YMMV / Aëdemphia

• Awesome Art: While they sometimes have alien designs and a very oniric feel, both the sceneries and the creatures are gorgeous to look at, with plenty of little details to enrich them. Special mention goes to the towns, which are sometimes huge. Another important detail is the big variety of sprites used for the NPCs. Sylvanor actually designed and drew all the sceneries, monsters and NPCs himself. Finally, there are animated cutscenes. Which are all drawn by Sylvanor. Frame by frame. The end result is impressive and is the reason why the game's biggest quality is its atmosphere.
• Awesome Music: The game has its own original musics and some of them are downright gorgeous. They are one of the main reasons why the game's atmosphere is its biggest quality. You can listen to them here.
  • One of the best is probably the theme for Akzalfir's world map (called La carte du monde (Akzalfir)), which starts slow and quiet, then becomes progressively more epic.
  • The different themes for the Boss Battles (Combats de boss, Combat contre le Grand Oracle, Combats contre les Avatars, Thème des batailles) are generally very good.
  • Even some of the themes for the towns are very pleasant to listen. Logical, since most of these places are huge and, therefore, their exploration is long. Some highlights: the majestic theme of Séfanine, the exotic theme of Hyurne, the calm and soothing theme of Alyernise or the melancolic theme of Tharankis.
  • As the main villain, Alzarith of course has one hell of an awesome theme. It's called Thème d'Alzarith.
  • Thème d'Aïnorie is quite chilling, and usually plays when some of the darker plot moments happen. It also perfectly represents just how “benevolent” she really is…
• Catharsis Factor: Eventually, Alzarith will unleash a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on Aïnorie. Considering what she does to you and your teammates over the course of the game... you might be cheering him on at that point. Indeed, you can even let him kill her.
• Cry for the Devil: Alzarith can inspire this reaction to some people. Especially in the scene where his tragic backstory is revealed.
• Early Game Hell: The first chapter is one of the hardest. You have two characters (only one in the first dungeon), and weapons and healing items both are expensive. Also, because of the mechanic that lowers your stats if a character has lost too much health, and because Irzyka doesn't start with much health, she will become half less effective as a healer only after a few hits. And monsters will often target her, since there are only two targets for them. In chapter 2, after you buy the healing spell that affects all the team in the second town, recruit Manalianne and reach Séfanine where Aredas joins you, the game becomes a lot more manageable.
• Fridge Brilliance: While the mechanic that gives malus to the stats of a character who has lost some percentage of health can be infuriating gameplay-wise, it's also a logical mirror of what happens in real life. In real life, people don't turn red or throw a limit break when they are at door's death. They become less efficient at fighting. Therefore, with this mechanic, both the characters and the enemies fight at their full potential when they are in good shape, then become progressively weaker once they start to get hurt. Just like in real life.
• Game-Breaker: Manalianne's poisoned arrows. A poisoned foe loses one tenth of its current health at the beginning of each of its turn, a lot of enemies can be poisoned and the arrows always poison their target. Therefore, Manalianne's poisoned arrows are an ideal way to dispatch bosses, as it will quickly deplete enough of their health for them to start having malus on their stats.
  • Ufa's Disintegration spell is an absolute boon when facing multiple enemies at once. It is a One-Hit Kill spell that rarely misses, with the only drawback being that he can only use it once every other turn. It can even be used against certain bosses!
• Jerkass Woobie: Aredas. He can be a big Jerkass sometimes, but life hasn't been kind with him either. He was deeply affected by the horrors he experienced during the previous war between Tharankis and Séfanine, including the slaughter of civilians ordered by his kingdom's rulers. His left arm was also mutilated by boiling water during a failed assault against one of Tharankis' towns, while he had to witness his men gruesomely dying. He later learned that this suicide assault was ordered by some of his father's advisors to get rid of him, as he was threatening their influence.
• Scrappy Mechanic: Once a character has lost some percentage of health, they will get a malus in all their stats until they are healed. Your characters will be less strong, their defenses will be weaker, etc... Of course, once you're healed, the malus disappears. However, since it affects all the stats, healing spells will also be weaker. Therefore, if the monsters got lucky and attack first, you may find yourself trapped in a vicious circle: your healer isn't able to heal everyone to full health, your weakened fighters won't be able to kill the monsters, and, in the next turn, the monsters' attacks will again deplete enough health and your characters will get a malus. This rule's saving grace however is that it also applies to the enemies, which means that the fights become easier once some of their health has been depleted.
• Tear Jerker:
  • In Version 9.80, one of the early sidequests has been revamped and now features a big unexpected one. A guy in the first town, Fnelmib, asks you to go see the watcher to ask if his family and his fiancée are arriving soon. But what starts as a simple fetch quest takes a sudden dark turn when the watcher tells you that Fnelmib's family and fiancée have died a year ago when they were travelling to visit him and that Fnelmib couldn't cope with their loss and has gone a little crazy, believing that they are still alive and regularly reliving the day they were supposed to come visit him. If you return to see Fnelmib, you can lie to him that they will come back, encouraging him in his delusions, or tell him the truth. If you do the latter, depending on your Persuasion score, Fnelmib will either refuse to listen to you and angrily chase you off or you will be able to make him accept the hard truth and convince him to move on. The melancholic background music of the town doesn't help.
  Fnelmib: Oh, you're back. So, what did the Watcher say?
  Irzyka: They're dead, Fnelmib.
  Fnelmib: What are you saying again!? You ALL want to trick me into believing they're dead! Liars! LIARS! It's a CONSPIRACY! You have all agreed upon! You're all jealous because I'm about to get married! I don't believe you! And since you're with them, I'll ask someone else! Get out of my house!
  Irzyka: Calm down. Listen to me.
  (You words seem to resonate within him. Suddenly, he drops the kitchen knife he had in his hand and falls quiet.)
  Irzyka: You've already lived that day.
  (He continues to stare at you in silence. His hand starts shaking.)
  Irzyka: Nobody will come.
  (At first sight, you think he's not reacting. But you see a tear flowing down his cheek.)
  Irzyka: It's hard, but you have to move on.
  (He bursts into tears and puts his head in his hands. He sits at the edge of his desk. After a long moment, he dries his cheeks and gives you a grateful look.)
  Fnelmib: I think I understand now. My life was destroyed that day. I don't know how you did it, stranger, but I now understand the tragedy I've lived.
  • Another sidequest-related one, once again in a sidequest revamped in Version 9.80. In Aleyrnise, Arniok's home town, Irzyka can come across a young woman who fell into a coma after being attacked by people who mistook her for a Tharankian. In earlier versions, it was possible to heal her with a high enough Erudition. In 9.80, not anymore. Irzyka will realize that there are only two choices: leave her in a vegetable state or Mercy Kill her. The grieving father can't bring himself to make a decision and therefore asks her (or rather you) to choose.
• That One Attack: Earthly Emanation. It leaves all characters with only 1 life point. And, because of the Scrappy Mechanic detailed above, it also drastically lowers their stats. Therefore, it's almost impossible to heal everyone to full health before the enemy's next attack, unless you waste almost everyone's turn by using (expensive) healing items. Any boss that likes to spam this attack becomes That One Boss by default.
• The Woobie: Manalianne is a Shrinking Violet who's treated like crap by Aredas (and potentially Irzyka), is forced to act as a mole and spy on her friends on orders of the Great Oracle for the greater good and is the character that has the most chances to die during the game depending on your actions.

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