Tried this game based on art alone.
To begin, it's very much a visual novel. The choices and player interaction are few and far between. That's clearly how it was designed to be, but you definitely have to be in a mood to have a story focused experience instead of a gameplay focused one.
The art speaks for itself. It's incredible. They have even taken the attention to detail to make the characters all very different heights. It's a subtle choice, but very detail oriented.
The dialogue is also really good. It's obviously a fantasy game and there can be a temptation to emulate something like classic fantasy dialogue which is a weird mishmash of olde english and modern english. Thankfully, the writer(s) avoided that - the dialogue is very much modern, eminently readable and very funny at times. It should be noted again that dialogue is the primary focus of this VN and as a result, you'll find yourself reading a lot of it.
My major criticism is there are just too many plotlines/scenes with characters of which the player has zero control over and can be at times superfluous. Think ASOIAF, but Martin clearly played with the idea of the unreliable narrator. In this VN, each scene is straightforward and simply presented so there is not nearly as much nuance. As a result, you'll find yourself following plotlines which you may not necessarily care about and really, at times, don't even need to see. Show don't tell is the old writing axiom, but to see everything that is happening from the perspective of an outside observer can make you kind of ambivalent about what's happening. Who is this guy? Who cares? His scene will be over in a minute and other than some incredibly minor character development, the scene itself offers nothing to the story.
Overall, the good outweighs the bad by far, but it is a very specific kind of experience and if you're looking for a porn (or choice!) heavy game, this ain't it. It is, however, a really good story with great world building, mostly interesting characters and fantastic art.
