Pale Carnations is on a completely different plane of existence compared to everything else on this site. TD writes circles around all of them. It’s like a Ferrari next to a soapbox derby car made of cardboard. A symphony orchestra next to toddlers banging on pots and pans. Mike Tyson next to a catatonic old man who can’t see and has no arms. If you value writing quality at all, forget any hesitations you have, you need to experience this.
One thing that’s sorely lacking in games on this site is intimacy, and Pale Carnations absolutely nails it. You’d think feel-good harem romance VNs would have an edge in that department, but they somehow miss the mark so hard compared to what I’ve seen here. I just tried one where you have your first sex scene with a girl, and afterwards, you’re just sitting on opposite ends of the couch barely acknowledging each other. You’re telling me that in a VN full of innocent girls hesitant to have sex, no one wants to cuddle or embrace or be close at all? And don’t even get me started on—
What’s that? I shouldn’t be ranting about other VNs? This is a Pale Carnations review? Oh... *ahem*. Anyway, I feel so much more connected to the characters here. And it’s not just within sex scenes. There are some really tender moments outside of that, like getting comforted by Mina as you rest your head in her lap, or hugging Veronica after a harrowing experience at the club. The characters feel real. They’re deep and complex and easy to fall in love with. Sure, there’s a bit of porn logic influencing their decisions, but what else would you expect from an AVN? There’s not an obvious best girl, either—they’re all so good that it’s hard to pick between them.
I appreciate the choices and story branching that Pale Carnations has, too. It’s not an insane amount like a couple of other VNs I like, but it’s nice to have, and the decisions feel impactful. Should you try to angle for a specific girl to win the competition? Is winning the trust of Kathleen worth indulging your worst desires and finding yourself becoming something you don’t like? The branching could be taken further, but to be fair, there’s also a balance to be struck between that and getting updates out. That’s just about the only writing-related element that this isn’t the best at. The prose, the dialogue, the plot, the characters—all brilliantly done.
Oh, and don’t think I forgot about you, GIL! I don’t know much about HS1, but whatever wizardry is going on here makes the visuals look significantly better than other VNs that also use it. The girls and the set pieces all look amazing, but you don’t really need me to tell you that—just see for yourself in the preview images. Beyond that, there’s a remarkable amount of attention to detail in the poses and expressions of the characters. You’ll see it a lot where most devs just phone it in and use the same few images back and forth in a conversation, but not in this VN. GIL does an incredible job bringing TD’s words to life—you really couldn’t ask for a better partner. The animations are very good too, but I think there’s some room for improvement there. I’d like to see more speed and force, and some well-timed slapping sounds would be nice.
Speaking of sound, the tracks are decent and they set the mood pretty well, but they’re probably the weakest part of Pale Carnations considering how good everything else is. That’s more a consequence of budget than anything else, though. I’m sure if these guys could afford licensed tracks, they’d do a great job picking them.
I don’t ever post anything on this site, but in this one case, I just had to. Thank you for this masterpiece, TD and GIL.
