Ok, 5/6 routes completed. Possible wall of text inc.
I'll start with what I liked. It really is my type of game, I don't get to read many of these so it's a treat to find them. Fantasy-theme, otome heroine, and most crucially a long story. I can't really enjoy most of the works posted here because they're just too short. The art and the music were both nice. I enjoyed how the story was presented in pieces depending on which route you took. You learned more about the Crimson Wizards if you took the Xellaun/Alexander route and more about the Princess of Ruin if you take Ralys/Cyorean route. It's like a puzzle you assemble piece by piece until it's complete once you finish the game. I'd give the game 7/10. Worth the money but not a masterpiece.
What didn't I like? This part is going to be longer but don't misunderstand. I liked the game but people by nature spend longer complaining about things than they do praising them. It's hard to come up with stuff other than 'I liked it it was cool.' My number one issue was the routes were just too similar. As soon as you enter someone's route something catastrophic happens in the Star Plane and you spend the rest of the route trying to fix it. I'm really having trouble finishing Xellaun's route because it's just so, so, similar to the other ones I've already read. Boyfriend has been fucked with by the stars, try to fix them. Literally the same storyline every time. The only ones even slightly different are Kione's where the positions are reversed and Alexander's which was thankfully different. Those two were my favorite routes for that reason. The common route was a good length but the routes themselves felt too short. I think the pacing in the final chapters could've been slowed down as well. There's basically zero time spent actually being a couple with your chosen guy.
I grew to dislike the Star Plane a lot even though I liked it at first. Almost all the conflict in the story comes from the Star Plane fucking with people's heads whereas if they were thinking rationally there would be no problems. There's no human element to the conflict. It's all just people being mind controlled or mentally influenced rather than people conflicting for human reasons.
I feel like there was a lot of untapped potential in the world. Like, with Ralys, what if instead of the Star Plane you fuck off to his homeland and spend his route trying to make things better there? Comparing this to Frozen Essence- if I remember right, it's been a while, but the routes in that game took place in completely different locales and made every route feel very different. You had the desert fire guy, the magical tower prison guy, the crazy forest guy, and the snowy town from the beginning. The point is, you traveled all over the place into many varied environments. But in this VN, so much of the conflict happens in literally a blank white screen and it's awful (hi Ralys route). Every single route is about crazy shit happening in the Star Plane and it just gets predictable.
As an aside here I was actually hoping there would be a route where Raissa does not recover her memories at all. I was disappointed she recovers them in every single route. Because Kione was the first route I did and he featured so heavily in the past memories I was fooled into thinking that she would only recover her memories in the Kione route, but that wasn't the case.
In summary, I really liked the first 80% of the game from the common route to the first 3 or so routes, but the last 3 were kind of a slog to get through. It was really hard to care about the specific conflict going on because it felt as if I had just seen it slightly re-skinned in a different route.
Brushing aside the negativity, I'll talk about the guys themselves and rank the routes. My playing order went like this:
Kione -> Zhel -> Cyorean -> Alexander -> Ralys -> Xellaun
Kione was a good first choice. I like to start a VN with a strong route and Kione's didn't disappoint. Honestly his route feels the closest to what 'canon' should look like because of their past connection. I enjoyed this pairing because Raissa tempered Kione's paranoia quite well. He's the cleverest guy by far (sorry Alexander) and he gets to actually shine as a man worthy of Raissa in the climax of his route.
Zhel and Cyorean. I'll talk about them together because they're very similar pitiful characters. They both hate themselves, talking all the time about 'discarding their useless selves' in their routes when they go crazy with star power. I really did not like either of them at all. Maybe some people like this type of route but I just can't stand it. It's disappointing because in the common route I actually thought Zhel would be the type of guy who smiles in the face of adversity but when it comes time for his route he devolves into this pathetic piece of trash who won't stop moaning about his uselessness. Cyorean similarly is equally useless in every ending except his best one where he suddenly grows some balls and KOs the Princess of Ruin. That elevated my evaluation of him a little.
Alexander I actually found myself liking quite a lot. He was similar to Kione in some ways but still quite distinct. He has the same rational perspective but he's a lot more ruthless and less moral. Or perhaps just not as clever as Kione because he has to resort to evil methods. This was the one dark side route I actually found myself nodding along with as it unfolded. In terms of making everything work out, helping the Crimson Wizards was a far better solution than the kicking of the hornet's nest that you do in the light path. It's the only route where I preferred the dark side.
After that, I did Ralys who established his credentials as the most heroic of the six by far. On the scale of 'morality' the other five don't even hold a candle to him. Even in his literal worst ending, the dark side dark ending you can't even really call him a villain whereas by comparison in, say, the Cyorean dark side dark ending he's mind-raping you into slavery. He's not the smartest guy, but he's the best man.
I didn't finish Xellaun's route. I got as far as him merging with the broken blue gem and just couldn't finish because I foresaw more star fuckery in the future. I do like that Raissa was actually allowed to shine a bit in this one whereas in the other routes a lot of the time she really doesn't do much, just enables the people with power to fix things. Going off on a tangent again here, I would've preferred Raissa to have more agency. So much of the time the only thing you can do is use words to try and solve things. Brute force basically never works. You KO'd the original Crimson Wizards 50 years ago (with help admittedly) but somehow in the entire game in any route at all you never manage to top this feat. But I suppose it's fine the way it is. Words are a weapon too.
So, in order of how much I liked the guys, I put it like this:
Kione > Ralys > Alexander > Xellaun > Zhel/Cyorean
In order of how much I enjoyed the routes, I put it like this:
Kione > Alexander > Xellaun > Ralys > Zhel/Cyorean
I guess what I should say is that I want a copy of the game where Kione is the only one with a route.
Oh, one last thing people have been discussing; the possibility of a true end. I'll just cast my vote as being one who would've liked one, but it wasn't necessary. I think being able to mentally choose your own true route is fine as well, but a route tying all the elements together (Lyoreans, Crimson Wizards, Princess of Ruin) could've elevated the game higher.
Thanks for the many hours of enjoyment, I hope to see more projects from you in the future.What didn't I like? This part is going to be longer but don't misunderstand. I liked the game but people by nature spend longer complaining about things than they do praising them. It's hard to come up with stuff other than 'I liked it it was cool.' My number one issue was the routes were just too similar. As soon as you enter someone's route something catastrophic happens in the Star Plane and you spend the rest of the route trying to fix it. I'm really having trouble finishing Xellaun's route because it's just so, so, similar to the other ones I've already read. Boyfriend has been fucked with by the stars, try to fix them. Literally the same storyline every time. The only ones even slightly different are Kione's where the positions are reversed and Alexander's which was thankfully different. Those two were my favorite routes for that reason. The common route was a good length but the routes themselves felt too short. I think the pacing in the final chapters could've been slowed down as well. There's basically zero time spent actually being a couple with your chosen guy.
I grew to dislike the Star Plane a lot even though I liked it at first. Almost all the conflict in the story comes from the Star Plane fucking with people's heads whereas if they were thinking rationally there would be no problems. There's no human element to the conflict. It's all just people being mind controlled or mentally influenced rather than people conflicting for human reasons.
I feel like there was a lot of untapped potential in the world. Like, with Ralys, what if instead of the Star Plane you fuck off to his homeland and spend his route trying to make things better there? Comparing this to Frozen Essence- if I remember right, it's been a while, but the routes in that game took place in completely different locales and made every route feel very different. You had the desert fire guy, the magical tower prison guy, the crazy forest guy, and the snowy town from the beginning. The point is, you traveled all over the place into many varied environments. But in this VN, so much of the conflict happens in literally a blank white screen and it's awful (hi Ralys route). Every single route is about crazy shit happening in the Star Plane and it just gets predictable.
As an aside here I was actually hoping there would be a route where Raissa does not recover her memories at all. I was disappointed she recovers them in every single route. Because Kione was the first route I did and he featured so heavily in the past memories I was fooled into thinking that she would only recover her memories in the Kione route, but that wasn't the case.
In summary, I really liked the first 80% of the game from the common route to the first 3 or so routes, but the last 3 were kind of a slog to get through. It was really hard to care about the specific conflict going on because it felt as if I had just seen it slightly re-skinned in a different route.
Brushing aside the negativity, I'll talk about the guys themselves and rank the routes. My playing order went like this:
Kione -> Zhel -> Cyorean -> Alexander -> Ralys -> Xellaun
Kione was a good first choice. I like to start a VN with a strong route and Kione's didn't disappoint. Honestly his route feels the closest to what 'canon' should look like because of their past connection. I enjoyed this pairing because Raissa tempered Kione's paranoia quite well. He's the cleverest guy by far (sorry Alexander) and he gets to actually shine as a man worthy of Raissa in the climax of his route.
Zhel and Cyorean. I'll talk about them together because they're very similar pitiful characters. They both hate themselves, talking all the time about 'discarding their useless selves' in their routes when they go crazy with star power. I really did not like either of them at all. Maybe some people like this type of route but I just can't stand it. It's disappointing because in the common route I actually thought Zhel would be the type of guy who smiles in the face of adversity but when it comes time for his route he devolves into this pathetic piece of trash who won't stop moaning about his uselessness. Cyorean similarly is equally useless in every ending except his best one where he suddenly grows some balls and KOs the Princess of Ruin. That elevated my evaluation of him a little.
Alexander I actually found myself liking quite a lot. He was similar to Kione in some ways but still quite distinct. He has the same rational perspective but he's a lot more ruthless and less moral. Or perhaps just not as clever as Kione because he has to resort to evil methods. This was the one dark side route I actually found myself nodding along with as it unfolded. In terms of making everything work out, helping the Crimson Wizards was a far better solution than the kicking of the hornet's nest that you do in the light path. It's the only route where I preferred the dark side.
After that, I did Ralys who established his credentials as the most heroic of the six by far. On the scale of 'morality' the other five don't even hold a candle to him. Even in his literal worst ending, the dark side dark ending you can't even really call him a villain whereas by comparison in, say, the Cyorean dark side dark ending he's mind-raping you into slavery. He's not the smartest guy, but he's the best man.
I didn't finish Xellaun's route. I got as far as him merging with the broken blue gem and just couldn't finish because I foresaw more star fuckery in the future. I do like that Raissa was actually allowed to shine a bit in this one whereas in the other routes a lot of the time she really doesn't do much, just enables the people with power to fix things. Going off on a tangent again here, I would've preferred Raissa to have more agency. So much of the time the only thing you can do is use words to try and solve things. Brute force basically never works. You KO'd the original Crimson Wizards 50 years ago (with help admittedly) but somehow in the entire game in any route at all you never manage to top this feat. But I suppose it's fine the way it is. Words are a weapon too.
So, in order of how much I liked the guys, I put it like this:
Kione > Ralys > Alexander > Xellaun > Zhel/Cyorean
In order of how much I enjoyed the routes, I put it like this:
Kione > Alexander > Xellaun > Ralys > Zhel/Cyorean
I guess what I should say is that I want a copy of the game where Kione is the only one with a route.
Oh, one last thing people have been discussing; the possibility of a true end. I'll just cast my vote as being one who would've liked one, but it wasn't necessary. I think being able to mentally choose your own true route is fine as well, but a route tying all the elements together (Lyoreans, Crimson Wizards, Princess of Ruin) could've elevated the game higher.
