Wow... That was beautiful...
I love this a lot, maybe I'm biased because this is a Filipino mythos inspired work. But the story, the presentation, I just hope post-jam I could see the other routes. AND, with voice acting as well??? Insane pursuit over greatness, like I want to give my props to Libulan's VA they did so well with how they expressed his lines, like the emotion in Libulan's voice is just *chef's kiss*. Sidapa meanwhile with his sultry voice like damn, though it's so quiet sometimes I don't hear it or get confused by what he says. As for Liadlao, has quite the hard Filipino accent (/pos, I as well am a hard Filipino in his presence- I mean whatttt), I do kind of wish on that scene where he was behind Sidapa it had directional audio, the simpness would have risen even more haha,,, also I noticed when there was no audio, he had an echo in his voice, either intentional for god-like audio, or unintentional, I don't have much for comment. But still with all the work done, it was mega impressive. So much has been done for this.
Now for the implementation of the theme. Pretty much done well, very well, the story is folktale-like along with being inspired orrrrr implemented from true folktales of I hope I'm right, Visayan deities from long old, ones like Bathala for other examples of old gods in Filipino mythology, I need to look at more information about those, I feel ashamed to be lacking.
The story, was beautiful, I was immersed, the voices did well to keep me reading, and this is probably one of the few times I would slow down my reading. And I felt strong emotions about these characters, I went, for example "TELL ME LIBULAN, TELL ME WHY YOU DID IT BEFORE SIDAPA WILL PROBABLY FORCE YOU, YOU'RE NOT SPEAKING." And "WHY WOULD BE BELIEVE THAT YOU LOVE HIM WHEN YOU BETRAYED HIM 😭." And it was great. Though it's hard to tell who's telling a lie on the kind of personality each brother presents, I wonder what would be known post-jam. Like Liadlao says he doesn't open up to his brother, and in my head I confirmed it by how "Urgh, I'm not telling you, you would just be the same, just like all of them" like I understand how he feels, it's just not helping his case for Sidapa to listen, Sidapa had given him the chance to talk but noooo. Also I wonder how Maguayen would be able to return them in time as a "Here's back to the beginning of the story again." But considering this is going to be something inspired by Slay the Princess, I kind of wonder if it will be a full return, or a change in story, which damn it wayyyyyyyyy lots of work for a jam, but good for an initial start because that's how STP also started as a demo.
The presentation, also impressive is the many sprites, especially for Libulan my goodness, I really like all their designs, but I'll save my thoughts on Sidapa because all he has is a back view (which does look nice still). Though if I have a suggestion, it would be to change the menu colors, it doesn't contrast with the dark background, so it's a little hard to see. Also those chapter screens, very nice. The chosen backgrounds, done well. That one cg, urghhhhh painnnn in my heart (/pos). Also the music, props to them too, did so well to immerse me in the story too.
The writing, I can't explain it, it's just good. Em dashes are a trigger for the brain, but I remember someone I'm not sure if it was you who said will continue using em dashes regardless of the current state of writing with em dashes and semi colons. Still they were used well. There was one line that didn't have a capital on the word after "..." I have to check some time. Now this is a part of the VA work for missing dialouge, but it won't remove any points, rather just sections in case there aren't any noticed recorded lines such as "What how?", "Your brother was easy to converse with", "That was not a request", "It was not until then that he used the stars against me, and ran away", "I'm sorry Libulan, but I cannot do it...", "That would ruin what we worked hard to fix, do we not?", "Of course I do. When I delivered him, he was happy." While for Liadlao, "Follow me to the mountain peak, Death. I have something to show you.", and "How can I ever repay this debt of mine?" And then "But too much is at stake" is said instead of "But so much is at stake."
And finally, incredibly creative, probably the only one that did VA work (afaik, if not correct me, and even if there would be, it's still creative as heck.) But that already bumps up a lot in the creativity factor, and also, it was done so well. No wonder it was also inspired by Slay the princess URGHHHH, so good, so peak.
5 on all the boards, can't wait for post-jam.