Huh, a developer here, that is nice.
You got already quite some feedback, so I do not know what mine will be worth. But I will give it anyway, because I still wish this to be a great game. Unlike many people here I am not so concerned about the production pace as I see the great care for details and the aspiration to create something new. I appreciate that a lot.
Unfortunately, there are many minor to bigger issues which leave this game to be a frustrating experience.
First of all, there is no consistent interface design. It was annoying like hell to get used to it, why put the close buttons at a random position and always have a different design for them? Please at least bind a button like "(c)lose" or "x" to them.
The mechanic of game play is the same for each girl. Talk to them - get item from Snape - use item - ask hat - talk again - ask hat again - continue in loop. It was interesting to figure this out once, the rest is outright boring, the content of the conversations does not matter at all, so why bother reading it. All three girls have exactly the same options in the same order.
You obviously put a lot of writing in your game. If you want to do so, that is fine, but you need to consider the player too. It needs to make sense for them to start reading. No offense, but you are not good enough for the story to be worth reading on its own. A way out would be to really include hints which actually matter for the game play too.
The training system is also a cheap and annoying mechanic. Train finesse ... yeah as if this works. There is so much potential to advance these traits through the story. This might even give an order and a sense of progression to the events.
Maybe it is not a good idea to have all the girls in parallel. You could make friends with one, which helps you solve the problems of the other. Immediately, the players would be invested in the story as the game mechanic requires them to.
The final point which is a weak spot in many games and found here to an unnecessary extend: Why do we always have to click through the same text even if there are no new options!?
Please come up with a mechanic which minimizes these points of frustration - even if it is only something like: "I feel calling her again will achieve nothing..." > "Do it regardless", "Nah" - very important, leave the player with the choice!
To summarize: you have a visual novel, but try to implement game elements - this does not go well together.
If you want a visual novel, eliminate the unnecessary repetitions. Having to click twice through the same text should never ever happen.
If you want a game than you need real choices, progression, different routes. Reading something a second time needs to provide the possibility to recognize something of importance, something one missed before.
actually gonna become a patron for this game.
