Fragile Sun

this was a great, nice & short addition to the GANA series! :D

(SPOILERS)

i think it's a really clever choice to have a game so closely related to pieces have a very similar structure to it. wake up every day, do your job, have your eye burst into flames while listening to an otherwordly spirit to try to find out what they want from you... it was pretty cool! but it's not like it feels like playing that game again, everything feels new. doing garden chores to find a way to stop a spirit living near your home is a REALLY good concept on its own, and makes this game stand out in the series (it honestly felt like a plot you'd find in a modern psychological horror movie haha). even small details like reading every day quotes from different people were a neat callback to the book of laws from pieces, while putting its own spin on the idea.

millena was a pretty likeable protagonist, and i liked how different she feels from aurinko. they're both young confessors with great respect of the church and who have to deal with talking to spirits, but things like liking reading about plants & gardening, reading quotes or talking to the best character in the entire series (tedward) made her feel unique. before this game i just remembered her as "that girl who talked to you in a creepy way" lmao, but this story fleshes her out nicely, and actually kinda made me feel bad for her haha, why can't you live in GANA without ghosts tormenting you every day :( (also sidenote, i love how you have to talk to tedward every morning or the game doesn't let you keep going, that was great)

nykolas elsker was also an interesting character! apart from having the coolest name in videogame history, i liked how composed and refined he was, while feeling like he had his own hidden motives aside from the church's... maybe i'm wrong tho, that's just the vibe i got lol. the little i got from his conversation at the start made me really interested on why these guys are recruiting exorcists, and the fact that the ending where you do become an exorcist is a bad ending made it even more intriguing. why is it bad? what's gonna happen to millena?? will tedward be okay???

once again, your artstyle is really neat! millena's sprite is a good combination of creepy and cute (like the character! lol), and your character busts are as clean and expressive as ever. nykolas might genuinely have my favorite design in all your games i've played, it has a ton of cool details and perfectly shows his personality ughhh i love it sm- but what really brings everything together is the small things; how the flower wilts on millena's head in the bad ending, how millena closes her eye before a flame appears from it, how millena's pictures change if you pick up the flower (ABSURDLY good attention to detail there), how watering cans appear to show you where do you need to water, how completely destroyed the garden looks in the second bad ending... it's a really great level of care you've clearly put into this game, and you should feel proud of that! :>

i managed to get all three endings! something i don't really love is when getting a secret ending is too hard or there's barely any clues to find it, but this game handles it really cleverly! i LOVED how the quotes changed with every playthrough to guide you into getting each ending; when it changed the first time i was like "huh, i don't remember that one... nah it's probably just me", and when i got the next ending and the quote changed again i was like "WAIT THEY'RE CLUES-", pure videogame magic right there haha. all the endings were satisfying, though i think the first bad ending could've been more explicit as to why is it bad? it's supposed to be open to interpretation but i would've liked if there were a couple more lines that gave me a reason to think this is bad, even if they were vague/abstract (like the one that's already there). that's just my opinion tho, and like i said, the wilting flower moment and the mystery of the church's intentions manage to not make that ending unsatisfying.

i feel like the gardening mechanic, while nice and unique, gets a bit repetitive when i was trying to get all endings. i liked that you could skip some cutscenes but i think it would've been better if you could also get through the chores quicker. not by skipping them neccessarily, maybe like, not making you wait while you're taking the weeds or something. i do get that the chores are the main gameplay loop so making it go by quicker would've probably given it less importance.

if i had to describe this game in one word, it'd be... foreboding. millena's plot is great and satisfying on its own, but nykolas trying to find people to turn into exorcists feels like it's building up to something... obviously i'm not saying the entire value of this game is the things it sets up, and i don't even KNOW if it's setting anything up, but... i don't know, it just made me really intrigued haha.

this was yet another great GANA game in your streak of great GANA games, and i can't wait to see how the story unfolds!! :D think i saw in the discord you said the series might be reaching its conclusion soon, so i'm excitedddd (or maybe i made that up lol)

Phew, I was able to get all 3 endings!!

I liked Millena's design, creepy and cute, nice

That well thing was spooky, also nice

Very practical to be able to skip scenes already seen! although I would have liked to be able to save

In short, 10/10!!

Found out the first and second ending on  my first try(without hints). I like that the story takes place in the same universe as the previous games. 

I never considered that your games take place in the same storyline before, but I can see how the pieces fit together. I may need to replay them with the perspective that they connect.

I was only able to get the 2nd ending, however. I tried finding ways of getting the other two but to no avail. I'll probably play it again later and see if I can figure it out!