Demonheart: The Cursed Trial

I wouldn't call this the best otome I have ever played, but I'm so happy I found one that has a love interest that looks unconventional and is a bastard and doesn't hide it. It's SO my niche of guys I like that isn't used often enough. Gonna try to keep this spoiler free with one or two exceptions. I quite enjoyed it despite it sometimes feeling like the story was a bit meh and slightly convolutes and some choices lead nowhere, but it seems like it's the first game with this amount of endings and choices from this studio from my research so I will consider it a great first try! I find the whole idea of being stuck in a demon's game and knowing that someone WILL die no matter what is always an interesting one, like I said the story isn't the best of the best, but it's serviceable for this type of game and I still found it quite engaging, the twists got me so surprised and feeling a little stupid that I didn't realize the hints on subsequent playthroughs. There was one that I guessed for dumb reasons, it was [spoiler]that Kaisar was the red-feathered assassin due to a mention of the assassin having sharp teeth and the comment about his upper body having some muscle when the mc is nursing him back to health, which a common librarian wouldn't have but an archer would, and since the assassin HAD to be one of them to make that storyline satisfying he was the one reliable option, no I didn't even think of the archer bracers I DIDN'T EVEN NOTICE WHICH IS WORSE I'VE SEEN THOSE SO OFTEN, but those were the things that made me guess it lol[/spoiler]. The story also had charm to it that makes it hard to dislike for me. And in general, what I like in dating sims is to have the characters appeal to me and get what I asked for when I bought it, and I saw dark fantasy and said "this better have bastard men!" AND IT DELIVERED! Like above implied, I ADORED Kaisar. He has me completely ensnared, for better and for worse. I love his design, I love his voice, I LOVE how much of a bastard he is and how the rare moments of softness he has just pulled me in even more. The romance scenes with him did things to my brain in the best way possible I won't lie I guess I'm just a sucker for awful men that lie haha! All jokes aside, he's a complex character that fascinated me and I love him for it. His appearence is unique to this genre of games and it made his appeal SO much bigger to me! I didn't really get Ran's appeal even tho I tried some of his romance scenes, but there's a non-zero chance it was because I was already too taken with Kaisar at that point to care. Oopsies! I did however find him to be quite cute and understand why people would like him! I haven't played his route in full, but his... let's say yanderism are pretty cool and we generally are into that as well as his appearance... but Kaisar exists in the same game he does. As for the other characters, I also quite enjoyed them! Vita was my absolute favourite out of the rest of the cast, the twist involving her gave me some big feels. Her snark and protectiveness over the mc were absolutely adorable and she has such a cute design! Janiya was also really cute and interesting and her real nature never truly being revealed to the mc was actually a pretty good narrative choice. Elos personality and quirks made him extremely enjoyable to me, Bane being a big strong ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that softens when it comes to his witch was honestly endearing, the Seer (or Raze) was actually big fun! Great design too! The hidden depths also intrigued me quite a bit. The only character I did not like was Leona, not because she's a bad character, I just hate people who act like her! So I guess you could say she's a good character haha! I have many more thoughts but this review is damn long already haha! Overall a great experience if you're into a certain niche and looking for a fun time, I don't think I will ever get all achievements for this one because I am so smitten with Kaisar that getting anything other than his good end breaks my heart... so we can thank this game for giving us a guy to be a little unhinged about!