I am truly every so grateful I found this masterpiece. It's just too great. The world building and storytelling is simply stellar. You have no idea how many times I caught my breath quickens, because of the anticipation while reading. The tensions, the frustrations, the feelings were truly raw... it was written splendidly.
Spoiler.
There was this part for Kiha's path in the other ship... I laughed so hard that was brilliant.
Of course I will replay and see other paths.. I am so seated for this. You are such a talented writer omg.
Also, I noticed a little typo here for your attention! Rocks bite as your knees as you drop...
Anyways. I feel like the best part about this whole masterpiece is the imagery. I'm not good with the body hurt parts, but you wrote it so well that I could imagine everything. Feels deep to my bones. Dang. Thank god I don't have to experience all that for real.
This is one of my absolute FAVVVORITE Wips, the writing the achievements are SOO satisfying I literally cannot wait for more updates I'm shaking this is so good 😭
Can you maybe make it possible to install with itch.io? Most of the if's I play can be installed on the app and it makes it way easier. Also I love your story and characters :)
The number of possible outcomes is so impressive and provides a lot of cool replayability, and 5 chapters feels like a blessing. The writing is also really good, and I really like how diverse the cast of characters are. Not too many that I lose track, but enough to give a lot of different interactions and conversations.
The characters feel so alive too, I've grown to like all of them and am especially attached to Joia (of course) and unexpectedly for me, Rhaxa? And Rohan gives me such intensely conflicted feelings of irritation that I can't help but appreciate her character all the more, even with the number of times she's stabbed my MC in the back.
Thank you for making this! Patiently awaiting the next chapter 😊
This is so good omg! I will replay this as many times as I have to, to get that Besties achievement. Joia my little angel, we will be besties. I have died trying, so nothin is goin to stop me 😭🤧✊🏾
thank youu<3 the besties achievement isn't actually achievable yet so don't die! it'll be in there soon💕 there's an achievement guide here which mentions which ones are achievable thus far, but be aware of spoilers:)
Wow I'm so stupid, lmao...let's just pretend that I didn't spend the last few hours trying to get that achievement 💀😂 But hey, at least I got to play through every possible combination of choices and it was amazing to see the different outcomes! Thank you so much for your hard work! 💞
Also, I just have to mention cos it definitely deserves it's own post and to be mentioned - our MC is fecking awesome. THIS is how you write an MC! Can't wait to see more of our MC kicking the universe's ass, proving just why they were chosen as the operative to receive IVI, and of course taking their revenge on Scytha (with or without IVI, tho I do like having her about!). Also, Joia (btw, how do you pronounce her name?) is a sweetie. Hope we continue to bond with her (maybe even adopt her in the far future), tho I know it will take time considering her trauma and likely trust issues. I really like the Found Family trope, especially with a tough, egotistical, selfish MC having to explore the side of themselves they've been distinctly ignoring. lol
Fantastic update - I've played this game to death since I first came across it, so every new update is a blessing. Love Rohan. Very intrigued about this new alien!
Figured I'd mention a bug. Okay, a bug AND something that I found a bit weird. If you choose to contact Scytha instead of Rohan's "person", when you come onboard Lance scans all the ID's, then you get a video call from the Director, right? Well there's a bug where, if you didn't kill Rohan (like in my case), and you lie to the director and say you did, MC will recall Rohan's dead body in the text as if he'd killed him, when Rohan is actually fine and well and on the ship. The other thing I found really weird was speaking about Rohan with the Director after lying about killing him, she describes what he look like, etc. However, considering this is the director, and Lance literally just scanned Rohan's ID when he came on board, AND found IVI with him, surely the lie would completely fail as she'd already know Rohan was on the ship? I mean, the Director would surely have already been informed, by Lance, of the fact that someone who was NOT a Scytha operative had IVI in their possession, and the ID of that individual was that of Rohan. Unless Rohan is using a fake ID, which is pretty probable (although the MC could probably speculate or come to that conclusion, to make it clear to the player), but that still wouldn't stop the Director from being informed of, and wanting to know the reason for, IVI being in the possession of someone in your entourage, rather than in your head.
Anyway, on tenterhooks for what comes next. More sexual tension with Rohan, and maybe some payoff for it? :D
so - something I could definitely make clearer in the writing - the Project is a sub-operation within Scytha, and a lot of the wider company aren't aware of it. Lance wouldn't have clearance to know about specific projects, especially not one like Hadea, so he wouldn't know IVI exists - all he knows is that Rohan's got something high-tech and shady and xe's cagey about what it is. as far as he's concerned, his job is to take you all into custody. and yes, Rohan's very much using a fake ID👀
as for the dead body bug, I'll try to hunt that down, thank you! and I'm glad you enjoyed the game<3
In the chapter 4, if you decide to call to your organization and lie about R, you describe R's name and appearance in details. Is that a bug or that's what suppose to happen?
Also, if you get a "vaccine shot", you get an "Unexpected token" error.
yes, that's supposed to happen - if you killed Rohan and lied about it, there's no reason to lie about xir appearance; if you left xem alive and lied about it, the operative is basically fishing for information about xem from the director, and not really planning ahead.
I swear to God you are trying to kill me with these endings to updates. Nooooo like come on man. I hated this so much.. not really i loved it but fuck it. Lmao this is too good and now i got cliffhangers on cliffhangers. It's so sad 😭🤣
The update was fantastic! I cannot wait for more! One thing I did notice is when coming back to the shuttle after choosing not to go after the sniper the text seemed a bit confused. Came back with Ki-Ha and Joia but then the next page had me asking where they were. And when asking where Raxha was on the page after that the response to that question was "yes we should get Skylar..."
Spoilers below! Probably....and might be a long ass comment sooo prepare yourselves!
First of all, i enjoyed the update a lot , your writing is great like always, and i enjoy reading it a lot.
I enjoyed the scenes with Rhaxa a lot, whether i chose to be a dick or not, and found interacting with him very amusing.
I really enjoyed how you made keeping R alive rewarding, by making them suffer, and Nash gained a lot of points in my book for using them as bait! And R Can bet their butt I'm not taking pity on them in the slightest. I tried to be nice to them but it didn't sit well with pretty much any fiber of my being......guess I'm not the forgiving type of person.....oh well!!!👀
And all the bravado R keeps, telling us to kill them, seemed to have gone out the window but that's understandable, what isn't is them thinking that Nash would care enough about their safety, considering they ruined their friends life and possibly ended it, along with theirs no matter who we choose to call.
And I'm starting to believe more and more that IVI might have become a permanent part of our fooked up brain, in an attempt to stay sentient? Or to stop her self from being separated from us by R. Either that or we're having phantom feelings and are too used to having her in our heads
Oh and i found a typo, after the choice to lunge at R when we get on the ship at the last few, it says "more to more" i forgot what was being said to be honest....
In conclusion great update, and keep up the great work bud!👍👀
GOD DAMN IT. CLIFF HANGERS. WE GET CRUMBS OF PAIN AND SUFFERING AND THEN WE GET A CLIFF HANGER. I HATE IT HERE. (I don’t I love this If I’m just way too emotionally invested at this point.)
The ROs are Nash, Rohan, Leanna, Ki-Ha, Rhaxa, and Imxa (who hasn't been introduced yet - she appears in the coming update!). Leanna is only romanceable by female or nonbinary operatives, and Ki-Ha is only romanceable by male operatives :)
OH MY FLIP FLOPPIN B'JEEBERS, THIS WAS AMAZING. I felt every smidgen of those emotions and experiences in this thing, may have made me tremble and cry a few times. Holy heck I cannot wait for the full thing to be finished and even when it's not you left it off at such a nice point too, still a cliffhanger but not enough to be maddening. Everything was very satisfying and immersive, and I'm happy there was an actual option to murder that one individual. Loved it. Once my health is better and I can get work I'll be supporting you as much as possible :]
I need to find friends to drag over here so I can theorize about the future with them now, so much to say.
there isn’t one at the moment - if there's interest I can definitely put one together, but it won't be until after the next update! not all the achievements are currently... achievable, at the moment, so don’t worry about not getting them all yet :-)
My eyes dilated when I know that we can't actually fuckin kill R on the spot. That shit is real and it blown my mind I thought we unable to actually do it 😂 i can stop laughing after chosing it.
For godsake, why every choice to torture 'em is so oddly satisfying although I'm not really mad at him LMAO
Would the whimpering of some child whom I didn't want to take along in the first place stop me from strangling Rohan? 🤔 No. No, it wouldn't. Not a chance in hell. In fact, it feels jarringly unnatural. MC needs to sort out their priorities.
Wearing a shirt that says “sure xe’s a red flag but red’s one of my favourite colours so what about it” and when I turn around it says “my guy given the aliens and the private company that fakes your death and removes your identity so it can kill you if you’re no longer an asset I don’t know if traditional morality applies in the exact same way all the time” (the text is very small) and then when I turn around again I’m somehow holding a sign that says “GET FOUND FAMILY’D, IDIOT”
Anyway Nash’s character makes me feel secret emotions but if R thinks xe’s getting away with this unbefriended that is xir mistake.
I would just like to say that this is amazingly written, can't get the beggining of the story out of my head for a weak already, and have seen I think every possible branch currently available, eagerly awaiting the continuation. :D
Also, a spoiler question:
How in the hell do you get the R kissing scene instead of them telling you to back off in ch3?
I somehow stumbled on it on my first playthrough and couldn't replicate it at all after, it's been driving me crazy. :D
(Let me rub my trauma against yours already, you crazy back alley surgeon)
And that scene varies depending on your relationship with Rohan! if you're on the rivalry route, you'll get that scene; if you're on the friendship route, you'll get the other one hehe
What's the friendship route? Is it where you didn't, yknow, before R took the Ai from you? And if you did yknow do it with R will there be no way to kiss them? And will both routes allow the romance to continue? Also wanted to say this was really fucking good, great job!
spoilers
Also wanted to say, out of curiosity I killed R, and damn you described it perfectly, so brutal, and it left me feeling disturbed. Really well done, felt like I had actually killed someone, and it left me feeling really empty. And the reactions from everyone else really solidified it. God damn. Also really ballsy to actually allow you to kill a main character like that, not many games allow you to do that!
Oh and one more thing, in another comment you said there might be an update around the end of this year. And since its nearly that time, no pressure obviously, and you owe all of us nothing. How's the progress on that next chapter?
choosing to/not to sleep with rohan in chapter one has no impact on friendship/rivalry - the different routes come from how you treat xem later. you get friendship points for listening to xem, showing interest in xir opinions and particularly from showing care/worry about IVI, while rivalry points come from shutting xem down, disregarding xir opinions on IVI, and being pro-scytha in your conversations. you can romance xem on either route, whatever your choices in chapter one - the only locks at the moment are at the end of chapter three, and these choices are available regardless of if you're friendly or rivals.
the update is very nearly done - it probably won't be released in the next couple of days, but I'm in the process of finishing it off and cleaning it up for release in january!
thank you sm<33 I'm glad you're enjoying the game!
I'm aiming for around the end of the year, but that's not set in stone. I am still actively working on the game, but I have a full-time job and other commitments so things are moving slowly (but they are still moving!).
This game is one of those few that i would call an absolute master piece the writer does such an excellent job of putting you in the main characters shoes and making you feel the emotions they feel i waited two days after playing this game to see if i would come down from that feeling you normally get when you play a new game to write an honest review and i still find myself thinking of the characters in the dynamics of the story. Each character feels as if there alive and there's a lot of different moving pieces.
SPOILERS AHEAD PLS PLAY THE GAME FIRST AND COME BACK ITS WORTH YOUR TIME
So Theirs a certain character in the story that i knew was up to no good at all and was susing them from the very start like minding my own business after a hard day at work and then they start being sus and dont go away when i tell them to when i was like nah leave me alone and they stayed i knew something was up but holy nothing but prepare me for the events that came next the story went absolutely crazy and it was fucking amazing and immediately i was like ima hunt her down and shoot her aint no way bro. But then things got even crazier and more insane i was like holy this goes hard there aint no way bro. Then you meet your new Daughter after some events and get called by best boy at least in my play through and ride or die brother who you get introduced to during the first little bit of the story. No i lie i would take a bullet for Nash another part is how quickly the reader got me to make a connection with IVI like i was as equally mad a i feel like my character would have been and i was ready to do anything to get her back.However this does change slightly there's one scene in particular that put cracks in my hatred for Rohan and its when shes playing cards with the little girl you saved. Now if you haven't seen this scene go back and play through it because it gives you so much insight to her character Didn't make me dislike her any less however i saw were she was coming from like she had a different Outlook on IVI than i did and was like shes making sense but i just disagreed with her outlook completely she did flesh out IVI a whole lot more than i thought was going to happen as well which one thing we agreed on kinda was IVI was more like a person than not its just and its kinda like this whole thing like would you rather be a slave and live or never have existed at all. Which is like one side you have i want them to experience the beauty and ugliness of this world even if there never truly free However one day maybe you could set them free and on the other its like. I would rather never exist at all then be a tool to someone else and its crazy. However i still dislike Rohan but i love her character its like shes made for you to hate her and shes coming from this entirely different view point and shes doing everything in her power to free this being. Which leads into me not being able to shoot her when given the opportunity i still hated her but that didn't mean she deserved to die. Did i punch her once tho hell yea i did did it make me feel better. no i was still mad also the other options didn't feel as in character like the kiss option was there and i was like ??????? HUH I still hate her and the other was like shoot her and im like hmmm i have but one choice suckerpunch.exe i would have probably gone with a more passive option but maybe not i was mad anyway back to the card playing scene alot of the info from that had also planted a seed i had not even noticed i was like damm this corp im working for is sus as fuck like i dunno anything about them really except for the stuff other characters have told me and there like you work for them stare. so when Rohan said the stuff about IVI i was like hmmm I still do not like you at all but i do care about this AI so call your people but ima still try and steal her back from you the first chance i get. Deep Breath
i could go on for hours about the Rohan stuff however i wanna talk about some of the other characters so the Captain of the ship that you get into i like her alot shes interesting but im more curious to where her story goes from here im not sure however shes like the character i spent the third most time with the other interesting character that feels like there about to have there arc soon is the alien that in the ship with you like it feels like there having a lot of build up and hiding a lot of secrets. The other two the ships mechanic and the brother to the captain i didn't spend to much time with so im not really sure of them but they are absolutely important characters like without them things wouldn't be able to progress and its good to have them there.
Overall this game is amazing and ill be waiting for more this game has easily won its way into my heart and is competing not just with my favorite interactive fiction games of all time but all the games i have ever played overtime its that good lots and lots of love to the writer with this one there doing an amazing job and they have a gift for story telling that some people don't have and they can make there worlds feel alive there is nothing more to say i hope everyone at least gives this game a chance because im sure if they do it will win them over too as it had done me
Hello, i liked reading your comment and seeing your points, but the part about R wanting to set IVI free confused me, granted i haven't Replayed the game in a while, but don't they want to sell her pretty much like a slave?👀
So I played this a while back but I wanted to come back and check if there's been any updates/new info. There hasn't, but I played it again anyway because I do love it.
So spoilers, but
I'm so torn with the Call Scytha/Call Rohan's people choice. Because going with Scytha is one of the few ways that you can get IVI back right now, but also going with Rohan's people gives you the opportunity to build relationships more - I'm guessing that's the whole axis of that choice, tbh. And I know that the chance to get IVI back will come along later in the storyline anyway but with how I play the Operative (frankly just devastated by losing her, and willing to do anything short of murder/grevious bodily harm to get her back... that chance, it feels so important to get it.
I love Nash so much, they give me this butterfly feelings. I feel like my MC could connect to them in more emotional way 🥺🥰. It's awkward but for some reason im digging it .
Been trying to get most of the achievements but the ones I've been having trouble with are the ones with Joia and Rhaxa.
May someone give me a slight step-by-step process on how to get those?
The achievements are something along the lines of that monster-fricker achievement
and that Joia achievement where the meme "if (insert cute entity) dies, I will kill everyone in this room and then myself" perfectly encapsulates it lol
but somehow, I keep messing up on both of those fronts. My operative just does not seem to pass both of their vibe checks dammm-
At the very least, Rohan's was- heh, EASY, in comparison. yeahhhh bet you feel insulted didn't ya, Rohan, u piece of shi-
dang, feels kinda sad tho that 3 hours of my life were wasted for something that doesn't exist eugh-
used to it ngl being an internet user forces you to get used to spending hours willy-nilly hahahhhh
welp, again thanks immensely!!
(slight spoilers ahead-)
I can now rest in peace and erase my notes and battle plans me of trying to get meself a mantis alien hubby and adopted, traumatised child, no am not obsessed wut are talking abou-
I loved it!! I read it all in one sitting, and while my eyes are sort of killing me, it was worth it. 😌💖 The writing is incredibly immersive, all the characters (including the Operative) immensely vivid and complex — which can make their interactions/relationships with each other both fascinating and frustrating.
MILD SPOILER warning (mostly an analysis of the Operative as a character tbh). Also. Very, very long comment. 🥹✨
I really like the pacing of Operative's relationships with the other characters. While most, if not all of them have a rocky start, you can practically feel their relationships slowly evolving over the course of story. Impressions shifting or reaffirming, hostility turning into fondness, or indifference turning into hostility. The subtle shifts in the undercurrents of the characters' relationships with each other feel really natural — at times, rewarding — and I enjoyed exploring them very much 💐
This game has a way of pulling you into its narrative — a way of subtly wrapping you up in a burrito blanket of the Operative's mind. I normally play IF games from an omniscient perspective. The emotions of my MC are usually kept separate from my own, though I do try to nudge them into ✨healthier✨choices. Despite that, even I had a difficult time extricating myself from the Operative's narrative — which, I must say, is all thanks to the incredible writing within the game. I felt the Operative's frustration. I felt their pain, their anger, and their instability. I felt their exhaustion. Their bitterness. Numerous complex emotions intensified by the trauma they had just experienced, and had not had time to process or heal from.
The Operative is not a blank slate. I understood that from the very first chapter. From the very beginning, they are shown — even stated — to be impulsive and arrogant. They're not completely open about their emotions, often preferring to deny they exist rather than processing them. To put it simply, they're not one for introspection. They're also very allergic to showing vulnerability or anything that could be perceived as weakness. The prologue served to show us how our Operative normally is when in... more carefree, more familiar conditions. When they still felt invincible. When they still had IVI. When IVI was taken, they lost both a friend and a piece of their metaphorical armor. As of chapter 4, most of the Operative's thoughts and actions seem to be driven by the trauma and emotions that they haven't had room to address. They're cooped up in a ship that's steadily losing power and they're stuck with the very person who had stolen something they held dear through inexcusably horrific means. Basically, they're in a very, very bad place mentally.
(Sidenote: that was not a dismissal of Rohan's value as a character. I find xem fascinating. I could gush a whole paragraph of everything I love about Rohan's relationship with the Operative but I'll spare you from that 😔💖 )
As I followed the Operative through the story, I often had to remind myself that what the Operative was saying and perceiving did not encapsulate the bigger picture of the situation — nor was it supposed to. The Operative is very much an unreliable and extremely traumatized narrator who has just had their entire world upended. And to most of the people (and aliens) on the ship, the Operative is a heavily wounded, potentially dangerous, and slightly(?) unstable person who is clearly familiar with death and danger — one that they've only known for a week at most.
(My Operative is at 12% health. Send Help)
I'm very, very fond of the Operative — especially the one that emerged from my first playthrough! They're actually my favorite character :D They're my poor traumatized slightly manic little darling alright I'll stop But as stated in the game's description:
Participate in a character-driven story, with an emphasis on relationship-building and character growth
This game places a heavy emphasis on character growth and relationships — including the growth of the Operative as a character. It's perfectly understandable to be protective of your Operative! In fact, I think it makes the experience all the more impactful. I really think that the author did an incredible job of portraying the delicate, tenuous nature unique to bonds formed under less than stellar circumstances. Most of the characters don't trust the Operative, not yet — and the Operative may not necessarily trust them either. It's a slow process. They've only known each other for a week. A week filled with tension, anxiety, and pent-up trauma. It will take time.
The game takes its time with forming relationships. Slowly, gradually, like clouds passing over a moon. The tentative beginnings of trust, the cautious camarederie, and maybe the hesitant appearance of the tiniest piece of vulnerability... well. This game takes such a unique approach to relationship building, and it's been a wonderful — albeit Stressful, but hey, that's part of the fun — experience. I can't wait to see how the rest of the story unfolds.
If you've somehow read this far, then thank you! Thank you very much!! My apologies for such a monstrously long comment, but after seeing some recent discussions regarding this topic I wanted to throw in my own two cents ^^ If this comment is too long for an itch.io comment section, then I'm really sorry — I'm not well-versed in the unspoken rules and etiquette of this site. :') Please inform me if this comment is inappropriate, and I'll immediately take it down!!
And, finally, for the wonderful dev of this game: thank you so much for sharing such an intricate and complex story with us!! I really enjoyed playing through it, churning roller coaster of emotions and all. I can't wait to see how the rest of it unfolds 🥹✨ thank you, and once again, please inform me if I crossed a line!!
😭😭😭ngl this comment really made my day - thank you so much!! it's very flattering to get such a thoughtful reponse, and I'm honestly delighted by how much thought you've put into this. the operative is such a fun character to write, and I'm really glad you're enjoying them so much - I know they're not everyone's cup of tea as a Playable Character but it's good to know that people like them and feel attached to their ops!
i really appreciate you taking the time to write all this out and send it, it's incredibly encouraging<3333
Imma guess that my ramblings are part of the mentioned discussions, if that's the case then thanks for reading through all that stuff if not.....uhhh pretend this comment was never made....👀
Also, your comment is very appropriate, and well written and very interesting, it has given me brain more fuel to keep me up at night. Considering more motives and reasons behind everything that i've read so far, so thank you!
I'm enjoying the game a lot, the writing is very well done and the descriptions and attention to details is nice, i haven't tried every option but from the ones i did, i'm having problems wrapping my head around a few things.
Like how everyone reacts if you hurt R especially when they're aware of how they stalked you drugged you and basically took your organs and Left you for dead, expecting you to act like nothing happened and be all nice and friendly, especially with how R keeps provoking you and acting like you should be afraid of them, not the other way around like proven later. It'd be fine if you remaind an asshole and didn't tell them or promised to stay friendly.
Especially joia when R admits to hurting you first and doing a horrible thing to you. sure she's a kid, but seeing how they react towards you for just punchin, R knowing she did way worse things to you is weird. I appreciate that she is upset with both later, but still doesn't feel enough.
Oh and sure i get why L wants you to behave before doing anything, but i don't get how she expects you to not seek revenge. Also she should be aware that she's defending one psycho from the other right? And how'd she react if she'd been in your place huh? Not any better seeing she'd be dead from what R did regardless of revenge or not because of the company you work for.
Then there's R expecting you to be different from what they already made you up to be in their head (even if your first interaction with them was nice), knowing full well what they did to you, and how they still treat you, mock you and all that fun stuff.
Also what stops the mc from taking IVI back if you decide to visit R after choosing to keep punchin? especially with how scared they are, as well as expecting to die and what not?
Oki that's the end of my rambling just wanted to share a few thoughts that have been running in me head, if you read all of that.... sorry and thanks i guess! Didn't waste 20 minutes for nothing then.
This is exactly how I felt after meeting R again!! They ripped IVI out and almost caused MC's death, but every character gets upset with MC for trying to get back at them?!
It's so cool to see someone put what I was feeling into words haha!!
Oki, i've thought some more and obviously if we're allowed to just take IVI back, it'd be problematic for the story or at the very least a pain in the pooper to continue from there.
Like R's definitely too weak to take her back, and if anyone else suggests giving IVI back to her knowing what happened.... deserves to be shot at that point.
But at least the other characters should react a bit differently than how they do now.
hi! first of all, thanks for your comment - I'm glad you're enjoying the game, and I hope you continue to do so<3
To address your questions:
1) the civilians don't know you - they don't have any clue about the extent of Scytha's experimentation, and they don't know Rohan. particularly at first, they have no reason to believe either you or Rohan about what's going on, and when (if) the MC explains, they don't automatically start trusting you. Ki-Ha in particular distrusts you as Scytha staff, and Leanna, frankly, is more concerned with keeping her family safe than your feelings. she has no guarantee that any attempt at revenge on Rohan isn't going to have collateral damage, after all.
2) Joia also doesn't know you - she's a kid, and she's frightened and among strangers, and yeah she leans towards you as the person who saved her, but she leans towards Rohan as a person who is nice to her, and any show of violence from any of you is frightening to her. again, she has no reason to trust you except for your behaviour, which can be aggressive and erratic, and the reasons for that aren't clear to her.
3) Rohan is projecting a lot onto you - this is a deliberate character choice. Xe is a dick, I'm not denying that, but xe has reasons and xe's behaving that way deliberately. it's a defense mechanism, and it'll be explained in later chapters, but if you're not interested in that development, there is a very easy way to not have to deal with it beyond chapter 3 :)
4) if you're talking about on the station in chapter 3, xe doesn't bring IVI with xem then - she's left on the ship with Ki-Ha and Rhaxa. if you mean on Portia's ship, it's because the operative is very conscious that their rescue hinges on them behaving themself, and again, portia doesn't have the context to know if any sort of violence is 'justified'.
the operative isn't a person who inspires great trust in people - you show up on Leanna's ship, waving a weapon around and carrying a child who clearly isn't yours, you can potentially make threats against multiple other people in that first five minutes, and your behaviour going forwards doesn't exactly suggest //safety//. Nash also has their reasons for maybe not reacting as intensely as you might expect, which will come out in later chapters, but I have to say, I also think like... Leanna's reaction boils down to her asking you not to be violent around her family; Ki-Ha is pretty understanding, even if you did choose certain options in chapter 3, and Nash will offer to kill xem for you. I don't know what kind of a response you're hoping for, but they all have their reasons for not encouraging the operative to go on a violent rampage while they're trapped on a ship with you.
I hope this cleared some things up for you! thanks again for the comment<3
Thanks for taking the time to both read and reply, to my long ass comment and indulge in me rambling! And fair point about not wanting to be stuck on a ship with a raging bull i guess.
But it still feels like they're doing a poo poo job at making sure you don't go bananas on them, and considering some conversations they all know it'll end very poorly for them.
And I've noticed the hints about how R has past trauma from abuse and stuff, and does in fact have a death wish... but i'll wait and see what happens next, before deciding if their behavior is justified or not.
To be fair we didn't hurt R near L's family, on the station so to speak hehe.
And i admit joia has the most right to be confused about all this, and she does come to the decision that we're both fucked up. But at the end it still shows that she depends on us, from how she holds on to our hand at the end so that counts as somethin.
And Nash is either too jealous and happy that we lost IVI, or felt like she was replacing them as #1 friend...am i close?👀
Oh right about the being conscious about behaving on the smuggler's ship, we did nearly choke R to death soooo, and the part with Ki-Ha doesn't scream behaving, but i guess our stay was cut short anyways.
Also now that we ain't on L's ship or the smuggler's, no one better have a problem with me taking IVI back by force sure have a problem if i kill R otherwise shut up cause L has no authority now hehe.
The easy solution of shooting R, while very appealing...makes me feel like i'll miss on some interesting stuffs down the line, but hey it's the quickest way to get IVI back.
I might change a few points, or add some after i've woken up properly.
I guess it's up to your interpretation, but I'd also say it's worth remembering that Leanna and Ki-Ha are civilians, and they're also undergoing a very traumatic experience; they're not dealing with things as well as they could, for sure, and no-one on this ship is equipped to deal with the operative's trauma in any real way (you'd need a whole fleet of therapists for that).
Nash has... a lot going on haha, again, you'll find out more in coming chapters🙊 and as for getting IVI back, that's definitely the fastest way but it's not the only way. I'm certainly not writing it such that not choosing that option leads you by default into forgiving Rohan, or letting it go; hopefully, all available routes will contain equally interesting content👀
Absolutely masterpiece, I love all the characters they are unique their personality are diverse. And Rohan oh gosh, I need to see my therapist lmfao tbh i have a complicated feelings when it come to them definitely hate and love. I know they have so many red flags but red is my fav color. I can't help it I wanna kill them so bad but at the same time I wanna have a angry s*x with them lol. Good job for making a interesting character like them. So excited for more chapter
hi! if you're getting the error that says "no valid storage adaptors", that's an issue that comes of itch not being able to access your cache - you can either try using a different browser or disable any tracking blockers like privacybadger :) if its a different error you're getting, can you let me know what it says/what happens when you try to launch the game?
I'm very interested in this but was wondering is there anything with additional info on the RO's like names, species, genders? I'm sorry in advance if it is listed, I didn't happen to see it.
hi! yep, all explicit scenes will be avoidable and are not required as part of any romance. there will also be fade-to-black type options if you'd rather not read the explicit scene :)
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I am truly every so grateful I found this masterpiece. It's just too great. The world building and storytelling is simply stellar. You have no idea how many times I caught my breath quickens, because of the anticipation while reading. The tensions, the frustrations, the feelings were truly raw... it was written splendidly.
Spoiler.
There was this part for Kiha's path in the other ship... I laughed so hard that was brilliant.
Of course I will replay and see other paths.. I am so seated for this. You are such a talented writer omg.
Also, I noticed a little typo here for your attention! Rocks bite as your knees as you drop...
Anyways. I feel like the best part about this whole masterpiece is the imagery. I'm not good with the body hurt parts, but you wrote it so well that I could imagine everything. Feels deep to my bones. Dang. Thank god I don't have to experience all that for real.
Without offending can I just ask what the sex of the nbs are?
Bloody brilliant, my favourite is Captain Lee. Can't wait for more.
This is one of my absolute FAVVVORITE Wips, the writing the achievements are SOO satisfying I literally cannot wait for more updates I'm shaking this is so good 😭
Can you maybe make it possible to install with itch.io? Most of the if's I play can be installed on the app and it makes it way easier. Also I love your story and characters :)
i feel like i should get like three more achievements for horrible taste. i am still unfortunately in love with rohan, despite his everything
This is absolutely amazing!!
The number of possible outcomes is so impressive and provides a lot of cool replayability, and 5 chapters feels like a blessing. The writing is also really good, and I really like how diverse the cast of characters are. Not too many that I lose track, but enough to give a lot of different interactions and conversations.
The characters feel so alive too, I've grown to like all of them and am especially attached to Joia (of course) and unexpectedly for me, Rhaxa? And Rohan gives me such intensely conflicted feelings of irritation that I can't help but appreciate her character all the more, even with the number of times she's stabbed my MC in the back.
Thank you for making this! Patiently awaiting the next chapter 😊
This is so good omg! I will replay this as many times as I have to, to get that Besties achievement. Joia my little angel, we will be besties. I have died trying, so nothin is goin to stop me 😭🤧✊🏾
thank youu<3 the besties achievement isn't actually achievable yet so don't die! it'll be in there soon💕 there's an achievement guide here which mentions which ones are achievable thus far, but be aware of spoilers:)
Wow I'm so stupid, lmao...let's just pretend that I didn't spend the last few hours trying to get that achievement 💀😂 But hey, at least I got to play through every possible combination of choices and it was amazing to see the different outcomes! Thank you so much for your hard work! 💞
I don't know if it's on purpose, but this doesn't seem to work with the itch app
What's the total word count as of now?
I think it's around 390k words! not 100% sure, but that's my guess:)
Nahhh you can't do this to me. Can't leave me on this cliffhanger... :crying: another AMAZING update. Love ya...
Also, I just have to mention cos it definitely deserves it's own post and to be mentioned - our MC is fecking awesome. THIS is how you write an MC!
Can't wait to see more of our MC kicking the universe's ass, proving just why they were chosen as the operative to receive IVI, and of course taking their revenge on Scytha (with or without IVI, tho I do like having her about!).
Also, Joia (btw, how do you pronounce her name?) is a sweetie. Hope we continue to bond with her (maybe even adopt her in the far future), tho I know it will take time considering her trauma and likely trust issues. I really like the Found Family trope, especially with a tough, egotistical, selfish MC having to explore the side of themselves they've been distinctly ignoring. lol
Fantastic update - I've played this game to death since I first came across it, so every new update is a blessing. Love Rohan. Very intrigued about this new alien!
Figured I'd mention a bug. Okay, a bug AND something that I found a bit weird. If you choose to contact Scytha instead of Rohan's "person", when you come onboard Lance scans all the ID's, then you get a video call from the Director, right? Well there's a bug where, if you didn't kill Rohan (like in my case), and you lie to the director and say you did, MC will recall Rohan's dead body in the text as if he'd killed him, when Rohan is actually fine and well and on the ship.
The other thing I found really weird was speaking about Rohan with the Director after lying about killing him, she describes what he look like, etc. However, considering this is the director, and Lance literally just scanned Rohan's ID when he came on board, AND found IVI with him, surely the lie would completely fail as she'd already know Rohan was on the ship? I mean, the Director would surely have already been informed, by Lance, of the fact that someone who was NOT a Scytha operative had IVI in their possession, and the ID of that individual was that of Rohan. Unless Rohan is using a fake ID, which is pretty probable (although the MC could probably speculate or come to that conclusion, to make it clear to the player), but that still wouldn't stop the Director from being informed of, and wanting to know the reason for, IVI being in the possession of someone in your entourage, rather than in your head.
Anyway, on tenterhooks for what comes next. More sexual tension with Rohan, and maybe some payoff for it? :D
so - something I could definitely make clearer in the writing - the Project is a sub-operation within Scytha, and a lot of the wider company aren't aware of it. Lance wouldn't have clearance to know about specific projects, especially not one like Hadea, so he wouldn't know IVI exists - all he knows is that Rohan's got something high-tech and shady and xe's cagey about what it is. as far as he's concerned, his job is to take you all into custody. and yes, Rohan's very much using a fake ID👀
as for the dead body bug, I'll try to hunt that down, thank you! and I'm glad you enjoyed the game<3
I like it, but I have some questions.
In the chapter 4, if you decide to call to your organization and lie about R, you describe R's name and appearance in details. Is that a bug or that's what suppose to happen?
Also, if you get a "vaccine shot", you get an "Unexpected token" error.
yes, that's supposed to happen - if you killed Rohan and lied about it, there's no reason to lie about xir appearance; if you left xem alive and lied about it, the operative is basically fishing for information about xem from the director, and not really planning ahead.
Thanks for the reply.
Love Nash and Raxha 😍❤️. And the new alien seems interesting.
I swear to God you are trying to kill me with these endings to updates. Nooooo like come on man. I hated this so much.. not really i loved it but fuck it. Lmao this is too good and now i got cliffhangers on cliffhangers. It's so sad 😭🤣
The update was fantastic! I cannot wait for more! One thing I did notice is when coming back to the shuttle after choosing not to go after the sniper the text seemed a bit confused. Came back with Ki-Ha and Joia but then the next page had me asking where they were. And when asking where Raxha was on the page after that the response to that question was "yes we should get Skylar..."
Spoilers below! Probably....and might be a long ass comment sooo prepare yourselves!
First of all, i enjoyed the update a lot , your writing is great like always, and i enjoy reading it a lot.
I enjoyed the scenes with Rhaxa a lot, whether i chose to be a dick or not, and found interacting with him very amusing.
I really enjoyed how you made keeping R alive rewarding, by making them suffer, and Nash gained a lot of points in my book for using them as bait! And R Can bet their butt I'm not taking pity on them in the slightest. I tried to be nice to them but it didn't sit well with pretty much any fiber of my being......guess I'm not the forgiving type of person.....oh well!!!👀
And all the bravado R keeps, telling us to kill them, seemed to have gone out the window but that's understandable, what isn't is them thinking that Nash would care enough about their safety, considering they ruined their friends life and possibly ended it, along with theirs no matter who we choose to call.
And I'm starting to believe more and more that IVI might have become a permanent part of our fooked up brain, in an attempt to stay sentient? Or to stop her self from being separated from us by R. Either that or we're having phantom feelings and are too used to having her in our heads
Oh and i found a typo, after the choice to lunge at R when we get on the ship at the last few, it says "more to more" i forgot what was being said to be honest....
In conclusion great update, and keep up the great work bud!👍👀
GOD DAMN IT. CLIFF HANGERS. WE GET CRUMBS OF PAIN AND SUFFERING AND THEN WE GET A CLIFF HANGER. I HATE IT HERE. (I don’t I love this If I’m just way too emotionally invested at this point.)
The ROs are Nash, Rohan, Leanna, Ki-Ha, Rhaxa, and Imxa (who hasn't been introduced yet - she appears in the coming update!). Leanna is only romanceable by female or nonbinary operatives, and Ki-Ha is only romanceable by male operatives :)
10 out of 10
Is this story still being worked on?
Yes! There is an update coming next week, in fact<3
OH MY FLIP FLOPPIN B'JEEBERS, THIS WAS AMAZING. I felt every smidgen of those emotions and experiences in this thing, may have made me tremble and cry a few times. Holy heck I cannot wait for the full thing to be finished and even when it's not you left it off at such a nice point too, still a cliffhanger but not enough to be maddening. Everything was very satisfying and immersive, and I'm happy there was an actual option to murder that one individual. Loved it. Once my health is better and I can get work I'll be supporting you as much as possible :]
I need to find friends to drag over here so I can theorize about the future with them now, so much to say.
is there an achievement guide somewhere?
there isn’t one at the moment - if there's interest I can definitely put one together, but it won't be until after the next update! not all the achievements are currently... achievable, at the moment, so don’t worry about not getting them all yet :-)
(SPOILER)
My eyes dilated when I know that we can't actually fuckin kill R on the spot. That shit is real and it blown my mind I thought we unable to actually do it 😂 i can stop laughing after chosing it.
For godsake, why every choice to torture 'em is so oddly satisfying although I'm not really mad at him LMAO
Would the whimpering of some child whom I didn't want to take along in the first place stop me from strangling Rohan? 🤔 No. No, it wouldn't. Not a chance in hell. In fact, it feels jarringly unnatural. MC needs to sort out their priorities.
(I don’t know if any of this counts as spoilers)
Wearing a shirt that says “sure xe’s a red flag but red’s one of my favourite colours so what about it” and when I turn around it says “my guy given the aliens and the private company that fakes your death and removes your identity so it can kill you if you’re no longer an asset I don’t know if traditional morality applies in the exact same way all the time” (the text is very small) and then when I turn around again I’m somehow holding a sign that says “GET FOUND FAMILY’D, IDIOT”
Anyway Nash’s character makes me feel secret emotions but if R thinks xe’s getting away with this unbefriended that is xir mistake.
Hello.
I would just like to say that this is amazingly written, can't get the beggining of the story out of my head for a weak already, and have seen I think every possible branch currently available, eagerly awaiting the continuation. :D
Also, a spoiler question:
How in the hell do you get the R kissing scene instead of them telling you to back off in ch3?
I somehow stumbled on it on my first playthrough and couldn't replicate it at all after, it's been driving me crazy. :D
(Let me rub my trauma against yours already, you crazy back alley surgeon)
Thank you!!<33
And that scene varies depending on your relationship with Rohan! if you're on the rivalry route, you'll get that scene; if you're on the friendship route, you'll get the other one hehe
Oh, so it is directly the opposite of what I was trying to do! Now it all becomes clear and I feel like a dum dum.
Thank you for taking your time to answer!
What's the friendship route? Is it where you didn't, yknow, before R took the Ai from you? And if you did yknow do it with R will there be no way to kiss them? And will both routes allow the romance to continue? Also wanted to say this was really fucking good, great job!
spoilers
Also wanted to say, out of curiosity I killed R, and damn you described it perfectly, so brutal, and it left me feeling disturbed. Really well done, felt like I had actually killed someone, and it left me feeling really empty. And the reactions from everyone else really solidified it. God damn. Also really ballsy to actually allow you to kill a main character like that, not many games allow you to do that!
Oh and one more thing, in another comment you said there might be an update around the end of this year. And since its nearly that time, no pressure obviously, and you owe all of us nothing. How's the progress on that next chapter?
choosing to/not to sleep with rohan in chapter one has no impact on friendship/rivalry - the different routes come from how you treat xem later. you get friendship points for listening to xem, showing interest in xir opinions and particularly from showing care/worry about IVI, while rivalry points come from shutting xem down, disregarding xir opinions on IVI, and being pro-scytha in your conversations. you can romance xem on either route, whatever your choices in chapter one - the only locks at the moment are at the end of chapter three, and these choices are available regardless of if you're friendly or rivals.
the update is very nearly done - it probably won't be released in the next couple of days, but I'm in the process of finishing it off and cleaning it up for release in january!
thank you sm<33 I'm glad you're enjoying the game!
When is the next update?
I'm aiming for around the end of the year, but that's not set in stone. I am still actively working on the game, but I have a full-time job and other commitments so things are moving slowly (but they are still moving!).
This game is one of those few that i would call an absolute master piece the writer does such an excellent job of putting
you in the main characters shoes and making you feel the emotions they feel i waited two days after playing this game to see if i would come down from that feeling you normally get when you play a new game to write an honest review and i still find myself thinking of the characters in the dynamics of the story. Each character feels as if there alive and there's a lot of different moving pieces.
SPOILERS AHEAD PLS PLAY THE GAME FIRST AND COME BACK ITS WORTH YOUR TIME
So Theirs a certain character in the story that i knew was up to no good at all and was susing them from the very start like minding my own business after a hard day at work and then they start being sus and dont go away when i tell them to when i was like nah leave me alone and they stayed i knew something was up but holy nothing but prepare me for the events that came next the story went absolutely crazy and it was fucking amazing and immediately i was like ima hunt her down and shoot her aint no way bro. But then things got even crazier and more insane i was like holy this goes hard there aint no way bro. Then you meet your new Daughter after some events and get called by best boy at least in my play through and ride or die brother who you get introduced to during the first little bit of the story. No i lie i would take a bullet for Nash another part is how quickly the reader got me to make a connection with IVI like i was as equally mad a i feel like my character would have been and i was ready to do anything to get her back.However this does change slightly there's one scene in particular that put cracks in my hatred for Rohan and its when shes playing cards with the little girl you saved. Now if you haven't seen this scene go back and play through it because it gives you so much insight to her character Didn't make me dislike her any less however i saw were she was coming from like she had a different Outlook on IVI than i did and was like shes making sense but i just disagreed with her outlook completely she did flesh out IVI a whole lot more than i thought was going to happen as well which one thing we agreed on kinda was IVI was more like a person than not its just and its kinda like this whole thing like would you rather be a slave and live or never have existed at all. Which is like one side you have i want them to experience the beauty and ugliness of this world even if there never truly free However one day maybe you could set them free and on the other its like. I would rather never exist at all then be a tool to someone else and its crazy. However i still dislike Rohan but i love her character its like shes made for you to hate her and shes coming from this entirely different view point and shes doing everything in her power to free this being. Which leads into me not being able to shoot her when given the opportunity i still hated her but that didn't mean she deserved to die. Did i punch her once tho hell yea i did did it make me feel better. no i was still mad also the other options didn't feel as in character like the kiss option was there and i was like ??????? HUH I still hate her and the other was like shoot her and im like hmmm i have but one choice suckerpunch.exe i would have probably gone with a more passive option but maybe not i was mad anyway back to the card playing scene alot of the info from that had also planted a seed i had not even noticed i was like damm this corp im working for is sus as fuck like i dunno anything about them really except for the stuff other characters have told me and there like you work for them stare. so when Rohan said the stuff about IVI i was like hmmm I still do not like you at all but i do care about this AI so call your people but ima still try and steal her back from you the first chance i get.
Deep Breath
i could go on for hours about the Rohan stuff however i wanna talk about some of the other characters so the Captain of the ship that you get into i like her alot shes interesting but im more curious to where her story goes from here im not sure however shes like the character i spent the third most time with the other interesting character that feels like there about to have there arc soon is the alien that in the ship with you like it feels like there having a lot of build up and hiding a lot of secrets. The other two the ships mechanic and the brother to the captain i didn't spend to much time with so im not really sure of them but they are absolutely important characters like without them things wouldn't be able to progress and its good to have them there.
Overall this game is amazing and ill be waiting for more this game has easily won its way into my heart and is competing not just with my favorite interactive fiction games of all time but all the games i have ever played overtime its that good lots and lots of love to the writer with this one there doing an amazing job and they have a gift for story telling that some people don't have and they can make there worlds feel alive there is nothing more to say i hope everyone at least gives this game a chance because im sure if they do it will win them over too as it had done me
Hello, i liked reading your comment and seeing your points, but the part about R wanting to set IVI free confused me, granted i haven't Replayed the game in a while, but don't they want to sell her pretty much like a slave?👀
So I played this a while back but I wanted to come back and check if there's been any updates/new info. There hasn't, but I played it again anyway because I do love it.
So spoilers, but
I'm so torn with the Call Scytha/Call Rohan's people choice. Because going with Scytha is one of the few ways that you can get IVI back right now, but also going with Rohan's people gives you the opportunity to build relationships more - I'm guessing that's the whole axis of that choice, tbh. And I know that the chance to get IVI back will come along later in the storyline anyway but with how I play the Operative (frankly just devastated by losing her, and willing to do anything short of murder/grevious bodily harm to get her back... that chance, it feels so important to get it.
I love Nash so much, they give me this butterfly feelings. I feel like my MC could connect to them in more emotional way 🥺🥰. It's awkward but for some reason im digging it .
(SPOILERS)
Been trying to get most of the achievements but the ones I've been having trouble with are the ones with Joia and Rhaxa.
May someone give me a slight step-by-step process on how to get those?
The achievements are something along the lines of that monster-fricker achievement
and that Joia achievement where the meme "if (insert cute entity) dies, I will kill everyone in this room and then myself" perfectly encapsulates it lol
but somehow, I keep messing up on both of those fronts. My operative just does not seem to pass both of their vibe checks dammm-
At the very least, Rohan's was- heh, EASY, in comparison.
yeahhhh bet you feel insulted didn't ya, Rohan, u piece of shi-
SO YEAH!-
halp...
pls TT
am begging-
some of the achievements aren't unlockable yet! they'll become available in later chapters, including the two you mentioned :-)
OHHH!!
thank you for the info!
dang, feels kinda sad tho that 3 hours of my life were wasted for something that doesn't exist eugh-
used to it ngl
being an internet user forces you to get used to spending hours willy-nilly hahahhhh
welp, again thanks immensely!!
(slight spoilers ahead-)
I can now rest in peace and erase my notes and battle plans me of trying to get meself a mantis alien hubby and adopted, traumatised child, no am not obsessed wut are talking abou-
I’m always excited to find a new IF with so much engaging content, but this one truly hits. we readers are truly lucky to experience this project <3
I loved it!! I read it all in one sitting, and while my eyes are sort of killing me, it was worth it. 😌💖 The writing is incredibly immersive, all the characters (including the Operative) immensely vivid and complex — which can make their interactions/relationships with each other both fascinating and frustrating.
MILD SPOILER warning (mostly an analysis of the Operative as a character tbh). Also. Very, very long comment. 🥹✨
I really like the pacing of Operative's relationships with the other characters. While most, if not all of them have a rocky start, you can practically feel their relationships slowly evolving over the course of story. Impressions shifting or reaffirming, hostility turning into fondness, or indifference turning into hostility. The subtle shifts in the undercurrents of the characters' relationships with each other feel really natural — at times, rewarding — and I enjoyed exploring them very much 💐
This game has a way of pulling you into its narrative — a way of subtly wrapping you up in a burrito blanket of the Operative's mind. I normally play IF games from an omniscient perspective. The emotions of my MC are usually kept separate from my own, though I do try to nudge them into ✨healthier✨choices. Despite that, even I had a difficult time extricating myself from the Operative's narrative — which, I must say, is all thanks to the incredible writing within the game. I felt the Operative's frustration. I felt their pain, their anger, and their instability. I felt their exhaustion. Their bitterness. Numerous complex emotions intensified by the trauma they had just experienced, and had not had time to process or heal from.
The Operative is not a blank slate. I understood that from the very first chapter. From the very beginning, they are shown — even stated — to be impulsive and arrogant. They're not completely open about their emotions, often preferring to deny they exist rather than processing them. To put it simply, they're not one for introspection. They're also very allergic to showing vulnerability or anything that could be perceived as weakness. The prologue served to show us how our Operative normally is when in... more carefree, more familiar conditions. When they still felt invincible. When they still had IVI. When IVI was taken, they lost both a friend and a piece of their metaphorical armor. As of chapter 4, most of the Operative's thoughts and actions seem to be driven by the trauma and emotions that they haven't had room to address. They're cooped up in a ship that's steadily losing power and they're stuck with the very person who had stolen something they held dear through inexcusably horrific means. Basically, they're in a very, very bad place mentally.
(Sidenote: that was not a dismissal of Rohan's value as a character. I find xem fascinating. I could gush a whole paragraph of everything I love about Rohan's relationship with the Operative but I'll spare you from that 😔💖 )
As I followed the Operative through the story, I often had to remind myself that what the Operative was saying and perceiving did not encapsulate the bigger picture of the situation — nor was it supposed to. The Operative is very much an unreliable
and extremely traumatizednarrator who has just had their entire world upended. And to most of the people (and aliens) on the ship, the Operative is a heavily wounded, potentially dangerous, and slightly(?) unstable person who is clearly familiar with death and danger — one that they've only known for a week at most.(My Operative is at 12% health. Send Help)
I'm very, very fond of the Operative — especially the one that emerged from my first playthrough! They're actually my favorite character :D
They're my poor traumatized slightly manic little darling alright I'll stopBut as stated in the game's description:This game places a heavy emphasis on character growth and relationships — including the growth of the Operative as a character. It's perfectly understandable to be protective of your Operative! In fact, I think it makes the experience all the more impactful. I really think that the author did an incredible job of portraying the delicate, tenuous nature unique to bonds formed under less than stellar circumstances. Most of the characters don't trust the Operative, not yet — and the Operative may not necessarily trust them either. It's a slow process. They've only known each other for a week. A week filled with tension, anxiety, and pent-up trauma. It will take time.
The game takes its time with forming relationships. Slowly, gradually, like clouds passing over a moon. The tentative beginnings of trust, the cautious camarederie, and maybe the hesitant appearance of the tiniest piece of vulnerability... well. This game takes such a unique approach to relationship building, and it's been a wonderful — albeit Stressful, but hey, that's part of the fun — experience. I can't wait to see how the rest of the story unfolds.
If you've somehow read this far, then thank you! Thank you very much!! My apologies for such a monstrously long comment, but after seeing some recent discussions regarding this topic I wanted to throw in my own two cents ^^ If this comment is too long for an itch.io comment section, then I'm really sorry — I'm not well-versed in the unspoken rules and etiquette of this site. :') Please inform me if this comment is inappropriate, and I'll immediately take it down!!
And, finally, for the wonderful dev of this game: thank you so much for sharing such an intricate and complex story with us!! I really enjoyed playing through it, churning roller coaster of emotions and all. I can't wait to see how the rest of it unfolds 🥹✨ thank you, and once again, please inform me if I crossed a line!!
😭😭😭ngl this comment really made my day - thank you so much!! it's very flattering to get such a thoughtful reponse, and I'm honestly delighted by how much thought you've put into this. the operative is such a fun character to write, and I'm really glad you're enjoying them so much - I know they're not everyone's cup of tea as a Playable Character but it's good to know that people like them and feel attached to their ops!
i really appreciate you taking the time to write all this out and send it, it's incredibly encouraging<3333
Imma guess that my ramblings are part of the mentioned discussions, if that's the case then thanks for reading through all that stuff if not.....uhhh pretend this comment was never made....👀
Also, your comment is very appropriate, and well written and very interesting, it has given me brain more fuel to keep me up at night. Considering more motives and reasons behind everything that i've read so far, so thank you!
SPOILER WARNING and very long comment:
I'm enjoying the game a lot, the writing is very well done and the descriptions and attention to details is nice, i haven't tried every option but from the ones i did, i'm having problems wrapping my head around a few things.
Like how everyone reacts if you hurt R especially when they're aware of how they stalked you drugged you and basically took your organs and Left you for dead, expecting you to act like nothing happened and be all nice and friendly, especially with how R keeps provoking you and acting like you should be afraid of them, not the other way around like proven later. It'd be fine if you remaind an asshole and didn't tell them or promised to stay friendly.
Especially joia when R admits to hurting you first and doing a horrible thing to you. sure she's a kid, but seeing how they react towards you for just punchin, R knowing she did way worse things to you is weird. I appreciate that she is upset with both later, but still doesn't feel enough.
Oh and sure i get why L wants you to behave before doing anything, but i don't get how she expects you to not seek revenge. Also she should be aware that she's defending one psycho from the other right? And how'd she react if she'd been in your place huh? Not any better seeing she'd be dead from what R did regardless of revenge or not because of the company you work for.
Then there's R expecting you to be different from what they already made you up to be in their head (even if your first interaction with them was nice), knowing full well what they did to you, and how they still treat you, mock you and all that fun stuff.
Also what stops the mc from taking IVI back if you decide to visit R after choosing to keep punchin? especially with how scared they are, as well as expecting to die and what not?
Oki that's the end of my rambling just wanted to share a few thoughts that have been running in me head, if you read all of that.... sorry and thanks i guess! Didn't waste 20 minutes for nothing then.
Have a nice day.
This is exactly how I felt after meeting R again!! They ripped IVI out and almost caused MC's death, but every character gets upset with MC for trying to get back at them?!
It's so cool to see someone put what I was feeling into words haha!!
thanks for reading my long ass comment 👀
SPOILER WARNING:
Oki, i've thought some more and obviously if we're allowed to just take IVI back, it'd be problematic for the story or at the very least a pain in the pooper to continue from there.
Like R's definitely too weak to take her back, and if anyone else suggests giving IVI back to her knowing what happened.... deserves to be shot at that point.
But at least the other characters should react a bit differently than how they do now.
Thanks for reading this shorter ramble as well.
hi! first of all, thanks for your comment - I'm glad you're enjoying the game, and I hope you continue to do so<3
To address your questions:
1) the civilians don't know you - they don't have any clue about the extent of Scytha's experimentation, and they don't know Rohan. particularly at first, they have no reason to believe either you or Rohan about what's going on, and when (if) the MC explains, they don't automatically start trusting you. Ki-Ha in particular distrusts you as Scytha staff, and Leanna, frankly, is more concerned with keeping her family safe than your feelings. she has no guarantee that any attempt at revenge on Rohan isn't going to have collateral damage, after all.
2) Joia also doesn't know you - she's a kid, and she's frightened and among strangers, and yeah she leans towards you as the person who saved her, but she leans towards Rohan as a person who is nice to her, and any show of violence from any of you is frightening to her. again, she has no reason to trust you except for your behaviour, which can be aggressive and erratic, and the reasons for that aren't clear to her.
3) Rohan is projecting a lot onto you - this is a deliberate character choice. Xe is a dick, I'm not denying that, but xe has reasons and xe's behaving that way deliberately. it's a defense mechanism, and it'll be explained in later chapters, but if you're not interested in that development, there is a very easy way to not have to deal with it beyond chapter 3 :)
4) if you're talking about on the station in chapter 3, xe doesn't bring IVI with xem then - she's left on the ship with Ki-Ha and Rhaxa. if you mean on Portia's ship, it's because the operative is very conscious that their rescue hinges on them behaving themself, and again, portia doesn't have the context to know if any sort of violence is 'justified'.
the operative isn't a person who inspires great trust in people - you show up on Leanna's ship, waving a weapon around and carrying a child who clearly isn't yours, you can potentially make threats against multiple other people in that first five minutes, and your behaviour going forwards doesn't exactly suggest //safety//. Nash also has their reasons for maybe not reacting as intensely as you might expect, which will come out in later chapters, but I have to say, I also think like... Leanna's reaction boils down to her asking you not to be violent around her family; Ki-Ha is pretty understanding, even if you did choose certain options in chapter 3, and Nash will offer to kill xem for you. I don't know what kind of a response you're hoping for, but they all have their reasons for not encouraging the operative to go on a violent rampage while they're trapped on a ship with you.
I hope this cleared some things up for you! thanks again for the comment<3
Thanks for taking the time to both read and reply, to my long ass comment and indulge in me rambling! And fair point about not wanting to be stuck on a ship with a raging bull i guess.
But it still feels like they're doing a poo poo job at making sure you don't go bananas on them, and considering some conversations they all know it'll end very poorly for them.
And I've noticed the hints about how R has past trauma from abuse and stuff, and does in fact have a death wish... but i'll wait and see what happens next, before deciding if their behavior is justified or not.
To be fair we didn't hurt R near L's family, on the station so to speak hehe.
And i admit joia has the most right to be confused about all this, and she does come to the decision that we're both fucked up. But at the end it still shows that she depends on us, from how she holds on to our hand at the end so that counts as somethin.
And Nash is either too jealous and happy that we lost IVI, or felt like she was replacing them as #1 friend...am i close?👀
Oh right about the being conscious about behaving on the smuggler's ship, we did nearly choke R to death soooo, and the part with Ki-Ha doesn't scream behaving, but i guess our stay was cut short anyways.
Also now that we ain't on L's ship or the smuggler's, no one better have a problem with me taking IVI back by force sure have a problem if i kill R otherwise shut up cause L has no authority now hehe.
The easy solution of shooting R, while very appealing...makes me feel like i'll miss on some interesting stuffs down the line, but hey it's the quickest way to get IVI back.
I might change a few points, or add some after i've woken up properly.
Again thanks for reading!
I guess it's up to your interpretation, but I'd also say it's worth remembering that Leanna and Ki-Ha are civilians, and they're also undergoing a very traumatic experience; they're not dealing with things as well as they could, for sure, and no-one on this ship is equipped to deal with the operative's trauma in any real way (you'd need a whole fleet of therapists for that).
Nash has... a lot going on haha, again, you'll find out more in coming chapters🙊 and as for getting IVI back, that's definitely the fastest way but it's not the only way. I'm certainly not writing it such that not choosing that option leads you by default into forgiving Rohan, or letting it go; hopefully, all available routes will contain equally interesting content👀
thanks again for taking the time to comment!<3
No problem, and thanks for reading and replying to another one of my comments.
Keep up the good work 👍👀
Absolutely masterpiece, I love all the characters they are unique their personality are diverse. And Rohan oh gosh, I need to see my therapist lmfao tbh i have a complicated feelings when it come to them definitely hate and love. I know they have so many red flags but red is my fav color. I can't help it I wanna kill them so bad but at the same time I wanna have a angry s*x with them lol. Good job for making a interesting character like them. So excited for more chapter
Hello. For some reason I cannot run this game
hi! if you're getting the error that says "no valid storage adaptors", that's an issue that comes of itch not being able to access your cache - you can either try using a different browser or disable any tracking blockers like privacybadger :) if its a different error you're getting, can you let me know what it says/what happens when you try to launch the game?
Thanks!
Hey there,
I'm very interested in this but was wondering is there anything with additional info on the RO's like names, species, genders? I'm sorry in advance if it is listed, I didn't happen to see it.
hi, you can find a list of the ROs here - I realise it's a bit of a pain to navigate to from itch, I'll add the link to the page here lmao<3
Thanks Bunches
hello! Your game sounds wonderful and I’d love to play it but I was wondering if explicit scenes are optional? Thank you very much!
hi! yep, all explicit scenes will be avoidable and are not required as part of any romance. there will also be fade-to-black type options if you'd rather not read the explicit scene :)