Romance of Raskya

Wow. I've only completed the escaping with Nasrin route, but I wanted to say I really appreciate having found this little gem of a story on itch.  I fully intend to play the other routes.  It reminded me a little of reading a novel called The Pillars Of the Earth, a work of historical fiction that has a compelling romance combined with politics and a fair bit of eroticism.  Will you be working on another project soon with the same team?

The art for the characters reminded me a lot of Tetsuya Nomura's artstyle used in the Dissidia series, which is quite a plus. The backgrounds are a little... meh at times. Like some of these backgrounds don't feel Roman or Classical Antiquity to me, and most of the architecture in the main area where the game is set in reminds me more of High Middle Ages Europe than Classical Antiquity Europe. But the backgrounds do their jobs enough to convey the scene, methinks.

Music is okay. It's something I'm not hating on, neither would I be praising. It serves its purpose enough.

The story is quite nice and reminds me of those great and tragic love stories from Shakespeare, like Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet. Indeed, the first two endings I got were literally bad ends. I won't spoil them. I thought I was going through a path for a good end, only to find out I got a bad end instead (one of them is such an agonizing end too). It's not too long and not too short either. It builds up just enough to like or hate some of the characters. In my opinion anyway. And sometimes it makes you think like... why would they do that? Like I find the main character sometimes to be stupidly naïve at times, but I guess that's fine because realistically, he is, and he can be insufferably stupid. You'll see why eventually. But he's honestly my least favorite part of this VN in a sense.

Also to be honest, the two protagonists reminds me too much of Paris of Troy and Helen of Troy in a sense: in terms of their naivete.

Like one comment said, the sex can be gratuitous at times, and a bit too much. I can tolerate it since I'm more interested in the tragic love story and its twists and turns.

I should warn though some scenes, especially the bright reds and purples as backgrounds that fills up the screens can be so bright that I literally had to squint my eyes. I don't have epilepsy, but I can see that as a problem for those who do have it.

The touches of history like Alexes' commentaries on this story and their endings is quite cool I would say.

I somewhat like some of the counterparts of the nations in this world and the authors' painstaking research in most of it.

Raskya = Ancient Rome. (Though the leader is the Basileus, so it's making me feel inclined towards the Byzantine Empire, but the fantasy style of the Roman legionary armor along with the style of scutum reminds me of the Roman Empire more.) (Though I find it a bit weird why Raskya call themselves a Kingdom since they have no King but a Basileus. They have something similar in Rome, either the Imperator, which is the basis for Emperor, or the Princeps 'first amongst equals'. They never title themselves as King because they weren't keen on framing themselves as the tyrannical kings of old. Yes, I know a Basileus is a 'King' in Ancient Greece, but the term is used differently for the Byzantines.)

Dagara = Either of the Italian city states of old or the Greek city states of old.

Peladon = Ancient Persia

Durja = Ancient China, particularly the dynasties before the manchu Qing Dynasty. (I made that comparison since Durja was said to have paper and they're known for their long hairstyles. Paper originated from China and the Han Chinese of old were known for their old and discontinued cultural belief of not cutting one's hair due to the Confucian belief that it was a gift from the parents and it would be disrespectful to cut one's gift. So it grew long and they have made some interesting hairstyles out of their long hair.) Also it seems Durja is quite the patron of the arts, just like China is in certain dynasties.

Overall, I would say a great Visual Novel. If criminally underrated. 

PS: Just gonna add this little tidbit but they really do the best girl dirty like that with a lot of bad endings handed her way, and all the shit she gets from the protagonists... she really deserves so much more.

So… The art is gorgeous and the world building interesting but the game wasn’t for me and I think it’s mostly because of my expectation when reading the features. I was prepared to have some depiction of sexual violence (like maybe a final battle with murders and rape in the chaos or something...), but I didn’t expect it be ever-present. I played a bit (I think I did around 6 point of view change), and I feel like there isn’t a scene without a depiction of some kind of NPC being sexually harass. It really made me uncomfortable all along, and the fact that all the characters seems sexually obsessed didn’t helped me to feel more at ease. I really had the impression of playing a porn game, even if their is no graphical sex scenes (graphical as in « detailed action and anatomic depiction »). Once again, I expected sex scene, and I love them in general, so it’s not the issue in itself, it’s how much sex is gratuitous and ever-present.

For example (small spoiler) when the ex slave decide to casually masturbate in front of one of the main character ensuing a really weird and long conversation about her hand being clean or not. It just made me so uncomfortable, and feel so gratuitous. Especially since the previous sentences already stated more than clearly she was at ease with her own sexuality and borderline nymphomaniac. And it’s just an example among others... (End of spoiler)

Anyway, I don’t recommend the game for people who like romance with a bit of smut like me, I think the game should be more identify as porn, not only mature...

The game looks fantastic from what I've seen!

Just a quick question, because it will impact whether I download the current or any future version - are there NTR elements at all? While I don't judge others for enjoying it, I personally don't.

When or whatever's the game complete or done?