[b]PREMISE:[/b]
You play from the POV of Rosetta, a woman in her early 20s who desperately wants to study magic, but she has no natural skill for it and has failed her academy entrance exam half a dozen times. One day as she’s lamenting this, a fugitive witch named Zara appears in her home and asks for assistance as she tries to avoid being captured by the royal guards and the princess, who are searching the town for her. In exchange, she will give her an object that will grant her the magical abilities she desires.
The game’s story focuses on their attempts to sneak out of town, and on the backstory of the two women, especially the mysteries surrounding Zara and the reason she is attempting to flee in the first place.
[b]ART:[/b]
The character designs were a little odd to me at first. Their small noses and somewhat reptilian eyes weren't exactly something I had seen before, but I ultimately got used to it and even like it now.
The backgrounds do a good job of establishing the setting and tone of the story, but are nothing special.
The sprites are solid and fairly expressive. One nice touch is that some of them feature subtle animations, like hearts or stars around the character’s eyes.
The CGs are where the art really shines, though, and they may also be the strongest part of the game as a whole. For the most part, they are absolutely stunning from the foreground to the background. And there are a lot of them - about 50. That's on par with much longer VNs like Nurse Love Syndrome, and it means most scenes feature at least one CG.
[b]SOUND:[/b]
This is the game's weak point.
There's no VA.
The OST is mostly forgettable and generic. But there is a track that plays during tense scenes and one that plays during romantic moments that do a decent enough job of setting the mood.
[b]WRITING/ROUTE STRUCTURE [/b]
The two leads have great chemistry with both the romantic and comical moments being a real joy to read. Despite how short The VN is, you see both of the main characters grow as a result of one another. And the romantic and sexual tension is really well-cultivated, so that when things finally boil over between the two of them, it is well-earned and genuine.
You make many decisions throughout the story, most of them related to how to talk to Zara and how to try to help her escape. Depending on these decisions, you can succeed or fail in your attempt. There are 10 endings and most of them are fairly nuanced and make sense given the choices you make. There are 2 outright bad endings, and 2 outright good ones, but the others are somewhere in the middle.
In the end, the story is fun, engaging, and at times heartwarming, but largely predictable. I feel like there were far too many hints dropped about the story's biggest twist for it to come as a genuine surprise.
[b]YURI CONTENT:[/b]
While Zara is openly gay from the start and there’s always lots of sexual tension and romance brewing between the two women, there isn’t full-blown yuri in every single ending. There is occasional nudity throughout and there are two endings where the pair ends up as a couple, and one that features a really sweet h-scene between them. There’s also an option to censor the game, if you’re not into the 18+ stuff.
[b]Strengths:[/b]
Beautiful CGs
Great characters
Interesting array of endings
[b]Weaknesses:[/b]
Predictable story
Forgettable OST and sound
[b]It’s a good VN overall that I definitely recommend. It's nothing groundbreaking, and you aren't going to feel incredibly moved by any of it, but it's a fun time with a couple of cute well-written characters. It's especially good value for the price.[/b]
