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The Maestro and the Marionette - DEMO

A boy awakens to find himself trapped in a music-themed dream world. In order to leave, he must gather up the pieces of heart of the world's ruler, the Maestro, and put them back together. …But this means stealing those pieces away from the other residents of the dream, dolls who have been using them to feel human. The Maestro and the Marionette is a visual novel that was written around the core part of quarantine (March 2020), it's a story fundamentally about isolation and bonds. It starts out very seriously, but it's not an unhappy story! Extended Demo Details 2+ hour read Covers 60% of the story It's free (the full version will most likely be too) Two story branches (the side route is complete, the main one isn't) Requirements The browser version requires that third-party cookies be enabled for save data. (If you try to run it while having them disabled, you will get several error messages in Japanese and nothing will work). Sorry for the inconvenience! Extensions like Privacy Badger also interfere with save functionality, but this doesn't prevent you from reading (you just can't save). Controls Advance Story: Mouse click/Spacebar/Enter/Right Arrow Auto Advance Story: 'A' key (clicking anything ends it) Backlog: Backspace or 'Log' button Save: 'S' key Content Warnings Screen shakesInstances of children being violent towards each other, multiple serious injuries (injuries are visibly portrayed, but not in a graphic way).Suicide allegory - This story revolves around one character's "failed" high fantasy suicide attempt. The bad ending contains potentially upsetting content that I would rather not spoil, but there is an option to back out of it (you can't get it on accident, you WILL know when you're there). Credits A copy of the credits listing all music and background images used is available on Google Docs! If you'd like to follow the development of the rest of the novel, here's a few other places you can find me. Thanks for reading!