[Full review, no spoiler ] I really loved the game, I binged-played it the day I bought it (and it takes me the whole day, so it's very full of content, totally worth his price !!!), and I do not regret any second on it, even if it was very difficult (adventurous mod).
Story and characters: Truly, the story was rich, interesting, and well paced. I really liked the consistency of NPC, the various hints given through the game so everything makes sense in the end. All characters was equally deep and well written, especially the MC, I liked her genuine curiosity and her fighting spirit, she was a pleasure to embody. In the route I played (Aurelius) I felt the romance was a bit secondary but it didn’t bothered me much because I was so taken by the plot and the few romantic scenes displayed was really good, so it was worth. I still wish there was a bit more of them, a bit more of common scenes where the feeling just grows, and just a bit more romantic ending but that’s my only complain about the story itself, otherwise I truly thought it was perfect.
Also, I really enjoyed all the details about the request which were always tie with a little story, and the mission were really written too.
The writing itself was a bit hard for a non-native speaker like me, but it really helps to set the mood of the royalty and the magic world surrounded us, and I easily stepped in, it was really good too.
[I just noticed a mistake on pronouns in one scene (I got «his » instead of «her ».) « Lady Rozencruz told me to send his warmest regards, etc. »]
Gameplay : I thought the gameplay was really well tied to the story. I was a sucker for this little «ting » when the checkbox appears to make me understand I have what it takes. But it took me at least 3 attempt from the middle of the game, to manage to balance my stat, mostly because there is no clue about what we will need, and I think it’s a bit annoying because it really makes you feel lost on your first playthrough... and even a bit afterward. (And I am a sucker for stat rising, you would be scare to see my notes on the first tokimeki because I really got serious).
I wish there was some stage represent on your stats, like lines on the bar showing us how much we need for the choices to come (or at least for the chapter to come).
I also wish we had some feedback on affection from love interest, because we can check everything else, but not this, which is a bit frustrating on a romance game. (Also I wonder if it’s the thing in « daily life », because I don’t understand what it is ? But some notes on the screen similar to the other approbation would be welcomed anyway.) Same for the approbation of the different faction (noble, merchant, servant and commoners), it was a bit annoying to be able to see it only when request starts and when there is no pending request. Finally, I wished I could have seen all the alchemist items from the begining, even if not being able to create <span class="s-bl" <them<="" span="">it right away (</span>like in the requirement «recipe not learnt » or something like that. Because I could only do a correct run, once I had unlocked most of them, and so I could plan a good dispatching of magic skills in order to be able to craft all of them immediately. (Because we don’t have always the time to raise a stat to craft an item…)
Finally the stat needed to be raise were not so intuitive (to Aurelius I think I will see for the other later), like, I wouldn’t have guess I needed to raise Etiquette with Aurelius, because this part of his route is really long to truly understand but it’s too late when you realize.
Of course it’s part of the game identity to lead you to death to help you get better, but, I still think we are lacking a bit on feedback. For example, when we miss a « test », we have no idea how much we should had get in order to pass it, so it’s very difficult to adjust, even after a death.
But once again, this come from a sucker of stat rising /managment game who aimed at the most perfect runs possible.
Anyway, once my chart was set up, and after some trial and error (and a lot of saves and loading-back too I must confess), I really had a lot of fun because everything just pieces together so perfectly.
Art and UI : Well, art is gorgeous, the backgrounds (very well used of already made assets, it truly perfectly blend), same for the sprite. I wish there was an option to remove the shadow for NPC because I, as a very personal taste, prefer when there is nothing than shadows, but it wasn’t too annoying. The UI is very clean, I really liked it, it was simple to understand and navigates through things. I also really enjoyed the music which really helps to get the perfect mood on the mod of the scene and was always discreet enough to not disturb from the reading.
In the end, even if I struggle a bit to get the trick, and still needed to go back sometime because I was at 3 points of a success, I really, really loved the game very much, I highly recommend it and I am looking forward to discovering the other routes. Ayael