Here For Sweethearts

Possible spoilers for Blackout Hospital, Cemetery Mary and this game.

I was in shock when the killer turned out to be Twyla and not Reginald since in every game I have played that Arcade made Reginald was usually the opposing force of the stories.

Omg!! This is probably one of my favorites of your games!! I’m in the middle of the Reginald chapter rn and it’s amazing so far! (Twyla why must you force me to investigate after some of the dance?! What if someone asks me to dance with themmmm 😫)

I have no word's. It's a wonderful game with plot twists I didn't even expect! Highly recommend! 

;Small Note<3; 

I didn't read the comment section at all- very glad I didn't though! Would've made me very skeptical of everything in the game! ;

WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT
(SPOILERS BELOW)















DID OUR DAD JUST EAT US??? VANILLA?? WTH? CAN SOMEONE PLEASE CONFIRM THIS BECAUSE I'M LOSING MY MIND!!

alr I understand what happened now ty for telling me!! :)

is there only one end?

i used to be so sad i couldnt play this on my HORRID chromevook

Is there a way to change your name? I tried looking it up but couldn't find anything :(

a question: I've completed the game, and i want to restart it to show it to my friends, but it doesn't reset when i delete it and redownload it, how do you reset the game from all the way to the beginning? (for windows/pc)

IM GONN CRY WHY DID WE SUDDENLY BECAME SUCH AN ASS

Question, What if I wanted to experience this again from the beginning? I wanna show it to my friends, but I don't wanna spoil anything to them. How do I truly reset it?

does this carry viruses? i tried opening it and it said that Windows protected my PC, should i run it anyway? will this damage my computer?

Is there a way to reset the game bc I genuinely hate the name I gave my character and I wanted to change the characters gender, but I can’t seem to figure out how.

I noticed somebody mentioned you could, but they never said how.

I was hoping you could help me figure out a way to undo what i’ve Done, can somebody please help me?

T^T

so i just got back to the game and wanted to reset but i didnt know how so i deleted the game and redownloaded it and everything was still saved, if anyone knows how to restart the game please tell me bc im stumped.

This is going to sound so dumb, but how do I open the game on Linux?

Is this availible on other devices? Such as tablet and/or cellphone?

Does this mean there's a version of Reginald out there that is a 100% unproblematic fave? 

In all seriousness, it's a major compliment to your character writing that Reginald was not my favorite person in the game by default (though he still wound up being my favorite). Save Twyla and possibly Netina, who manages to still be pretty charming despite her malicious streak, every character in the game is extremely likable and gives the player enough reason to sympathize with them as people. Jaxter, Mitzi, Mary, Zapara, and Vasilis were particular standouts for me. Vanilla is also easy to like as an MC, which kind of makes the big reveal even more of a knife in the gut. 

That point takes me to the gameplay itself. It's hard to say that visual novels ever make a really satisfying game experience; in most of them, I tend to think the decision-making is an arbitrary mechanic that holds the story back from players for no good reason. (I'm pretty much a slave to game guides and walkthroughs, lol.)  This game is an exception. Not since Ace Attorney have I felt so proud of myself for fumbling into the bad ending, trying again, and narrowing down my options til I get it right. Clearly designating the right and wrong choices really helps to make things feel less frustrating. 

Plus, there's another level of satisfaction to be had from a game that centers on the conceit of making people like you. In life, I am a socially awkward semi-loner who seldom leaves her comfort zone. I would be too scared to approach the likes of Crowven and his friends, fearing we'd have nothing in common, I'd say something wrong. I'd never go near Reginald, because he's too well-dressed, or Mitzi, because she (or they?) seems too cool, so I figure they'd want nothing to do with me. But seeing Reginald go from making someone cry to picking a fight with you to treating you like an old friend in two chapters hits differently than having him as a gentleman right at the start. A game with a self-insert player character and transparent mechanics that lets you figure out the "right" things to say to different kinds of people--the kinds of people you would love to get to know, at that--is rewarding in a way that goes beyond the game itself. It makes the friendships of your wildest dreams feel somehow within reach.  

The fact Vanilla isn't actually a self-insert character somewhat throws a wrench in that experience. Like I said, your characters are imminently likable. I don't just want to be their friends; I want to see them all live their best lives and be part of it.  It seems like Vanilla wants that, too, until the twist. The foreshadowing on this is pretty solid, so I have no issue with it on the writing front. It just feels like a betrayal of the things I liked most about this game. In hindsight, it was also a very poor choice on my part to make *this* game the one time that I gave my own name to the main character. I took a little break upon seeing the first cruel decision, but decided I wanted to see how the story played out anyway. I tried to choose options that seemed the least mean or the most honest, but every choice made me feel guilty.

On the bright side, I for one have no major complaints about the ending; if you don't want to see the characters you've come to care about suffer, it is absolutely the ideal outcome. It also gives reason to actually like Twyla: sheer strength of personality. That was one hell of a gambit, and she nailed the landing. (Hopefully, she didn't also nail the bat... but then again, Vanilla deserves to be hit with embedded bits of metal.)  It does render the decision-making of the previous chapter moot, which might feel unsatisfying to players who want to feel their choices matter. Unless it's a kinetic novel, part of the VN experience is about having the power to affect a story, so it's natural that some players will be disappointed when the illusion is shattered, so to speak. On that level, I wouldn't have minded seeing where my decisions led, but mostly I'm just here for the story itself. Plus, I feel like maybe the real point of those options was just to establish how thoroughly loathsome Vanilla's character is before the final smackdown, and for that purpose, it works flawlessly.

I also want to comment on how interestingly this game connects to Cemetery Mary. I was caught off guard when, in Crowven's chapter here, he says he barely knows Mary, since their relationship was so integral to the last game. It surprises me how well they work on their own. Or that Mary is still so Mary without the cemetery (though hopefully she gets a graveyard scene in your next story; that's too unique a character trait not to take advantage of). And, again, I'm shocked that Reginald can seem so normal in another game's context. Can't wait to see what you do with him in Blackout Hospital.