The Gilded Lady: Life and Love in a Cyborg Shop

About the Game

The Gilded Lady is a sci-fi otome/ vn about technology, society, and an individual's place within them.

Play as Eliza Clemens, a cyborg mechanic (name and appearance customizable), living day-to-day in one of the few remaining cities on Earth. As climate collapse and disease have reshaped society, Eliza's shop, The Gilded Lady, installs cybernetic replacement limbs for sufferers of Neo-leprosy, a devastating redux of that old end-of-days affliction.

But the fragile balance that keeps life survivable is suddenly upset by a technological breakthrough. And Eliza must choose who to face it with.

ROUTES

• Alex Thompson
  Eliza has worked side-by-side for several years with her funny, dependable assistant and protégé, Alex Thompson. They've both been content with this arrangement until he is confronted with suffering that just not profitable for the free market to alleviate. What is the right balance of generosity and self-preservation in a world that is indifferent to both?  

• Casey McKenzie
  Casey McKenzie has been Eliza's best friend since grade school. She's always been heady and philosophical, which is a common affliction among the well-educated in a world with colossal technology dependence and abysmal birth rates. But, to her surprise, Casey finds herself among that narrowing demographic of women who get pregnant naturally. Will Eliza join her as a platonic co-parent and confront the last and greatest un-automatable problem?

• Alma De La Mer
  Even as she's grown up, Eliza never completely left behind her love of all things bold, wild, and dangerous. Alma De La Mer, the fiery queen of the scavengers, is just that. Alma wants to leave the safety of the walled city to build egalitarian, self-sustaining communities built on the sweat of her followers' brows. But will the cost of freedom be worth it? 

FEATURES

• Branching narrative with multiple endings

• Romance and platonic life-partner routes

• Customizable protagonist (name and skin tone)

• Touch UI mode

• Adjustable dialog settings

• Dyslexia-friendly font option

• Optional curse-word censoring

CONTENT NOTES

This game depicts relationships between consenting adults, including non-explicit sexual encounters (not visually depicted). One route contains themes of violence and death in a bad ending. Another route features extended philosophical discussion in accessible language.