Seraphim Slum

Played this half a week ago and it left such a strong impression on me. I think of it every day. 

The most impressive thing to me is the vibe. Like, sometimes there are games that you know will hit hard the moment you open them, purely from the way they feel. This is that kind of game. 

All the characters are just so interesting and unique. It’s almost surprising how well we get to know them in such a short time. Probably because of our task being to break them with love. Also so many choices, where often both right and wrong give you a piece of the character. The fact that retrying after failure gives you only the correct path and extra information is so cool. It really feels like Ezekiel is getting desperate, that she needs them. 

Writing is phenomenal and it blends very well with its presentation. Replaying there were multiple scenes that I simply couldn’t skip over. Mostly when Ezekiel gets to be her syrupy cruel self. And voice acting, holy shit! Everyone sounds so perfect. And looks so perfect too! The characters look like I can imagine them moving. Ezekiel is so smooth and whispery, like a snake getting closer to pray. Taunting, promising, loving, cruel. Macy is so anxious and meek, unsure of everything, but also so soft. Salxire is so powerful and demanding, but so full of yearning and anger. She sees things for what they are, but still demands answers. Oriel is friendly and kind, protective and nurturing, but also clearly done. And they all feel so desperate, so abused. God is barely in the game, but he feels like such a life-ruining ex to all but Ezikiel. They all loved him, worshiped him, and he left them broken, took all their sacrifices for granted and put them into the most mind numbing place in existence. 

The slums feel oppressive and liminal, like nothing is supposed to stay there. So seeing how they twist each character, how they all blame themselves so much. It hurts. But it’s then impressive that watching them fall is so painful too. It doesn’t feel like doing them a favor, but introducing them to new pain, at least less boring and repetitive kind. 

Music is extremely effective. I love how it always feels appropriate even when using bells and static. The few times images are used they feel so evocative. 

The only actual problem I have is that if you don’t get the true ending first playthrough it is not so obvious what you have to do. I eventually figured it out and it is pretty well hinted, but it is very unintuitive. 

So in short I love, love, love, love, love this game.

PS. For note, I played the Linux version and downloaded it about half a month ago. I see there are ore of them and don't know if there are any differences.

I was honest to god blown away by this game, from the moment I saw the cover, and then the art and then downloading and playing it... it's clear as day that so much amazing talent came together to make this, with a lot of very cool visions culminating in something that scratched the itch that games like Wktd and pretty much everything by kittyhorrorshow left behind. From the music to the amazing art to the writing... hats off, really.

And it also gave me the urge that very few games do, that being of replaying it and going off to see other people's playthroughs of it, so I can re-interpret the stuff I didn't get during my first playthrough, including other endings.

Kudos, I absolutely loved this game and I wanna congratulate everyone who contributed to it.

Hiii. I'm MsBubblezz from Twitch -> https://www.twitch.tv/MsBubblezz. Tysm to Summer from the development team for recommending me to try it out.

I just want to say that I had a chance to play it on stream. The game was lagging a bit for my Twitch, but I did keep pushing through it. I do want to continue playing it on stream btw and I'm highly looking forward to that! 

This EXCEEDED my expectations bc this game is RIDICULOUSLY GOOD! I haven't gotten a chance to complete it yet, but as far as what I played, I loved the art, I loved the characters (btw the voice actors did an EXCELLENT job!!), and I love how this story takes a unique turn with that mystic, horror, and spooky vibe. I played it until the game shut off on me then after a few minutes, turned right back on lol. 

The only issues that I had was with the UI because I had trouble with navigating it and the lag on the game itself, which delayed the overall gameplay for myself and viewers that watched the stream. 

Even though these were only two issues I had, I still would love to continue to play your game. I still see a lot of potential for this and I hope to see you down the line again. Thank you again sm for this opportunity! Take care ꨄ

This is an artful, poetic, and mindbending experience delving into the philosophy of why different angels fall and end up in the slums.

Ezekiel’s voice is soft, whispery, and haunting, taunting every Angel she claims she loves. 

Not as much a story as it is art, poetry, music and snippets of philosophy pieced together into a fascinating and sometimes confusing mind trip. 

There is a strong use of religious language throughout, later used to goad residents and unravel their idiosyncratic truths. Make the right dialogue choices and twist them into jarring displays of rapidly changing emotion. Ezekial’s words are hypnotic, questioning the depths of the soul, and then suddenly dialing back to the kind of music they like. 

This piece is a category on its own and cannot be judged by typical conventions, since this jarring experience feels like it was designed to pull the player in different directions so they are just as unravelled as the angels Ezekiel speaks to.

Look forward to the final update with end screens instead of the intentionally placed crashes that shut down the whole game after following wrong choices (might be my own mortal limits at comprehending the artistry behind this design).

Beautifully warped soundtrack and effects on the voices.

Basically, i loved it.

The voices, the music, the art, everything beautifully poisonous and poignant, just... scrumptious.

Aside from not entirely getting the fourth endings and a few mostly technical nitpicks (in a post below), this was one of the most beautiful things i have read recently.

Thank you all, oh and to the writer specifically - i am no God, but you have won my utter adoration~

Honestly, i don't even know where to begin and what to say, so i will mindlessly repeat like a broken angel - i loved loved loved your creation, thank you, even if i would like to imagine all of them happy in another different world... it's the final release that is worth it, i guess.

Ahem.

...now enough of my ramblings and all the love to the team <3

y`all deserve it, truly

P.S. Oh and all the little details, from glitches and title change on a certain route - very cool, and music was lovely too!

[hopefully now i remembered everything i loved and thanked anyone who worked on it \^-^'/]

Ooh--very much enjoyed how atmospheric and uniquely styled this game is! The voice acting is lovely, and the design for the characters is phenomenal; the descriptive wordplay in the writing is especially delicious. Terrific work!

A pretty game! The aesthetics of this game are very strong, and I think you guys did a good job tying the 2D and 3D aesthetics together. In particular, something about the laundry room's cg is especially striking - seeing that screenshot is actually what convinced me to download the game!

The one critique I have of this game is that some of the UI is a little hard to navigate. Sometimes I'd press escape or try to click a button and it simply wouldn't pop up.

That being said, overall it was a really pleasant experience. I read in the devlog that WKTD was an influence on the game, and as someone who has WKTD as one of their favorite games of all time, I can certainly see it! Good job, and excited to see what you come up with in the future!

I feel like I don't actually have the right words to properly explain how I feel about this one, so forgive me if my comment is kinda disjointed and clumsy x3 Overall, I really love how unique and so incredibly stylish the whole thing is :3 The art is gorgeous, the story is original and keeps drawing you in more and more as you play, and Ezekiel is a wonderfully intriguing MC to step into!

The atmosphere is almost suffocating but in a really decadent and beautiful way, if that makes any sort of sense, haha.

And just the way the narrative is delivered in general is a delight. It's like taking a dive into a deep, dark lake only to be caught by some beast that tries to drip, drip, drip despair into your soul until you drown x3 Very much my cup of tea, haha.

I should say that I haven't exhausted all of the possibilities yet! Initially, I refused to interact with anyone and was amused by the outcome, but then I decided to pick Macy to play with :3 From what I've heard so far though, the entire cast did a fantastic job of bringing the characters to life!

All of the character designs are incredible, and I think Salxire's is probably my favourite, so whenever I return to this, I know who I'll be tormenting next :P

Lovely game with great art, music and voice acting.

I admire so many aspects of this visual novel: the unconventional style of the sprites; the lovely CGs; the voice acting; the enigmatic story that reveals its secrets in careful increments; the poetic, lyrical writing style that evokes such strong imagery and engages all the senses; the UI, especially for the choices; and the creative ways that persistent data is used across successive playthroughs. 

I played the three routes and a bit of the afterword (?), and my favorite romantic interest has to be Salxire. Her more reserved, sometimes distrustful personality makes the most sense to me. The card games in her route stood out and entertained me the most, as somebody who appreciates these sorts of minigames in visual novels. 

Sometimes, the red text was barely readable against the backgrounds. I recognize that this may have been the developer's intention, though. And the swift speed of the text at times does suggest to me that portions of the writing may be deliberately inaccessible by design. 

Overall, this was a thought-provoking, literary, and ambitious project that I very much enjoyed experiencing. Congrats to the team for a job well done! 

(Note: Copy-pasting this comment from the Spooktober VN Jam 2023 page.)

A VERY intriguing story with a cast of characters that make you want to learn more about them. I wasn't able to completely finish all the routes on stream, but I went back off stream to go through everything. I'm writing this after completing the routes off stream. This is a complex VN and so I'm giving you a complex critique.

First of all I must commend you on all the features and style added to the game. I think you achieved the effects and vibe you were hoping for. The writing and descriptions are detailed and beautiful. Ezekial feels like a unique protagonist/pov that I haven't experienced in a VN before. Ezekial was the character I enjoyed the most, but I did also like Macy's route and story. Honestly this really didn't feel like a dating sim to me, as each of the girls aren't really my type, but that's 100% okay and more of a personal thing. I viewed it more like watching someone take apart a bunch of clocks and open them up to see how they tick. I enjoy how the choices appear after you've already chosen the 'wrong' choice. There's so much care and work that went into this and it shows. 

My two biggest issues stem from accessibility. While I understand that certain on screen text is made to be read quickly, they do not stay on screen long enough to read out loud. I understand that the text maybe wasn't supposed to draw on too long, but it had me going ??? what did that say??? Most of the time. In addition there was a few ear splitting sound effects. These sound effects were well placed and did lend to the story, but one of them had no ties to the volume slider in the options. Meaning if I wanted to stop the ear ringing noise, I had to mute the game entirely. Going through another route, same with the bubbling sound effect. It's so loud that it makes hearing the voice acting a little difficult despite having Voice Volume maxed out.

Also during my on stream playthrough I did encounter an instance where a door closing sound effect was looping instead of closing once. 

(Writing as vague as I can) The cards are a fun addition but the update of our current cards feels like it breaks up the dialogue too much if there's no visual. I like when the cards are shown in a specific route and wish that they would show up for the others as well.

The intentional crashing of the game. I get it. I understand the effect that it's suppose to create. Though from a streamer's perspective, it was slightly annoying having to adjust my program to capture the game every single time it 'crashes'. There are other games that do a similar effect and crash the game, but because of the nature of VNs and how many possible 'wrong' answers that can be chosen, the crashing happened very frequently. Not sure what can be done as replacement, but have the same effect. Maybe have an option that doesn't 'crash' the game exactly but just returns the player to the main menu idk? With the many times the game goes back to the main menu, this also makes the 'ending' of the game a little anti-climatic or unclear whether it was the end or not. The only way I could tell was that the 'continue.' no longer allowed me to play.

All in all this is a very promising visual novel with a lot of to give. If you ever consider updating it I would maybe try to mostly look into the sound effect control that I mentioned. 

This game is awesome and super interactive, there's mini games you can play, the voice acting is amazing, the story is well written and most of all you can make the girls fall. If you want a dark yuri to play this year. I would 100% recommend this. Ezekiel best girl btw. 

I don't usually play dating sims as such, but this one caught my attention because of the art direction, and it did not dissapoint! Also really liked how you guys implemented the divine/religious themes, and the overall vibe with the va direction, transitions, etc; creates an overall pretty unique experience, had a pretty good time with this :3