I always liked history combined with romance. Actually, that's not true, I think I might just like anything that implements romance in any way. Therefore, I was immediately interested at The End of an Actress' premise. Admittedly, I don't know a lot about history so this review will be solely about the game itself without influenced by any other kind of knowledge. This means that I, unfortunately, am not able to compare it with other historical views, but as this game is only inspired by the story of Marie Antoinette, I guess it doesn't necessarily have to follow the exact same events. Either way, this visual novel tells an emotional and tragic story and I couldn't stop until the end once I started playing it.


The End of an Actress follows the story of Marius who was always in love with Liliane who became the queen of Artoire with sixteen. In the beginning, everyone adored her with the hope of their lives finally becoming better with her help. However, years passed and the situation is getting worse. Everyone is starving, and thus, Marius decides to end the king's and queen's regime with a group of rebels. The king is supposed to get investigated for his crimes and — if found guilty — get executed. Liliane follows the same fate, however, she gets imprisoned until the trial. It turns out that the trial takes longer than anticipated and as Marius is taking care of her, both of them are slowly getting closer to each other.


The End of an Actress noticeably focuses on its love story. While Marius only loved the queen because of the symbol she represents, he quickly notices that she is different than the rumors say and is only a human at the end of the day. It was easy for me to get invested into the story of both of them and I always was attracted to love stories I know will not end well. It's not like I love to see two people suffering, but I feel like the more hardships both of them endure together, the stronger is their bond in the end. Well, in this particular case, Marius and Liliane couldn't stand each other in the beginning and before they both realized what they felt, it turned into love.

So, how is the development of the romance in this game? Admittedly, the whole visual novel is rather short and there are not a lot of events present, however, the development of the romance was still well-done. The reason here is that the game is told in a more different way than usual. There are a lot of time jumps available here and the story takes place within a couple of years. This way, it feels like only fragments of the plot gets told to the reader but the cast actually spends much more time together. As Marius kept Liliane company for a whole year, it's not that unusual that he started to develop feelings for her once he discovered her real personality.


Liliane was not a likable character at first. However, she grew during the playthrough and notices that there are other people out there who are struggling to survive — although the realization came slightly too late. I found that she began to change the more time she spent with Marius and I slowly warmed up to her as well. It's understandable that someone who never had to worry about anything in her life might not realize that others would kill to get in her shoes. That being said, Liliane isn't the only one who grows but Marius begins to listen to her and understand her own struggles as well. After all, everyone has one or two negative aspects of their lives. Despite Liliane being shown as a cold person at first, she is surprisingly kind — once she opens up.


As aforementioned, The End of an Actress's main genre is romance. The history aspect is present, but not in-depth and isn't meant to be informative at all. I would say it's a love story that takes place in the historical time period — and that's it. I found it was a positive aspect as I'm not interested in history itself but feel like it's rather refreshing as a lot of things worked differently back then which has an influence on the romance as well. For instance, arranged marriages are hardly present nowadays anymore, whilst it was a common thing a lot of years ago. I like that the premise that the romance itself stays the same and, even with different circumstances, everything that matters is that the way both of them feel and that they are together.


In total, there are five different ends available in The End of an Actress. However, only one of them is the true end, although the choices that lead to that end are pretty obvious. Each decision either results in a bad end or advances with the plot. That means that the player can just reload the last save file and select the other decision to continue the story. Something slightly misleading, as the credits are popping up after every end, is that the story is, by no means, finished when reaching one of the abrupt ends and I would highly recommend going through the game until the end. The bad ends, however, might be skipped as well as they just end the plot in the middle of the game.

That being said, I would like to comment on the endings itself as well. It's important to keep in mind that The End of an Actress is a tragic visual novel through and through. By that, I mean that neither of the ends feels satisfying and left a sour taste in my mouth. That doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing as I sometimes even prefer those ends over happy ones, however, this game is by no means a fluffy nor cheerful game at all. In addition to that, the whole vibe of the game stays rather depressing as well and there is hardly a moment implemented that felt light-hearted.


Graphic-wise, The End of an Actress is stunning. I loved the sprites and although most of the game only shows Marius and Liliane, there are other side characters with sprites available as well. Whilst I loved the CGs, a few of them got reused for other scenes which slightly bothered me. I feel like CGs are special images for specific scenes so it didn't feel right to me when I saw the same one popping up in a different part of the game again. Luckily, this only happened a couple of times and most CGs are only used once. Unfortunately, The End of an Actress doesn't contain voice-acting which would have greatly improved the immersion.


I enjoyed The End of an Actress a lot, despite not being familiar with the historic events. However, the game doesn't focus on that aspect, and thus, prior knowledge is not necessary at all, although it might be interesting to check out the parallels between the stories. Anyway, I loved the story of Marius and Liliane and once in a while, I just need a tragic story in my life. In addition to that, the development of both characters is well-done and this game tells a story within a span of years. That being said, The End of an Actress is a romance visual novel, with a historical setting, that I can highly recommend to everyone who is a fan of bittersweet love stories.

The End of an Actress is a Visual Novel based on the Life of Marie Antoinette. It also depicts a different View on Nobility and does a good job at showing the good and bad parts of such a life. It is an interesting read and gets you to think about certain topics. It isnt the most exciting VN at times as it is mostly just Liliane and Marius talking to each other. If you consider that though then I have to say that ebi did a great job to still keep it interesting enough to not lose my interest and also was able to take a historic event and change it in a way to make for a good Story. Honestly the only thing that I didnt like is that no matter what you do, you just cant get any rewarding endings. They all leave you feeling with a bitter aftertaste in your mouth. There are five Endings overall which took me around 5 hours to complete and all of them cant be called a Happy Ending. There is one Ending that I would say is the True Ending since it is a lot longer than the others and I did enjoy it, however I would have loved to at least get one more Ending with an actual Happy Ending. I know that wouldnt fit to the actual historical Events that occured but the same thing can be said about that True Ending. If you are like me and dont like to feel down after playing a VN then I wouldnt recommend this. If you dont mind being sad then I easily recommend it especially if you like historical Stories or just Stories based in a much older Time Period.

The Art, Soundtrack and Translation are all very good and I especially liked the Backgrounds and Sprites even if there arent many the ones that do exist are very well done.

In the End, I do recommend getting this VN however dont go into it expecting a happy Story or anything like that as you will be disappointed if you do.

PS: If you read this Ebi pls add an extra Route in your next Drama for people like me that dont only want to see the Sad Reality.

Score: 8.5/10

Check out my Curator Page: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34401214/

The game tells a story about Marius and Liliane. A jaded, bitter revolutionist and a spoiled, flighty queen and her imprisionment before her sentence.

The strength of this game comes from the characters, both who come from extremely different social class. Their interactions and how their opinions of one another changes over their brief time. How both comes to care for one another, love each other and pretty much is doomed to never have their love come in fruitation.

Both characters are treated as humans who have had their own struggles, Liliane is not a horrible monster who ruined their country and betrayed the people's trust, Marius himself has every right to hate the monarchy and lived a life barely lived. Both come with an understanding with each other.

This is a very well written game that made me love both characters, it's definately not a happy happy story and all endings ranges from tragic to bittersweet but it still tells a wonderful tale. I'd definately recommend this game.

This story is based on the later life of Marie Antoinette, last queen of France. However, I'm going to focus this review on the fictional characters and the historical fiction story created by ebi-hime. Seeing as how I'm a socialist and detest historical figures like Marie Antoinette, I feel that not separating the two would muddle the review and insert unneeded bias. For its sake, I'll try to pretend that Liliane isn't based off of Marie.

The story follows two characters: Marius and Liliane.
Marius is a "peasant" who suffered under the incompetent rule of Queen Liliane and King Charles of Artoire. He was homeless and often starving as a young boy. As an adult, after going to war, for a meaningless cause and ungrateful monarchs, he joined revolutionaries plotting to overthrow and dismantle the monarchy. Being the leader of the particular squadron of militia that infiltrated the palace, he met Queen Liliane face-to-face and was in charge of ensuring she didn't escape.
Liliane Sabine Saint-Coeur, a princess of Charentes, was forced to enter a political marriage at the age of 14 to the future king of Artoire. The citizens of Artoire expected a lot from her; they saw her as their country's salvation. However, the young girl didn't know how to save them and was rarely given the opportunity to actually exercise any power. She was also expected to have children, especially a boy. Her husband, meanwhile, seemed to be asexual? He seemed uninterested in his new wife or the prospect of sex entirely. However, the people blamed Liliane for not siring an heir. Without the comforts of her previous home or any true friends in her new home, the new queen was depressed and turned to self-indulgence as a way to cope ... until the revolution came.

This is not the kind of story with a happy ending. It's just not meant to be. She can't be forgiven entirely, even if all the death and suffering wasn't completely her fault. It just wouldn't sit well with the reader/player, you know?
There are a total of five endings: four involve Lililan's death/execution and one involves Marius's death/sacrifice.
The ending entitled "Please don't say goodbye" seems to be the one that's likely canon, as it is the only ending with post-credit scenes. As "luck" would have it, that is my favorite ending. I'll try not to give too much away, but it's my favorite because instead of a simple execution, Liliane actually gets to learn something about the way her former "subjects" lived, which would naturally lead to understanding why they were upset enough to have a revolution.

Praises
⦁ The image of Liliane on the title screen changes based on which ending the player got last. Neat!
⦁ The memorandum has a message from the dev about her work on this story. Nice!
⦁ Beautiful CGs and the CG gallery unlocks once the player has seen all endings.
⦁ The inclusion of a Romani character. Considering that his perspective is given more than Liliane's, it's not actually tokenism, since there are only two main characters. Bonus: There's awareness that the term "g*psy" is a slur.
⦁ The story does not ask for forgiveness of Liliane, but a smidge of sympathy, given how unfair things were for her as well.
⦁ It isn't the same ol' sh*t I've seen in other media that's based on Marie Antoinette. I was worried about that when I got this VN, but ebi-hime didn't disappoint.

Complaints
⦁ Several typos. There are people who'll proofread just to have their name in the credits, you know.
⦁ The fixation/admiration/worship of pale skin, blond hair, and blue eyes. ... I'm not accusing ebi-hime of anything, but this is really not sending a great message, as there was (and still is) a whole group of evil people out there who revered the same traits. >.>
⦁ Too many CGs of Liliane, not enough of Marius. (Joking. ... Kinda.)

I definitely recommend it to those who enjoy: other ebi-hime VNs, historical fiction, and forbidden romance.

This is the weakest writing of Ebihime from what I've read so far. The characters have zero chemistry, Liliane is nothing but a shallow spoiled brat, yet Marius still falls in love with her. Liliane has her moments but she's still a weak character in the bigger picture.

The art is meh; the eyes of Liliane's sprite are disturbingly ugly, and her boobs change size in every CG. It wouldn't bother me otherwise but in the bath CG scene, her boobs were pretty big for her petite frame even though the narrative stated her boobs being "smaller size for her age" (Wtf does that even mean?? She's a grown adult LOL). And suddenly in the sex CG her boobs are literally huge even though she's supposedly have lost weight during the course of the story. The CGs are otherwise aesthetically pleasing if you can ignore the booby problem.

This review is a bit rough for me to write because I usually love Ebihime's writing, but this visual novel is just awkward and made me snooze. All of this is of course just my opinion, so don't come at me please. I still love her even though this one was a disappointment.

''When everyone else is losing their head, it is important to keep yours'' - Marie Antoinette

It's interesting how ebi-hime approached this Visual Novel that's loosely based upon Marie Antoinette as, even though there are moments that refer to the events of the Revolution against King Louis XVI & Marie Antoinette that include the betrothing of the Royal marriage as well as actualities up to the finality of the French Royals in the 18th century, the central 2 characters of Liliane & Marcius are portrayed with their own identities throughout. I think this benefits the story as it allows the fantasy setting to be appreciated instead of critiqued against Antoinette's life since this creates characters based around the history rather than the real-life tragedy of the Queen.

This divide is important in the telling of this tale because it truly manages to capture the purpose of the title, End of an Actress by showing the reader the strong personality of Lilianne who strives in taking pride in her role albeit from a standpoint of her predetermined upbringing and obligations within the realms of Royalty. Lilianne comes across as strong-minded, abrupt, fearless and aloof while pride is her essential defence she doesn't suffer fools gladly.
Throughout her imprisonment with Marius, she never allows shame, fear, despair or control to weaken rather it is Marius who struggles with the traits of Lilianne leading to many personality clashes that often leave Marius perplexed in how to behave especially as he has an unfavourable attitude to Lilianne that is shared by the people of Artoire.

As the story progresses, the barriers of trust very slowly start to fall and, as letters bearing bad news of her loved ones appear, Lilianne's sadness, upset & remorse become visible as Lilianne's 'mask of nobility' cracks revealing the emotional side to her. Marius now has the dilemma of if to succumb to his original love for Lilianne (as seen at the introduction of the story) or does he remain firm knowing that to risk anything else other than his role of overseer could be disastrous for both of them.

These choices & directions appear as 5 branching choices throughout the story and, interestingly, each reflect a particular personality trait for Lilianne while revealing the choice of duty expected by Marius in his role as Captain. As the choices delve deeper into the interactions between Lilianne & Marius so too do the choices that open up and the direction available to take; whether it be ending the waiting game for Lilianne or if to pursue the potential for a love interest leading to further possibilities beyond Lilianne's doomed fate.

The Visual Novel is developed in Ren'Py with exceptional attention to graphics/CG Art including moments of nudity while the OST is glorious in its concerto sounds that feature 8 pieces including 1 vocal theme for the title End of an actress. There are multiple save slots and a skip, auto-play and transition to choices feature that is typical of Ren'py. Upon full completion of all 5 endings, there is an unlocked area in the menu showcasing the music, art and an extra memo.

It's definitely a more thematic visual novel by ebi-hime that is very detailed in its writing, some areas I found to be repetitive in the point being made while other areas I felt were micro-managed to prevent any change of mood or feeling within the choice routes chosen. The overall purpose that ebi-hime wished to portray was successful as this visual novel takes a perceived notion of society roles (particularly the one of Queen) and offsets it against the expectations of the residents of Artoire. It results in an interesting viewpoint of a biased, prejudged mentality that can arise during extreme struggles versus a birthright which is guided, shaped and formed into a role denying a true version of the real person - instead nobility forcing a role to be enacted under the guises of masks much like that of actresses.

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One of the major features of ebi-hime's writing is that she acknowledges the contradictory nature of most people and presents it to the reader in various compelling ways. The End of an Actress is all about the ambiguity of the roles, ideals and self-perceived motivations of its characters, and a relationship that fluctuates between fascination, hate and genuine love.

It focuses on just two characters and their interactions, but the dynamic between them makes for both an interesting period drama and a compelling, if inevitably tragic love story. It's definitely sad, with every possible outcome having its elements of melancholy, but I wouldn't call it depressing – Lilliane and Marcus are thrown into their positions by forces mostly outside of their control and, one way or another, have to make peace with their pasts and actions. The closer you get to the "best" ending, the more they'll understand each other and find some kind of closure, even though a conventional "happy end" is out of reach.

The setting is clearly based on the French Revolution, but fictionalized and this frees the characters from being just representations of historical figures. This, in my opinion, actually acts in the game's favour, as it's free to develop its own vision of the revolutionaries and the queen without unnecessary pretences at biographical correctness. This doesn't mean the period or references to the political situation the game offers ever feel contrary to its inspirations. Same goes for the art and music (both of excellent quality) which intensify the period-drama feel. I guess this is also where the slight otome vibe comes from – the reach environments and the handsome protagonist create a stylistic you'd usually see in those games, although it's Markus' perspective that dominates the game's narrative.

Do I have something negative to say about this VN? Not really. As most romance stories, it might get slightly cheesy by the end and I've spotted a few distracting typos, but overall, it's a great and well-put-together experience. I won't even hesitate to say it's one of the best VNs I've read in recent past and as long as its premise sounds like something you could even vaguely enjoy, give it a try – highly recommended!

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I liked this story a lot. I felt that the usage of basically a single room to tell a complex love story between two extremely well realised adult characters was very economical and gave it a real sense of place and purpose that's missing from a lot of longer visual novels. The palace and what it represents to both Liliane and Marius felt like as much as a character as they did themselves.

Presentation is great. Art and music are consistently beautiful throughout. If I have one small quibble it's that the CG art doesn't quite match how Liliane is described. Anyone who has seen the climactic romance scene can probably guess what I'm talking about.

Stories that focus on Marie Antoinette as a tragic figure who was unfairly vilified are nothing new, but the effort went to distancing Liliane from her historical counterpart really helped sell her story as something fresh and original while still paying homage to the inspiration and challenging the reader about their preconceived notions on women who have been unfairly treated by history.

While I did enjoy the last, and I would assume true, end, my favourite has to be the title drop ending. It was very true to Liliane's character as I read her, and the final CG is incredibly striking.

I would recommend this game to anyone interested in a drama about star-crossed lovers, but also more generally anyone looking for a short digestible story bursting with colourful prose and strong characterisation. You really can't go wrong here.

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The End of an Actress
Developer: ebi-hime
Publisher: ebi-hime

Pros:
Characters are well developed
Story is intriguingly tragic
Routes are thought out, gives a different emotion in their endings
Characters have unique personalities
Character art compliments well with their personality
Gorgeous artwork
Fitting design for UI, Menu, and other minor details
Subtle additions (sprites blinking, menu visuals changing) are always appreciated
Soundtrack is beautiful and enhances the experience

Neutral:
Short Story

Cons:
Narratives can make the reader feel idle at times

Conclusion:
With an intriguing tragic story, ebi-hime's "The End of an Actress" provides an emotional experience with its small cast of characters, gorgeous art, along with an amazingly powerful soundtrack.


Score: 9/10 OUTSTANDING

A sad love story about a beautiful princess who was perfect and never did anything wrong.