I absolutely love this! The writing, the pace, the art, all of it is beautifully well done. I've played all of the routes! Well, I personally couldn't make it through Cirrus's due to past and sometimes current bad religious memories/experiences in reality. I expected it though considering the tags, haha; but I wanna mention that I really appreciate the safe word option. Now, that, I didn't expect. It was a nice surprise and refresher.
I finished everyone else's route, however! Keir is hands down my favorite.
I can't wait to continue his route in the next chapter. In my opinion, I feel he and Vesper have more chemistry and neutral, healthy connection. I love their banter too and, really, I have far more sympathy and understanding for Keir out of the other characters.
I also enjoy how mouthy Vesper is, but it's not an "edgy, loud, not-like-everyone-else" type of snark to me. More like, simply, not a pushover. Which is tough to achieve. At least, in my experience. I'm a fictional writer myself, and even I have trouble with properly writing such a personality in a character.
Now, being a pushover definitely seems like something you should never be in the mountains if you want to survive. This game got that message across real well too. It also seems like something a person (being Vesper) with enough guts to go into the mountains so they could gain what they need for such an awful curse would turn out to, inevitably, be like. Understanding and kind, but knows how to stand their ground and give some snark when they feel is necessary.
Speaking of which, their slightly snarky comments are all around funny and clever; you really hit the nail on the head with making a loveable, inclusive MC that doesn't sit silent on the sidelines and has strong ambition to achieve their goal. I'm a sucker for "I'll do absolutely anything to get what I need" protagonists. Even when they're very well aware that they'll most likely have to tackle the most unfortunate obstacles and circumstances along the way.
I also absolutely adore the idea of a masked and cloaked MC. The mask I chose was the white floral one. Adore the mask theme in general; I'll be recommending this to a close friend of mine who is a bigger fan of the concept of masks than me. I'm sure that she'll be over the moon and excited for this game just as I am.
Seriously, what an awesome, unique, and incredibly intriguing story. I don't know how I can express how much of a fan I've become of it any better; and it's only the first chapter! You gained a new follower on tumblr, and I'll be keeping up with updates as best I can. Five stars!