Sounds and animation were great, the story may have been a bit hard for me to follow, but I think I did. Which gives that “maybe” blur that isn’t too bad either
We love. We grow. We enjoy ourselves. Sometimes, when we exist solely to fulfill the needs of shadowy men in a war room, a hug shared between two becomes the strongest act of resistance of all.
I hold you, my body engulfs you with the warmth of my love. No army can tear us apart. This is what it means to fight.
Loved this so so much.... Extremely comforting vibes while capturing the feeling of leading an uncertain yet ordinary existence in a scary world (and sisterly yearning)...the characters all felt wonderful to spend time with as well. Will be thinking about this for a long time.
I paid for the support and I haven't received any email, I hope if the support has been able to arrive because the page is weird, I will try the game I hope the team goes ahead :D
A group of friends and I spent five or six hours across a weekend reading out loud back and forth with one another a while ago. The vastness with which the story was able to go as it progressed, as well as the art's support of such with Mentha's expressive characters is something I really appreciated, and helped me feel the world inside of me even weeks later. I enjoyed the quirks of storytelling and programming used in the NVL sections, particularly combined with the ending. This plus the animated backgrounds and text gave a mysterious horror flare to everything that I particularly love this medium's accentuation of. Each character's personality really shined and I never felt like anyone was looked over. In addition, it helped strike a good balance with tone. Maillard's scenes were definitely the ones I was laughing out loud the most throughout the story, but even the soldiers were great—and just so cute! The game's music and SFX worked great with the ambience, and I'm glad it was posted onto Bandcamp so it could be listened to outside of the context of the game casually while drawing or reading. If there were any complaints I had, it was only the occasional typo, the inability for all of the backgrounds to have been drawn, and a desire for more—if the last can be considered such. Hello Girl is a lot of fun, and playing through it is super inspiring to see people you've been following for a long time putting out their best creation yet. I'm glad you guys were able to work so well as a group to make this. Thank you.
really incredible from start to finish. lovely music and art, some of the best use of the VN as a medium i’ve ever seen. narrative details do a fantastic job of implying complexity in the world and the characters and their interactions are written with obvious sincere love and an intoxicatingly unique vision. only downside is i really desperately want more from this team – but thats a problem that (hopefully) solves itself with time!
I was very surprised by this VN, both by the length and quality, it ended up being so incredibly good that I finished it all in one day instead of pacing myself like I usually do.
Props to the audio and visual editing, every single sound effect put me right there in the setting, and all the clicks and static and stuff was perfect. Same for the backgrounds and sprites and every effect regarding the dreams and the start of the game.
As for the writing and the characters, that was also fantastic. I actually really like that so much is left to interpretation. That despite all the confusing and weird stuff that happened, what Ana and Courier needed was to be with each other instead of going off and fulfilling their weird destiny with Rabbit Zero. In that way, I really like how different Yuno is to them, as someone who's willing to take on the role and go have that particular story somewhere else.
I had such a fantastic time playing this, and I'm really looking forward to whatever this team might make in the future.
i've always called her millard, or mallard (like the duck) in my head. im not sure if there is a correct way to pronounce it. i would say any pronunciation is valid!
Insanely well written and probably my favourite VN on itch. Dialogue reads so naturally & the narrative so strongly shows rather than tells. Really using the VN medium like you're supposed to goddamn brother. Loved the dual narrative of what's going on with the main character and the fuzzy background of Rabbit Zero. I noticed some people complaining on the vagueness of the Rabbit Zero portion but it didn't bug me whatsoever and I felt that it was more a catalyst for the character relations to build off while having it's own implications too. LOVED the music too, excellent guitarist & musicianship applied to have tracks that made contextual sense in every way. AWESOME SHIT!!!!!AUGGHGFGF222
I love how Courier's theme song is just a guitar cover of "Lazy Day Blues", which is pretty funny to me. I wonder if this is just a coincidence that Courier knows the other Courier from the other game.
Ah sorry i didn't know, I thought it was a cover by how it almost sounds the same. But nonetheless I still love courier blues, when the first time i heard it i was immediately captivated by how good it sounds and has been smiling nonstop when it plays!
not at all! thank you actually, bc i had never heard lazy day blues b4 and its a nice tune ^^ anyway im glad you like the song, it makes me very happy to hear ppl enjoy the music :)))
This is something new to me. Uncommon setting and absolutely unique atmosphere. The way how writing tells the story, how sounds, ambiance and music makes you feel the place, it all makes you so immersed. Your feelings are really become one with the characters, and the fact that this is kinetic novel helps even further.
And as I barely comprehend all the depths and details of the story, so any praise words from me will not suffice. But for me this is the piece of art, after which the most important thing in your life becomes to get your hands on its continuation, because what I've read has grown deeply into me... in a good way.
Huge thanks to IMO Team for this work.
Also visual part itself is unfathomably cute, and technical realisation have surprised me greatly.
Have you ever felt like a rabbit with a telephone?
Well. after playing this game I definitely do, first of all let me say, amazing team work, the music and art style fit perfectly and are both pretty good and unique, I very much enjoyed the relaxing and melancholic tunes as well as the cute and distressed faces of this cute girls while reading.
The constant animation and change of expression on the portraits of the characters really makes this an enjoyable visual experience.
I read for more than 2 hours and not a single moment felt dull or boring,quite the opposite, like in that scene in the "tent city" this is a very compelling and (at least for me) relatable story, even if the world it's a little bit fantastic, the characters and their troubles are pretty much grounded in reality. It made me even more interested in the story of telecommunications!
The story went all over the place, yet it didn't felt random at all (OK maybe a little bit with Yunozha Moonbeam but that was really fun), keeping the tone change is something really hard to do and you guys nailed it.
such a beautiful VN! i felt so many emotions in just 2 hours and couldn't help but tear up a little by the end. the characters are amazingly written and i care for each of them so deeply already. the art is amazing and the music is so perfect for every occasion. all the hard work that went into this really, really paid off. thanks so much for this wonderful experience! i'll think about it for a while, that's for sure.
Incredible visual novel that kept me engaged throughout the story, with its well written characters and war setting. I am still trying to understand the correlation between Rabbit Zero and the cylindrical fucked-up looking dog. Waiting for the MatPat theory video to drop and dissect the lore.
I grew up using the VoIP system mainly so POTS having actual people is crazy to me so I looked into it after I recorded. POTS Goes back as far as the 1800s and is still being used today so its Pretty decent technology.
You really do get pulled into the story within like 5 mins and The art is on point. so far this is overwhelmingly good :)
I also can really relate to the boredom waiting for calls ....... Its like a graveyard shift at work. Anyways ill give a full review on the story after I've completed it. Thank you to everyone who put in work creating this visual novel :)
i hope our research holds up! it's not meant to be a completely period accurate piece, but more so inspired by true events. i'm glad that someone with actual on-hands experience found it relatable, despite the team having very little. thanks for reading, and i look forward to your full review 🙇🏻♀️
I read this VN with auto on and fast text speed/advance time across several nights, when it felt like the right time of day that I could experience it. Usually I read VNs by hitting the spacebar myself with instant text speed so that I feel like I'm reading as fast as possible, but for some reason I felt like using auto for this one. This VN put me at peace.
On the second night, I was distracted by some other window and left the game on the title screen for a while. Hearing those two wonderful notes and expecting the guitar to return for the better part of an hour, I was treated to the gentle rustling of the wind fading in and out.
The presentation of this game is beautiful.
Mentha's art is very calming to look at. I went into Hello Girl knowing this, with high expectations of the drawings she had been working very hard on, and still I had them more than fulfilled.
Seeing the use of transitions, the seamless shifts between ADV and NVL, the text effects, the movement and framing of the character portraits made a strong impression on me. I'd never seen anyone do that with Ren'Py. As I'm helping a friend with their Ren'Py VN right now, it makes these touches all the more impressive to me.
I think the length and the scope of this VN is just right.
The small scope of the small town, of Ana's timid world view, her simple duties... it's very grounded.
The historical-like setting, the details and photos that speak to the research the team did... it draws you in.
Keeping the theme of VNcup 2 in mind all the while, wondering about the dreams I see... it leaves a bit of unanswered mystery for me to think about. I really like that feeling.
Wanting to know more about the setting, but feeling satisfied with what I saw. That's one of the feelings I enjoy after reading a short story.
such a charming and honest experience~ it was absolutely lovely from start to end, themes struck with me deeply.thank y'all for the sweet important game~
wow! Instantly with this, within the first 5 minutes, I was hooked! The presentation and style of this VN is completely off the charts. It's got so much personality and sleekness in the way it operates on a technical level. Nothing about this feels 'thrown together', this feels like a consistent project that had effort put into it.
This game is so adorable! The sprite transitions, the art, the dialogue and the timing of the lines, the little jokes, everything really fed into something greater and contributed something to make this experience one where I had a smile constantly. The music was amazing too - for VNs I generally feel it'd be hard to listen to the music outside of the games, they're composed for short repetition and ambience, but I feel like this is something I could listen to on my own.
There have been many games for the VN cup where I have thought "yeah, this is a quality submission", but for Hello Girl, I thought "yeah, this is a quality game". To me, it exceeded the boundaries of my expectations for a 3 month game jam. It felt so held together and I could tell there was absolutely vision behind this.
On the other hand, I wouldn't exactly say it's a quality submission. Like, this game is great - I haven't played a ton of visual novels but this is definitely in my top 3, but I just don't see how it met the theme for this cup at all. Maybe I am missing some allegorical meaning or distant metaphor found in the concept of Rabbit Zero, or maybe there is more to this story yet to be told, but in my read of what was here, I didn't find the theme.
I assume there is more yet to be told, because the ending hit me like a brick wall. Or a truck. Or a brick truck. I enjoyed my two hours in this world so much that I was fairly disappointed with how it fizzled out. I really hope there is more, I am invested! Like, if there's a sequel to something I've played, yeah I'll maybe check it out - but rarely am I invested! I want this! I want more. It felt like the drop off here was so quick. Which, I understand, this game was made under a fairly short time constraint which doesn't really give the time for a full world to develop, but it feels like what was built up here was left in the middle of its construction. Which, of course, sometimes you have to do - but it can make a singular piece of something feel less impactful. I hope there's more.
Those two things are my sole criticisms with this game, and they're easier to focus on and talk about because the flaw is always easier to poke at when the product doesn't have a lot of them. This game was so impressive to me on a technical level, it had so much detail put into it you can tell it was loved, it was so cute, I liked all the characters, and I want to see them all flourish in whatever comes next for the world of Hello Girl - WHICH THERE BETTER BE MORE FOR!!! I really really enjoyed this game and I think you should play it too. I don't know why you're fuckin' reading my comment and have gotten to this point in the 'review' if you haven't played it, but if that applies to you, PLAY THIS THANG!!!
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that was beautiful. i loved every part of it. the VN ever
I liked it a lot. The mood especially.
Sounds and animation were great, the story may have been a bit hard for me to follow, but I think I did. Which gives that “maybe” blur that isn’t too bad either
We love. We grow. We enjoy ourselves.
Sometimes, when we exist solely to fulfill the needs of shadowy men in a war room, a hug shared between two becomes the strongest act of resistance of all.
I hold you, my body engulfs you with the warmth of my love. No army can tear us apart. This is what it means to fight.
i'd like to think this is what courier's thoughts are like. thank you
finally got around to playing it after putting it off for so long. this is the first vn I've played. can't wait for the next one :>!
This was a very good read. Thank you for putting this out!
incredible.
the setting is so narratively interesting, the characters so human and the music so soothing.
play it, i can't recommend it enough.
Loved this so so much.... Extremely comforting vibes while capturing the feeling of leading an uncertain yet ordinary existence in a scary world (and sisterly yearning)...the characters all felt wonderful to spend time with as well. Will be thinking about this for a long time.
I paid for the support and I haven't received any email, I hope if the support has been able to arrive because the page is weird, I will try the game I hope the team goes ahead :D
This was lovely. I was enraptured. I hope to see more from this team!!!
A group of friends and I spent five or six hours across a weekend reading out loud back and forth with one another a while ago. The vastness with which the story was able to go as it progressed, as well as the art's support of such with Mentha's expressive characters is something I really appreciated, and helped me feel the world inside of me even weeks later. I enjoyed the quirks of storytelling and programming used in the NVL sections, particularly combined with the ending. This plus the animated backgrounds and text gave a mysterious horror flare to everything that I particularly love this medium's accentuation of. Each character's personality really shined and I never felt like anyone was looked over. In addition, it helped strike a good balance with tone. Maillard's scenes were definitely the ones I was laughing out loud the most throughout the story, but even the soldiers were great—and just so cute! The game's music and SFX worked great with the ambience, and I'm glad it was posted onto Bandcamp so it could be listened to outside of the context of the game casually while drawing or reading. If there were any complaints I had, it was only the occasional typo, the inability for all of the backgrounds to have been drawn, and a desire for more—if the last can be considered such. Hello Girl is a lot of fun, and playing through it is super inspiring to see people you've been following for a long time putting out their best creation yet. I'm glad you guys were able to work so well as a group to make this. Thank you.
really incredible from start to finish. lovely music and art, some of the best use of the VN as a medium i’ve ever seen. narrative details do a fantastic job of implying complexity in the world and the characters and their interactions are written with obvious sincere love and an intoxicatingly unique vision. only downside is i really desperately want more from this team – but thats a problem that (hopefully) solves itself with time!
I was very surprised by this VN, both by the length and quality, it ended up being so incredibly good that I finished it all in one day instead of pacing myself like I usually do.
Props to the audio and visual editing, every single sound effect put me right there in the setting, and all the clicks and static and stuff was perfect. Same for the backgrounds and sprites and every effect regarding the dreams and the start of the game.
As for the writing and the characters, that was also fantastic. I actually really like that so much is left to interpretation. That despite all the confusing and weird stuff that happened, what Ana and Courier needed was to be with each other instead of going off and fulfilling their weird destiny with Rabbit Zero. In that way, I really like how different Yuno is to them, as someone who's willing to take on the role and go have that particular story somewhere else.
I had such a fantastic time playing this, and I'm really looking forward to whatever this team might make in the future.
Beautiful little game. The characters, setting, and aesthetics felt refreshing and interesting. Very intimate in a comforting way. 10/10.
I have never experienced a more humanizing account of living tangent to war. This is a story that is lived-in, soft, warm, sincere, ominous.
It's an experience, and it is masterfully made.
I think its soundtrack and audio are perhaps its strongest piece beyond its very tender delivery.
The developmental and author commentary is also worth reading, because I feel the story tastes very sweetly of the journey embarked to make it.
We love Hello Girl.
this game is great and i'm glad i played it, the art and soundtrack are so pretty
also maillard funny :]
how do you pronounce Maillard's name
i've always called her millard, or mallard (like the duck) in my head. im not sure if there is a correct way to pronounce it. i would say any pronunciation is valid!
my first instinct was to pronounce the 'll' like a 'y' sound: mai-yard. i like the way it sounds
maillard reaction... cos shes baked
God, this was absolutely wonderful. Hit me like a truck. 10/10
Insanely well written and probably my favourite VN on itch. Dialogue reads so naturally & the narrative so strongly shows rather than tells. Really using the VN medium like you're supposed to goddamn brother. Loved the dual narrative of what's going on with the main character and the fuzzy background of Rabbit Zero. I noticed some people complaining on the vagueness of the Rabbit Zero portion but it didn't bug me whatsoever and I felt that it was more a catalyst for the character relations to build off while having it's own implications too. LOVED the music too, excellent guitarist & musicianship applied to have tracks that made contextual sense in every way. AWESOME SHIT!!!!!AUGGHGFGF222
I love how Courier's theme song is just a guitar cover of "Lazy Day Blues", which is pretty funny to me. I wonder if this is just a coincidence that Courier knows the other Courier from the other game.
haha it's actually not a cover, i just improvised courier blues. they're both blues songs in e tho!
Ah sorry i didn't know, I thought it was a cover by how it almost sounds the same. But nonetheless I still love courier blues, when the first time i heard it i was immediately captivated by how good it sounds and has been smiling nonstop when it plays!
not at all! thank you actually, bc i had never heard lazy day blues b4 and its a nice tune ^^ anyway im glad you like the song, it makes me very happy to hear ppl enjoy the music :)))
I loved this a lot. Very pretty writing, art and music. A lovely read.
HEY THIS IS REALLY GOOD THANKS FOR MAKING IT
THANK YOU KINDLY WE LOVE YOU
a great story for anyone who is a fan of "PHONE"
phone❤️
whats phone?? im curious abt it now :0c
I got lost when it came down to lore. Rabbit Zero?
[I have other things to say but this is a main thing which I need a clarification on]
This is criminally underrated
art is so nice!
This is something new to me. Uncommon setting and absolutely unique atmosphere. The way how writing tells the story, how sounds, ambiance and music makes you feel the place, it all makes you so immersed. Your feelings are really become one with the characters, and the fact that this is kinetic novel helps even further.
And as I barely comprehend all the depths and details of the story, so any praise words from me will not suffice. But for me this is the piece of art, after which the most important thing in your life becomes to get your hands on its continuation, because what I've read has grown deeply into me... in a good way.
Huge thanks to IMO Team for this work.
Also visual part itself is unfathomably cute, and technical realisation have surprised me greatly.
And the answer is yes - yuri.
Well. after playing this game I definitely do, first of all let me say, amazing team work, the music and art style fit perfectly and are both pretty good and unique, I very much enjoyed the relaxing and melancholic tunes as well as the cute and distressed faces of this cute girls while reading.
The constant animation and change of expression on the portraits of the characters really makes this an enjoyable visual experience.
I read for more than 2 hours and not a single moment felt dull or boring,quite the opposite, like in that scene in the "tent city" this is a very compelling and (at least for me) relatable story, even if the world it's a little bit fantastic, the characters and their troubles are pretty much grounded in reality. It made me even more interested in the story of telecommunications!
The story went all over the place, yet it didn't felt random at all (OK maybe a little bit with Yunozha Moonbeam but that was really fun), keeping the tone change is something really hard to do and you guys nailed it.
Keep up the good work!
such a beautiful VN! i felt so many emotions in just 2 hours and couldn't help but tear up a little by the end. the characters are amazingly written and i care for each of them so deeply already. the art is amazing and the music is so perfect for every occasion. all the hard work that went into this really, really paid off. thanks so much for this wonderful experience! i'll think about it for a while, that's for sure.
(Spoiler warning)
Incredible visual novel that kept me engaged throughout the story, with its well written characters and war setting. I am still trying to understand the correlation between Rabbit Zero and the cylindrical fucked-up looking dog. Waiting for the MatPat theory video to drop and dissect the lore.
👁🗨
I grew up using the VoIP system mainly so POTS having actual people is crazy to me so I looked into it after I recorded. POTS Goes back as far as the 1800s and is still being used today so its Pretty decent technology.
You really do get pulled into the story within like 5 mins and The art is on point. so far this is overwhelmingly good :)
I also can really relate to the boredom waiting for calls ....... Its like a graveyard shift at work. Anyways ill give a full review on the story after I've completed it. Thank you to everyone who put in work creating this visual novel :)
i hope our research holds up! it's not meant to be a completely period accurate piece, but more so inspired by true events. i'm glad that someone with actual on-hands experience found it relatable, despite the team having very little. thanks for reading, and i look forward to your full review 🙇🏻♀️
finished reading it just now. this is going to stick with me for a long time. thank you all for this.
A lot about this is going to stick with me. Thank you very much.
i love this so much thank u for making it
Hello Girl
I read this VN with auto on and fast text speed/advance time across several nights, when it felt like the right time of day that I could experience it. Usually I read VNs by hitting the spacebar myself with instant text speed so that I feel like I'm reading as fast as possible, but for some reason I felt like using auto for this one. This VN put me at peace.
On the second night, I was distracted by some other window and left the game on the title screen for a while.
Hearing those two wonderful notes and expecting the guitar to return for the better part of an hour, I was treated to the gentle rustling of the wind fading in and out.
The presentation of this game is beautiful.
Mentha's art is very calming to look at. I went into Hello Girl knowing this, with high expectations of the drawings she had been working very hard on, and still I had them more than fulfilled.
Seeing the use of transitions, the seamless shifts between ADV and NVL, the text effects, the movement and framing of the character portraits made a strong impression on me. I'd never seen anyone do that with Ren'Py. As I'm helping a friend with their Ren'Py VN right now, it makes these touches all the more impressive to me.
I think the length and the scope of this VN is just right.
The small scope of the small town, of Ana's timid world view, her simple duties... it's very grounded.
The historical-like setting, the details and photos that speak to the research the team did... it draws you in.
Keeping the theme of VNcup 2 in mind all the while, wondering about the dreams I see... it leaves a bit of unanswered mystery for me to think about. I really like that feeling.
Wanting to know more about the setting, but feeling satisfied with what I saw. That's one of the feelings I enjoy after reading a short story.
I was touched. It was good yuri.
I'll tell my friends about this story.
Wow! Looks nice
such a charming and honest experience~
it was absolutely lovely from start to end, themes struck with me deeply.thank y'all for the sweet important game~
This was really good. It was insanely immersive in less than 10 minutes. I dont believe its something i played before. 10/10
i love it so much i'd want to see more of it
wow! Instantly with this, within the first 5 minutes, I was hooked! The presentation and style of this VN is completely off the charts. It's got so much personality and sleekness in the way it operates on a technical level. Nothing about this feels 'thrown together', this feels like a consistent project that had effort put into it.
This game is so adorable! The sprite transitions, the art, the dialogue and the timing of the lines, the little jokes, everything really fed into something greater and contributed something to make this experience one where I had a smile constantly. The music was amazing too - for VNs I generally feel it'd be hard to listen to the music outside of the games, they're composed for short repetition and ambience, but I feel like this is something I could listen to on my own.
There have been many games for the VN cup where I have thought "yeah, this is a quality submission", but for Hello Girl, I thought "yeah, this is a quality game". To me, it exceeded the boundaries of my expectations for a 3 month game jam. It felt so held together and I could tell there was absolutely vision behind this.
On the other hand, I wouldn't exactly say it's a quality submission. Like, this game is great - I haven't played a ton of visual novels but this is definitely in my top 3, but I just don't see how it met the theme for this cup at all. Maybe I am missing some allegorical meaning or distant metaphor found in the concept of Rabbit Zero, or maybe there is more to this story yet to be told, but in my read of what was here, I didn't find the theme.
I assume there is more yet to be told, because the ending hit me like a brick wall. Or a truck. Or a brick truck. I enjoyed my two hours in this world so much that I was fairly disappointed with how it fizzled out. I really hope there is more, I am invested! Like, if there's a sequel to something I've played, yeah I'll maybe check it out - but rarely am I invested! I want this! I want more. It felt like the drop off here was so quick. Which, I understand, this game was made under a fairly short time constraint which doesn't really give the time for a full world to develop, but it feels like what was built up here was left in the middle of its construction. Which, of course, sometimes you have to do - but it can make a singular piece of something feel less impactful. I hope there's more.
Those two things are my sole criticisms with this game, and they're easier to focus on and talk about because the flaw is always easier to poke at when the product doesn't have a lot of them. This game was so impressive to me on a technical level, it had so much detail put into it you can tell it was loved, it was so cute, I liked all the characters, and I want to see them all flourish in whatever comes next for the world of Hello Girl - WHICH THERE BETTER BE MORE FOR!!! I really really enjoyed this game and I think you should play it too. I don't know why you're fuckin' reading my comment and have gotten to this point in the 'review' if you haven't played it, but if that applies to you, PLAY THIS THANG!!!
thank you for your thoughtful review^^
excited to play this!!!