My Best (Magical) Friend! by spotco

[raw]
made by spotco for LD34 (JAM)
My Best (Magical) Friend!

A very japanese visual novel about friendship, trust and cool magical powers.

Arrow keys + Z/Space

By:
SPOTCO @spotco programming, story, writing
hinerz @swaggerzaki programming (only a little bit), writing, japanese culture contributor
kcanaga @kcanaga art

Ratings

Coolness 75% 2
Overall(Jam) 3.86 102
Fun(Jam) 3.56 207
Graphics(Jam) 4.37 77
Humor(Jam) 3.39 180
Innovation(Jam) 2.95 646
Mood(Jam) 3.90 90
Theme(Jam) 2.76 998

Feedback

Jeroen Kappé
14. Dec 2015 · 21:41 UTC
fun
inbetweengames
17. Dec 2015 · 23:46 UTC
Can't run in chrome :(
simon.parzer
18. Dec 2015 · 00:21 UTC
"The content was stopped because a fatal content error was detected"
Yazara
18. Dec 2015 · 00:39 UTC
Classic, well crafted japanese adventure! Nice, haven't seen something like this in a game jam before.
Aaranos
18. Dec 2015 · 01:03 UTC
Despite the obvious tropes I found myself continuing down the story more and more. I think it's a good visual novel / choose your own adventure.
ThreeLivesGames
18. Dec 2015 · 01:04 UTC
Super fun! The characters were all super cute! Great job!
beetracks
18. Dec 2015 · 02:42 UTC
Nice drawings!
nihilaleph
18. Dec 2015 · 02:46 UTC
Pro:
+ Super cute and fun story
+ Great art work and music
+ Impressive amount of work
+ Really cool interface
Con:
- It was a bit unclear when it was a decision moment, in my first run I had to restart because I didn't think I couldn't go back
Obs:
o Some lines appeared even though it didn't make sense with my choices (e.g. I didn't help Mana-chan but still it's mentioned that she called my name)
o The honorific suffixes sometimes didn't feel consistent (e.g. I did see one Ms. suddenly)

Awesome work!
doitle
18. Dec 2015 · 22:28 UTC
Awesome game! I'm amazed you guys were able to create so much in the short time period. The story is pretty good, there's a lot of cool art and a pretty "novel" graphic novel engine. I haven't played one quite like this before. I also almost feel like this could be interpreted as an allegory for the over-utilization of Antibiotics in first world countries.
Xgor
18. Dec 2015 · 22:35 UTC
Very nice game with Charming artwork and writing. The story is pretty generic anime affair but that's just kinda adds to the charm (Bit too much emoticons for my taste though). I wasn't expecting that kinda of lentgh for the game either as this is the longest game I played this for this jam.
One thing that bugged me was the choppy text print out, It would be better if it printed out one letter at a time or one word at a time. (Also some feedback sound effect when you move in the menues and when you change dialoge would have been nice)
FireSlash
19. Dec 2015 · 08:55 UTC
It's rare to see a VN in LD.

Judging one is also a bit tough, as there's a lot of writing to do, and little time to do it.

The biggest things that stood out to me were the basics. The font was hard to read, the text appear would wrap mid-word (I'm guilty of this in my own game, so I can't reeeally dock you for this), and the moving text boxes are a bit tiresome when doing a lot of reading.

The writing also felt a bit stiff, but this isn't surprising given the amount of time that was available.

Overall very impressed with sheer content quantity and general quality of what was given. I would strongly encourage you to make a post-jam version of this and polish it up.
Crowbeak
19. Dec 2015 · 08:58 UTC
This is not working in my browser (which is Firefox). I was extremely disappointed that the Windows link also just linked to the browser version.
🎤 spotco
19. Dec 2015 · 09:17 UTC
The download version is at the bottom of the page.
loxo
19. Dec 2015 · 09:31 UTC
Overall great entry! I like the story, the artwork and the audio very much. Especially the rough backgrounds are nice. It's great to play for a change such a calming game.
zenmumbler
19. Dec 2015 · 10:23 UTC
I'm not very familiar with VN style stories but I found it a bit odd how the main character being mostly a busybody grew friendship with the pink haired one, …though I've seen enough "normal" Japanese series in which characters also acted in rather indeterminate ways, so I guess it's J-canon.

Graphical production values were very high and there were a lot of scenes (though I did not finish it all.) Well crafted.
justinooncx
19. Dec 2015 · 10:32 UTC
Very nice art! I can't comment on the story, since I haven't finished it yet, but otherwise it looks really polished.
oz2mura
19. Dec 2015 · 11:21 UTC
Definitely my favorite! Love the background art, character designs. The music really set the mood so well with each scene. Really liked how each segment is short and sweet, and the ability to make choices-- even regret choices that you can't go back on, made me realize how much it matters. Writing is really well done, and I felt that the theme of growing was about growing a friendship.

Got the good end, got chills. Plan on playing again to see the other different endings and segments. Thanks for making this, hope to see more like this from you guys!
MemoryLeek
19. Dec 2015 · 11:24 UTC
Any chance of exporting a Linux version? I really wanna try this, but the HTML5 version won't work for me :(
JustASHadow
19. Dec 2015 · 11:29 UTC
This is so legit
Auroz
19. Dec 2015 · 11:30 UTC
Very fun little game :)
MemoryLeek
19. Dec 2015 · 11:46 UTC
Please disregard my comment, the HTML5 version works good on my desktop :)
MemoryLeek
19. Dec 2015 · 12:25 UTC
Just played through the game and reached the good ending :)
Great game, great art, great music, makes for a really good mood.
Only problem is I want more of it.
For example, I would like to know who is sending those alert messages, is there maybe a a darker plot behind that as well? :D
Crowbeak
20. Dec 2015 · 05:20 UTC
Glad I checked back, because I really enjoyed this. The art is lovely and I particularly like the visible scene choice tree. Between that and some of the nodes being locked, it felt like a cross between VN and point and click adventure.
Wolve
20. Dec 2015 · 12:22 UTC
omg, me and Mana are like totes BFF's
Even tho it's absolutely not my type of game, I did enjoy it for a while
You truly are a Japanese guy born in a Chinese body
Galvesmash
20. Dec 2015 · 18:56 UTC
I loved the art style, but the characters could've been a little more detailed.
i liked the story paths.