Review of Tales Of Sanctaris Arcane 0.1 aka first release
Graphics 3/5
Honey Select 2 standard graphics. Decent, but there is no post-processing or light/lighting work, which sometimes causes ambient occlusion/shadows to cause strange effects, unlit areas, characters to look or look like strange shadows, etc.
Music and sound 2/5
There is. Nothing special, but it deserves some points for having them.
Animations 2/5
Abundant in the sex scenes. Half custom half standard. They serve their purpose and you see the sex acts aka penetrations.
Gameplay 2/5
The menus and UI are customized. There is a gallery of characters and scenes, well done and although sometimes it gave me some errors I'm not sure if it's because of the programming or because I used a mod to unlock the gallery. Menus, galleries and UI are clean with its elements ordered and you can move from one to another without problems. There are no bugs and you can read the text without problems, except when the color of the text interferes with the color of the image on screen (there is no text box). At the beginning it starts as a visual novel, with some choices that give some points on some character. You can even close the path of one of the girls. But the choices are very scarce and in the middle of the game they practically disappear, so it seems more like another kinetic novel with slight elements of visual novel. There is supposed to be humor, but it's more the typical stupid humor than humor. The scenes are too long, I've spent almost a whole morning reading text, and I've skipped quite a lot. If you remove about ¾ of the text, it would have been better. Leaving aside this detail, the gameplay in general was passable, with some ups and downs, until the childhood friend appears, which I'll talk about in the next point.
Plot 1/5
Typical plot half slice of life half school setting with elements of adventure and combat. The MC is the typical semi-useless guy in a kind of military or militarized police school. One of the worst students in the school, not because he's lazy or an idiot, but simply because he has no capacity for magic, combat, etc. There is a girl who is in love with the MC (or maybe not), and at the beginning it starts well, with the typical stupidity of the idiot boy who doesn't know that the girl is in love with him, etc. But when they start having sex the girl behaves more like a dominant bitch than a maiden in love. Before a goddess chooses the MC as the champion of her cause, so to speak, without knowing why, just as it is not known why they are predestined. Suddenly, the typical childhood friend appears, and the plot, which was already in trouble with the characters and the scenes, goes completely to shit. After a year of total disappearance, she suddenly appears, and in a confusion, unintentionally, kills the MC. While the MC is dead, the friend who is in love with the MC (supposedly) appears, they are now half engaged and have just had sex recently. Seeing the dead MC, she first attacks a friend who tries to revive the MC, then the killer. But it turns out that the killer, besides being the MC's childhood friend is also... the ex of the MC's half girlfriend. A former lesbian couple. They start fighting, the ex-girlfriend of the MC's half-girlfriend reduces her former partner, and while the friend tries to resurrect the MC... they say to each other “I love you”. I repeat: the childhood friend and the MC's half girlfriend. As some say, NTR and lesbianism. Among other worse things. On top of that they start talking to other people as if they were in the middle of a party, with the dead MC and no one is even sad. Meanwhile, the dead MC is with the goddess who has chosen him while she undresses in front of him, takes a shower while the MC is sitting on the toilet (shitting dead?), both in the same bathroom, seeing and hearing what is going on around the dead MC. After much stupidity and supposed humor, the MC finally resuscitates, saving the day. And to top it all off, despite the endless scenes and tons of text we don't know some critical plot points. Why has the goddess chosen a useless person? Why is there a group or sect that wants to kidnap the MC and take him alive but almost killed him? Among other things. I could go on, but I'm getting long.
Characters 1/5
With the exception of Nathaniel and some male members of the MC squad, they're all shit. Worst of all, the 3 worst characters are the 3 most important. The MC, useless and the perfect definition of the word “simp”. He is so simp to the friend that he literally spends half the game giving her a piggyback ride. The friend is a bitch to the MC who takes advantage of the fact that he is her simp to help her mend her broken heart when she gets dumped by a girlfriend... or boyfriend? Because it's not clear if she's bi or lesbian. It is also unclear how many boyfriends she has had, at least two, although it seems that there have been more. Come on, she gives the impression that she is half slut. In any case, she tries to dominate the MC in sex, so there is some femdom in the game. The childhood friend, another trash. She disappears for a year without saying anything to anyone, kills the MC hours after reappearing, and while he's dead says “I love you” to the girlfriend of the man she just killed. And this one tells her that she loves her too... The rest are either buffoons, or are not important to the plot, or have appeared too soon. But there are very few really to be spared.
Final thoughts
It started well, or at least I liked it. But as the hours passed, the endless scenes full of superfluous text and garbage characters, in the end I dislike it more than I like it. What is clear to me is that there are much better games with much better characters.
