Oh my god, this is both cute and detrimental to my heart. I can see the appeal of Lakritz, I mean tall dramatic guy with an angsty story and a heart full of conflict-- But I was more drawn to Peppermint because my boy is just trying to do his best and he's surrounded by packs of wolves and someone has to be there to support him as he stands up and finds himselfffffff
I have to say the visuals are absolutely beautiful and pleasing, liek no joke, I absolutely thought of how soft and adorable everyone was, even harsher looking characters such as King Karamel and Lakritz looked adorable and in tune with the usual bubbly and cute world of the Land of Sweets. Another thing is that I didn't like MC at first, I feel like I saw my future when she was having a hard time with her decision between spending money on a gacha game or herself, or the desperate measures she went through (because girl really spent majority of her funds there... Like, my girl, you should not get to those financial advise podcast if you want to protect your dignity). And during the trial scene I so badly wanted to tell her to just continue the mythos of the Land of Sweets by proclaiming some sort of candy event in the game/universe but then it got me thinking.
Realistically, wouldn't that just aggravate the king?
We've seen in one of the choices where you can find a diary that King Karamel is paranoid, corrupt, and selfish. If MC even tried to use some sort of Oracle "magic" divining the future or current event that had happened, wouldn't that just further upset King Karamel such as what Lakritz points out that the king was so aggravated by MC's appearance he had her locked up so swiftly. So even if MC had definitive proof of her origins or benefits, she would have been seen as some sort of asset to the king or locked up to avoid her possibly "attacking" him the same way Lakritz is currently doing.
So yeah, those facts made me cool my head after the trial scene especially with how scatter brained MC was because she couldn't focus at all to what Peppermint was lore building over there, but then realistically, this is the game she has spent not just her time in, but actual money. So of course she'd be lost in her head absolutely made sense, especially with the after effects of the trial scene finally sobering her up because now, it isn't just a silly game she grinded in on, it's an actual harrowing real life situation MC has no choice but to brave.
Another thing I wanted to point out is Lakritz use of SweetTart, isn't that MC's ingame username? Or is it some sort of petname such as "dear", "darling", "sweetheart", and etc?
Nonetheless, I'm kinda hoping after this demo we're actually locked in our desired route because while I do like Lakritz design and overall character, I want to focus on our sweetheart Peppermint because I just want the marshmallow to be safe and sound and not accidentally enter Lakritz route because I decided to check the "right" dialogue option to increase his hidden love meter.
Looking forward to the development, hoping the team is chugging along life well, and this is quite a cool project moving forward!