I haven't finished this yet, I'm maybe a third of the way into it, maybe even less. But I just have to say something about some of the reviews and other people in the thread who are upset about the anachronistic language being used (such as awesome and other things). Anyone upset about it is historically ignorant. The very fact that they are speaking modern English at all is anachronistic already. Anything set before 1600 (the latest a story about true knights and lords could reasonable be set) would use an almost wholly different language, you would be incapable of reading most of it. Example:
"Wilcumian ic wênan êow weorðian tela ðe w¯æwærðlic"
or
"Welcometh Ich hopæ thee'ræ weī̆ple a'd o,"
Can anyone read that? The first is old English, spoken before 1100 AD, a bit older than would be spoken in a classic knight tale, but since the first true knights in Europe started practicing in the 8th century not too early. The second is the English spoken from around 1100-1500 AD, otherwise known as the settings for most medieval games and other media.
Just so you're aware, they both say, "Welcome, I hope you're well and good." You can clearly see the Germanic influence in the Old English especially and some of the words are closer than you think once you know what they are... And this of course ignores the fact that most lords would speak Frankish or French depending on time frame as their court language in nearly all of western Europe at these times in history. Most modern medieval stories use either modernized Shakespearian or late 19th century to modern Posh English.
My point with this is that this author has decide to just uses modern parlance and to me this is actually a breath of fresh air. I'm glad the characters talk like normal people instead of using the fake "Hollywood" medieval English that most people expect from such stories. I studied history and literature and few things get me more pissed then when people complain about anachronism in stories when what they mean is "This isn't like other fake history movies/books/games/whatever that I enjoy." And this also ignores the fact that this is clearly not set in some actual medieval place, thus making it even more silly to be upset about the use of modern English. It's like people getting mad that all the aliens in Sci-Fi speak English. Duh, you understand English so what do you expect? Go watch the same Sci-Fi show in China and they'll be dubbed into Chinese... This VN is for modern English-speaking audiences so it's in modern English. I don't get people being upset about this.
The movie A Knight's Tale (funny it has the same name as this game) got crap for being anachronistic too. People complained about the songs in it, specifically Golden Years by David Bowie but there were others as well. And some other things like the way they talked and turns of phrase they used. The director pointed out that all the orchestral and "classical" music people expected and were mad about not being used was also from serval hundred years later and would also be anachronistic. Now, people look back on it as being a great movie and one of Heath Ledges better films.
Another person complained that squires didn't start training till they were 18 in the setting. Number 1, even in the setting it is made clear that Alice (and the MC) *started* training much earlier than 18. Number 2, if she became a squire at 10 as would be somewhat more accurate to our IRL history then the MC couldn't fall in love with her have a relationship with her. Number 3, it is clear in this setting that squires under knights are more like journeymen (18-25) under a master (30+) than novices (05-15) under a journeyman.
I can't speak to some of the other complaints but another one that bugged me was when I saw someone complain that Lydia wasn't hesitating enough to just lay in bed with Cathy because she "was just a servant girl." That's silly too, Lydia is Cathy's handmaid and servant. She has to do what Cathy says. There were literally servant girls in some periods of time who had the sole job of sleeping with their lord or lady so they would be warm at night. And don't get me started on servants who had the tasks of helping their lords and ladies deal with their... excretions... servants weren't allowed to be hesitant at all IRL unless they wanted to risk pissing off their lord or lady no matter what they asked them to do.
I may come back and address some of the other complaints when I get further in the story. Such as some people saying the game feels more like Cathy is forming a harem with the MC in it, the MC being just an observer and getting left behind, or it is two separate couples just swinging later on. Those seem contradictory but I saw all those complaints, so I don't know. Maybe I'll agree with those later but so far, they seem unfounded.
