VN - Unity - Completed - Sigh of the Abyss [v17] [Rascal Devworks]

I got this on Steam and this is one of my favorite visual novels. It has great length, decent and at times heavy choices, a lot of variety and secrets that you have to explore until the very end. I never felt that my time was wasted in this novel and the two female LIs are easy to love and offer rewarding dating and relationship sequences (there are male LIs too but I haven't played those paths).

You know, I mainly play visual novels because I want to feel organic growth and development both in the plot as such and within the characters I (have to) interact with. And this novel does a really good job of portraying that. I "felt" my relationships and thought about them for a bit after my playthrough was complete. And I also felt that their paths smoothly tied into the greater narrative. If you enjoy a dark fantasy story with magic and high stakes that makes you question what could have been had you made a different set of choices, this is for you.

If I HAD to make a critical point for the sake of it I would say that some endings are a bit low key, low tension. They rather phase out instead of going with a bang. But for me it's all about the journey and that is definitely worth it.

Don't play this game because you'll be sad when it ends - it's just that good, the world building and lore, the mechanics and branches, really just that immersive that you'll sink hours into playing it.

Not to mention the beautiful artwork; this is no Rascal, but a master at work. Congrats, and keep on producing more top notch games!

Very well written, with very pretty art.
Very minor proofreading lapses, but that shouldn't mar the work. The worldbuilding is exquisite, and doesn't (to recycle a meme) insist on itself. The choices you pick do matter, and things aren't always easy to predict where they're going. My main disagreements with it are that it's not punishing enough: it has skills, but they seem to be afraid to lock you out of content if you lack specific skills, so many choices allow you to try for two or even all three skills at once, with relatively similar (though not always identical) results. It feels slightly difficult to fail, which is unfortunate, but the game itself is good enough that you're not left bitter about it.

Lost a whole evening to this!

I haven't played the DLC version I'm sure, since the one I did certainly didn't have much in the way of adult content at least. But that didn't even matter.

Sigh of the Abyss is imo a masterpiece! Except I can't even say exactly why, it just is. Visually beautiful, it also has fantastic sounds and music, an exceptionally good pacing, very well written story which grabs and holds you invested throughout... and ofc wonderfully written characters. But more than that there's something unintangible, something about how the mature style and writing, the mythical lovecraftian elements and mystery somehow manage to come together into something more than the sum of its parts.

I absolutely have to recommend this to anyone interested in a genuine quality VN experience! <3

Without a doubt one my favorite games of 2024 and I do not say that lightly.
The art brilliantly captures the Renaissance feel of the world which is belivable and full of life, the characters while kinda troupey at first prove to have depth beyond surface level and I love the way wordbuilding is served like a 4 corse meal at a high resturant . The Game f does suffer from that Bioware problem a little where your clicked responce does not really line up with how you expect the character to act but thats more of an issue with the way the game presents choices than the character herself. Speacking the powers the mc gets and way they fit into the narrtive is pretty cool and the game deftly allows you choose to be more human or super human should feel that way.

As the sexy its there but it aint the focus and its certainly not where this game shines there are damm serious proper Adult themses in in this game and I would reccommed it to anyone whose looking to drop into a instresting low fantasy world

Sigh of the Abyss feels like a world bible turned demo that someone worked on in an inspired frenzy until they realized they had to make the rest of the game and quickly ran out of enthusiasm and ideas. The beginning feels fleshed out. Interactions are fulfilling, until about a third of the way through, then scenes begin to feel like the writer's half finished chore. Pacing is nonexistent as the story will repeatedly slam on the brakes so you can walk from one scene to do nothing to another scene to also do nothing. There is an unnatural aversion to any sort of genuine conflict or pay off in this. Endings are bland and anticlimactic despite the apocalyptic/revolutionary tone.

As for romance, it feels like a weak and tacked on afterthought. I imagine the female love interests fare better as you spend the most time with them and their character development is more closely tied to the plot of the story, but for the men, attraction is anemic at best, nonsense at worst. You don't even see one of the male love interests until well into the middle of the game and at that point your choosing him is based entirely on one or two short conversations.

For a dev who has made sexually explicit games in the past, this one seems embarrassed by any kind of physical contact. For example, some fetishes are brought up in Malec's route but the way it's expressed is a toothless afterthought. That same route, it's implied (not directly mentioned) that you've slept with him several times but only get his kiss CG at the very end of the game which is an interesting choice to say the least. There are otome/amare games that handle these things with confidence, even if employing a fade to black scheme, so this isn't a problem with the genre itself, but rather the writer.

I imagine, pitted against the average nukige on this website, the writing will seem sophisticated. But if you spend any time playing story-heavy or otome VNs, this will feel like eating a creampuff someone forgot to fill. The first bite will be fine, but soon you'll find out just how hollow it is.

I could say all what I ever say, about story, plot, flow, yada yada, but no, this time you must focus on one thing, and one thing only: The art. Damn, this game is so artistic, that for a moment I forgot this is a porn game. A great art, and a great work of the dev. Simple play this game to enjoy, don't go holding your dick.
5 start!