The Pretty Blerd Guardian!

H’ooooo lordy. This game. This. Game. I’ve been following this title for a while now and anytime updates come through, my excitement went near feral. A slice-of-death VN where you explore life in the afterlife, accompanied by handsome yet mysterious faces as you slowly try to piece together fragments of your memory from a previous lifetime.

Amnesia? Solving my problems by fleeing into the afterlife with hotties? Kicking butt as a soul-delivering reaper? Sign me up, I’ve been needing to escape personal responsibilities since last week. Seeing a theme here? It’s cos there is. Any game that makes me forget that I gotta wake up at 8 am and let me get turnt up with pretty characters is an ace in my book.

The premise is to the point and intriguing: joining our MC, Aina, on a new journey dancing in between reality and purgatory while trying to solve the “sins” of a previous life. I also took note of how this title immediately sets the tone by explaining that our heroine meets a grim end through execution, confessing right away that Rosemilk Studio isn’t afraid to dabble in darker themes. The 17+ rating isn’t just for show and playing this demo expressed that thoroughly so as an older player, this was a breath of fresh air. It isn’t gratuitous in violence or debauchery (or is it?) but it does push a narrative that this story isn’t so black and white on the morale scale, rather varying shades of grey that really make us sit back and think.

Per the Kickstarter, we have these features to look forward to..

• 450k words, meaning it’s gonna be a CHUNKY game.
• 5 routes, if the KS is reached then we’ll get two additional routes!
• More calls. These are taken on a super cute device that I call the Google watch.
• More text chats.
• CGs.
• Good & Bad endings.
• Epilogues.
• History log.

…but I’d love to add some other details that really make this title stand out:

• Expansive world building.
  They share lore without info dumping and provide us a great insight into what kind of world Stasis is. Not to spoil everything but you’ll soon understand how everything falls into place; angels, demons, humans, reapers,, and rogues will all play a role. Relationships will be established between these ‘factions’ and how they contribute to each other along with the city of Stasis is also explained, making me hope that we’ll see more expanded lore when the entire game releases.
  
• Grey/Mature storytelling.
  I’d almost say this feels like a villain after-story? Aina isn’t a bad person per se but she’s made mistakes and choices that inadvertently brought harm to many innocent lives. This isn’t a story about good vs evil but rather a redemption story; how does life go on for someone who made such grave consequences for everyone? Can someone who created such pain and woe in the real world find peace in another life? Does she deserve forgiveness? These are questions that are considered and hopefully will be answered as you continue to play.
  
• Beautiful character design.
  I’ll go into greater detail later but it should be said right now that these characters are absolutely gorgeous to look at. Their aesthetic, the style of their clothes, what colors were used for their uniforms, and physical attributes. CHEFS KISS It’s delishush and if you’re someone who needs to have that gorgeous aesthetic when playing a visual novel, this is my seal of approval.

PLAYING THE DEMO ~

If it isn’t obvious, I had an amazing time playing through the demo and found myself relating a lot to the story. There’s a few times in the playthrough where I’d comment and Aina will follow right after stating the same thought, further proving she’s a relatable MC. She has a personality, goals, aspirations, and a pretty firm moral code. While this might make it difficult for an easy self-insert, I believe her independent and strong sense of justice will appeal to many.

Lengthwise, I stopped streaming at about 4 hours and 30 minutes which you can watch here and we weren’t even done yet. I was informed this was still the Common Route with some progress to go so this means we’re dealing with a huge chungus of a game! This receives points from me because the longer the common route, the more time I’ll be able to enjoy everyone’s attention like the attention-hungry thot that I am~

Who am I thotting for, you ask?

LOVE INTERESTS ~

We are blessed with five dateable bachelors reapers and while it’s customary to choose my favorite, it’s not something I can do right now because.. I love every single one of them and would commit unknowable misery unto anyone if they asked it of me. Each character carries their own views on death and life, making each essential as they help balance between the grim and slice-of-life themes. Caym being severe and spooky? Xaphan and his goofy attitude to the rescue! Orias bullying you too much and being a hardass? Incomes Seir asking a naive, charming question! The best part of the demo was seeing these guys bounce off of each other well and even though they’re prone to argue almost 90% of the time, you can tell there’s a lot of love between them.

The voice acting too is an absolute marvel. John Patneaude provides the perfect amount of bratty and tough guy to Orias’ classic tsundere persona, Ryan Colt Levy speaks with warmth and sorrow to perfectly illustrate what kind of tender soul Valefar is, Kieran Regan‘s voice is sweet like candy and soft like the feathers of Seir’s angelic wings, the mysterious and charming Caym is brought to life with Conner Allison‘s devilishly decadent acting. But what kind of criminal would I be to not mention Nazeeh Tarsha‘s phenomenal performance as local party boy and sweetheart, Xaphan? Playful and impudent, he’s definitely the source of my laughter for this game even when things get dark.

But that’s just covering the main guys! We’ve a few mysterious, supporting characters too..

His name is Malthus and our villain with relatable motives! Sounds like spicy mayonnaise. LOOK I KNOW THIS IS A WEIRD DESCRIPTION BUT TRUST ME, YOU’LL KNOW WHAT I MEAN WHEN YOU HEAR HIM! It’s soft but smokey? Gravelly but light? I’ll need more voice lines to put a pin on it but really pleasant on the ears.

Then we have.. you know what, let’s call him Sammich Boy. Gentle and cute but his prickly attitude brings together this pleasant contrast of adorable but unapproachable. We love a flippant grump~

Much as I’d like to describe them further, it’ll get difficult to avoid spoilers so to help – I’m going to describe their personalities as drinks!

Orias: black coffee with 2 VERY small grains of sugar & a teardrop of creamer.
Valefar: hot chocolate with a dash of cinnamon.
Seir: bubble tea with those cute jelly stars on the bottom.
Xaphan: baja blast.
Malthus: SPICY RANCH WATER.
Sammich Boy: cranberry juice.

GAMEPLAY & ART ~

The character design is amazing with a mix of futuristic and baroque. Most of the guys are wearing uniforms but you’ll notice some are more ornate than most, giving them a professional feel that sells the idea that they’re pretty good at what they do. Meanwhile, Aina has a beautiful yet sensible outfit that reflects what time period she originated from, like a mishmash between Beatrix from FF9 and Red Riding Hood; it’s a fantasy game so I’m not picky with historical accuracy in this situation but it helps that it isn’t reflected by the male-gaze!

The background CGs are also well done, they give just enough description to help feel the mood of the atmosphere without it being too distracting. Seeing what type of place Hell is like was definitely interesting, maybe not as spooky as I thought but definitely foreboding which makes it feel a little more approachable. Heaven? We don’t know her but I can confidently gush about Stasis! It’s beautiful. There’s definitely a futuristic feel but also an environmental presence with the lush greens of plant life growing across buildings, giving the city a more homey feel than something detached and uniform.

OTHER FEATURES ~

In the demo, there weren’t a lot of extra features yet but it did show an ability to text and call, whether or not that’s only during certain points of the story is still in the air but it was cute! The device was charming with its little sheep charm hanging at the end and everything was pretty straightforward.

ROSE MILK STUDIO ~

This studio is run by a lovely independent artist who loves heartfelt stories and has been an otome fan for over ten years, something that’s evident by how lovingly she writes each character! They’ve worked hard despite facing multiple technical issues and time crunches to provide us the demo we have now so please give Esha all the love and adoration!

Let’s also not forget their lead programmer Kohi who slipped into my stream the other day and was super fun to talk to! They were attentive to see everything worked well including recommending me a good place to locate my boba, hehe. We have Dragoon who performs our programming and illegalileo who edits the fun dialogue between our characters.

They’re also planning to stream the demo today! We’ll be in the company of the developer and voice actors so please consider supporting them by tuning in to their stream at 10PM EST.

WEBSITE: https://rosemilkstudio.com/
KICKSTARTER: http://kck.st/3rGlpSe
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/rosemilkstudio
PLATFORM: Steam
DISCORD: https://discord.gg/omno