Recent reviews by Darthsuki

Whether you are someone who is interested in creating visual novels, trying to put together a draft character design for a story, or perhaps even a player or dm for a tabletop game needing an avatar for their next adventure, this program might be something worth looking into.

Though it's currently early in development and doesn't have much beyond the most basic of items common within classic school/college setting visual novels, the potential for Mannequin is absolutely fantastic. The creator has kept frequent communication both on their twitter as well as the discussion threads of this program--and there seems to be a lot more content in the future, and that's not even getting into the fact that it will be getting items via the steam workshop, which had just opened up as per the last update.

I appreciate programs, especially character creators, that offer flexibility for users. Considering the amount of care given to one's ability to create something--from style to color, size and position of individual features--I am extremely excited to see what else Mannequin will offer in the future. Also, a very important aspect to note is that this program renders its characters via SVG/vectors instead of raster layers/features, which means they can be (technically) infinitely sized up for whatever super-HD-quality needs you might have. I also like that, technically, it means that exported character files can also be tweaked via your personal vector-based software of choice (such as Inkscape or Illustrator).

I will admit there is a lack of male or masculine-oriented items and features, but it seems that the developer is aware of it and is currently working to add more content in. With that said, current and possible future features taken into account, this is an extrordinary program and certainly earns a test run if nothing else--check out the free version on the itch.io page and see for yourself if you agree!

I just finished playing this game and I have some good as well as bad things to say. To be upfront on my mindset going in: I'm a fairly longtime homestuck fan, and have enjoyed a lot of the franchise for several years now. To say that I was looking forward to this game was an understatement, as I'm sure can be said about a lot of other people! However, as much as I was looking forward to this game and making sure to go into playing it with a fair mindset, there are a lot of things that need fixing for an episodic game that we've waited 5 YEARS for with each part to the game being 8 USD a pop.


The visuals are absolutely beautiful! I love how unique they look, yet so close to the original comic we all know and love. I like the detail put into all of the backgrounds, animations and thensome, there was obviously love put into them.

The music is equally beautiful and served quite a bit to keep the flow of the story 'feeling' the way it should. The music was tense when needed, happy when it needed, uplifting when needed. I never found myself feeling odd or off with the choice of tune while I was pulling my hair out for the various little riddles or battling a local beast.

The characters are nice! I like the fact that the cast is entirely new, with the occasional throwback or reference to the older characters we know and love. The two human and troll characters, despite being introduced within a 2-hour game, have some sense of uniqueness to their design, and the good writing that accompanies them helps to flesh them out into quirky, lovable characters. I'm interested in seeing their progression through the story


The depth of the game itself isn't good. Many times while playing did I find myself outright bored with what was going on--I felt like it would have been far more entertaining to just WATCH all the characters interact rather than trying to pick apart a riddle that, really, shouldn't have taken more than a few seconds to figure out. Instead of enjoying the silliness of the character's adventures through this game like I had with the characters of Homestuck, I found myself begrudgingly wasting fifteen minutes of my life for something that was so out-of-the-way that I don't understand how there weren't more hints to help me figure it out.

Imagine being on a road, and it's going in a very specific direction. Sure, there are cool stuff you'd love to do and investigate, but they're all off the road and you are absolutely not allowed to do that. You can appreciate from a distance all of those cool things, but you have a specific path you have to follow, which quickly depreciates a lot of possible fun when you realize that road is this game. You have little to no options other than the ones you are given--where I was imagining the battle system to be something like Pokemon (turn-based with a fair bit of choice) you get absolutely none of that, and yet it's still tagged as an RPG? No. This is a very linear game that gives you little-to-no options outside of the designated path programmed in it. Linear games can be great, don't get me wrong! Just don't lie and make it look like you are giving the player options and variety when you really are not. This game has the same branching story options as the Homestuck webcomic did: none.

There was no sense of appreciation or pride whenever I got through a challenging bit--more akin to a feeling of relief after you've finally finished all of your homework and want nothing more than to rip it to shreds so you don't have to keep looking at it and the countless minutes you've wasted on something that was stupidly difficult for no reason whatsoever than to make you take more time figuring it out.

Bugs. So many. Bugs. Whether it was the buttons not working or the screen of the game going askew and bugging out, there was no shortage of bugs. I shall remind you that this game took FIVE YEARS of development, and the first visual bug is on the OPENING SCREEN. For a game that has taken this long, cost 8 US dollars for only a less-than-2-hour experience (it personally took me about 1 hour and 45 minutes), this is absolutely unacceptable, especially for such a high-profile game from a very successful webcomic. Images below (if they work) are just a few examples of the visual bugs I'm talking about.

Image 1[i.gyazo.com]
Image 2[i.gyazo.com]



I wouldn't buy the game in its current state. Don't get me wrong, it looks and sounds beautiful, but that doesn't alone make a good game. Homestuck was perfect for the webcomic format, and I feel like Hiveswap could have also been a great webcomic, but it was ramshakled and forced into the videogame medium. It's not horrible (there are plenty of worse games on steam) but I don't personally think it's good enough at this state to be worth a play unless you are absolutely dedicated to consume every bit of Homestuck-related media you can get your hands on.

I would wait until all of the acts come out in case the bugs actually get fixed and the bundle price is more reasonable for the amount of gameplay you get.

Overall, I think this game is adorable. It has a story that it set out to tell for the seven different dateable dad characters (happening in tangent to a plot with your daughter as she gets closer to the end of her High School career), and it did very well to tell that story. The art is well-done, the humor is on point without being overly stupid.

As a queer trans man, I like the simple, but meaningful depth there was put into the game not only to include the ability to play as a trans dad, but also having the open (but again, simple!) option of having a past relationship with a man or a woman (who is Amanda's other father or mother). No great attention is paid to these details, and they don't add or detract anything to the game, but the fact that care was taken to include them was a nice nod to the fanbase this game seemed to appeal to.

It took me about ~2 hours to do one playthrough (admittedly, I wasn't speed-running, but actively talking about my experience with others, so it was a little slow), but I imagine that most people would want to romance all of the options at some point. For the worth of the game, I think 15 is just a smidge too high, especially since I would have loved a lot more depth given to each of the dads, but it's otherwise a fair price for a simple, memorable game that is by far one of the better and more genuine dating sims I've played in years.