Hello!!
(This review contains spoilers btw :) )
.
.
.
.
I just wanted to express how much I loved this game! I'm usually one for multichaptered, lenghty VNs/Otome but there are so few regency Otome out there (my favourite being Lady's choice, which is what this game reminded me of at first!) that I couldn't resist trying this one out!
I played Valle's route first because I'm a huge sucker for the flirty characters AND rogues, so him being both made him my initial favourite. I got his perfect ending right away and was so happy!! So cute!! And the chibis omggg absolutely adorable! I liked him even more when we learned that they knew each other before Illuna became a celestial; rogue, sarcastic, flirty, friends to lovers??? He ticked all my boxes and I genuinely thought there was no way otherroutes could be better. Oh boy. Oooohhhhh boy was I wrong.
I couldn't sleep so I decided to play Sekheo's route. He's so charming, so understanding; I was completely immersed in his route. There were so many times where the emotions I felt were so strong I had to close my eyes and try not to squeal (when he jokes that he's sad all the time, when the townspeople's fear drove him away, when they run under the rain and Illuna attempts to fix his hair, when she invites him in her room to help her place books and he expects something else and when he tells her she'd be better off with Solis, etc).
So many sad and beautiful moments, so many sweet and tender ones. I hated that Illuna was trying to save him without realizing that she was also hurting him in the process, but at the same time I wanted her to tear down his walls, to give him fond memories for him to remember when his time comes. Oh and the moment he said he didn't want her to become his one regret? I have to admit a little tear slipped...
I have so much more to say about how much I loved his route and why but I think you get the gist of it xD (like when he got excited about recommending poetry to illuna, what a nerd i love him). I got the neutral ending first, and it was honestly quite beautiful. I did cry after all, the moment Sekheo started crying as well. It was so unexpected, I felt my heart bleed.
I was disappointed I got the neutral ending first though, so I spent around 30 minutes taking different combinations of choices, but strangely, I always got his neutral ending??? After half an hour of skipping and making new choices everytime, I ended up thinking this was the only possible ending for him, which I thought made sense given his condition, so I resolved to move on to Solis' route with a heavy heart. However I was drawn to him once again and went to the balcony after valle's and Solis' argument, which lead me to his route again lol.
But to my surprise, romancing him through solis' route lead me to his bad ending?? By that i mean that the initial choice i made before the story even began, when illuna recalls her lover's gaze at the ball, was solis. After some more tears at his bad ending, I decided to try his route through Valle's, while keeping most of the choices I made when I got his neutral ending, and that got me his perfect ending. I'm quite confused about that. I'm not sure if a single choice I made turned his story around (because i don't think i made more than one variation to the choices compared to his neutral end, and as i said, multiple combinations gave me that ending) or if by selecting him at first when we choose the route only leads to his neutral ending. I downloaded this game yesterday before the update, I'm not sure if that matters.
Either way, despite strongly dislking open endings and bittersweet endings, Sekheo's neutral ending was by far my favourite. I dont know if it's because reaching his perfect end required me to skip through so much text for over 45 minutes so that broke the immersion a bit, but despite the neutral end being so bittersweet I found it so beautiful. Ah, and chibi Sekheo!!! I want to put him in my pocket!!! So cute!!!! Can you tell he's my favourite?? Can you??
As for Solis, I must admit that I couldn't finish it yet, since I couldn't stop thinking about the prince :') I will leave my review here once I complete it but for now I just need to replay the prince's route one last time :')
Thank you for such a beautiful game, I'm so glad I didn't skip over it! It was a lot more lengthy that I expected too, so thank you for that as well!
I'm so sorry for leaving such a lengthy comment, i swear i tried to keep it short but i wanted to really convey how much i loved this story!