Alright, time for a review of Tickle Mansion!
ANIMEWATCHER'S TICKLE MANSION REVIEW
Now, let me say that I know already this was a side project, and was testing out ideas that were new to you, Screamer. I've already taken that into account. I did enjoy it somewhat. Good story premise, one I could definitely relate to (though my parents didn't send me off to some special resort - I just had shitty sessions with my psychologist). I DID like your character's having such interesting personalities.
Neige was my fav because she felt the most solid - a tickle lover that stuck to her sharp and sarcastic tongue throughout the novel. The other characters (ok, maybe not the Suzuka), just felt tacked on unfortunately. Why would I say this when I enjoyed (to certain degrees) their problems and personalities?
They all just didn't click, and this is probably due to how short the novel is. Noriko was the "pure", Bible reading well-raised girl. Akari was the military family girl. Himeji was the...eccentric...girl. But their personalities were crazy, particularly Akari and Himeji.
I like Akari with her red hair and eyes - tends to be a weakness of mine - but then she opened her mouth and was all military speak 24/7. That just seemed too forced.
Noriko was too polite and happy-wappy right from the start. It was grating how super happy and kind she was to begin with, and that's probably my fault because I had done Katawa Shoujo a few months ago and Lilly just set the bar to this type of girl SO HIGH that no one will be able to touch her.
Himeji was insane, the comedic relief kind of insane, and of course definitely stood out. I do give you props for giving her a split personality, but I REALLY wish there was more given for her and her "normal" self.
And Kunieda - well she played the shy maid ok, but quite frankly she is forgettable too because she doesn't have an ending lol.
Their problems arrived to quickly and were discovered/dealt with too fast. I mean you really only get one scene when you find out and decide to both get your fetishes on with each other. I was really disappointed that the game quickly ended soon after that.
Characters like this NEED time to flesh out. I finished each route in...let's go with 10 minutes tops; maybe just a few once I saved right before the final choices. That's not enough time for anything - you meet, greet, eat, and then only have a couple choices before you hit an ending (or Game Over). If you ever decide to do a VN as your primary project, remember that length is KEY. It took me WEEKS to go through one Fate Stay Night route, and I LOVED it - each character was fleshed out, each caress and kiss meant something, every risky situation had me on the end of my seat, and each bad moment had me furious at those who hurt my favorite characters. I grew with the characters and got to know them on personal levels.
One final thing, choices. A Visual Novel is all about branching paths and choices. Regrettably, Tickle Mansion falls short on this. Why? Because nothing you choose matters before the last choices in the game. The car ride? Doesn't matter. Who you first meet? Doesn't matter. The questions you ask? Doesn't matter. What matters is when Neige strips down to her lingerie and goes out to claim a girl - that's when you get good or bad endings. It defeats the purpose of the rest of the novel, sadly, when everything you did before means 0. If there was a "give the middle finger" option, I could've chosen that again and again and still gotten the happy endings lol. Coding something like this will take a lot of time, but it has to be done right - each option needs to count to help determine what path/ending you get.
So in closing, Tickle Mansion is a good side-project and does show you thinking differently. It was a nice breather for me, and one I definitely won't discourage. However, the length needs to be a LOT longer - like - SIGNIFICANTLY longer. This will help really show the personalities and crazy traits your characters have. And choices throughout the novel need to affect the story and endings rather than just what different lines of text you get. Good first try at a VN though none the less 🙂