I must say despite everything & how badly she fucked things up, initiating the mage route felt kinda sad. I fully understand why someone might utterly condemn Kate and I have no idea how I would react if confronted with such a situation for real, but I will definitely play the Mercenary route even before the princess route (despite having some high hopes for Carolyn's route, as well as some hope that she is not just using Sarah as means of entertainment :x, but I only judge that by her looks and the image on the front page) cause after taking a quick look at where things go should one forgive Kate (and, no idea if it makes a difference, went for both scenes with her at the castle as well as paying with gems on the ship) I feel as if being with the Mercs & her as a loveinterest (at least I assume she counts as one, given that so far it didn't feel as if she has malicious intentions towards Sarah, she is "just" a mess & an addict but still feels for her) will be a route I'll enjoy in it's own right.
This is a very enjoyable VN so far & I am rather excited for this to be finished one day, the story has been well crafted and delivered, if anything I would say the pacing at the start is a bit all over the place (the decision to with Kate pops up rather quickly, but that is maybe just me not getting a sense of the time passing, I know it's actually more than a week) but the characters have been compelling or, if I did not find them sympathetic, at least pretty convincing, and I especially liked the magician so far (haven't reached the current end of the mage route yet by any means), as well as Vargas, Vaelen, Kate and in a way Marion, but mostly because he seems to have more depth than just being kinda pompous and obnoxiously full of himself.
I won't rate the game yet I think cause the story doesn't progress far enough atm for me to make a verdict, but I am pretty optimistic that it will turn out a 4 star title at least.