As a huge Undertale fan, I was looking forward to trying this game.

However, as harsh as it may sound, I must say I was dissapointed in many ways. 

Before I continue, I want to say that the graphics are phenomenal. The pixel art in every sprite is super well done! And it's clearly the strongest point of the game.

Everything else though, not so much...

The main issue here is that there is basically no gameplay at all, it's all just walking and reading text. No combat, or events take place anywhere except for ONE puzzle that's very inconsequential and you can beat 1st try.

The second biggest issue is the writing, it starts by unpacking a huge load of information that becomes irrelevant (aside from being the main character's back story) right after leaving the house at the beginning,  to then try to give some semblance of lore about the circus we're in, without explaining anything of it, to then an ending that feels empty and meaningless. It's like the story is trying to tell itself as fast as possible without even taking a moment to explain itself, it all feels disjointed and rushed.

This problem is only worsened by the lack of save points, really long sets of dialogues that you can accidentally trigger twice (having to manually skip them all over again), missing dialogues with place holders in it, and grammar mistakes.

In terms of theme, aside from the clown character (who only appears once if you fail the puzzle) and the curtains, there's nothing else resembling a circus, and we can only tell because the game tells us we're supposed to be in one.

And lastly, while I appreciate the Undertale aesthetics and the few references in the game, it draws parallels to the point where if feels like an undertale fangame rather than it's own thing, which takes away from the experience a lot because it doesn't necessarily contain any of the characteristics of UT.

I understand time constraints and lack of experience can be a lot to deal with, but they are hurdles that you can always overcome eventually!

I'm sure your next project will turn out much better!

I really dig the looks of this one, really close to undertale! The heart at the end was probably my favourite sprite of the game, it looks super detailed.

The gameplay is good overall, tho I wish there was something I could interact with for puzzles, but with time constraints things not always go as planned which be understandable.

The story felt a bit disjointed, you had the whole thing of the abusive step dad and the main characters mom death, and you had the circus, but I felt the bridge between both was kinda missing, I think if you can figure that out it could be interesting.

The dialogue sometimes felt a bit stretched, tho it was only in some occasions. Super nice the house having lots of descriptions with the main character telling what they think about the things and what it reminds them of, I'm a player who likes to interact with every fricking thing on the map, so this pleased me a lot.

When it comes to technical aspects, the game works pretty well overall, only had some weird collisions in some places, and I sometimes felt the player character was a bit too slow, or maybe the maps were too big, ain't sure.

I liked the idea of having to free imprisoned souls of the circus to get a good ending, if you add an extra layer of gameplay to the whole opening big chest thing, like maybe having to find some item or do a small minigame, I think it be good!

Music overall was fitting, I liked the  one that played inside the circus, set the mood right!

Overall, it was good, I enjoyed it!