A master.... baiter.
Yours Truly, Miru.
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A member registered May 27, 2021 · View creator page →
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The Sequel is confirmed, but there's more to go...! (NEW LOVE INTERESTS) comments · Posted in The Sequel is confirmed, but there's more to go...! (NEW LOVE INTERESTS) comments
I think what most of us are trying to say is that we aren’t so much so upset at Jenny for attempting something like this, it’s pretty unique and a good concept on paper, we just wish if suicide was done it shouldn’t be for shock value and I think she should’ve used this for a full project and not a game jam so she could translate her ideas better and have better pacing. I don’t think you should need a demo to feature suicide just to boast ratings and moral for your game, that sounds like a lame excuse to get people to support you and kinda manipulative as others have pointed out.I understand the grander scheme of the story she was trying to put out and what op was trying to say is that this is a good idea but it had very awful execution + it needed more time in the oven and a lot of this stuff should’ve stayed in development or very well been done better and in a longer format so you can really understand what’s really going on. I think Jenny limited herself to a game jam and that was kinda the root of the issue, not saying it’s a justification for the misuse of suicide but I think that’s where a lot of these issues could’ve been avoided and a lot more research as to not stigmatize her audiences trauma and experiences for likes and reviews. Especially since I don’t even think said creator struggles with these ideations themselves, or has never outright confirmed as such. Not that it would make it any better.
Thank you so much for your kind comment and backing me up. 🤍 I’m trying not to be too bothered by what they said and be as civil as possible, I genuinely appreciate the concern. I reported their comment and blocked them after my response for my own well being. It’s really really messed up that they said that when I had good intentions with what I had said and had meant it at face value wholeheartedly, and it was that mental health should be taken seriously and with care, and I guess that made me a horrible person to them. I don’t understand what set them off, but I hope they feel better 🤍
The problem most people have with the game is not because of not reading the warnings or whats going to happen (which actually orginally was the case because in the first build, in which most people played, it had not contained any and instead they were hidden on the itch.io page, which is not an adequate place to put content warnings for something as sensitive as this.) but the fact of how poorly written it is and how it was done in a way that was not well researched, well thought out or well done.
Firstly, no it is implied he committed suicide because of the hate comments and harassment he was getting. If it truly didn't bother him in some way, which it seemed to, why on earth would he do it? Was him ghosting the MC and hiding himself away because it hurt and stressed him out also not of his own volition like you seem to be saying? YOU are the one who seemed to miss "hints" right in front of your nose. The thing most of us don't understand is why Jenny decided to go about it this way, if it was truly just Ryuks doing, it was not thought provoking or well done in any way, shape nor form. In fact, we still know nothing about Ryuk, the cat was not in the story besides very brief implications and thats why we are confused. Ryuk feels very out of place in the grand scheme of the story and like the horror aspect was an afterthought. Its very lazy writing in terms of horror, and slapping a "give me 5 thousand reviews to revive him" at the very end and half assly explaining plot and story beats at the very end is HORRIBLE writing. The main point of writing is showing and not telling, which this game fails miserably at, from one writer to another. We see a lot of issues with this because writing needs to be shown adequately so things can be explained and neatly wrap up plot threads, this game needed a lot more revision and time in the oven and should not have been done for a game jam where these topics need a lot of understanding and grace to be done properly. Just because stuff isn't always explained irl doesnt mean that should be an excuse for horrible writing on a game about a complex topic.
Secondly, NOBODY IS HARASSING JENNY!!!!! And if they are, its not any of us. I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and just say you are making a lot of this stuff up in your comment. Nobody is attacking or harassing Jenny, we are critcizing her writing because it depicts something very sensitive and something that needs to be thoroughly researched which in this case it wasn't. I actually scrolled and did not find a single comment saying what you seem to be implying, just well rounded critcism from people who struggle with depression or have lost those they love to suicide or murder, which Jenny has not which is why people are offended and hurt by the writing and how insensitive it is to people who suffer from it and most of us went in knowing the content warnings, just expected more nuance. Also, only one person compared it to DDLC, one person and the difference is that Sayori is actually well written and Zilas isn't. Your acting as if a majority of us said these things when we didn't to prove a point, which you aren't. We are allowed to criticize and give our takes on very real world issues and stuff we suffer with on a published product. Part of being a game developer is accepting criticism and recoginizing when YOU release a product or project into the world, people are free to do what they like with it and just because the developer is a smaller one doesn't negate them from any and all criticism, what stupid reasoning. Your failing to realize the difference between harassment and criticism when most, if not all, of us want Jenny to be a better writer and still stand behind her because she has worked on amazing projects and knows how to write good and thoughtful stories, which is why most of us are disappointed in how she went about this and went about addressing it. Jenny isn't an "uwu poor vicitim" getting harassed, maybe read the reviews that seem to be 'harassment' to you and recoginize the game dev and lead writer has done problematic stuff and deserves criticism for her actions instead of writing it off as harassment.
For someone who claims to not be defending the lead writer and producer, you sure seem to be ignorant to a lot of what people are saying and ignoring most of our points for the sake of defending said writer, and making an account just to protect them tooth and nail kinda shows what side your actually on. Good grief.
Ok so I'm going to mirror a lot of what people have previously said and give my most honest review of this game, **OBVIOUS SPOILERS AHEAD FOR ANYONE WHO HASNT PLAYED.**
I usually never EVER leave negative reviews on indie developer projects, only criticism + advice for how to improve but this game genuinely upset me with how competent of a writer Jenny is and why she decided this was a good idea. This is mostly for her.
I geniunely do not like how this game is handled, to the writing, to the lack of content warnings and age restrictions, to the way suicide and depression is handled. Everything. It felt as if it were trying to do to much in a very short amount of time and did it poorly.
!. The lack of warnings and age restriction
Lets start with the content warnings. Why were they NOT added in the first build?? Why did people even have to tell you to add them to the game to begin with when it touches on VERY VERY sensitive topics such as depression, suicide and murder? that should've been an honest no brainer to add to a game, much less a horror game that touches on real issues.
It felt more like you wanted to shock and scare your playerbase as if everyone reads the hidden content warnings? do you know how dangerous that is with how triggering the content is? not to mention this game NEEDS a age restriction on it, with the very suggestive nature of some of the stuff said + as well as the gruesome nature of the entire story. It was very mishandled and you, Jenny, as a writer should KNOW this.
2.The plot/endings
Going back to the point I made previously, this game feels like it wants to do too much in too little time. The suicide ending was disgusting and unneeded. It felt like you were trying to make people shocked instead of adding any meaningful impact to it and instead opted out to disgust, shock and disturb instead of educate.
I have depression, Major depressive disorder to be exact and suicide is not something that comes out of nowhere or is a split second decision. There are signs, foreshadowing, and symptoms that Zilas never showed or even mentioned subtly. I feel like we, the player AND his romantic partner, should've gotten that side of him through more deep and meaningful dialogue and helped him through it because Zilas seemed VERY happy with his life, and online drama getting to the point where it results in someones suicide is usually rare and takes months of bullying, not one or two days.
It also makes no sense from a writing stand point if Zilas didn't have much time to begin with, why on earth would he commit suicide when all he wanted to do was spend his last week with us? I thought the cat literally said he didnt care for money or fame but himself and you? It was also extremely out of character. Zilas had insecurities like anyone else had but they did not read like signs of someone struggling with a worsening mental state.It makes no sense and I feel like this is a very disrespectful and distasteful way to go about addressing suicide and by extension, depression as if its for shock value and discomfort of your audience rather then try and help them understand the dangers of it. Shame on you, Jenny.
And oh boy don't even get me started on the cat and the homicide ending. This was foreshadowed slightly better, but it also falls flat. Yes, there is some dialogue already pointing to the fact Zilas is dead; "Can the vacation be sooner?" "I want to hit 1 million followers in a week" "I want to introduce you SO BADLY" etc. but it was very poorly handled as well because we did not get a very good explanation for how the cat works, how we as the player actually affect the story and his fate, and what the cat even is. It has a huge problem with TELLING you whats going on through sloppy exposition rather then SHOWING you with hints and through indirect storytelling.The cat was BARELY in the story and the plot twist didn’t feel satisfying, it came out of NOWHERE. Instead, you get a botched ending where the cat half hazardly explains why he did it and how you can save him with 5k ratings which brings me to my next point of contention.
3. The rating problem and how Jenny is handling this.
I am honestly disgusted with how the ending was handled.It feels like a deliberate marketing tactic rather then a meaningful ending to a game, it feels like dangling a piece of meat over a dog on a treadmill. I understand its a free product but encouraging your *mostly* underage fanbase to make alts to review your game so they can save their favorite fictional character honestly feels like a sick joke, espically since this can result in their account being perma banned. Mind you, this goal is also very hard to reach and you know that Jenny. I don't know why on EARTH you'd decide this was a good idea from both a professional and writing perspective to do this to your audience, it feels innately cruel and like you want attention rather then telling a story about important and real life issues about social media and giving actual good commentary.Its like your exploiting your audience for positive reviews instead of actually wanting to put out a well thought out and coherent story about how streamers have emotions and aren’t just for our entertainment as well as cancel culture, but that’s not what I got at ALL.
Also, you making fun of and mocking people crying and being disturbed over Zilas dying is not doing you any favors. It kinda shows you were never really in it for your fans but rather for yourself and for the attention which is why I'm being so harsh in this review. I have followed you for quite awhile through your different projects and I know you are a competent writer and person, which is why I'm so confused about why you decided to approach this in such a distasteful and undermining way to both your audience and your team. I'm just highly disappointed.
4. Epilogue, what I would change.
The TLDR is basically: I am highly disappointed in how Jenny handled this story and I did not like how it was done, from both a writing and professional perspective. I hope she does better in future projects.
Now, if you want my personal opinion on what i would change as a writer myself? here are my thoughts.
I would honestly prefer we could get the third ending through a variety of puzzles and get hints through both endings, much like an ARG. It keeps the 4th wall breaking element there and gives us a more reasonable goal for how to save Zilas. Whether it be something in the chat or dialogue,they would be good options for doing a password. Or you could even make a website that could redirect you to even more hints and give you more information about how the world works and a lot of puzzles to solve to both understand more about Zilas and how the cat works, even actual websites in the game like Twitsh or OnlyPhams. Imagine how cool that'd be.
I'd honestly opt for scrapping both the 1st and 2nd endings, or making the branches earlier in the story so you could have a better and more thorough explanation if Zilas decides to go through with his suicide, to where you actual get more dialogue and subtle hints pointing to the face he may be struggling with his depression and what people think of him, and for the murder ending, making MC have more obvious urges where they get worse and worse up until we kill him. (Basically like creepy intrusive thoughts before they cut off and the game continues as needed) and a save system for each day or skipping dialogue would actually be a needed and nice touch.
I'm well aware this will not happen, I just honestly wish this had more time in the oven and was longer so we could actually gather more information. It doesnt feel like anything is meaningful, or impactful if no matter what we do he is going to die, and the only way we can save him is review bombing the game. It just feels so cheap, and the art and design direction is so nice and thats why I'm just so confused on how this even passed the development phase of ideas. It just feels unreal.
If you read this review to the end, thank you for your time and I honestly hope you understand what I'm trying to say and have a good day of resting and eating well. Everyone deserves it.
This is geniunely one of the best games I've played regarding abuse, gaslighting and other forms of manipulation. I'm not going to spoil it for anyone who wants to play as I highly recommend it, but I will touch on my personal feelings. I've went through something similiar to this and the way it was put together and structured was a very realistic approach and very well researched, it made me feel a lot of strong emotions, bittersweet ones. It made me cry, it made me smile, etc etc.
I want to personally thank everyone who worked on this game, from the writers, coders, artists and devs for making such a beautiful masterpiece thats both horrifically accurate and horrifically nostalgic to those who have gone through similiar experiences. Putting stuff out like this helps people learn and understand abuse, and it could help them realize they're in abusive situations themselves without knowing.
I always see abuse portrayed as hitting, verbally berating, etc, and while those hold true and are very real, it's nice to have a game that accurately portrays gaslighting and more subtle abuse in a realistic way that doesn't demonize the victims of these situations, as they are hard to get out of, and even harder to understand. So thats why I'm thanking you from the bottom of my heart, I feel heard and like I finally have a game that represents some of what I went through. I've honestly thought about this game for hours and will continue to think about it even after that.
I will keep singing my praises about what a gem this game is, from the graphics, the music and the story. You and your team are truly amazing. Have a good night/day/afternoon, thank you so much for your hard work.