Women of Xal

Xjena has a fully developed personality and strong opinions, which I appreciated. As a player, I had consistent opportunities to collaborate in shaping her future, and I never once cringed at her dialogue. Her obsession with pizza might be nutritionally questionable, but it’s charming in context. The world doesn’t revolve around Xjena or her calendar. You have to make hard choices about who you pursue romantically, and sometimes you simply don’t have time to do it all. My max was six romances at once—out of twelve total. I didn’t finish Proxis, Furnell, or Xobi’s routes. The poly romances were refreshingly smooth. No awkwardness, no jealousy, no walking on eggshells. It felt more like ethical sluttery; and I mean that in the best way. You can date as many people as you want, and sometimes your partners even date each other, which is honestly adorable. It’s rare to see this done well, and it made the game feel emotionally expansive, not messy. The game advertises a "tricky high fantasy political mystery," but it’s not one the player really solves. Instead, you train, do paperwork, and go on a lot of dates. Some of the people you're dating are actively solving the mystery, and if you date the right ones, it gets resolved. I’m not mad about it; I came to date interesting people, and I absolutely did. Raising stats was intuitive. What those stats did wasn’t always clear. I maxed out most of them, and while the game acknowledged that in dialogue, I’m not sure if it went deeper than surface-level recognition. Still, it worked well enough and didn’t get in the way of the narrative. Visuals & Animation: I loved the sprites. The animated, voice-acted segments were especially impressive! something I’ve rarely seen in visual novels. There was a crying scene at one point that absolutely got me choked up. The voice acting on those sobs were top teir. Every character looked and felt distinct, though meeting all of them in quick succession was overwhelming. There are at least 26 characters, and it’s a lot to process at once. The sci-fi/fantasy fusion setting was intriguing. Xal felt like its own place, and learning about its differences from Earth was a fun part of the experience. The inclusion of things like selfies helped ground the world in modern sensibilities without breaking immersion. --Where the Fantasy Got Messy-- The cultural setting took the wind out of the romantic sails. I’ve read Chinese manhua with similar premises—a toxic matriarchy where historical misogyny is flipped and enacted on men instead. As a player living in modern times, I didn’t feel like I was allowed to enjoy the fantasy. I couldn’t just dive into a pile of pretty boys (or girls), ordering drinks and watching them sashay happily. The only man who seemed to accept the status quo was also an emotionally constipated nitwit, incapable of representing any silver lining of what seems to have existed since the creation of this world. There was no guilt-free sexism here, no space to indulge. Could you play a ruthless apprentice Matriarch who treats men poorly? Probably. But I never chose that route. I put zero points into “ruthless” across four playthroughs, because that’s not the experience I wanted. I wasn’t looking to do harm and call it romance—I just wanted to enjoy a harem. And I did, sort of. I ended up with three boyfriends and three girlfriends at once, but the cost was playing a protagonist who was practically a men’s rights advocate. The tsundere men won’t even look at you unless you start growling about gender injustice. Culiver and Artemis come to mind especially, and even the sweet twink Valimer is filled with bitterness toward the women who’ve held him down. As a straight woman, I couldn’t get into any of the romances with men on my first playthrough. They were too loaded. Flirting with men who were clearly embittered or traumatized felt ethically murky. Was Xjena being creepy for showing interest? Was it truly consensual to pursue someone who was effectively sold to your employer—and now works for you, by proxy? These questions made me want to support the men, not romance them. On the other hand, the women were fantastic. Their routes felt fleshed out, nuanced, and full of personal growth. Marixa in particular stood out for her self-reflection and how she took ownership of her beliefs. Befriending and dating the women felt emotionally rewarding and narratively rich.