Volontes Review (Switch)

I am the Moon Witch.

Out of all the otome visual novels that we know are slated to come out this year, I was only excited for a few. Volontes was actually one of them. I heard that it was pretty good by those that played the original Japanese release and the story seemed really interesting to me. Not to mention the artwork. When the release date was announced I definitely counted down the days and totally didn’t watch the character introduction trailers multiple times to hear the love interests (LIs) voices. Though, it did turn out that the release date ended up a bit crowded both in terms of other otomes releasing on or close to the date and other games I personally was interested in (six games by the way, I’m going to have a whole streak of reviews for games that released on the same day haha). I’m glad I was on top of things and by the time I was graced with the presence of this game I had my schedule all cleared and ready to be sucked into another otome world. If you ever wonder why I suddenly disappeared online, the answer is always that I’m playing an Otome game.

Anyway, let’s dive right into my review and see if Volontes is as good as people say. Buckle up for a long one guys and, as always, I’ll try my best to keep the spoilers to a minimum.

Volontes actually opens up on a village as they’re going about their day until they hear a sudden explosion. Thinking it was thunder at first due to a flash of light, the villagers quickly form a group to go investigate and what they found was pretty gruesome. They find a lot of dead bodies and while they’re able to guess what was happening moments before death, they can’t wrap their head around how the bodies got in the state they’re in. Nonetheless, there doesn’t seem to be any survivors so they decide to head back. Well they would have until they found out that there was a sole survivor. A baby. Good news, a family did take the baby in despite the strain it would put on their household. Bad news, the mother is planning on working this child to the bone guilt free. Brutal.

18 years pass and we properly get introduced to both our lovely protagonist and the village that she’s lived in her whole life. We play as a young woman named Fiena (you can change her name if you want) who against all odds has survived, is relatively healthy, and hasn’t been gotten rid of yet. Yep, she was the baby that was the sole survivor. Fiena lives in a small impoverished village known as Meurtri Village and life is still tough. Maybe even tougher now than before. Her adoptive mother did stick to her plan of basically raising her to be their family’s slave, but the family isn’t doing too well. Her mother treats her as coldly as ever, her two older siblings and dad died years ago, and her two remaining younger siblings are either too young or too frail. This leaves only Fiena to be able to take up the breadwinner role to bring in enough money for the family to survive. It doesn’t help that there is a food scarcity problem and the whole continent has been dealing with this devastating disease known as Shadowblight which kills those that contract it in two days and you never know if that is going to be the year it’s going to sweep through your village. Nonetheless, there are some silver linings as it does seem that Fiena’s siblings adored her and the other villagers treat her kindly.

The day starts out like any other as it’s the day when Fiena and some other villagers venture to the city to sell some goods. Except, when they get back to the village everything is in chaos. The village is burning, people are screaming as they’re being dragged out of their homes, and dead bodies are piling up. The cause? Molrois Kingdom knights have decided to wipe out the entire village under the guise of exorcising demons, which they seem to particularly be looking for a redhead, and saving the souls of the innocent villagers. Fiena was able to have one last conversation with her mother before she had to flee, once again becoming the sole survivor of a tragedy. Fiena sadly doesn’t make it out unscathed as she gets many wounds, both physical and mental, and it doesn’t take long before despair fully engulfs her as she realizes that there’s no way of finding help. However, before her life is snuffed out, a mysterious and handsome man appears to save you and bring you to a magical city called Porte de l’Enfer where you’re nursed back to health.

This is when Fiena’s life gets turned upside down as she experiences so many new things and gets to live a life that she never could have imagined. A floating city suddenly appearing wasn’t just an illusion made by her dying mind, but magic as Porte de l’Enfer is invisible from the outside. Magic is very much real, even some aspects from stories and superstitions are real, and the people here seem to be living in a whole different world as everything is peaceful. There is a bit of a catch though. Fiena learns that the people here follow a religion called Sihrik which basically revolves around the moon. This, and the whole magic thing, is the very reason why the city is hidden as they’re considered heretics and have been heavily persecuted. They have been waiting for their god, Luminis, to deliver them a Moon Witch who is basically a woman chosen by god to receive prophecies to guide the people to peace and prosperity. Fiena happens to match the descriptions of a Moon Witch and while she very much does not want to accept the position, she is told that they must kick her out if she isn’t. Not wanting to be kicked out and have to find a way to fend for herself, Fiena accepts the title, her new role, and begins to slowly get used to her new life where all she has to worry about is figuring out the whole receiving prophecies thing.

Of course, right as she settles into her newfound place as the Moon Witch tragedy strikes again. Not once, but twice. Tensions also start to rise and everything seems to be changing so fast. As Fiena’s new life is suddenly turned upside down, many questions both new and old pop up. What exactly happened? Was it a death caused by his health problems or was it really assassination? What was the King going to tell you? Will the people start to lose their faith in the Moon Witch? What’s going to happen to you (aka Fiena)? What happened in the forest all those years ago (when Fiena was just a baby)? What is up with Fiena’s back birthmark? What’s up with Fiena being able to see ghosts and how helpful can it be for her? What is Shadowblight and the other mysterious diseases that seem to be variations of it? What is going through all the LIs heads?

What’s going to happen next?

I usually procrastinate on starting visual novels (especially otome visual novels) over worries that a lot of the time turns out to be unfounded and Volontes was not an exception. I haven’t quite kicked that habit yet, but I had nothing to worry about as I really liked the Common Route here. It does a good job at introducing you to the world and the people that inhabit it, giving you good first impressions for the LIs, and what to expect tone-wise when going into the LI routes. Not to mention that the Common Route was paced pretty well. A part of me does wish it was longer, but that’s just me being greedy and wanting more interactions with the LIs haha. Another, bigger, part of me thinks the length was perfect here and the writer did a really good job at deciding what to include, what not to include, and what and when to mention something that happened during a timeskip. There are also so many (well so many in terms of a short Common Route) good and funny scenes here.

I also wanted to mention that I ended up finding the world of Volontes pretty interesting. I really liked how you learn about the world the same way Fiena does, which also causes you to have the same reactions that she does. It starts out pretty simple and narrow before quickly broadening as you learn that there is more to the world than you thought. The start of the game really does give you a strong vibe that it’s a pretty realistic, I’d like to say middle ages, setting where magic and demons are used to scare children, target people, or explain things that are hard to explain. Where life is tough and you’re lucky to make it to the next day, let alone stay healthy. And then you learn magic is real and you’re introduced into a whole different world that you would never expect to exist. Even magical creatures are real. Which also gives you enough plausibility that your new role as the Moon Witch is real too. There are some things that I found a bit confusing lore-wise, but I liked learning more and it was surprisingly really enjoyable to read what you can call small info dumps.

Also, I knew Volontes was a dark fantasy story before going in and man does it deliver. There are times where things are peaceful and light, but it does not waste time to make sure you know life is harsh for these characters. And it will smack you in the head to give you a painful reminder that tragedy will strike when you least expect it to. That said, the game does a great job at transitioning between different tones, giving you enough room to be cautious before relaxing, and the contrast between the light and the dark really helps emphasize both. Hopefully that makes sense to people other than me.

Going into the characters, I really liked the side characters here. They were such a delight to read and they are all characterized pretty well to the point where you do know where they stand or what they’re insinuating. I especially love Marie, who is the noblewoman that becomes Fiena’s handmaiden once she gets the Moon Witch title. Her appearance gives off a perfect noblewoman vibe and you expect that she will act as one as well. However, you quickly find out that she’s quite lively and talks kind of like a gangster which is very funny. Her outfit even encapsulates this as it’s the type of outfit that you can imagine nobles wearing when they’re doing more physical activities. Anyway, I loved Marie from the moment she first spoke and it’s no wonder that Marie and Fiena became good friends. I love how she doesn’t care how unladylike she sounds or acts like and how protective she is towards Fiena. Another noble talks badly about you and she’s ready to drop kick them haha. She’s also so sweet, funny, and has her own way of showing that she cares. The people of Porte de l’Enfer are all pretty nice too, despite some of them having some reservation about Fiena being the Moon Witch or thinking she did something that she didn’t (talking about you Julie). The King especially was really nice and it’s obvious why his people and Fiena liked him so much and it makes it understandable why the tragedy that happens at the end of the Common Route was so devastating (which also makes it devastating for the player). Honestly, my second favorite side character is actually Professor Omari. Probably seems weird as he’s stern and can be pretty harsh, but he still helps Fiena out and his praise means a lot, even if it’s small, considering that he doesn’t give it out much.

On the topic of Fiena, I loved her as a protagonist. You can tell that her upbringing really plays a part in the way she goes about her life, but even then she still has a lot of compassion in her. She easily could have held a lot of anger and hate towards her family and the world as a whole, but she doesn’t. Even when she lives in constant fear of being abandoned, which I feel also played a part in why she decided to become the Moon Witch as you can view it as her being adopted into a new life and it does seem like she subconsciously grasps onto any affection since she got none growing up. Don’t think she trusts easily, though. Due to the tough life and the threat of Shadowblight, she also tries to stay optimistic rather than drown in sorrow and lives her life like she could die the next day. And even when she is full on in despair and ready to die, she subconsciously looks for a way to survive. Fiena is a survivor. Fiena is also someone that can’t just relax. Working her whole life has made her into someone that needs a job or a task to do. Which makes the lavish life of being the Moon Witch not being as fulfilling to her that others thought it would. After all, she lived a tough life until now why wouldn’t she want to finally sit back and relax?

I also love how Fiena is actually a smart cookie, which makes those that think she’s just some country bumpkin underestimate her. She is more observant than you think and files everything that she thinks is a bit weird or suspicious. It’s even better that she doesn’t really make others know that she’s pieced it all together unless she thinks that it’s best for her to. Like, I’m pretty sure her adoptive mother didn’t know Fiena highly suspected she was adopted and she was close to being abandoned multiple times. She also knows to choose who she trusts carefully. Though, she is a bit naive in certain aspects. Like others basically need to spell it out for her when they’re beating around the bush about things like romance or sex as Fiena takes it more literally. It might look like she’s just playing dumb, but she’s not. And this makes a lot of sense for Fiena’s character as she hasn’t gotten close enough to someone to be romantically involved let alone have the time or energy.

Oh, and I love how when she first is told about magic and arrives at Porte de l’Enfer she’s like “I don’t understand anything you just said, all of you guys are weirdos, I don’t believe in your god, and I want to complain but okay”. And then she just slowly warms up to everything, gets educated, and realizes that these people that she grew up to think of as heretics are great people. She may have started out her life there as a way to save herself, but she ended wanting to genuinely help the people there and to be useful in keeping the peace and happiness.

Of course there are choices that will pop up every so often. Some of them will determine if you’ll get an early bad ending, which was a bit of a surprise to me. You’d expect it to be quick, but they actually go on longer than you’d expect making sure you know what Fiena experienced. Though, there’s one towards the end of the Common Route that I found so funny due to how it was presented at the end. Other choices will determine if you will gain affection points with an LI and there is a Love Catch system where an orb of light will appear to show you which LI you raised affection with. You only get a few points before the Common Route ends, but this does determine which route you go down.

Well, it’s time to go into the LI routes! As always, I’ll talk about the routes in the order I did them in. Volontes has four love interests and two of them are locked routes. Each route also has three different endings that you can get depending on your choices and affection level: Happy, Plunder, and Tragedy Ends. Happy Ends are basically what you expect, it’s the happiest ending you can get and it even has a little epilogue. The Plunder and Tragedy Ends, however, are both bad endings where things end in tragedy but in different flavors. The main difference is that Plunder Ends involve another LI falling in a one sided love with Fiena. Volontes really keeps you guessing on how these Endings will go and they’re pretty good, tragic (in terms of the Plunder and Tragedy Ends), and have good variety. I do also recommend getting all the endings as you go as you do learn new information and some even hint at other routes.

There is also a recommended route order (Emmanuel > Ishmael > Melodie > Olivier) which actually was pretty close to the order I was going to do.

Emmanuel

First up is Emmanual and you first see him during the meeting where Fiena gets acknowledged as the Moon Witch as he’s one of the nobles attending it. While Fiena does run into him the next day, but she doesn’t properly meet him until she goes to a welcome dinner where you learn that he, Ishmail, and Olivier are childhood friends. While he is a noble, he is also more specifically an internal affair officer, he sadly doesn’t have any magical abilities, and he seems to disagree with some of the status quo. Emmanuel is the more stoic and distant one out of the group and in general as he’s not one to appear in public. He is also one of the few people that wasn’t convinced that Fiena was the Moon Witch. I’d also say that Emmanuel also acts like the perfect noble and where he ends up at the end of the Common Route makes sense. He’s serious, always formal, moves elegantly and efficiently, and he doesn’t mind formal settings. Not to mention that he is pretty handsome. He can come off as cold, but you can tell that’s just the way he is and you can tell that he is kind underneath and he does help Fiena in his own cryptic way. He’s also the kind of character where his friends will say that he’s happy and you look and he seems to have the same expression. He also aims to be different from the other nobles.

Emmanuel’s route is one of the routes where you can guess what it’s going to be about, but man does it add aspects that you would never have expected. You can definitely tell why it was recommended to play first as the end of the Common Route naturally leads up to the start of this route and it does lay a good foundation. This route focuses on the political shift that occurs due to the changes that Porte de l’Enfer goes through. This includes seeing how Emmanuel the tough position he’s in now, Fiena’s status as the Moon Witch, and how those with opposing ideas of how they want the future to go clashes. You also obviously get to learn more about Emmanuel with a dash of learning more about other characters. I had a bit of a hard time trying to word what this route goes into as it’s really easy to spoil what you learn and what happens at the end of the Common Route. And, well, I don’t want to spoil what happens at the end of the Common Route as I want you guys to be as surprised as I was. Hopefully, I was vague enough to not give away, but also specific enough to convey what the route is about. Anyway, as for what I thought about this route, it’s fine. While I did enjoy what happens in this route, liked the reveals, the conflict has good build-up, and I overall liked Emmanuel as a character; it does feel like things just happen more because it needs to happen to move the story forward (rather than it feeling natural), how the big threat is resolved is pretty anticlimactic*, it just ends abruptly, and this route really needed more breathing room in general. Emmanuel’s character is the type that benefits the most by a slow burn romance and it sadly couldn’t happen here. While you do get to the step where Fiena comes to understand Emmanuel more and Emmanuel starts to put his walls down around Fiena; it skips the build up so the romance feels rushed and maybe even a bit tacked on at the end.

Ishmail

Next up is Ishmail and you first meet him when you first arrive at Porte de l’Enfer as he’s the one that treats Fiena’s wounds and makes sure that she’s healing well. Ishmail is a doctor who heals with magic and is actually the King’s personal physician. He is also one of the few people that doesn’t need anything to channel magical power. Ishmail seems to have two modes: doctor mode and casual mode. Doctor mode is obviously used when he’s treating someone and he speaks matter of factly so nothing can be misunderstood; while also knowing when to speak softly when a patient needs help calming down. It’s not until Fiena is fully healed when you see his true, casual, side and he is actually the one that invites you to the welcome dinner (which was actually a regular dinner which he outfitted to a welcome dinner as an excuse to party haha). He is pretty lively, really kind and makes sure that you’re doing fine, he gives people nicknames, makes fast friends with Fiena that he wants her to call him by his nickname (that he surely decided on himself haha), and he can be pretty clingy when he’s drunk. It’s also not surprising that he finds formal settings suffocating

He is also very popular with the ladies, but not in a womanizer way. It’s just that women find him so beautiful and he is pretty smooth. You regularly witness women trying to flirt with him or trying to ask him out, but Ishmail isn’t interested and you can tell that he’s just being friendly. In fact, he is pretty respectful and when he is being pretty cold to a woman it’s usually when he’s trying to politely turn them down and put up a boundary. You also get the feeling that he’s just sick of it and he must find Fiena so refreshing considering she’s not falling head over heels for him.

Ishmail’s route is the one that I didn’t know what to expect other than that it may not involve Porte de l’Enfer’s political climate. After all, Ishmail prefers staying out of it. Ishamil’s route goes a bit deeper into the metaphorical iceberg that is what the heck is really going on in Porte de l’Enfer. Here, we actually focus on the two tragedies that happened at the end of the Common Route as Fiena starts her own investigation using her ability to see ghosts as a jumping point, finds out that Ishmail is also investigating, and they join forces. You also get to learn more about Ishmail, learn some more information (some of which explains minor mysteries), and a dash of hinting at the last two routes. So, what did I think about this route? Well, to be honest, I was going in not expecting much after Emmanuel’s route, but I actually ended up loving this route a lot. I really liked the approach of this being a joint investigation, the way this route got Fiena and Ishmail to cross paths, how the mysteries pile up over time (with some of them being really subtle), and how you can actually solve the case alongside Fiena and Ishmail. I also just love Ishmail as a whole, the dynamic he and Fiena have, and just how obvious he is trying to flirt with Fiena but Fiena just isn’t picking up on it (and then just how gracious he takes it). There are also just some funny scenes here. Not to mention that I felt that the plot and the romance was pretty balanced. Yeah, the romance in this route actually had a good build up to it and it felt believable that Ishmail and Fiena loved each other. My only complaints are that it does bring in information wasn’t shown to you at two points (which is my biggest pet peeve in mystery stories), a specific scene during the Happy End really does not do a certain LI any favors, and the latter half of Chapter 5 does feel like it’s winding down before it winds right back up. Which does make the tail end of this route feel like it just suddenly remembers it needed to hint at the last two routes until you finish and reflect on it.

Melodie

It’s Melodie’s turn and you also first see him at the meeting where Fiena gets acknowledged as a Moon Witch, however he’s the one playing the organ that you hear when you arrive. You don’t meet him until later when Fiena decides to go on a little walk at night and she stumbles upon him when he’s playing a harp. As you can probably guess, he is a bard and he is often playing an instrument during events. His attire is also not just for show as he is also a knight and one that is pretty nonchalant even when there’s a monster right behind him as it turns out he is pretty skilled. He seems to just not fear anything despite not having any magical abilities of his own. Melodie is pretty professional and takes his jobs very seriously. He is also one that makes it clear when he’s annoyed, can be pretty funny when he’s making deadpan or sarcastic statements, won’t hesitate to let you know when he wants you to leave or to scold you when you do something dangerous, and doesn’t seem to be interested in interacting with anyone. Despite that though, he is pretty understanding of Fiena, still answers her questions (while also setting a boundary), and is still polite. Oh, and Melodie is the more mysterious one out of all the LIs as Fiena doesn’t interact with him much. Not just in a sense where he has less and shorter scenes, but in-universe Fiena doesn’t interact with him much and she strongly feels like he’s familiar. He is also the only LI that isn’t friends with the others and seems to not like Olivier at all in particular.

Oh, and almost forgot to mention that Melodie is one of the locked routes. His route unlocks once you get the Happy Ending for Ishmail.

Despite Melodie being the most mysterious LI out of the group, you can actually assume that his route would delve into why Fiena felt that he seemed familiar. And then you play Ishmail’s route. Going into this route, we finally get to spend quality time with Melodie, uncover why Fiena keeps feeling that he’s familiar, and then seeing Melodie answer for his actions (which man do I want to rant about it). I’d say Melodie’s route was good, but I am a bit sad I couldn’t say that he was a sleeper hit LI like I thought he would be based on the Common Route. Melodie really had a lot going against him by the time you get to his route, and personally he did not recover from it for me, but I will say that the plot progresses pretty well here and I really liked seeing more of Melodie. I liked the way Fiena found a way to be around Melodie, in a way that he can’t just shoo you away, and I liked how they slowly bonded over time. It was also pretty funny whenever he got worked up and how the other side characters were secretly rooting for their love story after suspecting they had crushes on the other. Most of the reveals you already know, but it was nice to confirm things and hear his explanation for everything he did. It was also funny how thick the game laid it on how they both know why Fiena felt he was family and the conflict Melodie had in both wanting her to realize it and not wanting her to. Not to mention my favorite side character Marie is featured a lot in this route! This route also strangely felt longer than it was, which I believe is due to you going in already knowing the twist (related to the overall story) and you’re just waiting for the shoe to drop. This can be a positive or a negative depending on how you see this, which personally it’s in the middle for me. Using this as a segway to the aspects I didn’t like about this route, the romance wasn’t quite here. It has a really good setup and the trope that’s with their dynamic is great, however it kind of jumps to the end and you don’t have that transition that you would normally see. I also didn’t really buy Fiena wanting to be with him due to his role in the story. I did also feel it kind of falls apart towards the end of the route as one of the LIs does an action that doesn’t make sense (and even contradicts what he says moments before that implies what he is planning); the confrontation that happens at the climax could have been better and doesn’t make sense until you realize it was where it splits to the different endings; and finally the Tragedy End surprising was light here. The Tragedy End didn’t feel like a tragedy, but that probably is because I was like “yeah deserved” and didn’t buy Fiena and Melodie’s romance.

Olivier

If you’ve read my otome reviews before, you’ll know that I usually pick a LI that I like the most purely based on their looks. For this game I honestly had a hard time picking as all the LIs look absolutely gorgeous, but there was just something about Olivier that drew me in the most. And then I noticed that he must be the game’s poster boy. Olivier is also one of the locked routes and requires you to get the Happy Endings with the other three LIs first. Olivier is the first LI you see and meet as he’s the one that saves Fiena when she’s on the brink of death. He’s the highest ranking mage in Porte de l’Enfer, actually has so much magical power he struggles to reign it in, and he’s the Grand Sorcier. The Grand Sorcier is basically the highest ranking clergy in the Sihrik religion and serves many roles such as advising the King, influencing domestic affairs, and being the leader of the holy nights. In certain situations he even has more power than the King and he very much enjoys the blind faith that believers have in him (which he uses to his advantage). Anyway, Olivier is also one that curates his image depending on the situation. He’s professional in public, he becomes more theatrical and dramatic when addressing the court, he knows how to fake reactions, he subtly pushes Fiena in the direction he wants her to go in before they work together, being serious and harsh during tough situations, and despite hating formal settings he is surprisingly really casual with the King. In private, he does seem to show more of his true colors like his playful and jealous side during the welcome dinner, how he lowkey looked down on Fiena seeing her as a simple farm girl, and turning out to be more devious than you’d expect. I’d say Fiena is quite right to be cautious and hesitant in trusting him as it is hard to determine how much of it is an act and how much is the real him.

Olivier also has a lot going against him by the time you get to his route, but even more so than Melodie. He was really building up to be a “Never Meet Your Heroes” type of LI and I wanted to find out what was going to happen in his route so much I dived right into it the second my Switch finished charging after finishing Melodie’s route. Due to this being the locked route that requires you to play through all the other routes first, this is where everything comes together and we get answers to the last few mysteries and foreshadowing. Yep, this is the truth route. I ended up loving this route. It went in a direction that I was not expecting and while the beginning of the route is a bit meh, it does ramp up and it turned out to be amazing. I loved the way the game revealed the last few things that weren’t revealed yet. Especially a particular reveal that shocked me so much I went “oh my gosh” both before and after Fiena figured it out. The climax was also absolutely amazing. There is also an additional ending here for the very last mystery which is pretty good too, but man is it depressing how Fiena ends up learning about it. It really made me wish it was worked into the Happy End, but I’m at least glad it helped Fiena out. I also surprisingly liked the romance between Fiena and Olivier. Olivier does have scenes where he is too handsy and made me go “woah dude, back the fuck up”, but I think it’s just my love of yanderes kicking in, you knowing that Olivier does have affection for Fiena throughout the whole game, and I can buy Fiena ending up with him. THe plot is the main focus, but I do feel there just happened to be some subtle build up for Fiena’s feelings. As for negatives, the only thing I can think of is that the beginning of the route does feel like it’s treading the same waters despite some changes as it does add elements from all routes into this one (which does work for the direction it went in), early on Fiena knows one of the smaller reveals already even though she shouldn’t (though I can see the reason being so that discussion isn’t retreaded), and I’m not quite sure the explanation for two small things really makes sense (though one could just be me imagining the scene differently than the writer).*

I honestly was ready to hate Olivier, but man he won me over and proved why he’s Volontes’ poster boy.

Here’s my LI rankings:

Olivier > Ishmail > Melodie > Emmanuel

Overall, I did enjoy all of the routes. Did I have complaints for all of them? Yeah, but that doesn’t mean that this game did not have me by the chokehold. The romance may not have worked out for half of them, but the overarching plot really shined and that’s what you want when an Otome game focuses mainly on the plot. I really liked how everything was set up during the Common Route (including the LIs), how mysteries and questions popped up even as you were going through routes, and I loved how things ended up getting revealed. I also really liked how everything ended up being connected, which Volontes really does trick you into thinking it wouldn’t be. The story is just so wonderfully layered and I couldn’t help but compare the structure to an iceberg chart (as cringey as that sounds). I find it hard to really put into words, but you do start on the surface level and then progressively dive deeper into the depths that is what’s going on in the game’s world and the mysteries and secrets get more secretive. You start out like Fiena thinking that Porte de l’Enfer is a paradise and everyone is wonderful, but then you learn that everyone is a shade of grey here and there are things boiling under the surface. You won’t learn the truth that no one but the ones that are in the know know until you’re at the latter half of your playthrough. You do get a look into deeper sections before you get there, but only briefly before you’re brought back up and left with another mystery or question that will be answered eventually. And on this note, I liked how things were foreshadowed here.

As for the romance, I really liked it in routes where it did work and I do see the potential of it being great in the other routes where it didn’t. While I do believe that Volontes does a good job with using its time, especially with just how much is packed into each route, it really could have benefitted from each route being longer. Which would have given some much needed breathing room and opportunities for Fiena and the LIs to hang out. Like, I really enjoyed the few scenes where Fiena is just hanging out with the other characters and it’s a shame that there’s not more of it. Especially since most of these LIs needed it.

I did want to specifically mention the friendship between Emmanuel, Ishmail, and Olivier and how it ended up being weaved into the story. You get to see hints of how their friendship was and it really is wonderful as you can tell that they care about each other, and still do, but then you see how it broke apart due to what happened in the past and what’s happening currently. They all have secrets, and they all know that the others have secrets, and that causes them to distrust each other. They all do try to give the others grace, as after all they know how the others are, but they still can’t help but be suspicious and keep things to themselves. It really was heartbreaking for me, especially when I realized that it would have all been fine and things would have gone more smoothly if they just talked with each other.

Also, I have to mention this, but remember when I mentioned that the order I was going to play the routes in were close to the recommended route order? Well, the only difference was that I had Melodie and Ishmail switched which I couldn’t do due to Melodie being a locked route. Obviously I couldn’t play Melodie before Ishmail so that had to change, but I have a confession. I always planned to play Emmanuel first, even when all I had to go on was how they looked and their character blurbs. I just thought he would have a boring personality and I was kind of right haha. He’s a nice guy, he does well in his new role, and he has a lot of subtleties in the way he acts in every scene he’s in, but man he needs to get out more.

Last, but not least, I wanted to talk about the writing style. I honestly was a bit worried on this front. I remember playing the demo for Yukar of the Abyss and it just not being my thing, but I did see that this had a different writer so I took a chance. Well, I’m happy to say that I liked the writing style here (yay!). It was quite nice, I liked how the scenes were written, and I do think it handles being a dark fantasy game pretty well. It does take a bit to get used to how it likes to make broad strokes before it narrows down, but other than that it handles tone very well. It does live up to the dark part of dark fantasy and I actually like how blunt it is in that aspect which I feel emphasizes how normal it is for Fiena. Plus, it hits you like a punch to the face. And while there are a lot of dark moments, there are plenty of light moments and even some jokes that got me laughing at them. I did also like how the LIs were shades of grey as they all do something that is terrible, but you can still understand their motives. They all do have a moment where they get too handsy with Fiena, but aside from Olivier, I ended up not minding.

There are extras here that you can check out as you’re finishing routes or once you finish all of them so you can check everything out at once. Of course there is a CG gallery and a movie gallery (so you can watch the opening and the credits again if you want), but there is also a music player so you can listen to any of the tracks and a dictionary so you can see what terms mean if you need a refresher. As you finish routes, two sections also update to correlate with how much you finished. There’s Profiles on all the main characters and important side characters where you get to see little fun facts about them and each LI has a Short Story. These Short Stories takes place sometime after the Happy End and they’re all cute. They even are character interactions that I liked. It’s just it’s they’re in the NVL format and I hate it, especially since there’s no way to tell who’s talking aside from context.

There are a few negatives here. While I do think the game does handle its short runtime well in terms of the plot, a lot of the complaints I had do end up being summarized as it could have benefitted from being longer. That and there are some events where you can see the writer’s hand pushing the characters to be where they need to be for the next scene. There is no way to see your affection levels with the LIs. I did hear that this game didn’t have a lot of CGs, which I personally didn’t feel that way by the end of my playthrough, but there are two, maybe three, scenes that I did feel should have had a CG to go along with it. Also, Meurtri Village really needed a second background design for after it burns down. Lastly, one of the reveals really makes you think about the age gaps and I’m just trying not to think too deeply about it as that’s a whole other can of worms (looking at the LIs’ Profiles also does, but the game itself doesn’t focus on it so that’s fine). I wish skipping the credits didn’t cause the name of the End to be delayed and don’t press auto load when you’re in the credits. I accidentally pressed the auto load button and it soft locks the game. I did also have difficulty getting the Plunder Ends for the first two routes I did and the only thing I can think of that was different is that using Chapter Select to start from the route’s first chapter locked me out of it. Lastly, the skip function does randomly stop sometimes which is pretty annoying.

I was going to say that I was a bit disappointed that Ishmail didn’t get his time to shine in a Plunder End like the others, but then I realized it would be out of character for him (plus it would be hard to get it to work in the route). Like one of his defining traits is that he will not get with someone already in a committed relationship so why will he do it when it involves Fiena and another LI (especially when it’s either Emmanuel or Olivier).

The localization for Volontes is really good. There are a few mistakes, one of which is really early on, and there were two sentences that I remember not making sense, but that’s it.

To tie everything up in a nice little bow, the sound and visuals here were amazing. I really loved the music here and it fits really well with the game’s world. It both has that fantasy vibe to it with a healthy dose of medieval so it fits with the time period the game takes place in. Most tracks are instrumental too, with some bringing in vocals, which helps the soundtrack fit with the setting. I especially love how you learn that sometimes the music is diegetic (which makes those scenes even better) and that I’m pretty sure Olivier has his own boss music. The music does a good job at matching the scenes as well, with the exception of one scene. The sound effects here were also well done here. The voice acting is also phenomenal here and everyone did a wonderful job in bringing their characters to life.

The artwork looks absolutely beautiful. The backgrounds look great, all the characters look beautiful, the LIs especially look gorgeous (with their eyes in particular being stunning), and the CGs are beautifully done. I mentioned this before, but I honestly had difficulty deciding which LI I liked the look of the most as they all are beautiful and I did find myself staring at character sprites sometimes like whenever you get a close up on Marie. However, I did notice that the few CGS featuring Fiena’s back were inconsistent as it didn’t have her scar when I’m pretty sure it should have been visible.

Verdict

I’m glad I took a chance with Volontes as I ended up enjoying my time with it overall. The romance didn’t quite work out and the game could have benefited from being longer to allow for some breathing room, but everything else was honestly really great. The plot is amazing and is wonderfully layered more than you’d first think; I loved the way the game foreshadowed, hinted, and revealed the various mysteries; the characters themselves were written well and I loved reading them interact with one another; the voice acting is phenomenal; and the game looks absolutely beautiful and has a great soundtrack to go along with it. Volontes also has a way to draw you in, set its claws in you without you noticing, and making you feel you haven’t been playing long even though it’s been a couple hours.

So, yeah, I’d say Volontes is worth picking up if you think you’d enjoy the story. Just make sure to take into account and fine with this game focusing more on the plot, romance feeling a bit rushed, and this being on the shorter side.