Just played through the whole demo for the first time—this game was a delight! I really liked Zahn and thought I was gonna go for her for sure, but then Duri literally swept me off my feet haha. God, having her feed and take care of you in dog mode and letting you pet her and praise her before she suddenly turns into a hot futch with top energy? That’s the dream lmaoooo. No one else stood a chance after that! And then she literally picks you up and carries you to the shrine! And she give you headpats!!! And then she immediately gives up on flirting with the dude in the bar to come rescue us from the guard who was hitting on us? So hot. Nothing better than a player falling for you and committing to you. And then in Chapter 6 on the hill at night when I told her I wanted to sleep with her, and she asked to wait so she could make my first time special?! And then she climbs in through your window and drops a bag of strap-ons on my bed like a puppy showing off a favorite toy?! The perfect woman, truly. And the scene itself is peak with how she gently guides you through everything. I was very happy to accommodate her teacher kink lol. And then after when you ask if she’s seeing anyone else and she tells you she isn’t but she’s fine if you do, and then she’s like “hm that felt weird???” Yes girl! Get jealous over me! Let’s be exclusive!
I do kind of wish there was an option to just tell Oswin I’m a lesbian sometime early on so he leaves me alone lol. I picked “distant” with him every time I had the option but it felt like my character still gave him a lot of time, attention, and grace—like you have to both hang out with him AND spar with him during the Chapter 3 camping scene with him, Zahn, and Nathanael, while Zahn and Nathanael only have one required scene each. Also during that scene, your character is very kind about the whole key thing even if you pick that you’re angry and then that you don’t want to forgive him yet. I wanted to tell him he blew it and I don’t want to be friends anymore, and to remind him that I didn’t even want him to come along on this trip as a bodyguard lol. And then there’s a bunch of scripted playful banter after the sparring session and you automatically agree to do it more often. And you constantly have to stick up for him and play mediator whenever he’s being controlling about you or trying to play group leader—like all your options when Zahn gets her bad feeling about the clearing involve telling her to be more respectful to him, but why? He’s kind of a dick and he’s not the leader of the expedition, he’s just your bodyguard. He has no authority position over Zahn. Or during Chapter 5, when you’re writing to your dads, you have no choice but to let him come into your room and interrupt you—and then you even invite him to sit closer when he sits far away? Why can’t I leave him where he is, I picked “distant” on purpose haha. At least we’re allowed to be unenthused about the gift and to declare it’s specifically because we don’t like him, that was nice, but then we immediately are required to hear him out about his angsty decade-long emo phase instead of shooing him out of the room, and we can’t even call him out about making our curse all about him and his weird savior complex. I wish we could just let Aster shoot him lol, sure Aster also hits on us but at least we can roll our eyes at him and shut him down. Oswin just sort of acts creepy and possessive but refuses to actually ask us out for more than five chapters, so we can’t reject him and be done with it until super late in the demo. And when he tells us in chapter 6 about being jealous of both us and Emre, we’re forced to take his side—the most distant option is to offer “silent support” for some reason, instead of pointing out how toxic he’s been for the past 10 years and telling him it’s not our responsibility to help him get over himself. Funnily enough the one scene with him where I was 100% in his corner was when he finally does tell us about killing his sword master. I was very much on his side for that one, that sword master is fucked up and evil, but I broke character and chose the option to say I wasn’t OK with what he did just so I could finally lock out his romance route in the hopes that he’d stop being so possessive over me. And of course that’s when he finally hits me with the “I’ve been in love with you the whole time” for real lmao. If you had just said that several chapters ago I would’ve let you down easy and we could’ve been friends!
Of course Oswin’s actual unforgivable sin isn’t the murder, it’s that he just couldn’t stop clamjamming me lol. Like when I let Duri taste me, he stopped her and called her a dog (in a mean way). And then he cut her off when she asks if I’d give her a belly rub! And then he banged on the bathroom door when I’m showing Duri my mark! Like, dude, let me have this lmaoooo. You never had a chance romantically but if you weren’t such a weirdo towards me the whole game I would’ve at least done your friendship route.
Setting aside the ROs, the setting/worldbuilding and plot are both great. Zahn’s little bomb at the very end of the demo is spicy, too. Can’t wait to see where that goes!