Silverio Vendetta - It's a typical story from light. Power creep!

Silverio Vendetta (シルヴァリオ ヴェンデッタ) is an action visual novel developed by light (best known for Dies Irae) and released in 2015. It serves as the first volume of a trilogy set in a future Earth where the discovery of a new energy source called "Astral" caused a massive world war. This conflict eventually wiped out Japan and the surrounding areas altogether in some sort of space-time earthquake disaster.

The story is set 1000 years after the disaster. Humanity has recovered and lives in a world with a much lower level of technology overall, while still sporting some usage of Astral tech, such as soldiers powered by it called "Esperanto." A new calamity, however, appears in the form of two humanoid weapons with ancient technology in the country of Adler. They destroy an entire city and much of the military before being stopped by the hero Christopher Valzelide alone.

Years later, Zephyr Colerain is an ex-soldier and assassin who survived that disaster. He is just trying to live a normal life with the girl (Milliarte Blanche) that he saved during the commotion. Unfortunately, due to a series of coincidences, he ends up on a mission that involves him with a weird girl called Vendetta who was being transported as special cargo.

This sets the wheels of fate in motion again. Various factions, including the powerful humanoid weapons led by Kagutsuchi Type 1, move to achieve their objectives. Whether it is to take control of Vendetta, destroy the empire, or simply take over the government currently under the absolute influence of Christopher. Zephyr, due to his connection to Vendetta, ends up right in the middle of all this.

The setting is a powder keg situation with Zephyr acting as the trigger for the explosion. Depending on your choices, the events go in different directions (mainly depending on which heroine you decide to pursue), but the game has a True Route which is the basis for the next entries in the trilogy.

As is tradition with visual novels developed by light, you can expect lots of very long and detailed action scenes, generally high-quality animations, and of course, instantaneous power-ups. The allies often power up without too much of a reasonable explanation depending on the circumstances they are thrown into.

The three heroines are:

Milliarte Blanche

The girl who was "saved" by Zephyr during the incident with the humanoid weapons. She is the daughter of a researcher of Astral tech and has a talent for engineering. She is the one doing the tuning of Zephyr's weapons and is generally the one that represents "home" to him. The place to go back to.

Chitose Oboro Amatsu

She was the superior of Zephyr before the incident. She fought against the humanoid weapons and lost one eye in the battle. She was left for dead by Zephyr, but she survived after the arrival of Christopher. She still loves Zephyr despite that abandonment and is actively pursuing him (both physically and romantically).

Vendetta

A mysterious girl who was transported as cargo by the military under the orders of Christopher. She seems to be connected to the humanoid weapons and grants Zephyr some of her powers after making a contract with him. Why she chose him is something that you will learn while reading.

My favorite heroine is, without any doubts, Chitose. I love her personality and dedication to Zephyr while she still keeps her own role and duties in place. Though I have to admit, considering how Zephyr acted during the years between the tragedy and the beginning of the story, I debate if it is actually a good thing for her to be around him.

I quite enjoyed the Milliarte and Chitose routes as they were more grounded and the odds felt natural. However, things kind of get out of control in the Vendetta route with a level of power creep that felt totally ridiculous and hard to follow. I knew that Kagutsuchi was going to be the final boss, but that battle was... something else.

From what I understand and read online, the two sequels are set in the future, but they change the entire cast and location so they don't have a strict connection to the events of this specific entry. I wonder how that will play out though. If they are just other stories set in the same universe, it might make the thing much less "hype."

Overall it was a fun read, even if I feel it is still a lower quality product compared to Dies Irae. I am looking forward to reading the second game in the near future and seeing if my opinion of the franchise improves.