LudumData

Reincarnation Express by Xlores Liang

[raw]
made by Xlores Liang for Ludum Dare 53 (JAM)

logo1.png

All by myself in 48h, though. Switched to Jam since the AIGC.

:star:Link to Itch.io which might be a little more stable html version::star:

https://xlores-liang.itch.io/reincarnation-express1

A 5-minute branched visual novel. 4 endings in total.

In a world of sword and magic, where wars spread over the land, you are a courier of the hell. The job is to deliver the dead souls into reincarnation.

Respect their feelings. Hear their stories.

Get to understand and deride the huge metaphor of this world.

Then, wake up in the pallid small bedroom again and again.

Please read the spoilers below if the endings felt too unreasonable to you.

なんかの裏設定　です！

I have to apologize that I should have done better to interpret these ssettings in the gameplay. As a compensate, I made these summarized spoilers here.

(search “hex to str” to decrypt):

3 dead souls are 【646966666572656e742065676f73206f6620746865206769726c】: 【756e66756c66696c6c6564206c6f7665】, 【7374727567676c696e67206461696c79206c696665】 and 【7761737465642074616c656e74】.

The courier and the hell 【6973206120647265616d】, 【696e207768696368207368652063616e206465636964652077686f20736865206973】.The world is 【73657474696e6773206f6620746865206d616e6761206d616e75736372697074】.

:star: Please rate and comment at the bottom of the page! Thank you! :star:

Some transparent effects and sound effects are problematic in the web version. Windows downloadable is slightly recommended since those improvements are not very obvious.

屏幕截图 2023-05-01 041314.png

屏幕截图 2023-05-01 045056.png

屏幕截图 2023-05-01 050803.png

Supporting English & 简体中文.

Part of materials generated by Stable Diffusion, Anything V4.5 Model & [LORA]Flat_Color.

Also, :pointdown: Please get my game "Grimm of the Dome" FREE on Steam! :pointdown:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2354730

Link https://xlores-liang.itch.io/reincarnation-express1
Link https://xlores-liang.itch.io/reincarnation-express1
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/53/reincarnation-express

Ratings

Overall 499th 3.655⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Fun 860th 3.119⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 871th 3.024⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Theme 826th 3.646⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 376th 4.012⭐ 43🧑‍⚖️
Audio 556th 3.226⭐ 44🧑‍⚖️
Humor 887th 2.566⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Mood 367th 3.788⭐ 42🧑‍⚖️
Given 37🗳️ 65🗨️

Feedback

LDJam user 280509
01. May 2023 · 12:10 UTC
I seemed to have left too many disattractions in the script, making the endings look very weird if players cannot get the basic metaphor of the characters.

The "truth" of the delivery was only hinted at the start and the end.

I should have sticked more on the idea and given more hints during the middle of the gameplay. And there should have been some skipping button since it's multi-branched.
MikoziQ
01. May 2023 · 12:12 UTC
I'm not really a fan of visual novels as games, but I gotta say you have a nice narration! I've also went back to your previous entry and saw that you sort-of specialize in this. It's good that you try to get better and things you're already good at :heart:

Curiosity question: can you be more specific to what was made by Stable Diffusion? I believe there will be people asking you on why you used AI-generated tools for COMPO entry. :slight_smile: I honestly don't mind, but just giving a headsup :sweat_smile:
LDJam user 280509
01. May 2023 · 12:58 UTC
@mikoziq One emotionless portrait of each character were generated by SD. Didn't try to count on AI to make precise emotional face expressions.

And all parts of the backgrounds were generated by SD. AI works better to generate scenes by little parts and then put them together, rather than letting AI do the whole thing.
MikoziQ
01. May 2023 · 13:03 UTC
Thanks for clarifying!

And True to that, I am still a bit novice in SD stuff though, but I'll probably use a bit more in my personal projects as well now.
43t4re
01. May 2023 · 13:21 UTC
Lack of skip and return to start if press space during transion are super annoying.
LDJam user 300143
01. May 2023 · 13:33 UTC
love the art! is it ai? also gorgeous narrative
Jajo
01. May 2023 · 14:43 UTC
wow, got ending 1/4 surprisingly darker than I was expected. Nicely done.
Papaya
01. May 2023 · 14:56 UTC
I played through the gam twice yet I still don't understand what really happened LOL. I wonder if you can link an explanation to the description (put it in a link so no spoilers). Also I noticed that the blue haired girl is 16 in english version, 24 in chinese version. But overall a fantastic entry, loved the character dialogs! I made a story/visual novel game for this LD as well.
LDJam user 280509
01. May 2023 · 15:25 UTC
@papaya Thanks for pointing out the typo, 24 was correct considering the (actually half-way added) hidden character settings.

And I'll add the spoiler to the description. Nice idea since the game did not interpret this very well.

(search "hex to str" to decrypt):

3 dead souls are 646966666572656e742065676f73206f6620746865206769726c: 756e66756c66696c6c6564206c6f7665, 7374727567676c696e67206461696c79206c696665 and 7761737465642074616c656e74.

The courier and the hell 6973206120647265616d, 696e207768696368207368652063616e206465636964652077686f20736865206973.

The world is 73657474696e6773206f6620746865206d616e6761206d616e75736372697074.
Frogman
01. May 2023 · 17:47 UTC
Nice game! I liked the core concept, and the twist at the final location was pretty cool. The writing was quite good as well. The graphics were very nice too - however, I'm pretty sure AI generated art is not allowed in the Compo according to the [event page](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/53) (see the last note), but it is fine in the Jam and Extra categories, so I suggest switching to one of them. Also, I didn't really get the spoilers that you added, but I guess it's because I don't know the manga you mentioned. Still, the story worked for me even without the spoilers. Overall, great game!
Xwilarg
01. May 2023 · 19:48 UTC
Really nice story and art, I only did 1 ending because it's a bit tedious without a skip button (I tried to play again but press something? by mistake and restarted the game)

Also the VN engine is a bit glitchy, so it's a bit annoying to read

I had to use the hex to str tool and yeah I probably wouldn't have guess that point without it but I think it's a pretty cool analogy
Fiinrii
01. May 2023 · 21:07 UTC
Loved the art, especially the red haired girl, only played once due to lack of a skip button.
GreatCadet
02. May 2023 · 03:09 UTC
Cool idea. I only ended up releasing one of the girls then stopping, because the game was really laggy for me, that's probably just my computer though. I really like the idea of telling a story like that through a game like this, though I wish there was a little more interaction, because the majority of the game was just clicking and reading text. I had fun playing regardless though! Keep up the good work!
LDJam user 359614
02. May 2023 · 04:51 UTC
i got 4/4 ending, but i didn't make it to read it.
whywhy
02. May 2023 · 06:35 UTC
sometimes when i press space if flickers next line before printing it letter by letter

Pretty cool world! love the soul of the characters!
whywhy
02. May 2023 · 06:46 UTC
also how did you make your itch headder say its ludum dare submission
LDJam user 280509
02. May 2023 · 13:45 UTC
@whywhy When editing the game on Itch I typed "ludum dare 53" in the "tag" field, and there will be an extra field showing up below requiring you to provide the ludum dare submission link. That's all of it.
Fluburbio
02. May 2023 · 16:54 UTC
Good luck for your job hunt, I hope it'll go well!
I had a really good time, I love the concept of a 5 minute visual novel that you can play several times to get different endings. Great use of the theme, and I enjoyed the story and characters. I like being able to select the character I want to talk to by walking to them, that with the nice parallax scrolling add a lot to the game.
I played the web version since I'm using a Mac, and the transitions between each lines of dialogues were indeed a bit rough.
Gary the Enchanter
03. May 2023 · 02:13 UTC
That was an interesting story. I think you did a fine job conveying the actual story, I didn't find it too vague.
One minor improvement: it would be nice if I could skip through the dialogue rather than having to wait for it to type out in its entirety, cause it's a little repetitive when you want to see the other endings.
Stellarr2
04. May 2023 · 13:23 UTC
I don't play many visual novels, but I like the story. I didn't catch on it the first time, so I had to check the spoilers. The theme fits the game, but it's definitely not as direct as other games in the jam, it still fits well. The art is nice, seeing that you didn't opt out of the graphics that means you made the art yourself. It caught my eye right away and I'm glad I checked your game. The music is alright, sets a somber and calm mood for the game that fits it very well. I wish it was easier to skip dialogue since it does take some time to go out of hell and to the destinations. Overall, great game, especially considering it was made in 3 days. Choosing to make a visual novel was a good choice to make time to focus on the creative aspects of the game. Nice job :)
Bullex
04. May 2023 · 13:24 UTC
I was a pleasure to play. I've never was into anime styled games but this one really sucked me in. Have only discovered 1 of 4 endings
volcanoeyes
04. May 2023 · 13:27 UTC
Nice story. Cool that you have Chinese support. I played it through once in Chinese to practice my Chinese and once in English to enjoy the story.
Tsumry
04. May 2023 · 13:31 UTC
I think the visual novel is very beautiful. Highlighting the different character types is well done both in the artwork and in the dialogue. What bothered me was that I couldn't skip the dialogue to get to the other endings. It would be nice if that could be added, otherwise I am very impressed :)
kanity
04. May 2023 · 13:50 UTC
I really loved your story, invested the time to get all the endings. Art is stunning, the characters are really pretty. Your explanation clarified a lot, since I took the events of the game at the face value (it didn't make the game unreasonable for me though, I just interpreted it differently). I just wish there was an option to skip the text I already read before since I had to go through it four times, and that each ending had some additional content (maybe a CG, but I understand you were short on time, so maybe a few additional lines of dialogue or something of that effect). Overall, it was a great experience!
Batisdark
04. May 2023 · 16:24 UTC
I felt like I skipped dialogues, because when I pressed space there was something flikering on background, but story felt fine, so maybe it was just same dialog popping (too fast to see). Would love option to speed/skip them though, hunting for another ending while knowing most of the dialogues was stunted with unability to skip stuff.

Story is nice, interesting characters. And a bit insight of the world too. Neat game for sure!
Zefphyer
05. May 2023 · 01:50 UTC
I like it! Inez was my favorite. Although I definitely didn't get the subtext until I translated the spoilers. I would have liked more to the endings, as well. Art style is excellent even if AI generated. Was a little tedious to get all four endings especially with space restarting. Themes were great though, I like games focusing on those themes.
Francis
08. May 2023 · 05:31 UTC
Interesting story! Not sure how I feel about rating AI art alongside other art made from scratch, so opting to just not rate you on graphics. It was fun to learn more about the characters and the world, however I didn't quite catch onto the subtext behind it until I read your spoilers. Like others have said, having ability to skip text would've been very much appreciated.
Rakowu
08. May 2023 · 18:34 UTC
3/4 ending, does that mean there are 4 endings?

I find the story very interesting. A bit more interaction would have made it more dynamic. I find the art very beautiful.
N0va
19. May 2023 · 22:43 UTC
The art is beautiful, one of the endings was unexpected and interesting and I personally found it quite enjoyable to replay for the other endings, but a skip button or function would have been nice. Nonetheless GG C: