Arcueid’s route really is quite excellent. Well-paced, fun fights, strong emotional payoff. And then you get to Ciel’s route, where I can’t help but feel like Nasu overcompensated for how underdeveloped her story was in the original game. There’s so much stuff in there that it becomes a bit of a slog, particularly in the lead up towards the true end.

Noel is a pretty good character but I think I would’ve preferred the two Far Side routes over a bloated Ciel story.