Luna's Review: "Temirana: The Lucky Princess & The Tragic Knights"
In this world, one's status and occupation are determined by the month they were born. In the eastern kingdom of Temirana, the third princess was born a baby with a birthmark on her forehead.
This child was rumored to be the "Cursed Princess," and was forced to live in a house far from her family, away from the castle. But things are about to change.
As her birthday approaches, she attends the dueling tournament known as Helis Duelm. There, she sees five men glowing with a dazzlingly strong light.
Indeed, the "Cursed Princess" possessed a special and lucky power. Whenever her life might be in danger, people and places would shine as if to warn her.
Those acquainted with her power warn that those men may have shone because they were dangerous...but she knows their light is different from any she's seen before. Trusting her intuition, the princess invites the five men to join her order of knights.
However, some of them have no experience with the sword, and others lack interest in knighthood at all. Can the princess and her small company of five knights overcome the tragedy on the horizon?
Luna's Fave Character: Tobias
Luna's Thoughts (Light Spoilers):
"Temirana" is a simple premise set in a world richly woven with lore. Unfortunately for the writers, simply exchanging normal words for fantasy terms does not carry a game.
Protagonist Cecilia is a princess who has lived her life away from her family. Born with an unusual mark on her forehead and a weak constitution, she is considered cursed. Her parents, the king and queen, did not totally abandon her, but they did force her to live separately from them and her two bullying sisters.
Despite this, Cecilia is fairly upbeat. Rather than mourn her fate, she attempts to do her best as a representative of the Temirana royal family. She's yet another highborn otoge protagonist who learns uncomfortable truths about poverty over the course of her journey, but she doesn't have much room to grow because she's already pretty much has the right opinions. Knowing how much it sucks to be "othered" by royalty, she seeks a more equal world and doesn't look down on those of lower social classes.
The writers for the setting and the writers for the dialogue appear to be two completely different groups. The robust dictionary of fantasy terms hint at social unrest, worldly mysteries and deep character backstories. Unfortunately, much of this rich lore fails to materialize during gameplay.
While the overall plot is pretty good, the main failure of this game is its writing. Dialogue is clipped, characters do not react properly to dramatic revelations, and often descriptions of off-screen characters fill in for actually hearing from them. Protagonist Cecilia fails to ask questions when characters act oddly and doesn't seek advice from others when faced with difficulties. Important characters often don't get sprites, leaving players to face empty screens during important scenes.
There's also a lack of sound effects in key moments. Characters are beat up, crowds cheer and things break, but there are no sounds to support the drama. Often the music is too calm for what is supposed to be happening on screen, leading me to believe they simply did not produce enough background music to use during these times. The artwork is purely perfunctory and they really chose the most boring scenes for CGs. I guess the artist really hated drawing Cecilia's face, because she is shown from the back or with her face hidden so many times. She also doesn't have a crying sprite, despite how often she cries.
"Temirana" is somehow too much and not enough at the same time. It was an ambitious project that just wasn't executed particularly well. On paper, this is an excellent game, but that just wasn't enough for me.
That's not to say this game wasn't enjoyable. Each route was pretty unique, and I liked the varied love interests. I just don't think it came close to living up to its potential. There was so much more to be uncovered, but everything was stunted by underwhelming writing.
Please find below my thoughts on each route in the order I played them.
Adel seemed to be the least interesting of the love options in this game, so I figured I'd play him first. He's the poor son of a farmer and has nine siblings. None of his family members are given sprites, and there's obviously a lot of talking to them in this route, so it felt weird looking at an empty screen for most of the time.
On paper, this route is fine. The plot is pretty decent, other than the fact that Adel's family life and backstory are not relevant at all beyond the first chapter. In this route, Adel becomes possessed by the guardian deity of Temirana — Vorntahl, the god of wisdom. Of course, Vorntahl is not the benevolent god the country believes him to be, and seeks to gain power through Adel and Cecilia. Adel must grow stronger to resist the god inside him. Meanwhile, Cecilia's father is murdered and she must rise to the challenge of becoming queen and work to better society by abolishing the monarchy.
The real shame is that the writing does not hold up. At all. Nobody reacts strongly enough to anything — not when the king dies, not when Adel is clearly not himself, not when Adel somehow determines the king's true killer (it's never explained how he finds out.) Cecilia's sister, Angela, apologizes for treating her like trash, but there's no build up or emotional response. Everything comes across as flat and nobody is asking questions.
Also nobody is taking the whole "Adel is possessed" thing seriously throughout the entire route. They know he's dangerous but nobody does anything about it. He's not locked up or interrogated or treated with magic. Also, you would think, with the entire country praying to Vorntahl, that maybe some people would have a reaction to him being there in real life? Like Cecilia has prayed to him daily since she was a child. Wouldn't she struggle a little with his betrayal?
I also didn't feel like Adel had much to do with this route. Since his backstory wasn't relevant to the main plot, you could have replaced him with any of the other guys and this route would have more or less played out the same.
I didn't dislike Adel but I also didn't feel like I got to know him at all. He was wishy-washy with some of his scummier family members in a way that I thought might be important. Both his dad who ditched his family and his gambling-addicted sister ask him for money and he refuses because he doesn't want to support their habits. I would have liked to see more of that side of him, the side that is unable to fake kindness for people who have made his life harder. Unfortunately, these characters vanish after the first chapter, and Adel's family life is completely forgotten.
All in all, not a good route. I wasn't impressed with the writing and the plot, while decent, needed far more fleshing out.
Kiya is more or less the kuudere of the game. He doesn't show much emotion because he's used to forgetting things due to a medical condition. He only writes important things in his diary to remember the next day, and he's learned he won't feel extended hurt if he purposefully excludes describing how he felt.
Ces is able to convince him pretty quickly, largely in the common route, that emotions can be strength, too, so a lot of Kiya's route is him learning to let himself feel things.
He's the least powerful of Ces's five knights, but definitely the most quick and accurate. When Ces makes him captain, I was glad to see some resistance from the other boys, because I felt it would be unnatural to have him be accepted immediately. But once they see him in action, everyone is cool with it.
Kiya's route felt a lot more natural than Adel's in its pacing, with the exception of the last chapter, where a ton of stuff was crammed in all at once.
Like Adel's route, the king is assassinated here, but it works out differently and Cecilia's horrible older sister Claudia becomes queen this time. Ces spends the latter half of the route in hiding and then riling up a rebellion to reclaim the throne.
Also like in Adel's route, I don't feel like Cecilia gets to react enough here. She doesn't really mourn her father's death. She meets an ENTIRE GOD and doesn't blink, and also doesn't really consider why she and Kiya might have magic abilities. The explanation is fine but I didn't like how Ces just kinda lets stuff happen to her and around her without doing much to learn more. Like GIRL where is your curiosity?
All in all, though, this route was much better composed than Adel's route. Kiya's backstory, though simple, was fully fleshed out, and we see him grow leaps and bounds as he regains his ability to remember and feel emotions. The scene where Ces discovers the letters he wrote to her in case she needs them had me in tears. Kiya is just so sweet.
Kiya is a pretty unpopular character type in these sorts of games, so his route felt pretty refreshing. He also feels a lot younger than the other characters, so he and Ces felt like a sweet teen couple. I liked them together.
I really like Tobias as a character. He could have so easily fallen into the stuffy rich guy trope but instead, because of his admiration for knights, he comes across as cute and determined. His naivety isn't really an issue because he charms people with his genuineness. I also like that he's a duel wielder, which is just far too cool for someone as dorky as him. It added to his charm.
He's billed as a sickly character, but that very quickly goes away as he spends more time outside of his manor. I didn't really make the connection until his route that it might be the manor himself making him sick. I just thought it was bad writing how quickly he recovered haha. But it turns out there's some magic curse stuff going on.
Tobias' route heavily involves the Order of Lux, which is basically considered the "evil" religious faction in Temirana, though you realize pretty quickly that it's just a different religion than what most people practice and is unfairly ostracized.
At any rate, Tobias proves to be extremely capable. After learning he's the heir to the Order of Lux, he effectively infiltrates it himself in order to convince its followers to follow him during the upcoming Calamity. I was really impressed by him, but I also felt like he was too absent in his own route. He and Cecilia are separated most of the time, and he doesn't bother to fill her in on what he's planning. Even after they reunite, they're separated again, as Tobias decides to quit the knights to run an orphanage instead.
Plot wise, this was one of the better, more interesting routes. But I didn't think the romance was up to par. Tobias is a good character but not a very good partner.
Though the stoic Milan doesn't seem like it, he's actually out for revenge from the very beginning. His adoptive family were killed in an accident and he wants to know why and by whom.
Naturally, the heart of his route is figuring this out. Pretty early on, we learn he's biologically the heir to a high-ranking family. After the king is murdered, as he is on every route, Milan reclaims his family name and becomes king. Cecilia is forced to marry him to retain power and become queen.
Milan is a huge jerk for a lot of this route, largely because he's being manipulated by a combination of magic and Cecilia's evil uncle, who just wants to use him as a puppet king. Fortunately he's too stubborn to listen to Cecilia's uncle, but he's deeply affected by the magic, which causes him to lash out at her unfairly and force her into obedience.
After the spell is broken, Milan apologizes but acknowledges that he can't pin the blame 100% on the magic, as those dark thoughts were probably there under the surface from the start. I really appreciated this admission. It makes Milan seem more relatable to admit he also harbors dark thoughts sometimes, and it adds weight to his proclamation that he won't ever hurt her again.
VIP award in this route goes to Archstarseer Orberg. When Cecilia and Milan get divorced at the end so Milan can give up the throne, he's the one who quietly informs them how they can get remarried. It was very sweet.
Milan wasn't squirmy enough for me as a love interest, but I really enjoyed his passion and determination. This was probably my favorite route in the game.
Josephy is introduced as arrogant in the common route, but it kind of goes away in the other routes because he respects his fellow knights a lot. I'd almost forgotten he was that kind of character until I finally played his route.
Unfortunately, his arrogance returns in full force once he's made captain of Cecilia's knights. The route starts off with him barking orders at the others and generally getting into fights with Eric, Cecilia's bodyguard. He does get over it eventually, after learning to accommodate others.
While the overall plot is fine, Josephy's route suffers a lot from bad pacing. It's a lot of action followed by a ton of slow-paced politics. By this point, we know what's going on with the Calamity and the light crystals and stuff, so it was just kind of boring reading through it a fifth time. I wish this game mixed it up a little more.
Josephy is the closest this game has to a tsundere, but I don't think they went far enough with the "tsun" aspect of his personality. I wish he was blushier. Once he's interested in Cecilia, he's pretty straightforward and charming. I get that he's a prince so I probably should have expected it, but it would have been fun if he resisted his emotions more.
Lore-wise, we do get a lot of info about the world outside Temirana. This is also the route where we learn the most about Cecilia's parents and their relationship to her, although it still isn't much.
This was an okay route, but it didn't really impress me. After four routes with more specific focuses, this route kinda bored me. There just wasn't a ton of important information to be revealed by this point.
After playing Josephy's route, which finishes off the main five character routes, there are still a lot of mysteries left unsolved — namely, what's up with Cecilia's bodyguard, Eric, as well as her nonbinary dog god friend, Benetti. Finally, we get answers in this locked route, which turns out to be Eric's.
This route is the sole reason I gave this game a 7 instead of a 6. It was a solid, ambitious way to end the game.
Eric is revealed to be Lux, the "false king," who was in fact not a false king but a god who decided to support humanity. He was originally a human sacrificed to the holy realm and decided he didn't want any other kids to face the same fate. Of course, big bad Vorntahl didn't like this, thus triggering the thousand-year grudge that kicks off this game.
I do have some major gripes about this route. Firstly, it seems like we're going to resolve every character's major plot beats in the common route, only for all of that to become irrelevant after everyone is killed in a battle with Vorntahl. A time god was introduced pretty early in the route, so I knew everything would get retconned, but still, it was unexpected.
Half of this route takes place in the realm of the gods, as Ces conspires with Eric and some other gods to attack Vorntahl. We're introduced to a bunch of new characters, NONE of which have sprites. The final battle was mostly empty screen as spriteless gods attack each other with no sound effects, making for a lackluster battle sequence.
Everything gets resolved, times goes backwards, and we get to see what Cecilia's life would have been like if her family treated her nicely. All the knights are safe and sound, living their best lives, but it doesn't progress far enough to see if they become her knights again. It was a little bittersweet to think that there's a chance they don't get to be Cecilia's knights in this timeline.
Even with its shortcomings, this is still a really solid route. But it definitely highlights all the other issues with this game. "Temirana" just wasn't given enough love by its producers.
