Sorry for the bunch of text, but I had to get my anger of my chest:
You know, JustXThings, I really hate you
! You ask why? Well, you did several things to bring this on you!
First reason of all, you made this g*ddamn masterpiece of a game! I just found your game by accident going through several games with female main character in the f95zone. "Bittersweet Day" sounded a little like a crappy game and the title image also did not look that promising. But at least, it sounded like a short game and I did not want to get involved that much into a longer game right now - it was already late at night. So, I downloaded it from a surprisingly fast source ( ) and prepared myself for a at most mediocre game with hopefully at least some half-hot scenes after a lot of boring stuff in the beginning.
The game started as I had expected it: Marionette felt a little bit lame at first - at least from my state of mind. "Theatre play", "Bla, bla Universe", "Paula, Agnes WHO?", I don't care! Give the stupid game already. But hey, "Theatre play" sounded at least unusual. And a classical music theme for the beginning? But then again, the strange scene with the beaten girl in the basement? Some "Universe"-stuff I don't know and likely do not want to know? And just so brutal upfront. And a psychic Superhero-girl that just escapes? I expected something different - this is not so bad - but it also does not suggest much corruption still to happen.
Oh, switch to a taxi-guy? Red and blue people/crash test dummies doing it (in the first car)? The crying make-up-girl ... or boy appearing in front of the toe-truck (not taxi)? Oh my!
But then: Your driver mocking your own character as “make-up-freak! There is still hope! At least he knows how to write out of two different perspectives. But still, no porn in sight, just a confusing story that feels like a commercial for a modern tv series.
Oh, a nice girl, a beginning(?) of blackmailing? But no, switch of perspective. Ok, something is up and... BAMM, you got me: Having her show her ass is a good idea and looked nice. But that alone would have been nothing special for a VN. But the way you did it was so promising, so well thought out, so possibly-real, a little mean and to make the mixture perfect: Her inner monologue was really believable. Also, she was not too naive, not too stupid, just a little unexperienced.
From this time, there were only two fears in my mind: “Will this lead to the max perv level in one scene with no further development which is boring as hell after 3 minutes?”And: “Will this be the only good scene in the whole game?” - some games try to set the expectations very high with a stunning beginning and then there happens nothing for the following 10 seasons.
But no! You delivered - and exceeded my expectations, commander !
There is so much good about the Bittersweet Day game: Real choice, very dirty and not so dirty paths, consequence. But this should go into your other thread. To finish this point here: I just wanted to play a new game for an hour. It was 00:00 already and I had to get up around 09:00 tomorrow. But you made me play half of the game in one go till 5 in the morning! I had a terrible day but still could not await to get home and play the rest of it!
So point one for hating you: You messed with my sleep in the last few days !
The second reason to hate you: You gave me such a high and pure dose of the game of my dreams that I do not really know how I will ever be able to enjoy other games that are "only" quite good. I feel like being used to smoking joints and you just injected me with heroine! (Not that I do drugs, but that is what I got from tv and games.) Again, you may ask why?
Your renderers are very good, you make really good use of depth of field, lightning, your assets are of a high quality - but that can be found in some games these days. What most other games do not deliver is: Your characters make realistic "movements" with respect for the psychological aspects of it. You also deliver a lot of renderers for just some seconds of the game-reality in order to archive this. There is "always" movement with every new line of text. You have an interesting story and background story (25 years ago) that is promising, but you tell just as much as is needed to feed the curiosity.
But what makes your game outstanding? What makes it a singularity? Your game really manages to fuck my brain! It even does manage a double penetration ! On the one hand, you manage to install such high levels of believability with the story, the behaviour and the inner monologues of your characters. The speed of their corruption is never too slow or high, there are no strange behaviours. But you also employ a lot of insight - Rebecca’s first dialogue with Agnes (the blackmailing gone wrong), that was unexpected, funny, but also quite well observed how to blackmail someone ... and how a mostly nice person would fail with it. In most games, Agnes's try would have succeeded; in some, there would have been an instant reverse-blackmailing. But no, you found a surprising third way that might involve some sympathy of Rebecca for Agnes, but also might be a well disguised way of Rebecca to completely break and control Agnes. I don't know what it will be and that is what I like.
But there is another way of your game fucking my brain: The style in which it is played and your expectations towards your players. You jump from past to present, from one perspective to another and almost never give some guide for stupid or uninterested players. So, you deliver a top of the notch game but also say I don't give a shit if you are too stupid to understand its story.
I read that you regret at least some of this challenging gameplay, but I really love it as it is. Ok, after 15 chapters, I might need some advice and a gallery would help a lot after the first tries to find everything on my own. But please don't degrade your intellectual masterpiece into one guided senior's home game . Getting a piece of information here, another there and a seemingly opposing one there with the need to piece it all together is a really great feeling.
I imagine you standing next to the pit of death yelling: “My game is too confusing? NO, THIS! IS! THEATRE!” At least for me, this is what I expect from a nice play at the theatre - something I can use my own brain on and not everybody might get the same results. But you even go beyond theatre, you go to interactive theatre: In order to get all the needed information, we have to play through the scenes of your game in different orders. So, you not only integrate choice as a story-element, but also time! WOW, never(!) saw this in a visual novel. You made a role playing game that is disguised as a "linear" visual novel !
So basically, this is a porn game with hot (but realistic) chicks, on the point corruption and a lot to work for one's brain. Name any other game that combines these three aspects that fine?!
You even write very good and interesting stuff in this thread:
- "Because I REALLY want to finish the story, I off-screen many events because only knowing they happened is enough to set up the mood." Put Positively, you found a way (and the balls to do it) to include much more story in your game than you are able to write! And it works. You do give enough "information" and "emotions" before that I have a really good image of the events you only describe by text and they do set the mind for the things to come.
- Your "five stages of grief"-report: What a "sad" message, but what a humorous and interesting way of delivering it. I could relate to your feeling.
- "The vanilla, the incest are not looking that weird anymore... it is starting to look actually good. It doesn't make full sense, but it is a porn short story." You are right, but 99% of the porn games do make less sense in all parts of their stories.
- "Have you played a corruption story where the protagonist is giving blowjobs left and right in one branch but still seems conflicted about some guy touching her thigh in another? I hate that !!!" I always criticise thin in other games. The solution I suggest is story-barriers: Don't allow the MC working at a brothel if she did not have had any sex at all before. And also require some lewd things for her to do. You took the criticism and made a solution the other way around. If she is not corrupt enough, Mr. Smith will make her be so, if you want, in a slow manner. Also branching a story on the choice "masturbation or not" (being to late to really talk to Mr. Smith, or talking to Mr. Smith before Irwin) is very well done and surprising. In most games, you only skip the masturbation scene as a result or at most loose some corruption points.
The third reason:
You started the game early last year and put out a lot in some months (2 episodes and a complete spin-off). After being finished with your games, I started to read this thread. You wrote you expect to deliver part 3 about the fall of last year... and I already knew there was no third part yet, only 0.2. So, for the most of the 15 pages I had to read, I constantly feared you might have gotten yourself killed or something . I am so happy that you are well and everything went fine. And I bow my head for your delivering of a complete game in order to fill the gap with a gaming notebook until you have your big PC back. Others would have needed 2 Years for your Bittersweet Day!
And the last reason:
There I am, having played (almost) all of your two games that is released up until now. I usually only play completed games because I hate it to get absorbed in the story just to put it on hold for three months till the next release. And your game is the Mount Everest of "Oh, I really forgot which path I chose with this save game" and "Oh, what was that cool backstory of this character?" But even worse: Don't forget that you hooked me - I might just not even heroine, but crack cocaine. I lost my sleep, my life is falling apart , but the only thing I care about is: WHEN WILL HE RELEASE THE NEXT PART??? Despite me knowing that after that much to short fix, I will be craving for the next shot!
Oh, and as if you could read my mind, you broke your month-long silence just today! What a paranormal coincidence .
tl;dr: You made the best porn game(s) I could imagine that is sexually absolutely hot and also intellectually challenging.
You know, JustXThings, I really hate you
! You ask why? Well, you did several things to bring this on you!First reason of all, you made this g*ddamn masterpiece of a game! I just found your game by accident going through several games with female main character in the f95zone. "Bittersweet Day" sounded a little like a crappy game and the title image also did not look that promising. But at least, it sounded like a short game and I did not want to get involved that much into a longer game right now - it was already late at night. So, I downloaded it from a surprisingly fast source (
) and prepared myself for a at most mediocre game with hopefully at least some half-hot scenes after a lot of boring stuff in the beginning.The game started as I had expected it: Marionette felt a little bit lame at first - at least from my state of mind. "Theatre play", "Bla, bla Universe", "Paula, Agnes WHO?", I don't care! Give the stupid game already. But hey, "Theatre play" sounded at least unusual. And a classical music theme for the beginning? But then again, the strange scene with the beaten girl in the basement? Some "Universe"-stuff I don't know and likely do not want to know? And just so brutal upfront. And a psychic Superhero-girl that just escapes? I expected something different - this is not so bad - but it also does not suggest much corruption still to happen.
Oh, switch to a taxi-guy? Red and blue people/crash test dummies doing it (in the first car)? The crying make-up-girl ... or boy appearing in front of the toe-truck (not taxi)? Oh my!
But then: Your driver mocking your own character as “make-up-freak! There is still hope! At least he knows how to write out of two different perspectives. But still, no porn in sight, just a confusing story that feels like a commercial for a modern tv series.
Oh, a nice girl, a beginning(?) of blackmailing? But no, switch of perspective. Ok, something is up and... BAMM, you got me: Having her show her ass is a good idea and looked nice. But that alone would have been nothing special for a VN. But the way you did it was so promising, so well thought out, so possibly-real, a little mean and to make the mixture perfect: Her inner monologue was really believable. Also, she was not too naive, not too stupid, just a little unexperienced.
From this time, there were only two fears in my mind: “Will this lead to the max perv level in one scene with no further development which is boring as hell after 3 minutes?”And: “Will this be the only good scene in the whole game?” - some games try to set the expectations very high with a stunning beginning and then there happens nothing for the following 10 seasons.
But no! You delivered - and exceeded my expectations, commander
!There is so much good about the Bittersweet Day game: Real choice, very dirty and not so dirty paths, consequence. But this should go into your other thread. To finish this point here: I just wanted to play a new game for an hour. It was 00:00 already and I had to get up around 09:00 tomorrow. But you made me play half of the game in one go till 5 in the morning! I had a terrible day but still could not await to get home and play the rest of it!
So point one for hating you: You messed with my sleep in the last few days
!The second reason to hate you: You gave me such a high and pure dose of the game of my dreams that I do not really know how I will ever be able to enjoy other games that are "only" quite good. I feel like being used to smoking joints and you just injected me with heroine! (Not that I do drugs, but that is what I got from tv and games.) Again, you may ask why?
Your renderers are very good, you make really good use of depth of field, lightning, your assets are of a high quality - but that can be found in some games these days. What most other games do not deliver is: Your characters make realistic "movements" with respect for the psychological aspects of it. You also deliver a lot of renderers for just some seconds of the game-reality in order to archive this. There is "always" movement with every new line of text. You have an interesting story and background story (25 years ago) that is promising, but you tell just as much as is needed to feed the curiosity.
But what makes your game outstanding? What makes it a singularity? Your game really manages to fuck my brain! It even does manage a double penetration
! On the one hand, you manage to install such high levels of believability with the story, the behaviour and the inner monologues of your characters. The speed of their corruption is never too slow or high, there are no strange behaviours. But you also employ a lot of insight - Rebecca’s first dialogue with Agnes (the blackmailing gone wrong), that was unexpected, funny, but also quite well observed how to blackmail someone ... and how a mostly nice person would fail with it. In most games, Agnes's try would have succeeded; in some, there would have been an instant reverse-blackmailing. But no, you found a surprising third way that might involve some sympathy of Rebecca for Agnes, but also might be a well disguised way of Rebecca to completely break and control Agnes. I don't know what it will be and that is what I like.But there is another way of your game fucking my brain: The style in which it is played and your expectations towards your players. You jump from past to present, from one perspective to another and almost never give some guide for stupid or uninterested players. So, you deliver a top of the notch game but also say I don't give a shit if you are too stupid to understand its story.
I read that you regret at least some of this challenging gameplay, but I really love it as it is. Ok, after 15 chapters, I might need some advice and a gallery would help a lot after the first tries to find everything on my own. But please don't degrade your intellectual masterpiece into one guided senior's home game
. Getting a piece of information here, another there and a seemingly opposing one there with the need to piece it all together is a really great feeling.I imagine you standing next to the pit of death yelling: “My game is too confusing? NO, THIS! IS! THEATRE!” At least for me, this is what I expect from a nice play at the theatre - something I can use my own brain on and not everybody might get the same results. But you even go beyond theatre, you go to interactive theatre: In order to get all the needed information, we have to play through the scenes of your game in different orders. So, you not only integrate choice as a story-element, but also time! WOW, never(!) saw this in a visual novel. You made a role playing game that is disguised as a "linear" visual novel
!So basically, this is a porn game with hot (but realistic) chicks, on the point corruption and a lot to work for one's brain. Name any other game that combines these three aspects that fine?!
You even write very good and interesting stuff in this thread:
- "Because I REALLY want to finish the story, I off-screen many events because only knowing they happened is enough to set up the mood." Put Positively, you found a way (and the balls to do it) to include much more story in your game than you are able to write! And it works. You do give enough "information" and "emotions" before that I have a really good image of the events you only describe by text and they do set the mind for the things to come.
- Your "five stages of grief"-report: What a "sad" message, but what a humorous and interesting way of delivering it. I could relate to your feeling.
- "The vanilla, the incest are not looking that weird anymore... it is starting to look actually good. It doesn't make full sense, but it is a porn short story." You are right, but 99% of the porn games do make less sense in all parts of their stories.
- "Have you played a corruption story where the protagonist is giving blowjobs left and right in one branch but still seems conflicted about some guy touching her thigh in another? I hate that !!!" I always criticise thin in other games. The solution I suggest is story-barriers: Don't allow the MC working at a brothel if she did not have had any sex at all before. And also require some lewd things for her to do. You took the criticism and made a solution the other way around. If she is not corrupt enough, Mr. Smith will make her be so, if you want
, in a slow manner. Also branching a story on the choice "masturbation or not" (being to late to really talk to Mr. Smith, or talking to Mr. Smith before Irwin) is very well done and surprising. In most games, you only skip the masturbation scene as a result or at most loose some corruption points.The third reason:
You started the game early last year and put out a lot in some months (2 episodes and a complete spin-off). After being finished with your games, I started to read this thread. You wrote you expect to deliver part 3 about the fall of last year... and I already knew there was no third part yet, only 0.2. So, for the most of the 15 pages I had to read, I constantly feared you might have gotten yourself killed or something
. I am so happy that you are well and everything went fine. And I bow my head for your delivering of a complete game in order to fill the gap with a gaming notebook until you have your big PC back. Others would have needed 2 Years for your Bittersweet Day!And the last reason:
There I am, having played (almost) all of your two games that is released up until now. I usually only play completed games because I hate it to get absorbed in the story just to put it on hold for three months till the next release. And your game is the Mount Everest of "Oh, I really forgot which path I chose with this save game" and "Oh, what was that cool backstory of this character?" But even worse: Don't forget that you hooked me - I might just not even heroine, but crack cocaine. I lost my sleep, my life is falling apart
, but the only thing I care about is: WHEN WILL HE RELEASE THE NEXT PART??? Despite me knowing that after that much to short fix, I will be craving for the next shot!Oh, and as if you could read my mind, you broke your month-long silence just today! What a paranormal coincidence
.tl;dr: You made the best porn game(s) I could imagine that is sexually absolutely hot and also intellectually challenging.
