VN Talk: Code:Realize ~Wintertide Miracles~ - Part 6: Impey

Apologizes for taking so long with this. I had the Nebulas and a number of other personal things going on and somehow prepping these posts kept slipping by me these past few Sunday nights! If you'd like to catch up, you'll find the previous installments with Victor, Lupin, Van Helsing, and Saint-Germain here.

As before, this game is still less than a year old, so here's your spoiler warning!

Alternate Story: First Christmas

I had low expectations for Impey, given that he was my least favorite route in ~Guardian of Rebirth~, which allowed them to be pleasantly thwarted when I finally played his Christmas story. As expected, he was really upset by Cardia leaving for Wales and made a big fuss over it, because Impey is nothing if not constantly declaring his love for her. But afterwards he became significantly more subdued, to the point that Saint-Germain asks him not if he loves Cardia, but why, which prompts Impey to do some unexpected soul searching.

On Cardia's side of the story, we finally learn why she falls in love with Impey in return, a key ingredient that was missing in their original romance. It turns out that Impey's constant assurance that he loves her, while initially meaningless, eventually convinced her that she was worthy of loving and being loved at a time when she still considered herself a monster. She attributes that in turn to her ability to save her brother Finis and allow him to know love as well.

Cardia doesn't quite understand why one love is different from another (leading to an amusing scene where she convinces Finis to tell her that he loves her and concludes that it just doesn't feel the same), but she figures out enough to know that Impey is important to her.

Impey's route leans into the humor, but oddly enough it's not as outright funny as Lupin's is. His usual amount of ham is toned down because he's trying to sort out his feelings for Cardia, causing him to at one point run away and pour his heart out to Nemo of all people about how he's feeling. (And Nemo dispensing deadpan serious relationship advice is the creepiest thing in this entire game.) Impey's still fond of the grand gestures though, such as when he plows through a blizzard to find Cardia because her train's been delayed.

There was only one point where I felt a bit bored, and that's when Impey comes back to Cardia after Nemo gives him a talking to and they just kind of meander around town. While other love interests do this with her on their route, it doesn't work on Impey's because of when the meandering happens. It's a pacing issue.

When she goes through town with Victor and Van Helsing, it's in the middle part of their Christmas stories, so there's no immediate expectation for an emotional payoff. However, on Impey's route, this happens after she asks him to tell her that he loves her (in a repeat of her experiment with Finis), and he refuses. So we expect that after he gets straightened out by Nemo he's going to come back and do the deed, not fart around town while quite obviously avoiding saying the l-word.

It picks up a little bit before the end when they eventually wind up at London's Crystal Palace, where Impey shows Cardia an exhibit dedicated to her late father and talks about how for all of Isaac's flaws he did a lot of good things, including being an inspiration to him. And it's only after they leave the exhibit that Impey finally confesses that he loves her, amidst fireworks prepped by Nemo of all people.

His route wasn't horrible, but because of the odd dip in the end, it felt just "okay" rather than great, which is too bad because I thought it had a promising start.

Special Epilogue

Unsurprisingly, of all the love interests, I also played Impey's Special Epilogue last. He still doesn't get to the moon. Rather he's busy with a lot of the World's Fair stuff that he did in exchange for getting Zicterium for Victor in his ~Future Blessings~ ending, so he's not home at the beginning. Cardia misses him, but figures she should be constructive and help him with his moon project, so she decides to head back to her old home in Wales to see if there's anything good in the books her father left behind.

She leaves a note for him so he won't worry if he comes home while she's away, but because she wants to surprise Impey with her research results, she doesn't want to say why she's going home. So she just leaves a note saying that she's gone back to her parent's house. And that's it.

Poor Impey comes home, finds the note, and freaks out thinking that he's neglected her so much that she'd gotten pissed off and gone back to her old house. It was great. I suppose it's a bit mean of me, but Impey works best as comic relief, and this is totally a misunderstanding that would happen.

In fact, when he finally chases her down to Wales, the game resumes from Cardia's perspective and she hears footsteps have entered the house in the middle of the night. No one else should be here so the player is presented with a choice to either wait and assess the situation, or deliver a preemptive attack on whoever enters the room. I knew it was Impey, so I assessed the situation to get the good option first, but you better believe I later reloaded to give Impey a karate chop to the face.

It was worth it, especially to see Impey freaking out as he wonders if Cardia is now so pissed off that she wants to physically attack him.

Eventually they get things sorted out and he reveals that he brought her a wedding ring because they hadn't gotten them yet, despite the wedding. This felt like an odd retroactive omission to me, though they wouldn't be the first couple I know who got married first and picked up rings later. Cardia's ring has a base with no stone though, and initially I thought it was because they're supposed to pick up the stone from the moon, but no, it's so she can hold up the ring and the moon "fits" in the empty space.

I was less impressed by that, though Impey suggests they can make new rings with stones from the moon once they get there, which is sort of what I was thinking, but why new rings at all? Maybe this is just another reason why Impey and I don't click, but all in all his Special Epilogue was fun (even if it was mostly due to Impey bashing) so it wasn't a bad way to end the game.

Even though his Special Epilogue is the last event I played due to the nature of the Special Epilogues unlocking at the very end, there are still more posts to come. Next week is Sholmès's regular epilogue.

"All Times, All At Once" Is Out In Intergalactic Medicine Show

My latest short story "All Times, All At Once" is now out in the April 2018 issue of Intergalactic Medicine Show. You might have already heard if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook. This issue seemed to be running late, but the good thing is it's now available to readers.

Currently a subscription is required, but it will become available for free later this year after the magazine ceases publication. Unfortunately, this is IGMS's penultimate issue and I'm sorry to be losing such a good market. This is my second time appearing there and my second time getting the cover art as well. I've been very fortunate in that regard.

"All Times, All At Once" is set in the far future when humanity has colonized the stars, but in some places, the stars are definitely "not right" as the crew aboard the Starfish quickly learns when they answer a colony's distress signal. If you love the idea of space colonies, Lovecraftian fiction, and Chinese food, this may be up your alley!

I know I missed a post with my Code:Realize ~Wintertide Miracles~ VN Talk series last week. Sorry about that. I'll pick up with Impey next week.