Cyberspace of Gods (WIP, 07/05 Demo Update) (In which you play as a JRPG protagonist)

Genre: Science fiction, Romance, Comedy.

Can play with Japanese honorifics on or off, especially since I know some people get icky with them.

(7/5/2022) Update! Half of Chapter 1 is out!

What's been added

Now you can...

  • Save at checkpoints! They will be listed like (Checkpoint: Save enabled), so make sure to save during those parts so your data won’t get weird whenever I update!
  • Go left, or backwards!
  • Interact with the last four of the testers
  • Kill some more monsters
  • And see the start of Floor 19.

For those who just want to jump right in and see what happens : https://dashingdon.com/go/10089

(7/5/2022) NEW! Made a tumblr blog so check it out if you want!: https://cyberspace-of-gods.tumblr.com/

Summary :

‘Life without play, is no life at all’ - The first president of SIPHE, Shindō Kamiya

Some time into the future, Japan witnesses a revolution in the IT industry. Holograms, hovering cars; daily life in central Japan becomes what one would think is a digital wonderland (albeit with a bit of exaggeration). To no one’s surprise, it isn’t long until the Virtual Reality scene starts to evolve even further, and companies are desperate to take part in it.

SIPHE, the company that created the world-famous MMORPG ‘Playground of Gods’, is one of them.

You, on the other hand, are just a first year university student who moved out of the countryside to live in the bustling metropolis that is Tōkyō.

Or so you think, until your roommate drops a strange black cube and you end up in the middle of a laser fight.

Description

In ‘Cyberspace of Gods’, you play as a first year university student in a slightly more futuristic Tōkyō.

Due to unfortunate circumstances, your brain is scanned and conscious is transported to a virtual reality where a few other players are beating the tar of out of each other.

So, you can do this in true JRPG fashion; dive right in, become a badass (or not), form lasting bonds (or be something more) with hot anime characters, or you can ignore everything and live a normal university life.

The choice is up to you, player.

Includes

  • Strong adult language and profanity.

  • Violence, the digital-fighting and laser-shooting kind, and also not the digital-fighting and laser-shooting kind.

  • Optional sex implications (fade to black sexytime), so tentatively rated 15+

Detailed gameplay

Includes...

  • Choose your gender (female, male, non-binary) and how you want to interact with the characters, romantic or not.

  • Customize your appearance in the real world, and choose the race of your avatar in the virtual reality world.

  • Choose how you want to act: A cynical bastard, an idiot with a hero complex, or a simple tired university student.

  • Dive into a virtual reality space. You can join a team, participate in team bonding events, and climb a glowing blue tower.

  • Participate in club activities, study, contact a friend to spend the day with (or if you’re close enough, they’ll contact you!), or just explore a slightly futuristic Tōkyō (with the chance of meeting someone by coincidence).

Personality bars

Cheeky vs Polite: Are you mouthy, or not? - Do you want to be a person who can come off as fun yet rude at times, or someone who’s more reserved?

Friendly vs Gruff: Act nice, or be a dick? - Regardless of how you actually feel, do you want to appear easy to approach, or a bit of a, well, jerk?

Softheart vs Hardass: Help others, or put yourself first? - Now, here’s how you truly feel about other people. Are you a hero with a heart of gold, or a bit more calculative than that?

Optimist vs Pessimist: Are you the light, or shadow? - How do you understand situations, through the positives or negatives?

Combining these aspects can make your MC react quite differently, even when saying the same things. For example, a pessimistic but cheeky and friendly MC would use morbid humor, but a polite friendly MC would just be a regular depressed person. Or you can be a cheeky gruff person who makes sarcastic quips that are drawn out and monotone. Pick what you like!

Romantic tendency

Bold vs Shy : Are you unafraid to make passes, or not?

Assertive vs Passive : Do you want to make the first move, or wait?

With addition to personality bars, you can pick how you want to flirt with the ROs separately, and it will affect how you react to them even when there are no choices.

For example, if during a romantic event you choose to grab an RO’s hand, your reaction after will depend on the romantic tendency bars towards that RO. You may be bold and assertive towards a certain person, but you can also be shy and passive towards another.

Combat stats

Power - This is how hard you can hit someone, whether with a weapon or with your bare hands.

Speed - This is how fast you can run and avoid attacks.

Defense - This is your HP and regeneration rate. The higher this is, the less easy it is for opponents to put you out of commission.

Intelligence - This is your ability to use the ‘magic’ in the game, and how observant you are of your surroundings in general.

Technique - This is your chance of critical hitting the opponent and how accurate you are with handling your weapon.

Luck - This affects the damage of your critical hits, and how much stupid crap you can get away with.

Characters (Simple explanations and more detailed ones.)

Twelve characters, ten romance options, some of them gender-locked, but all of them friendshippable. Help them work through their problems, have fun with them, go on dates or do all of them!

Team Tsukigami -

  • Leon Haishiki (M, gender locked to female MC)
  • Asumi Itazu (M, gender locked to female and male MC)
  • Shian Ganna (F, available to all MCs)
  • Rino Haga (Non-binary, unromancable)

Team EONS -

  • Ikuto Nokuwa (M, available to all MCs)
  • Oumi Suriishi (M, available to all MCs)

Team Yggdrasil -

  • Hiyori Utsumi (F, available to all MCs)
  • Ume Sakurada (F, gender locked to female MC)
  • Yuria Renge (F, gender locked to male MC)

Team N-Dis -

  • Tatsuya Ukyō (M, gender locked to male MC)
  • Setsuna Tenrai (F, gender locked to male and female MC)

Roommate -

  • Amane Kamiya (Same gender of MC, unromancable but friendshipable with a little something more)
More character details (Spoilers ahead!)

Team Tsukigami -

  • Leon Haishiki (Pronounced: Lay-ohn Hai-shiki. M, available to Female MCs)
    Age: 21
    Appearance:
    5’7” (175 cm) with a muscular build. Has slightly tanned skin with a scar on his right cheek, and many more on his body. Messy, short dark brown hair with an undercut and sharp golden yellow eyes. Smiles widely and fiercely, and coupled with his physique, comes off a little intimidating.
    Description:
    Level-headed, mature and cursed with eternal bad luck, Leon tries his best to be a good leader to his team, though more than not, is teased for acting like a nagging parent, and ends up being less put-together than he would like. Due to his zero experience with love, when someone he likes approaches him, all his calmness flies out of the window.

  • Asumi Itazu (Pronounced: Ah-sumi Eeta-zu. M, available to Male and Female MCs)
    Age: 19
    Appearance:
    5’9” (180 cm) with a lanky, willowy build. Has pale skin, shoulder-length blonde hair which he wears in a half-up, and slightly hooded red eyes. Looks like a sleazy bandman, which to be fair, isn’t far off.
    Description:
    A mischievous prankster and rebel at heart, Asumi loves to tease people and rarely takes things seriously, with the exception of a few. As of now, he’s content to drift through life and see where it takes him. A smoker (which is illegal since he isn’t 20 yet), but faithfully sticks to lollipops around others.

  • Shian Ganna (Pronounced: She-ahn Gun-nah. F, available to all MCs)
    Age: 20
    Appearance:
    5’4” (165 cm) with a slim and curvaceous build. Has porcelain light, smooth skin, with waist-length auburn hair and flirty jade-green eyes behind red rimmed glasses. Gives off a very dainty, lady-like aura in contrast to her true personality.
    Description:
    Being one of the many children of a very rich family in Japan, Shian was raised to be a prim and proper lady. Which is why around those she trusts, she acts with the subtlety of a car crash. Honest with her desires and armed with her sophisticated lady laugh, those who pursue her might find themselves opposite of the barrel instead.

  • Rino Haga (Pronounced: Lee-no Hah-gah. Non-binary, aro-ace, so unromancable to any MC)
    Age: 19
    Appearance:
    5’1” (156 cm) with a petite and skinny build. Has an almost sickly pale skin tone, with short, choppy black hair and sunken blue eyes that look like they’re always judging you. Never seen without their wireless headphones around their neck.
    Description:
    A super smart gamer who wants to be a NEET, Rino is the type that can spend all their time in a dark room. They rarely show any emotion other than boredom, but will start to talk more and faster when excited or angry. Has a fixation on strangely flavored food.

Team EONS -

  • Ikuto Nokuwa (Pronounced: Ee-ku-toh Noh-kuwah. M, available to all MCs)
    Age: 18
    Appearance:
    6’0” (183 cm) with a lean build. Has tan, brownish-skin, pale purple hair with two braids framing the side of his face, and light pink eyes. Always has a friendly smile on his face.
    Description:
    Friendly and unassuming; when people see Ikuto, they see a genuine good guy who is effortlessly charming. He’s playful but never overstepping, bold but never arrogant. According to Oumi, his partner, though, Ikuto is both a nerd and a jock with a secret obsession that he holds very close to his heart.

  • Oumi Suriishi (Pronounced: Oh-mi Sulee-eeshi. M, available to all MCs)
    Age: 20
    Appearance:
    6’2”(190 cm) with a slim-looking build, which is deceiving because he is absolutely toned. Has pale skin prone to sun-burns, long shiny black hair that he ties into a low ponytail, and dark coal eyes with a permanent scowl.
    Description:
    Though he has a delicate and pretty face, Oumi’s grumpy attitude has driven more than a handful of people away. Maybe it’s a testament of Ikuto’s charisma that he managed to befriend Oumi, or maybe it’s proof that there’s more to the angry ‘Yamato Nadeshiko’ than what meets the eye.

Team Yggdrasil -

  • Hiyori Utsumi (Pronounced: He-yoh-lee Uu-tsu-mi. F, available to all MCs)
    Age: 18
    Appearance:
    5’1” (157 cm) with a petite and slim build. Has light skin and faint freckles on her cheeks, dark blue hair that ends slightly below her shoulders and faint purple eyes. Has a tendency to strike certain poses.
    Description:
    Those who passed through eight-grade will know of a famous syndrome. Hiyori is stuck in that phase, and coupled with her huge passion for mythology, she is a geek, through and through. However, she isn’t dense to social situations, and keeps everything under wraps until appropriate, as much as she doesn’t like to.

  • Ume Sakurada (Pronounced: Uu-meh Sakura-dah. F, available to Female Mcs)
    Age: 19
    Appearance:
    5’0” (155 cm) with an athletic build. Has beige skin that’s usually tanned, fluffy short light reddish brown hair and wide orange eyes.
    Description:
    Energetic, cheerful and loud, Ume is a person who thrives around other people. Her reactions are often big, so people find her very easy and fun to tease. True to her herself, Ume is always honest and has a big heart of gold.

  • Yuria Renge (Pronounced: Yuu-lee-ah Lehn-geh. F, available to Male MCs)
    Age: 21
    Appearance:
    5’5” (170 cm) with a average build. Has light skin, long green hair that she wears in a high ponytail and slightly narrow light blue eyes. Gives off a smart, but slightly uptight atmosphere.
    Description:
    Being laded with responsibilities since she was young, Yuria is a natural leader concerning her peers and family. But when she’s with her friends and free to make the dumbest decisions possible, she will. Do not rely on her to hold you back from skydiving, because she’ll be the first one flying off the plane.

Team N-Dis -

  • Tatsuya Ukyō (Pronounced: Tah-tsu-yah Uu-kyou. M, available to Male MCs)
    Age: 22
    Appearance:
    6’3 (193 cm) with a broad shouldered muscular build. Has beige skin, bright red hair that’s slicked back and sharp green eyes. Sometimes has bits of paint on his cheek and hands.
    Description:
    Loud, bold and assertive, even without meaning to, Tatsuya usually ends up as the most eye-catching person in the room. He strives to be the pinnacle of what he considers ‘explosive enough to blow up the Tōkyō Skytree’. He’s also an artist, but his fashion tastes can be very…unique.

  • Setsuna Tenrai (Pronounced: Seh-tsu-nah Tehn-lai. F, available to Male and Female MCs)
    Age: 23
    Appearance:
    5’9” (180cm) with a lanky build. Has pale beige skin, wavy long light blue-grayish hair and droopy dark blue eyes that makes her look sleepy all the time.
    Description:
    A former model, Setsuna is a stoic, cool person with a burning passion for sculpting. She rarely leaves her workshop, content on honing her craft, so being the polar opposites they are, people often wonder how she and Tatsuya are friends.

Roommate -

  • Amane Kamiya (Pronounced: Ahmah-neh Kah-mee-yah. Same gender as MC, unromancable, but…)
    Age: 18
    Appearance:
    5’2” (160 cm) with an average build. Has very pale skin, straight white hair that ends at their shoulders, and their eye color is a mystery as their eyes are always closed. Can be compared to a plotting fox.
    Description:
    Your roommate, Amane, is very enigmatic. They are talkative, yet reveal nothing, cheerful but strangely distant. One thing is certain; they are an employee of SIPHE, and the reason why you’re roped into the virtual reality business in the first place.

Updates

Changelog

Update 1 (11/29/2021)

  • Interact with an ass of a character creation quiz
  • Pick what’s written on your lucky charm (omamori)!
  • Be a jerk to the receptionist at your dorm (I mean, if you want to)
  • Rub shoulders with your roommate!

Update 2 (12/3/2021)

  • Be isekai’d
  • Saved by a cosplayer
  • Get short glimpses of other cosplayers
  • And decide to grab your roommate’s shirt collar or not

Update 3 (12/13/2021)

With the addition of chapter headers and the only early ending you can get, now you can…

  • Punch your roommate
  • Agree to a deal
  • Customize your avatar and officially meet the other testers
  • …or refuse everything to live a normal, average life.

Update 4 (2/15/2022)

  • Go straight, or go right!
  • Interact with four of the testers
  • Kill some big murderous monsters
  • And maybe flirt. Just a little.
Coming up next

Probably soon

  • More of chapter 1 and its team bonding exercises.

Please inform me if there are any typos, boring choices, bad writing, anything in general. In any case, it’s still very early in development, but thank you for giving my game a shot!

319 Likes

Nice concept

2 Likes

Nice

1 Like

Interesting Concept, I will look forward to this.

1 Like

Oi @Lunali albeit it being extremely short to give any sort of feedback, what you provided needs more balanced stats imo…

1 Like

pretty good so far, keep up the good work

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Thank you for all the comments! It’s my first time writing an IF, so I’ll do my best writing this!

@Empress_Nightmare Thank you for commenting! If it’s not too much, can I ask what you mean by balanced stats? Do the personality bars change too much so I should reduce the percentage, or are there not enough choices or something like that…?

3 Likes

I like the concept and can’t wait for more though it might be good to put a message that says “the demo finishes here” at the end because I kinda tried all routes thinking I made a mistake when I touched the black box.

2 Likes

At first there are choices to increase or decrease specific type of stats but later on the choices kinda seemed like they only decrease these said specific stats…

1 Like

Congratulations and G’Luck btw, lol I too started my own first IF (although it’s ore of a private and closed project for now) in twine and it’s a headache.

2 Likes

Alright, I’ll revise the choices and take a deeper look. Thank you for explaining! Please feel free to point out anything else you found weird, I need the help, haha.

Good luck too, and I hope your project goes well! Let’s do our best!

1 Like

Short but I’m hooked. I’m looking forward to playing more when the next update is ready

3 Likes

I think this has pretty good potential, and the first part of the demo is well done. I will have to see how it goes, so I am definitely bookmarking this.

2 Likes

Not much to go on, but I like what I see so far. So definitely looking forward to what’s to come. :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: Keep up the good work

2 Likes

Liked the intro, but I had a question. Are the ROs with set preferences for men or women romanceable by non-binary MCs? And Setsuna is said to be genderlocked to male and female MCs, can she not be romanceable my non-binary MCs?

2 Likes

i love it and i am convinced that if you keep doing it, a lot of people will really like it.

4 Likes


Don’t know why I never notice mistakes in a first playthrough, well glad I did a second play lol.
Anyway the mistake is that 180cm= 5’11" If I remember correctly, not 5’9’’. Since I stand 6’2’’ and that’s 189cm so yeah… kinda figured the height wasn’t right when it said 5’9’’ :sweat_smile: hope this helps.
Edit: just used a measurement app anyway:
180cm= 5’11’’
170cm= 5’7’’
160cm= 5’3’’
150cm= 4’11’’
These are the right measurements :kissing_heart:

3 Likes

Sounds a tad like Alice in borderlands the Japanese tv series

2 Likes

Haven’t played yet but the description is giving me SAO vibes :heart_eyes:

1 Like

I love the fact that at least three of the last names you can pick are from vtubers. For anyone wondering the vtubers are Takanashi Kiara, Ninomae Ina’nis, and Tsukumo Sana

2 Likes