Every (Wo)Man A Dev!
Edelweiss is a Ren'Py-based visual novel/dating sim based on the many idealogues within the Kaiserreich universe, made by Butteryicarus and Team, and was conceptualized around February 2018.
Following one of six main characters on their journey to Switzerland to receive an international education from the International University of Geneva, your character will meet ten primary characters representing the ten ideological categories present in Kaiserreich, as well as a variety of other side characters. Finding yourself in between the French and German powderkeg, will you be able to plant your roots and blossom in a land far from home?
Not to be confused with the tank, the other Edelweiss, nor the song or the creator Edelweiss.
The demo can be downloaded here
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The game provides examples of:
- Alternate History: Set in a universe where Imperial Germany won the First (but not the last!) Weltkrieg.
- Can't Hold His Liquor: Gwen almost immediately gets drunk after you arrive at Le Chat Noir. Comedically, she calls the rest lightweights while she's inebriated.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: The Syndicalists wear red, the Liberals wear mostly yellow and some blue, while the Autocrats wear darker-colored clothes.
- Den of Iniquity: Debatable depending on whether you align yourself with the Syndicalist or not. "Le Chat Noir" is could be called this. Either the city of Geneva has a powderkeg full of violent Political Extremists waiting to go up in arms, or a hidden bar where workers can get cheap alcohol at.
- French Jerk: Zig-Zagged with Ophelie. She confronts Caterina in the school's greenhouse and debates how potted plants don't produce as much produce as those growing freely in the dirt. However, agreeing to have dinner with the Syndicalists shows that she's rather open in sharing what she knows concerning arts and music in a very lighthearted manner.
- Get Out!: After Yuki lets herself inside your dorm, you can tell her to get out before she proposes a role for you in her next movie.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Victoria Hudson. She seems to initially subvert this but immediately plays it straight by inviting you to lunch after a short conversation about economics, and is even kind to Suraj, a Socialist who has the opposite economic view to her Market Liberalism.
- Ice Queen: Erika. Whether it's bumping into her or apologizing to the teacher, there is no hint of levity whenever you speak to her.
- Insistent Terminology: Gwen insists that they ordered 'chips' while Ophelie says that they're eating 'fries.' They go back and forth with this before devolving into politics. Yujin almost restarts the conversation, only to defuse it by letting Gwen go.
- Intro Dump: Playing a New Game starts you with an infodump, explaining the alternate universe that the light novel is based in.
- Morton's Fork: All Main Characters, no matter which one you pick, go through the same storyline that the developers wrote. Whether you choose to hang out with either the Syndicalists or Liberals is a different story, however.
- Multiple Endings: There are two endings to the demo. Either you hang out with the Syndicalists or you refuse their invitation.
- Multinational Team: Nobody seems to be a native of Switzerland with students of French, Welsh, Indian, German, Canadian, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, and Hungarian descent while having an American Economics teacher. And that's not even counting the numerous protagonists you could choose from!
- Orphaned Series: Happening sometime around 2020, after having released the 2nd update in May, the devs eventually stopped talking around the month of August, though nobody can blame the developers, artists, or writers due to other responsibilities (School, Work, etc) while having the COVID-19 Pandemic to deal with.
- The One Guy: All the ideologies only have one male in their friend group.note
- Red Armband of Leadership: Subverted. Yujin, who wears a blue armband with a white sun, is mostly seen as a background character compared to the other three Syndicalist characters.
- Tastes Like Friendship: The Liberals invite you to have lunch with them, and depending on your choice, it's how they're first introduced to you.
- Trespassing to Talk: Yuki trespasses by using a key to every dorm room. What does she want? A cup of tea and, of course, to make you the star in her movie!
- Truce Zone: Fitting for a school found in Switzerland as they take no sides as to who goes to their academy nor where they came from. That doesn't mean that the Liberals, Autocrats, or Syndicalists won't contend with one another, however.
- Most Writers Are Writers: Yujin has no interest other than writing Alternate History in her spare time.
- Verbal Tic: Nikolay, the Russian, has a habit of calling you 'Old Bean.'
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Gwen and Ophelie constantly argue with one another while going out. Suraj even points out that this is a common occurrence between the two, but even after a heated argument at the bar, they're already planning for their next outing together.
