even if TEMPEST 連なるときの暁

Completion date: August 7, 2025

Plot summary & review: even if TEMPEST

The fan disc of even if TEMPEST. I did not purchase DLC. This review will go over individual routes, the fellowship, and side character short stories.

My play order was:

Tyril > Crius > Lucien > Zenn > The Fellowship > All short stories

I agree with other reviewers that you should leave Zenn to last out of the four, given his route is more connected to Chrom instead of the competition for the throne between Lucien/Conrad.

PROS:

• More consistency in the CGs which are better drawn than the base game
• World building and elaborate plot
• Fills the gap of lack of romance in the base game – i.e. doing exactly what an FD is supposed to do
• Lots of fanservice

CONS: Don’t really have much to add other than I was massively disappointed by Crius route and by a certain element in the Fellowship. You play the FD if you like the base game. The DLC model is something I don’t support or partake but that’s not what this review is about; I am only analyzing its contents.

The prologue is essentially non-existent. However, it hit me in the feels when I saw Maya and her beautiful smile again. You are quickly thrown into the character selection interface.

***SPOILERS INCLUDED***

Tyril I Lister (CV: Sugiyama Noriaki)

The plot:

• Anastasia runs into an old lady who insists on selling her an aphrodisiac. When she refuses, the old lady spills it onto her, which led to a steamy CG with Tyril. [Flashbacks to the base game with the “kiss” anyone?] Likely the doing of another Witch, but Ish is no longer active as this is post-base game and Chrom is no longer.
• Someone has been selling “lucky charms” which are actually counterfeit money. The merchants are reluctant to give away their boss, presumably someone very important, and are instructed to frame Anastasia.
• Tyril no longer works for Conrad, though the latter still haunts him. He eventually confides in Anastasia that he has been living in guilt and self-hate as he was the reason why Isshik clan was discovered and massacred.

• Conrad is the mastermind behind the counterfeit coins. We see a glimpse into how Conrad manipulated Tyril and stripped him of self-worth, turning him into the mindless killing machine that is “the hound”.

• To gather more evidence, Tyril pretends to return to Conrad. However, Conrad arrests him so that he cannot help Anastasia when she is in court being named as the mastermind for the counterfeit money.
• Using a loophole in the law, Anastasia names Tyril to be her lawyer, releasing him from jail and allowing him to appear in court. What dealt the killing blow to Conrad is that Prince Parker stood against him, finding out the secret behind his brother’s poisoning.

• The Witch appears. We don’t learn her name in this route. She poses as Chrom and orders Tyril to obey her words as the last survivor of the Isshik clan. She has been working with Conrad. However, Tyril defies her. Rune appears and thanks Anastasia for making this elusive Witch appear, and says he and Ish will deal with her. TBC?…

The romance:

This route satisfied what I lacked in the base game. On the outside, Tyril is described as a beautiful, extremely-intelligent, and sharp tongued person. In this route, we get to see the human side he hides from the outside: how he teases Anastasia but then can’t handle her earnestly confessing her love for him, how he feels significant guilt for his clan’s demise (even though it was an honest, innocent mistake) – and answered why he killed himself in the base game, his possessiveness.

His goddess and his lover blends into one woman. To him, Anastasia is his salvation. She loves him even if he is not as perfect and sharp-witted as he portrays himself; and she is not shy to let him know that.

A comedic interlude is when Maya does not approve of Tyril (because her adventures with him always put her in danger, and make her “unladylike”). As a test, Maya tells Tyril to gift Anastasia “something she is lacking the most”. Tyril then gifted Anastasia a bottle of wine…?! Until he explained this is Isshik clan’s custom to give preserved food as a means of marriage proposal…

Anastasia gives him a new meaning to live. He also vows to protect Anastasia from harm’s way, to live in this country instead of escaping abroad, with all her friends. The route also touches on how his feelings for Anastasia transitioned from worship, to love.

The extra love story is just an extra confession scene ending with Tyril route’s representative yellow rose. I know the first CG is from the ending of the character route not love story. The art has improved from last game.

Overall, I was not expecting this amount of fan service and spiciness. Will this be a the same in other routes? Only one way to find out…

Finally, can we take a moment to appreciate Ushio’s detailed, vivid writing?

Crius Castlerock (CV: Furukawa Makoto)

Overall, a route that started very steamy but ultimately… not what I expected?

The plot: I honestly didn’t even care for the plot in this route. Crius and Anastasia and co. dismantle an evil plan by the church/archbishop to rule Historica by allowing some other country to invade. We learn a bit more about Crius and his deceased sister Isabella, but nothing game-breaking like Crius’ past. They briefly explained Crius’ and Evelina’s disease as some curse that’s related to Lucius’ lineage, as Crius’ father is related to royalty. Idk, I felt Ushio missed out on a good opportunity to capitalize on this more to make it personal to Crius, instead of some random drama with the archbishop and Parker.

The romance: This route is also titled “Anastasia goes to therapy” and “Anastasia becomes Crius’ good puppy”.

You might notice I’m not writing much for Crius and instead are including a bunch of pretty screenshots. That’s because there isn’t much to write about…

• Anastasia understandably feels significant guilt over killing Crius in order to best Ish in one of her timelines. However, she doesn’t get to have a candid conversation with Crius about it until the very end.

• We love a man who cooks

• Pillowtalk

• Anastasia is super obedient to Crius, her teacher/idol, which makes him kind of disappointed that she isn’t more feisty, earning a “do-M” comment from Anastasia.

• I also don’t get what the point of making Crius unable to hold a sword after his disease is cured for most of the route, until Tyril literally scares him straight by posing as an attacker to Anastasia so he suddenly gains his swordsman ability back… due to a sense to protect? Is Anastasia defenceless?? What is the point of all this? I have so many questions.
• The only redeeming quality of this route is the fan service from beginning to end

• This is the ending of Crius’ route. Again, I just don’t get why even after that lit scene where she and Crius fought entrusting their backs to each other, Anastasia ended up being his obedient little bird.
  Even though he will bring me the moon if I ask for it, if he doesn’t wish for it, then I absolutely will not even attempt it.
  I will always belong to him.
  Even if I am aware of it, I cannot leave this blissful bird cage.
  I am forever trapped, in this bird cage, without a key.

I just don’t get it?? If anything is this not the route where Anastasia fight side by side with Crius and act as equals in the relationship? I don’t mind the MC being a trad wife/obedient but this is not the game or route to do that?

• This is now the second route where the LI has a major obsession with Anastasia being pure/untouched. Maybe it’s to appeal to the JP otome girls with the LI’s “possessiveness” but again strikes me as weird. Anastasia literally dated all four characters in her past lives, she’s bound to have some experience. For such a headstrong/liberated heroine, to have her still be confined by the rules of “uwu no other guy has touched my lips other than you” just feels… off. I get it if Tyril cares, because he’s such a perfectionist and views Anastasia as his holy megami-sama, but Crius too seriously? I wonder if this will be a recurrent theme in Lucien/Zenn route… Don’t get me wrong, I love a possessive/yandere character (see my accolades for OVER REQUIEMZ) but this is not my impression of EIT or my anticipation of where they’re going with the direction.
• I know it was brief, but Anastasia was jealous of Maya for a while because she and Crius are the same age, and both described as beautiful people… just did not sit with me right.
• Overall, kinda disappointed with the writing. The art is great though.

Lucien Neuschburn (CV: Ishikawa Kaito)

The plot:

Maya’s words basically sum up the entire plot, which is not to deprecate it as it was a fun read. Unsurprisingly, this route focuses on the competition between Lucien/Conrad to be the next successor to the throne.

• The king asks both princes to procure something that “gives the people of Historica wings”. I’m surprised Zenn didn’t suggest this:

After gathering intel, the group sets their eyes on jewelry. However, jewelry is not accessible, nor is everyone interested in shiny stones. Anastasia suggests “it would be great if those jewels were edible” to which everyone thinks is crazy only Lucien earnestly agrees because he’s such an Anastasia stan lol.

• Each prince needs to have at least one noble family’s backing. Initially it was 50/50. However, Conrad bribed the families supported by Lucien to switch sides. Castlerock (Crius) family declares their support for Lucien, only to have Conrad manipulate the king into issuing an order that knights (Castlerock) cannot “interfere with politics”.

As a last resort, Anastasia revisits the Lynzel household to beg for her stepmother’s support, as her father is bedridden with illness. She obviously gets humiliated by Evelina. Anastasia tries to bargain with her by offering to treat her disease, but Eveline is not interested in that at all. She cannot live, but cannot die, and walks among this world like a zombie. She does not care about anything or anyone anymore, including her own daughter Orla. Orla barges in crying because Evelina never told her about this illness, only to have Evelina ask Anastasia to physically shut her up (possibly implying strangling her to death) because she finds Orla annoying. Anastasia ultimately does not agree to doing something against her morals, so Evelina laughs in her face and throws her out.

Anastasia and Lucien continue to find inspiration in the streets, including trying a suspicious and nasty snack made out of frog skin together. Before Lucien can return to the castle, a horde of skilled assassins come for their heads. The duo draw their swords. Lucien refuses Anastasia’s proposition to buy him time for his escape, and the two end up arguing base game style in the middle of the street until Zenn comes to save their asses and scold them like little children lmao.

The trip was not in vain. After trial and error (with Maya forbidding the two entering the kitchen ever again) they present their newest product: coloured candy, which did not exist in Historica.

Conrad isn’t going to let Lucien succeed so easily. He again finds an excuse to ban one of the vegetables required to make the candy. An unexpected guest appears:

Orla is the new head of the Lynzel family. She has admired Lucien since the end of the base game after his inspiring speech. She is also moved by Anastasia not hurting her, wanting the best for her, and not indulging in her thoughts to cope with Evelina’s abuse. As a result, she tells both princes that the Lynzels happen to have a large vegetable field. Because it is private, she gets to decide who she wants to sell the vegetables to – and which prince to support as the head of a noble family. Conrad malds but he can stay mad cuz bad lol.

The ending is of course a happy one with Lucien becoming the next king and Conrad’s evil deeds exposed. However, the story doesn’t end here. Another wrench gets thrown in things when the old king, who is aware of what Lucius did in the beginning, loses his marbles and wants to bed Anastasia himself so he can produce an heir of the goddess herself. I mean, we all know this is an excuse so we can have this CG and I’m all for it:

Ok, now this time it’s the happy ending for real for real. Lucien overworks himself like the average Japanese salaryman. He wants to ichaicha with Anastasia, including a CG where he kisses her on the chest. Just as I got a little uneasy from the steaminess (I’ll explain more below) HE FALLS ASLEEP IN HER ARMS HAHAHA CUTE.

The romance:

Man, this route just has everything that I felt I was robbed in the first game. While I appreciate Voltage for giving us top-tier fan service in Tyril/Crius routes (I heard quite a bit in Zenn’s too), while this game is gory, I did not expect steamy scenes. So really I preferred 純愛 scenes – plus it’s Ushio writing! And what better route to have pure, cute, and inexperienced love than our little prince himself??

From the beginning, I started laughing at Mael pestering the two to get married ASAP to indulge in his CP fantasy, including him threatening Lucien to tell Anastasia what he named his (male) cat [more on this in the after love story…] Lucien and Anastasia keep no secrets from each other, but as a continuation from the first game he gets frustrated that Anastasia thinks he is cute (but he isssssss) and wants to remind her that he is a man, not a boy.

He and Anastasia continue to be each other’s light. Both of them are goody-two-shoes who will not bend their morals to achieve anything. [hence Tyril’s comment in his route that Lucien is a good person but Conrad is more fit to be king in his view; and in this route he also straight up says he joined Conrad’s ranks because he never thought Lucien had it in him to compete for king… ouch] When one of them doubts themselves and ask whether they should just do it (Lucien with the shady merchant’s offer; Anastasia with ordering Tyril to kill Evelina/Orla), they look at each other and stay true to themselves.

He clearly is neither confident/smug like Crius/Tyril, and continues to be a shy boy in love, which is just … chef’s kiss*

He knows Anastasia so well that he doesn’t just comfort her but can sense when she is faking emotions to have him not worry. For example, when she comes back from Lynzel household. The ensuing conversation of “will I be a good mother” is also hilarious to read. Anastasia really ran with her tangential thinking on that one.

When Anastasia is not overthinking, she does say some pretty deep stuff. Stuff I wish she said IN CRIUS ROUTE…

I also appreciate this route so much for not having weird possessive feelings written into it. Lucien encourages Anastasia to talk to her friends. He doesn’t go all like “did my bros touch you in another story line”, stuff that can go straight up in a meme; what’s next, “will you love me even if I turned into a worm”?

Eventually Lucien has enough and …

However, he is no playboy, and deep down he cherishes Anastasia so much that he still feels insecure in the relationship and needs constant validation and pampering and love and kisses ❤

After story: Anastasia (her name becomes Anastasia NEUSCHBURN in this route; they are official!! I’m as happy as Mael) finds out what Lucien named his cat, and points out that “she” is a boy. And we get a gorgeous CG.

Zenn Sorfield (CV: Takeuchi Shunsuke)

The plot: no longer focuses on the human world i.e. Lucien vs. Conrad. In this route, Anastasia lives in the temple that Chrom used to live with Zenn and tries to solve his curse of immortality and end his loneliness.

Anastasia hears a voice calling for her/Chrom. She tells Rune and Ish, who also live at the same establishment. Eventually, she faces “Father” who is the creator of Chrom. He does not understand how Chrom did not follow his instructions to lead or “manage” this world, how she kept wanting to be friends with humans, and forgot her own task. He tells Anastasia that the world would destruct in one thousand years if she and Zenn do not finish what Chrom abandoned and become deities of this world. He allowed Chrom to be reincarnated in the hopes that this reincarnation will be different and listen to him.

If we know anything about the base game and Anastasia, that is she and only she decides her own fate. She tells Father that she is not Chrom, and declined his request. “Father” states that’s a pity, and that “Chrom” really has “become human”. He basically says sigh ok, do what you want, and lifted Zenn’s curse as well.

“Father” states that’s a pity, and that “Chrom” really has “become human”. He basically says sigh ok, do what you want, and lifted Zenn’s curse as well. He is now mortal and can spend the rest of his life with Anastasia.

He then asks Anastasia to marry him. They have a wedding CG as well. I know this is from earlier on in the route where he still has the tattoo on the neck, but posting anyways

The romance: Ultimately I feel for the guy and grew to understand where he was coming from.

The route again started super steamy, especially with the CV’s low voice. Zenn is super possessive of Anastasia, saying stuff like he needs to (physically) leave his mark on her. He also really likes biting… sorry I can’t get into that… but good for Anastasia…

Despite the two sleeping in the same bed and doing all sorts of married couple things, they keep doing what they think is best for the other party, without consulting them. Anastasia thinks she is the reason Zenn is pulled from his world and cursed. Zenn keeps telling Anastasia to stop finding a cure for his curse, because he doesn’t want her to get hurt. Eventually, even Maya gets pissed at him, saying, dude you literally proposed to her, maybe instead of trying to vibe check things through me, you can talk to and ask her like a functional adult?!

Because they both remember what happened in each one of Anastasia’s lives, they know how much each other has suffered. Rune tried to make a lighthearted comment to Zenn about how it is “fateful” that one is immortal, and the other comes back from death over and over again, and the two cross paths in the same era, how it must be “something more”. To which Zenn replies

A major part of the first part of this route is Anastasia having Rune cut her long hair, then she turned into a slime ball then later a kid version of Anastasia due to her hair supposedly keeping Chrom’s powers in check. I’m pretty sure the western fandom is with me that the whole scenario just felt weird, but I can see Ushio probably wrote it to appeal to the JP/Asian fanbase, as it’s often romanticized for women to date someone like their “papa” and be spoiled. I also felt a bit bad that Zenn had to share his route with other guys and have reverse harem scenes in his own route. Dude can’t catch a break.

Posting a cute CG of our Disney princess here. The event does not matter.

Finally, Zenn’s possessiveness and sorrow becomes justified in the finale, where he and Anastasia go see “Father”. Zenn is forced to witness what Anastasia did in the other three routes, falling in love with all three other protagonists, yet here and now, she is with him. I don’t mind possessive LIs at all (and if you read my other reviews this is my type) but there needs to be some justification. He is scared of losing Anastasia because he’s literally seen the alternatives.

The Fellowship

The “friendship” “reverse harem” “true” ending. The crew set out on a journey to “Rihou”, a country that is covered in snow, to solve Zenn’s curse. They look for labels on the “Arcana” series of wine bottles, made by the Isshik clan. Apparently if you collect all 22 of them, and combine the figures of each label, and draw it, it will form a magical field and make Zenn mortal again.

They run into Sammy (who made an appearance in Zenn route also) as well. Sammy and Lucien happily reconcile, with Zenn commenting “the food meets its cook, eh” LOL

They find a mysterious store which has all the Arcana wine bottles. However, time was warped, or frozen inside the store. Zenn has met the owner near 100 years ago, yet the owner said they met a few days ago. Lucien and Crius jointly buy the store so that they can investigate further, however, the owner instantly becomes a mummified corpse upon stepping out, as he is now in real time.

They find various enchanted items. Some were clearly made by childlike Chrom which are mostly useless, whimsical, or at most harmless pranks. Another category of items were dangerous and often involved death and despair. The group concludes that there is a third Witch that they haven’t met.

Anastasia quickly meets Clarice, who is the evil witch in Tyril’s route as well. Clarice takes over Anastasia’s body. She tells Anastasia she was the most powerful witch from another world, and due to the same coincidence she and Zenn arrived in this world, both immortal. However, she was not as powerful as Chrom, and is insanely jealous of her, and if you can’t beat em, you just become em I guess.

Anastasia’s spirit wanders Rihou and helplessly watches as Clarice fools the four guys. However, this was a setup and the guys lured her into a completed drawing of the Arcana figures, trapping her. Rune and Ish appear and exterminate Clarice.

Anastasia is pulled to another realm and meets Father for the first time in this timeline. He doesn’t mention anything about becoming the new deity of this world, or how it will destruct in 1000 years. He thanks her for finding and dealing with Clarice. Anastasia asks him to lift Zenn’s curse. He obliges and tells her to “go live on as a proper human”.

We then end in a part 2 shot from Lucien’s ending.

Re: the fan service or 修羅場:

There were many scenes of fan service or guys fighting over Anastasia in this route. I did not like how they mixed this comedic element with a supposedly serious truth route. It would have been much better if they kept this route strictly friendship-based, then do another parody/if route where the guys all chase her romantically and fight over her. It’s hard to take the route seriously as those guys all suddenly become OOC and flirt with Anastasia, when they respect her so much more than that.

Short Stories

Maya: We learn how Maya was adopted by Anastasia’s mother. Maya feels bad that Anastasia is the one protecting her, instead of the other way around. Anastasia tells Maya that she is the most important person in her life and that she loves her.

Evelina: We learn how Evelina meets Anastasia’s mother Leticia. I mean, I still don’t get her obsession with Leticia and think both characters need mental help lol. Psychopaths. CG is pretty though.

Conrad: I’m not posting the CG here but oh god that was depressing YET SO GOOD LOL. It’s basically a yandere ending or OVER REQUIEMZ dark route, very tasty 10/10.

Ish:

A glorified lore-dump route with a CG in the end to shush the fans. However, the lore-dump was well-written so I accept it.

We learn Ish is born from the “marriage” between Chrom and a snake (read: she eats the snake and popped out a baby). Ish doesn’t have a name or purpose, unlike Chrom’s other followers so he gets ostracized and grows close to humans who accept him, one of them being Lucius. Lucius eventually gives Ish his name because Ish is part of Lucius’ last name (when spelled in Japanese). Chrom then bestows Ish the ability to grant others’ wishes, to which Lucius replies he “wants to be a king”. Ish also meets Clarice, who takes on the appearance of a crone, asking him to restore her youth and beauty. However, Chrom replies that Ish is too young and does not have that kind of power yet. She and Clarice become friends. Upon learning Clarice identifies as a witch, Chrom says she’d rather be regarded as a witch than a goddess; she wants to connect with humans, not worshipped by them.

Chrom is a young deity with the mental of a child who keeps adopting humans from other worlds into her world. However, she is not equipped to handle the conflicts between different factions. Lucius becomes manipulated by his advisors that Shiki (ancestor of Ishik clan) is making the moves on Chrom so that he can marry her and become the first king of this world. He confesses his love for Chrom, who then proposes the snake treatment: to allow her to eat Lucius and become a part of her forever.

Lucius obviously freaks out and calls her a monster. Chrom does not understand. Word spread and all the humans turn against her. They kill Chrom, who does not resist because she is hurt. They call her a “witch”.

Ish, who has been attached to Chrom from birth, is disillusioned by how the humans turned on her so quickly. The humans also hunted Garuda, because they keep eating human crops leaving them without food. However, could we really blame Lucius and the humans? It’s not as simple as “Chrom good, humans bad and stupid” and I appreciate this moral greyness. However, Ish would of course stand for his mother, not his friends.

Clarice shows up and manipulates Ish into changing her appearance to that of Chrom’s “to preserve her reputation”. She gains her youth back, looks and sounds like Chrom, except she does not have her red hair – her hair is black. Ish having exhausted his young self (in deity years) of power, falls into a slumber, with hatred for the humans.

Overall, it ties up lose ends and was an interesting read.

Final Thoughts

Definitely not a traditional otome game. We get compensated for some of the romance that we were lacking in the base game. Most of the routes are well-written. There are obvious flaws and things I didn’t like about certain parts of writing but does not change the fact that Even if Tempest is a unique story that I think everyone should experience. Ultimately, I liked it, but am not crazy about this game. It wasn’t exactly at my wavelength, but I’m astonished at the plot.

Route ranking: Lucien >>>>> everyone else I love him so much >>>>>> Tyril > Zenn > Crius

Rating: 7.5/10