A pleasing second outing for the protagonist of the excellent original, now in a happy relationship. Choose your own preferred route from the start and enjoy the delights of Angielle once more.

The wait is over

After the much deserved positive response to the excellent Cinderella Phenomenon, Dicesuki came through for its army of fans and produced this follow-up, Evermore, which continues the story of the lives of our MC and those around her.

Overview

It is two years since the good ends of the original stories, Lucette (changeable MC name) has assumed her place as the Tenebrarum bearer – the crystal which contains all of the negative energy of the kingdom of Angielle – and during this time she has set about trying to repair the damage to relations between humans and witches caused by the Great War between them. Things are much better now, she has been accepted by her people, but there is still a simmering distrust of witches and occasional incidents still occur, exacerbating cracks in the fragile peace. Through all this, she has been building her relationship with her chosen partner; and this is where the reader comes in.

There is no common route for this release, instead we get to choose whose storyline we wish to continue, and in whichever order pleases us. No characters have to be unlocked before we can access their route.

Positives

• As before, the game offers five full stories, with no repeated passages between any of them.
  Each route is a decent length in its own right, with 5 chapters each containing choices which will ultimately decide which final chapter you get; and therefore whether it be a good end or the best end. As this is a “happy ever after” game, there are no bad ends to be had.
• As the final chapters for each route are also completely different, effectively there are 7 chapters of story per route. At a little over £7 for the game, this represents great value for money.
• The writing is once again of a very high quality. Text errors are both rare and tiny, most of which the majority of readers will not even notice.
• Characterisation is good. If you thought the main players were well developed in the original, you should be pleased to find that further depth to them has been added.
• Although some backgrounds are repeated from the original game, this does not detract at all for two reasons: the locations are the same, and the attention to detail is marvellous.

• The UI has been modernised, retaining all of its previous plus points such as the attractive “music player” style buttons for regular features such as back, auto and skip; while the save/load screens, history and gallery are all presented beautifully.

Negatives

• I was very disappointed to find that one really bad graphic design decision from the original has been retained. Whilst I expect this will not bother some people at all, I find that having incidental characters displayed with no eyes is not only jarring to look at; but also yanks me out of any suspension of disbelief immediately. This shot from Cinderella Phenomenon demonstrates the point perfectly:

That should have been enough to make the developers see the folly of the decision, but sadly, we have it again in Evermore:

Nonetheless, the black-and-white effect flashback pictures do enhance the experience.

• Without spoilering, I found Klaude’s route to be very flat, as it is more centred around the relationship he has with his brother, and his brother’s own anxieties, than it is around the MC’s relationship with him. As such, I felt detached from this route and found very little enjoyment in it. A shame, as his route in the first outing was one of the best.
• The character graphics have enjoyed an upgrade too with more detail and blinking eyes, but they look disconcertingly young at times. I particularly enjoyed the skilled rounding out of the unsocial, introverted Rod, but the end-route CG for the couple made them look about 14 years old at most, which I felt was entirely inappropriate for the nature of the scene.

Verdict

This game does stand up as a good value purchase in its own right. I feel that Dicesuki are doing themselves an injustice by referring to it merely as a “fandisk”. There is much more entertaining story to be enjoyed here than in many a game released as a complete visual novel; and therefore it certainly deserves to be recognised as such.

I do not, however, understand why anybody would want to play this without experiencing its predecessor first; especially with that gem still being free to play. As a stand-alone game, this represents a purchase which justifies its price tag; but when taken as a two game package for the same amount, it is outstanding value and should be snapped up by anybody who enjoys a good romantic story in visual novel form.

Review also posted on Steam ➞

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