I had finally finished a long week of stressful final exams.  Drinking coffee and eating brownies, I browsed games on itch.io, trying to unwind.  I stumbled across some indie visual novel called “Soul Union”.  There wasn’t anything in particular that stood out to me, but it was free, so I decided to give it a try.

    The premise was simple enough. You play as some know-it-all elf who is stuck in some kind of ritual dream with a random stranger.  For you know...reasons.  You make choices and get characters blushing at each other.  Hopefully you don’t die from making some randomly wrong choice.  Typical visual novel stuff.

    The last thing I remember was falling asleep sometime in the middle of the epilogue.  And then waking up…

    All around me is the landscape of a low effort paint and sketch filter.  Oh.  I am savvy enough with anime related fandoms.  When I run out of visual novels to play, I read light novels.  I must have been isekai’ed into the game that I had just wasted my entire night reading.  At least I didn’t die getting hit by Truck-kun?  By the looks of this huge rack and impossibly long purple hair,  I am in the role of supreme villainess, Noctisse. 

Omnipotent voice of system:  Forgive me player.  I realize that I didn’t flesh out the villainess enough in my first game.  Please guide the protagonist and the companion to meet in the ascension ritual.  Then you can go back to your own world.  Provided that you don’t go too OCC or you’ll have to do this over and over again in a loop of eternal hell until I’m happy with the result.  Don’t worry though, this is fun power fantasy, I promise!  This is nothing like kidnapping and exploitation of free labour, so don’t report me okay <3?  I’m gonna disappear now, so that you’re completely on your own.  Because of...reasons!  Thanks again very much and don’t forget to give me a 5 star rating and follow me @coffeedripstudios!!!

    So the author was really vague and lazy with writing this character and now I’m tasked with giving her the motivation to enact the entire main plot of the game?  Problem is, I have no idea how to use her powers or what she was trying to achieve!  Most of the world building details are fuzzy to me.  I’m a skimmer, so sue me!  I just wanted to see awkward anime blushing!  

      How am I supposed to progress the story and get back to my delicious brownies!?

Noctisse:  The ageless, all knowing, all powerful and sinister Shadow Weaver that tricks the main protagonist in order to...um...research nefarious things?  Really in need of a modern day bra.

Ilyon: The main protagonist of the original game that all companions inexplicably fall into Stockholm syndrome style love with and proof that angst is not just for teens.

Mikail: The loyal and quippy companion thief.  Because who better to trust through thick and thin than a low IQ career criminal?

Keska:  Bird lady bard.  Who sings.  Surprise, surprise.  Don’t think too hard about how the feathers on her head actually work.

Simion: Think marlboro man as a half-ass anime style furry.  Who is still missing from the main game.  Hello, author, any day now??

Grei:  Same as the mercenary but a priestess.  And actually not anything like the mercenary except that she’s also missing from the main game so who really knows what she’s like!  She’s probably nice?

Current Version 0.4 (Beta) Day 4: See Dev Notes 3/5/22

Development started March 2021

Created (Writing, Art and Programming) by Jen Lee Quick : wulfmune@gmail.com

Built using Ren'Py :  https://www.renpy.org/

Music is Royalty Free Music from https://www.purple-planet.com