Salvus: Aries

[h2]Foreword[/h2] I wasn't going to make a review until the game fully released but after seeing a call to action to leave reviews in the advent of ONE negative review (that was actually constructive and quite positive despite the issues) I decided to say my piece since I've been following development since Kickstarter. I'm using a different Steam account to my usual because I am concerned about retribution from this developer. I am reviewing based on the product we are asked to buy now, and not the product we are going to buy later so the review is solely for Common route/Valefar and not anything else. [h2]The Game[/h2] During my gameplay I noted down things I liked and didn't like. +- are features that are bugs or depend on reader taste. + beautiful music, shared instruments and soothing tone, generally used appropriately in scenes. + pretty sprites, the main thing that drew me to the game. + pretty CGs, different to the sprites, but still beautiful with a painterly vibe and nice composition. + great stylised ui, consistent and adds a unique visual style. Usually overlooked! but really glad attention to detail was paid here. + great opening, Doesn't spoil anything and sets the tone. + backgrounds are lovely and environments are memorable,. + optional features like the phone are smooth and well implemented + I generally don't like EN VA due to bad direction, but the majority performances here were done well. + the romance focused sections are nice and everything comes together well. +- some embarrassing turns of phrase like "our girl" that kind of put me off especially with the anachronistic and unfamiliar dynamic, entirely down to reader preference. note:i just read "bros before hoes" +- abrupt transitions, easily remediated with timing. +- skip in ui is skip to next choice, but text skipping is not labelled anywhere. While a lot of games share the same shortcuts for stuff, it's still nice to have one list in settings for what the keybinds are and what they do. +- I think the characters tend to forget the protagonist is being punished and has indirectly killed people. By all rights the MC should be bound for hell but she is not scrutinised. A very passive approach is being taken where she is guilty of something but the phrasing diminishes involvement, and thus the characters don't need to feel conflicted about it. +- Common route/prologue is very long (took me around 4 hours, YMMV) which is basically a huge loredump. down to reader preference. +- Options to toggle voices but no option to toggle protagonist portrait off. Standard for most visual novels for this to be optional. +- nothingburger options, I believe the creator mentioned the options wouldn't affect much and the steam page doesn't advertise them, but still something some readers may care about. +- comedy is 50/50, entirely down to reader preference. Ranges from 'witty' to cartoonish. +- steam page advertises a 'meter' for tracking endings, but currently is not implemented or not easy to find. Note: someone on the development team has added a walkthrough with point tracker in lieu of an ingame meter. Check the guides in steam overlay. +- the game keeps telling me how old valefar is (supposed to look in his 40s) but visually looks no older than anyone else. Some people may prefer that but not me. +- some text escapes the textbox. (Valefar route) - personalities are just really lacking. there's attempt at differences between them, but they all come off as affable and accommodating just with different deliveries. -like others have mentioned, jumpscare voice acting, with weird mixing. Some music is louder than voiced lines. - visual dissonance, Things will happen in text that aren't reflected onscreen/through audio. Things like MC in pain, MC wandering off in full view of characters etc. - A shocking amount of show don't tell violations. The MC will say what another character feels/thinks or will confirm it. It's appropriate for some expository information but not on the immediate scene level. This is done from the LI perspective as well; it reads as little trust for the reader's interpretation. - chapter 2 is a little contrived, protag ignores a recently established rule and hijinks ensue. This would be fine if it establishes MC as a a bit naïve/all 5 male leads as a little incompetent but that remains to be seen. note: after reading on these people straight up harm living people and handwave it away, I would count this as "meddling in peoples affairs" and the story breaking its own established rules for conflict but no real repercussions for it - very little sound design outside of music and voice over. - some voiced lines have the default MC name, breaks immersion. Same thing in text for the available route. Some audio also does not match text. - funny hypocrisy- MC criticises the nobility but wears finely tailored clothes, jewellery and a jabot, and the characters get incredibly vindictive on impulse? The dissonance was so sudden it actually shocked me. This could be considered a character flaw but nothing comes of it. - the larger overarching plot is just not interesting or memorable, the fatigue of inconsequential scenelets don't build anticipation and the tone skews too much to keep my interest. - the romantic progression is kinda contrived and unbelievable. Ties into the issue of everyone being so affable from the get-go. TL;DR: Game is visually pretty, sound is good and romance elements are nice but story + characters aren't interesting. [h2]The Development[/h2] According to VNDB this game has been in development since 2022 with the release of their Kickstarter with a goal of $50,000 and successfully raising $80,000. If this sounds low for a game, it sort of is, and hence a Kofi and Patreon had to be opened up to raise more capital. I can't help but feel time and money has been mismanaged this whole time and thus we are here 3 and a half years later with a game being given piecemeal. The game boasts 450k words (which i fully believe) but in the Kickstarter, the sound (specifically including voice acting is) budgeted at 5%, or in their original ask, would be a budget of $2500 which is unreasonable based on volume of stuff to voice. EDIT: I forgot to mention voice talent is by SAG-AFTRA; it's nice to go union, but very expensive! More money has been raised in the meanwhile and this early access just feels like another last ditch attempt to get funds to deliver a product that is long overdue (Early access is not mentioned on Kickstarter anywhere and the delivery date was estimated Mar 2025). This just indicates to me the priorities are all wrong. A visual novel in its bare essentials needs a story, visuals and programming, everything else is secondary and Ren'py does a lot of heavy lifting for that. Voice acting is absolutely an optional for these things but instead it is implemented before the other routes. This team is small and things absolutely do not have to work sequentially, but this feels like a severe mismanagement of resources, both time and money. On their social media I have also seen some sprite work and casting calls for their next game and the steam page hints at DLC. How can you think of doing this when you haven't even got one game done? Lastly I have to discuss the developers themselves. They state that this Early access is for upgrading the game with the backing of the community, but when the 'community' speaks out and doesn't recommend the game, the developer sends a call to action on the social media to leave good reviews. I'd like to reiterate at the time of writing there was only 1 negative review and it was praising the game, they were just upset by inconsistent voice acting. I do believe this game will be finished, and more otome games are better than not. However, the way the game has been managed and the developer's aversion of criticism has soured my perception of this game entirely.

I went into this expecting a fully voiced experience, especially since the developers mentioned that was their goal. Unfortunately, the voice acting is very inconsistent throughout the game. At first, it seems like Valefar is the main focus, as he’s the most consistently voiced character early on. However, even that starts to fall apart later, with his dialogue switching between voiced and unvoiced mid-conversation. Other characters, like Aina, have partial voice acting—lines will start voiced and then the next line won’t. Across multiple chapters, this pattern continues with no real consistency. Some chapters even begin unvoiced and then abruptly switch back to voiced dialogue with no clear transition. There are also long stretches with no voice acting at all, to the point where when voices suddenly return, it turns into a jump scare. Instead of improving immersion, it ends up breaking it. That said, the frustrating part is that the voice acting itself is actually really good. The performances sound great when they’re there—it’s not a quality issue, it’s an implementation issue. There’s clearly a lot of potential here, and with better consistency, this could have been a standout feature. On the gameplay side, there aren’t a lot of meaningful choices. Dialogue options feel limited, which makes the experience more linear than interactive and reduces replayability. Almost like you only get to choose who you want to be closest with. Another thing worth noting is that the full release feels very similar to the demo in terms of content, with only slightly more voice acting added. It doesn’t come across as a major step up from the demo experience, which makes the $19.49(CAD) price point harder to justify. Pros -Strong voice acting performances when present -Interesting characters and story potential -Valefar stands out as a compelling character Cons -Inconsistent voice acting (major issue) -Dialogue frequently switches between voiced and unvoiced -Limited player choices -Feels very similar to the demo with minimal added content Final Thoughts For a $19.49(CAD) game, I expected a more consistent level of polish—especially with something as noticeable as voice acting. Right now, the game feels like it has all the right pieces, but they weren’t fully brought together. There’s a lot of potential here. If the developers improve the consistency of the voice work and expand player choice, this could easily become a much stronger experience. I really do love this game and had a lot of higher expectations after reading the discussion page.

I don't want to be too harsh in my review as I know this is still Early Access and the devs are working hard on polishing it, however in its current state, I don't recommend this (at the moment) for people who struggle to get through a lot of text with minimal voice acting. I know this is a visual novel so text is a given, but it definitely needs to be accompanied by captivating audio. The choice of voice actors are great (sadly I haven't gotten up to Jimmie Yamaguchi yet, which is how I found out about this game) but the spoken dialogue is patchy; the characters will deliver one line and the next will be unvoiced. And then voiced. Then unvoiced. It's jarring and unfortunately frustrating after awhile, as it would be so much more enjoyable for the VAs to speak all of their character's lines and more engaging by breaking up the text fatigue. There are also gaps in the background music so you'll be left in complete silence sporadically. The premise is awesome, the art style is lovely and the VAs are talented. It just needs to go back in the oven for a bit longer.

I really liked the demo when it was first released, its art style, music, characters, voice acting, and story all left a strong impression on me. It’s honestly rare to find a visual novel with such solid English voice acting. [b][i]Please note; it’s an otome VN, so you may skip this one if it's not a genre you'd enjoy.[/i][/b] The characters feel genuinely unique, not like copies of each other, and it’s easy to grow attached to them and find yourself giggle at times ^-^ I’m really looking forward to see how this otome VN grows over the EA process. There are minor bugs here and there, but I wouldn't judge as I consider that as part of the EA deal. Wishing the best of luck to Rosemilk Studio and all the wonderful people who put their hearts into this VN ♥

I need the Chinese version, please... I really like this game, and it would be even better if it had full voice acting and Chinese translation

im mixed on my feelings about this game. It's pretty buggy and breaks the flow of reading in ways that are really frustrating. Setting a custom name has been the worst since voice lines use the MC's real name and certain text boxes also use the default name. Additionally, muting certain characters voices only works sometimes. The skip feature has a similar problem where it will sometimes skip unread text even when the settings forbid it. The game is genuinely really good, but the technical problems are rather frustrating. ill change this review when these get fixed

Salvus: Aries , The game you play as a reaper... I knew of the kickstarter back when it launched. I spotted it during a steam fest again a few years lated and decided to place it in my wishlist. As someone who love otome games and other games in the visual novel genre this one feels like a nice touch. In western visual novel there is often a lack of full on voice acting in these games. Partial voice acting being far more common in these games than these in japanese. When i learned this game would get fully voice acted in english i was surprised for the best! How often do you see western or indie visual games that are fully voice acted in english not this many i can tell you! Currently being its first day to be released in early access yes it does miss a good amount of voices due to them needing to be added. I wont complain much about it knowing how its still in early access. Even the devs themselves stated that it will happen. Knowing how long development time it can take im just glad to see a game in the market trying to do full on voice acting for an english va. The devs are responsive and actually quite active in the official discord server of their studio which is good to see. The story is great sure it only has one route currently implemented the day im writing this but its an early access. The route feels good to go trough currently. Aina is hilarious, the humor and the serious are great. The character design are great too far great that i feel like for the price vs the quality the devs are ripping themselves off. Also dont get me started on the main menu, Its mesmerizing to look at. The ost is great i am happy to be on this early access ride and see how the game will continue.

EA阶段目前只有Valefar线，虽然剧情还是有些平淡了但是伏笔埋得还是比较惊艳的，对角色心理、感情变化的描绘和刻画也很细腻，非常期待Seir线~~ 女主一开始发出声音的时候我吓了一跳，这孩子说话怎么立绘都不开口的，如果制作组能再加上角色说话时的立绘拆分就好了 happy ending的ed男声唱得好难听，英文填词也没有和日式编曲很好地融合，听起来很怪，但是妹宝声音非常好听！

Since going through the Demo, I have been anxiously awaiting the EA release of this game. The artwork, music and story are incredible works of art. Despite the few audio issues and grammatical/typo errors I've found, it doesn't detract from your immersion into the story. The story is extremely well thought out and written. Unlike some other otome games I've played, where the story is written in such a fashion as if reading a young adult book (not super mature, very lighthearted or not very story rich), this is intentioned, story rich writing. I enjoy the development of the MC throughout the story, though I was a bit concerned for their initial portrayal as a kind of flighty, air-headed, naive girl. That quickly changes after the first chapter, at least it did for me. As you dive into the backstory of what drove the MC to the point they are now, their tone changes and matures in a believable and understanding way. ****SPOILER ALERT! DON'T READ FROM HERE UNLESS YOU WANT SPOILERS FOR THE VALEFAR ROUTE!**** I know this is EA, so I'm not frustrated about the audio and text issues I ran across during my play through so far. What I will say that was extremely jarring and mildly peeving was that in the middle of Chapter 6 of Valefar's route, after he's brought back from the brink of death after the battle in Heaven, when the screen fades to black, to what I assume was a transition (like it had been so far throughout the game) it put me back at the Main Menu. None of my progress through the story was saved (there's no auto save function that I saw) and I didn't save on my own as I intended to play through the entire route in one sitting. Now my progress is gone and I have to start the entire story from the beginning AGAIN (my Demo saves didn't carry over either). So I will say that is the only major flaw I have with this game thus far. Overall, the story itself is fantastic and I look forward to when the other character routes are released. I fully support this game and all the devs who have worked tirelessly to put this amazing game into creation. Thank you!