I'm going to try very hard not to turn this into a huge wall of text, (edit: you can see that I failed) but just for context, I was taking notes of my thoughts throughout all of the routes just to keep track of all the little things I liked or noticed that I might have forgotten by the time I wanted to review it, and I wrote 3877 words LOL I even stopped near the end and decided to just write this instead, so it COULD have been longer. 

I have so many thoughts! So many things I want to say! I want to shove my notes in peoples faces so they can see how much raw enjoyment I got from this story! There's just so much to point out, so many little mannerisms and connections and subtleties that drive me CRAZY not to talk about LOL

I lied this is going to be a huge wall of text I'm so sorry.

First! The dialogue is, absolutely, the star of the show here, in my opinion. (I don't say that to mean that the other facets of this game are lacking, far from it!) There are so many wonderfully clever lines, the banter was SO entertaining, the flow felt incredibly natural and emotionally charged in high-stakes scenes. I could not tell you how many of my notes are just me quoting a line and then keymashing over it afterwards, and I am 2 seconds from sending this to a friend of mine and begging them to play it as well because I know this is right up their alley. 

Aeden I think had most of the insanely smooth lines that got me flustered, but Dargan and Lucas had some heavy-hitters too, I love them all deeply. 

If I let myself talk about the dialogue too much I'll be here forever, I have to force myself to move on LOL 

(Okay okay I do have to make one note though, the "You have a sharp tongue, cut me again" line from Aeden? Absolutely knocked my socks off, it was so early in the game but from that line on I was completely engrossed.)

Second! I love all of the sprites, and the variations too! I made an individual little note almost every time I noticed something different, and I was very excited on my 2nd playthrough when I realized that a different hair color came with a green fae gown instead of the purple I got at first! All of the different dresses were beautiful, I loved the accents and the ribbons, loved wearing Pix's acorn, and seeing the damage of the current fights/situations reflected onto the characters was a lovely attention to detail, I know it must have been difficult adding all of those options but they all came out great.

Not just Astora's sprite though, I loved looking at everyone's outfits and accessories, the night queen is especially beautiful even if I strongly dislike her LOL and that says nothing of all the guys, they're all gorgeous.

(The dress for the full moon celebration was by far my favorite, that was absolutely beautiful)

Third! The INTERACTIONS between all of the characters, oh my GOD. Seriously, all of the different dynamics that were so thoughtfully portrayed, the different sides of each character we got to see depending on who else was in the room when they were talking, or who else they were talking to, I can't speak enough about it because we were GIVEN so much, I feel like I could talk for well over an hour about these characters just based on the little things hidden in their body language or the way they framed their words. 

I am totally willing to acknowledge that MAYHAP I am looking too much into it, but I think that's the fun of it! Even if it's not actually that deep, the fact that I looked and was able to find that depth at all speaks volumes about the writing. 

I loved all of the displays of platonic and familial affection too, as a smaller note. Kissing F'liri's knuckles or playing with Pix and the other fae, the scene with the others at her pond comforting Astora in her grief, the fuath watching over her while she slept, I liked that in the beginning it almost felt like she was going to be treated like an outsider, but that wasn't the case at all. I'm very soft for found-family stuff, and it made me very feels-y to see all of the folk come to offer comfort 'the only way they knew how.' 

I'm going to be SICK I love them sm LOL

On the note of side characters, gonna tack this on. I liked almost all of them (aside from the obvious) Elias was very clever and I enjoyed watching him figure things out about faerie during the conversation at dinner, and Mariska is very endearing and kind of silly LOL Pix is the best for personal bias reasons, and Rhistel was a surprise! He comes off so stoic, obviously, but I feel like there was JUST enough behind his mannerisms that even early on, I got the impression that he does care for Astora. Subtle enough that I couldn't tell for sure until the end, but I think that's very telling of the quality of writing! I was never 100% SURE what was going on at most points, though I did guess a few things early on in my notes, usually I'm more confident so the fact that I was guessing up until the end of Aeden's route was a very nice surprise. 

SPEAKING OF AEDEN I should make sure to talk about the actual romance before I cut myself off LOL but I'm honestly not confident I'll have enough space to say all the good things I want! It's not often I can use the word 'romantic' genuinely to describe a character, but in this case I'd use it to describe all three. Very genuinely lovely and charming, all three of them, in vastly different ways. I was surprised by how THOROUGHLY I was won over by all of them, when usually I have a very clear-cut favorite and simply enjoy the rest (this isn't a bad thing at all, I say that only to emphasize just how much I loved Aeden Lucas and Dragan.) The use of body language conveyed so much about them, and the gorgeous prose did SO MUCH for setting the scenes, I was so engrossed at certain points that I was just completely forgetting to open my notepad and note down what I was thinking. 

I loved how sweet they all were, but again the sweetness was so different for each of them, even though the romance was set over the same major storyline, it never felt repetitive or like it was just slight variations to the same scenes. I did also like very much that not EVERY dialogue option set the course for which ending you got, I know some people may prefer otherwise but my preference is that there's dialogue in the game just for fun, I like being able to have some flavor text that doesn't impact the ending. 

Astora herself was such a treat too, her shift from shy to playful felt very natural, not stilted or out of character. I could tell where she felt most comfortable and it was reflected in how she spoke to her companions based on where she's at in the story. Lovely attention to detail, I cannot gush over it all enough. 

Okay! I just scrolled up and realized that I am in fact taking up quite a lot of space, so I will refrain from making you read an entire college papers worth of words LOL

TLDR: What a wonderfully compelling story! I truly could not spend enough time writing all of the good things I found in it, the character interactions and dynamics were so unique and distinctive, they didn't feel the 'same' in tone at any point in the story, the tension was thick and romantic and absolutely sensual at the most intense points, there are certain quotes that are going to be stuck in my head for weeks after this. There were a few minor things that felt a little short, but those are easily chalked up to the fact that this was made for a jam, and I don't feel like my overall experience was lesser in any way despite them. I'm very much (patiently) looking forward to whatever story comes next!