[Played on Switch, March 9-15]

Completion: 100% (viewed all 33 endings, collected all CG, read all bonus stories, etc.)

Play time: ~47 hours

Order routes were completed:

Eltcreed --> Ulrik --> Adage --> Ines --> Yune --> Fin --> Grand Ending

Enjoyment of routes (most to least, based on story/plot):

Adage/Ines/Fin --> Ulrik/Yune --> Eltcreed

Favorite LIs:

Adage/Ulrik --> Ines/Fin --> Yune --> Eltcreed

Couple notes about the above: I had previously played through Eltcreed’s route like a year ago and never came back to finish the game, so I was around 13 hours on the game already, before restarting it completely for this play through; so ~60 total hours. I also usually just rank the routes and not the LIs separately, but this was a special case in which I really liked certain characters but not so much their route, and vice versa.

Thoughts on routes:

Eltcreed: I didn’t much like his route and I really didn’t like him while playing through it. Very pushy about his feelings in like every single conversation the MC has with him, while she is ignorant to everything romance due to the laws of where she comes from. It felt icky and I hated him. However, he as a character is quite capable and reliable for the most part (as he's a leader in the Depths), especially when you’re playing other routes and not dealing with his sexual harassment.

Ulrik: I was expecting this to be my favorite (or at least high up there) because you see almost as much of him as you do Eltcreed in Eltcreed’s route, so I was excited to see more of his background. His story revealed more about the game world itself and went into the history more than several of the other routes. He’s the precious tsundere of the group. I just wasn’t as into the route overall as I was some of the others, but it was decent enough. Ulrik’s VA worked his A S S off, it must be said. Ulrik does a lot of, “WHAAAT? I hate you, leave me alone, die!” in his embarrassment (mostly directed toward Eltcreed who likes to tease him), and the tone/inflection/capturing his sarcasm and feelings are just so good.

Adage: Adage is a doctor from the Heights, now a criminal in the Depths. He’s very blunt and his personality takes a bit to shine through, but he’s actually hilarious, and some of the things he says to the MC in the good ending were a bit shocking (in a good way). His route gives you the most information regarding the whole “MC is a criminal” situation; Ines/Yune/Fin routes briefly cover it, but not in much detail. I just really enjoyed this one, and Adage is a great character.

Ines: Ines is also a very solid character and his route was enjoyable, as it branched off a bit more setting-wise. He’s in a difficult position in the Depths, and has been through some shit while trying to maintain his humanity. He’s a little stiff as a former police officer/current HOUND in the Depths, but he’s tied with Fin for being the most teddy bear.

Yune: Yune is the centuries-old Saint of the Heights, the “country” that the MC is from. He honestly made me laugh a lot, and his personality was fun. It might seem that I rated him kind of low, considering how much I disliked Eltcreed, but he’s leagues better. I just enjoyed the personalities and strengths of the other LIs more. His route revealed a lot more of the history of the Heights and Depths for obvious reasons, but it also dealt with some heavier topics due to his long life. Genuinely an enjoyable route for the world-building, though weaker in other ways. (This route unlocks after you complete Ulrik's "Ferrie" ending, but it's recommended to hold off on this one until after the first four.)

Fin: Fin was DLC in the Steam version, but included in the Switch version. His route unlocks after you’ve completed Yune’s, but is recommended for the last one you do before the Grand Ending. I actually really liked Fin and I’m glad he got a route, but he is unfortunately the one who gets the shittiest treatment/portrayal in the other routes. He is the MC’s police partner before the main events of the game. His is a solid story with the most realistic and organic build-up to love, but he’s an actual psychopath in the other routes and even the “cause” of most of the bad/other endings. Fin’s VA also deserves huge kudos for portraying Fin’s mental state SO damn well. Lots of lines like “why why why why WHY WHY why is she here...why did she see me like this...why why why why” as he’s breaking were incredibly well-done.

Grand Ending: I HAVE T H O U G H T S. I really think that the plot of this route (it’s called an Ending, but it’s essentially a BETTER retelling of the overall plot of the game) should have been the main story. (See further down in Overall Thoughts for details.) It was much more interesting and was basically an entire route with no choices other than the ones in the very beginning that set you onto this route. I didn’t include this in the route ranking because of it being called an “ending” and not really having branching routes, but it was by far the best story.

Bonus Content: There is a ton of extra content in this game. I spent like an entire day finishing up Fin’s route and then the Grand Ending and extras. Every time I thought that I was done, there was something else. Each of the 6 LIs have a character profile in the main menu where you can listen to voice clips, as well as the VA speaking about the character. Unfortunately, there are no subs. They each also have three bonus stories to read, which take place at various times: some are set after their main route, or during an important event in their life before the game takes place. Two of the three unlock during their route, but the third one is locked until you finish their bonus epilogue. There’s a second page of character profiles for supporting characters, and these each have 1-3 bonus stories. I was checking my CGs after doing all of these and realized I was still missing some. I had already completed all routes and also the Special Stories (which are set the day before the MC/LI “upcoming weddings”). Each route had what I was considering an epilogue after the credits rolled, so I’d ignored the Epilogue section in the menu, but these were actually six MORE stories, each with a CG to finish out your collection.

So, in all, the content looked like this:

• 6 LI character routes
• Grand Ending route
• 33 total endings (some of which you unlock for a character while in another character’s route)
• Background stories: In the Depths/In the Heights – origin story of the way their world is now, from two different perspectives
• Character profiles with a total of 27 short stories
• 6 special stories
• 6 extra epilogues
• Event CG
• Movies (12)
• Soundtrack (30 songs)

Overall thoughts: This game had some great moments, and some big weak points. The opening theme is FANTASTIC. It’s all of the LIs singing, and it’s a bop. Then, each LI has their own ending theme that they sing. There’s no encyclopedia like basically every other otoge I’ve played has had, which I think was a missed opportunity. Some of the routes are kind of “paired up” in that you take a similar jaunt through the common route to start on their individual route and those characters interact more frequently with each other. The text box also has different colors depending on your route: red for Eltcreed and Ulrik, green for Adage and Ines, purple for Yune, and blue for Fin. Also, there are LI perspectives during certain scenes in their routes, which was a nice feature. They can all be viewed in the main menu as well.

As I said earlier, the Grand Ending should have been the main plot. This is spoilery so I’ll spoiler tag it, but for more details on why I think so/a summary: In the main game, the MC is a police officer and lives in the Heights, a city on top of a pillar, which has existed for about 400 years since a great flood wiped almost everything out. Her parents are killed, she is blamed with no evidence or trial, and she is sent to the Depths, which is the actual surface of the planet. Prisoners from the Heights live in the Sanctuary District, guarded by the HOUNDS, former police officers. The rest of the Depths is made up of like 5-6 districts of people who have always been in the Depths. We only ever see one of those, Liberalitas, which is unfortunate. I wanted to learn more about the rest of the districts and even with all of the bonus stories, none of them are ever explored. From this point, the LI routes all take place and they don't all cover all of the plot points. In the Grand Ending, however, she stops the murder of her parents, and the perps are exposed. However, because they’re high ranking, Saint Yune decides to finally step up from his usual place as figurehead who doesn’t have much to do with the running of things, and clean up the government. He sends the MC to the Depths as an emissary to meet someone who could act as the representative of the Depths and get the two “countries” working together. She eventually meets all of the LIs and they start working to bring the people of the Depths and Heights together. I think this would have made for a MUCH better overall plot, and it provided perfect opportunities to make routes focused on how each individual LI would work toward this with the MC. I think this game would have had an overall much more cohesive story if done this way, and I probably would have had better overall feelings about it.

The MC was…kind of boring/flat. She’s a cop from a country that has arranged marriages and population control and just a lot of other rules, and where people hate the Depths and simultaneously know little about it. She thinks babies come from the Temple and is woefully uneducated about romance and sex even though she was supposed to be getting married soon in the beginning of the game. Not understanding courting/romance/etc., and taking the law regarding the illegality of love seriously is one thing, but she was an adult and still hadn’t been taught that women give birth. Adage’s route made for some interesting conversations because of this. Obviously this isn't really her fault, but she just didn't have a whole lot of personality. (This is pretty commonplace with otoge, unfortunately.) She had a strong sense of justice that I appreciated for the most part, but none of the romances really felt organic because she went from “of course I don’t like you that way, that’s illegal” (even when in the Depths where love is normal) to “I love you” with no real growth in her understanding. Fin’s was the exception, and I think that’s because it was originally DLC and the fact that they were good friends before the events of the game. I just didn’t vibe well with the pacing of the romances for the most part. This was another thing that could have been fixed by the Grand Ending being the main story.

There was some pretty dark/heavy content in this one, from implied SA (of women in the Depths and of the MC in bad endings), suicidal ideology, murder, etc.

Overall, I didn’t hate this one, and I really liked a lot of the LIs, but it’s kind of a mid otoge for me. Pretty boring MC (but at least she wasn’t weak and useless like some of them), pacing issues, villainizing Fin in basically every other route, etc. I laughed a lot and the VAs were really great. I wish more of the world was explored.