Hello, lovely people! Flairvee here! 

Due to some unavoidable circumstances, I had to take a break from posting updates regarding the development process of Soulless Visual Novel. My sincere apologies for the delay. 

This is regarding concerns about the flow of the visual novel’s story. There’s an important announcement that I must make in this developer log. 

Most Visual novels, specifically Otome, have routes for each love interest. There are certain rewards, artworks and even extra routes that the players can unlock after they play a certain number of routes, among other factors. 

However, Soulless Visual Novel is a straight core-story visual novel that will branch towards the end. Players will have to make choices during this core period, which will ultimately decide if the story will take a turn for the better or for worse. The structure of the game is as follows: 

Fig: Soulless Game Flowchart 

(*note: Ending 1 = Good ending and Ending 2 = Bad ending. Hence, 2 endings for 4 characters, thus we have a total of 8 endings) 

As you can see, the story will split into a ‘route’ after Phase 3: Redemption. Until then, the game will follow a core story arc. The player has to make choices in a 360 degree manner, that is, considering all previous dialogues with other characters as well as events. Once they reach the branching point, the verdict (Good or Bad ending) will be out. 

Players can get to experience romance from all love interests instead of just one. In this way, the players don’t have to make hasty decisions right at the beginning that they might regret later or select an entire route that they have to complete before they can choose another one. 

Another reason Soulless cannot offer routes from the beginning is the lack of resources. Games that offer routes mostly have assigned teams of writers, editors and artists to work on routes of individual characters, artwork, coding, etc. Since I am developing the entire game by myself, I cannot afford (as a developer, artist and writer) to spend so much time on one character till I draft the entire story from their perspective and then work on the other character. 

Now players would probably be wondering, “If I don’t get to choose who I want the MC to spend their time with, what’s the point?”. To answer this, there are many interactions between the MC and the LIs. The interaction starts pretty canon and friendly. After a point, players will get an option if they want to indulge further or stop right there. Whether the player wants them to be friends or more than that, the choice is entirely theirs. 

Romance in Soulless Visual Novel is slow burn. It will build gradually. The players will experience the LIs justify their feelings for the MC as it grows through dialogues and events in the story. Relationships in this game are not just based on a romance point of view, but friendship and found family point of view as well. 

Basically, Soulless Visual Novel is more like a ‘Novel’ in which players can heavily influence the endings of all the characters in the game. I want the players to have an experience that could be compared to real world/novel-like events. 

Once the core-story is complete, I plan on writing side stories to explore the world and characters in more depth, considering the demand for the visual novel.

Thank you so much for reading so far! And thank you even more for your patience and support. As a small artist and developer, I really appreciate the efforts from your side. It keeps me motivated. 

And please do not worry, as I am determined to complete this game and release it to its fullest. 

Do not forget to grab PREMIUM Soulless Visual Novel in the WINTER SALE 2023! 

Coming soon - Soulless Phase 2: Ephemeral Part 2!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 

flairvee (Vedantika) <3