This is such a lovely game through and through! Charming art and soundtrack, the story and overall vibe a perfect mix of intriguing and cozy, it truly is the game equivalent to enjoying a warm cup of hot chocolate while watching the dance of flames in a fire pit on a cold winter day. For its length, the game is remarkably well-paced, and the writing did an excellent job of so easily immersing me into the experience from the first scene onward.
I really appreciated the clear thought put into the life and people MC is forced to leave behind, as well as MC's lingering feelings toward them as the story progresses, since these are elements I often sadly find brushed aside in other games in favor of focusing on current events and the backgrounds of characters besides MC. I equally appreciated the ability to influence how MC feels about it all, taking the forgiving option myself and being pleasantly surprised when the game respected it by later establishing this forgiveness as part of the narrative and having MC act with their best interest in mind accordingly. As for worldbuilding in general, I loved how naturally it comes into play and found it extremely solid! Without ever getting too dark, the game doesn't shy away from digging into some pretty bitter realities at times, and the way it takes care to address the nature of specific consequences in this world does wonders in grounding it with the kind of realism that makes fantasy settings infinitely more compelling to me. I'll always crave more lore when it comes to worlds like this that I'm invested in (those stories of the other living gods have me particularly intrigued), but the game still manages to cover an impressive amount of ground with details about the fantasy rules, culture, and history without ever dragging down the pace.
Now, for the man behind the legend, Heimos! A seemingly imposing, stern force of nature on the surface, yet an absolutely endearing sweetheart who is both surprisingly approachable and stubbornly self-sacrificing as you get to know him. I really adore who he turned out to be. While I did already expect him to be much kinder than the stories made him out to be, especially with his early guidance, I also expected him to remain wary and be kind while keeping MC at a distance. How much more refreshing it was for him to turn out to be open and receptive to them, and their connection felt all the more genuine because of it. I love how things developed between the two in both his good routes, but I went with the romantic route first and certainly enjoyed it the most (among the many cute moments, I really got quite the kick out of his version of “vengeance,” haha). Still I have to say, major shoutout for not only having a platonic route, but letting people be explicitly either not attracted to men or not interested in relationships at all! Most of the time in visual novels, you're just on the route and how you react decides if it's platonic or not, leaving your MC's sexuality up to interpretation, which is fine but I much prefer how you've allowed people to explicitly state that part of who they are and even have Heimos react to it! On a personal level, it meant so much when I later chose the full aro option and *minor character spoilers for those concerned* Heimos explained his experiences with desire as being very rarely interested, something I share with him irl. Being ace and on the aro-spectrum, I know just how uncommon and important this kind of representation still is, and on top of everything else, for this I can't thank you enough.
Thank you so much, and hopefully this all does justice to the wonderful, enchanting experience I had playing this game! I wish the best for not only its success, but also any other future projects you may have going forward <3