I do not intend to pour more gasoline on the pyre. The purpose of this post is to provide a bit of usefull information.
Now lets get to it shall we?
I believe there is a divergence between what is presented and what is expected of this project.
This is the root of the disappointed/negative atmosphere in the thread/reviews.
T - Text can be great.
V - Visuals can be great.
A - Audio can be great.
One can find an audience for a story of each of these categories.
Combining them in a good way is the tricky part. It will either yield moderate to great success or slight to utter failure.
What is presented here is a text-based game with added visuals in the first part.
Since both text and visuals are present at the beginning the audience expects this to continue throughtout the story.
At times our minds work in mysterious ways; Distractions, illusions if you will, can make us forget the most simple things.
Yet at the same time we remember complex things from years past.
Knowing the cause of something does not guarrantee that you will not be surprised by it.
The visuals at the beginning of this project will fool the minds of the audience into thinking this is how the story will be told.
So when the visuals stop there might be disappointment or other feelings along those lines.
I know that the intent was for the audience to have a story with both visual and text elements.
... but sadly the intent and the facts diverge.
What you have is a text-based story that seemingly promise the audience a visual side that it does not fully deliver.
This is the root of the negative reactions to the project. Would it be better without the visual start?
Well, at least then the audience would not be negative about a sudden lack of visual stimulation.
But the intended visual novel would be reduced to a novel...
It is a tough nut to crack. I wish you good luck with the project and hope you find a solution soon!
-ZzZ-