inner conflict between the characters and their faith, which you illustrated quite well with "even if the ultimate fate is a tragic ending, we still need love", and I'm happy you allowed Romaine to experience her love!
Thanks for trying the game and sharing your thoughts, this means a lot!
The game screen stops at the beginning, and the background music is still playing, but no start button appears
Ok, your problem seems different to what I first thought; could it be possible to have a screenshot?
Hey! I managed to reproduce the bug, and it should now be fixed! Let me know if the fix doesn't work for you. Hope you enjoy the game!
ok,i am trying now.
great!The game is running very well now, and the start button has been loaded.thank you very much！I can finally start playing this fantastic game, I've been looking forward to it for a long time.
Neat, thanks for letting me know about the bug! I hope the game is worth the wait!
i don't know how to start the game,which key to start?or click something?any help?
Hey! What platform are you playing on? Anyway, when you launch the game, you should automatically get to the main menu (after some loading if you're playing on the browser or android versions), which looks like this (if you're on Android, the "Help" and "Quit" options shouldn't be there)
Then, you just have to click on "Start" to start the game, and click anywhere on your screen, but on the icons at the top right corner in-game to play the game! If you successfully launch the game, this should be the first thing you see after the main menu:
I hope this helps!
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.
Hey Ebi, thanks a lot of trying this game! I'm glad you appreciated the art! And yes, that was the main conflict while writing it lol: I didn't want the game to be excessively optimistic, because I think it would be idealistic rather than realistic, but I also didn't want it to be all terrible and that's it. So hopeful is the right word, indeed!
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).
==========SPOILERS===========
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!)
Hey Chatter, thanks for the long feedback per usual!
Overall, what can I say but that I appreciate all your compliments, and that I'm very grateful you accepted to edit and beta the game!
You overall caught my artistic intention; I wanted everything to be excessively dreamlike, only to have them contrast with a bitter reality, with a fatality from which you can't escape: the eyes of God (dang, when I phrase it like that, I realise this is very VERY RACINE-like again, I can't escape the doom either fvgfdfg). And good catching on the name loool, I couldn't not go with a Romeo and Juliet reference here; and beyond the obvious "forbidden love" reference, it was also just to add to this dreamlike, fictional feel, contrasted with reality.
And thanks, I really enjoyed making the art for it (not so much the GUI, I gotta admit)! Overall, I wanted it to look closer to my traditional art style in terms of colouring, since I tend to go crazy with colour pencils loool, but yes, I wanted to keep the GUI as minimal as possible, so that the focus is on Juliet only!
Regarding the writing, you caught it all: there can't be a perfect resolution, and whatever the decision Romaine takes is, it isn't judged: in the end, all that matters is that she attempts to be happy on her own terms, whatever these are. But, whatever the decision is, there is a drawback, a conflict that will never cease to exist, since Romaine's very existence somehow is the conflict... which is kind of depressing to think about lol, and I hope the game is more optimistic than that looool
Once again, thanks for all your kind words and your support, they really mean the world!!!
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!
Hi! Thank you so much, I'm glad you appreciated the story! Thanks for all these compliments, they are such a relief! 😭😭