Now that i've got every ending and finished the game, i'm finally able to write a proper review for this.

First, it goes without saying this game is best experienced as a Kamitsubaki fan, however i can safely recommend this to people that knows nothing about Kamitsubaki at all. The world building and story does not rely on subtle references to be good, and the thing that got me by surprise the most is how the game doesn't shy away from it's self-proclaimed "Dark Fantasy" genre.

Let's start with story. Considering a game from a label that mainly manages singers (and many Virtual ones), i honestly expected quite a lukewarm, easy-going or a very safe formula for the main gist of the story, however i am happy to say the game betrayed my expectations. The story does not hold back when things get dark, and does not hit brakes when things will go wrong. In a good way, it made me very self-conscious of my every choice i'm making. The world building is really complex, with multiple layers of underlying lore and a plethora of jargons to explain how their world works. Things beautifully connects to each other at some point, so meeting unexplained jargons or subtle hints really sets your curiosity on how it's gonna play its part later on. Unlike visual novels in general, the game saves you from having to pick very specific choices in order to reach a specific route / ending, and instead lets you pick which route you want to go for after completing the tutorial, effectively making it a true "novel" in a sense, with the linear reading experience.

Next, the visual stand point. The character stills were great, as they were really expressive with a lot of expression variations and poses to go along with. The backgrounds were also beautifully drawn, both of the ones that depicts real-life sceneries, and one that depicts otherworldly aspects. The unique scenario CGs were on the lacking side in my opinion, however the quality are excellent too so i won't really pick on them on that aspect.

Now, to the audio bits, starting with the voice acting. The whole game is fully voiced (except the MC and narration) which is a delight, especially for the fans. As some of the characters are voiced by the respective singers they are modelled from, i did not expect much in terms of voice acting since it is not their expertise, but i am happy to say that the game, again, betrayed my expectations. While of course not every one of them did a stellar job, most did a good job on voicing the characters, with a few of them being the one doing a stellar job at it, even in situations that needed expression of raw emotions. Aside from their own singers, they also got some big name voice actor/actresses such as Sakura Ayane, Sugita Tomokazu and others to voice the characters, which again, is a delight with the fully voiced scenarios. As a game made by a creative label with music as it's main focus, the soundtracks were definitely on point, with most being an arrangement from existing songs, again making a better experience for the fans, but are still beautiful pieces nonetheless.

Last one i want to talk about is the ugly, the battle minigame part. I'm not going to sugarcoat it, but it was really meh and it didn't do it for me. It is just a really easy rhythm game that is disguised as a sort of shooting game. The visual effects were not the best either, where it's just a bunch of PNGs appearing on the screen, you shoot it down, and the PNG fades away. No complex animation whatsoever, making it feel really cheap (in reality i do believe this is the aspect they cut the budgets for the most). Also, as it is a "battle", they also included skills and buffs that you can get by performing well (hitting Perfect judgement multiple times) but again, they feel really lackluster and out of place. I kind of understand that they made an already easy rhythm game easier with the skills so that even players that don't play rhythm game the best can enjoy the game too, though. They play full size existing songs of theirs in the battle, and they also include dialogues mid fight which was the saving grace for the experience, otherwise i really think it was quite boring and a bit unbearable. The whole thing just felt like it was either rushed, or they had an idea that didn't make it into fruition, eventually ending up as this quite empty experience that just stands out when other aspects of the game were really polished.

Overall, the price tag might seem on the pricier side when compared to visual novels in general (and also considering how many hours you can get out of it). I'm definitely biased on writing this review since i'm a big Kamitsubaki fan and this piece reminded me of Key's "Rewrite" in a way, which was a very impactful piece for me. However i'd still recommend this game as a usual visual novel game because the story alone is just worth it in my opinion.