YES WE DID IT. Special thanks to you. Oh, you should remind me to add you guys to the credits, haha. I couldn't have made it through the last week of working on the new demo if it weren't for you guys :")
First of all, sorry for my English, it is not my native language) So, I really like your game) The art is unique and very nice.
Now some spoilers. The story... To be honest my first route was with Zel and I really don't like this guy just because crybaby is not my type. Don't be offended please, it's just me) Snow has really nice endings, both of them. Mer's was the last route for me and I was a bit dissapointed at first, cause I has his 'good' ending and was like: 'Seriously? You will just forgive him? That guy is not even trying too hard to make everything okay!' But then I get Mer's second ending. And YOU MADE MY DAY. Usually I don't like something like that in games but here it was unexpected and just hilarious! Maybe that ending is the main reason I liked your game so much) Thank you for creating it ;)
P. S. I am waiting for the full version) It would be very nice to see Nicholl path in it, I like that guy)
(Just a note to start off with: This is the writer of Lads in Distress / Catfish Crew. I'm just using this account for our new VN studio to answer comments because I have added this account as a contributor to LiD project, and it's easier to monitor all our games under both CC and EG from this account alone.)
Thank you for playing the old NaNoRenO version! Happy to hear you liked Snow and Mer's second ending. :D
We now have a new demo for the full version released! There are 2-3 scenes for Nicholl's route in the demo, so hope you'll like him if you end up trying the demo!
Again, thank you for playing the old NaNoRenO version :)
I don't really know what i'm supposed to write here, but i guess i'll just begin from the start.
I really liked the art in general, but the CG's looked like they were drawn by another person? Idk if thats true, but it was kinda another style and i didn't really liked most of the CG's because of that.
The storyidea sounded cool to me in the beginning, but as i continued to play Mer and especially Zels Route, i felt like the story was just being rushed and it started to become flat and boring. I could predict almost everything that happened, and nothing made really sense, to me it seemed like the author just wanted to reveal all the secrets as soon as possible and finish the story. A lot of dialogue missed to complete the story and i started to get bored.
The only route i liked was Prince Snow's route, because his route didn't seem so rushed to me and it wasnt that predictable.
I'm sorry if i'm just writing mean things rn, im not trying to offend someone but this is my opinion on the game so far. I'm interested though how everything'll change when the development progresses cause i liked the basic story and the characters.
Greetings and plz don't take this comment as hate,
(Just a note to start off with: This is the writer of Lads in Distress / Catfish Crew. I'm just using this account for our new VN studio to answer comments because I have added this account as a contributor to LiD project, and it's easier to monitor all our games under both CC and EG from this account alone.)
Hello! I must apologize for the late reply >_< I
don't log on the CatfishCrew account anymore as I'm usually on this EG
account to keep track of our new games under this account, so I didn't
see the notifications about new comments.
First, to answer your question, yes the CGs were drawn by three artists in the team who stepped up to finish the CGs together after our initial CG artist left so that we could actually release the old version on time for NaNoRenO. As a result, there will definitely be art inconsistencies; sorry to hear you didn't like them! We have a new CG artist now responsible for the CGs of the full version, so hopefully that helps!
Secondly, thanks for your critique on the story! The script was extremely rushed because we wrote all 75k in the span of 30 days for NaNoRenO lol. Sorry to hear you didn't like the game, though! Those issues should be improved upon in the new version.
This game was so much fun and so adorable! The different stories were so exciting, but I do hope Nicholl will be an option eventually! :3 I sat and played through every scenario today, and loved it! My only wish was that there were more choices the player could make. Lads in Distress gets two thumbs up from me!
(Just a note to start off with: This is the writer of Lads in Distress / Catfish Crew. I'm just using this account for our new VN studio to answer comments because I have added this account as a contributor to LiD project, and it's easier to monitor all our games under both CC and EG from this account alone.)
Hello! I must apologize for the extremely late reply >_< I
don't log on the CatfishCrew account anymore as I'm usually on this EG
account to keep track of our new games under this account, so I didn't
see the notifications about new comments.
Thank you for the compliments and kind words! Glad to hear you enjoyed the NaNoRenO version.
Yes, Nicholl is now a love interest you can choose to romance in the new demo of the full version that we just recently released! :) Currently, 2-3 of the scenes in his route is covered in the demo. Hope you enjoy romancing Nicholl if you end up trying the new demo!
(Just a note to start off with: This is the writer of Lads in Distress / Catfish Crew. I'm just using this account for our new VN studio to answer comments because I have added this account as a contributor to LiD project, and it's easier to monitor all our games under both CC and EG from this account alone.)
Hello! I must apologize for the extremely late reply >_< I
don't log on the CatfishCrew account anymore as I'm usually on this EG
account to keep track of our new games under this account, so I didn't
see the notifications about new comments.
Yes, Nicholl is now a love interest you can choose to romance in the new demo of the full version that we just recently released! :) Currently, 2-3 of the scenes in his route is covered in the demo. Hope you enjoy romancing Nicholl if you end up trying the new demo!
(Just a note to start off with: This is the writer of Lads in Distress / Catfish Crew. I'm just using this account for our new VN studio to answer comments because I have added this account as a contributor to LiD project, and it's easier to monitor all our games under both CC and EG from this account alone.)
Hello! I must apologize for the extremely late reply >_< I
don't log on the CatfishCrew account anymore as I'm usually on this EG
account to keep track of our new games under this account, so I didn't
see the notifications about new comments.
Yes, we're aware some antivirus programs flag our game as a virus, even though all the AV softwares we have access to all report our game files as clean. If you are concerned and would rather not trust that it's a false positive, we totally understand. Sorry for the problems, but thank you for your interest in our game!
I think someone asked the same thing a bit lower in the comments. Catfish Crew replied and told them instructions on what to do on Mac. Hope It'll work
(Just a note to start off with: This is the writer of Lads in Distress / Catfish Crew. I'm just using this account for our new VN studio to answer comments because I have added this account as a contributor to LiD project, and it's easier to monitor all our games under both CC and EG from this account alone.)
Hello! I must apologize for the extremely late reply >_< I
don't log on the CatfishCrew account anymore as I'm usually on this EG
account to keep track of our new games under this account, so I didn't
see the notifications about new comments.
Nicholl is now a love
interest you can choose to romance in the new demo of the full version
that we just recently released! :) Currently, 2-3 of the scenes in his route is covered in the demo. Hope you enjoy romancing Nicholl if you end up trying the new demo!
(Just a note to start off with: This is the writer of Lads in Distress / Catfish Crew. I'm just using this account for our new VN studio to answer comments because I have added this account as a contributor to LiD project, and it's easier to monitor all our games under both CC and EG from this account alone.)
Hello! I must apologize for the extremely late reply >_< I
don't log on the CatfishCrew account anymore as I'm usually on this EG
account to keep track of our new games under this account, so I didn't
see the notifications about new comments. Thank you very much for the compliment, and thank you for playing LiD! ^_^
(Just a note to start off with: This is the writer of Lads in Distress / Catfish Crew. I'm just using this account for our new VN studio to answer comments because I have added this account as a contributor to LiD project, and it's easier to monitor all our games under both CC and EG from this account alone.)
Hello! I must apologize for the extremely late reply >_< I
don't log on the CatfishCrew account anymore as I'm usually on this EG
account to keep track of our new games under this account, so I didn't
see the notifications about new comments.
We are unlikely to do any translations for this game, sorry :( None of us are proficient enough in French for that, haha. Sorry for any disappointment!
(Just a note to start off with: This is the writer of Lads in Distress / Catfish Crew. I'm just using this account for our new VN studio to answer comments because I have added this account as a contributor to LiD project, and it's easier to monitor all our games under both CC and EG from this account alone.)
Hello! I must apologize for the extremely late reply >_< I
don't log on the CatfishCrew account anymore as I'm usually on this EG
account to keep track of our new games under this account, so I didn't
see the notifications about new comments.
Nicholl is now a love interest you can choose to romance in the new demo of the full version that we recently released! :) He'll get his own route in the full game as well. Hope you'll enjoy his route if you try the new demo!
Hi! I really really want to play this game but for somehow it won't open. I open the game and it appears and then disappears from the dock? Do you know what the problem may be??
(Just a note to start off with: This is the writer of Lads in Distress / Catfish Crew. I'm just using this account for our new VN studio to answer comments because I have added this account as a contributor to LiD project, and it's easier to monitor all our games under both CC and EG from this account alone.)
Hello! I must apologize for the extremely late reply >_< I
don't log on the CatfishCrew account anymore as I'm usually on this EG
account to keep track of our new games under this account, so I didn't
see the notifications about new comments.
If you happen to still have our old NaNoRenO version downloaded, I believe you can try to workaround that problem on Mac by right-clicking the game file and clicking Show Package Contents > Contents > MacOS > Lads in Distress game file again. It should also bring up the terminal, but the game should be able to run properly then. I believe this issue is because the NaNoRenO version of LiD isn't compatible with the new MacOS updates, but who knows ;o; Anyways, that's one workaround we found, but we would definitely suggest you to forget the old NaNoRenO version and just try our new demo for the full version which we recently uploaded for the full experience! Haha.
Thank you for your interest in LiD again! Really sorry about the late reply ;o;
This game is absolutely lovely. The character sprites are gorgeous, the backgrounds are beautiful- the interactions are charming and fun. I adore that there are (almost) no bad endings, and trust me I played all of them. It was so refreshing to see a game where the main character (almost) always kept her independence, desire for justice, and need to help others. Charming is a really fun protagonist and I found that I never got annoyed or tired of playing as her. The princes were really nice as well. I really liked all the different routes. If I HAD to pick one, I'd probably pick Zel's "better' route, because he is very sweet and reminds me of myself in a way with his shyness eheh. But yes, overall this is a fantastic game and I absolutely cannot wait for the expansion of this story and more options!
(Just a note to start off with: This is the writer of Lads in Distress / Catfish Crew. I'm just using this account for our new VN studio to answer comments because I have added this account as a contributor to LiD project, and it's easier to monitor all our games under both CC and EG from this account alone.)
Hello! Thank you very much for playing Lads in Distress, NaNoRenO version!
First, I must apologize for the extremely late reply >_< I don't log on the CatfishCrew account anymore as I'm usually on this EG account to keep track of our new games under this account, so I didn't see the notifications about new comments.
Anyways, thank you very much for the kind words and compliments! :D We're really glad that you like Charming; we wanted to make a proactive protagonist, so we're glad that the players like her too!
We now have a new demo for the full version of the game up, which covers the new common route + 2 scenes per route (with Ellis and Nicholl as two new love interests), in case you're interested! :)
(Just a note to start off with: This is the writer of Lads in Distress / Catfish Crew. I'm just using this account for our new VN studio to answer comments because I have added this account as a contributor to LiD project, and it's easier to monitor all our games under both CC and EG from this account alone.)
Hello! Thank you very much for playing Lads in Distress, NaNoRenO version! Glad to hear you liked him! :D
Apologies for the late reply >_< I don't log on the CatfishCrew account anymore as I'm usually on this EG account to keep track of our new games under this account, so I didn't see the notifications about new comments.
I am trying to open your game, but I can't open the .exe, it says that " You can't open the application "Lads in Distress.exe" because Microsoft Windows applications are not supported on OS X." Please help me, I want to play your game!!!
If you're on Mac using OS platform, you shouldn't be trying to open the .exe file. That zip folder for download has a file to run for each platform -- Windows, Mac and Linux. Run the Mac version -- double click and run the one that doesn't have any file extension (the one without .exe or .sh).
I really love this game! I have played through all 3 princes once, and I find them all unique and endearing in their own ways. I plan to play through them again, of course :D
I did find a few spelling errors I wanted to relay to you.
In Prince Mer's path, he says, "Do not remove the water over your years just yet." So it says years instead of ears.
And another in Prince Zel's path, when Charming makes her puppy dog eyes, it says, "... even siffing and tearing up to increase the effect." SO it says siffing, when I think you make have meant sniffing.
Nothing serious, I just wants to let you know :D I look forward to any more additions to the game!
Thanks for playing our game! And thanks for letting us know about the typos, but we won't be fixing them in this version and uploading a new one; we'll likely only be fixing typos in the extended version.
Thank you very much! :D Glad to hear you enjoyed the game. Hopefully you'll like the full version of the game too <3 We'll be working hard to bring you guys Nicholl's and the new bachelor's routes as soon as possible!
I've just played through the game for the first time, and I love it so far. I'm very curious about the other routes, and even more about these to come in the expansion! I can't wait for it to be released!
Since you were asking for feedback, I'll use your form from the LSF thread!
1. Did you play the NaNoRenO version of LiD? What did you think of it?
This is the one currently disponible, right? I loved the path I did (Mer). I got his first ending, and I liked it a lot. I'm very fond of the soundtrack too, it's very pretty. The menus are very nicely done, and it was a nice idea to use the stars for the sound levels or the pages in the save menu.
2. Any thoughts or comments about the story premise/characters so far?
I like the overall concept, though I can't judge Snow's and Zel's routes yet. But I can already see each route will be unique once you choose the suitor you want, wich is always nice. Mer was a great character - I did his route first because I have a thing for disabled characters. I juste LOVED the whole insecurity and sentiment of distrust all along the route - I couldn't stop playing until I've reached the end of it, and wow, I really enjoyed the revelations and the ending. Though I must admit the ending was a bit confusing - I would like to know what was the solution Nicholl found to get them out of this mess!
3. Who is your favorite character at the moment?
It's hard since I haven't seen Snow and Zel a lot, but the first one to catch my attention was Nicholl, even if he isn't an option in this release. As for Mer, I like him more than I thought I'd do, but it's hard to tell if he'll be my favorite once I'll get to know everyone. Still, I like creepy and dangerous yet loving and generous characters like him - totally my type!
4. Which love interest do you think you will pursue first?
Well, I've started with Mer, but only because some of the guys aren't disponible options in this release. I guess I'd have started with Nicholl or Hood if I had the extended version - I like the idea of romancing a non-prince here, even if Charming's parents won't approve for sure! And besides, I love Nicholl a lot.
5. Any other comments or questions?
Well, I'm sure you get that a lot, but do you have a release date in mind, for the extended version? Other than that, I've seen Ellis will be based on Belle, but then... who is the to be revealed prince Beau? You'd think he'd be the one based on Belle! Do you mind me if I ask what will be the inspiration source for him? If not, that's okay, I can wait!
Oh and also, thank you for the awesome game! Now, to start Snow's route!
First off, I must apologize for the extremely late response >< I didn't notice an email notifying me of new comment on itch.io -- I must have missed it in the mass of emails in my inbox. I'm really sorry about that.
Thank you so much for giving our game a try and leaving a comment! <3 We really really appreciate the feedback :D
Thanks for all the compliments :"D About Mer's endings, I think many people mentioned it was confusing, so we'll see what we can do about it in the full game.
We've just posted Beau's design on our Tumblr, but in case you haven't seen it, Beau is based on Sleeping Beauty! So sorry about the super super late response ;; We'll have his character profile up soon, so if you're interested, do check that out!
Oh, I didn't check tumblr in a while. Makes sense now! And I love Beau's design too... I think design-wise he's my favorite of the bunch!
In the meantime I did the endings of the other princes too, and while Mer is still my favorite of the ones currently accessible, I must admit I love them too. Snow was a very pleasant surprise since I usually don't like characters like him - but he's really cute and lovely.
Well, as I said about Mer's ending - I liked it, a lot. The issue isn't the ending itself, but the transition between the climax of the route and the ending - with some more explanations it would be perfect. I don't know about his other ending because I tend to stick to the first I got if I like it enough, and it was the case here.
And don't worry about the late reply - I don't always recieve notifications either.
Hey~ Thanks for playing our game! What do you mean by the brightness? Do you mean the actual brightness of the game, or just the sparkly art? :p If it's the latter, unfortunately, since it's our artists' style to draw bright, sparkly art, we won't be changing that in the expansion. Sorry about that!
Sometimes, some narration texts have no sense together, missing information, or shown in the wrong order which is sometimes confusing in Mer's route (and I don't mean just at the moment when that was done on purpose as he recounted his story to Charming).
Plot and characters related problems :
Warning : huge potential spoilers
On Mer's route, both endings have Charming act like a selfish and deluded sociopath. None serve a sense of completion regarding what 'Mer' did, and would certainly keep doing doing, had he been let free after all of this. In fact, I don't think Charming's character remains coherent for being still in love with a man she barely knows : because, the only things she knows for sure are mostly creepy. And too few to decide to trust such a person, even for political reason. It kind of clash with how intelligent and independent she was all the way until Mer's endings. Least she would be content to be half a political puppet the rest of her life. Which kind of is the first ending. Regarding justice, I had been somewhat shocked because I had expected Charming and her childhood friend to transfer 'Mer' to another body, because him keeping that one felt wrong after all of this. Though the worst thing in my opinion is how Charming just decide to trust him without retribution and even love him unconditionally. Because in that situation it's completely irresponsible.
Technical strengths:
Very pretty sprites with very detailed eyes, a tight plot with very interesting characters, including Charming. The surprises in the plot were grand! So moving and dramatic that I know I won't forget them soon.
Overall, the writing is excellent. (And very creepy in both of Mer's routes). The music is okay. My favorite was Mer's. The CGI are...well, passable.
Plot and characters related strengths:
Zel's both routes end in a very satisfying way for both Charming, Zel and the player (...Satisfying. Yeah. As long as the type of Zel doesn't makes them drool too much.) Satisfying even for Charming's country, Lunar Kingdom, as well. I only would have wished for, well, further snuggling? ^^ (I would certainly not mind a sequel.) Also, I didn't miss the light yandere vibe in Zel's first ending. Not exactly necessary but very welcome still.
I haven't played Snow's route and don't know if I will. He didn't inspire me anything so far.
I though there would be an unlockable fourth route with Charming's half fairy childhood friend. (But by the end of Zel's routes, I was too busy sighing giddily to be disappointed. ^^)
It might be necessary to warn players that this game is a very realistic one, so young girls can't be fooled by Charming's pigtails and gloating pink stuff. Really now. Both of Mer's route can be very depressing.
I'll buy the game because of how well thought and clever the beginning of Mer's route was.
End of the spoilers.
---
I'll keep and maybe replay the game for everything Zel.
So there will be an extented version of the game I read. The program sounds interesting. I'd buy it if we can also have it on Steam.
(What am I saying, I know I'll buy it for Zel anyway. Can't say no so such a rare pastry. He's not the kind of character most popular in Otome games. So with the bonus of his realist personality and character development, it must have taken careful work to make him neither virile nor camp, yet romantically attracted to women. He's quite the rare treat to find.)
To amend a point (spoilers): about 'Mer', it's not him inhabiting the body while loathing noblity that feel so wrong. This does feel wrong, but nothing close to the fact that Charming mostly keeps calling him by the same name both in her thoughts and when she is alone with him...this feels as testimony for her denial.
This: her lack of acknowledgment that he is really a stranger (to the point she doesn't even know how he really looks like or how old he really was - don't even come telling me that it doesn't matter for trusting someone);
this, plus calling him by a name that isn't his is what finish making her love quite messed up.
So yeah, it would solve nothing to punish 'Mer' since he is already off in the head, enough for both of them (his reactions show signs of schizophrenia: he goes from a poised flirting persona, to bawing incontrollably from loneliness, to a self-centered phycho persona showing pleasure in his deceiptions more than once if you pay attention).
The truth serum tells us he doesn't even regret anything except maybe not having enough power to feed everyone. Remember how all the other stories he told Charming never happened? No boat, no village rescuing him, no accidental killing since he knew exactly how his voice worked since the start, peharps even no bullying in his country - all his explanations about that were incoherent, and* he has been a willing murderer since the start. We don't know what he did to Mer's guards in the end, we can only assumebit was worse than killing or destroying. I can think of two possibilities for it that would make both 'Mer', Nicholls and Charming decide not to even mention the nature of the crime
These things and the traumas he mentionned could be full lies made up as failsafes to his shortcommings as a noble and to manipulate Charming into pitiying him. Or real traumas but for very different events than those he tells.
But he is an idiot to expect Charming and Nicholls to let off after all that.
Charming and Nicholls could and should have waited for him to chill down and reflect on all he did a couple months, while using a magical clone of him on the throne during that time, before using another truth serum to verify his sanity and morale first, before deciding anything else.
Loving him, though, seems messed up, no matter how I think about it: affection, okay, desire, I guess, possessivity, understandable after all Charming has risked for him. But sincere love? That feels a bit irrational for Charming's character.
I think the first, the 'good' ending with him was as irresponsible as her second ending with Zel.
Speaking of it:
- Offering a big and heavy fire breathing dragon to make clones of himself? Just after he boasted about ravaging through many weddings and demonstrating his willingness to kill people on a prideful whim?
- Deciding to abandon her country who asked her help with civil war, just to keep her lover's innocence intact a few years more?
Charming?
Not even mentionning responsibility or selfishness, keeping her decision not to return doesn't event sounds well thought: she could have returned and helped settle things before going out to the world with him again. After the demonstrations of will she can do and the fact she succeeded in rescuing Zel while so many others fail it was made into a poem...I'm pretty sure Lynar Kingdom would have trusted her capability and loyalty enough to allow that.
PS:
Now, back to serious business...and ginger-cinnamon-ginseing rolls. :D
I think I've hear something in game about an apron...New CGI you say?
(What? You think his fingers should be covered in dripping blueberry jam too? Well, that's your idea, not mine...) *poofs away*
Thanks a ton for your crits! We'll be taking them into account, and we hope his route will be better in the expansion :) I'm not super sure what you're referring to by text shown in the wrong order, but I'll double check the script to ensure that it's fixed!
Sadly, we didn't get to branch off based on previous choices / tighten the plot due to time & word count constraints, but (hopefully) the most glaring issues should be fixed in the expansion :) The routes will also be somewhat intertwined, so some of the answers to seeming plot holes will be revealed in completely separate routes. Regarding Mer's backstory, well, while all of his stories were at least a little embellished (since he couldn't really tell the truth without revealing the whole story), certainly not all of them were completely fabricated from scratch ;) We'll try to make the details more clear in the expansion!
As for Charming's denial in the endings, that was actually totally intentional & was supposed to tie into the themes LMAO. If it didn't work, though, it didn't work, and we'll try to change the endings' details for the expansion! :) The endings were certainly messed up, and their execution was rushed and weak. Thanks for your suggestions! We'll definitely consider them. Regardless of the changes, we hope the expansion improves on some of the issues 8'D
I think it's an understatement to say that I love this game, but there's no other way I can think of to describe how much I've enjoyed playing it so far. The artwork is beautiful and the characters so real, and I love the balance of humor and drama. You guys have executed the premise so well, and in ways that I definitely didn't expect!
Spoilers Below (?): Honestly, I walked into this thinking that Snow was going to be the problematic fave, so I was so surprised that it was Mer. I guess it really is true what they say: Beware the Quiet Ones! (You'd think that as someone who is the Quiet type, I would've seen that coming, and yet...XD) As wrong as it was for him to pull what he tried to pull, I felt so sorry for him that I was glad that he got a happy ending with Charming, even if its execution seemed iffy (I'm sure the execution will be better in the expansion!). He's suffered so much. T.T (As a side note, I was impressed with Mer's expressiveness during his route. Not gonna lie though, his faces during the climax freaked me out. I really shouldn't have played his route during the night. DX)
And Snow. Oh my God, Snow. He's suffered so much, too, poor man. At first, he comes off so smooth and confident, but then it turns out that he's full of self-loathing due to his curse and his past. I just really wanted to give him a hug so many times during his route. And I liked how you showed the psychological consequences of having an abusive parent. Fairy tales always gloss over it, like "Hurray, the evil stepmom is dead! Everyone's married! It's all good!", when really no, no it's not. Our hero/heroine still suffered at the hands of said stepmom and it's bound to have some impact. So kudos for showing that, and double kudos for making Snow such a sweetie.
I agree with everyone else that Zel is a cinnamon roll too pure for this world. He was just so precious that I couldn't choose the options where you had to make him sad/scared (although, I'm going to be doing it now for my second run.). He was surprisingly smooth for a guy who's been trapped in a tower for 9 years, too. XD Although, I was really surprised--and a little disappointed--that the witch never showed up in the story. I was really looking forward to kicking witch butt! Other than that, I didn't have any issue with Zel's route (well, maybe except for the part where you kinda leave Lunar Kingdom to burn, but that's a small nitpick).
I can't wait for the expansion, especially for Nicholl's route. God, I felt so deprived of him during the game. It's clear that there's more to him than what we've seen so far, so I'm really looking forward to learning about his past as much as the full pasts of the princes.
Hi! Thank you for playing and for writing a long comment!
Haha, glad to hear you liked his happy ending with Charming! Yes, his route has been heavily edited in the expansion and many issues have been hopefully fixed, so we hope the execution of the ending will be better!
Ahhh thank you for your compliments on Snow! Actually, yes. I've always gotten annoyed at fairy tale happy endings — not that I don't love a happy ending, but everything just fades to black implying a "happily ever after" too quickly. It doesn't work like that irl. Emotional trauma from a toxic/abusive family is a topic I care about because I've seen first-handed the lasting damage it can do, so I'm so, so glad that you picked up on my portrayal of Snow's lingering issues.
As for Zel... be careful what you wish for ;) But yeah, we are aware of the issue of lackluster plot and backstory in Zel's route — it was a somewhat conscious choice, because we had to make a difficult choice of cutting his backstory to save time (by not requiring more scenes, more sprites, more BGs etc) or keep them in but risk not making the 30 day deadline for NaNo. In the end, we chose to keep only the important romance parts, so we can promise that in the expansion, you'll see a lot more of Zel's backstory and history with the witch! :) And as for the 2nd ending, that will be tweaked as well to make it hopefully easier to accept due to the majority of responses we've gotten regarding the ending.
Hehe, Nicholl's route... Mm, I can't say much more, but I had a lot of fun writing him :D Hope y'all would have as much fun reading his route in the future too!
Again, thank you for playing Lads in Distress and for taking the time to let us know your thoughts!
Yes, we're aware some antivirus programs like BitDefender (and apparently Norton now, too...? Strange, I ran the files through Norton before, and it was fine for me.) flag our game as a virus, even though all the AV softwares we have access to all report our game as clean. If you still want to play and you are comfortable with doing so, the way to make it stop removing the file is to whitelist it in your antivirus, I believe. But if you are concerned and would rather not do that, then we suggest you not to proceed. Sorry for the problems, but thank you for your interest in our game!
hi im new to this and really want to play your game as ive never really played these types of games before. They seem cool. However when i download the game and click on the downloaded file more files pop up so im not sure how to run the game. Does anyone know how???
Apologies for the late reply; we kinda forgot to check back on this comments page for a while.
I believe we've already included instructions on how to play the game under download instructions. Just unzip the whole folder and then run the Lads in Distress.exe.
Hmm, I have no idea. This is the first time we've had a report of that error. Did the problem persist for you? If so, what platform and OS are you using? What software are you using to unzip?
Thanks for the interest in our game! Apologies for the late reply; we kinda forgot to check back on this comments page for a while. xD
Thanks for your interest in our game! We hope your download ended up working fine? Apologies for the late reply, btw! We forgot to check back on this page for a while.
Just started playing this game and I think it's absolutely adorable!! I'll be posting a gameplay on my channel and was wondering if I could monetize? :) Can't wait to play more~
Hello! Thanks for taking an interest in our game :)
As for your question about monetizing your gameplay... it depends :p Are you thinking of Youtube ads? Maybe if you link your video here we'll decide if you've offered enough of your own content (e.g. commentary) to the video to justify the monetizing.
I only have one part so far, but plan to post more. I will only put ads (monetize) if/when I get the okay from you :) Either way, it's a lovely game~ Thank you!
First things first, I love the art! At first it was a 'meh', because for some reason I thought Snow looked weird, but otherwise everyone else captivated me. (Princess Charming looks a lot like Princess Bubblegum from Adventure Time) Everything is just so, uh, sparkly? It has brighter colors than other games, which is a good thing because other games tend to have kind of a dull palette of color. (Just look at all the games tagged 'Otome', yours sticks out a lot) The routes are a bit short, but I'm keeping track of your Tumblr, and I'm just here. Sitting. Waiting for the expansion. I'm so excited for it, too! And the plot twist are just, like, what. Oh my god. It's amazing. Just imagine eating a donut when someone suddenly says it's not gluten free and your just allergic to gluten and now your just screaming and dying, and like, your final moments just eating that savory, awesome donut. You feel amazing but at the same time your like, dying. (It's a really bad description but that's what it is)
(Okay, children, now I begin the spoilers)
First, let me start of with Snow. I liked his route. It's not my favorite, but it was definitely great. I liked how he thought he was cursed but it was just the step mother being a butt. Snow is kind of my least favorite of the bunch. He was interesting at the ball, but I guess he isn't as interesting as the others...? But who knows, the expansion is coming and I could change my mind.
Secondly, Zel. Oh my god hE'S JUST TOO INNOCENT FOR ME! How he just shoved Charming into the closet and stuff, and his worrying about the dragon just killing her is just 100% omfg. But what kind of witch just puts a guy in a tower and just offs and leaves, never returning. Other people out there complaining about how Zel's past isn't much explained, but it's just an open window. Maybe Zel just lied about there ever being a witch, and he just didn't like politics so much he just asks a dragon to bring him somewhere else. But anyways, his route was pulling at my heartstrings. Like, how he cried when Charming left for a little while. The first route's ending? I cried. How she's just telling him how she has to go home and she's pleading him to come with her but he just snaps, saying she has a hero-complex. And he's just like nonononONONONO GOD NO I'M SORRY and she's just like, uh, bye. And he's just crying and I'm here like "NO CHARMING DON'T LEAVE THIS HURT LITTLE CINNAMON BUN CRYING WHY U EVIL WITCH". Then she's just like "Fuk my kingdom let's go" and they ride off into the sunset. Maaaaaaybe it's a liiiiiiitle irresponsible of them to just run away from their politics, but tbh, I would want to, too. Just fly off into the sunset, away from Trump and Hillary. And to those who disliked this ending just gotta understand that anyone who loves adventure would just ditch politics. To get this route, you kind of inspired adventurism into him by giving him books and not telling him about his falling kingdom. The second ending is kind of messed up, though. You forced him to be a part of politics even though he didn't want to, and the reason why he didn't leave was because he didn't want to get involved in that crap, but y'know, just force him to do what you please.
And best is for last, Mer. Yyyyeaaaah.A bit dark. But it was, by far, the most interesting of the trio. I love how Mer and Charming were playful like "Ayee" then Charming just playfully pushes Mer and things just go from 0 to 100 real quick, cuz this boy had a dagger on him the whole time. He tells the "truth", sudden bandits come out of nowhere, and Mer is just flipping while Charming is just like "Mer, calm down, I'll just burn the-" then gets shoved into water, where things just break the scale and goes over 9000 when he shouts. A simple "Die" or "This is where you end" will kill them all, but y'know, "Get the hell of her!". This line is one of the two only lines I remember clearly from the game because it was kind of chilling? And how he covers her eyes while the bandits disintegrate. Things calm down, goes back down to a 0, and there's just a beautiful wedding. It kind of got me when Charming wakes up to find Mer trying to kill her, and his face is just, insane. The other line I clearly remember is when Mer says "I. Don't. Want. To. Die." The first ending was kind of confusing, when both Charming and Mer was just sitting there on their thrones, and I was kind of like "Who'd they stab? WAS IT NICHOLL?" The second ending was awesomeee! How she also when insane and just tied Mer up. Mer's route was probably the most interesting because of all the LIES AND DECEPTION.
Hello! Thank you for playing our game, and thank you for taking the time to write us such a long review! :)
Haha, Snow is probably the most "normal" person out of the three xD His route is twice as long in the expansion, so you should let us know after playing it if it changed your mind about Snow! :)
Yessss, we had a lot of fun writing Zel. xD We're glad that you find him cute :p As for the part regarding the witch, it'll be explained in the expansion. We just never had the time to include more plot and backstory development for Zel because it'd mean more word count, more sprites, more backgrounds — and with the 30 days time limit for NaNo, we just had to make a difficult choice of what to cut, and in the end we chose to keep the romance. Regarding the 2nd ending where she elopes, that was actually our rationale behind making such an ending! To get that ending, you had to choose all the choices leaning towards adventuring and stuff, so your choices define Charming's personality and her final decision on whether to be a responsible princess and give up her dreams, or run away with the guy he loves xD It's irresponsible, we agree, but understandable for Charming in our opinion. But due to the majority of the responses regarding this ending, we will be changing this ending a bit in the expansion to make Charming seem less irresponsible. We will be somewhat addressing what you said about the 1st ending being a bit wrong to Zel, though we won't be changing the ending — rather, we will be adding new scenes for Zel's route in the expansion of more character development/plot that will hopefully make the first ending easier to swallow.
Haha, super glad to hear you liked Mer! :D His route has undergone rewriting in the expansion, so hopefully the transition and execution of the endings will be better so it'd be less confusing.
Once again, thanks for playing LiD and for writing a comment! :D
Hey! Apologies for the late reply, we forgot to check on this page for a while.
We are aware that some antivirus softwares (particularly BitDefender) would flag our game as a virus. We aren't sure what the problem is, because we've ran the files through multiple antivirus programs (such as McAfee, Avira, Avast...etc.) and it always comes back as clean. Only solution if you want to play is to whitelist the game and play it, but if you are concerned and would rather not do that, then we suggest you not to proceed. Sorry for the problems, but thank you for your interest in our game!
oh my gosh developer you would not BELIEVE the stress I went through to download this game. I would download it and then when I opened the application, my mac would automatically close it and keep it from opening and it was the most stressful thing I've ever tried to download. But, I do not regret my choice of downloading this game!! The first thing that caught my eye about this game was the beautiful art style. Whoever did the art, I really applaud you!! I thought this game would be around $5-$10 just based on the art. But, thank goodness it wasn't because then I was able to enjoy playing it!! And when I say enjoy, I mean enjoy. Let me not get ahead of myself because I've only played Snow's path, (which I found pleasant) and I'm super excited to play Zel & Mer's path! I don't know why but I was so shocked when I realized that Nicholl didn't have a path; but don't worry I got over it quickly after meeting Prince Snow HAHA. (Also, I forgot to mention this earlier but I'm too lazy to proof read and shove this somewhere to make it all flow but, I found the whole concept of this game interesting! The whole 'Princess Charming' and having Prince Snow be Snow White, Prince Mer as Ariel and Prince Zel as Rapunzel was all such a creative way to make a game. It's refreshing to see a new aspect of a visual novel? dating sim? I don't know what to call this LMAO.)
Speaking of Snow, I thought his path was so cute! I really loved the idea of like, a rogue (I'm probably using that word wrong) prince. When I first read his story, in my mind I was like " wow sorry king and queen bc im goin for the banished prince gtg! ". I found his story so interesting, especially the curse part where he couldn't kiss anyone or they would die. He had so many rumors flying around him yet the village didn't treat him differently and I enjoyed that. It was so cute seeing how he acted around the small village children! The only part in his route that I was sad about was that I wanted to go head to head with his step-mom because ooooooh if I was Charming, we really would've fought LMAO.
Anywho, I read the comment before mine and I read that this isn't even the full version??????? "I can't wait to see what you have in store for the full version!" I'm not trying to say anything about that commenter but IS THIS REALLY NOT THE FULL VERSION? I THOUGHT IT WAS. I am so pumped if this really is just a snippet of what you guys have for this game. Thank you for making this project (especially making it free bc yakno ya girl is broke). The art is beautiful, the music was so calming, the story I have played so far was amazing & I can't wait to finish the rest!
Hey! Thank you so much for taking the time to write a long comment. <3
LOL Omg we're so so sorry for all the trouble the game gave you! ;_; But we're so glad it managed to work for you in the end and you thought our game was worth it. Thank you for the compliments on the art! We are indeed very lucky to have Elzee as our Character Artist.
We're also super pleased to hear that you enjoy the premise of the story. Ahh so glad you liked Snow <3 He definitely is a rogue prince LOL As for Charming going head to head with his step-mom... be careful what you wish for because you just might get it ;)
Btw,just a note, Prince Snow is actually based off Snow Queen, which is mentioned in teensy letters in his char profile on this page, so if you wondered at why some details in his story were so odd/sounded familiar e.g. his specific curse, his ex-gf's name, it's because they're references to the Snow Queen fairy tale, not Snow White :"D)
Nicholl will actually have a route in the full game! He was actually supposed to be a secret 4th route, but we didn't have time for it during the NaNoRenO game jam T_T
And yes, there will be a full version of this game! The full game will be almost 4x as long as this version, with 50k words per route (as compared to 25k atm for each route), and 7 routes in total (compared to 3 right now). The current routes will be almost completely rewritten, with their backstories and a lot of the unanswered questions e.g. Snow's stepmother, the witch, etc. (hopefully fully) explored! If you're curious, we will be posting updates and progress reports on the full game during development on our blog! And don't worry, the full game will be completely free as well. We aren't trying to make money off this; we just want to bring entertainment to people while doing what we love :"D
Thank you once again for all the compliments and kind words, and for (trying so hard to) play our game! LOL Hope you'll enjoy the rest of the game too, and we'll try not to disappoint with the full game in the future!
This is a really great game! I can't wait to see what you have in store for the full version!
I don't trust myself to not put any spoilers below, so you are warned.
First off, I've read other players voice their thoughts about the game, and I can say I share their sentiments when it came to Zel's second ending. It just came across as very irresponsible to me, even if Lunar kingdom did have the means to neutralize the uprisings easily. Although I adored his first ending, and I'm glad he managed to break out of his shell all for the sake of Charming. It must not have been easy. Really wished Dragon had more screen time. He's (she??) adorable XD And perhaps the backstory on how and why Zel was captured and imprisoned at the tower. Or was it mentioned in the game and I just wasn't paying attention??
Next I played Snow, and while I don't have a penchant for playboy type characters, his character in general was so sweet and thoughtful it made me love him. For some reason, while I did feel a little bit disappointed at his first ending, I appreciated it at the same time. Not every princess has to choose a prince to marry, and Snow giving Charming the chance to choose for herself made me love him even more. And needless to say I adored his second ending and the things that happened in it. His second ending is definitely my favorite of all endings.
Lastly, Mer. I'm gonna be honest and say it's pretty messed up XDDD As a character Mer is really my type of guy (for the most part, if you know what I mean), and I immensely enjoyed his interactions with Charming (particularly that one scene that involved candy, if you know what I mean ;)) Everything was even going so smoothly, the wedding, etc., then *BAM* attempted murder. That sort of caught me off guard. I half expected something along the lines of Charming and Mer finding out what happened to him when he was little and get that curse off of him, which is what happened, just not what I imagined it would be D: And it also felt that his first ending was abrupt. Some people might disagree with me, but I'm actually okay with Charming not breaking the marriage off. Mer did hesitate when he was about to stab Charming, very much like how the original little mermaid attempted to stab her prince only to stop at the last minute because she loved him. Although I'm not quite okay with the second one, for good reasons, lmao.
Also, I kinda wish Nicholl had a route. I enjoyed Charming's banter with him, however short it may be. Also, snarky childhood friend is a perfect otome game character too XD
There isn't a prince that I overly dislike, but Snow definitely claims the throne of my heart XDD Charming is...charming, too, in her own way. I've played way too many otome games where the heroine is a helpless lass in need of saving, and this game portrays the exact opposite, which is refreshing and fun.
Good job on the art! It was gorgeous (it was the art that drew me to this game in the first place), and I love the music and writing too!!
I rate this game a solid 8/10, and as I said above, can't wait to play the full game ^_^
Hey! Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a long comment and for the compliments! <3 We're glad to hear you enjoyed the game overall. Btw, sorry about the late reply! One of the writers is away on vacation, so we had to wait for her response on how to reply to some of your remarks on the route she wrote.
Firstly, about Zel's second ending, we totally understand why you, like a lot of other players, dislike this ending. It is meant to be irresponsible, actually. But when us writers first came up with this idea, we thought this may be a good option to offer to the players because the way we saw it was we can't blame Charmin for running. She's 18, already has the weight of the world on her shoulders, and if she goes back, she'll either have to make Zel give up his dreams (and her passion for adventuring), or never be with the guy he loves while he goes off exploring the world. So we presented this as an option to the players -- you don't HAVE to accept your duties as your princess. Is it the right thing to do? Probably not. Is it selfish and irresponsible? Yes, definitely. But it's understandable, at least to us writers. However, that said, having taken into account the player responses regarding Zel's second ending, we are considering changing it a bit, at least to make it slightly more responsible. xD It's not firm yet, as it highly depends on how the storyline for Zel's route goes, as well as the endings for the other routes.
As for Zel's backstory, it was deliberately omitted because if we give out all the details and answers now, then why would anyone replay the new Zel route in the full game? ;) Same with Snow's route. A lot of the unanswered questions are left deliberately unanswered so we can explore them in the full game instead. Dragon will indeed have a lot more screen time in the full game, since everyone seems to love him so much! :D
Secondly, about Snow, we're glad to hear you liked his character! :D It's funny because Snow was the least favorite character pre-release xD The playboy type really isn't popular in general, apparently. Especially glad to hear that you liked the first ending! We had hoped it wouldn't come across as a bad ending even though you don't end up married to Snow, and we tried for a bittersweet feel, so it's great to hear that it turned out well.
Next, about Mer. Haha Mer's route was definitely inspired by the darker tone of the original fairy tale. Glad to hear you enjoyed his interactions with Charming (for the most part) though! You aren't the only one who's mentioned the attempted murder coming rather suddenly out of nowhere, as well as the abrupt endings, so we will take that into account and hopefully Mer's route in the final game won't be as jarring! For the second ending, it seems like players either love it, or don't quite like it xD We totally understand why you don't like it! Though, as much as we hate to disappoint, the writer of Mer's route would most likely keep Mer's backstory and the endings the same in the full game, only elaborating more and adding more interaction scenes.
Nicholl will indeed have a route in the full game! Originally, he was planned to be a secret 4th route, but we didn't have enough time to go for it T_T He became so popular among fans that we can't not give him his own route in the full game. xD His route... oh man ;) I think y'all are gonna be surprised.
Super happy that you liked Snow and Charming <3 Thank you so much for all the kind words and for trying our game! Hopefully, we won't disappoint with the final version!
First of all, the art style is amazing! I loved the character designs as well. Also, I'm a huge sucker for cheesy dialogues and flirtatious comments, so I find the VN very well-written.
I decided to go for Mer last, since him being cute and meek during the ball made me think that I was going to enjoy his route the most and I live by the statement "save the best for last." So, I started with Snow, since I tend to get attracted to the seemingly playboy (but really just a big softy on the inside) type and I loved his route! I got the second ending with him first and it might have been my favorite out of all the endings (more explanations later). I proceeded to Zel and got the second ending for him as well. I didn't enjoy it completely, though, because I felt bad when Charming decided to abandon her responsibilities as the princess of the Lunar Kingdom. So, I replayed Zel's route and was very much satisfied when I attained the first ending with him.
Now, let's proceed with Mer. I REALLY REALLY like his character's personality--gentle, sweet, add the fact that he blushes easily (which is a big plus for me) and he's perfect! Well...aside from the fact that he tried to kill me while I was sleeping and it turned out that he was actually not the real Prince Mer. I mean, I knew that there was something suspicious about him from the start and that he wasn't all that he seemed to be, BUT I didn't expect something like this. The whole concept and his backstory is really great, but the ending felt rushed. I felt like Nicholl agreed too quickly to help after learning the fact that he tried to kill Charming. Also, the shift from the heavy conflict to the sudden happy ending felt really unnatural. Then, I got curious about Mer's second ending so I played it again to get it and I just...
I love this game for exceeding my expectations and going out of its way to be a unique otome, but Mer's route somehow left me quite unhappy. I get that the first ending with him was supposed to be the happy one, but after the tumultuous event that occurred right before that, it didn't feel romantic at all. If he didn't turn all batsht crazy, then I think I would have liked his route the most.
(I guess I'm just disappointed, because I wanted Mer's route to be perfect lmao)
Overall, this game deserves an 8/10. I look forward to more of your games! :-)
P.S. Props to the saliva-exchange scene ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Thanks so much for all your comments! We're super happy to hear that you enjoyed the game overall <3
I'm glad you liked Snow! :D Before the release, Snow was actually the least favorite of the princes and I've heard a lot about how the playboys generally aren't the favorites in otomes, so I'm relieved you liked Snow. xD
As for Zel, it is a common feeling among players that they didn't like how Charming decided not to go back to Lunar Kingdom. It -might- be changed somewhat in the future game, but we'll see. It depends on how the storyline goes so... no promises yet! xD
Sorry to hear Mer's route disappointed you, though ;( Mer definitely ended up being... far from meek and gentle, haha. We sadly didn't get to add to it & branch off based on previous choices as much as necessary/wanted due to constrictions on time and word count. Mer's backstory and decisions will stay mostly the same, but hopefully the changes to the story itself will heed your expectations better ;o
Thanks again for your review! We hope you enjoy the expansion overall once it's released!
I just finished playing each of the princes through once, and can I say...just wow. (Before I say anything else, I got Mer's first ending, then both Snow and Zel's second endings.)
First off, the art was beautiful. I really look at art style when I decide to read visual novels, especially ones with multiple routes, mainly because I know if I dislike the art style I'll dislike the story as well. But like I said, the art in this was lovely. I applaud the artists.
I'm going to give my honest opinion about the characters and the endings I've unlocked for them. To get Zel out of the way, I saw nothing wrong with him or his story, besides the fact I felt a twang of guilt for Charming's decision to *SPOILER ALERT* not go back to the kingdom to help out with the uprising. That wasn't necessarily a thing I disliked, and I certainly don't blame Charming or Zel for that matter for it. Besides, the second ending was lovely, and so was he. He is definitely the pure cinnamon roll of the group.
Next up is Snow. Ah, I loved him, though I had my doubts about his motives along the way, even up to the end. (Probably since I read Mer's route first and got the first ending. Gosh, that really put me on my guard, but I'll get to that later.) He was super sweet though, and though personally all the boys' backstories made me teary eyed, I felt a special something for Snow's. I truly thought he was going to be a womanizer throughout the story, but instead he turned out to be super duper sweet. Snow was great, truly. To me he's the life after love character I like.
Nowwwwwww...on to Mer, which I probably have to say is my favorite prince. I have a total biased to characters like Mer. When I discovered he couldn't really speak in the beginning, his little acts of kindess and reassurance to Charming, especially during their ball dance made me blush. I squealed though when it came to his oh so charming and sweet messages written on the illusion parchment, and from that moment on he was my favorite, even though I hadn't yet read Snow nor Zel's routes yet. The real only shaky thing for me was his story, however. I love the sense of drama and peril, especially when he almost kills Charming, but it almost seemed to turbulent for me. As well, even after Nicholl somehow figured out a way to save him (which I thought was rushed; it left a hole for me there in the plot, especially since the man tried to kill Charming and then a scene later they're happily married on the throne, everything resolved.) I still don't think Charming's character would still go forth with the marriage. Yes, she is kind, but the man was about to kill her to save his own life, even after declaring love. I'm not saying it's impossible, it just didn't work for me. All in all though, I loved Mer's character, even if his plot was bumpy at times. And don't get me wrong, his writing was MAGNIFICENT! I adore it.
All in all, I give LiD a 7.75/10 rating, and would recommend it to others. I'm going to go back and try to get the other endings. Kudos to the team, and I hope to see more great work in the future!
(Edit: Also, this might be just me, but I would totally pay for a Nicholl route. Like seriously, the childhood friendship romance thing always kills me.)
Okay, this game is officially now an 8.5/10 for me after going through the other endings.
Mer's second ending gave me chills. Absolutely amazing. It also makes up for what I said about the slight confusion of his first ending.
Snow's first ending made me sad but was lovely (even though it was bittersweet) and I enjoyed the honest aspect of it.
Zel's first ending was also great, and I don't have much else to say about it.
I enjoyed all 6 endings of the game, though to unlock some of them I had to pick some options I didn't want to. It was all in the sake of curiosity, though.
Hello! Thanks for all your comments regarding Lads in Distress! We're glad you enjoyed the game, and honored you took the time to write up such a long response @_@
Haha, yes, it seems like it's a common feeling about players that Zel is the cinnamon roll. You aren't the only one who felt guilty for not going back to Lunar Kingdom, so it's -possibly- something that will be changed in the expansion depending on how the storyline goes, but it's not certain yet. xD
I'm glad you liked Snow! I really enjoyed writing him as well. I hope you'll continue liking him in the final game! And I'm thrilled you liked the first ending even though it wasn't a romantic end. I really wanted a purely platonic friendship ending in the game and it fit perfectly with Snow's route so I ended up going for it even though I was nervous of feedback, so I'm glad you liked it!
Sorry to hear you didn't enjoy Mer's route as much, though ;o; And yeah, it seems like Mer's route is best to play last (optionally with a repeat of another bachelor's route afterwards), since it does tend to "poison" other routes x'DD Sadly, we didn't get to elaborate as much as we'd liked to have due to time & word count constraints. Hopefully his route will be less jarring for you in the expansion! Haha definitely glad (well, okay, maybe not glad per se) his second ending gave you chills! It's always great to learn that you helped evoke feelings in someone else x') Thanks again for your comments! We hope you enjoy the expansion!
I have mixed feelings about the game so far... I've only played Mer's route's so far, and its taken me a few minutes to process the 2nd route. While its a...different twist on a love story can't really say I'm a fan of it. I like the originality of it and the preciseness of the psychology of the characters in both routes. I am a huge geek when it comes to human behavior and psychology and I really love how realistic the behavior is compare to other "love" stories, but I am also a romanticist and the 2nd route was not my idea of happy ever after xD (lol) but I did really love Mers first route a lot, so it made up for the 2nd route for me. The sprites were beautiful! But, I do wish there were better CG's. Oh, and can I just say the writing was phenomenal! The story line (For Mer at the very least) was beautifully written and well executed. I really enjoyed it so far. I'm really hoping the other two princes are just as good as Mer (The first route version xd). Amazing job!
Awww, we're sorry to hear you didn't enjoy Mer's endings ;( We're glad to hear you liked the route, though! As for the CGs, we have two new CG artists on board, so hopefully their styles suit your tastes more! Regardless, thanks so much for the compliments. We hope you enjoy(ed) the other routes, and we hope you enjoy the expansion! It's unlikely Mer's endings will turn any more romantic, but hopefully they'll be executed in such a way that you find them less disappointing~
Yo~ Good game! The game is beautifully drawn. I particularly liked the details on Charming and Zel. The story is engaging, light, and entertaining. I was kinda shocked about Mer's storyline and it took a few minutes to compose myself but Zel's story made up for it. It was light and fluffy, but it didn't really explain his history very well. Maybe because I only got one ending? I'll try the other soon. ^^
I love Charming in particular. She's fun and sassy, unlike other doormat otoge heroines. What I love about her is that she's likeable despite being bossy and somewhat arrogant.
The story has a lot of potential and you could add a lot more plot in it. I'd love to see Charming's parents' faces someday and the epilogue cg's could use a bit more work, but other than that, excellent job!
Thank you for playing our game, and for the nice comment! We are happy to hear you enjoyed it.
Haha, yes, that reaction to Mer's route seems to be common. It's intended -- each route was supposed to have a different feel/theme to it.
Zel's history is deliberately not explained because as we mentioned in developer's notes section of the game, there will be an expansion of the game released some time in the future. Many plot details and sub plotlines are deliberately withheld from this version of the game because we don't want to stuff too much information into a relatively short NaNo game (especially with the time limit of one month) and have the quality suffer. Moreover, we were trying to give players incentive to replay Mer/Snow/Zel's routes in the expansion. Therefore, much of the history/background/plot regarding these three princes are left out of this game on purpose. Zel's route in particular will have so much more increase in plot in the expansion because there was just no way to fully implement the plot planned for him in this short NaNo version without overloading artists/writers if we want to do it any justice.
Charming's parents will have proper character art in the expansion. Currently, they're silhouettes because of time limits for NaNo. Epilogue CGs will be mostly redone/recolored since we aren't restrained by time limits anymore. Our apologies!
Once again, thank you for playing and for taking the time to leave us a comment!
I can't even tell you how much I appreciated this game. I love that you made the male characters need help, rather than the female. It was so refreshing to have such a strong female lead. Thank you!!
I love every part of this. Zel is absolutely adorable and Mer is magnificent [except that I made a mistake by playing his route at 12:00 midnight. Kudos to the artist, I won't be sleeping for a while.] I'm on Snow's route now. Hopefully, it's sweet enough for me to have sweet dreams. ;) Keep up the good work. Hope to see more VNs in the future.
Hi! Thank you so much for playing our game and for the kind words <3 We're really happy to hear that you enjoyed it.
We will actually be making an expansion of this game, with more routes and more scenes for each current route. If interested, do keep an eye out on our development blog! Haha <3
Yeah, we're aware that currently certain AV like BitDefender doesn't like our files. We're not really sure why, but we've run the game files through different AV like McAfee and Avast and Kaspersky a couple times, and they always came back as clean. So my apologies, but there's nothing we can do about it.
It's not BitDefender, it's not "certain AV." It doesn't necessarily suggest trust on your part when you say "We're not really sure why ... There's nothing we can do about it."
In the past three years I've had this computer, your file is the only one that got flagged by Windows Defender (which, I never even knew was running until I downloaded this ZIP).
You should do better than "We know but tough shit lol."
Our apologies, but there really is nothing wrong with our game files. We've run them through multiple AV softwares e.g. Avast, McAfee, Kaspersky, and the files always come back as clean and no detections at all. We even asked one of our team members who is using Windows Defender to test the game once again just to make sure. She downloaded the latest version of the files again from itch.io, ran it, and had no problems at all. Windows Defender did not flag it as a virus. We can assure you that there are no viruses or trojans in the files. We believe it is a false positive, but since your AV flags it as a trojan and you're worried about it, we won't suggest you to whitelist the game or turn off your AV while playing it. Thank you for your interest in the game anyway!
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YOU DID IT GUYS!!!!
HI NIKA <3
YES WE DID IT. Special thanks to you. Oh, you should remind me to add you guys to the credits, haha. I couldn't have made it through the last week of working on the new demo if it weren't for you guys :")
Aw, that's too sweet! I was happy to help, sorry I missed some stuff though OTL
First of all, sorry for my English, it is not my native language) So, I really like your game) The art is unique and very nice.
Now some spoilers. The story... To be honest my first route was with Zel and I really don't like this guy just because crybaby is not my type. Don't be offended please, it's just me) Snow has really nice endings, both of them. Mer's was the last route for me and I was a bit dissapointed at first, cause I has his 'good' ending and was like: 'Seriously? You will just forgive him? That guy is not even trying too hard to make everything okay!' But then I get Mer's second ending. And YOU MADE MY DAY. Usually I don't like something like that in games but here it was unexpected and just hilarious! Maybe that ending is the main reason I liked your game so much) Thank you for creating it ;)
P. S. I am waiting for the full version) It would be very nice to see Nicholl path in it, I like that guy)
(Just a note to start off with: This is the writer of Lads in Distress / Catfish Crew. I'm just using this account for our new VN studio to answer comments because I have added this account as a contributor to LiD project, and it's easier to monitor all our games under both CC and EG from this account alone.)
Thank you for playing the old NaNoRenO version! Happy to hear you liked Snow and Mer's second ending. :D
We now have a new demo for the full version released! There are 2-3 scenes for Nicholl's route in the demo, so hope you'll like him if you end up trying the demo!
Again, thank you for playing the old NaNoRenO version :)
I don't really know what i'm supposed to write here, but i guess i'll just begin from the start.
I really liked the art in general, but the CG's looked like they were drawn by another person? Idk if thats true, but it was kinda another style and i didn't really liked most of the CG's because of that.
The storyidea sounded cool to me in the beginning, but as i continued to play Mer and especially Zels Route, i felt like the story was just being rushed and it started to become flat and boring. I could predict almost everything that happened, and nothing made really sense, to me it seemed like the author just wanted to reveal all the secrets as soon as possible and finish the story. A lot of dialogue missed to complete the story and i started to get bored.
The only route i liked was Prince Snow's route, because his route didn't seem so rushed to me and it wasnt that predictable.
I'm sorry if i'm just writing mean things rn, im not trying to offend someone but this is my opinion on the game so far. I'm interested though how everything'll change when the development progresses cause i liked the basic story and the characters.
Greetings and plz don't take this comment as hate,
komae
It seems like it was rushed because they made it for a game jam. So, the full version will be out with less rushed story-routes.
As for the CG's...idk.
(Just a note to start off with: This is the writer of Lads in Distress / Catfish Crew. I'm just using this account for our new VN studio to answer comments because I have added this account as a contributor to LiD project, and it's easier to monitor all our games under both CC and EG from this account alone.)
Hello! I must apologize for the late reply >_< I don't log on the CatfishCrew account anymore as I'm usually on this EG account to keep track of our new games under this account, so I didn't see the notifications about new comments.
First, to answer your question, yes the CGs were drawn by three artists in the team who stepped up to finish the CGs together after our initial CG artist left so that we could actually release the old version on time for NaNoRenO. As a result, there will definitely be art inconsistencies; sorry to hear you didn't like them! We have a new CG artist now responsible for the CGs of the full version, so hopefully that helps!
Secondly, thanks for your critique on the story! The script was extremely rushed because we wrote all 75k in the span of 30 days for NaNoRenO lol. Sorry to hear you didn't like the game, though! Those issues should be improved upon in the new version.
Thanks for the comment and interest anyway :)
This game was so much fun and so adorable! The different stories were so exciting, but I do hope Nicholl will be an option eventually! :3 I sat and played through every scenario today, and loved it! My only wish was that there were more choices the player could make. Lads in Distress gets two thumbs up from me!
Yep, he's going to be a route in the final version! :D
(Just a note to start off with: This is the writer of Lads in Distress / Catfish Crew. I'm just using this account for our new VN studio to answer comments because I have added this account as a contributor to LiD project, and it's easier to monitor all our games under both CC and EG from this account alone.)
Hello! I must apologize for the extremely late reply >_< I don't log on the CatfishCrew account anymore as I'm usually on this EG account to keep track of our new games under this account, so I didn't see the notifications about new comments.
Thank you for the compliments and kind words! Glad to hear you enjoyed the NaNoRenO version.
Yes, Nicholl is now a love interest you can choose to romance in the new demo of the full version that we just recently released! :) Currently, 2-3 of the scenes in his route is covered in the demo. Hope you enjoy romancing Nicholl if you end up trying the new demo!
I want to date Nicholl... Will Nicholl be a love interest too? He's soooo cute , To me.. :3 Please reply...
Yes, he will be!
(Just a note to start off with: This is the writer of Lads in Distress / Catfish Crew. I'm just using this account for our new VN studio to answer comments because I have added this account as a contributor to LiD project, and it's easier to monitor all our games under both CC and EG from this account alone.)
Hello! I must apologize for the extremely late reply >_< I don't log on the CatfishCrew account anymore as I'm usually on this EG account to keep track of our new games under this account, so I didn't see the notifications about new comments.
Yes, Nicholl is now a love interest you can choose to romance in the new demo of the full version that we just recently released! :) Currently, 2-3 of the scenes in his route is covered in the demo. Hope you enjoy romancing Nicholl if you end up trying the new demo!
Your file had a virus in it and was removed from my computer.
(Just a note to start off with: This is the writer of Lads in Distress / Catfish Crew. I'm just using this account for our new VN studio to answer comments because I have added this account as a contributor to LiD project, and it's easier to monitor all our games under both CC and EG from this account alone.)
Hello! I must apologize for the extremely late reply >_< I don't log on the CatfishCrew account anymore as I'm usually on this EG account to keep track of our new games under this account, so I didn't see the notifications about new comments.
Yes, we're aware some antivirus programs flag our game as a virus, even though all the AV softwares we have access to all report our game files as clean. If you are concerned and would rather not trust that it's a false positive, we totally understand. Sorry for the problems, but thank you for your interest in our game!
I won't open on my mac any tips?
I think someone asked the same thing a bit lower in the comments. Catfish Crew replied and told them instructions on what to do on Mac. Hope It'll work
Can't wait to play! I hope you can romance Nicoll soon. Unless it had already updated to that and/or I missed it :P
(Just a note to start off with: This is the writer of Lads in Distress / Catfish Crew. I'm just using this account for our new VN studio to answer comments because I have added this account as a contributor to LiD project, and it's easier to monitor all our games under both CC and EG from this account alone.)
Hello! I must apologize for the extremely late reply >_< I don't log on the CatfishCrew account anymore as I'm usually on this EG account to keep track of our new games under this account, so I didn't see the notifications about new comments.
Nicholl is now a love interest you can choose to romance in the new demo of the full version that we just recently released! :) Currently, 2-3 of the scenes in his route is covered in the demo. Hope you enjoy romancing Nicholl if you end up trying the new demo!
This is so adorable. ;u;
(Just a note to start off with: This is the writer of Lads in Distress / Catfish Crew. I'm just using this account for our new VN studio to answer comments because I have added this account as a contributor to LiD project, and it's easier to monitor all our games under both CC and EG from this account alone.)
Hello! I must apologize for the extremely late reply >_< I don't log on the CatfishCrew account anymore as I'm usually on this EG account to keep track of our new games under this account, so I didn't see the notifications about new comments. Thank you very much for the compliment, and thank you for playing LiD! ^_^
Great Job ! Maybe will you make a french version ? :) I hope that my sister can play this novel.
(Just a note to start off with: This is the writer of Lads in Distress / Catfish Crew. I'm just using this account for our new VN studio to answer comments because I have added this account as a contributor to LiD project, and it's easier to monitor all our games under both CC and EG from this account alone.)
Hello! I must apologize for the extremely late reply >_< I don't log on the CatfishCrew account anymore as I'm usually on this EG account to keep track of our new games under this account, so I didn't see the notifications about new comments.
We are unlikely to do any translations for this game, sorry :( None of us are proficient enough in French for that, haha. Sorry for any disappointment!
NOOOO YOU CAN'T COURT NICHOLL??? ;_;
Not yet. It's said to come in the next update....lol
(Just a note to start off with: This is the writer of Lads in Distress / Catfish Crew. I'm just using this account for our new VN studio to answer comments because I have added this account as a contributor to LiD project, and it's easier to monitor all our games under both CC and EG from this account alone.)
Hello! I must apologize for the extremely late reply >_< I don't log on the CatfishCrew account anymore as I'm usually on this EG account to keep track of our new games under this account, so I didn't see the notifications about new comments.
Nicholl is now a love interest you can choose to romance in the new demo of the full version that we recently released! :) He'll get his own route in the full game as well. Hope you'll enjoy his route if you try the new demo!
Hi! I really really want to play this game but for somehow it won't open. I open the game and it appears and then disappears from the dock? Do you know what the problem may be??
(Just a note to start off with: This is the writer of Lads in Distress / Catfish Crew. I'm just using this account for our new VN studio to answer comments because I have added this account as a contributor to LiD project, and it's easier to monitor all our games under both CC and EG from this account alone.)
Hello! I must apologize for the extremely late reply >_< I don't log on the CatfishCrew account anymore as I'm usually on this EG account to keep track of our new games under this account, so I didn't see the notifications about new comments.
If you happen to still have our old NaNoRenO version downloaded, I believe you can try to workaround that problem on Mac by right-clicking the game file and clicking Show Package Contents > Contents > MacOS > Lads in Distress game file again. It should also bring up the terminal, but the game should be able to run properly then. I believe this issue is because the NaNoRenO version of LiD isn't compatible with the new MacOS updates, but who knows ;o; Anyways, that's one workaround we found, but we would definitely suggest you to forget the old NaNoRenO version and just try our new demo for the full version which we recently uploaded for the full experience! Haha.Thank you for your interest in LiD again! Really sorry about the late reply ;o;
This game is absolutely lovely. The character sprites are gorgeous, the backgrounds are beautiful- the interactions are charming and fun. I adore that there are (almost) no bad endings, and trust me I played all of them. It was so refreshing to see a game where the main character (almost) always kept her independence, desire for justice, and need to help others. Charming is a really fun protagonist and I found that I never got annoyed or tired of playing as her. The princes were really nice as well. I really liked all the different routes. If I HAD to pick one, I'd probably pick Zel's "better' route, because he is very sweet and reminds me of myself in a way with his shyness eheh. But yes, overall this is a fantastic game and I absolutely cannot wait for the expansion of this story and more options!
(Just a note to start off with: This is the writer of Lads in Distress / Catfish Crew. I'm just using this account for our new VN studio to answer comments because I have added this account as a contributor to LiD project, and it's easier to monitor all our games under both CC and EG from this account alone.)
Hello! Thank you very much for playing Lads in Distress, NaNoRenO version!
First, I must apologize for the extremely late reply >_< I don't log on the CatfishCrew account anymore as I'm usually on this EG account to keep track of our new games under this account, so I didn't see the notifications about new comments.
Anyways, thank you very much for the kind words and compliments! :D We're really glad that you like Charming; we wanted to make a proactive protagonist, so we're glad that the players like her too!
We now have a new demo for the full version of the game up, which covers the new common route + 2 scenes per route (with Ellis and Nicholl as two new love interests), in case you're interested! :)
Thank you again for playing LiD!
This is such a great game! I'm playing through the Mer line as my first playthrough and what a twist!!! I love it!
(Just a note to start off with: This is the writer of Lads in Distress / Catfish Crew. I'm just using this account for our new VN studio to answer comments because I have added this account as a contributor to LiD project, and it's easier to monitor all our games under both CC and EG from this account alone.)
Hello! Thank you very much for playing Lads in Distress, NaNoRenO version! Glad to hear you liked him! :D
Apologies for the late reply >_< I don't log on the CatfishCrew account anymore as I'm usually on this EG account to keep track of our new games under this account, so I didn't see the notifications about new comments.
I am trying to open your game, but I can't open the .exe, it says that " You can't open the application "Lads in Distress.exe" because Microsoft Windows applications are not supported on OS X." Please help me, I want to play your game!!!
If you're on Mac using OS platform, you shouldn't be trying to open the .exe file. That zip folder for download has a file to run for each platform -- Windows, Mac and Linux. Run the Mac version -- double click and run the one that doesn't have any file extension (the one without .exe or .sh).
Thanks for trying our game!
Thank you!
I adored this game!!! <3 Can't wait to play more of your games!!
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it :D
I really love this game! I have played through all 3 princes once, and I find them all unique and endearing in their own ways. I plan to play through them again, of course :D
My full review can be found in my blog here: http://pajamagaming.blogspot.com/2016/12/lads-in-distress-for-pc.html
I did find a few spelling errors I wanted to relay to you.
In Prince Mer's path, he says, "Do not remove the water over your years just yet." So it says years instead of ears.
And another in Prince Zel's path, when Charming makes her puppy dog eyes, it says, "... even siffing and tearing up to increase the effect." SO it says siffing, when I think you make have meant sniffing.
Nothing serious, I just wants to let you know :D I look forward to any more additions to the game!
Thanks for playing our game! And thanks for letting us know about the typos, but we won't be fixing them in this version and uploading a new one; we'll likely only be fixing typos in the extended version.
I look forward to it! :)
how can i play it
I loved the game and can't wait for Nicholle's route!!
Thank you very much! :D Glad to hear you enjoyed the game. Hopefully you'll like the full version of the game too <3 We'll be working hard to bring you guys Nicholl's and the new bachelor's routes as soon as possible!
I've just played through the game for the first time, and I love it so far. I'm very curious about the other routes, and even more about these to come in the expansion! I can't wait for it to be released!
Since you were asking for feedback, I'll use your form from the LSF thread!
1. Did you play the NaNoRenO version of LiD? What did you think of it?
This is the one currently disponible, right? I loved the path I did (Mer). I got his first ending, and I liked it a lot. I'm very fond of the soundtrack too, it's very pretty. The menus are very nicely done, and it was a nice idea to use the stars for the sound levels or the pages in the save menu.
2. Any thoughts or comments about the story premise/characters so far?
I like the overall concept, though I can't judge Snow's and Zel's routes yet. But I can already see each route will be unique once you choose the suitor you want, wich is always nice. Mer was a great character - I did his route first because I have a thing for disabled characters. I juste LOVED the whole insecurity and sentiment of distrust all along the route - I couldn't stop playing until I've reached the end of it, and wow, I really enjoyed the revelations and the ending. Though I must admit the ending was a bit confusing - I would like to know what was the solution Nicholl found to get them out of this mess!
3. Who is your favorite character at the moment?
It's hard since I haven't seen Snow and Zel a lot, but the first one to catch my attention was Nicholl, even if he isn't an option in this release. As for Mer, I like him more than I thought I'd do, but it's hard to tell if he'll be my favorite once I'll get to know everyone. Still, I like creepy and dangerous yet loving and generous characters like him - totally my type!
4. Which love interest do you think you will pursue first?
Well, I've started with Mer, but only because some of the guys aren't disponible options in this release. I guess I'd have started with Nicholl or Hood if I had the extended version - I like the idea of romancing a non-prince here, even if Charming's parents won't approve for sure! And besides, I love Nicholl a lot.
5. Any other comments or questions?
Well, I'm sure you get that a lot, but do you have a release date in mind, for the extended version? Other than that, I've seen Ellis will be based on Belle, but then... who is the to be revealed prince Beau? You'd think he'd be the one based on Belle! Do you mind me if I ask what will be the inspiration source for him? If not, that's okay, I can wait!
Oh and also, thank you for the awesome game! Now, to start Snow's route!
First off, I must apologize for the extremely late response >< I didn't notice an email notifying me of new comment on itch.io -- I must have missed it in the mass of emails in my inbox. I'm really sorry about that.
Thank you so much for giving our game a try and leaving a comment! <3 We really really appreciate the feedback :D
Thanks for all the compliments :"D About Mer's endings, I think many people mentioned it was confusing, so we'll see what we can do about it in the full game.
We've just posted Beau's design on our Tumblr, but in case you haven't seen it, Beau is based on Sleeping Beauty! So sorry about the super super late response ;; We'll have his character profile up soon, so if you're interested, do check that out!
Once again, thank you so much for playing.
Oh, I didn't check tumblr in a while. Makes sense now! And I love Beau's design too... I think design-wise he's my favorite of the bunch!
In the meantime I did the endings of the other princes too, and while Mer is still my favorite of the ones currently accessible, I must admit I love them too. Snow was a very pleasant surprise since I usually don't like characters like him - but he's really cute and lovely.
Well, as I said about Mer's ending - I liked it, a lot. The issue isn't the ending itself, but the transition between the climax of the route and the ending - with some more explanations it would be perfect. I don't know about his other ending because I tend to stick to the first I got if I like it enough, and it was the case here.
And don't worry about the late reply - I don't always recieve notifications either.
I love this game but maybe tone down the brightness a bit^^
Hey~ Thanks for playing our game! What do you mean by the brightness? Do you mean the actual brightness of the game, or just the sparkly art? :p If it's the latter, unfortunately, since it's our artists' style to draw bright, sparkly art, we won't be changing that in the expansion. Sorry about that!
Well I don't really mind the bright sparkly art. Just thought it could be tone down a bit. But if it's that not possible, it's fine too.
Technical problems :
Sometimes, some narration texts have no sense together, missing information, or shown in the wrong order which is sometimes confusing in Mer's route (and I don't mean just at the moment when that was done on purpose as he recounted his story to Charming).
Plot and characters related problems :
Warning : huge potential spoilers
On Mer's route, both endings have Charming act like a selfish and deluded sociopath. None serve a sense of completion regarding what 'Mer' did, and would certainly keep doing doing, had he been let free after all of this. In fact, I don't think Charming's character remains coherent for being still in love with a man she barely knows : because, the only things she knows for sure are mostly creepy. And too few to decide to trust such a person, even for political reason. It kind of clash with how intelligent and independent she was all the way until Mer's endings. Least she would be content to be half a political puppet the rest of her life. Which kind of is the first ending. Regarding justice, I had been somewhat shocked because I had expected Charming and her childhood friend to transfer 'Mer' to another body, because him keeping that one felt wrong after all of this. Though the worst thing in my opinion is how Charming just decide to trust him without retribution and even love him unconditionally. Because in that situation it's completely irresponsible.
Technical strengths:
Very pretty sprites with very detailed eyes, a tight plot with very interesting characters, including Charming. The surprises in the plot were grand! So moving and dramatic that I know I won't forget them soon.
Overall, the writing is excellent. (And very creepy in both of Mer's routes). The music is okay. My favorite was Mer's. The CGI are...well, passable.
Plot and characters related strengths:
Zel's both routes end in a very satisfying way for both Charming, Zel and the player (...Satisfying. Yeah. As long as the type of Zel doesn't makes them drool too much.) Satisfying even for Charming's country, Lunar Kingdom, as well. I only would have wished for, well, further snuggling? ^^ (I would certainly not mind a sequel.) Also, I didn't miss the light yandere vibe in Zel's first ending. Not exactly necessary but very welcome still.
I haven't played Snow's route and don't know if I will. He didn't inspire me anything so far.
I though there would be an unlockable fourth route with Charming's half fairy childhood friend. (But by the end of Zel's routes, I was too busy sighing giddily to be disappointed. ^^)
It might be necessary to warn players that this game is a very realistic one, so young girls can't be fooled by Charming's pigtails and gloating pink stuff. Really now. Both of Mer's route can be very depressing.
I'll buy the game because of how well thought and clever the beginning of Mer's route was.
End of the spoilers.
---
I'll keep and maybe replay the game for everything Zel.
So there will be an extented version of the game I read. The program sounds interesting. I'd buy it if we can also have it on Steam.
(What am I saying, I know I'll buy it for Zel anyway. Can't say no so such a rare pastry. He's not the kind of character most popular in Otome games. So with the bonus of his realist personality and character development, it must have taken careful work to make him neither virile nor camp, yet romantically attracted to women. He's quite the rare treat to find.)
To amend a point (spoilers): about 'Mer', it's not him inhabiting the body while loathing noblity that feel so wrong. This does feel wrong, but nothing close to the fact that Charming mostly keeps calling him by the same name both in her thoughts and when she is alone with him...this feels as testimony for her denial.
This: her lack of acknowledgment that he is really a stranger (to the point she doesn't even know how he really looks like or how old he really was - don't even come telling me that it doesn't matter for trusting someone);
this, plus calling him by a name that isn't his is what finish making her love quite messed up.
So yeah, it would solve nothing to punish 'Mer' since he is already off in the head, enough for both of them (his reactions show signs of schizophrenia: he goes from a poised flirting persona, to bawing incontrollably from loneliness, to a self-centered phycho persona showing pleasure in his deceiptions more than once if you pay attention).
The truth serum tells us he doesn't even regret anything except maybe not having enough power to feed everyone. Remember how all the other stories he told Charming never happened? No boat, no village rescuing him, no accidental killing since he knew exactly how his voice worked since the start, peharps even no bullying in his country - all his explanations about that were incoherent, and* he has been a willing murderer since the start. We don't know what he did to Mer's guards in the end, we can only assumebit was worse than killing or destroying. I can think of two possibilities for it that would make both 'Mer', Nicholls and Charming decide not to even mention the nature of the crime
These things and the traumas he mentionned could be full lies made up as failsafes to his shortcommings as a noble and to manipulate Charming into pitiying him. Or real traumas but for very different events than those he tells.
But he is an idiot to expect Charming and Nicholls to let off after all that.
Charming and Nicholls could and should have waited for him to chill down and reflect on all he did a couple months, while using a magical clone of him on the throne during that time, before using another truth serum to verify his sanity and morale first, before deciding anything else.
Loving him, though, seems messed up, no matter how I think about it: affection, okay, desire, I guess, possessivity, understandable after all Charming has risked for him. But sincere love? That feels a bit irrational for Charming's character.
I think the first, the 'good' ending with him was as irresponsible as her second ending with Zel.
Speaking of it:
- Offering a big and heavy fire breathing dragon to make clones of himself? Just after he boasted about ravaging through many weddings and demonstrating his willingness to kill people on a prideful whim?
- Deciding to abandon her country who asked her help with civil war, just to keep her lover's innocence intact a few years more?
Charming?
Not even mentionning responsibility or selfishness, keeping her decision not to return doesn't event sounds well thought: she could have returned and helped settle things before going out to the world with him again. After the demonstrations of will she can do and the fact she succeeded in rescuing Zel while so many others fail it was made into a poem...I'm pretty sure Lynar Kingdom would have trusted her capability and loyalty enough to allow that.
PS:
Now, back to serious business...and ginger-cinnamon-ginseing rolls. :D
I think I've hear something in game about an apron...New CGI you say?
(What? You think his fingers should be covered in dripping blueberry jam too? Well, that's your idea, not mine...) *poofs away*
Thanks a ton for your crits! We'll be taking them into account, and we hope his route will be better in the expansion :) I'm not super sure what you're referring to by text shown in the wrong order, but I'll double check the script to ensure that it's fixed!
Sadly, we didn't get to branch off based on previous choices / tighten the plot due to time & word count constraints, but (hopefully) the most glaring issues should be fixed in the expansion :) The routes will also be somewhat intertwined, so some of the answers to seeming plot holes will be revealed in completely separate routes. Regarding Mer's backstory, well, while all of his stories were at least a little embellished (since he couldn't really tell the truth without revealing the whole story), certainly not all of them were completely fabricated from scratch ;) We'll try to make the details more clear in the expansion!
As for Charming's denial in the endings, that was actually totally intentional & was supposed to tie into the themes LMAO. If it didn't work, though, it didn't work, and we'll try to change the endings' details for the expansion! :) The endings were certainly messed up, and their execution was rushed and weak. Thanks for your suggestions! We'll definitely consider them. Regardless of the changes, we hope the expansion improves on some of the issues 8'D
I think it's an understatement to say that I love this game, but there's no other way I can think of to describe how much I've enjoyed playing it so far. The artwork is beautiful and the characters so real, and I love the balance of humor and drama. You guys have executed the premise so well, and in ways that I definitely didn't expect!
Spoilers Below (?):
Honestly, I walked into this thinking that Snow was going to be the problematic fave, so I was so surprised that it was Mer. I guess it really is true what they say: Beware the Quiet Ones! (You'd think that as someone who is the Quiet type, I would've seen that coming, and yet...XD) As wrong as it was for him to pull what he tried to pull, I felt so sorry for him that I was glad that he got a happy ending with Charming, even if its execution seemed iffy (I'm sure the execution will be better in the expansion!). He's suffered so much. T.T (As a side note, I was impressed with Mer's expressiveness during his route. Not gonna lie though, his faces during the climax freaked me out. I really shouldn't have played his route during the night. DX)
And Snow. Oh my God, Snow. He's suffered so much, too, poor man. At first, he comes off so smooth and confident, but then it turns out that he's full of self-loathing due to his curse and his past. I just really wanted to give him a hug so many times during his route. And I liked how you showed the psychological consequences of having an abusive parent. Fairy tales always gloss over it, like "Hurray, the evil stepmom is dead! Everyone's married! It's all good!", when really no, no it's not. Our hero/heroine still suffered at the hands of said stepmom and it's bound to have some impact. So kudos for showing that, and double kudos for making Snow such a sweetie.
I agree with everyone else that Zel is a cinnamon roll too pure for this world. He was just so precious that I couldn't choose the options where you had to make him sad/scared (although, I'm going to be doing it now for my second run.). He was surprisingly smooth for a guy who's been trapped in a tower for 9 years, too. XD Although, I was really surprised--and a little disappointed--that the witch never showed up in the story. I was really looking forward to kicking witch butt! Other than that, I didn't have any issue with Zel's route (well, maybe except for the part where you kinda leave Lunar Kingdom to burn, but that's a small nitpick).
I can't wait for the expansion, especially for Nicholl's route. God, I felt so deprived of him during the game. It's clear that there's more to him than what we've seen so far, so I'm really looking forward to learning about his past as much as the full pasts of the princes.
Hi! Thank you for playing and for writing a long comment!
Haha, glad to hear you liked his happy ending with Charming! Yes, his route has been heavily edited in the expansion and many issues have been hopefully fixed, so we hope the execution of the ending will be better!
Ahhh thank you for your compliments on Snow! Actually, yes. I've always gotten annoyed at fairy tale happy endings — not that I don't love a happy ending, but everything just fades to black implying a "happily ever after" too quickly. It doesn't work like that irl. Emotional trauma from a toxic/abusive family is a topic I care about because I've seen first-handed the lasting damage it can do, so I'm so, so glad that you picked up on my portrayal of Snow's lingering issues.
As for Zel... be careful what you wish for ;) But yeah, we are aware of the issue of lackluster plot and backstory in Zel's route — it was a somewhat conscious choice, because we had to make a difficult choice of cutting his backstory to save time (by not requiring more scenes, more sprites, more BGs etc) or keep them in but risk not making the 30 day deadline for NaNo. In the end, we chose to keep only the important romance parts, so we can promise that in the expansion, you'll see a lot more of Zel's backstory and history with the witch! :) And as for the 2nd ending, that will be tweaked as well to make it hopefully easier to accept due to the majority of responses we've gotten regarding the ending.
Hehe, Nicholl's route... Mm, I can't say much more, but I had a lot of fun writing him :D Hope y'all would have as much fun reading his route in the future too!
Again, thank you for playing Lads in Distress and for taking the time to let us know your thoughts!
I installed it and clicked on the .exe file but then Nortan securitey pops up and removes the file how do i make it stop removeing the file?
Hello! Thanks for your interest in our game.
Yes, we're aware some antivirus programs like BitDefender (and apparently Norton now, too...? Strange, I ran the files through Norton before, and it was fine for me.) flag our game as a virus, even though all the AV softwares we have access to all report our game as clean. If you still want to play and you are comfortable with doing so, the way to make it stop removing the file is to whitelist it in your antivirus, I believe. But if you are concerned and would rather not do that, then we suggest you not to proceed. Sorry for the problems, but thank you for your interest in our game!
hi im new to this and really want to play your game as ive never really played these types of games before. They seem cool. However when i download the game and click on the downloaded file more files pop up so im not sure how to run the game. Does anyone know how???
Apologies for the late reply; we kinda forgot to check back on this comments page for a while.
I believe we've already included instructions on how to play the game under download instructions. Just unzip the whole folder and then run the Lads in Distress.exe.
Thanks for your interest in our game!
I downloaded the game and tried to unzip it, but it wouldn't work. I'm having the same problem with HeartBaked too.
When I unzip it, I get the message:
Unexpected end of data
Data error: LasdinDistress-1.2-all\game\archive.rpa
Any suggestions on what I can do?
Hmm, I have no idea. This is the first time we've had a report of that error. Did the problem persist for you? If so, what platform and OS are you using? What software are you using to unzip?
Thanks for the interest in our game! Apologies for the late reply; we kinda forgot to check back on this comments page for a while. xD
Having problems with downloading but I'm looking forward to playing this game once it has finished downloading XD
Thanks for your interest in our game! We hope your download ended up working fine? Apologies for the late reply, btw! We forgot to check back on this page for a while.
It's fine :) I really loved the game once I finished playing-- best one I've playes so far XD
Just started playing this game and I think it's absolutely adorable!! I'll be posting a gameplay on my channel and was wondering if I could monetize? :) Can't wait to play more~
Hello! Thanks for taking an interest in our game :)
As for your question about monetizing your gameplay... it depends :p Are you thinking of Youtube ads? Maybe if you link your video here we'll decide if you've offered enough of your own content (e.g. commentary) to the video to justify the monetizing.
Again, thanks for playing our game!
Hello! I'm so sorry for the SUPER late reply, haha.
Here is the link to my video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVDTjrd7Z4Q&t=169s
I only have one part so far, but plan to post more. I will only put ads (monetize) if/when I get the okay from you :) Either way, it's a lovely game~ Thank you!
*cracks knuckles* Let's get this crap started.
First things first, I love the art! At first it was a 'meh', because for some reason I thought Snow looked weird, but otherwise everyone else captivated me. (Princess Charming looks a lot like Princess Bubblegum from Adventure Time) Everything is just so, uh, sparkly? It has brighter colors than other games, which is a good thing because other games tend to have kind of a dull palette of color. (Just look at all the games tagged 'Otome', yours sticks out a lot) The routes are a bit short, but I'm keeping track of your Tumblr, and I'm just here. Sitting. Waiting for the expansion. I'm so excited for it, too! And the plot twist are just, like, what. Oh my god. It's amazing. Just imagine eating a donut when someone suddenly says it's not gluten free and your just allergic to gluten and now your just screaming and dying, and like, your final moments just eating that savory, awesome donut. You feel amazing but at the same time your like, dying. (It's a really bad description but that's what it is)
(Okay, children, now I begin the spoilers)
Hello! Thank you for playing our game, and thank you for taking the time to write us such a long review! :)
Haha, Snow is probably the most "normal" person out of the three xD His route is twice as long in the expansion, so you should let us know after playing it if it changed your mind about Snow! :)
Yessss, we had a lot of fun writing Zel. xD We're glad that you find him cute :p As for the part regarding the witch, it'll be explained in the expansion. We just never had the time to include more plot and backstory development for Zel because it'd mean more word count, more sprites, more backgrounds — and with the 30 days time limit for NaNo, we just had to make a difficult choice of what to cut, and in the end we chose to keep the romance. Regarding the 2nd ending where she elopes, that was actually our rationale behind making such an ending! To get that ending, you had to choose all the choices leaning towards adventuring and stuff, so your choices define Charming's personality and her final decision on whether to be a responsible princess and give up her dreams, or run away with the guy he loves xD It's irresponsible, we agree, but understandable for Charming in our opinion. But due to the majority of the responses regarding this ending, we will be changing this ending a bit in the expansion to make Charming seem less irresponsible. We will be somewhat addressing what you said about the 1st ending being a bit wrong to Zel, though we won't be changing the ending — rather, we will be adding new scenes for Zel's route in the expansion of more character development/plot that will hopefully make the first ending easier to swallow.
Haha, super glad to hear you liked Mer! :D His route has undergone rewriting in the expansion, so hopefully the transition and execution of the endings will be better so it'd be less confusing.
Once again, thanks for playing LiD and for writing a comment! :D
Cute af. Love it!!
Thank you!! :D Glad you liked the game <3 Thank you for giving our game a try.
this looks like an amazing game, and I would love to play it. However I am finding multiple viruses when I am trying to download it
Hey! Apologies for the late reply, we forgot to check on this page for a while.
We are aware that some antivirus softwares (particularly BitDefender) would flag our game as a virus. We aren't sure what the problem is, because we've ran the files through multiple antivirus programs (such as McAfee, Avira, Avast...etc.) and it always comes back as clean. Only solution if you want to play is to whitelist the game and play it, but if you are concerned and would rather not do that, then we suggest you not to proceed. Sorry for the problems, but thank you for your interest in our game!
spoilers pls read at your own risk thank u
oh my gosh developer you would not BELIEVE the stress I went through to download this game. I would download it and then when I opened the application, my mac would automatically close it and keep it from opening and it was the most stressful thing I've ever tried to download. But, I do not regret my choice of downloading this game!! The first thing that caught my eye about this game was the beautiful art style. Whoever did the art, I really applaud you!! I thought this game would be around $5-$10 just based on the art. But, thank goodness it wasn't because then I was able to enjoy playing it!! And when I say enjoy, I mean enjoy. Let me not get ahead of myself because I've only played Snow's path, (which I found pleasant) and I'm super excited to play Zel & Mer's path! I don't know why but I was so shocked when I realized that Nicholl didn't have a path; but don't worry I got over it quickly after meeting Prince Snow HAHA. (Also, I forgot to mention this earlier but I'm too lazy to proof read and shove this somewhere to make it all flow but, I found the whole concept of this game interesting! The whole 'Princess Charming' and having Prince Snow be Snow White, Prince Mer as Ariel and Prince Zel as Rapunzel was all such a creative way to make a game. It's refreshing to see a new aspect of a visual novel? dating sim? I don't know what to call this LMAO.)
Speaking of Snow, I thought his path was so cute! I really loved the idea of like, a rogue (I'm probably using that word wrong) prince. When I first read his story, in my mind I was like " wow sorry king and queen bc im goin for the banished prince gtg! ". I found his story so interesting, especially the curse part where he couldn't kiss anyone or they would die. He had so many rumors flying around him yet the village didn't treat him differently and I enjoyed that. It was so cute seeing how he acted around the small village children! The only part in his route that I was sad about was that I wanted to go head to head with his step-mom because ooooooh if I was Charming, we really would've fought LMAO.
Anywho, I read the comment before mine and I read that this isn't even the full version??????? "I can't wait to see what you have in store for the full version!" I'm not trying to say anything about that commenter but IS THIS REALLY NOT THE FULL VERSION? I THOUGHT IT WAS. I am so pumped if this really is just a snippet of what you guys have for this game. Thank you for making this project (especially making it free bc yakno ya girl is broke). The art is beautiful, the music was so calming, the story I have played so far was amazing & I can't wait to finish the rest!
Hey! Thank you so much for taking the time to write a long comment. <3
LOL Omg we're so so sorry for all the trouble the game gave you! ;_; But we're so glad it managed to work for you in the end and you thought our game was worth it. Thank you for the compliments on the art! We are indeed very lucky to have Elzee as our Character Artist.
We're also super pleased to hear that you enjoy the premise of the story. Ahh so glad you liked Snow <3 He definitely is a rogue prince LOL As for Charming going head to head with his step-mom... be careful what you wish for because you just might get it ;)
Btw,just a note, Prince Snow is actually based off Snow Queen, which is mentioned in teensy letters in his char profile on this page, so if you wondered at why some details in his story were so odd/sounded familiar e.g. his specific curse, his ex-gf's name, it's because they're references to the Snow Queen fairy tale, not Snow White :"D)
Nicholl will actually have a route in the full game! He was actually supposed to be a secret 4th route, but we didn't have time for it during the NaNoRenO game jam T_T
And yes, there will be a full version of this game! The full game will be almost 4x as long as this version, with 50k words per route (as compared to 25k atm for each route), and 7 routes in total (compared to 3 right now). The current routes will be almost completely rewritten, with their backstories and a lot of the unanswered questions e.g. Snow's stepmother, the witch, etc. (hopefully fully) explored! If you're curious, we will be posting updates and progress reports on the full game during development on our blog! And don't worry, the full game will be completely free as well. We aren't trying to make money off this; we just want to bring entertainment to people while doing what we love :"D
Thank you once again for all the compliments and kind words, and for (trying so hard to) play our game! LOL Hope you'll enjoy the rest of the game too, and we'll try not to disappoint with the full game in the future!
This is a really great game! I can't wait to see what you have in store for the full version!
I don't trust myself to not put any spoilers below, so you are warned.
First off, I've read other players voice their thoughts about the game, and I can say I share their sentiments when it came to Zel's second ending. It just came across as very irresponsible to me, even if Lunar kingdom did have the means to neutralize the uprisings easily. Although I adored his first ending, and I'm glad he managed to break out of his shell all for the sake of Charming. It must not have been easy. Really wished Dragon had more screen time. He's (she??) adorable XD And perhaps the backstory on how and why Zel was captured and imprisoned at the tower. Or was it mentioned in the game and I just wasn't paying attention??
Next I played Snow, and while I don't have a penchant for playboy type characters, his character in general was so sweet and thoughtful it made me love him. For some reason, while I did feel a little bit disappointed at his first ending, I appreciated it at the same time. Not every princess has to choose a prince to marry, and Snow giving Charming the chance to choose for herself made me love him even more. And needless to say I adored his second ending and the things that happened in it. His second ending is definitely my favorite of all endings.
Lastly, Mer. I'm gonna be honest and say it's pretty messed up XDDD As a character Mer is really my type of guy (for the most part, if you know what I mean), and I immensely enjoyed his interactions with Charming (particularly that one scene that involved candy, if you know what I mean ;)) Everything was even going so smoothly, the wedding, etc., then *BAM* attempted murder. That sort of caught me off guard. I half expected something along the lines of Charming and Mer finding out what happened to him when he was little and get that curse off of him, which is what happened, just not what I imagined it would be D: And it also felt that his first ending was abrupt. Some people might disagree with me, but I'm actually okay with Charming not breaking the marriage off. Mer did hesitate when he was about to stab Charming, very much like how the original little mermaid attempted to stab her prince only to stop at the last minute because she loved him. Although I'm not quite okay with the second one, for good reasons, lmao.
Also, I kinda wish Nicholl had a route. I enjoyed Charming's banter with him, however short it may be. Also, snarky childhood friend is a perfect otome game character too XD
There isn't a prince that I overly dislike, but Snow definitely claims the throne of my heart XDD Charming is...charming, too, in her own way. I've played way too many otome games where the heroine is a helpless lass in need of saving, and this game portrays the exact opposite, which is refreshing and fun.
Good job on the art! It was gorgeous (it was the art that drew me to this game in the first place), and I love the music and writing too!!
I rate this game a solid 8/10, and as I said above, can't wait to play the full game ^_^
Hey! Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a long comment and for the compliments! <3 We're glad to hear you enjoyed the game overall. Btw, sorry about the late reply! One of the writers is away on vacation, so we had to wait for her response on how to reply to some of your remarks on the route she wrote.
Firstly, about Zel's second ending, we totally understand why you, like a lot of other players, dislike this ending. It is meant to be irresponsible, actually. But when us writers first came up with this idea, we thought this may be a good option to offer to the players because the way we saw it was we can't blame Charmin for running. She's 18, already has the weight of the world on her shoulders, and if she goes back, she'll either have to make Zel give up his dreams (and her passion for adventuring), or never be with the guy he loves while he goes off exploring the world. So we presented this as an option to the players -- you don't HAVE to accept your duties as your princess. Is it the right thing to do? Probably not. Is it selfish and irresponsible? Yes, definitely. But it's understandable, at least to us writers. However, that said, having taken into account the player responses regarding Zel's second ending, we are considering changing it a bit, at least to make it slightly more responsible. xD It's not firm yet, as it highly depends on how the storyline for Zel's route goes, as well as the endings for the other routes.
As for Zel's backstory, it was deliberately omitted because if we give out all the details and answers now, then why would anyone replay the new Zel route in the full game? ;) Same with Snow's route. A lot of the unanswered questions are left deliberately unanswered so we can explore them in the full game instead. Dragon will indeed have a lot more screen time in the full game, since everyone seems to love him so much! :D
Secondly, about Snow, we're glad to hear you liked his character! :D It's funny because Snow was the least favorite character pre-release xD The playboy type really isn't popular in general, apparently. Especially glad to hear that you liked the first ending! We had hoped it wouldn't come across as a bad ending even though you don't end up married to Snow, and we tried for a bittersweet feel, so it's great to hear that it turned out well.
Next, about Mer. Haha Mer's route was definitely inspired by the darker tone of the original fairy tale. Glad to hear you enjoyed his interactions with Charming (for the most part) though! You aren't the only one who's mentioned the attempted murder coming rather suddenly out of nowhere, as well as the abrupt endings, so we will take that into account and hopefully Mer's route in the final game won't be as jarring! For the second ending, it seems like players either love it, or don't quite like it xD We totally understand why you don't like it! Though, as much as we hate to disappoint, the writer of Mer's route would most likely keep Mer's backstory and the endings the same in the full game, only elaborating more and adding more interaction scenes.
Nicholl will indeed have a route in the full game! Originally, he was planned to be a secret 4th route, but we didn't have enough time to go for it T_T He became so popular among fans that we can't not give him his own route in the full game. xD His route... oh man ;) I think y'all are gonna be surprised.
Super happy that you liked Snow and Charming <3 Thank you so much for all the kind words and for trying our game! Hopefully, we won't disappoint with the final version!
DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED THE GAME.
First of all, the art style is amazing! I loved the character designs as well. Also, I'm a huge sucker for cheesy dialogues and flirtatious comments, so I find the VN very well-written.
I decided to go for Mer last, since him being cute and meek during the ball made me think that I was going to enjoy his route the most and I live by the statement "save the best for last." So, I started with Snow, since I tend to get attracted to the seemingly playboy (but really just a big softy on the inside) type and I loved his route! I got the second ending with him first and it might have been my favorite out of all the endings (more explanations later). I proceeded to Zel and got the second ending for him as well. I didn't enjoy it completely, though, because I felt bad when Charming decided to abandon her responsibilities as the princess of the Lunar Kingdom. So, I replayed Zel's route and was very much satisfied when I attained the first ending with him.
Now, let's proceed with Mer. I REALLY REALLY like his character's personality--gentle, sweet, add the fact that he blushes easily (which is a big plus for me) and he's perfect! Well...aside from the fact that he tried to kill me while I was sleeping and it turned out that he was actually not the real Prince Mer. I mean, I knew that there was something suspicious about him from the start and that he wasn't all that he seemed to be, BUT I didn't expect something like this. The whole concept and his backstory is really great, but the ending felt rushed. I felt like Nicholl agreed too quickly to help after learning the fact that he tried to kill Charming. Also, the shift from the heavy conflict to the sudden happy ending felt really unnatural. Then, I got curious about Mer's second ending so I played it again to get it and I just...
I love this game for exceeding my expectations and going out of its way to be a unique otome, but Mer's route somehow left me quite unhappy. I get that the first ending with him was supposed to be the happy one, but after the tumultuous event that occurred right before that, it didn't feel romantic at all. If he didn't turn all batsht crazy, then I think I would have liked his route the most.
(I guess I'm just disappointed, because I wanted Mer's route to be perfect lmao)
Overall, this game deserves an 8/10. I look forward to more of your games! :-)
P.S. Props to the saliva-exchange scene ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Thanks so much for all your comments! We're super happy to hear that you enjoyed the game overall <3
I'm glad you liked Snow! :D Before the release, Snow was actually the least favorite of the princes and I've heard a lot about how the playboys generally aren't the favorites in otomes, so I'm relieved you liked Snow. xD
As for Zel, it is a common feeling among players that they didn't like how Charming decided not to go back to Lunar Kingdom. It -might- be changed somewhat in the future game, but we'll see. It depends on how the storyline goes so... no promises yet! xD
Sorry to hear Mer's route disappointed you, though ;( Mer definitely ended up being... far from meek and gentle, haha. We sadly didn't get to add to it & branch off based on previous choices as much as necessary/wanted due to constrictions on time and word count. Mer's backstory and decisions will stay mostly the same, but hopefully the changes to the story itself will heed your expectations better ;o
Thanks again for your review! We hope you enjoy the expansion overall once it's released!
You're so nice for doing your best to reply to all of our comments :-) I'm definitely excited for the expansion pack and will be waiting for it.
I just finished playing each of the princes through once, and can I say...just wow. (Before I say anything else, I got Mer's first ending, then both Snow and Zel's second endings.)
First off, the art was beautiful. I really look at art style when I decide to read visual novels, especially ones with multiple routes, mainly because I know if I dislike the art style I'll dislike the story as well. But like I said, the art in this was lovely. I applaud the artists.
I'm going to give my honest opinion about the characters and the endings I've unlocked for them. To get Zel out of the way, I saw nothing wrong with him or his story, besides the fact I felt a twang of guilt for Charming's decision to *SPOILER ALERT* not go back to the kingdom to help out with the uprising. That wasn't necessarily a thing I disliked, and I certainly don't blame Charming or Zel for that matter for it. Besides, the second ending was lovely, and so was he. He is definitely the pure cinnamon roll of the group.
Next up is Snow. Ah, I loved him, though I had my doubts about his motives along the way, even up to the end. (Probably since I read Mer's route first and got the first ending. Gosh, that really put me on my guard, but I'll get to that later.) He was super sweet though, and though personally all the boys' backstories made me teary eyed, I felt a special something for Snow's. I truly thought he was going to be a womanizer throughout the story, but instead he turned out to be super duper sweet. Snow was great, truly. To me he's the life after love character I like.
Nowwwwwww...on to Mer, which I probably have to say is my favorite prince. I have a total biased to characters like Mer. When I discovered he couldn't really speak in the beginning, his little acts of kindess and reassurance to Charming, especially during their ball dance made me blush. I squealed though when it came to his oh so charming and sweet messages written on the illusion parchment, and from that moment on he was my favorite, even though I hadn't yet read Snow nor Zel's routes yet. The real only shaky thing for me was his story, however. I love the sense of drama and peril, especially when he almost kills Charming, but it almost seemed to turbulent for me. As well, even after Nicholl somehow figured out a way to save him (which I thought was rushed; it left a hole for me there in the plot, especially since the man tried to kill Charming and then a scene later they're happily married on the throne, everything resolved.) I still don't think Charming's character would still go forth with the marriage. Yes, she is kind, but the man was about to kill her to save his own life, even after declaring love. I'm not saying it's impossible, it just didn't work for me. All in all though, I loved Mer's character, even if his plot was bumpy at times. And don't get me wrong, his writing was MAGNIFICENT! I adore it.
All in all, I give LiD a 7.75/10 rating, and would recommend it to others. I'm going to go back and try to get the other endings. Kudos to the team, and I hope to see more great work in the future!
(Edit: Also, this might be just me, but I would totally pay for a Nicholl route. Like seriously, the childhood friendship romance thing always kills me.)
Okay, this game is officially now an 8.5/10 for me after going through the other endings.
Mer's second ending gave me chills. Absolutely amazing. It also makes up for what I said about the slight confusion of his first ending.
Snow's first ending made me sad but was lovely (even though it was bittersweet) and I enjoyed the honest aspect of it.
Zel's first ending was also great, and I don't have much else to say about it.
I enjoyed all 6 endings of the game, though to unlock some of them I had to pick some options I didn't want to. It was all in the sake of curiosity, though.
Once again, great game.
Hello! Thanks for all your comments regarding Lads in Distress! We're glad you enjoyed the game, and honored you took the time to write up such a long response @_@
Haha, yes, it seems like it's a common feeling about players that Zel is the cinnamon roll. You aren't the only one who felt guilty for not going back to Lunar Kingdom, so it's -possibly- something that will be changed in the expansion depending on how the storyline goes, but it's not certain yet. xD
I'm glad you liked Snow! I really enjoyed writing him as well. I hope you'll continue liking him in the final game! And I'm thrilled you liked the first ending even though it wasn't a romantic end. I really wanted a purely platonic friendship ending in the game and it fit perfectly with Snow's route so I ended up going for it even though I was nervous of feedback, so I'm glad you liked it!
Sorry to hear you didn't enjoy Mer's route as much, though ;o; And yeah, it seems like Mer's route is best to play last (optionally with a repeat of another bachelor's route afterwards), since it does tend to "poison" other routes x'DD Sadly, we didn't get to elaborate as much as we'd liked to have due to time & word count constraints. Hopefully his route will be less jarring for you in the expansion! Haha definitely glad (well, okay, maybe not glad per se) his second ending gave you chills! It's always great to learn that you helped evoke feelings in someone else x') Thanks again for your comments! We hope you enjoy the expansion!
I have mixed feelings about the game so far... I've only played Mer's route's so far, and its taken me a few minutes to process the 2nd route. While its a...different twist on a love story can't really say I'm a fan of it. I like the originality of it and the preciseness of the psychology of the characters in both routes. I am a huge geek when it comes to human behavior and psychology and I really love how realistic the behavior is compare to other "love" stories, but I am also a romanticist and the 2nd route was not my idea of happy ever after xD (lol) but I did really love Mers first route a lot, so it made up for the 2nd route for me. The sprites were beautiful! But, I do wish there were better CG's. Oh, and can I just say the writing was phenomenal! The story line (For Mer at the very least) was beautifully written and well executed. I really enjoyed it so far. I'm really hoping the other two princes are just as good as Mer (The first route version xd). Amazing job!
Awww, we're sorry to hear you didn't enjoy Mer's endings ;( We're glad to hear you liked the route, though! As for the CGs, we have two new CG artists on board, so hopefully their styles suit your tastes more! Regardless, thanks so much for the compliments. We hope you enjoy(ed) the other routes, and we hope you enjoy the expansion! It's unlikely Mer's endings will turn any more romantic, but hopefully they'll be executed in such a way that you find them less disappointing~
Yo~ Good game! The game is beautifully drawn. I particularly liked the details on Charming and Zel. The story is engaging, light, and entertaining. I was kinda shocked about Mer's storyline and it took a few minutes to compose myself but Zel's story made up for it. It was light and fluffy, but it didn't really explain his history very well. Maybe because I only got one ending? I'll try the other soon. ^^
I love Charming in particular. She's fun and sassy, unlike other doormat otoge heroines. What I love about her is that she's likeable despite being bossy and somewhat arrogant.
The story has a lot of potential and you could add a lot more plot in it. I'd love to see Charming's parents' faces someday and the epilogue cg's could use a bit more work, but other than that, excellent job!
Thank you for playing our game, and for the nice comment! We are happy to hear you enjoyed it.
Haha, yes, that reaction to Mer's route seems to be common. It's intended -- each route was supposed to have a different feel/theme to it.
Zel's history is deliberately not explained because as we mentioned in developer's notes section of the game, there will be an expansion of the game released some time in the future. Many plot details and sub plotlines are deliberately withheld from this version of the game because we don't want to stuff too much information into a relatively short NaNo game (especially with the time limit of one month) and have the quality suffer. Moreover, we were trying to give players incentive to replay Mer/Snow/Zel's routes in the expansion. Therefore, much of the history/background/plot regarding these three princes are left out of this game on purpose. Zel's route in particular will have so much more increase in plot in the expansion because there was just no way to fully implement the plot planned for him in this short NaNo version without overloading artists/writers if we want to do it any justice.
Charming's parents will have proper character art in the expansion. Currently, they're silhouettes because of time limits for NaNo. Epilogue CGs will be mostly redone/recolored since we aren't restrained by time limits anymore. Our apologies!
Once again, thank you for playing and for taking the time to leave us a comment!
I can't even tell you how much I appreciated this game. I love that you made the male characters need help, rather than the female. It was so refreshing to have such a strong female lead. Thank you!!
No, thank you for playing our game! We're so happy to hear you enjoyed it :D
Psstt we'll be making an expansion of this game in the future, so if interested, keep an eye out for news on our development blog! Haha
I love every part of this. Zel is absolutely adorable and Mer is magnificent [except that I made a mistake by playing his route at 12:00 midnight. Kudos to the artist, I won't be sleeping for a while.] I'm on Snow's route now. Hopefully, it's sweet enough for me to have sweet dreams. ;) Keep up the good work. Hope to see more VNs in the future.
Hi! Thank you so much for playing our game and for the kind words <3 We're really happy to hear that you enjoyed it.
We will actually be making an expansion of this game, with more routes and more scenes for each current route. If interested, do keep an eye out on our development blog! Haha <3
Windows Defender quarantined the file, saying it has a trojan! I had to delete the file before I even launched the game.
Hey! My apologies for the late reply.
Yeah, we're aware that currently certain AV like BitDefender doesn't like our files. We're not really sure why, but we've run the game files through different AV like McAfee and Avast and Kaspersky a couple times, and they always came back as clean. So my apologies, but there's nothing we can do about it.
It's not BitDefender, it's not "certain AV." It doesn't necessarily suggest trust on your part when you say "We're not really sure why ... There's nothing we can do about it."
In the past three years I've had this computer, your file is the only one that got flagged by Windows Defender (which, I never even knew was running until I downloaded this ZIP).
You should do better than "We know but tough shit lol."
Our apologies, but there really is nothing wrong with our game files. We've run them through multiple AV softwares e.g. Avast, McAfee, Kaspersky, and the files always come back as clean and no detections at all. We even asked one of our team members who is using Windows Defender to test the game once again just to make sure. She downloaded the latest version of the files again from itch.io, ran it, and had no problems at all. Windows Defender did not flag it as a virus. We can assure you that there are no viruses or trojans in the files. We believe it is a false positive, but since your AV flags it as a trojan and you're worried about it, we won't suggest you to whitelist the game or turn off your AV while playing it. Thank you for your interest in the game anyway!
Trojan: Win32/Pocyx.C!cl
FYI