So, this game took me awhile to just sit down and play. Not really a bad thing necessarily, but the main character, Zuleika, reminded me of a friend I knows OC that they RP with, right down to her weapon being a scythe. Not really that weird just.... threw me for a loop as I played, thinking I was playing as my friends OC instead (that happens to date one of the characters I RP to add to the weirdness)
Anyways, you play as the aforementioned Zuleika, an angel of the Great Osiris, ruler of Tyraca... At least. You WERE. Apparently Osiris wasn't as great as he said he was and got killed by his brother Zefferon, who then took the throne. With her master gone (Angels are guardian angels here) and having no purpose, Zefferon keeps her as his new servant. The game actually splits into 2 different storylines. One is where another angel assassin guy breaks into the castle and escapes with you, and the other has Zuleika stay in the castle, reenacting a good deal of Toma's route from Amnesia.
My play order was Zefferon>Chael>Kirile>Duren. In actuality i'd reccomend playing it Chael>Kirile>Duren>Zefferon or that but with Chael as last if you like saving the canon boy for last. Personally, I think Chael is the canon guy, since he has the most endings and his romance seems a bit more... fleshed out? Apparently this game was originally a story, and I feel like maybe Chael is Zuleikas One True Love (OTL)
The game is also basically a stat raising game. At the start you choose a class which gives you benefits in both stats and the things you can do. Like say you choose the warrior one, you can enter into tournaments that increase Strength and get you money, while Dancing gives you charm, etc. There is a HAXXORS class which is the Well Rounded Ruler, and basically it gives you access to all the classes exclusive events and during stat raising periods (I.E. Wandering Town, Castle, or Paths) give you 5 time slots instead of three. So you can raise stats or talk to people 5 times an event instead of the usual 3. I did try playing as all the classes to see if anything changes, mainly because I read the walkthrough that gave you a different ending for Chael if you play as a certain class, but my verdict is nothing changes and it's best to play as Well-Rounded Ruler.
Eugh.
Zefferon's Route--Route B
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| That's right Zuleika, play MY route! |
I read up on the game a bit before playing and saw Zefferon was the token yandere of this game. Some people like to save their favorites for last, but I do them first. Zefferons is the shortest of the routes in that he has no...Er...Good or bad ending? Just one ending and it's... kind of both good and bad? Thats yandere for you lol. Anyways, his route is in Route B which has you not take Chael's hand when he breaks into your room. Meaning that you stay as Nefferons servant, often visiting his room to sing for him and stuff. He's a total tyrant and views you as one of his conquests kinda. He obviously has a thing for Zuleika too, seeing as he's often talking about how she's only his, how beautiful she is... oh yeah and cutting, beating, and locking up her best friend Duren into a dungeon because he's the only one that can be with her at any given moment. MY toy, MINE!
In route B you're given the choice to investigate into the death of Osiris if you play as, I believe a diplomat or a Well-Rounded. As you uncover the truth you find his death may not have been caused by Nefferon, but rather, some old fart named Honhelm. Though that's kind of questionable if he really DID do it since I chose the choice that it was Nefferon for Durens route and he admitted to it. Hell, you even get a rehashed CG for it. Sounds pretty canon to me!
After you do the tango passionately with Nefferon whilst singing romantic songs for the dude, a ball comes up. Nefferon spouts how passionate he is for Zuleika, and then gives her a blood red necklace and asks her to the ball to be his date. After the ball he.... kills her. Because he loves her and will give her everything, including death. Zuleika then drinks a bottle of poison that Duren gave her to kill Nefferon, and kisses him. Sooo the two die happily ever after.
Chael's Route -- Route A
Next up is Chael. Chael has the largest number of endings in the game (One Romantic, One Good, One Bad, Two variants dependant on personality, and a Secret End) I tried to get the variant endings but for some reason just kept getting his Romantic and Good regular endings so I gave up on getting the rest of his endings.
In his route, Zuleika chooses to take his hand, running away from Nefferon and the kingdon, essentially becoming a Fugitive to her kingdom. While running around various towns the duo also pick up Kirile, a demon angel prince that got expelled from his kingdom by his Queen. No matter what, he joins, and Chael and him begin a sort of animosity friendship in that they're comrades but are from opposing kingdoms. Chael himself was a prince that worked for a Queen known as the Holy Mother. He did many assassinations for the Queen, until he chose to leave it behind and save Zuleika. Zuleika herself feels regret because her own master was a bit of a tyrant himself, instigating wars and having her also subsequently kill people for conquest. Because of that, Chael feels a connection to her in that he sees himself in her.
Chael suffers from PTSD as a result of his queen. In one town, they witness someone being whipped by a soldier, as the soldiers are looking for Zuleika under orders from Nefferon. seeing it reminded him of how his master whipped him, and taught him that pain was his world, the pain inflicted on him, and the pain he inflicts on others. Subsequently leaving him as fairly emotionless and cold. However, Zuleika doesn't let that stop her from getting close to him, watching stars with him, admiring nature, and it's then he realizes he likes nature and more importantly being with Zuleika.
While traveling the trio also get attacked by a force led by Duren, but it's revealed Chael was his mentor, and the two fight it out while Kirile leads her to safety after cutting some guys' throats.
Nefferon is still looking for her though, and they realize they have to take him out. One day in a village, they receive a letter inviting them to Nefferons ball, to which they decide she needs to go with only one person (poor Kirile, forever an afterthought) and that person being Chael. Depending on your stats you can take out Nefferon in different ways. Straight up battle, tricking him with sugary words, outsmarting him... For the good end Chael and Zuleika decide to get married in the elven village, which he is prince of. In the regular ending she rules her kingdom while he goes to his. And the bad end has him get beheaded by Zefferon lolol.
Kirile's Route--Route A
I covered most of Route A's storyline in Chael's Route, so I'll simply summarize Kirile's pretty fast. Kirile is a prince that got kicked out of his kingdom by his queen, as a result of his friend and his army betraying him and his best friend slashing his eye, leaving him for dead. At the start when you meet him he actually was considering committing suicide before Zuleika showed up and made him realize there was more he could do with his life, and that a simple eye wound was not as bad, that he could regain his honor. He then forces his way into Zuleika's possy, often fighting with Chael over things like which way to go or do. Kirile is an adventurous and friendly type, much the opposite of Chael.
After Durens "ambush" Zulaika and him go exploring, and he tells her how he wrestled dragons and dealt with controlling crazy ass demons in his kingdom.And then admits he could have used a sword on the dragons because it would have been safer lol. After the whipping incident in the ruined town, Kirile opens up about his friends betrayal to Zuleika, as Durens betrayal was still bothering him. For his good ending the two go back to his kingdom, wrestling dragons. I liked the regular one a bit, since she rules her kingdom and it's stated every winter he visits with presents, and their kingdom formed a strong treaty. Im the type of person that marries off different kingdoms to each other for peace so I liked that end a bit more.
Duren's Route--Route B
And finally, Duren's route. Duren is Zuleika's childhood friend and a fellow angel. He is Nefferon's angel. I usually like childhood friends but he kind of annoyed me so I saved him for last. It's kind of odd that he's Nefferon's angel, yet he seems to hate Nefferon. Maybe they got along before the game and his overthrowing Osiris and all, but you'd think he's have a bit more of a regret about killing Nefferon in his route. Anyways, his endings are actually fairly.. unromantic. The others state how they love Zuleika, yet his endings he has her as his Advisory or she leaves him to become a wanderer, thinking about Chael. It makes sense why it's so ambiquous in a way, as in the walkthrough, the creator states Duren was originally gay in the story the game is adapted to, and that they made him somewhat straight for the game since it's.... an otome...
Durens route isn't very remarkable in itself if you've played Nefferons route before hand, though he does have some scene such as taking Zuleika to town (then ditching her to stat raise) which gets him whipped and dungeon'd by the yandere. And there was also a scene where they talk about flowers and how his fave is the Iris. Bleh. whatever.
Final Thoughts
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| if you love me then let me gooooooOOOOooooOO |
So, this was a fun game for the first two route playthroughs. I'm not very fond of stat raisers, the only one I enjoyed purely being Always Remember Me in the otome genre so far. I did notice that Route A was more in depth and thought out than Route B. Route B felt lackluster, and I also got many errors in Route B such as doing the tournament that wound me up onto Route A with Chael. Which made me think Route B was more an afterthought put together hastily with not as much code testing. It makes sense to prioritize Route A, since Chael was the most fleshed out of the characters and endings. I did enjoy investigating who killed Osiris, though the fact it's kind of in the air on who actually did it was a bit disappointing.
This game actually reminded me of the game Seduce Me, which suffered from copy and pasta, just like this game. The CG's in this game were also disappointing. Kirile only had one, and it had the same pose and everything as one of Chaels, while Duren had two cgs but they were the same thing but with different backgrounds.
Some plot points made no sense. The angel and prince thing flies over my head especially with Kirile since he got exiled at the start of the game but his good end he goes back to being a prince...? Some characters motivations made no sense or were lacking in some human components, prime example being how Duren blindly runs in to fight Chael without actually seeing who it was before hand and how quickly he comes to plan his own masters demise without hardly any remorse or falters.
It is a nice free game though, and I would recommend playing a route or two if you have the free time to. I also saw the creator is making a remake with a new character and more depth to the storyline, gameplay, and characters. It looks very promising, and hopefully covers all the faults I noticed while playing this. I'm genuinely anticipating it, and I for sure will review it here whenever they finish it.
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