I stand by my opinion that MD is unplayable without a good walkthrough. The fact that various forums must take up the slack for players basically "playing in the dark" without a WT attests to this. Too many steps literally require precise timing to do correctly.
We don't disagree there.
We know that the game requires lots of trial-error and that the hints sometimes are not so easily catched so the game does require a walkthrough in many cases. We are trying to make it simpler with each version without making it a boring VN where the player just mindless clicks "next" to see the next part.
We experimented/included mini-games, puzzles and card games to make the game more fun but players seemed to prefer the more straight approach of talking and pointing on where to go and what to do next. We dislike the idea of the game becoming a boring VN with the players just clicking "next" to proceed so we prefer to have the "hints" (sometimes obvious sometimes not so much) dropped by the hero and then the player will be left to "solve" what he needs to do next. This way everyone wins since the more hardcore players will go the non-walkthrough way and get their sense of achievement while the others will just read through the walkthrough and play as they are accustomed with a more straight forward approach.
We are still fixing and adding things in the game constantly while we know that the game is far from perfect which is why we beta-test the heck out of each version before we release it whilst we prefer to delay an update rather than rushing it.
MD tries to use a theatrical technique [I have a degree in Theater Arts] to move the story/action along. But I see two main problems with this in a VN : 1) the hints and clues are either too general/vague or even too in-your-face obvious which is a buzzkill ; (2) I very much doubt too many players appreciate this attempt at complexity (notice how many game reviewers say they LOVE the art but otherwise...).
We are! Kudos on spotting it!
The complexity is something that we pride ourselves though through out all of our work so we are used to a certain audience that does not like it as we know for a fact that there is also a big majority that enjoys it.
