Completion date: December 2024

I don’t think there is a comprehensive plot summary of the base game online. This is a very packed game with lots of action that is hard to keep track of and organize. Again, always a fan of Ushio Ayane and her fascinating imagination.

I will be adding some thoughts at the end of each chapter.

As I have only completed the base game/epilogues, and not the DLC or FD, to me the base game is an adventure game with some romantic CG instead of an otome game. The epilogue/FD likely completes the package and makes it an otome game, or at least an otome extension of the base novel.

I wholeheartedly recommend EIT to anyone who wants an intriguing story. But please do not play for romance, at least not have high expectations of it in the base game. If you are okay with sitting through a visual novel and find some “otome fan fiction” that comes after, then please enjoy.

***FULL SPOILERS AHEAD***

PROLOGUE

Anastasia used to be heiress of the aristocratic Lynzel family and the apple of her father’s eye. Her dream as a girl was to be a lady befitting of her name, and meet her love.

Her mother died young, so her father married the current king’s younger sister Evelina. The royal family enjoys an unshakeable reputation because they are said to descend from the goddess Chrom [“Kuromu”, appears in English version they changed to Norna to avoid conflict with Fire Emblem but she will be referred to as Chrom in this summary]. Evelina brought her own daughter Orla. Thus, begins Anastasia’s suffering under the physical and psychological torture of her stepmother and stepsister, with her father turning a blind eye to her abuse. Orla pretends to be nice to Anastasia but shows her true colours quickly. Even the servants mistreat her. Evelina keeps saying cryptic things about how Anastasia is a witch, how she represents everything evil in this world and will only bring suffering to those around her. The only person who truly cares about Anastasia is the maid Maya, due to Anastasia’s mother having saved Maya’s life in the past; this is Maya’s way of repaying the favour.

Anastasia is confined to a dirty room isolated from the world, given rotten food, not allowed to have a normal education or speak to people normally. However, one day the eldest prince of the kingdom, Conrad, proposes a marriage between him and Anastasia. The messenger who visited the Lynzel family was no other than the third prince Lucien. Lucien realized something was fishy with the treatment of Anastasia and stood up for her. He takes her out of her room, into the capital, and showed Anastasia the freedom and wonderful things in this world that should have belonged to her a long time ago.

Lucien does some exposition about the Carnival/witch trials that occur in this city, as well as the head inquisitor, Tyril. They finally meet Conrad who immediately showers Anastasia, who nearly lost the ability to speak and communicate because nobody has talked to her in all those years, in flattery and praise, and how he wants to make her his wife. Conrad appears to be a very bright young man who is set to inherit the country as his two other younger brothers do not hold a candle to his accomplishments, with Lucien noted to be feeble, weak-willed, and only good for his looks.

Anastasia stays at the palace and takes some courses to refine herself as the future queen of this country. One day, Conrad/Parker (second prince) approach Anastasia and bait her into doing some accounting for one of the country’s projects. Lucien meets her in private and pleads with her to not do this. However, because of Conrad’s influence, Anastasia distrusts Lucien and believes he is trying to sabotage her relationship with her fiancé.

Anastasia, being the smart girl she is, quickly notices there is embezzlement going on in the country’s ledgers. There are also slaves, which are outlawed by this country, who are working on the project under the leadership of Conrad. Anastasia finally realizes the dazzling first prince may not be as good as he seems. Maya volunteers to help Anastasia investigate more into this by going to the construction site of the project. Zenn makes a brief appearance and appears to be an ally of Lucien, but has little impact in the prologue.

Maya confirms Anastasia’s suspicions but was murdered. Conrad shows his true colours and confesses that he would never love someone like Anastasia – he just needed a dumb little piggy to take the fall. She can choose to go to jail for Conrad’s crimes, or be his wife and act like an obedient doll, doing his bidding forever.

Anastasia realizes she was never free all along.

So… she jumps off a building in desperation, and dies.

She wakes up in her old room, instead of in the palace. She travelled back to the past.

Anastasia realizes she now has a chance to save Maya. She asks Tyril for help. While Tyril became suspicious of how she can foresee Maya’s death (as this is seen as witchcraft, and all witches must die), he takes the leap of faith and talks to Crius, the vice commander of Wings of Garuda, who are an order of knights who ride the legendary bird, Garuda. Unfortunately, the crew find that Anastasia’s room is being tapped, so Conrad knows about their plans. Maya is saved, but Anastasia is being framed as a witch and the murderer of Lucien (who dies this timeline) and took the fall for Conrad. She was trialled by the people of the city and burnt to death at the stake.

A post-death Anastasia travels to the “underworld” which is revealed to be a world between the cracks of time. She meets Rune, who calls himself a witch [as clarified in Anastasia’s universe, “witch” does not have a gender assigned to it, even though in Japanese it was written as 魔女 literally meaning “magical woman”]. Rune strikes a deal with Anastasia where he can repeatedly send her back through time, but Anastasia must defeat the Witch of Ruin for him.

Anastasia decides to return to 8 years ago before she was isolated from the world by her stepfamily. Under the pretence of being a nun, she gains access to outside her household. Maya follows suit. Instead of following through with that excuse to her father, she enrols herself in Wings of Garuda, trains her physique, with the goal of achieving revenge against Conrad. Anastasia is not formally at the rank of knight yet. In order to be a knight, she enters a martial arts contest as the winners can be acknowledged as knight and choose to serve the crown or the goddess (Wings of Garuda). Oddly, in this timeline, Lucien is extremely popular among the people to the point he threatens Conrad’s claim to the throne.

One day, Anastasia was asked to meet Crius at the tavern. A drunk bumped into her. They go into an altercation and upon leaving the tavern, Anastasia was killed by a mysterious clown-like character.

She goes back in time, chooses another option, but dies again.

Third time’s the charm. She apologizes profusely to the drunk, and finally avoids being killed. She meets Zenn in the tavern, but he wears a completely different attire this time, and works as a detective instead of palace official. Crius and Tyril are revealed to be friends and they have some drinks. Zenn gets up and leaves. Anastasia, who is curious about his change in career, chased him outside, but ran into some person who says he is Anastasia’s brother and acts all cozy with her.

The scene switches to Anastasia winning the martial arts contest mentioned earlier and gaining a lot of fans. She meets the weirdo who is her “brother” again and finally realizes she does not have a brother. This person then morphs into a shadow, stating he is the Witch of Ruin. He then presents her with two tarot cards which represent either Tyril or Crius route.

TYRIL I LISTER (CV: Sugiyama Noriaki)

[I would recommend choosing Tyril first, as his route explains the Carnival process well.]

The sky suddenly becomes cloudy, with the church telling people to stay in their homes, as the Witch of Ruin is out to play and select their puppet to do their bidding, and give them the powers to kill someone else. Conrad disregards the advice to stay in, saying he is blessed with Chrom’s blood, and that the goddess will protect him from the Witch’s influences. He instead throws a ball with Anastasia being invited as well. Anastasia attends thinking this is an opportunity to get close to Conrad and expose his crimes. However, she was attacked by a mysterious figure. Lucien saves her, again, and tells her that the figure is known as Conrad’s hound.

After their meeting, the next scene is Anastasia seeing Tyril interrogating Crius in the dungeon.. with a whip??

Basically, the Witch of Ruin chooses one human on the fateful night to be the Witch’s Clown = Membrum, who will commit murder. The Carnival is the witch trial by 300 people to select who they think is most likely the Membrum. The Witch will always choose 5 suspects and conjure red chains around their necks with one of the suspects being the Membrum themself. The victim… is third prince Lucien yet again. Crius is one of the suspects and supposedly was seen by one of the members of the church, that Tyril works under. Anastasia, who is familiar with Crius as his disciple, doubts the truthfulness to this testimony and wants to prove Crius’ innocence. The only way to achieve that is to become an Inquisitor like Tyril, and gain access to the evidence and investigate into Lucien’s death.

Working under Tyril, Anastasia investigates the suspects, who include Crius, Conrad, and an orphanage kid who made a weird comment “I thought I would become Lucien” which at the time the duo dismissed as the kid meaning to say “I thought I would become someone like Lucien”. Tyril is the typical tsundere who acts all mean towards Anastasia but he cared for her as a subordinate and is impressed by her intelligence in deduction.

The Carnival begins, the orphan Sammy who made the sus comment was the Membrum. If he becomes someone like Lucien, then he will no longer need to endure abuse at the orphanage and do hard labour, because they make pre-school age kids cook there and all that… Before the trial the duo struck a deal with the Witch himself, who enjoys these Carnivals as he is a drama queen, to expose Conrad. However, something happens during the trial where the Witch’s magic and Rune’s clash in Anastasia’s body and she nearly dies so…

Wait, the two kiss? Sureeee it’s to “administer medicine”… anyways did not see that coming.

As such Sammy is voted guilty by the jury. I forgot what happened to him. Anastasia feels bad because she failed to save anyone. Tyril becomes a good mentor and comforts her. The two exhausted people spend the night at Tyril’s office, but nothing happens, even though Crius comes the next day and teases them about it.

Anastasia chooses to stay working as an Inquisitor because this is Tyril’s route not Crius’. She then learns from Maya that only descendants of criminals work as inquisitors. The plot thickens when Anastasia now receiving a letter from Lucien that was sent before he was dead. In the letter, Lucien describes his suspicion of the current king killing off the Ishik clan in secret. The Ishik clan lives away from civilization, are rumoured to only serve the goddess Chrom and her descendants (such as the royal family), and the key to a lot of secrets. Lucien mentions that there may be one survivor out of the Ishik massacre who was a girl.

Anastasia, who I guess thinks she is invincible with Rune’s ability, goes to the king and gets herself killed? Lol. However, because she defeated the Witch once (by successfully leading the jury to find the Membrum), she gains the ability to see the future in her dreams.

Anastasia uses her dream vision to save others being falsely accused of being witches for petty/selfish reasons (I believe the girl in this scene was reported by her boss because she refused to give in to his advances.). Tyril, whose job is literally to hunt witches, becomes suspicious. They then have this scene where he says one can tell a lot from observing and feeling the other party’s hands.

The plot starts to take off here. Anastasia shows Tyril Lucien’s letter. However, Tyril states he is not going to go against the crown. He is also revealed to be Conrad’s Hound, as well as some justice ninja that does good things without leaving a name in the community (like that world’s Spiderman – honestly I don’t know what the point of this ninja setting is).

Tyril aka Conrad’s Hound captures Anastasia. History repeats itself again. Tyril is also revealed to be the last survivor of the Ishik clan, hence his reluctance in helping Anastasia. However, it does not make sense that he is working for the son of the man who killed his family, and Anastasia also points this out, along with pointing out that Tyril is not a bad person, so why do all those bad things for Conrad? Tyril shouts that Anastasia knows nothing about him. To Tyril and anyone of the Ishik clan, the utmost priority is to serve the descendants of Chrom, whom he believes to be Conrad. He also copes by saying when Conrad becomes king, he will help revive the Ishiks, but surely someone as smart as Tyril knows deep down this is just a lie he tells himself to be a royal pawn…

Conrad orders Anastasia to steal back a rose that Evelina stole from the royal family. The rose used to be guarded by the Ishik clan. It is said that when the blood of Chrom’s descendants are dropped onto the rose, it will bloom and produce gems. In return, Conrad “promises” he will free Tyril from doing his dirty work. [I do not think the game ever explained why Evelina stole this from the royal family. It also doesn’t explain why the royal family doesn’t just demand it back from her or punish her for stealing. Whatever.]

Anastasia goes back to the Lynzel home, only to find … Maya having murdered the entire family?! The new round of the Witch’s game has begun, with Maya being chosen as the Membrum. Honestly great job Maya I’m all for it…

The Carnival begins with Maya being one of the suspects. However, the King was also chosen as one of the suspects, which is a first. The focus of this trial is not to convict anyone, but to use the rose to expose that the King is in fact, not a descendant of Chrom. This shakes up the foundation of this country ruled by the premise that the royal family is the goddess’ bloodline… It also destroys Tyril to his core because the whole time he’s been going against his heart, being Conrad’s Hound and all that, only to find out he’s been serving an imposter.

Maya confesses in the end and becomes convicted as the Membrum. Anastasia then has a dream where Tyril committed suicide? She runs to the church to check on him, but the dream is true.

Anastasia, unable to live with the fact that everyone she loved has died, commits suicide and meets Rune again. However, because she is at the brink of mental collapse, Rune has no choice but to erase her memory. She gets sent back to the end of the Prologue but this time she can only choose Crius’ card to begin a new timeline.

THOUGHTS

Intriguing story. However, I cannot be the only one thinking the romance was nonexistent or forced. Because the plot is so fast-paced there is no time given to describe the two’s internal monologue. The two start with a kiss under the guise of administering medicine. I fail to appreciate the transition where Tyril started viewing Anastasia more than a smart subordinate that he admires. In fact, I agreed with Tyril when he shouted at Anastasia that she barely knew anything about him.

CRIUS CASTLEROCK (CV: Furukawa Makoto)

I was immediately attracted to Crius’ design, voice (of course), and his BGM… just so good. Anyways, we are back at square one right after Anastasia wins the martial arts contest and chooses to remain at Wings of Garuda as a formal Garuda rider. Crius also becomes promoted to leader of the order from second-in-command. In the individual storylines, Anastasia is always familiar with Crius because she has trained alongside him for eight years.

Garuda is the holy bird of Anastasia’s kingdom. In order to ride them, the rider must gain their Garuda’s trust. Crius shows Anastasia her Garuda and tells her to bond with it. Anastasia tries her hardest to befriend her birb but it continues to act weird, until Anastasia finally comes to the conclusion that SHE IS PREGNANT. With this, she finally wins her Garuda’s trust.

The camera pans to Anastasia, now with a higher salary post-promotion, roaming the streets to pick a gift for Maya. She runs into the ex-commander of Wings of Garuda, who said Crius is not who he seems on the outside: that he sleeps with people’s wives, and that he framed the ex-leader so that he could replace him. Anastasia initially dismisses this, but catches a glance of Crius walking along side Evelina. The doubt starts to brew.

Anastasia goes home and sleeps it off, only to wake up to a bloody room with Maya being brutally MURDERED, her body parts meticulously cut off, and placed in several areas in her room like furniture.

Anastasia felt she could reverse this by sleeping next to Maya. So she rewinds time. However, as we know from the last route, on the night that the Membrum commits murder, the Witch will cast magic that makes everyone who is not the Membrum fall into a deep slumber. Nothing changed when Anastasia woke up. Maya still dies, and Anastasia becomes named as a suspect.

We then go through several times of this depressing cycle until Rune finally warns Anastasia that she cannot rewind (read: killing herself) like this anymore. Anastasia, who’s probably seen a dead Maya over 20 times at this point, finally breaks down and cries in Crius’ arms. Anastasia wonders if she was the Membrum, but Crius places his utmost trust in her and tells her to believe in herself.

In addition to the Inquisitor, the suspects themselves also have the right to investigate the murders. Anastasia pairs up with Crius. Other notable suspects include her stepsister Orla, and Lucien.

Orla in this route is completely different from the original timeline. She is timid, afraid, to the point Anastasia thought she’s up to something and trying to trick her again. However, she discovered that Orla has bruises from physical abuse at the hands of Evelina, because now that Anastasia escaped the household, Evelina then bares her fangs at her own daughter… Anastasia feels bad for Orla – honestly I don’t have any sympathy.

Lucien was overjoyed to see Anastasia, as he has been searching for her. [I don’t get it, it’s not like Anastasia is a fugitive on the run. How hard is it for a prince to find a knight registered under one of the most famous orders in the country??] For someone who supposedly doesn’t have many run-ins with Anastasia, Lucien clearly has strong feelings for her and goes as far as to ask her to trust him and that he will always be on her side. She lets it slip during conversation that Lucien has “changed” so much from the first timeline where he was timid, disliked by the people, and a “pretty boy”… but then Lucien says this

In the interim it is revealed that Crius has a disease that requires a special concoction made from red Garuda feathers. This is nearly impossible because Garudas are almost exclusively blue.

The Carnival begins with the suspects debating it out on the identity of the Membrum. Lucien again makes a puzzling statement that maybe his death will reveal something new and may be useful to Anastasia. The jury actually fall for it and believe he is the Clown. Best Boy gets executed again in this route…

However, Lucien’s words became true and Orla is revealed to be the Membrum. With Anastasia gone, she became the recipient of abuse by Evelina. She also has an unhealthy attachment to her mother, confessing that her infatuation with Lucien is because he has the same platinum blonde hair as Evelina; if she and Lucien had beautiful platinum-blonde babies together maybe Evelina will love her again. Hence, she killed Maya to frame Anastasia in the progress.

Anastasia’s Garuda (sorry I really don’t remember the name) gave birth, but the baby is also blue. However, the mother turned red! What a miracle. Crius finds a cure & asks Anastasia out on a date as “thank you“. It is clear in this route that Crius had a crush on Anastasia since a long time ago, but the latter is too dense to realize it.

Anasatsia accepts because she is curious about Crius’ relationship with Evelina. Because she is dense, she just shows up to the date/meeting in her normal clothes so Crius takes her shopping. She also has a dream to the past (as her newly gained ability after winning the Carnival this route) in which a boy was heard to call a nun big sister, but then his big sister dies. Crius mentions he has three sisters and that they are all alive.

Crius came soooo close to confessing to Anastasia but chickens out at the end… I mean I’m glad he drinks his respect women juice but not here, not now…

However, he came clean on why he and Evelina were seen together. She had the same illness as Crius – they started losing the sense of pain, smell, taste, at the end stages they become colourblind. [However, I forgot if it was Crius or Evelina who found they had this disease three years ago. If so, this is not the explanation for Evelina’s treatment of Anastasia as if the latter had stayed, she would have been in the household and abused before Evelina had the illness.]. He also said the ex-leader of Wings of Garuda embezzled funds and got whistleblown by Crius, hence he was replaced.

Anastasia has a brief vision of Tyril at the ending of last route, but she cannot remember what happened.

The next scene shows Anastasia mentioning to Hugo about the nun she had in the dream. Hugo’s father works at the church as a cardinal/some kind of priest position. Hugo seems shaken by this description.

Like the last route, the plot starts picking up towards the end with multiple angles happening. The Witch pretends to be the royal artist who said he was Anastasia’s “brother” in the prologue, but was seen through by Crius. However, the clown monster that killed Anastasia a couple times in front of the tavern showed up, and eats/kills the Witch!! The clown then turns towards Anastasia. Crius fights the clown and actually goes even with it. His strength appears superhuman, hmm…

The clown then disappears into thin air and just… leaves??

Detective Zenn appears and drops a bombshell on Anastasia. He knows of her ability, the clown who now has a name “Ender”, the Witch, and asks her to stop travelling back in time and that this is the best ending she could get?

The next morning, Crius was arrested for murdering several cardinals at the church. The evidence at the crime scene all point toward Crius, but appears a bit too obvious: Did Crius really leave several of his personal identifiable items at the scene after murder? By flattering Tyril and playing to his ego, he lets in on the information that the nun in Anastasia’s dream was revealed to be Crius’ deceased fourth sister; it is implied the cardinals sexually assaulted and then killed her. I guess he was just exploiting the loophole that he has three “living” sisters when asked by Anastasia… So we have evidence and a motive.

Anastasia has another dream of the past, where it was revealed that Hugo killed all the cardinals including his own father, not Crius. Crius found out about this, and to protect his subordinate he decided to take the blame…

If you think the plot is already all over the place, wait there’s more! Landon (a colleague of Anastasia when they were both novice knights) suddenly stabs Anastasia in the stomach while the two were finding Crius! The reason is that he was in love with Maya and even though Orla is the killer, he blames Anastasia as the ultimate cause of his crush’s death… What does this have anything to do with Anastasia?? OMG I can’t with certain characters’ logic in this game…

Crius shows up and beats the shit out of Landon, but appears a bit OOC. Anastasia had to call out to him several times for him to stop. It is then revealed that initially Crius was chosen as the Membrum by the Witch. However, his will was so strong he didn’t murder anyone. However, he inherited the superhuman powers that comes with the Witch’s curse hence he could fight the clown on equal footing… [this is a plot hole as in later routes it is revealed that the Witch does not bestow any superhuman powers to the Membrum, they only get teleported to their victim, and whatever they do is from their ugly innermost desires.]. Because Crius did not do the Witch’s bidding, his body is disintegrating and he does not have much time left in this world. Maybe this is the reason he decided to be the fall guy for Hugo since he was going to die anyway…

The two run to the forest, where Crius confesses to Anastasia, his body disappearing into dark mist while she cries in his arms. Anastasia also succumbs to her wounds by Landon, concluding Crius route and once again she finds herself at Rune’s headquarters.

THOUGHTS

I liked this route a lot more than Tyril’s. Crius and Anastasia have known each other and fought side by side for eight years. The feelings they have for each other are a lot more grounded in their time together and believable. There was also proper romantic development and a heartbreaking confession and tragic ending… for now.

Crius is a well-rounded person. He is charismatic, handsome, strong-willed, and a fierce protector of his loved ones. My only criticism is that he does not seem to have any flaws. But hey, this is fiction, where perfect men like him exist!

ZENN SORFIELD (CV: Takeuchi Shunsuke)

Anastasia travels to a different time this route – to her meeting with Ender – or before the altercation with the drunk at the tavern. This time, when the drunk accosts her, she calls to Tyril for help and resolves the conflict. However, she regained the memory of what happened in the past two routes, and hugged and cried with Tyril, much to his confusion. Crius thought Tyril made her cry so came to scold his friend, but then Anastasia also hugged Crius and started crying. The two men: ???

Zenn then appears and he immediately points out Anastasia travelled back in time again. This time, Anastasia grabs onto Zenn physically so he doesn’t run away. She suddenly has a flashback to a modern city – is this Zenn’s world?

Anastasia runs into Ender again – but Zenn protects her and tells her to run. He meets up with her later. Zenn clearly knows a lot about Anastasia, including her events in different lifetimes. He mentions a name, Ish – the name of the Witch of Ruin. He says he has been observing Anastasia in the shadows because he is not sure what she is: is she a Witch just like Ish? Anastasia is enraged by this comment, because she hates Ish for killing her loved ones over and over, holding a knife to Zenn’s throat and yelling at home. Zenn makes a comment that Anastasia… is the mastermind behind a massacre?

Zenn suddenly feels excruciating pain in his chest, and Ish appears. Looks like he made a pact with Ish to not directly come into contact with Anastasia. This is his punishment for breaking his oath. Before Zenn passes out from pain, he utters the word “ninja”.

“Ninja” = Tyril. So Anastasia runs to Tyril, who actually gives her a bit of information on Zenn: that he is from another world, that he is immortal, and that he is trapped in this world and has been searching for a way to return.

The sky turns dark the same night which is an omen of Ish selecting the Membrum. Anastasia was like well I have a way to see the future why don’t I find them. She then sees Conrad coming after her life! She overcame Ish’s sleep magic and woke up right before Conrad went off with her head. She decides to meet Conrad by sneaking into the castle and confronting Ish when he appears. However, she ends up being manipulated by Ish and thus, the Membrum herself…

Anastasia while on her way to kill ?The Lynzel family (why didn’t she just kill Conrad lol), decides she wants to end her life so she cannot kill others. Zenn jumps out to stop Anastasia. He also mentions that the night Anastasia won the martial arts contest, everyone who was present for the ceremony was killed in an inhuman fashion; hence his suspicion towards her as she clearly has some superhuman powers. Anastasia doesn’t remember this at all, because the moment she chose a Tarot card she ended in Tyril/Crius’ route. It also appears that Ish does not keep memories of previous routes as he has to ask Zenn what Anastasia did in each timeline. The questions are just piling up and we are not getting any answers.

Anastasia and Zenn thus make the joint decision to let her die, so that she can meet Rune and discuss the above. Rune confirms that Ish does not have memories of previous timelines, that Zenn keeps memories because he isn’t from this world and thus does not need to obey the metaphysical laws here. Rune also divulges that he and Ish served the same master, Chrom. However, before he could say more, a comical mask appeared over his face to prevent him say more.

Anastasia goes back in time, but becomes chosen as Membrum again. Looks like she has to fool everyone and make the other four suspects appear guilty before her in order to win the game against Ish this time. Anastasia bargains with Ish to allow Zenn to work with her, as well as Zenn’s freedom if she wins. Ish mentions a new term called “the Witch of the End” and that he as the Witch of Ruin is only a subordinate of this Witch of the End, who will bring on the end of the world and is the ancestor of all witches.

The victim Anastasia chose was a criminal who also harassed Maya a lot. Zenn helped her cover up the crime scene so it doesn’t appear that a fighter (like Anastasia) killed him. Unfortunately, the suspects this time alongside Anastasia are: Conrad, Lucien, Crius, and Maya.

Given the known conflict between the deceased and Maya, unfortunately we have no choice but convict Maya as the Membrum. Maya dies, but she trusts Anastasia had her reason (as she probably realized that Anastasia is the Membrum) and supported her even till the end:

The Carnival continues until the Membrum is found. Anastasia and Zenn decide to kill off one of the suspects to accelerate this process. They were thinking of Crius (??really isn’t he good at fighting, but I guess the other two princes have guards), but Conrad unfortunately heard this conversation as a passerby. Call an ambulance but not for me lol!

Ish intervenes and forbids them from killing more suspects because this takes away the fun of the trial for him. He added a rule that “no one can take suspects’ lives unless it’s suicide”. Anastasia bargains with Ish that if he’s going to add in extra rules like this mid-Carnival then the least he could do is answer her whether the Witch of the End exists. He says not yet, but she is coming ever so closer.

Daytime arrives again, with Anastasia working with Lucien against Crius, as Crius in this route is suspicious of Anastasia. Anastasia and Zenn go to the castle to get some intel from the maids. Anastasia dresses up as a gentleman winning many maids’ hearts [do you guys not see the chains on her neck lol, anyway]. Zenn smiles!!

The Carnival resumes, Crius is convicted. Anastasia feels great sadness recalling all the moments she shared with him, but she must keep moving forward.

The trial now becomes a 50/50, meaning the remaining two people both know who is the Membrum. Tyril attempts to murder Anastasia because he also realizes she is the membrum. [I don’t understand because the Inquisitor’s role is to be a neutral bystander of the Carnival process. I suppose you can argue he wants to avenge Crius & protect Lucien aka royal bloodline who in this world is still thought to be related to Chrom.] However, because of Ish’s new rule that nobody can harm the lives of suspects, Tyril cannot actually take Anastasia’s life. Remembering her past with Tyril, Anastasia kills Tyril.

Lucien appears. Despite having witnessed this, he again willingly sacrifices himself (like, literally driving a knife into his own stomach; because Ish does not forbid suicide) for Anastasia’s future. It is finally revealed here that eight years ago right before Anastasia left home, she wrote to Lucien, encouraging him to make allies, see the bright side of life, and to fight for himself. This became the light in his life and shaped who he is today – unlikely what he would have been in the beginning of the game.

With her last competitor dead, Anastasia wins the Carnival. Ish shows his face. He manipulates Anastasia to send Zenn back to his world despite his protests, and having grown feelings for Anastasia and wanting to stay with her. He then reveals the letter she sent to Lucien was not a coincidence. He disguised himself as Maya suggesting Anastasia write this level. The wheels of fate were turned much earlier than she expected. Ish also seems to harbour a deep hatred for this world, wanting it to end, and talks about some kind of blasphemy the human race committed against the goddess.

He then reveals Anastasia is the Witch of the End.

In that timeline, Anastasia, equipped with Ish’s power and overcome with hatred for this world, killed everyone that night, as the harbinger of the end.

Anastasia starts to crumble. This is exactly what Ish wants, because if she mentally breaks down, she cannot go back in time anymore.

Zenn comes back. He was here all along. It is epic yet anticlimactic, but I totally dig it. He isn’t from this world after all, Ish’s magic does not apply to him [but somehow their oath did; anyway this route is so heavy with lore what’s another plot hole going to do]. He confesses his love to Anastasia, that he is willing to abandon his world for her forever, that he will always support her no matter what.

And the two start over, once again.

THOUGHTS

Zenn is a calming presence who is always Anastasia’s partner in crime. He watched Anastasia suffer through every single timeline and endured a lot of loneliness himself as an observer of this forsaken world. This is an unexpected pairing that just also makes sense. This is a route where the romance is light (with the amount of exposition Ish is bound to steal part of the show) but I do not complain about it too much, as the two literally went to hell and back. After all that’s transpired, who else could they imagine by their side but each other?

LUCIEN NEUSCHBURN (CV: Ishikawa Kaito)

We start this route in Best Boy’s own POV. Wait what did you name your cat LMAO? (Lady Anastasia) Anyways, Lucien is secretly searching for Anastasia’s whereabouts in this timeline. He receives a mysterious letter telling him to stop the search, as well as run into Orla who spreads some nasty rumours about Anastasia. He doesn’t make much meaningful progress, so Ish (disguised as the artist) gives him a hint: Crius.

Lucien meets Crius at a royal ball. However, in this route Crius is also searching for Anastasia – she is no longer at the Wings of Garuda. Maya also disappeared. A few days later, Crius didn’t find Anastasia but found Maya at the church.

Maya also doesn’t know where Anastasia is as one day she just randomly got fired without a reason. The plot thickens, as does Lucien’s frustration.

Crius takes Lucien to see a friend who turns out to be Zenn. When the two were alone, Zenn suddenly warns Lucien to give up on finding Anastasia. However, Lucien was saved by Tyril and Crius, who used Lucien as “bait” as Zenn knew more than he was letting on. Flashbacks to Tyril route but now he’s doing it to Zenn LMAO.

Lucien insists he wants to find Anastasia, and demonstrates he cares deeply for her. Zenn lets them in that she is in the Lynzel attic on her own volition. It all goes full circle. The crew sneak in that night, only to find an unkempt, scared, and despaired Anastasia telling them to stay away from her. The threatening letter was also written by her and delivered by Zenn. Anastasia calls herself a witch and that she brings misfortune to those around her.

Zenn tells the whole group about Anastasia’s ability and what she went through in the past timelines. It is also revealed that Anastasia gained the ability of forming a magical barrier around her from winning last Carnival (Zenn’s route) hence Ish cannot find her and pull her into more Carnivals to break her resolve even more.

What I really enjoyed in this route is that it reflects on previous routes. Each member of the crew visited Anastasia individually and learned some truths. Tyril learned that the current royal family is a fraud and not descendants of Chrom; he commented that he would have committed suicide if it weren’t for all the things that happened this route. Crius brings her a bunch of dresses.

However, she remained cold towards Lucien because everything they had between them was a lie fabricated by Ish. Lucien became angry at Anastasia for doubting his feelings and the two start arguing loudly. Lucien cries (as it was hinted the original him actually like to cry a lot, but because of the letter he’s been trying to change his personality) and the two yell at each other until Zenn breaks them up.

Anastasia seems to be giving up on the fight, saying only she has magical powers and that while the men have good intentions, they cannot actually help her in a meaningful way. Lucien analyzes Ish and the Carnival process and believes there must be a way. During the discussion, Anastasia realizes that Ish never killed anyone directly, that the Membrum never killed people with magic, reaching the conclusion that all Ish really does is teleport the Membrum to the victim. [This is a plot hole as mentioned in Crius’ route towards the end.]

The plot then takes a typical J-visual novel turn where Lucien is like guys, we can talk this out and use the power of kokoro to win against evil. He wants to announce Ish’s methods to the common people so they are less prone to temptation and giving into their evil desires to kill one another.

Lucien also reveals his past where he was bullied by his brothers and trapped in the library for two whole days. There was no washroom in there, so he tried to hold the urine in forever. When he was found, he was sick and had difficulties urinating as a child…

With everyone confiding in their vulnerabilities, it’s time to face the future and solve some problems, and save the world!

Anastasia continues to hide in the castle. Ish starts to lose patience and says he’s going to need to force Anastasia out of hiding. The magical rose is no longer in the old spot in Tyril’s route. Also – with Tyril knowing that the royal family is not really royal, he actually talks back to Lucien hahaha. In addition to a speech to the public, the crew wants to publicly “execute” a Membrum to show that these people don’t have Ish’s magic, and are not immortal. Zenn is chosen as the actor as he is immortal anyway. Anastasia has done enough in the past routes, so this route she takes a back seat and lets her friends help her.

Anastasia and Lucien talk about life a bit, with Lucien telling her that his childhood dream was to travel the world as a merchant, and confessed, but because it was so vague Anastasia didn’t get it…

Lucien nearly gets assassinated and got away with only an injured arm. Conrad sent the assassin. Zenn decides to pose as his bodyguard. Lucien insists going forward with the public speech despite his injuries, with Anastasia’s support.

He holds Anastasia’s hands in excitement, which helped her remember their promise as children: that they will grow up as the bestest friends, help each other, and to achieve this they must be strong. Anastasia supported Lucien long before that letter. She was there for him when he was bullied by his brothers and laughed at by others in the palace. Lucien calls Anastasia his hero omg T_T. Finally a LI that allows himself to be protected instead of acting all macho “only I protect my woman not the other way around.”

The speech and “execution” go well until the end where Conrad had to come and ruin things. He accuses of Lucien being not of royal blood and pulls out the rose that everyone was looking for. He demands Lucien make the flower bloom with his blood (while not doing it himself), and of course nothing happens… His hero Anastasia arrives again to save the day riding a red Garuda, and makes the flower bloom. [How did she know she had the blood of Chrom? What if she was truly unrelated… I have questions]. The people cheer for Anastasia leaving Conrad no choice but having leave her and Lucien alone. With the story reaching climax, it is about time Anastasia face her fears and settle the score with Ish. She rides her Garuda with Lucien by her side.

Chrom’s story is finally revealed. She is the goddess who is as old as this world. All alone, she created eight servants (including Ish and Rune). She helps the people survive in this cruel world and establish their own country. Lucius, or Lucien’s ancestor, was a human leader who grew jealous of Chrom and worried because of her immortality he will never have a chance to the throne and rule himself as king. (The other notable human was Shiki, who was known for his wisdom – the ancestor of Ishik clan.) He tricks and kills Chrom then marries a human woman disguised as Chrom to show his “legitimacy” to the throne. Chrom is immortal but she was deeply wounded by this act of betrayal. She doesn’t give up and pleads with the humans that she is the true goddess and wants to help them. However, she is framed as being an evil witch and falls into despair. She thought about destroying this world and starting over, but cannot bring herself to do it. Hence, she decides to fall into slumber. She divides her powers into seven and entrusts her body to Ish, her most trusted servant. Her soul becomes reincarnated into a human – Anastasia Lynzel. Rune’s power is to go back in time. Ish wasn’t supposed to have any powers (as Chrom only entrusted him with her flesh) but the fact Anastasia gained powers from beating Ish in the Carnivals suggest that Ish killed other servants to take their powers. Lucien apparently bears uncanny resemblance to Lucius who was also shown to have blonde hair, which is why Ish hates him especially much and involves him in every round of Carnival. [Honestly the king should look into whether Conrad and Parker are actually his kids, lol]

Anastasia finds Chrom’s body and gets pulled into another realm where she gets to meet the goddess herself. As someone who played Olympia Soiree recently, there is contrast between Chrom and Amaterasu. Chrom, while immortal and a deity, longs to live alongside humans and experience the life as a human girl… and experience love with (four) men. Her soul disintegrates with her entrusting Ish to Rune, and tells Anastasia to live her life as a human to her fullest. Anastasia gains all of Ish’s powers and returns to the human world with Lucien; Rune arrives.

There is no witch anymore in this world. Tyril is now a full Anastasia-oshi and treats her with the utmost reverence, and gave her the heebie jeebies hahaha. They decide to hide Anastasia’s true identity by telling the people the rose scene was an illusion, because they’re worried Anastasia would be murdered by the remaining royal family. Lucien and Conrad’s struggle for the successor to the throne becomes apparent. Anastasia decides she has a new goal in life, to live for the future instead of revenge.

Some notable expositions in the end. Evelina hated Anastasia because Anastasia’s mother, who was a friend of Evelina, died from complications of childbirth. Evelina then thinks Anastasia is a witch who “killed” her good friend. That’s it…? Shouldn’t you treat the only blood of your friend with even more kindness? I am confused, but then we have Orla/Landon going crazy in the route and this is a fairy tale I guess, and Evelina that plot device to usher in the developments of the story.

Ender: It disappeared after the game because it is a being that coexists with Chrom (who represents life) and represents death. If Chrom is gone, Ender disappears. [This is from Ish’s ending.]

Zenn: After Chrom created the current world, she created a gateway for animals and humans to arrive from other worlds. Supposedly she sealed the gate after the world is established here, but Zenn accidentally passed through. In Zenn’s epilogue he and Anastasia live together in Chrom’s temple where they can grow old at the same rate?

Crius: what happen to him I don’t think I remember him being mentioned T_T I guess he continues being his knight order leader?

Lucien’s epilogue: he properly proposes to Anastasia. The two marry and here’s the best CG in the entire game:

THOUGHTS

While I like the characters, I’m very dissatisfied with the ending to the base game.

1. The people are that easy to fool? “Haha just kidding this was all in your head”

2. Why not just let Anastasia become Queen and marry whoever she likes most as king consort. She has powers from Ish and is an outstanding fighter herself; no regular human assassin is a match for her. The people will protect her no matter what because she made the rose bloom and is literally the goddess’ reincarnation. What is she afraid of? Anastasia has been such a fierce and resilient character throughout this route; she has demonstrated she can be a leader and protector of the people like Chrom – so why deprive her of her rightful position and power because some man has to do it in the end?

3. The fact picking “revenge” gives you the bad ending: Actualizing revenge is not mutually exclusive with living life for the future. Anastasia could have literally just exposed Conrad’s crimes and sentenced him to exile or death or something, then move on with living her best life. Hell, give Evelina and her own father what they deserved too. But no, otome MC must be pure saints and always turn their other side of cheek to their abusers after they get slapped once. This dichotomy needs to go away for good.

4. Common complaint from many Lucien fans: because his route overlaps with the truth route, little room is left for romantic development. There was so much potential just like Tyril route but Lucien’s role became diluted so much in his own route, where he became a plot device to push things forward, then proposes to Anastasia in the end. It is also OOC of him, who reveres Anastasia as his hero, the light of his life who gives him direction, to not support her to be Queen and play a supporting role to her. I think there’s some unspoken misogyny that even the writer didn’t realize.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Strong start but fell flat in the end. Is it still worth playing for the ride? Yes. Is it a great game? As much as I love Ushio, the answer is no. It scratched my visual novel itch for sure.

PROS:

1. Voice acting
2. Intriguing story with unexpected developments that keeps you at the edge of your seat
3. I heard overwhelmingly positive reviews about the FD where the romance is more flushed out

CONS:

1. The ending did not jump out of the hoop that otome MC cannot outshine their LI even if she is literally the most badass woman in otome history.
2. CGs are mid
3. The actual romance is in the FD. They really did Tyril and Lucien dirty in the main game.

As a visual novel, I will give it 8/10. However, if I judge it as an otome game the base game alone is a 4/10 at best. Maybe treating it as an ultra-long otome game consisting of base game and FD will change this score. I will eventually play the FD but likely not the DLC as I am not a fan of individually charging for each character, and 3 parts as well.

Recommend start with Tyril route instead of Crius first.

Character ranking: Lucien > Crius > Zenn > Tyril.