Shiruba

All the secret bosses are based on Jerma in some way

The light world segment at the festival was really pleasant! The dark world with the flowers, and the anime and Japanese aesthetics was weird at first. It was really creative and fun but it kept constant characters so I was wondering what this would even escalate to. By the end I was pretty satisfied! Makes me feel a bit more okay with the amount of characters I try to do in my own story, even if it's also good to cut down to a reasonable amount.

I think people expected different plot details and such. When chapters 3&4 dropped last year it felt like the pacing was actually really fast for those, but in hindsight and also playing through them again before this one it really wasn't that fast. The most it goes from 0 to 100 is the chapter 3 ending. I'm glad it wasn't just FRIEND GASTER ROARING KNIGHT REVEAL CAROL STUFF. This is a story about Susie, Kris and Ralsei after all. This just made a lot more sense to me by the end.

I think it makes a lot of sense narratively, and structurally to have a chapter like this before shit goes down. Last chapter we learned how serious things would get so one last chance at a fun adventure makes sense. Makes sense there are a lot of callbacks to Undertale and Chapter 1. Playing into the nostalgia makes sense here. I really liked the morality debate that was present by the end too. Kris making the fountain was so cool too! I'm glad we got more development with Asgore compared to Undertale.

I think the ending scene is really great. It's no cliffhanger but it's such a perfect way to end this arc of the game and to continue Susie's character. Chapters 3-5 were supposed to release together originally so this kind of ending makes sense. I also like that we get something that's not a cliffhanger for a change. It would have gotten old plus what those endings are supposed to convey keep changing. The narrative structure of the game is one of its most exciting attributes.

Gameplay wise I had to get used to the platforming but i would say that the gimmick was well handled. Great gameplay and battles with the flower characters. I struggled sometimes with health but that's more a me issue but it's still fun. I'm glad we're able to backtrack and stuff like with chapter 1 and 2. Honestly maybe the best dark world so far. Lots of different locations just for the sake of it. It didn't need this much sprite work but it's so cool. The music is so good too. I think the few non soundfont songs are a weird stylistic choice but besides that I loved it! I like that the flowers are their own thing separately from the darkners since flowers are alive. Neat world building.

Pretty great! A little long, but that might just be because it's the first playthrough and because I like going through all the dialogue.

I could sit here forever and ever...

Yes that's right you get to rate theories from this era. This time it's also a little shorter. Much less ground to cover with just these chapters, plus we've only had it for a year. Instead of 300 it's right about 100 theories. Everything from Carol Knight to Friend is Gaster to Neo Woody Theory. I am releasing this quite late into this era so I'm hoping for people to share this around as much as possible. Please do! I'd really appreciate it. I want the results to be as good as they can be!

Originally posted on bluesky but I might as well post the pixel art here. Here's some pixel art just for today. I've actually had it on hold for a while. The first character is non binary so I tried my best to make that make sense.