Tailor Tales (Initial Thoughts + Dimitri)

One of the other games I downloaded recently, having seen it talked about in an otome Facebook group I'm in, is Tailor Tales. It's made by Celianna. I think she's a mostly one woman shop, though she has a Patreon. It looks like the game might have started on itch.io (which little dude loves, but I've mostly avoided). I think she's based in the Netherlands as she also apparently makes dungeon tile sets for use in RPG Maker and has a .nl domain. Basically, she sounds like my kind of person (I'm assuming here that she's female, but I honestly don't know; a quick search didn't turn up a bio but the name leans female to me).

Anyway, I'm very interested in indie releases, especially English language ones as I've had that idea kicking around in my head for a while for an otome of my own. The second book in my latest series (which will likely be the last book in that series...so it's not really a series, is it?) is coming out this year and, given that last year I actually made more from my freelance D&D stuff than on novel writing even with the latest book being with one of the biggest publishers there is (pandemic, man, it's been a killer)...I was thinking that maybe, just maybe, I should ignore the project my agent wants me to work on and instead work on my own D&D source book idea and/or my otome project.

Which is a really long introduction that has nothing to do with the game. But leads into why I downloaded it. It's another one where the base game is free to download, but extra routes and content are DLCs that you pay for. I rather like this idea for what I'm thinking about. Though she's got the added thing where there's a wholly different (apparently?) version of the game that is a "Plus" version that you can only get through her Patreon (which, I think, jumps the content from 16 to 18+). She has over 700 subscribers over there, which seems pretty good, though I have no idea at what levels they are at -- which ranges from £1/month to a whopping £37.50/month to be a beta tester. Though I'd imagine the £8.50/month option (which unlocks everything, gives it to you early, and access to her Discord) is likely the preferred option. Anyway, an interesting model, though I don't think I'd want to have to tie myself into any monthly release schedule when I've got other things going on. Especially with pandemic brain where sometimes you just need to veg and get away from the world because the world is just...crap.

But, let's talk about the game. So far, I've just downloaded the free version on Steam, though I'll likely buy at least one of the DLCs, maybe all of them. They seem to be around £1.99? Which makes the Patreon seem really expensive on a monthly basis, but I guess if you're the kind of person who can't wait?

Anyway, the MC is a recent uni fashion design grad and due to a windfall from a dead grandma, has opened a boutique to sell her clothes. Then a guy comes into your path (who you may even have met before)...

There are six potential love interests, though not all of them are fully released. There is no common route either; you pick which route you want to go down right from the beginning and it looks like each route is completely different and runs the gamut from science fiction (with super heroes) to real world, etc. It's nice that there's a lot of variety. I picked Dimitri (the sweet younger brother of your cheater ex-boyfriend from university) out of the available options. Have only done three chapters so far, but he's a definite cinnamon bun.

For the free version, you have to earn gold to unlock chapters (though you start off with enough gold to get through a few chapters first) by creating clothes for customers and selling it. But, you only start out with a few items you can work with and have to also use gold to buy additional options/colours. You can also spend the gold on customising your avatar and your boutique. It's a bit cludgy but not horrible and, if you fork out the money, you can unlock everything without doing this. I'm not sure how the Plus thing works if you only do the Patreon for one month? What happens then? I'm curious as to how many people buy the Plus version and the DLCs. 

The graphics are simple and cartoon-y, though, I suppose, well enough done for what they are, with some lighting changes and some simple animations. It's not my style, but it's okay. I don't know if the developer does them herself or hires someone. Heck, it's better than Pub Encounter.

Story-wise I don't feel like I can comment much yet. I've just done three chapters and, at least to me, the English / dialogue is a bit stilted and has some odd sentence construction. Of course, my Dutch is non-existent, so hey. It's not terrible at all, but it is noticeable. Even with that, it's not sparkling, exciting prose, but these chapters have just been the set up so far (your first chance meeting with Dimitri when you were 17, your second meeting when your then-boyfriend brought you home, your breakup, meeting Dimitri again). So far, I'd say that I'm enjoying it but am not blown away, if that makes sense. Perhaps one little thing that stands out to me compared to other games is that it's done more like an actual book with dialogue tags (i.e. "she said") rather than just using the quote marks to denote speech or by marking it with the avatar. There is some limited voice acting, though I'm not terribly fussed about it and as it is limited mostly to non-verbal-ish stuff so far, I'm not sure it adds a ton to the gameplay.

The decision points give you two options: fierce or kind. Fierce is basically the more flirty/strong options and the kind one is more low-key. There are no bad endings, though, so it's really more of a style thing and how up front you want to be. The ending you get can be either Passionate or Innocent. Happily, it doesn't look like you have to re-play through the whole thing to get the other ending, as completing one sounds like (from the FAQs) that you unlock the other one too. And then, I guess, if you upgrade to Plus you get a super steamy ending and extra CGs.

Anyway, I'm finding it interesting and with some good lessons. Also just figured out that it's apparently made in RPG Maker, which is one I don't know anything about and didn't realise you could use it for something like this, so I'll have to check that out as I've figured out that using Unity for what I want to do is like trying to shoot someone with a cannon instead of a gun. And Ren'py has possibilities but a bit of a learning curve.

So, will update this after I finish a route. Initial reaction overall is positive, so I'm looking forward to digging into it. Though have just received the copy edit from the publisher on book 2 + the copy edit on a D&D project I did, so the next week is gonna be rather busy.

Edit: Wow, okay. So, I'm up through, like, chapter 18? And I was thinking I must be getting close to the end, no? But...no. I looked it up and it seems there are 28 chapters! That's quite a bit longer than I was expecting. So, kudos for that.

The only thing I'd really ding it on (other than the slight grammar/English issue I mentioned before) is that there are certain points where you have to unlock specific outfits to progress. So you have to buy clothing "patterns" as well as textures, colours, etc. But there are two issues with this -- it doesn't tell you what you have to buy and a lot of the bits look rather the same (unless, perhaps, you are an actual seamstress). So it is very easy to buy the wrong one. Also, the colours don't necessarily match the example image of what you're trying to build (apparently, you have to be in the right colour family), which can be confusing as well. There were a couple of times that I had to refer to the walkthrough to get through it. This could be solved very easily in-game by simply listing the names of the items you have to buy, i.e. "to make this outfit, you'll need x, y, and z and the colours x and y."

But, route-wise, Dimitri is a blushing cutie-pie (did I just say that? I did. Wow, I feel old and slightly dirty now) and while the MC is slightly dense in not seeing his very obvious interest, I feel like it's being handled fairly well given her past trauma and at least she's somewhat honest with herself about the attractions she's feeling. Given that the only stumbling block here is her being hung up on the fact he's a couple years younger AND her ex's younger brother, there's not masses of angst. Partly, I have to remember that a 3-4 year age gap feels a LOT bigger when you're that age than my age. It would make very little difference to me, but would have made a big difference then. Story-wise, anyway, I think it's pretty well done. Quiet and unassuming in some ways, but good. This is more of a slice of life kind of otome, which, let's be real, is something I like.

Edit: Ok. I powered through and finished Dimitri's route. And right before I got to the end, I decided, what the hey, I ought to spring for the expanded DLC (it was just £1.99). If I'd realised at the start that the game would be decent + it removes the requirement to unlock all the outfit stuff, I'd have done it in the beginning. The only bad thing is now I'm not entirely sure what the "free" ending is. 

So, some ending thoughts. Which I'm gonna bullet point 'cause I feel lazy:

• Overall, the game is quite good, especially when you take into account that it's a one-woman shop. 
• Even the shmexy bits were pretty well done and not too awkward. Like, in a scale from zero to Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome, the scenes here were much better and reasonable and not...cringe-inducing. There were some sound effects as well, but not as...squelchy as FLML. Though I did kinda wonder how this young dude who's been hung up on the MC since he was THIRTEEN was so experienced...
• An interesting tidbit related to that is that you could choose what labels you wanted for the, er, private parts. Though most options...well, let's face it, ALL the options...those words are just NOT sexy words. Some are really off putting, since they're often used as derogatory curses.
• There was a significant difference between the "Innocent" and "Passionate" endings and, as you have to re-play the last couple of chapters to read the ending you didn't initially complete, I did pick some different answers to see what the differences would be. So I'd say that was well done too as a) either answer fit seamlessly and b) there were noticeable differences. 
• That said, I feel like the options aren't named right. Passionate seemed to translate to "the MC is the feisty one"while Innocent seemed to mean that the LI took the lead. But the route itself wasn't *innocent* if you know what I mean.
• One of the reasons I went ahead and bought the plus content was because you only have one save slot as far as I can tell. That means you can't hop between characters. I didn't want to have to play all the way through Dimitri's route again to read the extra ending stuff. It's possible there's a way to do that in an already played through route, but I wasn't sure.
• I didn't personally love the cartoon-y character sprites. I mean, they're well done for what they are. But it especially feels a little odd, for instance, during a kissing scene and the cartoon Dimitri is closing his eyes and sticking his tongue out and I'm sure it's supposed to be romantic and sexy but it just seemed kind of...silly. This is just a personal thing. I'm sure that wouldn't bother other people at all. And maybe it'd feel just as weird to me if the art were more realistic. I dunno.

I enjoyed the Dimitri route. He was very sweet and SUPER blush-y. The storyline also tackled a few pretty weighty topics, which I didn't expect. He's the type that you want to protect at all costs. So, am I glad I played it? Yes. I was actually pleasantly surprised at the quality. Would I play it again? I'll definitely try other routes -- I do really want to compare how different the storylines are.