#soulsov real 2023

[pallisia]

In a ruined world, two strangers set out in search of a miracle. What happens next is everyone's problem. 💋✨

Soul of Sovereignty Prelude, the first chapter of my fantasy VN, is out now! Get in there!

[crowdsourced-webcomic-reviews]

Ggdg is a famous face in webcomics, and a few other mediums too. The artist and brain behind works such as Lady of the Shard, Idle Divination, Undyne’s banging outfit on her date in Undertale and countless other contributions to UTDR, and their most recent hit Soul of Sovereignity (soulsov real 2023!)—but they got their start with original storytelling through the much beloved Cucumber Quest:

Narrative wise, Cucumber Quest is as the requester for this review put it about “bunny kids going on a quest to save the world”. Like a lot of ggdg’s work, CuQu is steeped in their love of JRPGs, and there’s an undeniable touch of JRPG flavour in the plot.

The comic opens with our antagonist having acquired the seventh of their eight macguffins required to summon the big bad, and later our heroes must re-collect these macguffins and fight all the disaster masters they’re associated with, and defeat the evil Nightmare Knight!!!

Cucumber Quest is a comedy and a parody of fantasy video games, but it does all this from a place of sincere love and joy. I’m confident if you asked ggdg if they they thought all the incredibly clunky, tonally dissonant kingdom hearts cutscenes with michael rat talking about the heart of the darkness to cloud final fantasy or whatever were “cringe”, they’d say “are you kidding me they fucking rule”.

Cucumber Quest is filled with jokes, but it’s never meanspirited. It pokes fun at the trappings of fantasy video games, and as it does, it goes “but that’s why we love them so much!”

It’s not all jokes though, there’s a sincere heart at the core of CuQu. Ggdg loves their characters through and through, and the story loves them too. While the setup of the story might suggest a simplistic angle of good-vs-evil like a lot of video games, it is very quickly revealed that this story is anything but. The biggest heart of the story is the Nightmare Knight himself:

The truth of his motives and why any of this is even happening, whether or not our heroes will find out the truth and break the cycle, or if everything will continue as it always has are the crux of the plot. But to hear more about that, you need to read it for yourself!! If you like sad dads though, this is The comic for you.

You’ve probably noticed by now also, the use of colour in CuQu is absolutely stunning. Everything from their big set piece atmospheric pages with deep, powerful emotions seeping from every panel as they use limited colours to create a specific mood, to the individual panels of their lighthearted pages—ggdg has a masterful control over colour and mood. The entire comic is just a visual delight, and you can pick any random page in the archive and be provided with a treat for the eyes.

Cucumber Quest it should be noted is an incomplete story. Though not wholly abandoned, it last updated in 2019. Since then, ggdg has been busy focusing on other projects—the newly released soulsov is one such project. One day, perhaps after soulsov’s conclusion, perhaps earlier, perhaps later, ggdg intends to return and wrap up the remainder of CuQu via a series of scripts and illustrations.

It was a story a bit too big for its breeches if you will: after almost a decade of work it was nowhere near reaching its conclusion, and understandably ggdg needed a break.

Nonetheless, what exists is a wonderful heartfelt story and visual delight that deserves a read and the patient wait for its conclusion some day ❤

[pallisia]

After a golden age of exploration turned up nothing of value, weary treasure hunters hung up their hats and left the old world to wither. But power beyond imagining still waits to be found…

Soul of Sovereignty, a visual novel, begins this December. ✨

[pallisia]

itch reviews are sadly only visible to the project creator, but i need the kind words people are saying about my game to be free

play my game it's normal and won't hurt you btw.

[pallisia]

save the date! soul of sovereignty prelude releases december 15!

[pallisia]

taking psychic damage (positive) (???) comparing current build of my vn to screenshots from last august

[pallisia]

here is a portrait of loic functioning as intended. he is sad because soulsov not real yet. hey dont cry......soulsov real in two weeks !

[pallisia]

soulsov real...? well, right now it's just a webpage. but in a month? who knows...........?

[pallisia]

mfw soulsov realer than ever before

[pallisia]

it may not look like much. because. it isn't. but i am finally customizing the gui

here's the textbox. please clap

[pallisia]

i thought about logo

[pallisia]

"soulsov real 2023" started as a way to motivate myself to finish something this year, and at first i was not really convinced i could do it. but this morning i sent the (tentatively) final build to some friends. so. im thinkin soulsov real 2023

[pallisia]

How long have you been working on soulsov as a game? I know you've had the story for a few years but I'm curious how long development has been

i may have answered this forever ago but i can't find it. anyway, i think development has been going in earnest for a year and a half. i know i finished the script outline for chapter 1 around summer last year, then started implementing it into renpy after some of my friends gave their feedback. the first dev screenshot i have is from the end of may.

video game

[pallisia]

in less than a week my vn will be out and people will say to me that i am cringe, or based. only time will tell.

[pallisia]

in four days: he will do it

[pallisia]

i finished all the story art assets in ch. 1. i can't say the art is 100% done, but all of the character sprites, backgrounds and cgs are no longer placeholders. ive just been staring at the ceiling all night doing the tales gets trolled face. soulsov real