VN - Unity - Arisen - Chronicles of Var'Nagal [v0.2.10.6] [Maratus, Homecoming Studio]

TL/DR: Excellent character focus, transcendent art, unique game system, poor sexual preference bottle-necking, and lack of QoL make this a frustrating yet brilliant title. Game would be far more enjoyable if you are bisexual so you can enjoy all of these well written romances and not just 2 in a play-through.

Pros:
~Art. Wow! Just wow! The card art in particular just dazzles!
~Character writing was good
~Quests and relationship quests were all quite unique and carried good narrative with them

Cons:
~ As a hetero-man this game did a bad job of insulating me from gay-vibe I was not interested in picking up. Lots of jacked shirtless dudes running around and hitting on me. It'd be fine if there was a easy way to opt out of that content- but it was extremely difficult to know what card choices were just being friendly / a good person vs what card choices would end with you getting licked by a giant lizardman who goes on to wax poetic about how soft your skin looked. Not sure what the best solution to that is- but in an ideal world you could choose what genders the NPCs were or simply opt out of their sexual vibe early and clearly into their routes.

~Autosave and quicksave slots sharing a save slot is an issue- especially with no manual save slots. Let us SAVVEEEEEEEEEEEEEE please!

Neutrals:
~I would have liked to have more customization options on character creation. Such as a taller, fatter, or stronger build.
~It was more than a little unclear how to get additional emotion card options.

First things first, the art is grand! I loved every location and character and world atmosphere. The story also started as something serious, even a bit grim.
Yet it turned out a little disappointing. It's somewhat weird to see modern tolerance among characters who seem to live in quite conservatives society, resembling medieval Arabia or northern Africa, built upon slavery and species inequality. I don't really criticize the writing, I liked it, it is more about lore and phycology things.
It was really interesting to have some truly "dark" options like standing for slavery and obedience, or throwing a cruel intolerance into a character face. It was strange though, that I was able to progress Rahis story after putting her into total misery during the very first quest. I really think some spicy choices may have more meaningful consequences like losing options to progress characters story, because they hate your protagonist.

Fantastic game, honestly.
Pros:
Art and design are on another lvl. No, seriously, the art alone would be able to carry out this game.
Great writing and dialogues. it really hit well on the feelings of uncertainty and danger when it is needed, safety and love when it is there.
Amazing characters. Great personality on the making them really unique and likable or not but in all the right ways.
cards feelings are a nice and great touch. I loved how it progress to determine your character's personality and unlock new ones.

Cons.

Still working on translations so some dialogues may feel weird, and the pronouns still get wrong sometimes, etc.
Huge con. Igweneil is straight so I can't romance her with my female character. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

While I generally like games that have more of a... well, gameplay focus, this one has fantastic art and a setting that very much appeals to me. I don't really see how you could fit solid gameplay in here, so I feel like it is destined to be more of a visual novel-type thing. But maybe that's fine.

I really, really enjoy the focus on the main character's thoughts and personality as presented through the reaction or emotion card system. The unlocking of the cards and the way the character develops is a little bit obscure, but I am sure there will be more accessible information and hints added in-game if the development of the game continues.

The overall story structure and writing are decent, but it feels like there might be some jumps in the pacing and rhythm. While I guess this is to some extent unavoidable due to the travel system that lets you choose which character to progress, and the fact that the passage of time is represented in text of varying detail, I still think there might be some clarifications and extensions made to how the character adjusts to his or her daily life, and how his or her relationship with the characters portrayed is like outside of the "exceptional" circumstances of the missions and such events.

An adult game that very much interests me, mainly due to the scenario and focus on the mental development of the main character. It feels a bit pricey considering the book-like nature of the content, but on the other hand, the quality of the assets is in my opinion very high.