itch.io

Hi :)

1. Yeah, I can understand why he's not everyone's favourite but I definitely loved him. He just takes a little bit to open up.

You did a wonderful job at making them feel real! I can understand though how that can cause delays. Even if it takes longer, it makes the end result more worth it :)

2. I've been re-reading the Fruits Basket and InuYasha mangas. I've not read any new manga or manhwa recently though. I've also not visited any old otome games. I was mostly looking for new otome games but I might do that, thanks for reminding me. I also quite like Harry Potter and Narnia (honestly, Narnia is one of my all time favourite series ever as well!) . In terms of books, I also really like the Inkheart trilogy by Cornelia Funke and the Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix though.

3/4. You and your proofreaders absolutely deserve all of the praise :)

I definitely plan to keep my eye out for when Nusantara Bermuda is released. I'm excited for that and any of your other future works. And the chibis are some of my favourite things. They're just so adorable, and a really nice yet subtle way to keep track of pacing. I'm happy to hear you decided to keep them for Bermuda.  It's nice that you have supporters like that; obviously they know that no matter how long it takes the end product is more than worth it :)

1. Which guy did you like the most and why?

Personally, I liked Rama the best out of all of them. Pretty boy with a tragic past? Sign me the heck up. Seriously though, I liked how complex he was and how we genuinely had to work to get him to open up to us. He's a complicated character. I tend to enjoy complicated characters because they feel more... real (?) to me. They feel more nuanced, more in-depth. There's just something about his character that I really, really like.He was definitely my favourite by a large margin. His design was really nice, and it was my second favourite character design in the game.

Second, I would probably say Reksa. Again, another character we had to work for. We had to work to gain his trust, and that is always something I appreciate. I also do sometimes like a good old 'forbidden' love story. His character design was probably my favourite though.

Finally, there's Mitra. That isn't to say he's a bad character at all - he's just not necessarily my favourite. I did like him and it was kind of nice to find that he has no Bad End so I didn't have to worry too much about messing things up. Though Mitra's character design is very pretty and I like it a lot, I personally just preferred the designs of the other two.

2. Do you play a lot of otome/visual novels? What made you choose to play Nusantara?

A few years back, yeah, I played a lot of otome games and visual novels. Recently, though, I've not payed that many besides a few of the mobile ones (Obey Me, Mystic Messenger etc.). Entirely on a whim, I felt like playing one so I decided to see what was out there that I hadn't come across before, and then I saw the art for this game. That was what drew my eye at first. The cover art is very pretty. Then I realised it was a fantasy setting and I was immediately ready to play. I absolutely adore anything fantasy related.

3. Which element of the game would you say was the best and which ones would you say need work? Consider story, art, characters, music etc.

First of all, I just want to say this game is an absolute delight. I love, love, loved playing it. Thank you for blessing us with such a wonderful game.

The characters, I felt, are all incredibly solid. They were not only likeable but felt genuine. The Love Interests were all very interesting. I appreciate they all had some sort of depth to them. Whether that be Rama's incredibly painful past being the cause for him pushing people away, Reksa's struggles to trust people having good intentions, or Mitra not only being the incredibly sweet gentleman but also able to take charge and command as the leader he is. As I mentioned when talking about Rama, I do really love characters that are a little bit more on the complicated side. It gives their motivations, beliefs, actions etc. more meaning. So, I did like that none of the Love Interest's felt like they didn't have any depth. As much as I'm obviously here for the Love Interests, I also found myself becoming incredibly attached to the side characters (especially Asih and the triplets). It's always really nice when otome games have side characters that compliment the story and I actually enjoy seeing on screen. It made it more worrying for me whenever anything bad happened to the characters.Like with the Granny Sukma situation, for example, I was genuinely as concerned and frustrated as Tamara in that moment. You did a very good job of creating a cast of characters that not only felt realistic but very likeable, and watching their interactions made me very happy. Also, your humour is so good. The characters mad me laughing silly at some points.

The art is so, so pretty. Honestly, that was the first thing to draw me to Nusantara and then it continued to be brilliant. The character designs were all very interesting, the backgrounds were very pretty, and overall the game is just very aesthetically pleasing. Something I want to point out that I found both amusing and endearing is the difference in blushing for Tamra and the Love Interest's. The boys get a soft, subtle blush (which is absolutely adorable, anytime it happened my heart went all squishy xD) whereas Tamara's whole face just instantly flames up. Like, I'm sorry, girl, but there is no way you are hiding that from them. You think looking away is going to stop them from seeing your fire-red cheeks? Lmao, think again, sweetie. It was super sweet.

Speaking of super sweet, I also want to mention the little animations between days were very nice additions. I especially liked how in the early weeks Tamara makes mistakes such as dropping the egg but as time goes on she doesn't make them anymore. That's a very nice, subtle touch to show the passage of time and how Tamara is learning. It shows how she's slowly starting to truly integrate into this tribal life, which I just found very neat. Also, the animation of her and Reksa when they first meet? It had me giggling like mad. It was very cute.

In terms of sound, I would say that the sound effects were pretty good while some of the music was a little bit too generic. That's probably due to having to use royalty free music so it's understandable. It definitely wasn't an issue. It didn't detract from how much I enjoyed the game at all. I just thought I should mention it.

Finally, speaking of story, it was very interesting. I really enjoyed the story line and all the possible routes. Oh! I also liked the fact that you wove Indonesian culture into the story because it meant I was able to learn as well as play.
 
4. Do you have any other questions, comments or constructive criticism?

For my first otome/visual novel in a long while, it has set the bar rather high for others that I play because it was wonderfully done. You created such a wonderful game which I had a lot of fun playing. Thank you again for taking the time to craft such a lovely story.