Nusantara: Legend of The Winged Ones

Just a great story i have played several times since i got it from itch.io i just had to get it on steam as well!

So far I've completed one route! I defiantly would suggest buying it! Its defiantly worth it! Its not fast past like most stories. It has some depth and that just one route. I love the art and the story line. The characters you grow to love. I really don't want to complain about anything because its a amazing story!

Cooked a fish like I was in an anime.

I've been looking at this game for some time... Then my instincts told me to read it... I was never disappointed. It took me a huge amount of effort to unglue myself from the screen to do daily duties. Sigh... When I finished it? I was giddy...

First of all, I like everything. That's the answer to question number 3. Especially... That the main lead is NOT annoying in any way!!! That's a huge bonus. Love it. It's also nice to see that everyone was drawn really well. I had everything to look at.

That first question... I can never pick just one guy. They all had their story and all had memorable moments. I liked all of them. I can say this: "Reksa" and "Tamara's" father are both hot. "Mitra" is not bad looking. I wouldn't know how to handle or how to act around "Rama"... I am just... Not that well spoken and I am glad he ended up with someone like "Tamara". I have attractive interest in "Reksa", but I would only end up with someone like "Mitra". Oh wait, I already did. :D (And I know they are all not real... But this is a fantasy... So. :))

AND YES. I prefer "Otome" visual novels, but I will read other stuff... In my category though. I already wrote what made me choose the game above. :D

No questions... I just think this is one heck of a treasure of a game and I can't wait to re-read it again some time later... After replaying all the scenes in my mind and adding my own additional stuff.

I really hope you continue to make games and for people to continue to enjoy them. I'll be around... Waiting... In a good, well behaved way... A huge thank you to you. Oh and I got to learn about other cultures! That was fun! :D :) =)

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Played this game AGAIN! Still super darn super amazing!

I loved this game! All three romance options were great. I even shed a few tears at times! I can't wait for this publisher to make some more great games like this one!

I've first played this game on it's free version years ago on Itch.io. After that, I've played it two, three more times before stumbling on it here on Steam - and then, I simply had to support the creator by buying it (and obviously, playing again). So, let me tell you: don't be fooled by the hours I have on this game, because I have much more play time on it than Steam can tell.

This review will be a somewhat long (but complete!) one, by someone who played this game a lot. I'll try to review it on the best of my capabilities, and put my thoughts and opinions if necessary.
If you don't want to read all of it, just scroll down to the Pros/Cons below.

Nusantara: Legend of the Winged Ones is a endearing game made by SweetChiel, a one person developer at the time the game was made (if I'm not mistaken). It was first made with the Novelty Engine, and after that, remade in the Ren'Py Engine, getting more polished as the years came by.

It's a somewhat small game, with only 3 love interests and 6 endings. But don't be fooled: you can play it for a good amount of hours, and even replay and reread it without getting bored.
The love interests get a little in the Otome cliché tropes, but they don't get boring at all (Mitra being the sweet and caring one, Reksa being the tsundere, and Rama being the jester, "emotional baggage" one (Some says he gets in the yandere trope, but I don't think so).
SweetChiel made then "human" (haha Oh, the pun~), and made then have depth. The same could be said for the secondary characters, and the way they interact with the MC. They connect, they have personality, and you rapidly grow on them.

But this game isn't a full "walk through the park" type. He addresses very serious issues - such as abuse, blood, pain, depression, suicide, amongst others. If you don't feel comfortable and is sensitive with these kinds of topics, I advise you to skip these parts in the game (like the war, and the bad endings) and the totality of Rama's route.
Either way, it's not super graphic: these parts can be easily avoided (I don't recommend it, but still-), and they're much more focused on the text aspect of the game, toying with the player's imagination.

Pros:
(+) Art: Some people say that they don't like the art, while others do. For me, I think they are lovely and you can see that lot of effort was put onto it - from the sprites, to the CG's. The game has a good amount of them for the game's overall lenght, and I particularly like it.
(+) MC: That's something I like in most occidental/indie Visual Novels - the MC isn't some damsel in distress, little wallflower. The same can be said for Tamara, your character. She is funny, witty, and she can talk her mind when necessary. Her personality is very well balanced between funny/lighthearted and serious, with struggles, when needed to be.
However, it isn't a type of game for self-inserting you. Tamara has a very well developed personality, and this means that you're basically looking at her story, not a "you" story. You can imagine being in her shoes, obviously, but she is not a "neutral" MC to connect with everyone everywhere - some people will not identify with her; and particularly that's not a problem for me, since she is introduced since the beginning to the player.
(+) Love Interests: The boys, oh, the boys. You have 3 love interests in the game: Mitra, Rama and Reksa. The three are equally handsome as they are different from one another, and it's difficult to choose one when you start the game for the first time. Even if they got a little in the cliché tropes, like I said before, they are well developed during the game, and you fall in love with them in different ways. As someone already said somewhere here, I advise you to follow the following order of routes: 1st - Mitra, 2nd - Rama, and 3rd - Reksa. However, this is not necessarily mandatory.
Some people also complain that Reksa almost "disappears" during the routes that are not his. I partially agree with that, BUT (a very big "but" in here) it happens due to the story of the game itself - it's necessary for him to do that. He doesn't "disappear" during his route because, obviously, you're going after him. So, no: if you're complaining about this, just stop.
(+) Music: The soundtrack of the game did work well with the story, so it's a plus for me. Remembering that at the time the game was launched it was a free game, it has a good music selection. It's not something out of this world, but it's something that worked well with the overall pace of the game. And this is what matters in the end.
(+) Encyclopedia and Foreign Words: That was a super cute bonus to the game. I'm not very familiar with Indonesian folklore, and the game helps you with the basics, teaching you words and tales, and everything that is important or is told in the story, since its a fantasy based game. It was done in a very simple and interactive way, so that everyone could understand. In addition, all the foreign and different words that are spoken in the story are taught in a very lightly manner (even because Tamara is learning to communicate with the natives together with the player), and you start to understand certain expressions on your own.

Cons:
(-) Few Choices: This game is a simple game programming-wise, so that leaves it with few choices and obvious ones: just for you to get a good or bad ending. They don't really make a difference in the story beyond that. I have no problems with that, because when I started playing, I already had an idea on how the game would be like, and I focused on the storytelling more than anything. However, for people who are accustomed to newer Visual Novels full of developments and choices, crazy roundabouts, and lots of advanced programming, these people may not be very satisfied with it.
(-) Grammar and Spelling: Through the game, there is minor grammar and spelling errors, but they are so insignificant that it doesn't even bother you during the gameplay, or you don't even acknowledge them. Also, I would like to add that the mother language of the developer is not English, and even so they did a great job on the text.

In the end, would I recommend this game? Yes.
Would I recommend it to be bought by it's full price? Also yes!
It's not an expensive game, and for it's final result, it's worth every penny. The creator put a lot of effort into it. Lots of people played the free version of the game, and they've come back just to buy it to support the developer.
So, this is saying something, right?

Really enjoyed this game. Cute, enticing storyline.
Good graphics. Entertaining sprites. Enjoyable music.

Played the "free" version on itichio, but enjoyed it so much had to purchase it and support the author and team,

I wish there was an okay button, because while this game isn't terrible, it's not amazing.
This game features some unsettling topics and is meant for players of ages 13+ so with that in mind, I'll start my spoiler-free review.

Pros:
- Hand-drawn artwork, while not top quality you can tell a lot of love went into it and honestly isn't so bad once you get used to it.
- Decent length, took me 3 hours to complete through my first gameplay, but I'm a quick reader.
- Good dynamic of characters you interact with, namely one family you interact with most are really good characters, I found myself smiling a lot at their banter.
- Game runs well, I had no crashes during the entire time I was playing through it.

Cons:
- Aside from one love interest, the other two are just...strange, I wasn't entirely sure how you'd get their routes, one of them is a complete hot mess that I'd never touch with a barge pole, the other I only saw maybe twice in the whole playthrough, but the one I romanced in the end was a good guy. I liked him best, but considering the lackluster choices, it's not much to go on :\
- Many of the characters are childish or act childish, namely the main character you play, which isn't so bad for a good chunk of the story as it's very light-hearted at times, however, since there are serious elements in this visual novel, it really sticks out like a sore thumb and just ruins the flow of the story.
- Minor glitch where the textbox remained up between scenes when it wasn't supposed to be there (only a minor thing, nothing too bad).
- Some of the music and sound effects are so out of place it's jarring.
- Two-thirds of the way through the story I found myself getting pretty bored, not a lot was happening to progress the story and it seemed like a lot of my choices didn't matter all that much in the grand scheme of things.

Overall, this visual novel wasn't awful, it just felt messy and confused, with a bit more polish and going over, it would've been something pretty good, but as it is now, I can't recommend it wholly as I found the experience to be rather lackluster and boring.

Don't be fooled by my Steam playtime of this game - I've got at least 40 hours from playing it on itch.io. That's the real beauty about this game - it brings you back, and this was the visual novel that sparked an interest in becoming a creator of them myself. So while I've been watching updates on Nusantara: Bermuda Triangle's progress drift into my inbox for a couple of years now, I found myself coming back to where my fascination with the series all started.

There are three routes, and I find myself struggling to choose which one I'm going down every time I come back to play. Will I fall for the gentle Mitra, the angst-ridden Rama, or Reksa, who activates my weakness for tsunderes?
But no matter which route you choose, each is excellently written and will definitely emit strong emotions from the reader. This can also be credited to the wonderful protagonist, Tamara, who is compassionate, independent, and usually quite practical.

The writing makes you laugh and cry - it doesn't keep things pretty just because it's an otome game. It contains real human grief and pain, but on the other side of that real human joy, and even the amusements from the little things such as family teasing. I related a lot to Tamara and her feeling as though she'd found a new family - I had to wipe away a few tears too. The writing does a brilliant job with side characters. Yuda is my favourite character in the entire game, and I love the way you get to see him go from this wary warrior around you, to essentially just your older brother.

With all of that considered, the art could have been terrible and I still would have loved this game to pieces, and that's where it gets better - the art is gorgeous! The backgrounds are brilliant, and there is a wonderful palette of earthy tones used throughout the game that I LOVE. The CGs are a pleasure to look at, and as an amateur artist who has much to learn, I was staring at these for much longer than intended just studying the use of colour and shading.

One thing that I appreciated is the battle scenes. They aren't just two sprites sitting static on the screen with the occasional whip sound effect. I remember in particular a war dance between two characters, and the two sprites in question were never just static, and it really kept the anticipation for me going. SweetChiel took Ren'Py and all its capabilities and made something that really brings out the engine's strengths.

There are still a few typos and grammar mistakes scattered throughout, but it didn't ruin the experience at all, and I barely noticed them. Coming back to it again has only reminded me how much I love reading through each route. I sincerely hope you give it a chance, as it's a real gem that's been sold for almost nothing.

Again, I must reiterate that there is no reason for you not to try this game if you love otome games.

This is a very good and throughout otome game!
The characters are nicely done. You can feel and live with there each own unique struggle.
And the MC is lovely done; she has her own struggles AND has a backbone!

In this game are 3 routes, that give you sometimes suprising views of the main story.
Gives you inside to culture, rituals and believes of the nations: the winged ones and the other side.

The art is also beautifully done! Everyone has his own looks that fit nicely. Look at this artstyle was a pleasure, it is unique and original. Nusantara is just a beautiful gem of an otome game that seasoned AND new Otome gamers must play at least ones in their lifetime.

5/5!

This visual novel gives an amazing story that has amazing characters. I definitely recommend to anyone who is looking for good visual novels.

One of the best otome games I have ever played. Great protagonist, fascinating love interests, beautiful art. I strongly recommend it.

Also, Reksa is best boi.

I liked the premise, characters, and story, so overall I'd say it's a good game worth the $5. Unlike most games, I honestly can't say which character I like the most, they're all so unique! Basically, I'd say buy this game. It's worth it.
And now for my dry humor section, enjoy overly simplified summaries of the boys. (Mild Spoilers)
Mitra:Giant Teddy Bear with pure grade fluff
Rama:Angst Nugget dipped in a bit of Yandere Sauce
ReksaTsundere boy with manufactured daddy issues

Very good otome game.
Not fragile MC, she is quite brave and even bossy sometimes. The routes are very interesting and shows different views of the same story.
Very charming routes, I loved how the feeling developed between them and the art is very sweet.

The game is very authentic in many things. The type of game you will not mistake with another because story and art and very unique.

Adorable game. Really enjoyed. There is a guide available in the community page, very easy too if you want to get all achivements.

An interesting otome visual novel. Mixed with Indonesian cultural themes and legends. All three routes are nice, and emotional.

Recommend.

Hello Steam user who is wondering if this visual novel is worth their time. I'm going to tell you right now that the short answer is absolutely yes! This review is actually perfectly timed since it's the month of love so doing a visual novel is appropriate, especially one that has two really great love stories in it.

Pros
– the setting and concept. This game has a unique setting and I really mean it. I can't think of one single visual novel game that has a blend of Indonesian culture and fantasy elements with an Isekai twist. Honestly, that is exactly why I bought it. Like I said in my These Nights in Cairo review, one of the reasons I really applauded that game is because it had an interesting setting that was outside of high school and this one is no different. Our heroine, Tamara, is a cynical, angry woman who is whisked away by a kooky goddess and into a land where people just naturally have wings or can melt flash with their saliva with the promise that she can go home if she saves the people of the new land. On a mission to get home and face her uncle she agrees and meets some interesting characters along the way, even ones she may romance. True that isn't exactly an original concept but the unique setting, mythos, characters and heroine herself make the story feel fresh even if the "Chosen One" storyline has been done to death.
– The characters. Every character from the heroine and her love interests to even side characters like Granny and the triplets has a unique identity and are interesting in their own little way. True, the supporting cast of this game is fairly small but that is in no way a detriment. Hell, I even like the villain in a love-to-hate kind of way.
– The story. Like I mentioned above the story is your standard chosen one journey. However with that said, that doesn't mean it isn't interesting. Honestly most of the first half of the game is more of a slice of life where you get to know your chosen love interest and the side characters before you get into trying to stopping the war. I thought it was built up pretty well and the pacing of the game is pretty good (although I'll admit there was a few slow parts here and there).Also the bad endings had me misty eyed and grabbing for tissue boxes while during the good endings I couldn't help but grin like a fool (Reksa ending) or shedding happy tears (Rama's ending. That man seriously needs all the hugs he can get.)
– The art. While it probably isn't the most beautiful art I've ever seen it has a unique style and is pleasant to look at. It's got its own field which really helps with the atmosphere. There also surprisingly detailed and extremely colorful which just adds extra folklore charm to the character models. Backgrounds also look good too with a painted style like you see an old fairytale books.
– The music. Now I'm not an expert in Indonesian culture but I'm pretty sure all the music in this game is authentic. Or if it's not then it's pretty damn close to being authentic. There are some instruments I heard that I could not for the life of figure out what was making those beautiful sounds. If they released the soundtrack for this game I am totally getting it!
– The extras. Normally I don't really comment on this but this game gives a little extra encyclopedia on both terms that are used in the game and the animals the love interests were based on. It's pretty informative and I thought it was just a nice extra touch.

Cons
– Mitra'sroute. I think it's interesting that I like the character but hate his romance. Or maybe hates too strong a word. I think a more accurate term would be average. I mean, there's nothing wrong with him and maybe that's part of the problem. Mitra is a genuine nice guy who's a pillar of his community and good with kids and a phenomenal warrior and also handsome but humble about his status and not arrogant... In other words he's too perfect. Hell even, Tamara mentioned that in her narration. True he has a few self-doubts about his position and he lost his parents at a young age but still even his flaws seem... manufactured. This makes his romance seem totally by the numbers and kind of boring. I even noticed that he doesn't have a bad route which I thought was weird since the other two had very heartbreaking bad routes. If he had a bad route then maybe his good route would've seemed more fulfilling than just "they get a live happily ever after."
– I think there might be a glitch in the gallery. First time I tried looking at it after finishing a route nothing showed up. I had to finish two whole routes before any of the CGs popped up. Not sure if this is a glitch or something wrong with my system but it was just concerning.

Neutral
– why did the heroine have blue hair? Sorry it just seems very out of place in a game where almost everyone else had natural hair colors. It's not that that's really a problem it was just kind of jarring. Once I got used to it though I thought it was fine.

Well this ended up being longer than I intended but I guess I had more to unpack than I realize. Anyway definitely recommend this visual novel if you want to see some great love stories thats at a fairly reasonable price to boot. I do recommend following the creators instructions of doing Mitra's, Rama's, and Reksa's routes.I think it will honestly help alleviate the boringness of Mitra's route if you do it first.

Great art, music, story, and characters

It got tedious at times and I almost quit without reaching the main story but I still loved it.

Very good value for the money.

I'm waiting for the sequel

I played this before it was fine tuned for steam. I bought it and I am glad I did. The final product is great. I love the storylines and the characters. Also the abundance of choices and endings.

Lovely story brought tears to my eyes and made me laugh by turns. Music is nice, i had it turned down so it was truely more background than it was meant to be, but it did a great job of setting / following the mood of the story. Love the art work, much preffered over the more cartoony look or overly masculine types other games present. All in all a very enjoyable read. Id recomend to anyone looking for something light and heartfelt. Now to answer the creators questions:
1. I didnt get on the route for the guy i wanted to persue first (Reksa), everytime a choice presented itself to choose to go check on Rama or Mitra, id choose something that didnt seem to involve them, and still end up in a scene with one or both of them. So will have to play some more to let you know if I can catch him ;p Mitra is your typical knight in shining armor guy, and i wasnt unhappy with him, just didnt want to go the obvious route first.
2. I do play alot of visual novels, some of them otomes mostly because there are not alot of VNs of my preffered type (BL) but its still pretty easy for me to transpose myself in the place of a female MC most of the time. It was particularly ease to do with this VN as the MC is not prone to hysterics or other Helpless Female stereotypes.
3. Story itself was very fulfilling and like i said i loved the art and appreciated the music, the only place I felt it fell short was in some of the decision making options. if i have a choice to see one person, hang out with another person, or go do something else, and I choose to go do something else, its probably because im looking for another person. Having the scene that follows that choice involving you with either or both of the people you just chose not to hang out with can be frustrating, more so when it happens more than once.
4. Obvious one here and hopefuly an easy fix for you. Achievements did not unlock for me on this play through (my first.) I got the Mytra good ending for which there is an achievement listed, and I saw at least three others that look like they should have unlocked based on the story line i saw (example bloody cloth, another the kissing scene) but nothing triggered. I seldom unlock all achievements (even when their easy like in VNs, cause I hate getting bad endings lol) so its not a big deal for me, but some people on steam really like to 100 percent everything, and have the achievements to prove it.