I just finished the novel and am absolutely blown away by what a masterpiece it is. I'm glad that your team didn't go heavy on the 'choose your own ending" thing that alot of VN's do, because I think a nice smooth story is so much better. The only complaint I'd have(as a free reader lol) is that your teams talents are spread out amongst so many projects that the continued progression Adastra's sequels will be greatly slowed. If an adastra series were to be hard covered I'd be filling my book case with them and shilling out cash. Anyways here's to the future. Cheers!
I like the plot of the game very much, but after playing Adastra and thinking about it carefully, I have such a guess: MC fell in love with amicus, is it because of Stockholm Syndrome? Because amicus is a handsome kidnapper who is still a prince and has a lively personality, and MC has only amicus to help him for a long time. Or, amicus fell in love with MC because of Stockholm Syndrome? Because MC reversely binds amicus on the spaceship at the beginning, and in the story, amicus’ life is also tied to MC, and considering that amicus is a wolf, so I have this idea, this is what Parents make sure they The means by which each other can love each other. Of course I believe they are in true love, but in a sense their love is indeed controlled by Parents.
Edit: A lot of people don't like my takes on this vn. It's not like im some non furry being a dick- I make the suits for a living. My being a dick in this comment was kind of for my own entertainment lmao. Anyway.
It took me a few days to get through this, and i have to say... I am disappointed. I'd heard such great things about this, but not once did I feel upset. Well, aside from the last third of the game being so agonizingly boring.
Both MC and Amicus are overgrown children with no control over their infantile temper tantrums. Them fighting over the smallest things, or getting so worked up for selfish reasons was incredibly difficult to sit through.
Not to mention I didnt care for Amicus at all. He's just your usual "Himbo wolf furry with the mental capacity of a 10 year old" And absolutely nothing interesting beyond that.
I have to say, my favorite characters were Neferu, Alexios and Cassius respectively. They had something interesting going on. More than one layer of personality and motivations. Sure, Amicus had that in the first act, but once MC is informed of what's really happening, he loses all intrigue.
Also I'd like to point out, for a visual novel, you hardly get any decisions. It left me feeling even more disconnected, even if mc wasn't an insufferable brat with a victim complex.
One last thing, things going wrong one after another got super predictable super quickly. After the dance happened, I found myself just assuming that if something could go wrong, it would. And if something went right, then the next thing that happens will be even worse than usual. This is probably my cold-hearted douchebag-y-ness talking, but I felt little to no emotion other than frustration through this entire game. Through every "trying to be emotional" scene, i just found myself repeating "I seriously could not care less. Can we just move along and act like reasonable adults?"
TL;DR If you like slice of life with and immature single love interest, and an equally immature MC, you'll probably like this. If that's not your cup of tea, dont waste your time. There were very few engaging moments, just overwhelming fluff and domestic arguments with your occasional actual bit of real drama.
It was nice and I did like it but I didn't feel any of the big emotions other people felt. The whole accident between Amicus and Neferu made me dislike Amicus and when I wasn't mad anymore, I couldn't bring myself to care about him cause, he's kinda boring sometimes. Sorry Amicus stans, don't kill me, i know you are many. Anyway, it brings me to the relationship between him and Marco. I didn't feel like it was more than a crush from Amicus' side so the ring scene was a little extreme in my eyes. I know in universe more time passed but from my player pov it's like they knew each other for a week and decided to get married cause I didn't feel the time passing.
I wish I could see what everyone else see and feel but I don't. I did like it, but I was a little disappointed after seeing so many people calling it a "masterpiece". I had a great time anyway. Everyone is free to think what they think, i know my opinion is unpopular so please be respectful.
I think I may have played a much earlier release at some point as I had some dejavu, but this is an absolute masterpiece. I enjoyed the writing and the complex story.
I cried very hard several times. I was very emotionally invested and would play for hours at a time. I've read there are alternate endings? I will play though again to find them.
JesseH below mentioned "post-Adastra depression" I'm there right now.
I will probably go support them on Patreon, I wish I could have named a price for this to at least thank the team for this great story.
I'm a extremely lazy person, I'm not really a fan of reading, that includes books and text-based games, so I always skip a lot of text when playing visual novels. I'm also a cold hearted person. I belive only 2 movies in my entire life made me cry, and I rarely cry more than once a year. That said, while playing Adastra, I did not skip a single line of text, and it made me cry. But more than cry, laugh, get angry, get sad, get bittersweet. That's how good this game is. It's without doubt THE BEST visual novel I've ever played, and I do belive it's not even more popular than it is because it is a furry gay nsfw game. It's well written, and has amazing art.
That said, I do have some criticisms, mainly the fact that the protagonist is just insufferable. He takes WAY too long to show affection to Amicus, even when he admit's he's attracted to him and likes him. That wolf deserves WAY more hugs and affectionate words (and sex) than this guys gave him. The way he speaks is just awful, not elegant like the other characters. Amicus always states his feelings and concerns for the main character almost poetically, and this guy response is like "yeah", "sure". He's also constantly virtue signaling to everyone around him.
I must say the game is very well made. It reads me like a book because I see myself would act like Amicus would that is why I really like it. I like to read horoscope too (me a Pisces and Aries cusp). So in the game I focus on Amicus not Marco!
Apparently, Pixel phones that runs android 13, removed support for apps that have 32 bit only libraries.
I know for sure renpy when it packs the game for Android device, it should already included the 64 bit libraries, but in this case, it doesn't. I wonder why..
Edit: right... Adastra is made with old renpy, and old renpy does not yet support 64 bit.
Edit 2: the workaround for now is download and install JoiPlay on play store and download the pc version of adastra and load it to JoiPlay
Played this 2 years ago, specifically 2020 around -ber months. Came back here to reminisce, ahhh sweet memories, makes me wanna cry. Still worth it for anyone who haven't tried it yet, definitely the best one to start with Furry VNs. As also this was my first.
while i was playing through this game a ton of elements in the story reminded me of Stargate SG1 (in the way it uses ancient cultures as they were coming to/from earth, god's being advanced cultures from other galaxies then sharing knowledge/technology and it even has a wolf that resembles that of Daniel Jackson at the end that even goes to Egypt) those were some similarities now here's some differences (no star gate or SG1 team and the desert planet in khemia isn't called Abydos) these two projects are very similar but also very different, this was just my stupid little Brain connecting dots that shouldn't connect but go ahead and share your thoughts I guess
Waaitt I finally found the game!! I read this before but it ended where the MC went back home to earth! Please tell me this is an updated version?! Cuz I thought that was the end of the novel!
Holy sh-t! This was absolutely hilarious! I could not stop smiling and laughing at how absurd everything was! And the fact that it’s all being taken so incredibly seriously! It’s all so damn goofy, no offense. Idk, I’m straight, so I guess I can’t relate or something. The scene with Cassius and Alex was uh, I enjoyed it. Anyways, if you want a good laugh (for 10 hours straight) with some inappropriate parts sprinkled throughout, perfect game.
I could say that this game is perfect ... Ive cry several time ..... after playing "Extracurriculars" its just another mental break down for me seeing this game ended ...... i really really want more then that just please ... although might not be happening but the home screen's bgm hurts me whenever i hear it i really want those story never ends .... i whould play others sooner like the interea although Ive no idea is that after eight years or what
......
anyways again this game is incredible and i hope i have a partner like that but sadly i dont think might happend or maybe yes .. who knows ? the world may be bigger or smaller after all .... thanks Echo Project ...this year might end sad btut seriously i enjoy reading it thanks again ...
welp as after i watch the last part i felt that im kinda dumm sayin that but thanks xD
heyyy thanks for the reply yassss i know it after i finished the games sorry for letting u wait for a year before i reply xD cause i dont use itch io that much buttttt i found new games i think i will use it more often it also help me studyng my english xD
From the way everybody talks about this, I expected a whole lot more. It's not bad, it's even pretty clever at times, but most of it is a very by-the-numbers romantic drama with pretty average characters. Plot holes are pretty common and so is unnecessary conflict. 6/10
Not gonna BS you and say the MC ain't the lecturing type, but that doesn't change the fact that some of the stuff Marco said wasn't right. Honestly, I don't think he went far enough speaking out against all the messed up stuff on Adastra. Maybe it's because if he did, he wouldn't have much reason to actually love Amicus. Adastra and the wolven empire are a complete disaster.
'Course it's valid criticism. My point is more about how almost every VN I read has this same dynamic where the main character is always criticising the other people's culture. I've just never seen it actually handled in a way where it has any importance to the characters themselves. In Adastra it seems to just be a way to generate conflict without giving either Marco or Amicus personality traits or opinions that can be disliked.
Like, if you really want to say something about women's rights then have the guts to make it an important part of the story, bake it into Amicus and let Marco change his mind or something. Tell us why Marco cares about it so much that he'd be willing to try and change the culture of an entire planet to make it happen.
That being said, there's no reason why you need real life issues in a story like this. It's a human falling in love with a gay sci-fi Roman wolf. Just let it be about the characters, it's more than enough.
install the .tar.bz2 package and extract it to your games folder or desktop, your distro should come with an archive manager. go into your terminal, type "cd " and drag the folder into the terminal. press enter and then type "./Adastra.sh" that should open up the game
I made an account just to comment here - I mean this when I say that this is the best "book" that I've ever read. The writing is so f*cking good that this occupies a permanent place in my mind. I was eating in a Mediterranean Fusion restaurant and looked up to see olive vines. I was immediately reminded of Adastra and was filled with such a strong feeling of sadness and of happiness - my absolute love for this universe and the sadness that there is no more of it to consume. I do not doubt that it will be expanded and I can repeat playthroughs but the feeling of first going through the pages upon pages of text is equal to nothing.
Got peer pressured into playing this, but I don't regret it. This is the only game that has made me cry, and easily the best story I've ever seen in a game.
Is there a 'no-graphic-images' mode? Doesn't need to be a 'sfw' mode, I know the sex can sometimes be inextricable from the story and the themes, I'm just hoping for a mode where I don't actually need to look at the D if possible. Came here on the recommendation of a Patricial Taxxon video, and I'm super interested in this story-wise, but...
*shit actually peoples having adastra brainrot are like jojo fans and seeing refferences and ripoff everywhere. fbtw is the prime example due to its popularity. TBH some part of it given me vibes of it especially in the begining so i completly understand why peoples thought of it but since recent updates especially for patreons (because it's been almost a year public didn't got any update) it litterally has nothing to compare to it.
i have been crying over amicus for a week now, i promised myself that i would forget him but here i am crying, it truly shows how amazing this game is, although there's this one question i always had in mind that needs to be answered, will amicus and marco reunite? i want to know, i NEED to know.
Small detail, but the human count is 8 billion now compared to when Amicus asked MC how many humans lived here after saying how many wolvens lived. I have this game in my mind for years so immediately when I heard the world population is now 8 billion I thought of Adastra XD
You too, huh? I know Marco is supposed to be a self-insert, but I think the game is best played if you avoid self-inserting at all cost. Without getting too into spoilers, I made that mistake my first time around, and had the same issues you did. I think having Amicus not being the one who kidnapped you would go a long way in making him an appealing love interest. Given the comments, though, maybe that's the draw.
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Amicus你带我走吧，玩完要emo了
I just finished the novel and am absolutely blown away by what a masterpiece it is. I'm glad that your team didn't go heavy on the 'choose your own ending" thing that alot of VN's do, because I think a nice smooth story is so much better. The only complaint I'd have(as a free reader lol) is that your teams talents are spread out amongst so many projects that the continued progression Adastra's sequels will be greatly slowed. If an adastra series were to be hard covered I'd be filling my book case with them and shilling out cash. Anyways here's to the future. Cheers!
I like the plot of the game very much, but after playing Adastra and thinking about it carefully, I have such a guess: MC fell in love with amicus, is it because of Stockholm Syndrome? Because amicus is a handsome kidnapper who is still a prince and has a lively personality, and MC has only amicus to help him for a long time. Or, amicus fell in love with MC because of Stockholm Syndrome? Because MC reversely binds amicus on the spaceship at the beginning, and in the story, amicus’ life is also tied to MC, and considering that amicus is a wolf, so I have this idea, this is what Parents make sure they The means by which each other can love each other. Of course I believe they are in true love, but in a sense their love is indeed controlled by Parents.
I think you're right.It should not be used to infer whether two people like each other or not
It's like: There is only one hero in the world: to see the world as it is and to love it
I just think it might be parents' plan
I'm only part way through at the moment. but I can already tell this VN is a real gem. Thank you Echo team. Cheers!
Edit: A lot of people don't like my takes on this vn. It's not like im some non furry being a dick- I make the suits for a living. My being a dick in this comment was kind of for my own entertainment lmao. Anyway.
It took me a few days to get through this, and i have to say... I am disappointed. I'd heard such great things about this, but not once did I feel upset. Well, aside from the last third of the game being so agonizingly boring.
Both MC and Amicus are overgrown children with no control over their infantile temper tantrums. Them fighting over the smallest things, or getting so worked up for selfish reasons was incredibly difficult to sit through.
Not to mention I didnt care for Amicus at all. He's just your usual "Himbo wolf furry with the mental capacity of a 10 year old" And absolutely nothing interesting beyond that.
I have to say, my favorite characters were Neferu, Alexios and Cassius respectively. They had something interesting going on. More than one layer of personality and motivations. Sure, Amicus had that in the first act, but once MC is informed of what's really happening, he loses all intrigue.
Also I'd like to point out, for a visual novel, you hardly get any decisions. It left me feeling even more disconnected, even if mc wasn't an insufferable brat with a victim complex.
One last thing, things going wrong one after another got super predictable super quickly. After the dance happened, I found myself just assuming that if something could go wrong, it would. And if something went right, then the next thing that happens will be even worse than usual. This is probably my cold-hearted douchebag-y-ness talking, but I felt little to no emotion other than frustration through this entire game. Through every "trying to be emotional" scene, i just found myself repeating "I seriously could not care less. Can we just move along and act like reasonable adults?"
TL;DR If you like slice of life with and immature single love interest, and an equally immature MC, you'll probably like this. If that's not your cup of tea, dont waste your time. There were very few engaging moments, just overwhelming fluff and domestic arguments with your occasional actual bit of real drama.
Amen
Will adastra be playable one day on Nintendo switch?
you can play it on chrome here
This site works too https://unblocked-games.org
I've had a switch port published for about 2 years now.
Ganda ng story ah namasa pukey ko kakabasa 10/10
SPOILERS !!!
It was nice and I did like it but I didn't feel any of the big emotions other people felt. The whole accident between Amicus and Neferu made me dislike Amicus and when I wasn't mad anymore, I couldn't bring myself to care about him cause, he's kinda boring sometimes. Sorry Amicus stans, don't kill me, i know you are many. Anyway, it brings me to the relationship between him and Marco. I didn't feel like it was more than a crush from Amicus' side so the ring scene was a little extreme in my eyes. I know in universe more time passed but from my player pov it's like they knew each other for a week and decided to get married cause I didn't feel the time passing.
I wish I could see what everyone else see and feel but I don't. I did like it, but I was a little disappointed after seeing so many people calling it a "masterpiece". I had a great time anyway. Everyone is free to think what they think, i know my opinion is unpopular so please be respectful.
I think I may have played a much earlier release at some point as I had some dejavu, but this is an absolute masterpiece. I enjoyed the writing and the complex story.
I cried very hard several times. I was very emotionally invested and would play for hours at a time. I've read there are alternate endings? I will play though again to find them.
JesseH below mentioned "post-Adastra depression" I'm there right now.
I will probably go support them on Patreon, I wish I could have named a price for this to at least thank the team for this great story.
Looking forward to the companion and sequel.
(few-spoiler review)
I'm a extremely lazy person, I'm not really a fan of reading, that includes books and text-based games, so I always skip a lot of text when playing visual novels. I'm also a cold hearted person. I belive only 2 movies in my entire life made me cry, and I rarely cry more than once a year. That said, while playing Adastra, I did not skip a single line of text, and it made me cry. But more than cry, laugh, get angry, get sad, get bittersweet. That's how good this game is. It's without doubt THE BEST visual novel I've ever played, and I do belive it's not even more popular than it is because it is a furry gay nsfw game. It's well written, and has amazing art.
That said, I do have some criticisms, mainly the fact that the protagonist is just insufferable. He takes WAY too long to show affection to Amicus, even when he admit's he's attracted to him and likes him. That wolf deserves WAY more hugs and affectionate words (and sex) than this guys gave him. The way he speaks is just awful, not elegant like the other characters. Amicus always states his feelings and concerns for the main character almost poetically, and this guy response is like "yeah", "sure". He's also constantly virtue signaling to everyone around him.
I must say the game is very well made. It reads me like a book because I see myself would act like Amicus would that is why I really like it. I like to read horoscope too (me a Pisces and Aries cusp). So in the game I focus on Amicus not Marco!
Anyone know how to fix this lmao
What Android device are you using?
Pixel 7 pro, running android 13
Apparently, Pixel phones that runs android 13, removed support for apps that have 32 bit only libraries.
I know for sure renpy when it packs the game for Android device, it should already included the 64 bit libraries, but in this case, it doesn't. I wonder why..
Edit: right... Adastra is made with old renpy, and old renpy does not yet support 64 bit.
Edit 2: the workaround for now is download and install JoiPlay on play store and download the pc version of adastra and load it to JoiPlay
Ahhh, thank you!!
Edit: YOOO IT WORKED TYSM!
Your welcome 😁
I have the same problem and I'm trying to do this fix but I can't find JoiPlay on the play store, has it been removed or something?
maybe or it doesn't support your device
you can play it on chrome with your andorid on here
Played this 2 years ago, specifically 2020 around -ber months. Came back here to reminisce, ahhh sweet memories, makes me wanna cry. Still worth it for anyone who haven't tried it yet, definitely the best one to start with Furry VNs. As also this was my first.
I really like the look of Amicus in this. Simple is simply better! And the music too.
OMG, you won't understand what is "post-Adastra depression" until you play this game... masterpiece.
Amicus - best wolf ever.
That is if you hit the Fate Ending first. I did and I think it is a must when play (read?) this game.
Which is fate ending? (*﹏*;)
https://www.reddit.com/r/Adastra_/comments/kpajm5/spoiler_choice_and_ending_flow...
while i was playing through this game a ton of elements in the story reminded me of Stargate SG1 (in the way it uses ancient cultures as they were coming to/from earth, god's being advanced cultures from other galaxies then sharing knowledge/technology and it even has a wolf that resembles that of Daniel Jackson at the end that even goes to Egypt) those were some similarities now here's some differences (no star gate or SG1 team and the desert planet in khemia isn't called Abydos) these two projects are very similar but also very different, this was just my stupid little Brain connecting dots that shouldn't connect but go ahead and share your thoughts I guess
pretty good vn thoughDo they have a discord
happy new year 😉
Waaitt I finally found the game!! I read this before but it ended where the MC went back home to earth! Please tell me this is an updated version?! Cuz I thought that was the end of the novel!
It is the end of the novel ahah
Holy sh-t! This was absolutely hilarious! I could not stop smiling and laughing at how absurd everything was! And the fact that it’s all being taken so incredibly seriously! It’s all so damn goofy, no offense. Idk, I’m straight, so I guess I can’t relate or something. The scene with Cassius and Alex was uh, I enjoyed it. Anyways, if you want a good laugh (for 10 hours straight) with some inappropriate parts sprinkled throughout, perfect game.
I could say that this game is perfect ... Ive cry several time ..... after playing "Extracurriculars" its just another mental break down for me seeing this game ended ...... i really really want more then that just please ... although might not be happening but the home screen's bgm hurts me whenever i hear it i really want those story never ends .... i whould play others sooner like the interea although Ive no idea is that after eight years or what
......
anyways again this game is incredible and i hope i have a partner like that but sadly i dont think might happend or maybe yes .. who knows ? the world may be bigger or smaller after all .... thanks Echo Project ...this year might end sad btut seriously i enjoy reading it thanks again ...
welp as after i watch the last part i felt that im kinda dumm sayin that but thanks xD
interra is the tour around adastra (before the 8 years ) and khemia is during the 8 years
heyyy thanks for the reply yassss i know it after i finished the games sorry for letting u wait for a year before i reply xD cause i dont use itch io that much buttttt i found new games i think i will use it more often it also help me studyng my english xD
So it made me cry which is preposterous,
hence I shall now ask if there is a second ending that is similar to what the parents are speaking of - to prevent tears to once again fall.
Is this the end
Relly aww man pleas let this wonderful story end like that 😭😭
Who can teach me how to switch languages?Please！
Sadly there is only one language available if I'm not mistaken :(
Thank you for your help:)
From the way everybody talks about this, I expected a whole lot more. It's not bad, it's even pretty clever at times, but most of it is a very by-the-numbers romantic drama with pretty average characters. Plot holes are pretty common and so is unnecessary conflict. 6/10
"Make a furry VN without a judgemental, hypocritical MC lecturing everyone about equality" challenge (IMPOSSIBLE)
Not gonna BS you and say the MC ain't the lecturing type, but that doesn't change the fact that some of the stuff Marco said wasn't right. Honestly, I don't think he went far enough speaking out against all the messed up stuff on Adastra. Maybe it's because if he did, he wouldn't have much reason to actually love Amicus. Adastra and the wolven empire are a complete disaster.
'Course it's valid criticism. My point is more about how almost every VN I read has this same dynamic where the main character is always criticising the other people's culture. I've just never seen it actually handled in a way where it has any importance to the characters themselves. In Adastra it seems to just be a way to generate conflict without giving either Marco or Amicus personality traits or opinions that can be disliked.
Like, if you really want to say something about women's rights then have the guts to make it an important part of the story, bake it into Amicus and let Marco change his mind or something. Tell us why Marco cares about it so much that he'd be willing to try and change the culture of an entire planet to make it happen.
That being said, there's no reason why you need real life issues in a story like this. It's a human falling in love with a gay sci-fi Roman wolf. Just let it be about the characters, it's more than enough.
can someone dumb down the method to get this to run on linux for someone who's only ever operated windows?
install the .tar.bz2 package and extract it to your games folder or desktop, your distro should come with an archive manager. go into your terminal, type "cd " and drag the folder into the terminal. press enter and then type "./Adastra.sh" that should open up the game
just use the web version
don't need your help, Someone else ACTUALLY helped and web client is shit.
WOW your a meanie
no, I'm someone who asked for help and you provided no solution
Im come back to cry alot again I miss them so much I almost drop my phone cuz I cry alots is been 8 year they finally see each other im so glad
I have been waiting for the sequel, and I have played it again and again.😭
Interea is no sequel mate :D
It's a companion novel, it happens during Adastra, focusing on some of the events at the end of the game
I made an account just to comment here - I mean this when I say that this is the best "book" that I've ever read. The writing is so f*cking good that this occupies a permanent place in my mind. I was eating in a Mediterranean Fusion restaurant and looked up to see olive vines. I was immediately reminded of Adastra and was filled with such a strong feeling of sadness and of happiness - my absolute love for this universe and the sadness that there is no more of it to consume. I do not doubt that it will be expanded and I can repeat playthroughs but the feeling of first going through the pages upon pages of text is equal to nothing.
I know this is true for not just me when i say this: "I'm here to replay this for the 3rd time"
Got peer pressured into playing this, but I don't regret it. This is the only game that has made me cry, and easily the best story I've ever seen in a game.
Is there a 'no-graphic-images' mode? Doesn't need to be a 'sfw' mode, I know the sex can sometimes be inextricable from the story and the themes, I'm just hoping for a mode where I don't actually need to look at the D if possible. Came here on the recommendation of a Patricial Taxxon video, and I'm super interested in this story-wise, but...
(Haven't given it a dl yet)
I am NOT into this
But...
Since it's so popular ,crrated by the echo project,will traumatized you and is similar to FBTW I'm gonna play
Spitting straight facts
*shit
actually peoples having adastra brainrot are like jojo fans and seeing refferences and ripoff everywhere. fbtw is the prime example due to its popularity. TBH some part of it given me vibes of it especially in the begining so i completly understand why peoples thought of it but since recent updates especially for patreons (because it's been almost a year public didn't got any update) it litterally has nothing to compare to it.
Huh!?
WHY LEAVE US ON A CLIFFHANGER 😭😭😭😭😭😭
I don't really trust the parents but i do trust the monitor...
i have been crying over amicus for a week now, i promised myself that i would forget him but here i am crying, it truly shows how amazing this game is, although there's this one question i always had in mind that needs to be answered, will amicus and marco reunite? i want to know, i NEED to know.
Small detail, but the human count is 8 billion now compared to when Amicus asked MC how many humans lived here after saying how many wolvens lived. I have this game in my mind for years so immediately when I heard the world population is now 8 billion I thought of Adastra XD
Me personally, if I got kidnapped by such a wolf, I wouldn't react how this human did. :-\
You too, huh? I know Marco is supposed to be a self-insert, but I think the game is best played if you avoid self-inserting at all cost. Without getting too into spoilers, I made that mistake my first time around, and had the same issues you did. I think having Amicus not being the one who kidnapped you would go a long way in making him an appealing love interest. Given the comments, though, maybe that's the draw.