Ekiya, the protagonist
Save the World is a science-fiction yuri romance visual novel by Winter Wolves. An Early Access version (specifically version 0.7) was released on May 19, 2023, and the full 1.0 version was released on June 1, 2023 for both itch.io and Steam. It was initially funded through Kickstarter, and the campaign can be seen here
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Ekiya is a young woman living in London whose life, which was already a struggle, becomes far more complicated after she's abducted by aliens. Xen, the leader of the aliens, states that they're merely interested in saving civilizations before they destroy themselves, and asks Ekiya what Earth's greatest problem is. Ekiya, who has been trying to make ends meet with her roommate Sarah, states that the most serious problem in her life is late-stage capitalism. Ekiya is then returned to Earth in time to hear Xen's ultimatum to Earth's inhabitants: every day, until the planet's wealth is evenly distributed, they will kill an increasing number of the world's currently wealthiest people. Realizing the severity of what she's said, Ekiya must now decide how to Save The World: by prioritizing humanity and stopping Xen, or by encouraging Xen and forcefully dismantling a broken system.
This work uses the following Tropes:
- Alien Abduction: The instigating incident of the plot is Ekiya being abducted by Xen, an alien.
- An Offer You Can't Refuse: Agent Castillo, a member of England's Secret Intelligence Service MI6, makes such an offer to Ekiya upon learning her role in Xen's invasion, wanting Ekiya to make contact with Xen again and stop it at any cost.
- Benevolent Alien Invasion: Zig-Zagged. The aliens came to help rather than abuse humanity but they do so by overwhelming force of superior technology and allow no negotiation. They plan to leave humanity alone after they have "fixed" our society but their misunderstandings of how humans tend to think and react means that there may not be much left of human society by the time they are done.
- Bittersweet Ending: In nearly every ending, Xen’s ambitions to fix the problems of the Earth come to an end in one way or another. While their methods are shown to have gone off the rails, and some people are more miserable and scared than ever, they did still effectively end poverty and war, as well as many other exploitative aspects of capitalism that oppressed countless people around the world. And with Xen gone, it’s implied that the world will eventually go back to how it was before they arrived…
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Xen and their people mean well and are trying to help humanity but see inaction as equal to immoral action and respond to both with lethal force. They also fail to understand that humans do not react logically to all situations and thus do not see the potential consequences of their actions.
- Capitalism Is Bad: The crux of the story is Ekiya expressing this viewpoint to Xen, and Xen deciding Murder Is the Best Solution.
- Damsel in Distress: Ekiya attracts a lot of trouble and twice is attacked by violent thugs, rescued by Xen the first time and Agent Castillo the second.
- Green-Skinned Space Babe: Xen is a nonbinary but femme-presenting blue-skinned humanoid, and one of Ekiya's two main love interests.
- Heroic Sacrifice: In Xen’s bad ending they start going way too far in their methods, and Ekiya, while in love with them, realizes that the only way to put a stop to them is by killing them. She manages to do so, but Xen’s death causes their ship, with Ekiya on it, to crash, which she tearfully accepts.
- Logic Bomb: Ekiya manages to pull this on Xen in Sarah’s good ending. By pointing out that while they did dismiss the world’s politicians on the basis that their decisions were making everyone miserable, people were still miserable with Xen in control. Therefore logically, Xen must dismiss themselves for the good of the planet. After some pushback, Xen ultimately agrees and leaves Earth.
- Meat Versus Veggies: Ekiya, a vegan, has disagreements with Sarah, an enthusiastic meat lover, though this stays entirely civil, as Ekiya is not a Straw Vegetarian. However when Ekiya happens to mention her veganism and the reasons for it in passing to Xen the alien commander latches on to the idea and enforces a Veganopia on the planet.
- Multiple Endings: The story has five different endings, depending on who Ekiya romances and what she decides is best for Earth.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: Xen's solution to solving Earth's uneven distribution of wealth is to kill the wealthiest people.
- My God, What Have I Done?: When Ekiya initially answers Xen's questions about Earth's problems, she did not expect her to solve it via Murder Is the Best Solution, and one of the game's two main routes is her then trying to stop the aliens through either negotiation or retaliation.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: A number of the people that become Xen's targets or potential targets are fictional versions of real wealthy individuals, such as games publisher Gabriel Honeywell.
- Non-Standard Game Over: The "Alone" ending, where Ekiya fails to romance either Sarah or Xen. Out on her own Ekiya is attacked by someone who blames her for the aliens actions and ends up falling to her death.
- Off-Model: A downplayed case, but one aspect of Xen’s biology the player is told of on a few occasions is that they have two tongues. But if you view the explicit version of their pinup image, they are shown sticking out only one, human looking tongue.
- Optional Sexual Encounter: While the story's main love interests are Sarah and Xen, Ekiya can potentially have a one-night stand with Agent Castillo that doesn't affect her other relationships (beyond Sarah working it out but dropping the matter since she and Ekiya were not an official couple by then).
- Saving the World: As the title indicates, Ekiya's goal is this, though how she interprets how best to "save" the world will have major ramifications.
- Significant White Hair, Dark Skin: Agent Lucy Castillo is a platinum blond with nut brown skin.
- World of Buxom: All three of the human main characters have generous busts. Xen is smaller but still far from flat chested.
- Yuri Genre: Ekiya can romance either her female roommate Sarah or the Blue-Skinned Space Femme Xen, as well as have an optional one-night stand with the female MI6 agent Castillo.
