this game has 3 routes, one for each main character, plus an ending that unlocks once you play them all. i got through two of them before i lost enough interest that i decided to move on for the time being. i liked what i did play a fair amount, though.

my first route was the herbalist's, iudicia. i picked it because it was one of the female characters, which i tend to prefer when available (and i hadn't realized at that point that the male choice was disabled, which is another type of character i tend to value due to their sheer lack of representation in mainstream media). the other female option was a warrior, which i'm interested in less than healer characters in general, so the choice seemed obvious.

one of the first things i noticed when i started playing was the presence of anachronistic speech; occasional expressions from our day and age thrown into the medieval setting. i thought it was a conscious choice at first and found it pretty interesting, but as the game went on that impression faded a little. i'm still not sure whether the devs did this on purpose or not; i can only say that in my experience it stood out from the rest of the text a little awkwardly more often than not. it doesn't happen often enough to ruin immersion, but it's definitely noticeable and can come across as sloppy writing.

the story itself is solid, however, despite a few grammatical slip ups here and there. nothing special for a visual novel, except for one thing that elevates it beyond mediocrity: the "people encyclopedia" available to the player at all times. basically, the game allows you to hover over any name mentioned in dialogue to pop up the selected main character's thoughts and feelings on that person. it did wonders for me as someone who's always had severe trouble with names — i no longer had to pretend to know who the characters were talking about and hope for the best like i've had to do so many times. on top of having a disabled character in the game, this too comes across as very thoughtful toward people who may have any sort of memory problem. plus, since it's narrated by the main characters themselves, you can quickly gauge their feelings on the world around them without needless exposition. on occasion it is even used as a tool for character development. major props to the devs for such a well-implemented and creative feature.

it's worth mentioning that aside from fabel, the male main character (and potentially iudicia as well — in my mind she's somewhere on the autistic spectrum), there is also some representation in the form of an lgbt couple. it's short, but it's there, and it makes all the difference. it's just really nice to see games that dare branch out from the straight while male hero formula that's so pervasive in the gaming industry. it's been happening more and more as the world itself becomes more actualized, but indie games remain a beacon of hope in that aspect, an outlet for devs who want to make a difference.

i definitely want to come back to this game whenever my attention span is better able to handle it. i wish that time were right now, but i'm sure the devs themselves would understand the feeling of having your mental health get in the way of things. and that's a good enough note to end anything on, in my book.