Devil on Your Shoulder

This is not a recommend/don't recommend as much as a 'i don't know how i feel about it'. It's not a bad game, it's not poorly written, it has enjoyable moments, but i found myself rather frustrated and conflicted with a lot of things as i was playing it. So let us go over some of them.
Matchmaking ROs with other npcs. This has always been a heated topic of debate, some like it some don't. I do not enjoy it, and while i normally wouldn't bring this up as it's ultimately a matter of preferences, one specific match made me side eye this game. Ryan, if not romanced, can get with Heather, MC's rival. Now it wouldn't be all that weird, if the game didn't point out that Heather is basically MC's copy, in body type, in skintone, in hair, in eyes, 'could pass as mc's doppelganger' as the game puts it. Even more comical is one of MC's dialogue options being 'they look good together'... which i genuinely am not sure how to interpret? like girl wdum they look good together she has YOUR face. It's honestly a questionable match all around that i'd laugh at if it wasn't so sad.
And now for the romance itself.
The way the game is structured makes it so one RO starts with a massive advantage over the other two. Because the Devil is constantly around MC to help her and tempt her into giving away more of that precious precious soul, he gets the most screentime and relationship development. He's the one to support MC, he's the one to tempt MC, he's the one who'll try to get to know MC and understand her better, he's the one to witness MC's moments of brilliance and failure.
On the other side Ryan and Cris barely have any screen time in the 1st half (with maybe one appearance per chapter). All of these scenes i found to be on the lackluster side, with them exchanging a couple of sentences with mc then in a 'duty calls' fashion going on their merry way to do their own thing. Realistic? Sure. But in the context of a romance game it doesn't make them particularly intriguing, and having to hit on them once per chapter for crumbs of possible reciprocity is hardly riveting romance content. For fairness' sake i will say that towards the 2nd half of the game if you choose to pursue them, they very much become the focus of the show while the devil takes the farthest backseat possible with only the occasional mention so that you don't entirely forget about the crushing promise of eternal suffering in hell.
I say all this, because playing the game for the first time i found myself questioning Ryan and the whole election plotline in general. I did not understand his inclusion as a RO. I thought the election was out of place and yet another manifestation of CoG's undying love for rebellion/revolution/government overthrowal plots. Hell i barely saw him in my game, it really felt like he came to shake mc's hand twice to ask her to vote for him and that was the extent of his screen time. I swear a Temu commercial i was unlucky enough to see once was more memorable than that.
Furthermore, i did not understand why he, a 'rising politician from a fabulously wealthy family and movie-star good looks', would be interested in our random passerby MC. For comparison let's take Pirate's Pleasure, the author's previous IF: MC was from the get an established pirate with her own ship, crew, reputation and i could see why the governor would take interest in her, recruit her and subsequently try to wife her up. But what reason does Ryan have? MC is a nobody at the moment of their meeting, and remains basically a nobody for the majority of the book (not counting the whole 'is an aspiring Broadway star'.. because who isn't). I wish more text was invested in laying some groundwork for his romance otherwise it really feels like MC is just strongarmed into volunteering for his campaign for a chance of romancing him.
His selling point is that he's this good dude with superman looks (and the game does not miss one opportunity to mention how much of a white knight and prince charming he is every single time he is brought up in the text, which.. i got it the first time you needn't beat me over the head with it), but we barely get to know him in the mandatory scenes that he does have before being yeeted into the ether. Now, his actual romance route, should one choose to pursue it, is decent enough, very sweet and cheesy. Although for all that talk of knightly courtship, i don't think the game quite managed to deliver and amusingly, for most of the story it still felt like some kind of long con to win mc's vote/public support.
Cris, as mentioned previously, suffers from the same issue. Thought his status as a romance option and presence in the story i at least found believable. He's MC's neighbor, they sometimes cross paths and talk, unless you don't romance him in which case they stop crossing paths and he disappears never to be seen again except for the few moments game deems it important to reminds you he's now hooking up with your roommate.
Davin the devil, to the surprise of nobody, was my favorite RO. As i said, because of how much time mc spends with him and how many interactions they have, even if i started as a hater i ended up liking him the most.
Now, Davin's romance also made me wonder why he of all people would become invested in MC. Unromanced, Davin will show interest in the librarian npc, a man knowledgeable and powerful in his own right who can easily handle Davin's devilish nature and be his equal. Mc in contrast is just the usual naive mortal who has no idea what she's dealing with. Well the answer we get from the devilman himself is that mc's willpower is so strong that even he cannot help but be in awe of it... A dubious claim, strong 'she's not like other girls' vibes, but unsatisfactory as i found it at the very least some explanation was given.
Of the positives, i was pleasantly surprised to find out that even with a low %rel stat, after refusing all of his offers, i was still able to successfully romance him and achieve a happy ending (though with how many people said they had trouble getting Davin's romance i wonder if i just lucked out or really am that much of a smooth operator lol). There was a sense of freedom of choice to his route that i didn't get with the other ROs, where i felt like i had to agree with them or pick specific behaviors to get anywhere (mind you i didn't codedive idk how true that actually is code-wise, there was just this *vibe*). And while i won't gush much over his romance, i did genuinely find the writing of it to be lovely.
Of the not so positive, i found the conflict in his route to not be much of a conflict. He says he can't be with mc only to almost kiss mc in the next scene and fully succumb to his feeling in the following one and bam now they're together forever. There was so much potential for angst and drama that ultimately just went nowhere. Guess they can't all be Adam from twc. Another letdown was the branch where you give your devil away to another willing soul, which i expected would lead to a dramatic ending more so if you're romancing Davin.. but no, nothing came of it. One sentence about how he now doesn't talk to mc and that was that. Rather anticlimactic, that whole affair.
Ultimately, im giving this a thumbs up because i do think that this IF has better written romance than a lot of HC entries of late, i just wish the author went a bit deeper with it because the potential is very much here.

Have you wanted to be a top musical star or actress on Broadway, or date the devil? Any and all of your wishes can come true after a magic spell goes wrong and you find yourself with your own personal sexy demon who is here to do your bidding. For a price, which is your soul. You can go along with him to overcome obstacles and vanquish rivals, or steadfastly refuse to join in the deadly game, or have romantic liaisions with people you meet on the block you live in in 90s New York. You can help save the area being overcome with dot.coms, or be foremost among those who want to gentrify the slum where you live, turning out the many vibrant characters that give the Village such character. The choice is yours. Then there is the small matter of your soul, and the choice is still yours when you meet people who can help.
This IF game has plenty of choices, some fabulous characters to meet, and recreates a small part of 90s New York so well you can almost smell and taste it as you play. Given the amount of choices you have, there are many different endings which allows for plenty of play throughs if you like finding all the endings, and there are achievements to earn too! Do you want to be tempted? And how much would you give to vanquish your enemies and achieve the success you were born to have? There is only one way to find out. IF games give you the best value for money because there are always so many choices, and so many "what ifs?".