Not much of a poster, but a long time lurker on Tumblr. When something gains a chokehold on my brain I may be inclined to post about it and simply enjoy the newest out of the many I've had over years.
A mature slice of death and adventure fantasy otome visual novel that begins at the bad ending.
Premise:
"Congratulations, you're dead. Welcome to the afterlife.
A story that begins with the heroine meeting her bad end at the chopping block. It can only go uphill from here, right?
Waking up after a long stay in purgatory (that she remembers nothing about), she learns that the rest of her sentence is to serve as a Reaper until the powers above have decided she's paid back her sins.
Through her journey after death as a Reaper, she'll seek out the empty gaps in her memory and reconcile her past with her present. Everyone has something to hide, and unfortunately for them, she's the type to seek out answers. But the biggest challenge for the crew will be to save her from herself.
Or they might all just get a one way ticket to Hell. At best."
I'm always on the hunt for romance visual novels to explore and I stumbled across the demo on Steam.
I will admit the premise really intrigued me because I am chomping at the bit for the next beta to drop for A Date with Death 2. And I thought, another visual novel centered around Reapers? I'm so down.
It's interesting that we get a story where the protagonist has had to face their “bad ending” and must deal with the consequences of their actions in the afterlife. Now the game is still in early access so there are only a few routes available to fully play through.
The common route sets up the foundation of the story and worldbuilding up nicely. And each LI’s preview into their route expands on the lore of the world in interesting ways as they should.
Normally, I prefer to wait for a game to fully release but the demo deeply hooked me, and I found myself wanting to experience this project as it develops. I can feel the passion and hard work that went into Savlus Aries, and mind you, Rosemilk Studios is run by one person!
The art and character design is beautiful and I love the style used for the CGs. The soundtrack is pleasant, and the BGM on the title screen is BEAUTIFUL. I love the simple music box melody, yet it evokes a melancholic feeling that perfectly aligns with the story and the characters.
And speaking of the characters, the love interests are interesting both individually and as a group - they have great dynamics and I love their banter. And the protagonist is honestly one of my favorite otome game leads now.
I plan on doing a more in-depth look at the characters, and the protagonist, breaking it down in each playable route. But having played through the available routes so far, here's a few short impressions.
Aina: The Protagonist
Of course the characters are the backbone of the game and the protagonist, Aina, is more than capable of carrying her narrative weight. Her backstory is compelling and I've come to like her character a lot. There's a great balance in the portrayal of her spunk, intelligence, softness, and the flaws that often land her in trouble.
Aina struggles with genuine heartbreak over how her life ended, the tragedies that lead to her dismal end, and what waits for her in her new life as a Reaper. She honestly does her best to make the most out of a very unconventional situation. And she doesn't stop trying to move forward even with the past coming back to haunt her even more viciously this time around.
I think the writing for Aina is great and I appreciate seeing that in an otome game. Not that I don't see the appeal of blank slate, self-insert type MCs but this is definitely not a suitable story for that type. Aina's past, present, and future are at the very core of the narrative and I enjoyed understanding more about her and what lead to the choices she made in her mortal life.
Valefar:
Valefar certainly has the fatherly, parent chaperone kind of feel to him at first, trying to keep the peace in the group and work on track. His dry sense of humor is a kind of humor I think is underrated - not everyone can pull that off.
I found Valefar's stance on humanity really interesting and actually pretty realistic when we learn why he became a Reaper. There's plenty of bitterness to experience in human life and it's not something everyone would want to return to even if they'll remember nothing about past lives. It's an enticing hook to choose his route and see just what caused his bitterness towards humanity to the point that he'd outright reject reincarnation.
Caym:
I mean the demon aspects do immediately draw attention to Caym. Design-wise I admit I was drawn to him first, interested to see how diverse the love interest group was in supernatural beings. It's hilarious that he is the unofficial official bartender of the group and the rest mooch off of his spirits collection.
Caym is a sly one that on the surface seems like a caring gentleman but his type is usually a difficult one to contend with in a romance. He definitely presents some red flags during the common route and you'll see just how far they go in his route (which is available now). Not to say that Caym's a heartless character. He cares deeply for his family, and the others in the group in his own way, but he very much lacks an understanding of the human heart.
Xaphan:
Golden retriever energy off the bat. It's exceedingly funny to me that the other love interests tease and make it look like he's in himbo territory, but Xaphan is actually competent and reliable.
Though as it goes the ones who seem the happiest on the outside often are struggling with a lot of pain underneath. That is definitely the case for Xaphan. The chip on his shoulder is monumental and the pressure he puts on himself to make up for something in his past intrigues me as to how his route will play out. Xaphan is not as open or vulnerable with others as you may think at first given his personality. But that leaves a lot of room for sweet angst development in his character.
Seir:
CINNAMON ROLL. His blunt innocence is hilarious and endearing, as pretty much expected for an angel. Seir is very much the baby of the group in the sense that his "elders" pick on him good naturedly, but if anyone outside the group dares to hurt Seir then all bets are off. It's so cute just how much he loves to dote on Aina and be doted on by her. Seriously, he flips from pouty when teased by the guys to all sunshine and rainbows when Aina gives him attention. He's a good boi.
You probably start to think he doesn't have a mean bone in his body. Well.....until you finish his lead in to his route from the common route. Slight spoiler in the common route but suffice it to say a series of event lead Seir to lose his wings, and his fall from angelhood presents an intriguing problem. Angels in this universe aren't capable of having bad intentions, but Seir who's lived that way his whole life now has to grasp with internal darkness, now that has all sorts of possibilities.
Orias:
Really embodies the asshole with a heart of a gold type. Orias is actually called a tsundere by one of the guys and it's hilarious that he doesn't know what that means. The tenderness underneath his snarkiness and tough love approach makes the sweet and sour pleasant in his various interactions with the other characters. The man is observant though, serious and patient when it's called for, and knows when to pull back his sharper side if it will cause real harm. Seeing the people he cares about get hurt affects him more than he'll ever say.
I can't say too much about the lead in to his route in the common route as there are SO MANY spoilers, but holy shit I have no doubt that Orias will be my favorite by the end. OH MY GOD THE TWIST that you discover about him hits all the right places in a tragic love story with an uphill battle to a happy end.
Looking at the dev's notes about the route order that will release for the love interests, I was curious about why Orias was last. It makes sense though because even just his part of the common route ends up spoiling a reveal in another love interest's route. Orias to me comes across as the "true" ending in Salvus Aries and I will cry tears of joy when I can finally play his route.
His affection for Aina hits so differently when you find out the context behind it and how his secret factors into the dynamic. I don't know if I could emotionally handle Orias' bad ending when it releases.
So yeah, please consider checking out Salvus Aries for yourself and supporting the project however you can. There's great things to come for the rest of the game and I hope more people discover it.
This the first year I've come across The Storyteller's Festival and it's well worth checking out! I've never been much of PC gamer, always played on consoles, but ever since I started playing Two and Half Studios games on Steam I've wanted to branch out and find more great games to try.
And I found quite a lot to try out and I'm excited for a bunch of them.
Demos I've Played So Far:
Ookami Okami - release date TBD
Peachleaf Valley: Seeds of Love - release date TBD
Reanimation Scheme - release date TBD
Save the Villainess - release date TBD
Snow White Ashes - release date TBD
Sweetcore Brews - available for sale
I'm planning to do a breakdown of my thoughts on each game so far based on the demos. On top of that I have at least 5 more demos to get through still. I fear I've taken on more than my exhausted brain can take right now but oh well it's getting the creative juices flowing.
Not sure when the full games will be releasing for quite a few of these titles but if they release this year, oh man, back half of 2026 will be lit. Although if they release next year, 2027 will be the busiest year of backlog games I've ever had. No joke, on top of A Date with Death 2: Remnants (which will consume my whole being), I'll have at least ten other games - most of them with multiple routes - to complete.
I have lots to look forward to though so at least I have that going for me.
So proud as a ADWD fan, we'll be eating well in 2027. And there's new stretch goals - INCLUDING FULL VOICE ACTING FOR ADWD 2! We've got 24 days left of the Kickstarter and I'm on the edge of my seat all over again.
I NEED THE SEQUEL FULLY VOICED! PLEASE I'M BEGGING!
I love Jonah Scott's voice acting first of all. I saw the announcement months and months ago that he would be voicing Casper. But actually hearing his expression of the character really brought out of a new side of Casper.
I'll admit it took me a couple of playthroughs for his voice and Casper to really integrate in my mind. Not for a bad reason! I was acquainted with a different character in another Two and Half Studios game that's also voiced by Jonah Scott before I played ADWD - Leos in The Divine Speaker.
I've played The Divine Speaker quite a lot and completed Leos's route several times. So with Leos so cemented in my mind with Jonah's voice, it kept jarring me during my replay of ADWD with the VA patch because Casper would speak but I'd also think of Leos.
And there are certainly similarities between the two characters. Like Leos, Casper is confident in his abilities, solitary in practice if not nature, prone to being snarky, and it takes genuine effort to see the emotional vulnerability underneath what he projects on the outside. There is a heart that can love deeply and fiercely, and when he does allow that special someone in he will risk his life to protect his most precious loved one.
Eventually I could start to mentally separate the two characters while hearing the voiced lines in ADWD. The hilarious moments of Casper growing flustered as he's teased and bullied by Sunshine are even funnier with Jonah's great delivery.
The bad endings hit even harder - especially Forget Me Not! - because the raw emotion as Casper's world is falling apart is delivered so earnestly.
And the sweet and uplifting moments make my heart soar. I loved the fireworks scene so much already, but man Jonah's delivery, 10/10 and it makes the fragile hope and happiness Casper feels all the more precious.
The voice patch has made replaying the game that much more fun and almost feels like I'm rediscovering parts of it as I pick different dialogue options on each day. It makes me so glad that we get such talented voice work in indie games and it really elevates the artistry.
So yeah that's my random ramblings on it. I hope we get a full voice patch for the second ADWD game as well down the road.
Of course I'm practically foaming at the mouth to experience the full romance routes in A Date with Death 2: Remnants.
But I'm also really eager to see more of the lore and worldbuilding and replaying the first game and sequel demo has had me chewing on some thoughts.
Maybe not after ending 9 in the first game, but I wonder, before that.....If a Grim Reaper took a soul and that soul ended up becoming a Grim Reaper themselves, they must have been constantly tracked so that Grim Reaper would never see or have contact with that soul-turned-Grim Reaper. Like put in stations so far apart there'd be no chance. Given how vast Casper said the Underworld is I think it'd be possible. Otherwise how would old management have kept up the lie about how Grim Reapers are created.
Could entire stations of Grim Reapers have been created from major events that resulted in a lot of humans dying in short succession? (Wars, natural disasters, etc.)
So much of our knowledge is tied to memories. 0204/Atlas remarks in the demo that he doesn't actually remember what the sun looks like but he has a vague recollection of how sunlight on his skin feels. That they have to wipe so much from a mind to make the kind of "blank slate" that was required for a Grim Reaper's creation. Really curious about the process used to erase memories because there's so much risk in a Grim Reaper re-learning stuff about the mortal world and a tidbit jogging some memory of a human life loose.
How precarious is the balance of life and death in the game's universe? If enough souls aren't ferried to the afterlife and prevented from re-entering the cycle, how exactly does that translate to the mortal world? Things may not be at critical point of no return just yet but if things ever reached that point I wonder what the struggle for autonomy would look like for Grim Reapers in a scenario like that.
We've got Heaven auditing the Underworld, so yeah, the universe is pretty shaken up by the whole Reaper rebellion. Grim Reapers really are in a shitty position because so much rides on them and they were made to carry the load by other cosmic powers that said powers gave up on trying to handle ages ago.
Even after the rebellion and having a choice now, being held accountable for the cycle of life and death is a hell of a thing to sign up for. Absolute brave souls for even considering it.
My brain won't stop obsessing over these games and I will eagerly embrace the abyss-levels of brainrot I will have once the full version of the second game releases.
I can finally add the Nier Replicant v.122 album to my Nier playlist!!!!
Hardly a day goes by that I don't listen to a song from the Nier games. My soul genuinely feels some measure of healing when I listen to the soundtracks.
Gods the music, it's helped me sail through multiple depressive episodes in my life, and it holds a special meaning in my heart that defies words.
When the Nier Replicant remake came out in 2021 I was deep in depression and numb inside and out. And this game, especially the music, made me feel human again - ironic really considering how tragic Nier is but that's how powerful a hold the music of Nier has on me.
I genuinely fear the loss of hearing because if a day ever came where I couldn't listen to the music of Nier again my soul would be crushed.
Sir I'm going to need you say that again for extremely important reasons....
I already thirsted over 5012 in A Date with Death but OH MY GOD the morsels we get in the demo for A Date with Death 2: Remnants is everything to me. I absolutely NEED to play the full game. I have things to do this year but part of me wants 2027 to be here now.
When the full game does release I will go off the grid. No one in my family or friend group will hear from me for at least a week.
Guess I'll play the demo a few dozen times until then
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