Zyondyne
Scholar
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2019
- Messages
- 103
MINI-REVIEW
Game came out only a few days ago, and although it's not some sort of gaming revelation, not even by visual novel standards, it honestly surprised me. Why, you'll ask. Because it's way more competent than I expected for what could be considered a lewd game. And I don't usually play lewd games, but this is something like 2/3 serious game and 1/3 lewd game. Objectively better than other "serious" visual novels such as Vampire The Masquerade: Coteries of New York - for multiple reasons which I'll explain in the review.
You "play" a greedy assassin sort of figure who saved a princess by chance and hoped to line up his pockets after finding out who she was. Being a mercenary, after being declared a hero of the kingdom but not considering this enough, you started doing side-jobs for a lich wishing to conquer the kingdom. Which actually happened with the protagonist's help and now you're his henchman and he's the ruler.
Its atmosphere and storytelling reminds me the most of The Life And Suffering of Sir Brante (another recent russian-made grimdark visual novel) but with a little more magic (and way more nudity). And honestly way better art.
PROs
- Decent story for what it is. A lot of violence, cynicism, political intrigue, battle and strategies are described in detail, especially towards the ending. It's not a porn parody game, it takes itself relatively serious when not porny and sex is really not as gratuitous or frequent as it could be.
- Beautiful art. Some frames are drawn like they've been taken straight out of some D&D guidebook/metal album artwork.
- Dialogue isn't atrocious and is relatively palatable in multiple parts. It's not porny or especially cringey when it's supposed to be serious.
- Multiple endings/paths which are actually fairly different
- You can die a lot and also fail quests without game over. For example, there are missions where your success or survivability is decided by the equipment or the companion you pick.
- The portraits are actually way more decent than what I saw in modern CRPGs (looking at you, Encased), could be extracted and used in a portrait pack
- Necromancy, liches are among its most used themes, which is a personal plus for me
- Sounds and music are decent, they fit the atmosphere
- You can save at absolutely any point and go back to undo your changes and experiment, if you wish
- Made by russians (big surprise, not really)
- Some humor can be cringey, especially when the porn parts happen
- Not everything that's being described has art, sometimes another thing will be described but a black screen will happen or you'll be stuck to the same picture. A budget problem more than anything else but it's neither super distracting nor frequent. Saw this in visual novels with way more higher budget.
- Art is beautiful but is not really consistent, some would say. Dynamic scenes are drawn in more of a sketchy/comic book like style (as you'll see in the gallery of images) while static scenes are usually painting like and more detailed. Not really a huge problem for me and artistically it makes sense sometimes. Sometimes.
- Music is limited and it sometimes stops, more ambient music would have been nice
- Multiple endings are fairly different, but they're decided by 3 big visible stats represented by icons (A glass of wine - depraved reputation, A ship with full sails - neutral reputation/mercenary reutation, A halo over your head - good reputation). These are of course influenced by how you react in dialogue and most of the time it's fairly easy to predict which is which.
- Ultimately it's a pretty bare-bones visual novel, with not much gameplay, but it has a secret ending and several multiple endings which increases replay value. Path variety and choices are still way more complex then other visual novels with bigger budgets and big publishers (I'm looking at you, VTM visual novels and Paradox Interactive).
It's actually some sort of sequel for another game, but you don't have to play that, the intro will tell you absolutely everything you need to know. And this one has way higher production values, if you ask me, but you're free to do as you wish.
All in all, not an unpleasant experience and not long enough to be boring. The art is most definitely its highest quality and the setting its second. Grimdark + debauchery/nudity. Now I don't play/read visual novels often, but it's not really a common combination in my experience. Expected a cringe porn game, found an actually decent visual novel where lewdness is a secondary objective. Soft recommendation.
Portraits examples
Screenshots/Artwork gallery
PS 1: For those of you, filthy degenerates, who only want to know what some the sex art looks like, I've got you covered too.
PS 2: To stop this discussion before starting, there are no explicit gay sex scenes in the game, only lesbian ones. No transsexuals or such thing, there isn't any SWJ comment at all. This is the developer's stance.
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