Formerly known as Taurus2020.
Artist who takes pride in drawing disrespectfully large eyes.
Central project: Eternal Frenemies
Current Production - Webcomic and Small VN Games
Welcome to my tiny-yet-packed internet office I call a Tumblr!
Come and marvel/cringe at the mental vomit of a middle age kidult providing reblogs, art, games, quizzes, and takes of all temperatures!
Main fandom here is Angel’s Frieeeeeends, but you may or may not see homemade fan content for retro anime and other kids shows *inhales* (specifically those with budgets disrespectfully low for the potential applicability outside of "kid age range" that their worldbuilding/lore/aesthetic concepts offer) here in the future
First have a look at my lovely little set of tags to help you navigate:
General Tags:
Reblogs
Art
Games
Quizzes
Text posts
Memes
Animation
Lost and Found (posts that survived my old Tumblr's deletion)
Angel's Friends Tags:
Reblogs
Fanart
AUs/Fanfics
Events
Eternal Frenemies Project Tags:
Project Overview
Comic Pages (rest of story TBD by survey results)
Visual Novel
OC Integration Rules
OC Entries
Art
Character Profile
Collab
Crossover
Project Survey(ongoing, aiming for at least ten responses)
Quizzes
Animation
Lore
Then look here for my other socials:
Webtoon
GlobalComix
TikTok
Discord Server (info -> here)
Allow me to make CRYSTAL CLEAR that I harbor no delusions of grandeur (such as sustainable profit, a large fanbase or a foot in the door) - I am an amateur who has reached a level of skill and style of art with which I am finally satisfied. I just have faith that somewhere out there, there are people who will enjoy my content as is, and I am sharing it in the hopes that they will find it. If I want criticism, I will BLATANTLY ask for it.
I've wanted to start doing reviews of indie works for a while now. I hope it's okay that I post this here. I don't have an account on any gaming sites, so I can't post reviews there...
Anyway, I've been following this project since its inception in 2019 and I really want it to succeed. I don't have much presence/influence on here, and honestly I'd be scared if I did, so I'm not sure this is helping, but, but... still!
This is a visual novel based on the cartoon Angel's Friends. I don't think the game will make much sense to anyone who hasn't seen the show (although it does have lots of exposition that makes it technically understandable for people who haven't seen the show), but I would recommend it to anyone who has seen the show. Especially if you want some kind of closure to all the loose ends the show left hanging.
So I actually completed the game within 24 hours of its launch. It's a good length, neither too long or short, although it kind of ends on a cliffhanger and leaves me wanting more. Luckily, there's also a webcomic. This whole thing is a multimedia project. The amount of time and effort put into it is crazy.
The angels' and devils' different ways of talking is true to the show — the angels speak in a kinder, more straightforward way, while the devils speak more roughly and sarcastically. Aside from that, the way the characters are written is generally stronger than the source material. In the cartoon, they often felt like a hivemind, but here, they stand out as unique individuals.
The story does a good job—probably better than the source material—of showing why Sera (Raf) is special. You can see her pacifism and her sense of duty, and how, while they are good traits, they weigh heavy on her.
Most of the characters feel similar to their AF counterparts, but Hime doesn't really have anything in common with Miki aside from her likely ethnicity. It would be nice if, going forward, we could see a bit more of Miki in her. Love her design tho.
The love interest is also completely different from Sulfus, but I don't care because I never liked Sulfus that much. Actually I don't like Cocytus much either, but he at least has a bit more interiority and is generally more of a sympathetic character (I can always relate to someone who just wants to be left alone). There are a lot of plot points and mysteries surrounding him, so he's interesting even if you're not attracted to him.
My only complaints are:
The strong sepia/grey filter over flashbacks is kind of annoying. I'd prefer if it was semi-transparent or only around the sides, like a frame.
I'd like an option to turn off the rotating polygons on the edges of the screen. They can be distracting, and potentially demanding on devices with weaker video cards.
As a visual novel, it's primarily something you read, but it's also got achievements, CGs, and a fairly addicting minigame. It did not leave me disappointed, just wanting more... eventually.
Firstly, I would like to reassure you that I am very grateful you took the time to make this post!
And I think you hit on some really good points - it is a bit out-of-place that Hime starts off less like her AF counterpart in comparison to the other angels. As for Cocytus, as much I love how he turned out, I have to agree that he does conform too much to an archetype to really be interesting at this point in time. It'll take some work framing the story to bring out the potential he has. Luckily, this game only covers the origin story and lore, so I can promise that character development WILL hit them as the overall project progresses.
As for the complaints, I agree with both of those as well:
I was aiming for a "semi-monochrome" filter (to where you could see some of the colors but they wouldn't be as vibrant as the "present" timeline) and I took it a little too far. I'm probably gonna fix this in a future update.
As for the moving crystals in the dialogue box and menu screens, I was kinda paranoid that the absence of character animations in the game would make the story too boring for players so I decided to try and animate parts of the GUI to make up for it. I can see how distracting it would be for people who want to focus on the story, but luckily the latest update makes playing the game on the phone fix this automatically (as videos can't play on the phone version)! Whether or not this will be applied to the PC version is something I need more player reviews to determine, but it is still a good thing to point out!
Lastly, I do have a sequel game in mind, so your thoughts will help both the game itself (by increasing the chance of eyes on it) and me for when I eventually make said sequel!
As for everyone else who is interested, please be sure to consider giving a public review as well!
RTE VN UPDATE: SHINY RED PEN FOR PUBLIC REVIEWS!!!
So the game has had its final major update for functionality and is available in its best light for all to see. And I know a lot of the people out there are super hesitant to deviate from their normal content for certain things like this, even in the dark, club-lit corner of the internet that Tumblr is...
...so I am here to offer you a shiny red pen for the request I am about to make: if you have the time and interest, I humbly ask that if you play, you also publish a review of the Eternal Frenemies: Return to Eternity Visual Novel!
Yep, you heard me: PUBLISH - post, link, tags, the works!
Read more below for clarification on the shiny red pen you get to do this with:
Alright, so you clicked, let's get into it:
I am well aware of the ten-percent rule (which is at its worst for small creators like myself), so statistically I can't expect more than a few people to ever take this seriously without some additional influence. I would hope that there are aspects of the game that people would praise, but it's more realistic to expect a good amount of players to care more about critiquing the game than the game itself due to its niche nature and intentional imperfections, so I am now here to offer you a chance to do JUST THAT- no holds barred, brutally honest and as cutting as you wanna be for whatever reason.
I just have one request: PUBLICIZE IT, leave my DMs alone.
You can spend the whole time picking it apart to a science, trashing everything, highlighting all the parts that are "wrong", "not good enough", "missing", blah blah blah - I no longer care, whatever makes it fun for you. As harsh as it may be, I trust you will have good reason to your criticisms, from studying if not participating in the professional capacity yourself.
And as harsh as it may be, any acknowledgement for my work spoken aloud for all to see is better than trying to keep it under wraps - I greatly appreciate the respect this carries in certain contexts (some creators are justified in asking to keep criticism private for whatever reason), but it has always been quite the slap in the face for me, and I would like to put a stop to it by asking for review in this way. I would rather you hate my stuff out loud than like it secretly.
I will also admit that because of the ten-percent rule, this is basically a necessary measure in order to extend the reach of my game to the eyes and ears around the world who might enjoy it. I am an advocate against unprompted criticism - that is, in response to works shared as expression instead of explicitly looking for feedback - but criticism is a necessary tool (and this is prompted as a MF). It helps artists get to where they want to be, and further entices discussion of learning more as a whole.
I am an artist that is finally satisfied with my art style and storytelling after about a decade of refining, so I am not explicitly aiming to get any closer to a professional level. Because of their unprofessional nature, I do not expect anyone to have anything positive to say. I expect people, if given the chance, to only highlight problems and improvements from a professional standpoint "just in case I change my mind and want to sell" or as if the game has no good points. Doing this DOES NOT make you a bad person, just one that pays attention, and attention is this game's best ally right now.
And I am not strong, so negative remarks can and do hurt for a while, but I take that risk and just share my work anyway because positive feedback and just....people making it know that they like what I create makes me feel that good. So I am not afraid. If all you have are critiques and you can't find anything good, that is valid and fine, mark it ALLLLLL the way up - everyone has a different opinion, and I wanna see all of the ones geared toward my work (publicly, of course)!
That being said, I feel that critiques carry more weight as research is done not only around the the tools used to make it but also around the game's available and unlockable content...so, ALL SPOILERS ARE ALLOWED, feel free to show any screenshot of anything you find worth noting! I look forward to reading every last review, so be sure to tag me!
If you like Eternal Frenemies, and you like/want to play this game, this entire long post is directed at YOU! Please read all the way down!
After a month of the game being out, I have finally hunted down and fixed as many of the its bugs as I could, resulting in a much smoother experience on PC and mobile devices.
Read below to get the 411 on all the changes!
Story:
First off, we have the problem of your save data from the previous build not being guaranteed compatibility with this one. Before you think "Oh no, now I'll have to start over!!" let me introduce you...
to the chapter selection screen!
Were you almost to the end before the game crashed? NO PROBLEM, just select a chapter that you feel is closest! Unfortunately, I can't include thumbnail images but I have named the chapters specifically for what happens in them! Use your memory and you will be fine!
That being said, if you want to unlock all ten of the game's achievements in order to "100% it" (especially to sync to your GameJolt profile), you will have to play through the entire story at least twice, making different choices at VERY specific points (there are links at the end to other tumblr posts that explain more about this).
I know most of you who have tried playing this game could not make it to the end before a crash, so this is one of two things I have done to the game in order to decrease that headache for you.
The other thing was making sure every visual asset of the game was compatible with all devices. Since browsers on phones cannot play video from Ren'Py games at all (browsers on tablets and PCs can), I had to create a still-image equivalent of every video file in the game. The result: playing on your phone will now show a lot less black screens, but only playing on a laptop will let you see the big stuff.
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Integration:
A mainline issue I had with the last release was the trophy API for syncing the achievements earned to a GameJolt profile. I also had to input a usable keyboard for mobile devices.
After a ridiculous struggle I finally got it right, saved it, and tested it multiple times (even changing my Game Token to see if it did that!) on my phone, tablet, and PC! The trophies should now be visible on the GameJolt page and should sync through logging in to the API!
Friendly reminder that your achievements will be saved in the game itself whether you log in or not.
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GUI:
This had some of the NASTIEST bugs. Unlike the others, where wrong or incomplete code resulted in an error that let you know, even code done correctly still came out looking wrong for this type of bug. I basically had to fight to figure out which "kind" or right would come out looking right across all device types.
Frankly, the PC and tablet versions needed no more edits beyond a very deep spell check and a game logic fix (which took me a day and a half) as everything else worked fine. The "phone" variant of Ren'Py controls, however....were a whole new level of AGGGGHHHHH
Unfortunately, I cannot edit and save Ren'Py code directly outside of the launcher. Ren'Py also treats tablets and phones as different device types, so I had to use my tablet and my phone in tandem to help test the phone version. Every time I wanted to check if a single line of math or measurement worked, I had to:
build a new zip package,
test the web build in my PC browser to triple check for errors
upload the web build to a draft project on ItchIO,
load THAT game page on both my laptop AND my tablet (while testing on the tablet for errors),
AirDrop the "secret URL" to my phone from my tablet and test every aspect of the game for errors.
It took doing all of this no less than twenty times to get everything looking halfway decent on phone screens, so I hope yall can bear with it.
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OTHER:
Unfortunately, there are still some bugs that just come with the territory of the game being what it is:
disappearing dialogue box - sometimes the dialogue box will disappear leaving nothing but the text. I have done all I can from the dev side (even taking away cosmetics that contribute to it), so my advice would be to reload the browser page.
"Reset All Progress" button - this is for anyone who may come across this game and see the special messages and pop-ups more than once. This button works, just to be clear. It just does so at a price: activating this button will raise an error, at which point all you have to do is refresh the page and everything will work fine again. Someday in the far future, I will address it more.
I mean, the game is free to play, and the ten-percent rule predicts that most players will just get to the end/some parts, read through and walk away (I hope that's not the case though)!
I am not the smartest dev or the best at anything, but I hope that you all genuinely enjoy the game and all the surprises waiting in it as you progress.
Please let me know of any bugs you encounter, but also things you find interesting, or like in particular (it helps just as much as the critiques).
