Eternal dream

I finished playing!

(at least up until meeting the character that we have to name and ending the first day. I am too much of a coward to put Nobody's file into the system 32 folder, so I was unable to go to day 2)

Unfortunately, I lost a large chunk of the recording when Nobody shut down the computer, and because the game re-launched in full screen, my capture software did not actually capture anything more than my voice and my VTuber model for many minutes. So, when Misha goes back to sleep and wakes up in the void... I didn't end up with any video to show viewers.

I don't think either of these things would have been a problem if I had been streaming the game live, but having missing/messed up video files ruins the entire video and I don't know if I can do anything to fix it.

(You may want to make it so Nobody only closes the game instead, if you want people to be able to record it)

I won't be able to upload a gameplay video to YouTube with so many missing parts. I am so sorry 😭. I had been looking forward to uploading a playthrough... instead I am going to try to make a review video.

Now for the actual review: 

Eternal Dream has a very interesting concept. I did enjoy the cozy, slice of life stuff at the beginning. However, I think that it does go on a little too long. You could probably cut out some sections of dialogue to make the beginning section a little shorter. But it was still a lot of fun to see Misha, Kesha and Petya spend time together and act like kids. I really enjoyed their dynamic, and I thought they were funny. 

I also liked the little detail of how Misha is always sleepy. It made the fact that things happen in his dreams a lot more interesting and realistic. It also made the twist in the dream even stranger. 

Meeting Nobody, however, was incredibly terrifying. Even though I knew some of what would happen, I felt scared. I was worried for the state of my computer, and that entire section of the game was unsettling. It was also a lot of fun to find things in the game files and to mess with them. Even if I am too scared to do everything that the game instructed me to do.

The art was also wonderful. You have a very appealing style, and I liked the character designs and the backgrounds a lot. I can see the amount of love you put into this game.

Eternal Dream has a lot of potential. With some polishing of the translation, and perhaps some changes in dialogue, this could be an incredible horror visual novel. I can see the amount of time and effort you put into programming the game.

Although I do hope it is a bluff that the game might harm the player's computer. That thought is still terrifying and not very nice at all.

So long as that is a bluff, I could certainly see Eternal Dream gaining a following of players. It has the potential to become a very popular meta horror visual novel. 

Even if I was, ultimately, unable to upload a gameplay video... I am very happy you asked me to play your game. I wish you a lot of success with your programming. 

I finished playing and here's my honest thoughts ~

Definitely an interesting concept! But it certainly could use some polish.

While I know the second half is probably considered "more important" than the first half, I honestly enjoyed the slice of life aspects more than the second. I enjoyed the relatability of friends going to school, just hanging out, and being kids. It has a very nostalgic appeal. Even if the children did sound older than first graders (I imagined them more as preteens honestly), I still was able to get a good sense of their personalities and I found their relationships to be entertaining. It was a pleasure getting to know them.

However the second half ... It was definitely more "tell" than "show". I found it odd that Misha was just talking to himself the entire time. I might have enjoyed it more had Petya and Kesha been there with him, so he'd have someone to talk to. We'd get more of the character interaction as opposed to just Misha narrating his thoughts/feelings. And then it also started to break the fourth wall and was literally "talking at the player" in the form of lectures and trolling ... which I get what it's trying to do, but I just didn't find it all that interesting and entertaining honestly.

That's more just my personal preference though. Now in regards to my overall thoughts ...

In terms of the positive, I like the unique art style. And especially the composition of the scenery. Like I said I enjoyed the characters, I felt like we got a good grasp of their individual personalities. I enjoyed some of the point and click aspects, I honestly wish there was more of that.

My biggest constructive criticism is that the writing definitely needs more polish. Even ignoring the obvious issue of things getting lost in translation ... The pacing was a little slow even for a slice of life, because there was a lot of "Hmm ..." "Umm ..."s accompanied with short choppy sentences that felt like they were only there to take up space. As a result it became really repetitive and tedious to read. Remember when you're writing that every sentence needs to be done with purpose. Whether it's to present the reader with new information, create a sense of personality and character depth, or move the story forward. I feel all of this was present, but the reader has to manually sift through the useful bits of dialogue/narration from the lines that are just there to fill space and aren't really doing anything on their own.

If you don't polish it, readers (aside from those you ask to play/for their opinions such as myself) may not be immersed and invested enough in the story to get to that surprise twist ending. Which is, I assume, the main goal.

So my advice would be, if you're looking to improve, definitely go over the lines of narration/dialogue and sort out what moves the story forward and what is there to just to fill space: repeating information the reader is already aware of or doesn't really need to know in order to get a grasp of the bigger picture. As one will hook your readers, the others may cause them to lose interest before they can get to the punchline. I don't think think this story needs to be as long and lecture-heavy as it was to get the point across. Had the treasures been sifted out of the clutter, this story could have easily been cut in half without losing any essential storytelling aspects.

Though like I said, from a personal perspective, I would've liked the story more without with the twist ending. I think the slice of life elements were better executed as they were shown to us, not just told in the form of long-winded monologues and lectures.

I wanted to let you know that I think this is an interesting game so far! I will give you my full thoughts when I finish playing it.

(but I also wanted to let you know that my plans for getting the video out this week have been pushed back. Likely I will have the video out sometime next week. Thank you again for asking me to play it, too.)

I hope you don't mind some constructive criticism on your game.  I tried to play it but I am not sure if it's because of the translation from Russian to English was by an ai or by a human but the translation doesn't make any sense in English.  The game really needs a human touch to translate it properly if you used AI or google translator.  

Also, there are certain things about the game that really need some fine tuning before it's properly released such as some of the dialogue went on forever on the same topic and didn't seem to go anywhere example: the discussion about breakfast revolving pie.  Normally I love pie but spending 20 minutes reading about the characters talking about pie was not interesting.  

The game just toke a very long time to get to anything interesting and no horror was to be found and the game seemed to drag on forever.  I do hope you don't take this in a bad way but if I were you, I would seriously take your game down edit and re-write it to be more engaging and then make sure it's properly translated before uploading it.  If you are proud of something work hard on it for days, weeks or months and then once it's perfect or in your eyes perfect than release it for the world to play. :)  

But I did enjoy the art style it's very quirky and maybe explain on your page a bit of the story so people can understand what is going on in this town, so we feel more connected to the characters and their life as currently I just felt kind of lost.  Every good story has a background not just on the characters but on what is happening to them and what this element of horror maybe about. :)

Really cool ideas, cute art style, love the meta horror elements that made me go through my game files to get rid of "him" and make progress . Since the game has been translated from Russian, some conversation elements may be confusing in English, and the "inside game files" stuff is a bit complicated to follow through, but is definitely super interesting when you do figure out what you have to do!

Attached below is a live stream walk-through of the game with the creator in the chat! :)

❤️❤️❤️