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(+3)

I just finished playing through all of the routes and thought I'd leave a comment. 

The game is more or less as advertised. You know what kind of art and story to expect from the first part of the demo, and while parts of the different routes feel rushed or unpolished, overall it feels mostly complete and satisfying to play. You get a clear idea of what the art and GUI looks like from the screenshots, and while it might not be to everyone's preference, it was consistent throughout and fit well with the story. 

I wish there had been more variation in the routes. I also felt like most of the choices were repetitive. Most of the time the choices weren't even necessary, you were basically just selecting which of the love interests you would see that day.

If you're (like me) interested in trope-heavy otome visual novels with distinct and varying love interests with a heavy dose of romance and fluff with a dash of angst, then give it a try.

SPOILERS COMING




My biggest disappointment with the game is the inability to become both a strong leader and a spouse. You can choose to either be a queen or a lover, there's no path where those two converge in a meaningful way. While you're technically queen in all of the good endings, you don't have any clear idea of what that entails.  I played the queen route just to complete the CG gallery and see what it would be like, but as someone who really isn't into royalty, those routes were not very satisfying to me as they were written. I would have liked to see Cameron implement some real change between the fae and human relations. Maybe shed some of her extravagance or show more of what the average citizen's life is like.  

Another plot feature I wasn't really all that excited about was when, towards the end of each route, Cameron has to choose between two suitors because she realizes she has feelings for both of them. This would be great if it featured in only one or two routes, or if it were an optional bit of drama to add to a route, but to force it on every one was a bit tedious and it didn't always make sense. Like, if Cameron spends the entire game only meeting with one suitor, showing extreme interest in that suitor, and it's clear that she's only pursuing him, only to have someone who showed up one time in the prologue confess his love for Cameron and for Cameron to suddenly have feelings for him, too? It feels forced and contrived and takes you out of the story a bit. 

I did also feel like maybe there wasn't enough variation in the choices and in what happened in each route. Obviously, all of the love interests are unique and each have their own reservations that they overcome with Cameron's help, but it became tedious when, with each play through, I would think "This is where someone interrupts our date, this is where Cameron kisses one of the other suitors and has to choose, this is where Cameron meets Linton and they drink, this is where Mia shows up." It would have been nice to have a little more variation.

As for the suitors themselves, I'd say they were mostly interesting. Of course I did like some routes more than others. I'm sure there are some players who would be intrigued by Shaun, especially since he's obviously the character Cameron has the most history and rapport with, but he was an absolute write off to me. At the risk of seeming dramatic, it was actually kind of painful for me to get through his route, and I just did it for the completionist in me. I played the characters in order that they appear in the list when you get to select the marriage interviews (which were by far my favorite part of the game, by the way). So I did Kane, Shaun, Jake, Mace, Ronan, and Harold. 

I liked Jake and Kane the best, Ronan and Mace a little less, Harold next, and Shaun, well... We covered Shaun. Let me be clear, though, that it wasn't bad writing that made me dislike any of the characters or routes, per se, but just a disinterest in the tropes/kinds of characters they were. 

(+1)

I really hate Shaun.