Kiss the Demiurge

First things first, a big thanks to the team at YuriEureka for a review copy its greatly appreciated, and congratulations for the first game launch. I’m excited for any upcoming releases from you guys and I’d like to offer my best wishesI really enjoyed reading through the game and I’m certainly interested in seeing what's next. Before we kick things off, I should add a quick content warning that the game itself does contain Heavy references to suicide, sexuality, and mental health issues. So starting things off, The painted backdrops are GORGEOUS, like real talk it actually looks really good and it definitely adds character. I think my favourites were the club room with the posters and the house just having that simple homely feeling like if you were at the grandparents, which is fitting enough since our main Heroine, Minori, lives with her grandfather. Speaking of which, the character designs are fantastic especially Akane, like real talk look at her face, as the magic club leader the character designers did a good job making her look full of GUSTO and PASSION. The other main characters all look really well designed too. I should also add they all seem to have a great dental plan going. They have good teeth. Up next is the dialogue. Real talk I had an absolute chuckle at some of the lines. It can be serious when it needs to be and humorous when it needs to be, Its got that nice mix of both if that makes sense. The story itself is pretty good as well. Without spoiling anything too much, Minori is a mage tasked with hiding magic from the world. She has spurned love in the pursuit of her mission. One day she meets a group of three girls obsessed with magic. Will she stop them from discovering real magic? A good question indeed and finding out the girl’s motivations kept me reading. Akane here for example wants to learn magic for helping to stop climate change. Obviously there's more to her route than just that but let's not spoil anything. I should add each girl has her own route but I won’t spoil anything. I started with the Akane route if you’re wondering, with the Chitori route second and concluding with Tomoko. . Looking at negative points, I felt that some of the endings felt a bit abrupt. It would have been nice to see like a short glimpse of the future of your chosen route but I would imagine that could be remedied in an update adding them as bonus scenes. In the event they add this in before this review gets posted, please disregard this negative point and I'll edit it accordingly. Looking at neutral areas, While I myself quite liked the character designs and backdrops, I can see some folk not being too into it, probably preferring more realistic looking backdrops. The last neutral point is that, aside from choosing what waifu you want to do the specific route for, its largely a kinetic story. I’m cool with it myself but the odd choice here and there would have been a nice addition for like alternative lines of dialogue. Closing off things, if you’re interested in the game, Kiss the Demiurge is £4.99. Its definitely worth a pick up, I really enjoyed it. Video review - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhgME86WSQ8

It might be their first work, but you can tell their put their entire hearts into this game. It's a little rough around the edges, but it's an engaging story that you won't regret reading!

Impactful and heartfelt, despite being very rough around the edges in many places. The time I spent with Minori, Tomoko, and Akane (sorry Chitori, haven't played your route yet) was something I did not expect to enjoy as much as I did. Definitely pay attention to the developers content warnings, but otherwise I highly recommend giving at least one route of KTD a shot; it might surprise you. I usually do more in depth reviews but just wanted to leave something quickly to help the developers out. Thanks for writing this one, YuriEureka team, I'll definitely be checking out whatever you do next.

海外の制作ですが、日本を舞台にした百合ゲーです。 一般的には知られていないが魔法が実在する（らしい）という世界観。 主人公はエージェントで、魔法に関する事件を解決するためある学園に潜入します。 そこで出会う、魔法マニアによる怪しい部活の人々との交流がメイン。 基本的にコメディですが、後半はちょっと違う雰囲気になります。 ヒロインは4人おり、途中の選択肢でルートが分岐します。 開発元の名前にYuriと入っているだけあってちゃんと恋愛要素あり。 ビジュアル面では、立ち絵がかなり個性的。 百合なシーンでは、多くはないものの美麗（どうみても絵柄が違う）なイベントCGもあります。 言語は全編英語。 正しい文法を守っている綺麗な英語なので日本人にも読み易いと思います。 特に難しい専門用語などが出てくる話でもないので、英語の勉強もかねてプレイしてもいいかも。

[i]I received a free copy of this game for my curator, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32080131/]Games for Hopeless Romantics[/url].[/i] So this game turned out to be a pleasant surprise. The art (except for the excellent CG art) is very rough; the script itself could have used an editing pass (especially in the later parts of the story, where for whatever reason ending punctuation becomes less common as the story goes on) and the plot concludes a bit abruptly. But the story itself is very gripping in a way that mostly makes up for the game's flaws. One thing that could be either a dealbreaker or a feature for readers is that the MC, Minori, starts off as extremely unlikeable. She lies to and manipulates the other girls for the express purpose of blackmailing them and crushing their dreams. A lot of the humor, especially in the early parts of the story, comes from the mismatch between what Minori says and does (normal friendship stuff, more or less) and her true thoughts and feelings (which are much ruder). To be honest, I didn't actually think it was especially funny, but I was interested enough in the story to be willing to sit through it even though the humor didn't hit for me. Partway through the story, we encounter a major twist which completely and totally changes the trajectory of the story; it's no longer a darkly comedic fantasy about the dangers of magic and doing bad things for a good cause, but a [spoiler]psychological drama about struggling to cope with trauma[/spoiler]. The game deals heavily with themes of mental health/mental illness in ways that could be distressing to some readers (Minori [spoiler]becomes actively suicidal after the twist[/spoiler], and all of the heroines have their own issues that they're dealing with). It's all played for drama, but not in a way that feels exploitative, and still allowing the characters space to be complete, rounded, interesting people with both strengths and flaws. Of the individual routes, I think Tomoko's is the strongest in that her plotline most closely mirrors Minori's, allowing them to be foils in the ways that they're both similar and different. The issue with the plot ending abruptly is more pronounced in Akane and Chitori's routes, although they're both still enjoyable as well. Overall, I'm very glad to have been given the chance to read this VN, and I look forward to seeing what the developers make next, especially if they're able to add more polish that this game is currently lacking.

Gonna be a bit of a longer review for me since I wanna give lesser known titles more love. [i] Kiss the Demiurge [/i] is a roughly 9-10 hourish three-route slice of life, romance, and light fantasy kinetic yuri visual novel [spoiler] though technically that fantasy moniker is false [/spoiler]. I will somewhat admit that, judging from the general vibes of the game, I went into it with slightly low expectations. I mostly picked it up because it was gay and had "Demiurge" in the title (I'm a religion nerd), and it was on sale. However, while I can't say my expectations were blown out of the water, I was actually very pleasantly surprised by this vn! the tl;dr is that if you like yuri, you like kinetic vns, and you like all your characters to have a healthy heaping of mental illness, I'd pick this up [b] Negatives [/b] Since I usually don't have much bad to say about something regardless of any grievances I might have with it, I'll start there to get it out of the way —A few plot points felt weird or out of place. —Characters occasionally seemed somewhat ooc, moreso when they were featured in routes outside of their own. —Chitori's and Akane's routes felt like they ended a little abruptly. Tomoko's ending didn't feel perfect or anything but it felt like things concluded a little more substantially. —Some grammar issues which could probably be fixed with more thorough editing. —Some repeat scenes in different routes weren't skippable, presumably because they featured a single line that swapped out the characters. [b] The good ♥♥♥♥ [/b] —Characters: All of the characters were delightful, in my opinion. There were a few lines from some chars that irked me or felt like they didn't fit every now and then, but for the vast majority of the vn, I loved everyone. Our protag, Minori, is probably the stand-out. Her personality is just so fun and fascinating. I'd honestly wonder what a vn where Minori wasn't the protag and was just another character would be like. All of the three main girls are also great, to the point I can't even really pick a favorite. Even Minori's family—Takashi, Kasumi, and her father (Shin'ichi maybe? His name is said once but I forget)—were interesting. I'd say the characters are one of the vn's strongest points. I will probably remember them all for quite a while. Minori's backstory especially is so SO fascinating. —Also all of the four girls are mentally unwell and that both makes for a ride but is also very intriguing. —The Twist: Huge spoiler warning but I have to mention it: [spoiler] basically for most of the vn Minori is convinced that she's a hidden mage and that only the other girls are delusional and that she sent her parents to "Makai" (which means world of spirits or underworld in Japanese I believe) by accident and is trying to retrieve them, but it turns out she's just traumatized and deludes herself with these ideas because she actually pushed her mother off a cliff. [/spoiler] There were lots of hints early on, but I honestly did not expect this twist, and it reframes SO much. Even if you can predict it, the scene where it's revealed is so so good. —The lore/magic: All of the magic stuff—Makai, the UMI, demons, contracts, banishing, the sweetened hair—is all interesting. [spoiler] Even if it is just Minori's delusions. [/spoiler] —The banner art and CGs seen in the routes were done by artist 'Lianquanter' and are absolutely GORGEOUS. —It's very gay. [b] Stuff that is technically neutral but the reviewer likes [/b] —The spritework done by BULKVANDERHUGE is rough, and not quite as charming as something like Ryukishi07's (though speaking of, the writer Maria's prose style reminds me of him in some ways which is another bonus), but I honestly enjoyed it! The expressions are good and they're still very charming. —The BGs are also quite rough, but I actually love the style of them. Something about them adds to the atmosphere and vibes of the vn so well. —The music is all royalty free—a chunk of it from a Japanese artist called "watson"—but most of it is used well! These tracks weren't just hastily slapped in to avoid hiring a composer. Not only are the tracks chosen just nice to listen to, but the developers specifically made it so the first and second halves of the vn used mostly different tracks to reflect a certain change. —The only choice is making the decision for which girl Minori will pursue in her goal to stop them from using magic, triggering their route. Some may not like the lack of choices, but Minori is so well-characterized that it makes sense for there to be almost no decisions for her to arbitrarily choose between. A very solid vn for a good price. I look forward to what else this team puts out.

it's ok

The game lets you play as a covert agent in a world filled with magic and gave me a lot of laughs! The plot slowly deepens as you play and has a super crazy twist. I really enjoyed it! Also it's yuri, so everything is amazing.

Really good story. I wasn't expecting to cry from it. Albeit, yes, it's obviously not a high-production, high-quality product, but it definitely delivers an interesting story. Short and to the point, doesn't dwell on anything but doesn't go all over the place. The only complaint I can bring up is the ending felt a bit short, but the rest was good. Will update with other routes, only done the Akane route currently. [spoiler]I was not expecting a twist at all and it was a good one for me. It hit me well[/spoiler].

That was a rather adorable game.