Recent reviews by Mihnoír

As someone who played this game at launch and helped fund development, I feel inclined to write a review. Frankly, there are a lot of issues still--primarily bugs and typos, but at the time of writing an upcoming patch has been announced which will hopefully remedy some of my grievances.

The characters are all a bit troupe-y which may or may not be a deal breaker for some players, though visual novels typically fall into those traps so it shouldn't be an issue if you're an avid reader. They're all serviceable, of course, but it's worth noting that you'll want to play most of, if not all routes in order to get the best experience. Something else to keep in mind is that you need to play the game once in order to unlock character-specific routes. While I don't personally mind this, it can be frustrating to spend 6-or-so hours on a playthrough only to be left with more questions than answers. The "common route" is extremely bland when you ignore the efforts it makes to develop the setting: characters have sudden 180s that seemingly come out of nowhere and the plot itself feels rushed. Nearly everything is expanded upon in the "paradise route" (unlocked after you beat the game once) but again, it's quite frustrating at first.

Belial is a great protagonist and he's probably my favorite character. However, all of the removed content definitely detracts from the experience as a whole. There's a scene on day 2 that pretty much sets the tone for the game and contextualizes a lot of his later behavior that was dumbed down so much that, when things start to ramp up later, a lot of people probably came out thinking, "wow, this guy is a massive ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥"...which is true, but the developers were likely trying to go for something more nuanced. Most of the other deleted scenes also provide additional insight into his character, as well as thought process, and without them, he is made into an unforgivable monster. Considering that the game is about sins and repenting for them, Belial is quite literally not allowed to be anything other than one-dimensional without the cut content. It's irrational to get upset at the localizers (Sekai Project) for this as both of the developers agreed to trash said content after receiving death threats. So...while I understand the reasoning, it's still incredibly unfortunate.

One thing that's worth mentioning about the English translation is how the protagonist comes off as even more of an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ than in the original Japanese. I'm not sure why these changes were made but I was personally a bit taken aback, as it's not particularly faithful to the original vision.

Overall, I still have positive feelings towards the game. I adore Belial and think he's the best written character. Rav2's artwork is gorgeous and although it does cause some tonal dissonance with the themes of the game, he captures expressions and gore particularly well. The music isn't standout but it's fine. The developers plan on expanding the universe with additional games and supplementary material so that's something to look forward to if you're interested in the setting. My biggest issue with the game itself (disregarding the cut content and translation mentioned earlier) is that, thus far, it's taking a little too much inspiration from its contemporaries. The "now then...where should I go?" format, angel and gore imagery, as well as a few tracks in the OST sounding extremely similar to Sayonara wo Oshiete is very on-the-nose. The similarities are so apparent as someone who's played both games that it made me think, "really? a few times. I wish it were a bit more creative in that regard.

TLDR; I like it, despite it's many glaring flaws, and I think it's worth playing.