Epic Love and Betrayal: Shattered Souls Exclusive Interview
In today’s special episode of the Otome.com podcast, our hosts have the pleasure of speaking with Korina, the creator behind Shattered Souls, a dark fantasy isekai otome game developed by Eternal Love Studios. Korina shares insights on character dynamics, emotional themes, and what players can expect from this thrilling title filled with gods, love, betrayal, and personal growth.
You can listen to the full interview here and enjoy gameplay of Shattered Souls:
Shattered Souls invites players into a hauntingly beautiful world where love and betrayal intertwine in a dark fantasy journey of self-discovery. The story centers on Celeste, a young woman whose soul is fractured by the ultimate betrayal. On the brink of breaking, she is drawn into an ethereal realm filled with gods and mortals each carrying their own scars. As she forges bonds with seven distinct love interests, Celeste embarks on a path of healing or vengeance.
Korina: Hi, it’s amazing to be here. Thank you so much for inviting me to your wonderful podcast. I’m Korina, and I’m the founder of Eternal Love Studios. As for my role, I wear many hats in development. I’m the author, programmer, casting director, audio engineer, and I even write some of the lyrics and basic melodies for the songs featured in Shattered Souls.
Korina: Thank you so much for playing the demo! Shattered Souls is a dark fantasy isekai otome game about a girl named Celeste. She suffers a horrible betrayal from the person she loved and trusted the most, which ends up fracturing her soul. But before she completely breaks apart, she’s whisked away to another realm. That’s where her journey to love—and revenge—begins.
Korina: Oh, definitely. There’s so much symbolism in this game and there’s so much trauma, each of the characters has a very in-depth and traumatic past that they have to work through themselves. And that actually goes into and plays a big part in their intimacy, and helps grow the relationships and the bond between Celeste and these characters. It’s more of like a partnership of ‘we’re going to heal together’ type situation.
Korina: We have seven love interests in the main game, and there’s a specific reason for that number. Each one plays a crucial role in Celeste’s healing journey and vice versa.
The characters themselves have evolved so much over the course of development, but each one of them came to me on their own and weren’t based on real people or circumstances. They were created for this world and their journeys and purposes came to life as I learned more about the Shattered Souls universe.
I will say that the only characters that will be based on real people are from our amazing backers who have chosen to be isekai’d into the game. So everyone else’s is from imagination.
Korina: So bit of a spoiler alert! The seven routes are connected with the seven stages of grief. So each and every relationship dynamic and, route is going to deal with a different stage of grief and a different healing journey. The stages might not follow a set order, but Celeste’s emotional responses will vary depending on where she’s at emotionally in each route. So you’re in for a lot of depth and variety.
And so that’s why we chose as many love interests. There, of course, will be bleed-throughs between the different stages and it’s not necessarily going to go in the exact order. Celeste and how she processes grief is going to be different throughout the various routes.
Korina: From people who have played the game, it’s really hard to say, but it seems that many people lean towards Karver, which is completely understandable, especially with the demo, and I just adore Karver. Their backstory and their history are so angsty. I just love it.
But I’d say Karver is definitely one that people seem to love. Marris gets mixed up, I’m not really sure. I see a lot of people loving him and then I see a lot of people being like, “Oh no, he went way too far with that intro.” So we’ll have to see on that one.
Korina: That’s a great question. In real life, there are various types of love languages that people use and that come naturally when building relationships. I thought this same approach and mindset was very important and brought it to Shattered Souls.
Each of the connections that are created in Shattered Souls is unique to the characters themselves and the journey and process of growing their relationship is different for each character.
Korina: I think it is so important, and you know what, I am absolutely beyond thrilled and proud of my voiceover, my voice acting cast. They are exceptionally talented and so professional. I have adored working with them so far and I cannot wait to work with them more. I feel that that is an extremely important part of visual novels because of the emotions that can be portrayed in them.
Korina: That will be hard without spoiling anything. I’ll say this, Shattered Souls is a puzzle that only when completed will you see the full picture. So, for those of you who don’t like bad endings, I apologize. The story is filled with symbolism, and the endings in the main game are going to be very important for this reason.
Korina: We’ll be releasing the game by 2026, and hopefully sooner. We’re working really hard to get it out there as quickly as possible for everyone because we’re so excited to share this story. It’s got so many plot twists and it’s an emotional rollercoaster ride. We’re very, very excited about it.
The Kickstarter for Shattered Souls is still open for late pledges. If this story featuring a unique blend of romance, trauma, and healing, is your cup of tea, then please go support the project and its creators. You can also wishlist the Shattered Souls on Steam here.
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