Are you going to make this game windows 32 bit? It's fine if you don't since you're developing the third game and you're probably busy and stuff. I enjoyed your last game tho!!(and I hope your next game turns out well C:)

I LOVED THIS GAME SO MUCH???? THE ART, THE WRITTING, ITS ALL A 10 OUT OF 10, LOVED EVERY PART OF IT. I THINK IS PROBABLY ONE OF MY NEW FAVS VN'S, AND IM TRULY HAPPY TO SEE THERE'S ANOTHER PART!!!

yet another PEAK chattercap game!

what can i even say. from the beautiful prose to the absolute VIBE of the ost to the art, this game was an absolute banger prequel to karamu. as soon as i extracted the files and saw the little icon, i squealed! everyones favorite little mascot and hoodie decoration.

the backgrounds in this one were incredible. the use of monochrome with just a hint of color really amps up the eeriniess of the atmosphere and how it plays into the worlds and circumstances that these characters live in.

and hats off to the voice actors! perfectly chosen for their roles, and i was SO happy to hear the OGs for their cameo reprisals

VERY much looking forward to the third installment of this series. 10/10 5 stars

God I love this series so much. I never see people who look like me in yandere stories so I was hooked from the first one, but to see this backstory and realise how well it’s done is flipping fantastic. I actually kept putting this off because I can be quite picky about sequel/prequel content and I was worried I wouldn’t like it as much. No, I loved this. This story flows these characters perfectly into the people they become in Karamu and even explains future actions. SPOILERS

• It feels really strange to offer to eat someone whole to cover a crime until you realise that’s exactly what he did as a child, and for him to realise in this moment that, if he had to be a monster, at least he could be a good one. (Though I’m hopeful he’ll eventually realise that just because he’s spider-shaped doesn’t make him a monster…moreso the yandere tendencies 🤣)
• We all guessed he was the spider in the room but had no real evidence he could turn into a normal spider until now. Of course that was him, still watching over her. Aaaa it’s so cute aaaa.
• This explains how he was able to heal himself in some of the endings.
• I really wondered how we were going to get from ‘retching at the sight of a corpse’ to ‘offering to eat a guy,’ and this was smooth progression that explains everything, including his obsession and his actual love.

I like the mom as a character and hope we get to see more of her, especially as she isn’t dead. She’s got peak villain energy.

I made an account on this site because of Karamu, I wanted to support that game because I want more women who look like me in yandere style stories. I bought that (and this…and your other) game to put positive vibes into the universe 💕 I can’t wait for the last episode in the trilogy. I am so hyped for it now, I’m so happy this game turned out to be as good as it is, I’m like actually tearing up over here. Anyway, please keep up the good work, Chattercap. I am a fan of yours, officially, even beyond this trilogy. I look forward to playing all of your games in the future and I think you should do more behind-the-scenes styles add-ons like your art book. :D Hope you have a good day!

Another masterpiece. It makes you feel for both of their difficult circumstances, and wish for their happiness. Just like Karamu, the characters, voice acting, dialogue, and presentation are perfect!

NOBODY TOLD ME THERE'D BE A KITTY!
Absolutely adore all the textures, cut-ins, and beautifully rendered BGs.
Feels like stepping into a piece of art and unraveling a story between two tender-hearted souls who grew up in horrifying circumstances.
I am so intrigued by the spidey way of life, and hope there will be more stories in this world!

when the parallels between them because clear i started tearing up 😭 what a beautiful prequel!! im so excited for more of raku and nelli's relationship!!

First of all, THIS IS AMAZING! You know when you eat something and it leaves an aftertaste? It's this! Anyway, ahem. As usual, great work with the graphics, music selection, writing... but the thing that stoked me the most here is the mood and the emotion depicted by the story and the writing. I ALMOST CRIED for Nelli's and Raku's background if it wasn't for the gore (which I'm very weak at -- hence I wasn't able to cry lol). The way how you shown careful writing with the dark themes, making the player feel as if they're in the characters' shoes... really shone through. I appreciate the whole explanation like "Oh, so thats why they took Computer Science" (was it the same course from the Karamu? pls correct me if I'm wrong; and how Raku likes games!) That "Oh, so that's why he said that she was gentle with spiders", and stuff like the origin of his yandere persona. IT'S SO AMAZING. He's the most lovable yandere ever. I love him so much. Thank you for making this! (btw I hate Raku's mother and Nelli's father... but I hate Raku's mother more becoz she hurt baby Raku the most 😭 -- I'll just imagine that she somehow gets what she deserves lol)

Thank you so much for your hard work !!! I loved playing this prequel to Karamu, BGM music and voice acting is superb as always. It was really nice to find out about Nelli and Raku's childhoods, I felt so sad for both of them babies :( 

I was gasping when I started to understand where the story was going, remembering Nelli's comments abt her family and going "ohh so that's how it went !". And at the end, so happy to see their "first" meeting. 

I saw that a sequel is also planned, and I am so ! excited ! for that. Thanks again !!

CHATTER HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME???????

GODDDDDD.

This was breathtakingly beautiful and hauntingly horrific all at the same time. I mean, all of your games are brilliant and wonderful, but this might possibly be one of your most artistic ones yet, and it seriously is a work of art... 😭💕

You have such a wonderfully fantastic style to the way you design your VNs. They truly feel like immersive storybooks. Which, in the case of this game, just made the horrors cut even deeper. SERIOUS CHILLS????? AND SOME OF THOSE CGS MY GOD. The final one of Raku "eating" just... god. I had to pause for a second. It was 5,000 shades of horrific and the use of color and composition and the whole setup!!!! BUT I'M GETTING AHEAD OF MYSELF.

From start to finish, the buildup and structure of this was just phenomenal. The way we're introduced first to Carter, wondering who the heck he is??? To then the reveal. THEN THE FREAKING SCENE IN THE BASEMENT MY GOD. That CG was also absolutely brilliantly done -- the one with Raku's mother sitting on the steps. Somehow you've like, framed your CGs in such a way so as to avoid showing complete gore, while at the same time, between the colors and the music and the narration, we might as well be seeing it, because it shows up so vividly in mind, probably even more terrifying than it would be if you HAD shown everything to begin with. Now THAT is mastery in setting the scene. My god. Is it weird to say I got flashes of Hannibal from that scene, despite never actually having watched Hannibal and just knowing some of the most iconic "imagery" from it LKJDLKFASJDF

At any rate, my heart died so much for Raku. I could feel every inch of his despair and internal conflict during the first half. The helplessness of not being able to go up against his mother. (All of which would eventually make the final ending hit so much harder lkadjfsa). Which then, just like Raku, made me also latch on to Nelli once she appeared. Something about the way you've framed everything really helped to put us in Raku's shoes despite this not being technically from Raku's POV. So when he felt this longing connecting to Nelli at being shown kindess, my heart also developed this connection to her. It was a really fantastic way of making the characters empathetic and pulling us as the reader deeper in the story.

AND GUHHHH POOR NELLI????????? Like. Even from back in Karamu I had kinda guessed that Raku's past was going to be pretty messed up to lead him to... well... everything that happens there LOL But I couldn't have guessed that Nelli also had such a traumatic childhood, and my heart screamed so much for her, too. Some of those scenes were absolutely heartbreaking. And the CGs/cutaways!! Somehow that one of her in the bathroom playing her game sticks out in my mind so much. There was something so lonely and isolating about it. Also that cutaway of her writing her notes about Raku that was so cute lkasjdfasd SOBBBBBB. WHY MUST YOU MAKE ME FEEL SO PROTECTIVE OVER THESE POOR BABIES???? The connection they formed was adorable despite the horrific situation. And I loved seeing her little by little, Nelli would use Raku as a sort of comforting friend more and more, even putting the jar next to her pillow, telling him all of her pent-up thoughts.

I could start to guess a little bit where it was heading (but only because the story itself was built so wonderfully, meeting our expectations in certain ways perfectly while defying them in other ways also perfectly). Though no matter how much I could start to feel out how it was going to end, nothing prepared me for that final scene where Raku actually lashed out, and then ofc the CG I already mentioned. (WHICH, JUST LIKE THE ONE WITH THE MOM AND CARTER, WAS FRAMED SO PERFECTLY THAT IT WAS LIKE... SO SO SO HORRIFIC WITHOUT ACTUALLY SHOWING THE GORE??? Seriously your horror composition skills are literally superb I SHALL WEEP.)

AND THEN THE END WHEN RAKU GOES BACK. AND I'M JUST LIKE. RAKU. NO. Except. I also knew in my heart that it's what had to happen. Just a brilliant yet tragic and horrific ending to the first part of his life.

GUHHHH.

I literally could rant about this for hours, it was just so well done. THE COLORS??? HELLO?????? This has to be one of the most artistic VNs I've ever played. The use of the limited color palette with mostly black, white, and red, with then the occasional highlights of other key colors was beyond fantastic. It was like stepping into an old illustrated (and horrific) storybook, and really added to the creepy ambience the whole game already has. The music was perfect! Absolutely chilling pieces that built up the tension perfectly. And then the heartbreaking pieces that shattered my heart and made me want to care for these poor babies forever and ever. I mentioned the colors but not the art??? HELLO??? THE ART WAS RIDICULSOUGASKUGDALKDJAFLDKFJADFA see I don't even have a word for it it was so good LOL LITERALLY I'M SERIOUS. Masterful use of composition. Of the angles. Of the animation. The BGs were superb! I could go on and on.

Just.

Absolutely fantastic.

I keep saying that because I'm running out of words!!!!! I CAN'T COME UP WITH MORE WORDS????

Seriously though everyone who wants to learn how to write masterful horror with spine-tingling build-ups and CGs that hit HARD needs to play this as it should be like a tutorial of exactly everything you need to do LDKAJFSDFA

Also I love how you tied it back in to them in college at the end, it was a great way to finish it! WHICH NOW JUST MAKES ME EVEN MORE EXCITED FOR WHEN YOU'LL DO THE KARAMU SEQUEL LATER THIS YEAR BECAUSE I NEED TO NOW KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN AFTER KARAMU AND I'M ALREADY WONDERING WHERE YOU'RE GONNA GO NEXT WITH IT AHHHHHHHHHH.

OK I'll stop freaking out now. Thank you for sharing this work of art with the world!! 😭💕 I'm gonna go try to decompress now... LOLOLOLOL

A LORE~!

I don't know if it's only me but the mac version doesn't open and it shows this 

EVERYONE DONT PANIC, WE GOT LOREEEE!!

omg I'm so hyped, I can't wait for my off-days to play this!! Certainly missed these 2 cuties. So excited to play this, I'm sure I'm gonna love this like I loved the other game.

I loved Karamu, I'm sure I will love this as well.

sad no android port but understandable or something idk anymore

I'm losing my shit I'm so excited to play >w<

first of all: WOW, this was chilling...
I was super excited when you announced kanau since I really enjoyed karamu so ofc I had to play it straight away!!

Your writing style is so captivating and the VAs did an outstanding job of bringing all the characters to life! (extra shout out to Raku's mum & Nelli's dad because those were tough roles and BOY WERE THEY CHILLING my tummy was like hnngbgmgglgl)

The art, as always, is stunning and I really liked the use of silhouettes and limited colour palettes when it came to portraying some of the more brutal scenes. I think it created the perfect balance of not over showing and potentially being too graphic /triggering but instead showing just enough to elude to the situation and let players imagination run wild.

Having a look into Raku & Nelli's childhoods was so heartbreaking they both went through so much ;-; I think it definitely shines a light as to why they were they way that they were in karamu.

Also I'd just like to shout out how much you've grown as both a dev & artist since karamu!  There is for sure an extra level of polish here which I think you should be really proud of :D:D

yipppeeee yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee amazing work chatter!! <3

Can you add it on Android?

*pops in the comments*

So, I had the honour (of course) to playtest Kanau (not to be mistaken with canoe) which means I can leave my review extra early, hehe.

Kanau is definitely a game worth your time, whether you played Karamu first or not (if anything, you should play Karamu first for the sake of not spoiling you its twists with Kanau, as the prequel really stands firmly on its on). For those who played Karamu, Kanau definitely brings more nuances to the characters we learned to... erm... love, of course!

Now, for Kanau: this is nothing short of a brilliant horror game, filled with psychological manipulation, disturbing imagery and meaningful developments around the theme of "broken children".

It is no secret, at this point, that Chattercap's background skills are out there: but every game seems to exceed the expectations set by the previous one, and Kanau makes no exception to the rule. The backgrounds are not only wonderfully composed and rendered, they are here tinted in surreal colours, almost as the apocalypse was nearing. I think it is a very neat choice here: the two children whom we follow during this game, Nelli and Raku, are overwhelmed by [redacted for spoilery part], and putting them in a world where the sky isn't blue and the sun doesn't shine, and of which all they can see is red was brilliant. The sheer contrast of blue and red used (with blue being of course very reminiscent of the prequel, Karamu) is an interesting one, as this story almost cements the characters' fate: because of their childhood, they become the people they are in Karamu, and this was a very good way of showing this.

Of course, the rest of the art isn't to be neglected: Kanau, just like its predecessor, is only composed of CGs and comic-book style panels. And if the art in Karamu was already beyond gorgeous, Kanau reaches new heights, not hesitating to use various compositions for the panels and various rendering styles to convey different sorts of emotions (something closer to cross-hatching for horror scenes implying a frightened character; silhouettes for characters acting beyond the limits of humanity; and the standard rendering style otherwise). And of course, the usual Chattercore flair, the live-2d-like animations are perfectly executed and really give a polish the art didn't need anyway because it is already of very high quality, but which is still very welcomed to make it a premium experience.

The writing is also, per usual, excellent: the style is immaculate, and the metaphors and similes always sound right. The dialogues all feel very natural: the children do sound like children, and the grown-ups contrast each other very well (The Mother's refinement is a striking contrast to The Father's ruthlessness, which is also a striking contrast to Carter's softness, which is a contrast to The Mother's coaxing tone...). The story also feels emotional and is a very unique and moving corruption of the protagonist. As someone who played Karamu, I was especially struck at the contrast between Kanau's Nelli, especially the one in the epilogue scene. This created a new layer of attachment to these characters (n-not that I was attached anyway... b-baka!!). I will detail more in the spoiler section, but overall, the writing is a very strong suit of the game, and will satisfy those in search of elegant and proper phrasing.

And what would be Kanau without its voice-acting! ... okay, still an excellent game, but the voice-acting is the icing on the cake, and that's the understatement of the century, as it is part of the experience. Kanau is fully-voiced and the actors, not only were perfectly cast, but also played their parts absolutely flawlessly. Carter was perfect in the role of a kind and helpless university student and Noah managed to create sympathy for his character right away! Raku was an excellent cast: the slight roughness in the voice really fitted the child he is, and offers a striking contrast with Shay's very sweet approach as older Raku: there is a Raku before Nelli and after Nelli, and even the voices show how what his word revolves around has changed. That was a very nice touch!
Zoe also offered a wonderful perfomance: if we were all convinced of her talent thanks to Karamu, she manages to portray here a very convincing and touching ten year-old Nelli, showing vocal and emotional range that is beyond impressive.
The two parents were also wonderfully voiced, and that's understating it. The Mother was a perfect balance of refinement, anger, firmness and coaxing sweetness. The Father's rage was frightening, goodness! The two of them showed different sides of toxic parenthood, and did so wonderfully!
And Shay was very good as older Raku for the few lines we hear for him!

The music was really fitting, being ominous and even nagging; the GUI was gorgeous and the coding flawless on my part.

To make it short: go play this game, it's worth your time, just take a look at the trigger warnings, especially if you are sensitive to topics involving the "breaking" of children.

Are we done? Of course not! I would like to talk a bit more about the story, but it will include spoilers.

#BOOOH EVIL SPOILERS PLAY THE GAME FIRST HOW CAN YOU RESIST BABY RAKU

So, this story revolves around child abuse and, more specifically, on how children react to child abuse and how, in the end, such abuse can corrupt what would otherwise have been healthy and happy adults. What is brilliant is that the game manages to portray two distinct situations and create two different "survivors".

Raku is the first of the two children we follow and is a rather inhumane character: his skin is literally portrayed as grey, and so is his mother's, when the epilogue scene (and Karamu) do portray Raku with a more human skin colour. This is setting the tone: Raku, despite being a child, has been deprived of his humanity (and his childhood) by a gaslighting, manipulating and strict mother. Even when Carter sees him at the start of the game, he thinks of old Japanese horror films, setting a further distance between him (who embodies the "standard healthy human" in this game) and Raku. This is a small indication at everything Raku has endured already, and of his function at the start of the intrigue: he plays the role of a helpless child to lure Carter into a place where he can murder him.

However, everything happens under the Mother's eyes, watching his every step, hearing his every word, and she ends up murdering Carter herself when Raku tries to question her.

This is an interesting set-up: while Raku is portrayed as inhumane, he quickly becomes a protagonist refusing the corruption, trying to fight against it, even following the generic advice of a Carter who couldn't even imagine the actual family situation of the boy he just met.

Nonetheless, the game shows how, despite his main efforts, Raku has already been too corrupted to easily gain back his humanity (after all, he was a monster in Karamu: he can't have healed himself in this game).

When Raku refuses to murder Carter and to eat him, his mother hurts him, leaving him with no other choice, for his own survival, than eating the man he talked with earlier. When Raku escapes and lives as a spider in Nelli's room, he ends up, for Nelli's sake, doing as his mother said, the CG in question further cementing him as a monster.

This psychologically makes sense: Raku has been raised with the idea that humans are disposable and that human life has no worth. And if he doesn't give into this idea (he acts so to grant Nelli's wish), he still acts in a way that makes his mother satisfied of it: this is the corruption he reached (even being drunk from the alcohol in Nelli's father's body, and calling himself a "demon", refusing humanity).

Nelli, on the other hand, is a more subtle type of corrupted protagonist (after all, this game sets up as the murdered she ends up being in Karamu). She is a bright child, full of life, bullying his teacher Faye Mourant with the other kids, well, nothing special. And Easter egg and private joke aside, it is true that Nelli, unlike Raku, appears as fully human and vulnerable: she is a kid doing very well at school, having dreams, even making sprouts grow in her bedroom and being nice enough to take care of a spider just because it lacks legs.

However, Nelli's father is a notorious alcoholic, abusing his wife and Nelli. This is interesting: while Raku's mother's abuse relies way more on gaslighting and emotional manipulation, and seems grounded in more complex feelings (after all, if she did keep Raku instead of eating him, she did rebel against her family too, just like Raku does in Kanau: this is an interesting parallelism between the mother and the son, showing that she understands him and therefore knows exactly what buttons to press to manipulate him), the Father's abuse is way more impulsive, only subject to his emotions. We never see him manipulate Nelli, he "just" lashes out at her and hits her. The game did a great job at painting different types of abusers and abuse.

Nelli ends up being corruputed too to some extent, when we see her wish for her father's death and we can guess the corruption goes to a further extent when it indeed happens: somehow, her wish came true, and her life has changed for the better, planting in her mind the seeds of "murder" as a solution to get rid of awful people (which she ends up doing in Karamu).

Both situations were touching and if Raku's abuse was more "fantasy"-like, it still felt grounded in some sort of intrageneration trauma. Nelli's abuse, on the other hand, was realistic and I can't deny my heart broke when she talked of one of her classmates having "such a nice dad".

Carter's role is particularly interesting: he starts the game being lost in the woods (no, not the Frozen 2 song), just like Nelli at the start of Karamu. In the little time he spends with Raku, he manages to talk about his sister (so mirroring Raku being compared with his sister) and his father (mirroring Nelli's relationship with her own). He body embodies what these two could have been, in these woods, years later, if they hadn't been corrupted by their parents.

Finally, the game offers a very interesting subversion of the wish. Both characters are seen wishing at some point (Nelli's wish being as twisted as being her father's death). This is interesting considering the name of the game, Kanau, which means, according to my very serious Google research "to come true" for a wish. And while Nelli's dream does come true, the cost of it is horrible. But personally, and it's surely a wrong interpretation as it strays away from the Japanese meaning, I like the idea of the "prophecy" somehow "coming true": not a literal prophecy, the fate put in front of Nelli and Raku by their childhood trauma; the prophecy turning Raku into a monster and becoming the "true" self he was raised to be, and turning Nelli into a murderer, becoming the "true" self marked with her abuse, not the one who manages to escape it by laughing talking about a video game, like we see her at the end of the game with a dream-like background offering a sheer contrast with the other backgrounds of Kanau.

Somehow, this feels like a tragedy: those two children, for any reason other than fate, were raised in abusive household and, while Kanau narrates Raku's tragedy, Karamu relates Nelli's.

Now, these characters just have to break free from the tragedy and from the circle they find themselves trapped in... and I'm looking forward to Hanasu!