Hi! I just played Villains Leave no Graves for the first time, and I love it so far! I tend to be very worried with isekai stories because I'm genuinely triggered by isekais ending with the protagonist going back to their birth world, so it's always reassuring to have a story where their original body died since it sort of makes that impossible.
That aside, I've been quite invested in the content we already had with Arami's brothers, and I'm really hoping we'll be able to improve their relationship with them at least a little bit.
I also have two questions if you don't mind (though if you already answered something similar and I just so happen to not be able to find it, I'd love it if you simply redirected me to it!). So, I'm incredibly split between Mari and Oliviero when it comes to the romance. Both have tropes I love, but different kinds of appeal. With Mari it's the whole idea of Arami and them being supposed to be THE enemies and what not (not to mention it's funny to me that Domeni is bethrothed to one and the actual LI to the other in the novel, but in this case it's the two people they are supposed to be involved with that'd end up together), while with Oliviero it's more about the parallels between his own past and Arami's and so on. And since I'm so conflicted, I was wondering if you'd be willing to tell me at least a little bit about the "tone" or "flavor" of each romance, to help me pick. Now, I'm obviously mostly interested in the two ROs I'm conflicted between, but if you want to give some info about every romance, that's obviously fine by me too. Though if you also don't want to share anything else at all, I fully understand! I'm just asking because asking won't harm, and since I'm a "one canon playthrough" kind of player, chances are very low for me to have one playthrough for Mari and one for Oliviero.
And the other question: does picking Arami's "default" design has any flavor text related to it or does it not matter? I tend to remain "as canon as possible" so I went with it (though I may not imagine the exact hairstyle or facial features as on your design), but I'm curious.
Thanks!
Hello! I'm glad you've enjoyed the story so far :)) While I will say that the story I have planned may turn out to be a bit... batshit, I can confirm that the original reader's world is not going to be an end goal ending. For the most part, that ship is sailed. 🚢🪦
Arami's brothers are certainly a couple of interesting characters, of which I do indeed plan to allow players to sort out their relationships with, whether it be attempting some type of improvement, or confidently establishing that the disdain is mutual, heheh.
As for your questions, I'll do my best to answer them, but know that things are subject to change as I continue to write and work with the story!
I answered a very short cliffnotes version of what I was inspired by when planning each romance route in this post, but to get more specifically into Mari and Oliviero, I'd say that the former is a much more melancholic and poetic sort of journey, while the latter has the opportunity to be a bit more dark and intense in tone. Player choices in the routes will definitely affect to what extent these descriptions take effect, as well as there being much more nuance to the different aspects of these relationships, but overall, I'd say Mari is for the narrative freaks and Oliviero is for the freaky freaks LMAO. I'll refrain from going too in-depth since I want the character interactions to speak for themselves versus me making any bold claims before I put pen to paper on the actual game scenes.
I will confirm that there are a few combinations of Arami appearances that activate flags that allow for the occasional flavor text aside! One of these is, as you guessed, going with the offered default appearance, though I won't go into why that is, teehee. Although I will say that if you decide to do your own thing, you won't be penalized. I made these flag variables less as a reward or incentive to make Arami look a certain way and more of just logical factors that are acknowledged in the narrative from time to time!