I Hate You, Please Suffer

would you happen to have a track list for the game anywhere? there are a lot of songs i'd like to listen to outside of the game but i don't really know how to find them aside from just listening to all of rose's music lol 

Finally circled back to this! Remembered a surprising amount from the basic version but also made a bunch of the same mistakes. Someday I'll replay for the other route and side quests I missed, but mostly just to see finally what's in the Manor vault.

The full storyline and bonus bosses were a lot of fun / "fun"! Some thoughts after the spoiler break. Some parts were surprisingly challenging too - not that I was expecting an *easy* game, but even though I got fairly overpowered/wealthy before recruiting Jasper, I wasn't able to steamroll everything past there. Some of that was self-inflicted; I really didn't take the third strata Company Man variant seriously until I realized that their accumulated buffs were not going to reset between runs.

I don't think I ran into any bugs, either! The game did start to chug after an hour or so, but that's probably down to something getting caught in the gears between Proton, RPG Maker, and my graphics drivers. *Sometimes* I would run into events out-of-order and they'd explain things I already knew (the oracle received a call right AFTER I turned in the bonus boss bounty for example). But for something this sprawling that's hardly unexpected.

I did catch some dialogue typos but I didn't catalog them because I didn't want to make a bunch of homework for either of us, 1.5 years after you put this (mostly) down. If you *do* want help with those, I'd be willing to volunteer my weirdly fine-tuned typo senses.

SPOILERS BELOW
-------

I kept the curse I got from the statue for the entirety of the rest of my playthrough, mostly because I'm a sucker for that kind of bonus dialogue. I wouldn't say it made a ton of things easier but it did help when I needed Ramona to draw aggro. I really liked how that played into the "pacifist" route for the Lighthouse mission (although I suspect there's a better ending available there). It was annoying to deflect the priest every time I wanted to check if anyone was ready for spiritual healing though. Aside from what that changed, I missed a bunch of mid-game bounties and a handful of side quests because I steamrolled the missions first (those were generally a lot easier than the Tower and bonus bosses).

I also didn't catch the new drawback to pills at first; I think Devon had something like 1/4 of Kyrie's health when she was recruited. I spent the rest of the game taking the party to meals at the harbor as often as I could and only started breathing easier once I got the final reward from the Rat King bounty sidequest. I *did* take as many mirage potions and stat drinks as I could manage before I locked myself out of the former. I recruited Jasper right before I did that, though, so they spent the entire late-game as the weakest team member. They didn't even get downed enough to unlock more than 1 spiritual healing skill, so they kind of became a dedicated item/artifact support. Felt a little uhh troubling to give them the Hanged Man artifact!

The other big change from my Basic playthrough was giving Devon the Black Cat Charm and Burner Phone. A basic attack can miss / be prevented in ways that Concentrate can't but generating 3-4x the MP with a chance to paralyze (and even damage, in some cases) was almost always a worthwhile tradeoff. Especially since getting even a little scuffed would leave him charged up for another multi-target attack next turn.

I saw your note about adding item stealing last... idk if being cursed or wealthy increases the rate but it was truly the bane of my playthrough. I spent every other bus ride having to check if some crucial item in my build was gone and kept losing artifacts that I barely got to use. I lost the Wrench right after getting the car parts (and my namesake achievement, love that) and thought I was softlocked out of the Rat King sidequest for a little while.

I think you did a great job with the scope of this - it doesn't *look* as big as it is but the maps are d e n s e and there's a lot of depth to plumb. I was a little surprised that, in a game "about capitalism", none of the necromancers were motivated by greed or labor relations! Certainly a game this large can be About More Than One Thing, but I was anticipating a punchline on exploitation/inhumanity/dehumanization that never happened.

Some unsolicited thoughts about late-game bonus bosses:

Your self-insert was kind of a steamroll, though making yourself immune to negative statuses did throw off a lot of my usual approach. Bonus moves weren't too harsh, almost every boss had those by then. I did miss the instructions on how to exit afterwards and almost got stuck in the hallway. Also I hope you're doing better on at least some of those fronts.

Melchom was a serious roadblock until I found a cheese strategy - locking him down with alternating True Silence and All Business + Business Talk. I could have optimized further (Kyrie wasn't the optimal user for the silence-immunity artifact) but I only game overed 2 or 3 times with 8 questions wrong on the test. If you're inclined to be meaner here, he should get immunity to Silence when he gets low on health. Love the design though I didn't read it as a vtuber?

Gacy was a great culmination for the bounty quests! Didn't game over here, but by her second revival I was mostly fighting to stay standing while everyone else / DOT effects kept up the pressure. I was thinking about your dev note that highlighted how negative statuses and debuffs were used in support of the games' themes and I really liked how the solidarity support of the AL inverted that for this fight! Also appreciated that the remainder of the game and the epilogue kept highlighting the win + profits lmao.

The Pugilist (I already forgot his name) was actually the hardest of the "optional" bosses and a satisfying capstone to beat down, particularly since you were thorough in never exposing A Single Redeemable Quality about him. Post-Gacy, I was rich enough that his assistant summons would 1-shot nearly any party member with their scales-with-wealth attack, but even when I was lucky enough to get through that, his Emperor-spam more than made up for it. My ultimate win took a Hidden Clear Mind Devon spamming magic attacks with nobody else standing. Worth it for the sprite without glasses alone.

All in all a great time! I hope your future work is a little saner in scope but this came together really well!

Long overdue Review Time.

We're going to lead with the brief for the sake of others browsing this game - IHY,PS is one the best games we played in 2024, a year we finally got around to games such as Elden Ring, Hollow Knight, Both Portal games, and some other fantastic stuff we aren't gonna inflate this list with. The only reason it isn't hands down our favorite is that it's narrowly edged out by the Dev's previous work Slimes.  (Mostly because Slimes linear nature allowed us to experience it with little time lost to trying to figure out what we were doing, but also it's extremely dark tone was simply delicious.)

If you are considering buying this game, you should. This game is nothing short of a masterpiece and it's honestly a steal even at full price.

Now that we've written enough to hopefully be under the read more, lets get into a more full review with some light spoilers. Read further at your own caution.

This game perfectly captures how it feels to be a mid 20s to 30's something without purpose. It's how it feels to be crushed under the weight of capitalist society, how it feels to lose the little security you have, how hard it is to scrap together the pieces in the wake of losing a once stable life, and how meaning is made, not found. All of these themes are iterated time and again throughout not just the main party members, but just about everyone you interact with. It goes into the various ways people cope with such loss, across a spectrum of unhealthiness.

And this is a game about getting better.

There is an undeniable and powerful emotional core here, and it's the kind of thing that will have you rethink your life, asking the same questions the characters do - Am I happy as I am? Can I build a life where I am? Can I grow past my hurt? Can I do it even though it's a struggle? 

And what a struggle it is, one that comes across clear to the player. The hardest part of this journey is undoubtedly the beginning - getting the ball rolling in the first few feels a lot like trying to get out of debt in real life, but once you do, once you have people supporting you, it gets easier. And the more people you have supporting you the easier it all gets. It does help that even comes in the romantic flavor, but more on that in a second.

Speaking of, the characters themselves are all masterfully done and memorable. Even many of the side characters are immediately distinct and endearing, or obnoxious/off-putting, as per narrative need. All help further thematic core at the heart of IHY,PS - Building a life where you are happy is painful, hard work, but it is worth it. (also you don't have to do it alone)

We also want to highlight how much it means to us to see so much authentic queer representation in a game that's not really 'about' such a thing. Sure, Ramona, the main character, is a trans woman and often has to deal with transmisogyny and an emotionally abusive mother who doesn't accept her, but the focus always feels focused on building happiness in her life. Three of the four party members are even bisexual and poly - as a bi poly trans woman there were a lot of moments we got all giddy over. The ending we got, Vodka scene, and Imposter fight being absolute highlights. But again, the focus is always on making a life you want to live, realizations of identity are merely the shape it takes, not the pure function of the story. 

It's honestly hard to think of any real criticism to lodge with the game. Sure the beginning is easily the hardest part of the game, and getting you first few hundred dollars is a struggle, but it all works perfectly in a ludonarrative sense. Personally, we would have liked it if there was another transwoman besides Ramona given there are three transmasc people, but that's not much of a complaint. A trans woman MC in a game that isn't explicitly about being a trans woman is rare enough. If we had to point out something, it's that occasionally quests would break, and that finding quest NPCs on the randomized floors even with the fast resetting of the smoke bombs quickly gets tiresome.

In all, this was an absolutely perfect game, and we're looking forward to replaying it to explore it's many paths.

This is the part where the review breaks down a little cuz we've been writing this on and off for four days now and have more stuff we wanna say but cant be fucked with, so apologies that this is a bit scattered:

Ramona hits almost too close to home in a lot of ways, and her knife fighting being a weeb thing is fucking hilarious. Kyrie is simply one our fave characters in anything ever and serial killer that masks as girlie pop is just delicious. Devon is a cutie, would love to show him my vinyl collections and talk music, we think he'd really dig our instrumental post metal collection. Jasper kinda grew on us with just wild they are with the whole casual admittance of having been in a cult and other such moments. Becoming broken in the mid to late game feels really good after the struggles of early game. Really liked the various other groups of adventurers and their different dynamics and how this made the world feel alive, especially the soft time limit on random side quests being them taking the quests in your stead. Maybe the first game to get us to do fanart of anything besides Vocaloid.

10/10, S tier game, made us rethink our life. Thank you for the food, and we can't wait to see what you do next~ <3

Should I try getting my characters killed mainly for the spiritual healing? If so then is there an easy way to do that?

So does anyone know how to get into the tower? I was told I had to enter the tower to recruit the cowboy, but I have been unable to get access.

I can't seem to find the place to buy ma shi back, got da password now tho. All I managed to find was the cult, the company man, the lighthouse and the faunshalts storage

Hi once again. I was wondering if u could give me any hints to where to find the key and photo for Trish's illusionary realm. btw just got Jasper, love the representation. (sry if I'm bothersome, I seem to come here quite often askin for advice/hints)

hi, were do i go to buy my stuff back, ive been lookin around but cant manage to figure it out

I'm now playing the complete version and just went to HER grave to get cursed and as soon as the inner dialoge is over. Ramona auto moves left. I kinda can't leave the room cuz of it. N since the interaction w the grave auto saves i can't avoid it either. Wut I do?

Now that I actually did finish the game, comments time. There are some spoilers here, although nothing severe. Still, I'm glad I went into this game without much foreknowledge, so if that's your approach, you might want to not read this.

This game was honestly kind of a masterpiece. Excellent characters and story of course, and with a really good combat (which was nice). However, the thing that really first drew me into the game was how the game was deliberately frustrating in a fascinating way. The start of the game is quite difficult, and in no small part that's just because you don't know how it works yet (I died a lot of times before I realized that resting after I got through the beginning part was, in fact, worth raising the rent). Even beyond that, there's also the little things. Every single way to save "costs" in some sense (even just sleeping, since it raises the rent), traveling around the city costs at least 1$ (and quite a bit more if you don't want to lose things randomly, so until you have more money, you probably can't afford to be using it constantly), and no matter what you do, there's always a chance that you'll just lose a piece of equipment. In my game, I lost the Strength Scarf that was literally my strongest piece of equipment to an overnight theft, and I was never able to find another one. However, as I got into it, I just learned to roll with it. Lost the scarf, so I used something else. Carried some extra gear just in case, got used to spending a bit, etc. It complements the story the game tells so well, so it was really a fantastic experience.

Beyond that, the story was phenomenal (although I won't get into it too much since Spoilers), and the ending I got was very satisfying (for which one it is: I had to go through the full Tower to get it). I really liked all four party members, but I also liked all of the background characters (the ones who were intended to be likeable anyways, I can't say I liked Ramona's landlord, but that just made something in the ending all the more satisfying). I made sure to use the Small Talk option several times (and to do so after getting more characters) just because there was interesting dialogue for the characters.

The combat is also really fun. I ended up with three of the characters' Tarot card gear, which was extremely helpful (regen is really good in this game), but just the set of skills available to each character were interesting and fun to use. I didn't get all of the Spiritual Healing skills (except for Kyrie's), but the ones I did get were all useful and interesting (Dodge Roll is great).

Tragically, I played the majority of the game with the sound off because of the times of day I had available to play it, but late game I ended up listening to some of the music, and it's fantastic (seriously, I was missing out). I need to replay it at some point just to listen to the music some more (plus to see some of the content I missed, like a certain arcade machine).

Also, as much as the art for the game is described as not great (literally in the description of this game), it works with the tone of the game, and I actually liked it just fine. Also, Kyrie's walk cycle is great. No other comment on that necessary.

I did not end up beating a certain bonus boss against the (non-canonical) "ruler" of Engel, although now that I've done everything else, I'll probably take another try. The problem for me wasn't even the boss's damage (which was honestly not that high, although I also had a lot of defense on all my characters other than Kyrie, who just dodged things that vast majority of the time), but the fact that I literally could not outdamage the boss's regen + the one draining skill. I'll have to give it another try now that I'm about as powerful as I can get without just grinding Model Employees for stat-up items (which I sort of did, but that was just because I was enjoying the fights while doing the things I needed to do to get into the final floor of the Tower). I did beat most of the bounties that I didn't accidentally lock myself out of (although I think I forgot one of the four Heavenly Rat Kings, so I should really do that too). Combat in the late game got pretty easy, but I did make a lot of use of stat-up items and had very good gear.

Edit: Fight done. Huh, that was a lot easier this time. I guess all those stat-ups really did help, given that I was able to just do overwhelming damage and end the fight quickly. I don't seem to be able to leave though, as the looping hallways occur in both directions?

I did run into one bug worth reporting, but thankfully it did not break my game or anything:

For the Rank 3 quests, I did Lighthouse Reclamation, then Lonely Hearts, and after finishing Lonely Hearts, it sort of never stopped. I turned it in, but now all of the characters have kept their dialogue associated with it. This is mostly notable with Sheya, who always refers to me doing it. Some of the other characters sort of refer to it, but most of them are more in reference to it being finished, so that was fine. The core bug part was that when I picked up the Casino Investigation quest later and left the building, I ended up with both quests at once in my reminders, and, if I talked to Uzbek again, I could go and turn in Lonely Hearts again, getting the short scene and reward. I did not attempt to do Casino Investigation (partially in fear of breaking my save and partially just because it seemed unlikely that turning it in would work at all). It didn't stop me from completing The Tower stuff, so I can still normally end the game that way, thankfully though (that would have hurt a bit).

Edit: I did go on to finish that quest, I was able to turn it in (... alongside Lonely Hearts, both of them turned in at the same time) and have everything get a bit more back on track. Some of the dialogue in Casino Investigation was off since I did things in what seems to have been an unintended order and characters didn't know about things they probably should have, but everything worked fine so I'm just glad I could see everything in that.

Edit: Oh, right, additional minor bug: Kyrie's Cool Down does not end the "Killing Harmony" Assassin stance, so you just get a full heal and the CDs trigger, but your stance does not change.

Anywho, that's the longest response I've written to a game in a while, but I had a lot to say about this one. I'm still not really sure whether it's Itch standard to leave reviews in the comments or reviews, so I'm just going to copy the review-y portion of this over to that too.

i've really been enjoying this game!! especially the ost, my mind is just full of "i dooon't beeeeelieeeve youuu", but, where do cowboy hat guy go??? i feel that if i don't go right now he's gonna fucking die

sry my dumb ass is here again. I'm struggleing with the monster egg quest and i called the tip hotline where the oracle says "closer to home than one thinks" and the descriptionv says that the culprit lives 2406 somewhere. So I went to ramonas apartment building and checked on her floor room 406 but got no result so i tried the input on the elevator put that thing is basically out of order. So... I'm wondering wut todo now?

So I've been playing on steam for the past days and I gotta say I really love this game, the core mechanics could be better explained and makes for a rough start but after that is really fun and creative, overall I love the characters and the dialogue, it's written pretty naturally and its almost always either pretty interesting or pretty funny, I'm kinda stuck with the graveyard quest but I'm gonna keep going until I finish it, last thing I really love Ramona she's literally me.

I feel like an idiot but I'm a bit stuck. So I kind of forgot what Kyrie told me to do to help her. I'm at the point where I'm now able to take on quests from rank 2 for reference. I don't want to take on a quest in case that means  I miss the opportunity to add Kyrie to my team, but I can't find her and I can't remember what I was supposed to help her with. Also can't use the hotline because it's not technically a quest :/

im planning to buy ¨Slimes¨ and was wondering if it's a distant place in the same universe as ¨I Hate You, Please Suffer¨ due to in one of the images the guy mentions how he wants his scales gone from his face, so i was wondering if its scales due to the same herald and him awakening his power in a traumatic situation

-Chara