Royal Alchemist

This game has nice art and a fun romance however there are plotholes especially around the timeline of events that I noticed upon finishing my first route of the game. It is unclear as to when the King disappeared, at least in Aurelius' route. Overall I had fun but the writers should have collaborated more or at the very least have kept a group document with the timeline to reference.

I've played for more than 3 hours and I can't tell how far I have progressed - which I love! The plot is engaging and the stat system isn't easy, yet simple. I confess, the romance is also difficult and I am never sure if I am raising their affection until I check the "grimoire", which is very easy as it is always present on the screen to check. I still haven't figured out some aspects of the "routes" section and it isn't explained in the tutorial which is otherwise extremely helpful. I enjoy difficulty and some guesswork, though, instead of being spoonfed. Oh, and there is an actual easy mode, but I don't play on those, but perhaps things are spoonfed over there.

I think this game is really enjoyable! I am not sure how effective it would be upon replay, due to the nature of it being a stat building game. I know I was tiring a bit of all the finessing by the end of my Serin playthrough. Honestly though the characters are really enjoyable, I remember when I played this game a few years ago I romanced Aurelius before there was any in depth guides and was lost on how to get a good ending. If I plan to replay this game in the future, I am definitely going to find a way to just change all the stats to max so I can just see what I missed since I am mostly interested in the story/characters and I haven't played Nazir's route. I think it's a solid 8/10, I'd recommend it if the stat building aspect isn't a deterrent, the characters are some of the better written within the 'otome' game genre and I had a lot of fun being able to identify as nonbinary! That is a rare treat with this kind of game, so I don't want to under-appreciate that! MILD SPOILERS [for romantic pacing] My one major complaint is that it feels this story is a little TOO slow burn, at least in Serin's route. The game happens over 60 weeks, that's a year and 2 months. Despite that length, the romance isn't really explicitly 'romantic' until week 58 [and I'm talking about literally just holding hands]. I feel like considering the scale and amount of opportunities this would have been more satisfying if the relationship was more explicit by week 40 and it gave more time for you to stew in the romance. Either way, the ending was sweet.

Soon to leave a review on Royal Order with some similar points, so, if you see me over there, at least I warned you. SO Firstly, I just want to say: Do NOT let the price point fool you. You get SO much content, the value for it is absolutely insane. My current playtime is almost entirely indicative of a SINGLE route with no deaths (no guide -- I played on the higher difficulty and had to save scum a fair bit for failed checks and bad skill building rolls (will touch on this later)) with an exception of maybe 1-2 hours dedicated to the other version of that character's route (the skip feature for seen content + lower difficulty + guide is what trimmed it down so much). Which, honestly, that's kind of insane how many extra core scenes there are between two positive routes for the same character. I didn't even explore everything I could have within those, either. What I'm trying to say is this game is HEFTY. That said, the narrative doesn't feel like it's bogged down, either. There was never really moment where I wanted to just get past a section because it was needlessly dragging on or was boring or anything like that. The world they created (and built upon in the sequel) is great, the writing was fun, the CGs I've unlocked are nice. My only real complaints are: The [spoiler]king[/spoiler] was the hottest character and really should have somehow been an option IMO THE STUPID ROLLS FOR SKILL BUILDING OH MY GOD It was literally the cause for like 98% of save scumming. It was SO frustrating to fool with. The amount you get raises randomly by 2-6 points per slot per week you choose to skill build. Doesn't seem that big of a deal late game, but early to mid, it can literally make or break entire parts. Like, it's such a fickle system that even if you follow a guide, you might still have to go back on a decently older save to try and get a few better rolls to make sure you can pass essential checks. Because of this is not the kind of game where you can just have like... 1-3 save files. You want to make a save before you lock in your weekly activity, and it's probably gonna be more just for rerolling on the skills than actual different choices. Unless the RNG gods just decide to bless you, you WILL have to go back -- and likely further than just your most recent save or two. Despite the fairly minimal gripes, this game is lovely and I highly rec for anyone who gets the same itch for a skill building/time management/VN sort of game where the wrong misstep can kill you and choices feel like they matter.

Such a nice game!^^ Thank you^^

Though this is a good game, it has one fatal flaw of constantly crashing without reason, which taints the game play or when its loading or crashing before you get a chance to even play. This happens on both Standard and Beta Versions of Steam.

Once again, I'm in love. I admit, when I played "Royal Order", I had no idea that there was "Royal Alchemist", that was happening before, and now we'll never know what my impressions would have been if i played these games in sequence. And even though I liked the sequel more, the first part was also great, and I don't see the point in comparing these two stories, so I'll only talk about "Royal Alchemist". The main character in this story is charming, and so are the other characters, although I can't say that I liked everyone, and the betrayals that happened in the course of the plot upset me a lot, but that was it. In any case, I'm very glad that I got to play this game, and I'm looking forward to even more visual novels about this fascinating world. Love to all 💖

I now understand why this sort of game is so popular. Fantastic experience.

剧情写的很好，三王子人设很得劲，但是游戏数值让我感觉吃了坨大的。

Love it, Play it.