Hello! i've read through your comment and i would just like to respond to clarify some things you might have misunderstood! (please correct me if im wrong though!)
1. the story
yes, the story is a bit rushed since unlike other games this is a short visual novel game. it only takes 1 hour to complete all the endings unlike other visual novels that take days. i can understand your point of few with the mc talking in a way you dislike since some of the dialogue the mc says are quite forward, but lets not forget that this is a visual novel where the demographic (for this game at least) are interested in these sort of things. (if the dialogue seems too booktok then the demographic is probably for booktok)
i understand that at times it seems like we're a controlling partner but lets not forget that in the beginning of the game it's zilas that asks you for help, it's him who asks you to guide him to 1 million followers. and of course as the mc who's a more popular streamer, they're the ones who has the most knowledge with streaming (which is why in some dialogues the mc talks in depth about streaming). as for banning the mod its an understandable thing since it's not okay for a mod to say inapropriate things in streams even if you're close or not (as a mod its your job to monitor the chat and prevent anything that could make the streamer uncomfortable or to create an environment where the streamer will be uncomfortable. in the game the original mod often asks for zilas bra size which could create an environment where it would be normal for the fan base to sexualize him. and in game the only time we see the original mod actually ban someone is because the mc told them to) and mc explains this to zilas, why having a mod like this isn't okay in the long run whether or not zilas is fine with it.
2.the endings
the suicide ending is a shocker yet understanding like you said you like DDLC (me too!) but in the game you know whats going to happen because you've been warned of it. you've become aware of what sayori will do since she tells you she takes pills. but in reality people with depression or suicidal thoughts dont often warn people or tell people that they do, and often times you don't even know if someone is suicidal or not because they act "normal" there are all kinds of people in the world and they dont all act the same, like all people who have depression or suicidal tendencies they dont have the same problems or same backgrounds, everyone is different so just because zilas didnt act like he was "feeling bad" doesn't mean he wasn't it was a shocking ending because it was supposed to be.
for the reason of why he died its stupid yes but doesn't it just represent cancel culture? how he was cancelled for something taken out of context, for something that meant no harm. cancel culture often does this with cancelling people for unserious reasons out of context. and zilas was just unfortunately a victim of it, he tried to explain the truth yet despite that he still received massive amounts of hate, which can cause someone to go to the lengths zilas went. as for the homicide ending its been shown that it had something deeper going on, the mc didn't kill him with their own volition its been hinted that its because of something else thats been going on.(though i agree that they could've written a bit more detail about zilas inner thoughts and feelings to make the suicide ending not very random and a bit problematic).
as for the 5 K ratings its an unusual way to ask for ratings but this isn't the first time creators have made things like this (some mobile visual novel games also do these in exchange for good endings, although this doesn't necessarily count as manipulation, but i can see where you're getting it from!) this is most likely fraud (since the reviews wouldn't really be genuine since they only started rating the game for the good ending).if they asked for good ratings then it would count as manipulation, but they only asked for ratings in general. so whether or not the ratings are good or bad or just anything if it still hit the goal of 5k then we would still get an ending, manipulation is if someone controlled your emotional and mental state to achieve their own goals. which understandably seems like what this game dev is doing but what would the game dev achieve from 5 K mixed reviews? it would only confuse people who've looked at the reviews, they could gain popularity sure, but with the culture of visual novels doing similar things this isn't manipulation. if the game dev actively made you feel guilty for not giving the game a good rating for their benefit then that would be manipulation. and lets not forget, this is a fictional game, you've been warned that there will be suicide, homicide, flashing lights, jump scares, and animal gore.
"when do you think it's ok? You are using his death and his suicide as a way to get reviews and you think it's normal?"
hes fictional, he doesnt exist, its a controversial way to ask for ratings but you're making it seem like hes an actual human being. if the creator actually was advertising their game using someones death then that would be a completely different story.
3.her fans and her
the comments of her "mocking" her fans to me just seem like friendly banter, though i do understand your points of manipulation with the anonymity of the internet despite a game dev displaying their games to be 18+ minors can still infiltrate those places simply by adding an 18+ into their bio or other means so i do agree that it does count as manipulation if her fan base truly are minors. i dont think the game dev intended to make her fans look like fools it just seems like friendly banter to me (please correct me if im wrong here though!) her encouraging her fan base to rate the game to achieve a good ending is a thing some visual novel game devs do which isn't necessarily manipulation but again i can see your point of view. as for the unusual tweets she posts i don't see a problem in most of them, theyre just silly tweets showcasing her sense of humor, its not weird to joke about her own oc's and make silly little illustrations of them. now for the ED joke i think this one is heavily out of context, if this was a joke it would share the same humor as her "weird" posts, and to be frank that post just doesn't make any sense at all no matter how many times i read it. something is out of context and i dont think she meant it to be an ED joke (this is just speculation)
"Let's talk about her fans cause they are also CRAZY. They encourage the hypersexualization of her characters, create fake accounts to make more reviews (which get obviously deleted) and are also encouraged by Jenny. They are also a bunch of creeps in general on itch.io or the discord server"
you can't exactly hate on the creator for their fans's actions, the creator cannot do anything about what anyone does. and i dont understand why you're upset about the hypersexualization of her characters, i understand that it can be negative but in your "1. the story in general" you wrote down how you viewed the mc banning the mod as "controlling" when the reason they were banned in the first place was because they were sexualizing zilas themselves. so im sorry but it seems like you're contradicting yourself here (again please do correct me if I misunderstood this part!)
as for the creeps part, there are creeps everywhere and we can't really do anything about it but block them. whatever the fan does, does not reflect on the creator since they have no control over it.
(if there are any things i got wrong please correct me! i do not want to seem as someone spreading misinformation but after playing the game and reading this comment it just seemed like some misunderstandings happened here!!)
I love this game and it's so cute!!!!!!! I love how patter isn't romantically interested in you but will still spare you when you're nice to them. so far all of ponponchus games are good so I def recommend this for a quick play
