The Dragon Princess

I'M SO SORRY CHIM I STARTED PLAYING THIS LAST NIGHT BUT I WAS SO JETLAGGED AND TIRED I FELL ASLEEP AHHHHDFLAKJDSFADS

BUT I FINISHED IT TODAY. And I was also able to appreciate the second half more I think thanks to the fact that I was not absolutely exhausted LOL I think the beautiful calming music and beautiful painterly vibe really helped lull me to sleep, almost like a bedtime story...

AND WHAT A STORY!!

Gosh, Chim, all of your games just have this magical storybook quality to them it feels like. Even the ones that are traumatic and/or horrifyingly sad, they still somehow have this essence to them. I think thanks to not only your art style but also music choice and just the poetic way you write in general. At any rate, this game was no different and just as wonderful and beautiful and gosh I really loved it so much!! The art in this was just spectacular. I LOVED the way you framed it with the borders to really look like a storybook with cut-outs. And all the CGs, too! The CG scenes especially just felt right out of a storybook. I was in love with every one of them. And I especially loved how you drew Happho how did you make her look so cute and sweet??? I thought it was also really effective the way you'd use color to increase the mood, especially during numbing or menacing scenes, where it would go completely grayscale (or grayscale aside from the sprites).

In love with the music choices, as always. Especially that piano piece that Amaia plays. I LOOOOOOOVED how you kept bringing it back for big key moments, like the true theme of the game, the theme of Amaia finding her freedom through the piano and through that song and it becoming truly her. It felt very symbolic. And also just beautifully touching because it's a beautiful song so I always felt my heart start to soar every time it played.

---SPOILERS FOR SOME STORY BITS THO I TRIED TO KEEP IT MOSTLY VAGUE---

Gosh the story... my heart started to twist so much towards the end. I could relate so much to the idea of having something you once loved soured become of a person/experience with a person. So seeing Amaia break through and reclaim her love of the piano really touched something deep in my heart (which probably is what also made the use of the piano piece even more evocative for me). My gosh is Azaiah an awful awful man. In the type of way that you don't see it all right away. You only see those glimpses. And though he never was physical or inherently forbid Amaia from doing things or acting a certain way, she still felt trapped by him. Which is so much like so many relationships out there. Which was especially heartbreaking. And then my gosh the whole build-up in the ending, so much happening. Caleb, no!! I liked Caleb so much!! I was glad that the instant he saw that the things he was doing or said made Amaia scared or angry he took them back. Because it wasn't about him. It was about Amaia and her needs and her feelings. He's like the complete opposite of Azaiah. AND THEN HE DIED SOB. Sigh... and then ofc the big finale... I maybe should have seen it coming, but I didn't, and so my heart felt very soft and touched. Especially at the very end when the other girls' wishes began showing up on the screen. Ahhh... it was so beautifully done. Everything about it.

Thank you so much for this story, Chim! It was just beautiful in so many different ways and I loved it so much. The presentation, the story, the characters... just an absolutely breathtaking and wonderful experience. This might be one of my favorite games of yours!!! 💕

very cool! my only critique was that I wish the text had been placed a little more centered and that the font on the characters' names was smaller so it fit better in the art. i'm a big fan of making the text look like its part of the game as opposed to sitting on top of everything, so maybe a legible medieval looking font would have been interesting to see!

I clapped when he died. 😔🔥🔥🔥

Aaaaa beautiful game!! 

Great writing as always. I always admire people who make frame-like GUI. I think it's very cool. Also... I love Happho so much. Best dragon friend. 

From the very start, the game’s atmosphere pulls you in. The music and sound are really well done, they fit the experience perfectly. What surprised me the most were the voices. Seriously, they’re so well performed.

Overall, I felt really comfortable and immersed in the story, especially thanks to the visual style, color palette and character design. Everything feels really polished.

I haven’t finished it yet (there are just too many great games and not enough hours in the day), but I didn’t want to miss the chance to tell you how much I’ve enjoyed what I’ve seen so far.

It’s been a really pleasant surprise. And it has a good, heartfelt story too.

Congrats on the project. I’ve loved what I’ve played so far!

As always, everything fits together perfectly! The art, writing, UI, voice acting... it blends together seamlessly. Many people undermine the value of having a VN like that, and once again, Chim has done it perfectly.

With men like this, girl deserves to choose the bea- I mean, dragon... (Thank you for giving me the opportunity to beta read/test this fantastic game!) Overall, it was beautifully made and very polished, and I really loved this take on the "princess trapped in a tower."

The VAs all absolutely knocked it out of the park and were perfectly fitting for their roles. I especially loved the breadth of emotion from Amaia's VA, from her more playful lines with Vasserelli to her scared and enraged lines with Azaiah and Caleb, the majesty of Happho's voice, and how Azaiah's VA managed to effortlessly go from sounding heroic to sinister. The background music was also very well chosen, particularly during the intro scene and the climax.

The art assets were gorgeous! I really liked the framing of the GUI, with the borders on each side - it evoked the feeling of reading an illuminated manuscript, with a real medieval flair to it. It was also a very clever way of communicating the change in setting each time. The soft, painterly style and soft pastel colors were really lovely, and I really liked the character designs as well (Amaia was gorgeous, and I especially liked how "dragon-like" Azaiah appeared - as well as the contrast between his black armor and Caleb's white armor). In particular, I thought that Happho's design was very unique and fitting - more like a Chinese dragon, where dragons are associated with wisdom and royalty, than the more typically monstrous/animalistic Western-style dragons. There were an incredible amount of CGs (PARTICULARLY for a Nano game, with the strict time limit), and they all served to make the game feel particularly cinematic.

SPOILERS

I really loved this take on "the princess trapped in a tower" - rather than being trapped there, the tower is a place where Amaia finds freedom to find herself. The entire game evokes the feeling of "A Room of One's Own" by Virginia Woolf. It's an essay that I was thinking about particularly recently after reading more about Tolstoy and his horrific marriage. The diary of Sofia Tolstoy is particularly enlightening - in it, she declares that there were very few female writers/artists/composers in her time because their energies are consumed by their families and their husbands - their artistic abilities remain "embryonic and atrophy" and by the time they have finished raising their children to adulthood, it is too late for them to become "anything." These concepts are very well integrated into TDP. While Happho frees Amaia from her marriage, most importantly, she gives Amaia time and a "room" to rediscover her passion for the piano, which was taken from her by her domineering fiance. Her freedom comes not from killing the abuser that cages her - it comes from finding herself.

I also quite liked how, in the end, Amaia does not simply seek to carry on Happho's legacy, freeing brides from unwanted marriages. Instead, she seeks to provide girls with a space to explore their ambitions. It's a touching way to communicate how women's rights have been slowly fought for over time, building on the efforts of women that came before.

I also appreciated the breadth of "masculine" representation. Of course, you have Azaiah - the domineering face of toxic masculinity and oppression. However, he's not "evil" - certainly not at first glance. At most he seems like a "bold, assertive, ambitious" man - the kind of man that you could see running a kingdom - until you learn what he did to Vasserelli. But at the same time you have Amaia's kind, caring father Horacio - who nonetheless perpetuates antiquated beliefs by believing that he needs to quickly arrange for a strong husband who can take care of his kingdom and his daughter, focusing on Azaiah's 'strength" while ignoring his true colors. And while Caleb means well and truly loves Amaia, his belief that he is the "white knight" coming to save the princess is simply another flavor of the toxic masculinity that Azaiah embodies - a masculinity that positions himself as the hero, and Amaia as his damsel and love interest. I think that while Azaiah is the only clearly "vile" one of the three, I appreciated how all three "weighed down" on Amaia's freedoms in various ways. However, at the same time, you have Vasserelli - who respects Amaia's talents and cultivates her ambitions, while encouraging his daughter to do the same - showing that it is not a war of "genders," but of oppressive systems and mindsets.

I'll also touch on Happho's character. She really felt like a surrogate mother to Amaia, which was fitting, as Amaia never grew up with a mother to teach or guide her. The scenes where they were cooking together, and Happho opened up about her own experiences in the past, felt very warm, and it felt like Happho was a parental figure, helping Amaia to "grow up." It was a surprising take on the typically "monstrous dragon," but perfectly fitting for the story that the dev wanted to tell.

Overall this was a fantastic game about female empowerment - I hope that all women can find a "room of one's own"  as Amaia does. Fantastic job to the dev!