It's very rare that something has me so immersed and invested that an entire Saturday almost disappears from my life without me noticing. This is only the first chapter but it's a lengthy one. As far as I'm concerned, it was a Saturday well spent.
Am I insane in thinking that a visual
novel, something with hundreds to thousands of lines to read, should be judged by how well written those thousands of lines are? As opposed to just how many times you can touch yourself to the pictures? Jezebel's writer seems interested in making its writing worth keeping your brain switch in the "ON" position. I certainly prefer it that way.
Jezebel is a story of a world of politics, manipulation and power often shaken up by deeply interesting and varied characters exerting their wills and influence in meaningful ways according to their situations, backgrounds and resources. It's largely believable and often makes efforts to keep its characters consistent with their established histories and traits while having them meet, interact and often clash creating juicy and satisfying drama.
I want to get into the details for the characters later. For now, I have to praise the ways the protagonist represents all that's good in this story. Duvessa is established from the start as the ambitious, ruthless and hyper-competent player who is going to shake the game and play it cutthroat with murder, lies and blackmail while not letting any of it come back to her. The ways she goes about it and the logic of the world, characters and schemes are taken into account and create obstacles she has to overcome with her charm, brains and money. Along the way, she provides her insights and opinions which reflect how interesting of a character she is, flaws and all.
I often found myself pleased to be able to trace an event's history and references back to previous scenes. Getting very fundamental here, but it's nice to be even able to say that about an adult VN when the standard generally seems to be to ignore everything except the current moment, breaking characters and plots in the process. Not that Jezebel is always perfectly consistent but it certainly does a far better job than the vast majority of other adult entertainment. All while telling a rather complex story with many names, places, alliances and conflicts. It gives me a little hope.
The choices. In some cases it can be difficult to tell how much they matter, with the story not being complete and many of the consequences being currently left up for future chapters to pay off. But they certainly were consequential enough to push me to spend several hours trying different choices to see the consequences. From different ways to deal with problems, to changing relationships with other characters, to changing the outcome of the "big event" at the end of this chapter, the choices are already important enough to make your save file feel unique. It seems there is enough care taken to allow the player to progress the story how they want, such as choosing which sexual encounters they go for or avoid where to spend money, while still requiring compromises to be made so that they can "win", preserving the stakes and seriousness of the world. Sex and money are, after all, tools in Duvessa's belt. Money is often the cleanest and most successful way to deal with a problem, but it obviously means spending a limited resource. It's an engaging dynamic as long as the consequences of many of the choices made here eventually bear fruit (or calamity) in later chapters.
Visually, it's far less impressive. By the dev's own admission, this VN currently uses AI generated backgrounds and it shows. The same generic glossy visuals you always find on AI art are very easy to spot for anyone who's seen enough of it. Hopefully the promise that these will be eventually replaced with hand drawn ones holds.
As for the hand drawn art, it's inconsistent. The images were clearly drawn by different artists with varying levels of skill and very disparate styles. It can be jarring when going from one to another and disappointing when the quality goes down. I know this is indie and a work in progress so this kind of thing is to be expected sometimes, but that doesn't stop it from being a little disruptive now.
As I write this, I keep reading this VN again not only to verify my information but also because I keep getting immersed in the story and thinking about it. I suspect I'll make another long post where I talk spoilers. I have so much more to say about the characters, events, choices and potential directions for them in future chapters. What I wrote here isn't precise enough to express what's so good about Jezebel.
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