What an absolutely tragic, beautiful experience all around. I figured I would enjoy it based on the general vibes I got from it before it was picked up for localization, but I didn't expect it to consume my thoughts as it did. This game has soared into becoming one of my top otome of all time ^w^
The visuals and music are very high quality and gorgeous. The character designs are top-tier as well though some took a little bit to grow on me (namely Mathis's and Lucas's).
And as for the writing... phew, what a ride this story was. It intrigued me right from the start and never once bored me. The mysterious and dark nature of the setting were well-established and the foreshadowing was intricately woven through both the common route and all the characters routes. The world-building was also great, reminding me a bit of Olympia Soiree (another all-time fave of mine). The subject matter definitely isn't for the faint of heart, but I gotta say I was expecting waaaay worse on that front based on all the trigger warnings that people were putting out... or maybe I just have a high tolerance, lol. Yes, there was lot of blood and violence and despair as advertised, but I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of "cozier" moments (usually when Ceres was bonding with the LIs) that happened in between the despair. It does touch on some scientific topics... which are outlandish and best not taken too seriously, lol, but I can't say it bothered me too much.
Now as far as the forced bad endings before you can get to the better/bittersweet ones goes... I get what they were going for and I totally see why people would complain about it. I generally don't play bad ends in otome myself unless they're required for CGs/etc. But in this particular case and largely because I was pre-warned to the format, it didn't bother me too much. It's quite a test in delayed gratification, but it made it all the more satisfying to unlock the Salvation endings.
Regarding the Le Salut route... I do dislike that it had an unskippable prologue that lasted for a chapter length of so; felt unnecessary to rehash details that we already knew. But the further you get into the route, the better it is with reveals dropping left and right. Some were fairly predictable, but others totally blew me away :O Overall, I think the route wraps the story up well and even has a more satisfying conclusion for some characters than even their Salvation ends, lol.
Now onto my best boy rankings~
1.) Scien - he absolutely took me by surprise because he's a character type I normally don't go for in otome games. He has a god complex... he's arrogant and discourteous and largely treats Ceres as his (literal) personal maid at the start; I definitely wouldn't want to date this guy IRL, lol. But there's something about his confidence and voice and bluntness that wore me down until I was fangirling at his mere mention ^^""" lol. He's arguably the most important character plot-wise in the game too.
2.) Yves - literally impossible to dislike him. Love his story and his upbeat-ness which contrasts so nicely with the despairing elements of the story. If Scien didn't exist, he would have been my #1 boy from this game~
3.) Lucas - a sweetheart through and through though the student/teacher thing with Ceres was a little odd; I couldn't really grasp the logistics of it either with them being so close in age .w."" It's... a shame the writers seemed to hate him particular ^^""" lol
4.) Ankou
5.) Adolphe
6.) Mathis - I don't hate him, but he's my least fave of this bunch. Great voice acting and twists in his route, but he feels too shota for me to consider him a LI.
So...yeah. Loved the heck out of this one and I'm begging on my knees for the fandisc to be picked up for an English release this year >w<
The visuals and music are very high quality and gorgeous. The character designs are top-tier as well though some took a little bit to grow on me (namely Mathis's and Lucas's).
And as for the writing... phew, what a ride this story was. It intrigued me right from the start and never once bored me. The mysterious and dark nature of the setting were well-established and the foreshadowing was intricately woven through both the common route and all the characters routes. The world-building was also great, reminding me a bit of Olympia Soiree (another all-time fave of mine). The subject matter definitely isn't for the faint of heart, but I gotta say I was expecting waaaay worse on that front based on all the trigger warnings that people were putting out... or maybe I just have a high tolerance, lol. Yes, there was lot of blood and violence and despair as advertised, but I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of "cozier" moments (usually when Ceres was bonding with the LIs) that happened in between the despair. It does touch on some scientific topics... which are outlandish and best not taken too seriously, lol, but I can't say it bothered me too much.
Now as far as the forced bad endings before you can get to the better/bittersweet ones goes... I get what they were going for and I totally see why people would complain about it. I generally don't play bad ends in otome myself unless they're required for CGs/etc. But in this particular case and largely because I was pre-warned to the format, it didn't bother me too much. It's quite a test in delayed gratification, but it made it all the more satisfying to unlock the Salvation endings.
Regarding the Le Salut route... I do dislike that it had an unskippable prologue that lasted for a chapter length of so; felt unnecessary to rehash details that we already knew. But the further you get into the route, the better it is with reveals dropping left and right. Some were fairly predictable, but others totally blew me away :O Overall, I think the route wraps the story up well and even has a more satisfying conclusion for some characters than even their Salvation ends, lol.
Now onto my best boy rankings~
1.) Scien - he absolutely took me by surprise because he's a character type I normally don't go for in otome games. He has a god complex... he's arrogant and discourteous and largely treats Ceres as his (literal) personal maid at the start; I definitely wouldn't want to date this guy IRL, lol. But there's something about his confidence and voice and bluntness that wore me down until I was fangirling at his mere mention ^^""" lol. He's arguably the most important character plot-wise in the game too.
2.) Yves - literally impossible to dislike him. Love his story and his upbeat-ness which contrasts so nicely with the despairing elements of the story. If Scien didn't exist, he would have been my #1 boy from this game~
3.) Lucas - a sweetheart through and through though the student/teacher thing with Ceres was a little odd; I couldn't really grasp the logistics of it either with them being so close in age .w."" It's... a shame the writers seemed to hate him particular ^^""" lol
4.) Ankou
5.) Adolphe
6.) Mathis - I don't hate him, but he's my least fave of this bunch. Great voice acting and twists in his route, but he feels too shota for me to consider him a LI.
So...yeah. Loved the heck out of this one and I'm begging on my knees for the fandisc to be picked up for an English release this year >w<