Wow, this story was quite the experience, it has some interesting points to talk about, so I hope I can do justice to this story with my review.
First of all, the presentation. I really loved the art direction, the sprites and CGs were beautifully drawn, and the UI had an amazing style that complemented the classical ambiance of the location. The characters varying their position around the environment was a nice detail, giving a bit of immersion to the game.
The story was also a nice hit. The principal conflict was Federico’s bisexuality, with Anna’s internalized homophobia and insecurity of her partner being with another man in the past and Raimondo’s feelings being pushed back to let his best friend be happy with someone else.
However, the resolution of those conflicts is where the story fails a bit. Rai’s conclusion was, honestly, satisfactory; they were able to talk about their feelings and how they want to continue their relationship. Rai—despite seeming interested in pursuing Fede, judging by the fact that he kisses him at the first chance—pushes him to solve things with Anna.
However, her resolution, and therefore, the ending of the story, is just too abrupt to actually see the development she had across the story, she just wanders around the manor and talks with a representation of a god—I think, I’ll be honest, I didn’t understand correctly that interaction with the Polyhedron although that’s just me, surely—and it seems that she came to terms with the fact that her boyfriend also likes guys.
Quite the deception, I was more interested in knowing her story than the other members of the cast. Her narration in second person seems to be a disassociation regarding her feelings, maybe it was just a way to differentiate her narration from Fede’s, but the UI’s color change was enough to make that differentiation. She seemed to have a more important inner monologue than Fede, but she was the one who had less time to flash her thoughts.
Besides that detail, the story is strong by itself. I enjoyed seeing the parallelism between the trio and the myth.
It was the excuse to bring them together in a place where they could be, both alone and together in time required by the plot, but it also brings another interesting topic to discuss: stories that change across time.
I don’t really remember why, but at some point I was thinking about how time tarnishes some stories, leaving their messages being contrary to what they originally were, and I was quite surprised to see this reflected in the story. Giuditta’s story was wrong, tainted across time to depict her in a happy marriage and success that is nothing like reality, and the story that accompanies her myth, ‘if you stay all night, your wish will be granted,' is also a lie.
I could be wrong here, but it seems that the only one who followed that legend, Raimondo, was the only one whose wish wasn't granted, being with Fede. The story never fully addresses Rai’s thoughts, being the one without a narration, and it feels intentional. He’s the one who followed the legend, thus not having the ending he expected, and the other, the one who broke Giuditta’s myth, has their wishes being reality—or at least it seems, the story still cuts before they had a satisfactory resolution—
This story was an interesting dive into people’s mentality regarding homosexuality and how it affects your way to relate with others, being in a good way or in a bad way, it could benefit a lot with more time to reflect on Anna’s monologue about her reasons, her life, and her resolutions, but besides that, I enjoyed this game a lot.