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Sovereign of a Dying Hell (Someone has to run this place!)'s itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Story / Writing | #1 | 4.657 | 4.657 |
| Visuals | #2 | 4.686 | 4.686 |
| Overall | #7 | 4.171 | 4.171 |
| Concept | #10 | 4.229 | 4.229 |
| Balance (Challenge and Fairness) | #16 | 3.514 | 3.514 |
| Use of Theme | #28 | 3.429 | 3.429 |
| Gameplay | #43 | 3.057 | 3.057 |
| Audio / Music | #62 | 2.057 | 2.057 |
Ranked from 35 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Team Members
kasha, mollyco, xiang
Streaming Permission
Yes
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Comments
This game is just oozing style. On top of the obviously stellar visuals, the writing presents a wildly dystopian setting in a relatable way. Zanmu is very much a villain, and we see that with how she is quite nonchalant about the horrible dealings in a literal hell. Yet, her internal thoughts break down complex political machinations in ways that make the player's choices clear. She also gives feedback on the longer term effects of those choices. On top of all that, I love multiple endings where it is up to the player's interpretation which is "best", making the outcomes feel more realistic. This is really solid VN design and I am taking notes. Other people have noted how much a musical score would help complete the ambience, so I will say the ability to manually save slots would make replaying for all possible decision choices and endings more appealing.
The art for this game was incredible to look at! It did justice to the retro anime style. The animated pieces (eyes, expressions, etc.), combined with the colorful scenery and characters, added a lot as well.
On a similar note, the readability was phenomenal! Text stands out well, and there's what looks like a level of customization on the developers' part. It stands out quite a lot from other VNs!
I recall a mention that some music may be added in a future build, which would make the entire experience even better.
Of course, the writing itself made for an excellent visual novel as well, combined with the good QoL features (such as autosave and telling when a vote's about to start). Overall, I enjoyed this one quite a lot; it's easily a favorite!
Very interesting concept, going through the lore starring Zanmu was really neat, it's great to see that you need to put attention to achieve certain results and plot as she would do.
Also, very nice art, I hope you can get a composer next time, this is promising.
The story for this game was sick. I'm a sucker for political drama and I love how the decisions affect the gameplay.
Awesome style. It's really authentic to the era. Really it is just missing some sick FM tunes to go with it. The story is very interesting as well.
where did you get this pictgure of me
Killer aesthetic, and cool story concept. Wish there was music to go with it.