[DEMO] A Mage's Burden of Love

Rosetta D'amato is a mage afflicted with a deadly blood curse that seeks to kill her before she turns 25; determined not to let her ancestor's mistakes doom her, she's turned to unholy forces to trade her dying body for a new model, fresh and with a long lifespan ahead of it. There's just one catch; the spell only works if the participant feels true love for the caster.

Rosetta has three weeks before her curse damns her, can she successfully court a perfect victim for her dark ritual before she's lost forever?

Three Suitors

Emile Chevalier

"A painter from out of town who has come to take inspiration from the charming sights found in your hometown. He’s gentle, kind and sweet, but he seems rather evasive about his past. Occasionally, you swear his gaze holds a cold intensity."

Valerian Edrielle
"Your loyal yet irritating colleague at the mage's tower, Mage Edrielle is as talented as he is flirtatious; although he seems to want to keep some distance from you for some reason. Another odd behaviour to add the list he acquired after visiting his family a few months ago."

Ciaran Bainbridge
"The cursed and illegitimate child of the Prevaloir duchy, Ciaran has had anything but an easy life. Due to this, he's become reclusive and adopted a fierce fear of people; although, his peculiar reading habits may be a sign he's not so impossible to approach." 

Obstacles

"Great. the last thing I needed. More work."

The challenge of winning your selected victim's heart is only amplified by three rather unhelpful obstacles; A rakish maiden with her eyes on the new painter, a servant of the divines here to investigate rumours of demonic activity and a fierce bodyguard with a bloodthirsty demeanor.

Social Anxiety Mechanic

In lieu of the usual affection point system, each route will begin you at 100% rapport with your selected suitor. Through dialogue choices, you may decrease this rapport; there will be no visual indication of when this happens or how much is lost. You can check your rapport at any time in the Suitors menu, and each suitor has a different level of needed rapport to achieve a success.

[CONTENT WARNINGS]

This project explicitly portrays:

• Murder
• Murder-Suicide (not seen in the demo)
• Suicidal Ideation (not seen in the demo)
• Mental health struggles (not seen in the demo)

This project utilises:

• Sexual themes and humour.
• Suggestive scenes (not seen in the demo)
• Body horror and gore (not seen in the demo)
• Dark approaches to romance and relationships (she is trying to kill them)

[DEMO]

As this is a demo, there are a few things I’d like to address!

• As you can tell from my other projects, I tried a very new art style for this project! As such, during the process, I was very experimental, and as such the art can be inconsistent! However, now that I’ve tested the waters, I intend on making the art of the official routes much more cohesive.
• Art unfinished! You may rightly wonder why I don't just finish them before release- I am very busy!! I likely will have to finish the unpolished assets per route to ease up my workload; I apologise for any immersion lost, but once all routes are done, I'll properly update the demo's visuals.
• There isn’t much variation in the music. I do intend on adding more variation in the official routes!
• I intend on releasing all three routes within 2025! I’ll be releasing them one at a time, with Emile, Valerian and then Ciaran.

[NOTES FROM AUTHOR]

• The music. It’s amateur! And proudly so! I got a ton of really good feedback from my first project, and I welcome critique and feedback as I have zero music experience!! I will not however be using royalty free open source music from online, because then I won’t get to develop this skill!!
• This is a one-woman hobby project!! Everything is done by me, except for parts of the gui, which I have kindly borrowed from Skolaztika's dark elegance pack!!
• Feedback is welcome and encouraged!! I intend on making games for fun, so I'm always open to improving :^)
• This is not nor will it become a commercial product! It's just for fun :)