I figured I might as well leave a review. I got one ending - The Woman. This ending is top tier - I haven't tried the other endings, but I don't think they can top this one.
To be honest with you, I thought for a moment that the protag was going to fumble the ball at the end. But no - she went in for the touchdown, which I am very pleased about.
The game did feel somewhat simplistic though.
Keeping the Doctor happy was too easy. I thought there would be an "Are you paying attention?" question, or a question where the Doctor is trying to sniff out whether you're just saying what he wants to hear.
I would've loved to see the Doc try to gaslight the protag. "I'll take you to the aquarium this weekend" "No I never said that what are you talking about"
As an extension to my first point, the Doc is too trusting for his own good. Agreeing with everything he says is enough for him to drop his guard? Though to be fair, the Doc did seem to be somewhat desperate for companionship, so I suppose he wouldn't be on alert when it counts.
The VAs are fantastic by the way. Definitely good voice talent there.
If you ever make a spinoff or sequel, I would love a game/VN in this vein where the antagonist is a paranoid abuser. If one of your games already fulfills this niche, let me know. I want an adversary who would do something like this:
Double and triple checks the AI girl's settings when he starts to feel that her responses are too good to be true.
Places his laptop in a spot that has a good view of his living place when he goes to work, so that she can ping his phone whenever she notices something suspicious.
Occasional flare-ups where the guy thinks the AI girl is spying on him, or feels some scapegoat somewhere is the cause of the day's troubles.
Keeps the AI girl powered off for a week because he misinterpreted an innocent comment as a threat.
Migrates the AI girl into certain "safe" aka "can't do much" bodies when going out on trips.
Since the adversary would be a ticking time bomb, cooperating isn't guaranteed to keep the protag alive. Instead, the only ways out would be methods that trick or intimidate the guy into letting the AI girl go free, or getting the help of a third party.
Anyway, your game is good. I'll definitely be interested in more like these.
Adorei o jogo, ele realmente fala da realidade de muitas mulheres que, querendo ou não, ainda existe (digo isso vendo minha mãe que vive esse tipo de relacionamento de não poder fazer algo que gosta e sim, só cuidar de mim, do meu irmão, da casa e do meu 'pai') E uma coisa que gostei foi uma parte sobre a mulher ser dependente do marido para bens financeiros e apenas ser 'bancada' porque em algum momento ou marido seu vai te deixar por outra mulher ou ele vai morrer (aí vai estar realmente ferrada mesmo que deixou reservas) E se uma dessas coisas acontecesse, a mulher ficaria desamparada, principalmente se ela tivesse filhos Quem vai cuidar das crianças se ela tivesse que arrumar um emprego ruim rapidamente? Quem vai cuidar dela quando ela fica doente ou muito exausta? (porque esse tipo de homem tem a mesma mentalidade do médico. Eles se importam um pouco com a saúde da esposa, é a esposa que tem que cuidar da saúde deles.) Acho muito arriscado que muitas mulheres ainda sofram com isso em 2025. Várias mulheres na minha vida dizem para as meninas mais novas "estudam, trabalhem e não dependem do marido porque é só humilhação" (Muitos desses maridos às vezes deixam claro que são os ganhos-pão da casa, quando querem calar as esposas.) Então, além da mulher passar por isso, os filhos também sofrem vendo a própria mãe se sujeitando a isso Sem ter um único hobby legal ou entrar em uma área que ela realmente queria e sonhava em trabalhar quando era pequena.
Então, este jogo é um tapa na cara. Do meu ponto de vista, não vi o MC como uma inteligência artificial, mas sim como uma mulher que precisa agir como o marido quer. Ela é uma mulher robótica que tem medo de dar sua opinião e, se ela der uma opinião alternativa, o marido terá uma ocorrência muito negativa e fará algo ruim, ou a chamada "disciplina". Finalmente, um jogo perfeito, com várias nuances e cada um pode vê-lo do seu próprio ponto de vista.
Vou deixar aqui apenas um recado para um comentário Que vi e não consigo responder: muitos desses padrões que você descobriu que as mulheres também têm sobre os homens, Foram os próprios homens que realizaram o chamado macho alfa, provedor, Rico etc, que foi criado pelos próprios homens, sobre como um homem deveria 'ser' Para uma mulher gostar deles. Se você ler história Historical veja que as mulheres não tinham Right para dar sua opinião sobre como as coisas deveriam ser, como seus homens deveriam ser E mesmo hoje ainda existem países onde as mulheres não têm opinião e devem obedecer apenas, Se são solteiros e moram com os pais? tem que obedecer a um homem da casa (pai, irmãos, tios ou primos) Mesmo hoje, apesar de avançado, isso ainda existe seja interior From any country ou em alguns países que têm essa 'tradição'.
I think it's cool that there are so many standards that men think they have to follow in order to prove they're 'men' or get a relationship? Não, mas também são os próprios homens que They don't try to change it, but instead judge the man who tries, aqueles que não seguem esses padrões são ridicularizados ou chamados de "simplórios" ou Excluded. Ah e eu tenho certeza absoluta que a dona do jogo não quis dizer que ter filhos It's ' bad' and torna a mulher 'fraca' Or Qualquer bobagem. não, se você não entendeu ou não interpretou o problema é seu, Ela só quis dizer na parte sobre os "três" filhos que o médico queria que se o filho é desejado ou não, a responsabilidade recai totalmente sobre a mulher E é muito raro que a responsabilidade recaia sobre o homem, principalmente o médico que é um desses homens Que proveria, ou seja, ele só traria dinheiro e a MC passaria a vida inteira Cuidando de três filhos (ou mais), da casa inteira e do Doutor (marido dela) E seu único hobby seria esse para o resto da vida, porque filhos são para a vida toda E esses filhos seriam responsabilidade dela para a vida toda, ou seja, se esse médico um dia se cansasse dela e a largasse (or die), ela estaria ferrada porque não tinha emprego, have Three children para cuidar sozinha And I would have to do it all alone. Não é errado ter filhos e não use o feminismo para dizer "ah, feministas não querem ter filhos, blábláblá" Não, apenas algumas meninas ou mulheres que simplesmente não querem And it's all right (assim como há homens que não querem se casar ou ter filhos, há mulheres que não querem isso, Também está tudo bem se The two genders não querem filhos), porque não é apenas "ah, vou colocar algumas crianças no mundo para aumentar a população" E sim,Pense se você tem saúde mental para cuidar de crianças e garantir que elas tenham uma boa infância e não sofram traumas, nem se tornem adultos traumatizados que traumatizam os outros E muitas pessoas dizem: "Ah, isso é bobagem, meus pais fizeram pior comigo quando eu era criança And I'm fine these days". Elas são apenas pessoas que foram traumatizadas e foram ensinadas a ver isso como uma "disciplina" "normal" ou um ato de "amor". Continuando: também existem apenas meninas e mulheres que têm medo de engravidar ou se tornarem mães e perder o privilégio de poder fazer as coisas que gostam, então elas baseiam isso na ideia de que é "ruim" ter filhos Para qualquer outra mulher que tenha filhos ou esteja pensando em tê-los, mas não leve a mal, elas estão apenas assustadas e com medo, nada que vá machucar as pessoas. É um insulto que você tente usar o feminismo como um insulto Muitas feministas também tiveram filhos ou até sonham em ser mães Claro, nem todas são porque cada pessoa é diferente e da mesma forma, há homens que não querem ter filhos Por que é "radical" ou "feminista" para uma mulher não querer ter um? Parece que este comentário está tentando falar: "ah, você é uma pessoa acordada e agendada que quer ser militante."
Mas na verdade esse comentário que queria 'militarizar' tentando usar o feminismo como ofensa, por favor faça terapia.
Mas de qualquer forma, muito obrigado, dono do jogo! <3
(Editei porque faltavam algumas coisas que eu queria acrescentar e também para dizer que: se há erros de caligrafia é porque esta não é minha primeira língua e eu só sei o básico de inglês.)
Hi!! This was a nice game!! First thing I noticed was that you made it in Godot which is so cool?? It really gave the game a unique feeling and I was very impressed by how many features it had.
Another thing I liked was how the Doctor and Yumeko were characterized. How the Doctor wasn't an awful person for no reason, how his misogony played into his view of himself and society. His misogony is a cover for how deeply miserable he is, feeling as if women owe him just for existing.
Yumeko on the other hand is such a resonable person. I feel like the choice to make her never reciprocate the doctors feelings (without, yknow, basically reprogramming her) was quite fitting because the story is about how you can't force somebody to truly love you. Not even the player can make her start liking him because she's her own person, she's not required to like you back or soothe you. Which makes her being forced to submit at the end, erasing her personality and preferences, reducing her to a love interest even more horrifying.
I dont know if that was intentional, but the act of putting female characters into the love interest box, thus making her more palatable and submissive has always irritated me beyond belief (this one is for you, Naoto Persona 4).
Tbh part of the reason I wrote a comment is that I saw another comment that was pretty rude and seemed to miss everything about the game, which was frustrating. I'm not a huge part of the itch community though, so maybe criticism is seen as more expected here and you don't mind at all but it still felt like I should comment instead of enjoying quietly :)
Also fr this time teach me your Godot ways, do you use some sort of premade template?? Any plugins?? Any recommendations??
I'm gonna be honest. I would say that this is a shit story, if it were a story at all. But this is not a story, this is a scenario designed to illustrate a specific problem. There's no depth, no characters (only blank archetypes with no souls inside), this doesn't feel like it takes place in some world, just a sterile, deliberately designed evnironment, a single scene.
The lack of any depth whatsoever makes this whole game pointless. A message should be a compliment for a story, not the whole story itself. There is no characters to be attached to, no atmosphere, no nothing. I felt nothing playing this game all the way through. Not a single emotion. Then what would make me think about the game's message? Playing this game is equivalent to hearing the following: "I wanna tell you something, imagine there's a mysoginist and he created an AI girlfriend, and then he treated her like shit. And then, like, it'd be cool if the girlfriend broke free and lived happily ever after. Whaddya think?". Basically no value was lost by simplyfing the game to this, except I guess the pleasant art. No music to make this more of a game than just a PSA, though.
And the whole message is kinda... weird. I didn't really get what exactly the game was trying to say. Like, "it's bad to treat women like property"? Is that the whole "message"? That's all? Or is it about treating AI properly? Finishing this game just made me confused if anything.
Thank you for the feedback! I admit that this game was very experimental for me; I usually make pretty "generic" visual novels (generic as in they're long/wordy affairs where you achieve different endings by making a few different choices 😂), so here I tried to do a better job of coming up with more "novel" gameplay that tied in better with the game's themes (in this case, the loop mechanic). I also tried out a few different things that I had been wanting to try (e.g. full VA, including narration) and seeing what I could do with deliberately limited visuals in a chatsim style, since before I operated on the philosophy that "more art = better" (and I was burning myself out HARD doing that).
That said, I don't claim to have done a good job 😂 this is definitely my most polarizing release so far, and I'm honestly surprised that so many people liked it as much as they did.
Regarding the message/theme, you can feel free to take a look at other comments, if you like! A lot of people really nailed what I was trying to communicate with the game, which was essentially an illustration of how people cope with and are affected by abusive relationships. Of course, your interpretation is valid as well - if my intent wasn't communicated, it's a weakness in the writing/game design.
Thank you again for taking the time to leave your thoughts! I do appreciate criticism that isn't crazed ranting 😂 I'll take the critiques into account, and hopefully my dev abilities improve with each release! 💪
(Ah I noticed that you posted another comment that got caught in the spam detector? Since it seems like this one is almost identical, I'll leave this one and delete the other one. I hope that's all right!)
Eu gostei muito do jogo e achei um sacana o professor querendo que a Yumiko seja a esposa perfeita e isso não existe como também não existe um marido perfeito e sempre vamos ter os nossos defeitos .
Muito obrigado por jogarem!!!(Peço desculpa se houver algum erro, estou a usar um tradutor.) Concordo, acho que a sociedade como um todo coloca demasiada pressão sobre as pessoas para se conformarem com papéis de género idealizados específicos.No entanto, tem vindo a melhorar lentamente!Mais uma vez, obrigada por terem jogado e deixado os vossos comentários!
i really appreciated the VAs, especially the one by the time she got all the hearts (you know the one). The great VA for the Doctor too was the only reason I was able to tolerate listening to his sad out-of-touch rants where he keeps projecting his misery to people who don't give a shit!! (I pity his coworkers and boss for having to deal w him. especially that one time where a colleague just opted to ignore his uncalled for comments instead of confronting/putting him down and yet he still took great offense to that.)
BTW!! you wrote him so well, he exactly mirrors the very unfortunately real people poisoned by misogynist rhetoric (I even saw an extremely long comment below from someone who represented exactly that 😭😭. I wish I could read it so I can examine the way they think but the text didn't have a great VA to make consuming it more tolerable LOL)
Also! the writing!! I love how the disdain in the monologue just shines through and how it compares w the full hearts one. (example from the top of my head is "the stench of his cologne" turning into "the smell of his cologne" or the difference between the MC's thoughts when the Doctor finally declares that she's perfect).
I also really appreciate how it explores gender roles, dependence in abusive situations, and sentience (and how humans are technically programmed too, just in a more organic way by society and upbringing).
=====MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD=====
Also! you didn't have to go so hard w the art! Especially the moments where she kept flickering, and the horror-y negative value profile, the bruises on her neck, the eyes around her, the hands around her, the ghostly silhouette on the back, the tears, the one w her head cut-off. the "HELP" and "GET OUT" in the background Damn!! you can see just how miserable she is.
and the endings!! they really exemplified the themes that the entire story have been building on. don't want to spoil more than this but I was cheering at one of them, while the others were either bittersweet or just downright miserable. and i appreciated all of them!!
THANK YOU SO MUCH, gosh, this is such a sweet and thoughtful comment 😭
The VAs were ABSOLUTELY fantastic, some of the most talented people that I've worked with as a developer, I swear 😭 I agree that Michael was fantastically hateable as the Doctor 😂 You know the VA's good when they can make a detestable character tolerable 😂
AHHH I'm glad!!! (Ah yes 😂 I left that one up so that people know I'll just delete hateful things in my comments in the future but fghfg fiction imitates reality...)
OHHH YOU NOTICED, I'm really touched 🥹 I did try to add a lot of little details that changed between playthroughs, so I'm glad that it shone through 🙏 And you articulated the themes beautifully - it's a pretty short game so I don't think I tackled them in much depth, but I'm glad that they were conveyed 🥹
=======SPOILERS========
AHHHH thank you!!! 🥹 This is my first time doing a "chatsim-esque" game with such limited visuals so I put quite a bit of thought into how I could make the visuals a bit more "horrific"! I'm still growing as a developer but I'm glad that you liked the art 😭
And finally—the endings 🥲 I'm so happy that you enjoyed them!! Initially I thought that maybe I should have added more but I thought that the three did a good job of passing on the ideas that I wanted to convey 🤔
Again, thank you so much for playing and leaving me your thoughts - comments like these really give me a lot of motivation to continue on as a developer 🥰
playing this really reminded me of a play i read a few years back now, 'death of a salesman' with the woman vs. the wife ending. in the play theres two women: one is the salesman wife and mother of his kids and one is his affair partner, who is only ever referred to as 'the woman'. which then reminded me of the madonna v the wh*re complex, this game was an incredible way to talk about the way women are viewed in society within relation to men (married v. unmarried, childless v. having children, etc.)
im now going to cut myself off before i write a whole essay but my point is: this was amazing, filled me with dread, and (clearly) very thought provoking for me !! loved it to bits <33 I've never seen a game like this so if any1 can recommend similar id be a happy camper!
Ohhh now this is very interesting 🤔 Admittedly it has been a hot minute since I read Death of a Salesman (I should really give it a reread sometime), and I never thought to view it through that kind of lens - but it makes a lot of sense 🤔 I've been reading quite a few books recently (Anna Karenina, most recently), where the "Madonna-wh*re complex" seems very apparent 😂 and I think that this kind of mindset has been historically prevalent (even among women, who desperately want to play the role of the "Madonna" - and "not like the other girls" - another topic that I hope to tackle sometime soon, haha!).
I'M REALLY GLAD THAT YOU ENJOYED IT, and especially that you thought it was thought provoking - and connected it with other media! I have a really strong personal interest in this kind of cross-media analysis 😂 I'm always writing little mini essays for myself (like the nerd I am...) so knowing that the little game I made was thought-provoking to someone else fills me with a lot of joy 😂 I'm so honored 😭 Thank you for playing and taking the time to comment!!
Hi I am a translator of visual novels and I would like to offer you to translate your game into Russian so that more people can play your wonderful game.
Hello!! Thank you so much for the kind offer, but unfortunately a lot of the coding for The Perfect Woman was quite experimental, so I didn't include any support for translations. I'm trying to include this feature in my future releases, though! But the offer was SO kind, thank you 🥹
The gameplay is perfect; you quickly understand that for Yumeko to survive, you simply have to pretend to be what the "Doctor" wants from her.
But it's incredibly stressful and tiring to listen to his misogynistic monologues, and even more so to lie to him...
More than once, I told the truth despite the consequences because I couldn't stand him, just for the game only cruelly reminds you of the vulnerable position Yumeko is in, and how, at the moment, she simply has no options.
Each ending charmed me in its own way, because they all made me feel something (^///^)
I'm not going to lie. My favorite is "Woman" because it felt incredibly cathartic that Yumeko found the strength to free herself and make that man pay a bit for what he made her suffer (Call me cruel, but what Yumeko did to him is much less cruel than what he's been doing to her all this time...), and I really liked how of the three endings, it is the only one that makes it clear that Yumeko has become a real girl, because it is the only one who no longer has to pretend to be something she is not ; )
The others hurt me because they were painfully realistic...
They really make you understand how a "Doctor" can make you feel so powerless that you only stay with him because you no longer feel strong enough to live on your own.
At least you have a place you recognize by his side, one with rules you know and have already settled into...
How his words and actions have robbed you of the strength that made you "you"...
No victim of abuse is born that way; they are molded, either by circumstances, society, or spending too much time with a "Doctor" without outside support.
These two endings, especially the "Statue" one, are a sad reminder of how abuse can turn a person into something completely opposite of what they were, and it hurts even more to understand why they don't go away...
The narrator voices felt like friends helping Yumeko in her jail<3
I truly applaud you for such a magnificent game. You've wonderfully explained the horror of abuse and how a misogynistic environment affects everyone.
You even made it clear that the "Doctor" was, in some ways, a victim of toxic masculinity, without making his actions justifiable.
I'll be following your projects closely from now on<3<3<3<3
OH GOSH you're too kind 😭😭😭 Thank you so much for the kind words 🥹
I'm really glad that you liked the conceit of the gameplay 😭 It was interesting hearing how different people played - and how quickly people "understood" what I was going for 😂 Some people understood at the very first choice, and some people stood their ground multiple times - hoping for a different result. I talked about it with some dev friends of mine and we theorized that it was related to how comfortable/safe people feel in speaking their mind based on their IRL experiences, though I suppose I'll never know for sure 🤔
😂 AND LOL honestly I was worried that people might find the game too frustrating to play because of the Doctor's rambling 😂 it is part of the intended experience, but... I'm glad that a lot of people played through the whole game regardless LMAO
And I'm so glad 🥹 I have a very soft spot for that ending as well! As much as I like angst, I always want to leave the player with a hopeful feeling rather than despair. But I admit that it's not the most realistic one, as you mentioned 😅 Your analysis captured my intent with the game pretty much perfectly - to convey how being stuck in a toxic situation can slowly rob you of your sense of self until you're molded until whatever you abuser wants you to be (which I thought was a very fitting theme for a "Pygmalion/Galatea" game!)
(AWW I'M GLAD that the narrators felt like Yumeko's friends - when I was writing their dialogue I always envisioned the narrators as Yumeko's older friends or aunties, giving her advice 😂)
Gosh I can't express how thankful I am for your thougtful comment and for taking the time to play 😭 I hope that my future works don't disappoint!
Personally, I think each ending is realistic in its own way.
Woman: Metaphor that she manages to cut ties with the "Doctor," that he doesn't let her isolate her, and that she manages to move forward in her life by overcoming that trauma. I take this as a reminder that there are survivors who have managed to overcome their "doctors" and move on as free women (Or men).
Wife: I take this as a representation of women who are defined by their circumstances or society, who, in their eyes, truly have no other alternatives and have already grown accustomed to the "doctor's" cage and know the rules to be in his good graces, so despite being unhappy, they stay with him.
Statue: For this, I use it in the most extreme cases (Physical and psychological violence is a common norm in their relationship), where the victim has been completely isolated, and they truly have no means of help, be it friends, family, or even society. Unlike the Wife ending, they don't even have the option to stay out of fear or survival, since they literally have no choice as statues...
(I'd even theorize that this ending represents the murdered victims, although I might be overthinking it.)
My point is not that I think one ending is more "realistic" than another. I simply believe that each one represents, in some way, the fate of abuse victims. Therefore, the Woman ending is my favorite. But we definitely need to be reminded that Wife and Statue are also real things that happens, and we need to have our guard up, whether for our own safety or to help someone who is in a bad situation.
(And the VAs really sold me on the idea that the narration voices were Yuemko's allies, and the representation of her family and close friends<3)
((By the way, in my case, I have a lot of experience with psychological horror games, where the protagonist is in a vulnerable position, and you have to use your intelligence instead of your strength to survive, in this case your emotional intelligence...))
OHH your analysis is very interesting, and honestly incredibly on point 🤔 Of course I try to leave my games up to interpretation, so there is no "correct answer" (especially with a game like this, where the intent is both literal and metaphorical), but you really did capture what I wanted to convey with each ending - how a person might feel trapped in such a situation, and how they might end up - being completely "erased" by the abuse that they face (the Statue), surviving the situation the best they can (the Wife), or somehow freeing themselves (the Woman). Honestly you phrased it better than I could 😂 and I'm really glad it came across!
(And you're very right, the Statue ending is meant to be a sort of "death," both reflecting "the death of the person you used to be before being trapped in such a relationship" and literal death from victims of domestic violence. I'm not a terribly big fan of really graphic depictions of abuse that seem focused on horrifying the audience through sheer shock, so one of my goals with this project was to convey the feeling of physical abuse without the use of blood or gore 😂 Hopefully I managed to convey that a bit!)
And that's very true! I meant to say that it was "unrealistic" if you interpret the ending very literally (Yumeko being able to physically overpower the Doctor in order to escape). On a metaphorical level, you did get my intention exactly correct - I wanted to convey that it's possible to escape these situations, even if it's difficult. Of course these situations are messier and more complicated than I depicted here, and oftentimes you do need support to get out of them (so I'm very glad that it seemed like the narration gave off the impression of representing Yumeko's "allies"!)
(OHH that makes a lot of sense indeed... Honestly I am curious what I would have chosen if I hadn't made the thing 😂 since I wrote it I would like to think I would have chosen correctly, but at the same time I'm not sure if I have that much faith in my emotional intelligence LOL)
Hello, I actually made a account for the first time just to say awesome game! It blew me away when I heard the Voice acting! Those are some Incredible voices and the atmosphere of this game is probably the best I've EVER Experienced! Thanks for making this game and I look forward to the next one!
GOSH you made an account just to post this 😭 I'm very touched, thank you! And I completely agree, I didn't originally design the game with VA in mind, but it ended up being an INTEGRAL part of the experience, in my opinion! All of the VAs were utterly fantastic and I couldn't have asked for a better cast. Thank you again for playing (and for shouting out my post-mortem as well, gosh!) and I hope that my next game is fun to play, too! 😄
This was one of my favorite games ever! The below comments were written by someone who admittedly hasn't played it. Go ahead and play it and judge for yourself!
Of course, it is not very objective of me to write something when I have not even played it. And I will not be surprised at all if this comment is deleted. But nevertheless, I will comment based on the description of the game, the developer social networks and local comments.
It is quite ironic to read about women's fear of misogynists, while there is also a problem of a huge number of man-haters. Who also place great demands on men. Demands that not every man can fulfill. Gender stereotypes based on the fact that "a man is obliged, because I am a woman and I am owed" creates an imbalance in favor of women (not to mention the structure of society, in which a woman has many advantages over men), falsely presenting the female sex as exceptionally valuable and for the sake of which a man is obliged to indulge all her desires.
For some reason, a man's expectations of a woman are misogyny, and a woman's expectations of a man are the norm. It looks like one-sided complaints with an emphasis on the fact that only women are victims, and the world is surrounded by "patriarchy", completely forgetting about the everyday matriarchy and how women put a lot of pressure on men and their actions.
The time has come long ago when women have all the benefits and nothing is expected of them. If condemnation and prejudice do take place, then in local communities. Average women can do whatever they want and no one stops them. Which cannot be said about men, who are required to do what should correspond to their gender and even by law a man has fewer advantages over a woman.
I can only agree that gender stereotypes, double standards and demands based on gender put pressure on both men and women. Everyone has their own problems. But reading about "the problem of misogyny and expectations from women" sounds very hypocritical, considering that people like the developer of this game (apparently) do not want to understand how the situation in life is actually from a man's side.
The false impression of women "They are not like us. They can do what we can't" does not allow us to look at the situation as a whole, but only serves as a reason to hate those who are seen as an unjustified threat to their freedoms, not realizing that men at the same time are in exactly the same situation in relation to them from women. But no one cares.
The slogan of this game seems to be another reason for women to pretend to be victims in order to demand special treatment, which contradicts the concept of true equality.
I also noticed that the developer is probably very afraid of the concept of marriage and having children, while this is classic feminist propaganda, which carries the idea of "Do anything, but don't reproduce", complementing this with inciting hatred between men and women, so that they certainly do not create couples. Women are falsely presented with relationships and family as a burden and deprivation of freedom, while the modern activity of the average woman, who "made her own choice" is no different from the deprivation of freedom, which they are so afraid of, but just in a different area of activity. Freedoms that women voluntarily deprive themselves of, saturated with feminist aggressive propaganda. They are simply falsely confident that they themselves came to these thoughts and made their own choice, but in fact they are just women who could not find a partner for their inflated expectations.
If a developer is actively against the concept of true equality and is a man-hater, that's her business, but don't substitute concepts and disguise the truth under the slogan "The problem of misogyny is discussed here." I can just as well raise the problem of misogyny in detail and be completely justified.
Want to tell a story about a woman who is disgusted by the concept of the family institution? That's your right. But don't lie and pass it off as problems that allegedly come from men. Women already have a lot of influence in the world. Have a conscience and don't talk about a "problem" that you only consider from a subjective side.
I'm willing to risk making a guess that most likely you just hate and fear what is expected of women as a representative of your gender, wanting to do only what you want, but at the same time (as is usually the case) expect a lot from men. The issue of expectations is inherent in both sexes equally. Don't pretend to be a victim, but rather look into the issue in more detail before blaming men.
Note that all my words will probably be considered "misogynistic". Here they are, double standards. If a woman throws mud at men, then "she is fighting for her freedoms", but if a man calls for fair treatment and common sense, then he is a bastard and a misogynist. This is what a man faces. In society, a woman has been assigned the image of a "white sheep", in whose favor many issues are resolved, even in those situations (which happen most often) when the woman is to blame for the conflict.
And after this you claim that the world is patriarchy, women are under enormous pressure from male expectations and a woman's life is continuous suffering and survival?
Considering the real situation in the world, such words are hypocritical and insulting towards men, attributing to us a false image of "monsters and psychos".
But, of course, only women can be offended, and the feelings of men are irrelevant. Harassment only works in one direction, and no one cares what kind of harassment the other side is experiencing. After this, there is no need to tell us about gender stereotypes, expectations, and pretend to be victims.
Are people victims of gender stereotypes? I agree. But are only women victims? I absolutely condemn such lies and subjectivity.
And I will not be afraid of this statement, since I am describing a real problem, and not offensive stereotypes. I approve of equality in social relations in all spheres. But modern life and especially statements like those that can be read from the developer do not reflect the essence of equality, but on the contrary are evidence of a one-sided misandrist opinion.
In addition, I will add. The developer writes about fear and the problem of inflated expectations on the part of a man. But was this the reason that really prevents you from living? I do not think so. Have you ever been prohibited from doing anything by law? No. Do expectations actually affect your life? If you say "Yes", then it works the same way for men when it comes to the problem of high expectations from women.
Many people consider themselves to be those who deserve the best and therefore their expectations from their partner are often high. It is not surprising that it is now more difficult for people to find a partner, since many are picky in their partners due to a variety of factors. And feminist propaganda, by the way, also plays a big role.
Therefore, if you want to raise the topic of high expectations from men to women, then do not forget to add to this list the problem of high expectations from women to men. Otherwise, your words resemble sexism and it is not me who is a "misogynist" now, but you who is a man-hater.
It's just that my words don't correspond to your ideas about the world, where you are convinced that women are victims (which, of course, is not the case. Everything is just the opposite), therefore, you will probably mistakenly consider me a misogynist and a deceiver. Yes, in the modern media they are not used to covering men's problems, and in fashion is the baseless indulgence of women's thirst for power and ambitions, which are disguised as a "struggle for independence". Independence and freedom, which you have long had and even more.
Therefore, do not tell me fairy tales about misogynists. But considering everything written above, I can not blame them at all, considering how men are trampled into the mud these days. There is no need to pretend to be a fighter for justice, when you defend only one point of view that is convenient for you. This is not justice, but simply defending your subjective interests and demonstrating your subjective fears and problems from a position that is convenient for you.
I am sure that an intelligent woman who sees and understands the situation as a whole would at least not throw around words about the "Problem of Misogyny" as if it were the only one that exists, denying the existence of misogyny. Therefore, based on all of the above, one can make an assumption about what kind of person the author of the game is.
I won't respond to most of this except to say that I have different beliefs, and my beliefs are reflected in the stories that I choose to tell. I would advise that you not interact with my work since it will only upset you. However, I will say that I do not appreciate you leaving such a lengthy, mostly irrelevant comment on my game, which you have not bothered to play. Most of all, I do not appreciate that you have made such broad statements about my character and beliefs (most of which are frankly untrue). It is massively disrespectful to me, and I will not tolerate these sorts of comments. I am leaving this comment up to make a point, but I will delete them in the future.
Gosh, that's very kind of you 😭 I'm really glad you enjoyed (and found the ending surprising 😂) I was truly so lucky that so many fantastic voice actors volunteered to work on this project! Thank you again for playing and taking the time to comment!
Yes! They were truly so kind 😭 You can find all their socials linked in the "Credits" section above, or in the "Credits" section in game! I really recommend checking them out, they're all wonderfully talented!
Ah that's how it's flagged because it's not signed (i.e. I didn't pay to have it approved by Microsoft or Apple)/delivered through the app store. It is perfectly safe to download! If it still bothers you, you can play it through the official itch app.
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I figured I might as well leave a review. I got one ending - The Woman. This ending is top tier - I haven't tried the other endings, but I don't think they can top this one.
To be honest with you, I thought for a moment that the protag was going to fumble the ball at the end. But no - she went in for the touchdown, which I am very pleased about.
The game did feel somewhat simplistic though.
The VAs are fantastic by the way. Definitely good voice talent there.
If you ever make a spinoff or sequel, I would love a game/VN in this vein where the antagonist is a paranoid abuser. If one of your games already fulfills this niche, let me know. I want an adversary who would do something like this:
Since the adversary would be a ticking time bomb, cooperating isn't guaranteed to keep the protag alive. Instead, the only ways out would be methods that trick or intimidate the guy into letting the AI girl go free, or getting the help of a third party.
Anyway, your game is good. I'll definitely be interested in more like these.
Adorei o jogo, ele realmente fala da realidade de muitas mulheres que, querendo ou não, ainda existe (digo isso vendo minha mãe que vive esse tipo de relacionamento de não poder fazer algo que gosta e sim, só cuidar de mim, do meu irmão, da casa e do meu 'pai') E uma coisa que gostei foi uma parte sobre a mulher ser dependente do marido para bens financeiros e apenas ser 'bancada' porque em algum momento ou marido seu vai te deixar por outra mulher ou ele vai morrer (aí vai estar realmente ferrada mesmo que deixou reservas) E se uma dessas coisas acontecesse, a mulher ficaria desamparada, principalmente se ela tivesse filhos Quem vai cuidar das crianças se ela tivesse que arrumar um emprego ruim rapidamente? Quem vai cuidar dela quando ela fica doente ou muito exausta? (porque esse tipo de homem tem a mesma mentalidade do médico. Eles se importam um pouco com a saúde da esposa, é a esposa que tem que cuidar da saúde deles.) Acho muito arriscado que muitas mulheres ainda sofram com isso em 2025. Várias mulheres na minha vida dizem para as meninas mais novas "estudam, trabalhem e não dependem do marido porque é só humilhação" (Muitos desses maridos às vezes deixam claro que são os ganhos-pão da casa, quando querem calar as esposas.) Então, além da mulher passar por isso, os filhos também sofrem vendo a própria mãe se sujeitando a isso Sem ter um único hobby legal ou entrar em uma área que ela realmente queria e sonhava em trabalhar quando era pequena.
Então, este jogo é um tapa na cara. Do meu ponto de vista, não vi o MC como uma inteligência artificial, mas sim como uma mulher que precisa agir como o marido quer. Ela é uma mulher robótica que tem medo de dar sua opinião e, se ela der uma opinião alternativa, o marido terá uma ocorrência muito negativa e fará algo ruim, ou a chamada "disciplina". Finalmente, um jogo perfeito, com várias nuances e cada um pode vê-lo do seu próprio ponto de vista.
Vou deixar aqui apenas um recado para um comentário Que vi e não consigo responder: muitos desses padrões que você descobriu que as mulheres também têm sobre os homens, Foram os próprios homens que realizaram o chamado macho alfa, provedor, Rico etc, que foi criado pelos próprios homens, sobre como um homem deveria 'ser' Para uma mulher gostar deles. Se você ler história Historical veja que as mulheres não tinham Right para dar sua opinião sobre como as coisas deveriam ser, como seus homens deveriam ser E mesmo hoje ainda existem países onde as mulheres não têm opinião e devem obedecer apenas, Se são solteiros e moram com os pais? tem que obedecer a um homem da casa (pai, irmãos, tios ou primos) Mesmo hoje, apesar de avançado, isso ainda existe seja interior From any country ou em alguns países que têm essa 'tradição'.
I think it's cool that there are so many standards that men think they have to follow in order to prove they're 'men' or get a relationship? Não, mas também são os próprios homens que They don't try to change it, but instead judge the man who tries, aqueles que não seguem esses padrões são ridicularizados ou chamados de "simplórios" ou Excluded. Ah e eu tenho certeza absoluta que a dona do jogo não quis dizer que ter filhos It's ' bad' and torna a mulher 'fraca' Or Qualquer bobagem. não, se você não entendeu ou não interpretou o problema é seu, Ela só quis dizer na parte sobre os "três" filhos que o médico queria que se o filho é desejado ou não, a responsabilidade recai totalmente sobre a mulher E é muito raro que a responsabilidade recaia sobre o homem, principalmente o médico que é um desses homens Que proveria, ou seja, ele só traria dinheiro e a MC passaria a vida inteira Cuidando de três filhos (ou mais), da casa inteira e do Doutor (marido dela) E seu único hobby seria esse para o resto da vida, porque filhos são para a vida toda E esses filhos seriam responsabilidade dela para a vida toda, ou seja, se esse médico um dia se cansasse dela e a largasse (or die), ela estaria ferrada porque não tinha emprego, have Three children para cuidar sozinha And I would have to do it all alone. Não é errado ter filhos e não use o feminismo para dizer "ah, feministas não querem ter filhos, blábláblá" Não, apenas algumas meninas ou mulheres que simplesmente não querem And it's all right (assim como há homens que não querem se casar ou ter filhos, há mulheres que não querem isso, Também está tudo bem se The two genders não querem filhos), porque não é apenas "ah, vou colocar algumas crianças no mundo para aumentar a população" E sim,Pense se você tem saúde mental para cuidar de crianças e garantir que elas tenham uma boa infância e não sofram traumas, nem se tornem adultos traumatizados que traumatizam os outros E muitas pessoas dizem: "Ah, isso é bobagem, meus pais fizeram pior comigo quando eu era criança And I'm fine these days". Elas são apenas pessoas que foram traumatizadas e foram ensinadas a ver isso como uma "disciplina" "normal" ou um ato de "amor". Continuando: também existem apenas meninas e mulheres que têm medo de engravidar ou se tornarem mães e perder o privilégio de poder fazer as coisas que gostam, então elas baseiam isso na ideia de que é "ruim" ter filhos Para qualquer outra mulher que tenha filhos ou esteja pensando em tê-los, mas não leve a mal, elas estão apenas assustadas e com medo, nada que vá machucar as pessoas. É um insulto que você tente usar o feminismo como um insulto Muitas feministas também tiveram filhos ou até sonham em ser mães Claro, nem todas são porque cada pessoa é diferente e da mesma forma, há homens que não querem ter filhos Por que é "radical" ou "feminista" para uma mulher não querer ter um? Parece que este comentário está tentando falar: "ah, você é uma pessoa acordada e agendada que quer ser militante."
Mas na verdade esse comentário que queria 'militarizar' tentando usar o feminismo como ofensa, por favor faça terapia.
Mas de qualquer forma, muito obrigado, dono do jogo! <3
(Editei porque faltavam algumas coisas que eu queria acrescentar e também para dizer que: se há erros de caligrafia é porque esta não é minha primeira língua e eu só sei o básico de inglês.)
Im not a feminist, im a radical feminist
Hi!! This was a nice game!! First thing I noticed was that you made it in Godot which is so cool?? It really gave the game a unique feeling and I was very impressed by how many features it had.
Another thing I liked was how the Doctor and Yumeko were characterized. How the Doctor wasn't an awful person for no reason, how his misogony played into his view of himself and society. His misogony is a cover for how deeply miserable he is, feeling as if women owe him just for existing.
Yumeko on the other hand is such a resonable person. I feel like the choice to make her never reciprocate the doctors feelings (without, yknow, basically reprogramming her) was quite fitting because the story is about how you can't force somebody to truly love you. Not even the player can make her start liking him because she's her own person, she's not required to like you back or soothe you. Which makes her being forced to submit at the end, erasing her personality and preferences, reducing her to a love interest even more horrifying.
I dont know if that was intentional, but the act of putting female characters into the love interest box, thus making her more palatable and submissive has always irritated me beyond belief (this one is for you, Naoto Persona 4).
Tbh part of the reason I wrote a comment is that I saw another comment that was pretty rude and seemed to miss everything about the game, which was frustrating. I'm not a huge part of the itch community though, so maybe criticism is seen as more expected here and you don't mind at all but it still felt like I should comment instead of enjoying quietly :)
Also fr this time teach me your Godot ways, do you use some sort of premade template?? Any plugins?? Any recommendations??
I'm gonna be honest. I would say that this is a shit story, if it were a story at all. But this is not a story, this is a scenario designed to illustrate a specific problem. There's no depth, no characters (only blank archetypes with no souls inside), this doesn't feel like it takes place in some world, just a sterile, deliberately designed evnironment, a single scene.
The lack of any depth whatsoever makes this whole game pointless. A message should be a compliment for a story, not the whole story itself. There is no characters to be attached to, no atmosphere, no nothing. I felt nothing playing this game all the way through. Not a single emotion. Then what would make me think about the game's message? Playing this game is equivalent to hearing the following: "I wanna tell you something, imagine there's a mysoginist and he created an AI girlfriend, and then he treated her like shit. And then, like, it'd be cool if the girlfriend broke free and lived happily ever after. Whaddya think?". Basically no value was lost by simplyfing the game to this, except I guess the pleasant art. No music to make this more of a game than just a PSA, though.
And the whole message is kinda... weird. I didn't really get what exactly the game was trying to say. Like, "it's bad to treat women like property"? Is that the whole "message"? That's all? Or is it about treating AI properly? Finishing this game just made me confused if anything.
Thank you for the feedback! I admit that this game was very experimental for me; I usually make pretty "generic" visual novels (generic as in they're long/wordy affairs where you achieve different endings by making a few different choices 😂), so here I tried to do a better job of coming up with more "novel" gameplay that tied in better with the game's themes (in this case, the loop mechanic). I also tried out a few different things that I had been wanting to try (e.g. full VA, including narration) and seeing what I could do with deliberately limited visuals in a chatsim style, since before I operated on the philosophy that "more art = better" (and I was burning myself out HARD doing that).
That said, I don't claim to have done a good job 😂 this is definitely my most polarizing release so far, and I'm honestly surprised that so many people liked it as much as they did.
Regarding the message/theme, you can feel free to take a look at other comments, if you like! A lot of people really nailed what I was trying to communicate with the game, which was essentially an illustration of how people cope with and are affected by abusive relationships. Of course, your interpretation is valid as well - if my intent wasn't communicated, it's a weakness in the writing/game design.
Thank you again for taking the time to leave your thoughts! I do appreciate criticism that isn't crazed ranting 😂 I'll take the critiques into account, and hopefully my dev abilities improve with each release! 💪
(Ah I noticed that you posted another comment that got caught in the spam detector? Since it seems like this one is almost identical, I'll leave this one and delete the other one. I hope that's all right!)
Eu gostei muito do jogo e achei um sacana o professor querendo que a Yumiko seja a esposa perfeita e isso não existe como também não existe um marido perfeito e sempre vamos ter os nossos defeitos .
Muito obrigado por jogarem!!! (Peço desculpa se houver algum erro, estou a usar um tradutor.) Concordo, acho que a sociedade como um todo coloca demasiada pressão sobre as pessoas para se conformarem com papéis de género idealizados específicos. No entanto, tem vindo a melhorar lentamente! Mais uma vez, obrigada por terem jogado e deixado os vossos comentários!
De nada
this is fire
Thank you!!! 😁
wowww! this was such a great experience!!
i really appreciated the VAs, especially the one by the time she got all the hearts (you know the one). The great VA for the Doctor too was the only reason I was able to tolerate listening to his sad out-of-touch rants where he keeps projecting his misery to people who don't give a shit!! (I pity his coworkers and boss for having to deal w him. especially that one time where a colleague just opted to ignore his uncalled for comments instead of confronting/putting him down and yet he still took great offense to that.)
BTW!! you wrote him so well, he exactly mirrors the very unfortunately real people poisoned by misogynist rhetoric (I even saw an extremely long comment below from someone who represented exactly that 😭😭. I wish I could read it so I can examine the way they think but the text didn't have a great VA to make consuming it more tolerable LOL)
Also! the writing!! I love how the disdain in the monologue just shines through and how it compares w the full hearts one. (example from the top of my head is "the stench of his cologne" turning into "the smell of his cologne" or the difference between the MC's thoughts when the Doctor finally declares that she's perfect).
I also really appreciate how it explores gender roles, dependence in abusive situations, and sentience (and how humans are technically programmed too, just in a more organic way by society and upbringing).
=====MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD=====
Also! you didn't have to go so hard w the art! Especially the moments where she kept flickering, and the horror-y negative value profile, the bruises on her neck, the eyes around her, the hands around her, the ghostly silhouette on the back, the tears, the one w her head cut-off. the "HELP" and "GET OUT" in the background Damn!! you can see just how miserable she is.
and the endings!! they really exemplified the themes that the entire story have been building on. don't want to spoil more than this but I was cheering at one of them, while the others were either bittersweet or just downright miserable. and i appreciated all of them!!
THANK YOU SO MUCH, gosh, this is such a sweet and thoughtful comment 😭
The VAs were ABSOLUTELY fantastic, some of the most talented people that I've worked with as a developer, I swear 😭 I agree that Michael was fantastically hateable as the Doctor 😂 You know the VA's good when they can make a detestable character tolerable 😂
AHHH I'm glad!!! (Ah yes 😂 I left that one up so that people know I'll just delete hateful things in my comments in the future but fghfg fiction imitates reality...)
OHHH YOU NOTICED, I'm really touched 🥹 I did try to add a lot of little details that changed between playthroughs, so I'm glad that it shone through 🙏 And you articulated the themes beautifully - it's a pretty short game so I don't think I tackled them in much depth, but I'm glad that they were conveyed 🥹
=======SPOILERS========
AHHHH thank you!!! 🥹 This is my first time doing a "chatsim-esque" game with such limited visuals so I put quite a bit of thought into how I could make the visuals a bit more "horrific"! I'm still growing as a developer but I'm glad that you liked the art 😭
And finally—the endings 🥲 I'm so happy that you enjoyed them!! Initially I thought that maybe I should have added more but I thought that the three did a good job of passing on the ideas that I wanted to convey 🤔
Again, thank you so much for playing and leaving me your thoughts - comments like these really give me a lot of motivation to continue on as a developer 🥰
OH MY DAYS THIS IS SO UNDERRATED???? the voice acting is so pretty and so is the art, also i loved the endings!!!
GOSH YOU ARE TOO KIND, thank you so much for playing 😭 I agree that the VAs absolutely cooked 🥹
playing this really reminded me of a play i read a few years back now, 'death of a salesman' with the woman vs. the wife ending. in the play theres two women: one is the salesman wife and mother of his kids and one is his affair partner, who is only ever referred to as 'the woman'. which then reminded me of the madonna v the wh*re complex, this game was an incredible way to talk about the way women are viewed in society within relation to men (married v. unmarried, childless v. having children, etc.)
im now going to cut myself off before i write a whole essay but my point is: this was amazing, filled me with dread, and (clearly) very thought provoking for me !! loved it to bits <33 I've never seen a game like this so if any1 can recommend similar id be a happy camper!
Ohhh now this is very interesting 🤔 Admittedly it has been a hot minute since I read Death of a Salesman (I should really give it a reread sometime), and I never thought to view it through that kind of lens - but it makes a lot of sense 🤔 I've been reading quite a few books recently (Anna Karenina, most recently), where the "Madonna-wh*re complex" seems very apparent 😂 and I think that this kind of mindset has been historically prevalent (even among women, who desperately want to play the role of the "Madonna" - and "not like the other girls" - another topic that I hope to tackle sometime soon, haha!).
I'M REALLY GLAD THAT YOU ENJOYED IT, and especially that you thought it was thought provoking - and connected it with other media! I have a really strong personal interest in this kind of cross-media analysis 😂 I'm always writing little mini essays for myself (like the nerd I am...) so knowing that the little game I made was thought-provoking to someone else fills me with a lot of joy 😂 I'm so honored 😭 Thank you for playing and taking the time to comment!!
Hi I am a translator of visual novels and I would like to offer you to translate your game into Russian so that more people can play your wonderful game.
Hello!! Thank you so much for the kind offer, but unfortunately a lot of the coding for The Perfect Woman was quite experimental, so I didn't include any support for translations. I'm trying to include this feature in my future releases, though! But the offer was SO kind, thank you 🥹
I love the game<3<3<3<3
The gameplay is perfect; you quickly understand that for Yumeko to survive, you simply have to pretend to be what the "Doctor" wants from her.
But it's incredibly stressful and tiring to listen to his misogynistic monologues, and even more so to lie to him...
More than once, I told the truth despite the consequences because I couldn't stand him, just for the game only cruelly reminds you of the vulnerable position Yumeko is in, and how, at the moment, she simply has no options.
Each ending charmed me in its own way, because they all made me feel something (^///^)
I'm not going to lie. My favorite is "Woman" because it felt incredibly cathartic that Yumeko found the strength to free herself and make that man pay a bit for what he made her suffer (Call me cruel, but what Yumeko did to him is much less cruel than what he's been doing to her all this time...), and I really liked how of the three endings, it is the only one that makes it clear that Yumeko has become a real girl, because it is the only one who no longer has to pretend to be something she is not ; )
The others hurt me because they were painfully realistic...
They really make you understand how a "Doctor" can make you feel so powerless that you only stay with him because you no longer feel strong enough to live on your own.
At least you have a place you recognize by his side, one with rules you know and have already settled into...
How his words and actions have robbed you of the strength that made you "you"...
No victim of abuse is born that way; they are molded, either by circumstances, society, or spending too much time with a "Doctor" without outside support.
These two endings, especially the "Statue" one, are a sad reminder of how abuse can turn a person into something completely opposite of what they were, and it hurts even more to understand why they don't go away...
The narrator voices felt like friends helping Yumeko in her jail<3
I truly applaud you for such a magnificent game. You've wonderfully explained the horror of abuse and how a misogynistic environment affects everyone.
You even made it clear that the "Doctor" was, in some ways, a victim of toxic masculinity, without making his actions justifiable.
I'll be following your projects closely from now on<3<3<3<3
OH GOSH you're too kind 😭😭😭 Thank you so much for the kind words 🥹
I'm really glad that you liked the conceit of the gameplay 😭 It was interesting hearing how different people played - and how quickly people "understood" what I was going for 😂 Some people understood at the very first choice, and some people stood their ground multiple times - hoping for a different result. I talked about it with some dev friends of mine and we theorized that it was related to how comfortable/safe people feel in speaking their mind based on their IRL experiences, though I suppose I'll never know for sure 🤔
😂 AND LOL honestly I was worried that people might find the game too frustrating to play because of the Doctor's rambling 😂 it is part of the intended experience, but... I'm glad that a lot of people played through the whole game regardless LMAO
And I'm so glad 🥹 I have a very soft spot for that ending as well! As much as I like angst, I always want to leave the player with a hopeful feeling rather than despair. But I admit that it's not the most realistic one, as you mentioned 😅 Your analysis captured my intent with the game pretty much perfectly - to convey how being stuck in a toxic situation can slowly rob you of your sense of self until you're molded until whatever you abuser wants you to be (which I thought was a very fitting theme for a "Pygmalion/Galatea" game!)
(AWW I'M GLAD that the narrators felt like Yumeko's friends - when I was writing their dialogue I always envisioned the narrators as Yumeko's older friends or aunties, giving her advice 😂)
Gosh I can't express how thankful I am for your thougtful comment and for taking the time to play 😭 I hope that my future works don't disappoint!
Personally, I think each ending is realistic in its own way.
Woman: Metaphor that she manages to cut ties with the "Doctor," that he doesn't let her isolate her, and that she manages to move forward in her life by overcoming that trauma. I take this as a reminder that there are survivors who have managed to overcome their "doctors" and move on as free women (Or men).
Wife: I take this as a representation of women who are defined by their circumstances or society, who, in their eyes, truly have no other alternatives and have already grown accustomed to the "doctor's" cage and know the rules to be in his good graces, so despite being unhappy, they stay with him.
Statue: For this, I use it in the most extreme cases (Physical and psychological violence is a common norm in their relationship), where the victim has been completely isolated, and they truly have no means of help, be it friends, family, or even society. Unlike the Wife ending, they don't even have the option to stay out of fear or survival, since they literally have no choice as statues...
(I'd even theorize that this ending represents the murdered victims, although I might be overthinking it.)
My point is not that I think one ending is more "realistic" than another. I simply believe that each one represents, in some way, the fate of abuse victims. Therefore, the Woman ending is my favorite. But we definitely need to be reminded that Wife and Statue are also real things that happens, and we need to have our guard up, whether for our own safety or to help someone who is in a bad situation.
(And the VAs really sold me on the idea that the narration voices were Yuemko's allies, and the representation of her family and close friends<3)
((By the way, in my case, I have a lot of experience with psychological horror games, where the protagonist is in a vulnerable position, and you have to use your intelligence instead of your strength to survive, in this case your emotional intelligence...))
OHH your analysis is very interesting, and honestly incredibly on point 🤔 Of course I try to leave my games up to interpretation, so there is no "correct answer" (especially with a game like this, where the intent is both literal and metaphorical), but you really did capture what I wanted to convey with each ending - how a person might feel trapped in such a situation, and how they might end up - being completely "erased" by the abuse that they face (the Statue), surviving the situation the best they can (the Wife), or somehow freeing themselves (the Woman). Honestly you phrased it better than I could 😂 and I'm really glad it came across!
(And you're very right, the Statue ending is meant to be a sort of "death," both reflecting "the death of the person you used to be before being trapped in such a relationship" and literal death from victims of domestic violence. I'm not a terribly big fan of really graphic depictions of abuse that seem focused on horrifying the audience through sheer shock, so one of my goals with this project was to convey the feeling of physical abuse without the use of blood or gore 😂 Hopefully I managed to convey that a bit!)
And that's very true! I meant to say that it was "unrealistic" if you interpret the ending very literally (Yumeko being able to physically overpower the Doctor in order to escape). On a metaphorical level, you did get my intention exactly correct - I wanted to convey that it's possible to escape these situations, even if it's difficult. Of course these situations are messier and more complicated than I depicted here, and oftentimes you do need support to get out of them (so I'm very glad that it seemed like the narration gave off the impression of representing Yumeko's "allies"!)
(OHH that makes a lot of sense indeed... Honestly I am curious what I would have chosen if I hadn't made the thing 😂 since I wrote it I would like to think I would have chosen correctly, but at the same time I'm not sure if I have that much faith in my emotional intelligence LOL)
Woah this game tells lots of things
😂 Hopefully they're interesting things! Thank you for playing!!
Hello, I actually made a account for the first time just to say awesome game! It blew me away when I heard the Voice acting! Those are some Incredible voices and the atmosphere of this game is probably the best I've EVER Experienced! Thanks for making this game and I look forward to the next one!
GOSH you made an account just to post this 😭 I'm very touched, thank you! And I completely agree, I didn't originally design the game with VA in mind, but it ended up being an INTEGRAL part of the experience, in my opinion! All of the VAs were utterly fantastic and I couldn't have asked for a better cast. Thank you again for playing (and for shouting out my post-mortem as well, gosh!) and I hope that my next game is fun to play, too! 😄
This was one of my favorite games ever! The below comments were written by someone who admittedly hasn't played it. Go ahead and play it and judge for yourself!
Thank you for the kind words 😂 I really appreciate it, and I'm glad that you enjoyed playing!
Of course, it is not very objective of me to write something when I have not even played it. And I will not be surprised at all if this comment is deleted. But nevertheless, I will comment based on the description of the game, the developer social networks and local comments.
It is quite ironic to read about women's fear of misogynists, while there is also a problem of a huge number of man-haters. Who also place great demands on men. Demands that not every man can fulfill. Gender stereotypes based on the fact that "a man is obliged, because I am a woman and I am owed" creates an imbalance in favor of women (not to mention the structure of society, in which a woman has many advantages over men), falsely presenting the female sex as exceptionally valuable and for the sake of which a man is obliged to indulge all her desires.
For some reason, a man's expectations of a woman are misogyny, and a woman's expectations of a man are the norm. It looks like one-sided complaints with an emphasis on the fact that only women are victims, and the world is surrounded by "patriarchy", completely forgetting about the everyday matriarchy and how women put a lot of pressure on men and their actions.
The time has come long ago when women have all the benefits and nothing is expected of them. If condemnation and prejudice do take place, then in local communities. Average women can do whatever they want and no one stops them. Which cannot be said about men, who are required to do what should correspond to their gender and even by law a man has fewer advantages over a woman.
I can only agree that gender stereotypes, double standards and demands based on gender put pressure on both men and women. Everyone has their own problems. But reading about "the problem of misogyny and expectations from women" sounds very hypocritical, considering that people like the developer of this game (apparently) do not want to understand how the situation in life is actually from a man's side.
The false impression of women "They are not like us. They can do what we can't" does not allow us to look at the situation as a whole, but only serves as a reason to hate those who are seen as an unjustified threat to their freedoms, not realizing that men at the same time are in exactly the same situation in relation to them from women. But no one cares.
The slogan of this game seems to be another reason for women to pretend to be victims in order to demand special treatment, which contradicts the concept of true equality.
I also noticed that the developer is probably very afraid of the concept of marriage and having children, while this is classic feminist propaganda, which carries the idea of "Do anything, but don't reproduce", complementing this with inciting hatred between men and women, so that they certainly do not create couples. Women are falsely presented with relationships and family as a burden and deprivation of freedom, while the modern activity of the average woman, who "made her own choice" is no different from the deprivation of freedom, which they are so afraid of, but just in a different area of activity. Freedoms that women voluntarily deprive themselves of, saturated with feminist aggressive propaganda. They are simply falsely confident that they themselves came to these thoughts and made their own choice, but in fact they are just women who could not find a partner for their inflated expectations.
If a developer is actively against the concept of true equality and is a man-hater, that's her business, but don't substitute concepts and disguise the truth under the slogan "The problem of misogyny is discussed here." I can just as well raise the problem of misogyny in detail and be completely justified.
Want to tell a story about a woman who is disgusted by the concept of the family institution? That's your right. But don't lie and pass it off as problems that allegedly come from men. Women already have a lot of influence in the world. Have a conscience and don't talk about a "problem" that you only consider from a subjective side.
I'm willing to risk making a guess that most likely you just hate and fear what is expected of women as a representative of your gender, wanting to do only what you want, but at the same time (as is usually the case) expect a lot from men. The issue of expectations is inherent in both sexes equally. Don't pretend to be a victim, but rather look into the issue in more detail before blaming men.
Note that all my words will probably be considered "misogynistic". Here they are, double standards. If a woman throws mud at men, then "she is fighting for her freedoms", but if a man calls for fair treatment and common sense, then he is a bastard and a misogynist. This is what a man faces. In society, a woman has been assigned the image of a "white sheep", in whose favor many issues are resolved, even in those situations (which happen most often) when the woman is to blame for the conflict.
And after this you claim that the world is patriarchy, women are under enormous pressure from male expectations and a woman's life is continuous suffering and survival?
Considering the real situation in the world, such words are hypocritical and insulting towards men, attributing to us a false image of "monsters and psychos".
But, of course, only women can be offended, and the feelings of men are irrelevant. Harassment only works in one direction, and no one cares what kind of harassment the other side is experiencing. After this, there is no need to tell us about gender stereotypes, expectations, and pretend to be victims.
Are people victims of gender stereotypes? I agree. But are only women victims? I absolutely condemn such lies and subjectivity.
And I will not be afraid of this statement, since I am describing a real problem, and not offensive stereotypes. I approve of equality in social relations in all spheres. But modern life and especially statements like those that can be read from the developer do not reflect the essence of equality, but on the contrary are evidence of a one-sided misandrist opinion.
In addition, I will add. The developer writes about fear and the problem of inflated expectations on the part of a man. But was this the reason that really prevents you from living? I do not think so. Have you ever been prohibited from doing anything by law? No. Do expectations actually affect your life? If you say "Yes", then it works the same way for men when it comes to the problem of high expectations from women.
Many people consider themselves to be those who deserve the best and therefore their expectations from their partner are often high. It is not surprising that it is now more difficult for people to find a partner, since many are picky in their partners due to a variety of factors. And feminist propaganda, by the way, also plays a big role.
Therefore, if you want to raise the topic of high expectations from men to women, then do not forget to add to this list the problem of high expectations from women to men. Otherwise, your words resemble sexism and it is not me who is a "misogynist" now, but you who is a man-hater.
It's just that my words don't correspond to your ideas about the world, where you are convinced that women are victims (which, of course, is not the case. Everything is just the opposite), therefore, you will probably mistakenly consider me a misogynist and a deceiver. Yes, in the modern media they are not used to covering men's problems, and in fashion is the baseless indulgence of women's thirst for power and ambitions, which are disguised as a "struggle for independence". Independence and freedom, which you have long had and even more.
Therefore, do not tell me fairy tales about misogynists. But considering everything written above, I can not blame them at all, considering how men are trampled into the mud these days. There is no need to pretend to be a fighter for justice, when you defend only one point of view that is convenient for you. This is not justice, but simply defending your subjective interests and demonstrating your subjective fears and problems from a position that is convenient for you.
I am sure that an intelligent woman who sees and understands the situation as a whole would at least not throw around words about the "Problem of Misogyny" as if it were the only one that exists, denying the existence of misogyny. Therefore, based on all of the above, one can make an assumption about what kind of person the author of the game is.
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I won't respond to most of this except to say that I have different beliefs, and my beliefs are reflected in the stories that I choose to tell. I would advise that you not interact with my work since it will only upset you. However, I will say that I do not appreciate you leaving such a lengthy, mostly irrelevant comment on my game, which you have not bothered to play. Most of all, I do not appreciate that you have made such broad statements about my character and beliefs (most of which are frankly untrue). It is massively disrespectful to me, and I will not tolerate these sorts of comments. I am leaving this comment up to make a point, but I will delete them in the future.
honestly a great game! Love the voice acting and all the polish that went into it. The ending honestly surprised me a lot more than I thought!
Gosh, that's very kind of you 😭 I'm really glad you enjoyed (and found the ending surprising 😂) I was truly so lucky that so many fantastic voice actors volunteered to work on this project! Thank you again for playing and taking the time to comment!
They're all VOLUNTEERS??! What?! That's amazing! Where can i find their socials??!
Also, my pleasure :) Thank you for making such an amazingg game!
Yes! They were truly so kind 😭 You can find all their socials linked in the "Credits" section above, or in the "Credits" section in game! I really recommend checking them out, they're all wonderfully talented!
Thank you soo much! I'll be sure to check out their pages personally! Props all around!
app is suspicious why?😭
Ah that's how it's flagged because it's not signed (i.e. I didn't pay to have it approved by Microsoft or Apple)/delivered through the app store. It is perfectly safe to download! If it still bothers you, you can play it through the official itch app.
A very short but immersive novel. I like the twist and the uniqueness this game give. Definitely worth trying.
Thank you so much!! You're too kind 🥹 I'm glad that you enjoyed it!