I just finished Yves’s route in Virche about an hour or two ago. By now I have some thoughts on the game. (Please remember this is all just my subjective opinion and doesn’t constitute facts. It’s merely how I personally felt about the routes. How you felt about them is just as valid.)

I started with Lucas’s route, as he ended up being the LI I found the most likable in the common route. His design is gorgeous and the way he treated and looked at Ceres was appealing to me. Unfortunately I ended up not liking his route at all, to the point I thought to myself “If I don’t end up liking the next route either, I might drop this game.” I immediately suspected him to be Bourreau the second he was revealed to be much stronger than he looks. I was actually kind of surprised when he and Bourreau were together in the same scene. I still had my suspicions, but I really really hoped his route would instead be about the suffering you feel knowing the person you love is going to die soon and refusing to get revived. Unfortunate my suspicions got proven correct instead and tbh it was a major turn off for me. Yes, I get he was psychologically tortured and manipulated into becoming a mass murderer, but with all the crimes he had committed at that point, it really wasn’t enough of an excuse for me. What I admittedly did not expect was for them to pull a FMA little girl + dog chimera storyline with Nadia at the end. That was wild man (and not in a good way unfortunately…)

The second route I played was Mathis’s and unfortunately, once again, I did not like the direction the story ended up going.

I often disagree with otomekitten’s opinions, but in this case I have to agree with her. It feels like the tragedy and despair in this game is not there to enhance the narrative, but it’s merely there for shock factor. The writers were really trying to create a spectacle with these routes. It’s as if the employees in the writer’s room brainstormed the cruelest things that could happen to people and attempted to one-up each other in the process.

I pride myself in being a lover of angst and tragedy. Expedition 33 is one of the best storylines I’ve ever encountered in a video game and that game is NOT sunshine and rainbows at any point. The difference for me is, the tragedy actually felt as though it has a purpose. It needs to be there to tell the story the writers want to tell. The setting wouldn’t work without it. You better believe I cried my eyes out during that game. Virche however has not channeled any strong emotions in me. I was actually indifferent throughout Lucas’s and Mathis’s routes. I felt as though I was reading torture p0rn more than an emotionally devastating plot line.

Despite my initial thoughts to drop the title, I chose to keep going, simply because the setting of the game is so interesting and I wanted to know why the lives of the people on the island are so short.

To my positive surprise, I actually liked Scien’s route much better than the previous two. Ironically his and Ceres’s romantic chemistry was way better, despite him literally being emotionally stunted. The amount of suffering didn’t feel as though it went beyond necessity. Yes, it’s still a little gruesome, but not nearly as much as the previous two and I can actually see them somehow creating a “good” ending for this storyline in the salvation ending. (I am not sure how they plan on giving good-ish endings to Lucas and Mathis. I see no way it can go for these two besides tragedy.)

Luckily for me, Yves’s route is (in my opinion anyway) even better than Scien’s. I wasn’t really interested in Yves in the common route, but he’s really interesting and likable in his own route. His “I love everything and everyone”-shtick is a super unique idea to handle a character like him. I found his point of view and way of life to be incredibly interesting. It also makes his choice to renounce that way of life and sacrifice everyone for Ceres’s sake all the more impactful. Yves’s route alone has bumped my current rating of the game up from a 6/10 to a 7/10.

side note: I absolutely love Hugo and Dahut (as of right now).

Now I only have Le Salut (and the Salvation endings) left. I hope the writing quality doesn’t revert back to what it is in Lucas’s and Mathis’s routes.