Ren'Py - Completed - Sanguine Rose [v4.1] [DuskyHallows]

The art of this game is so stunning that the moment I saw it, I knew I had to play it, and wow, I’m glad I did. I just wrapped up another playthrough of it and I’m still blown away. It’s one of those games that sneaks up on you in the best way. I went back to chase an ending I’d missed, and it’s wild how drastically things change based on just a few choices.

On paper, the setup sounds simple: you’re Roman, a mercenary who helped kidnap the magnetic and terrifying General Carmen Valentine, now stuck in a snowbound village with a captive who’s far more dangerous emotionally than physically. But the game turns that one-room tension into something addictive, a fascinating mix of power struggles, desire, and very human mistakes. The writing is sharp, dark, and deliberate. Carmen herself is one of the most compelling antagonists I’ve ever seen: manipulative, intoxicating, and always a step ahead. Watching her play Roman and his crew is a tense, edge-of-your-seat experience. Markus, Glasha, and Crow aren’t just filler characters either, they’re fleshed out with unique motivations and personalities, and seeing how they each react to Carmen’s mind games is half the fun.

In my opinion, this game is truly unique. It combines stunning 2D art, strong writing, and bold, sexy power dynamics in a way that’s incredibly rare. The art style is absolutely gorgeous, with a distinct, hand-painted vibe that feels like a breath of fresh air compared to everything else out there. Duski’s artwork really stands out, the CGs and sprites have texture and personality, and some pieces look like finished paintings. It’s not a polished AAA style, and a few frames are a bit rougher, but that actually adds charm. It feels handcrafted rather than mass-produced, which makes the world and characters come alive. The sex scenes are also worth noting because they’re not just thrown in for shock value, they’re fully integrated into the narrative. The game doesn’t shy away from kink-heavy material either, and if that’s your thing, it absolutely delivers. Sanguine Rose is so much more than just a visual novel, it’s a genuine mind game.

If there’s one downside, it’s that the game is short, but the replay value completely makes up for it. Choices branch into wildly different routes, each with unique endings, and the epilogues tie everything up beautifully. A single run may be brief, but between five distinct endings, multiple variations, and over 100k words of dialogue, there’s plenty to dig into. The gallery and Lost Chapters content add even more to hunt for, making every replay feel like uncovering a new layer.

Bottom line: Sanguine Rose is short but potent. It’s a beautifully hand-crafted visual novel that respects your choices, rewards exploration, and delivers a story that’s tense, sexy, and unforgettable. If you like morally complex stories, compelling villains, and gorgeous art wrapped in an erotic VN package, this game is absolutely worth your time.

3.5*
For a quick/short game, its pretty good. The quality of the art and writing is well above average for a AVN, even with this one being almost a decade old.

The reason 3.5* instead of higher is the ending is a bit abrupt, the player choices dont always have logical consequences, and the possible ending outcomes are limited

A fantastic story with great artwork, writing, and worldbuilding. The art is truly some of the best I've seen in any AVN and it remains unique (rather than falling back on the anime style). The writing is great, with few to no typos and keeps me invested in the original story. Even without the porn I would enjoy the story told here. Plus the porn was well integrated into the story, so there were no hard transition between smut and non-smut allowing it to flow much better overall.
There were also a variety of branching paths, each with unique scenes and ending which I greatly enjoyed. There were maledom, femdom, romance, and quasi-Harem paths among others, none of which felt forced (although the game tends towards femdom under the protagonist overall due to its nature). In fact, playing through different paths felt natural and helped expand the world building. There are five VERY different epilogues you can find and the easiest ones to get to are also the most disappointing (which seems to be on purpose btw). As with any replayable branching path AVN parts do get samey, but they are easy to skip and you can reread if you want/forget lore.
All in all, a superb AVN and one that can certainly be used as a model of AVN done right by devs going forward.

An absolute masterpiece! The gameplay is flawless, the story is gripping, and the visuals are stunning. Every aspect of the game is carefully crafted, offering an unforgettable experience. A must-play!

The only good thing about this game is the unique art style. Otherwise, it's just a game that doesn't make sense right from the very beginning and it's hard to get invested in its idiotic plot and characters. A group of 4 people have captured a high ranking, highly dangerous person. Instead of treating her as the highly dangerous person she is, no one binds or gags her like you would do in almost any kidnapping scenario. Instead, she is free to walk anywhere in that cellar of hers with almost no restriction as is shown in the very beginning of the game where she chokes out the protagonist and binds him. Even after such an incident, no one in the group thinks it's a good idea to bind her or gag her to keep her from talking. Instead, the cast just makes dumb decision after dumb decision and allow themselves to be manipulated by this person. It's completely baffling and your choices don't really lead to anywhere but making dumb decisions.

"Sanguine Rose" is a short one-shot visual novel published by a couple duo Dusky and Hallows. It has limited information about the setting, is set in a single location, has a small number of characters, and the events happen over a short time frame, but it is a beautiful and very enjoyable experience nonetheless.

The art is truthfully the very first thing people will notice upon launching the game. In the age of 3D renders and AI art, beautiful hand-painted sprites and CGs of SR are a breath of fresh air. There is some inconsistencies between the art, where sometimes the linework is sharp and precise, while other times it is more abstract, but that is absolutely forgivable, because the game always look gorgeous. The sprites are very expressive, and the sex scenes look hot as hell. And there are plenty of kinks to explore in this VN: bondage, public sex, sub/dom dynamics and various forms of seduction.

The game is not heavy on plot, and takes just and hour and a half to complete once, but it has quite a few different endings, and in order to finish them all ad average player will take 8-9 hours. Unfortunately, the variety of endings is probably my main disappointment about the game, as when it comes down to it, only four of the endings are truly distinct, while others are just variations with minor differences.

After fully finishing the game I craved a more extensive look at this world, and the characters within, but that is not possible anymore, because the couple that has made the game has broke up and took the studio down with them, so we will never have a continuation or another game in the same setting. They did release a small DLC, called "Lost Chapters" that adds three small unlockable scenes to the game. And while they don't have any particular impact on plot, I found at least one of these scenes very arousing, due to its BDSM nature.

I think that "Sanguine Rose" is a shortie definitely worthy of attention, if you are not a 3D-fag and don't expect a game heavy on plot, but heavy on very hot sex and steamy teasing.

[Full review is available here]

Good art, good characters. But it's a corruption game. You can't make any reasonable choices. Get corrupt or die. Which kind of defeats the purpose of the game altogether. Why play if there is only one way to play it?
After trying a couple runs, all I feel is that I wasted my time.
A part from feeling dirty, I also just feel bad for everyone involved with the crazy prisoner.
Can't recommend. I hate this game and I don't understand why it's so highly rated.

everything about this game is a masterpiece. the villain is very masterful at manipulation. it's one of the few AVNs that makes the characters feel real and not just hollow shells meant to be fucked. i would recommend it for people that love to read erotic novels because it feels very reminiscent of them.

Excellent character writing where the villain really feels unpredictable and like she's toying with you personally.

Also extremely hot, with the different girls appealing in their own ways. Both the writing and illustration add to the experience.

Very short game but with several very different playthroughs that branch early so I do recommend going back several times.

I honestly hate this game. The art is amazing, the scenario is compelling, but ultimately it's a game about making decisions that consistently refuses to let you make good decisions. I keep finding myself drawn into the game of cat and mouse with carmen, but no matter what choices I make, eventually the game will force me to do something idiotic and the entire experience crumbles down. I fucking hate this game because I want to love it so much, but all that potential just keeps falling apart in front of me the more I play.

Story got me hooked. Worldbuilding was great. A perfect villain that you loved to hate. Sex scenes felt more natural than most games. Not a high bar, but still worth mentioning. There are a few endings with variations, each are pretty different but the path to get there isn't super divergent. Really only a handful of choices lead you along. Short game so I think it's not a problem.

For the most part, the art was fantastic. There were a few times where it looked early draft or just incomplete though. For the most part it was VN standard, but there are two sections where you have to click on character, once at the very beginning and halfway through the game. I'm not sure why they could not have been just dialogue options. They tried to do some parallax scrolling for these sections and it really did a disservice to the art. Nitpicky, but for a game this short it really doesn't need extra frills that add nothing.

LOVE THIS GAME. ONE OF THE FIRST GAMES I STUMBLED ACROSS. HIGHLY RECCOMEND FOR EVERYONE TO CHECK IT OUT. I'M VERY EXCITED AND CAN'T WAIT FOR THEIR NEW PROJECT TO COME OUT SO THAT I CAN PLAY THAT ONE AS WELL!

the game is rich in content. The artwork and story were very good. there are many endings and the slight decisions can change the whole game. I would definitely recommend using a walkthrough to get all the scenes and ending. I really liked the game and deffinitly would recommend it to others. great work developers and keep up the good work.

Gameplay: A “choose between two options” visual novel. However, there are a few moments when it suddenly change to a point and clicker. This would be great if there was some kind of reason to do so, but all of those scenes could have just used the regular mechanics just as easily. Uniqueness just for the sake of uniqueness isn’t good game design.

Writing: Pretty good, many ending variations.

Art: Good stylized 2d.

Audio: Occasional sound effects and music.

short but really good, lots of replayability although I feel happy with my ending, very nice art and multi-layered dialogues. I felt this story just started rolling when I reached the end but since its an incredible amount of work I can understand why it has to end where it does

Amazing game. At first I thought it was abit short, until I started exploring the other choices you get. For once, the choices actually matter. Great sex scenes, great story, amazing artwork. Cant wait to see what this developer comes with next.

What a masterpiece, I really got into the game. Drawing are amazing, the ambiance is immersive, you choose the kinks you want by choosing what you are doing. And the story is nice aswell ! I would definitely recommend it to anyone who read this

i really enjoyed the art
but i hated that the game is story heavy but i guess there is people that enjoy that
i enjoy more the sex scenes and they felt few and far in between
i liked carmen so much then crow for sure

Overall, this is a great game. The story is well told and your choices do have consequences in how things play out. The Art is definitely much higher quality than what you'd see in your average game. Also important in my opinion is the fact that it is consistent.

My main gripe is that there is a lack of certain scenes with certain characters, and to the dev's credit he does admit this. Overall, I give it a 4.5/5.

I hate to do this but I can't give this a higher score. I'd go so far as to say my personal experience with this is 2/5.

The second biggest issue with this story is the main cast themselves. The biggest issue, however, is carmen.

This is not a "helpless girl you kidnapped and is at your mercy" game. This is not a "stockholm syndrome" game. This is kidnapping a female James Bond game.

She might actually have the title of Queen of the mary sues for this site. She's got the body of a 18 year old, a legendary commander in battle, keeps her cool under any circumstance, and is a master manipulator.

The main cast is just laughable idiots by comparison. Crow is the main love interest of the main character. She's got a submissive personality and the rest of the gang encourage you to go for her. So what happens? You let your most loyal member of the gang watch over Carmen for one-two days before she completely betrays you and becomes Carmen's sex slave. Check out the preview pics for this game.

Are you guys registering this? The main cast is so laughably dumb they decide not to gag the captive, instead allow the captive to have private conversations with each individual. Keep in mind, this is a politically connected war genius. The only real question was how did the mc actually manage to kidnap and bind her?

If you rape her she'll laugh at you and talk about killing you. She didn't even care when a dozen orc pirates raped her. It doesn't matter. She can't be broken, but every member of your team including you can.

Unless you follow a guide you're probably not gonna convince the people who respect you into staying loyal to you.


Overall I would not recommend this game because, although the politics and art is good, the segment we get to enjoy from the world is not. The writing requires characters to make dumb decisions and become puppets for Carmen to control.