Sigh of the Abyss

Just finished this game it was amazing. Like a good book to indulge , but unlike a good book , you can replay and make different choices. This is why Visual Novels are such a great medium for story telling.

Beautiful art, but the tags and description are misleading: the protagonist isn't customizable, it's a specific woman - no alternative looks, no choice of pronouns, what you see is what you get.

A dark premise with the potential to be very lovely in its resolution. With many references to real life occult practises and to their terminology (even down to the spelling 'Magick') it offers a nice backdrop for these elements to be explored in a far more fantastical way. At times it borders on the surreal and has a hefty dose of historical themed angst such as the temperaments feature which includes: choleric, melancholic, sanguine, and phlegmatic which were real world terms for personality types first used by a 1st century Greek physician and continued through the Mediaeval periods in Europe. The story at times felt predictable in certain small-scale situations but the pull off of the ending is satisfying and can be a surprise still. The cast is also very good with the two main companions known as Sylas and Marané being complex and layered in their characterisations. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the game and have ran through it twice - the first playthrough took around 10/11 hours with the second playthrough being a lot quicker due to fast forwarding through certain dialogues I remembered well.

Like a dark fantasy, brought to life in blood, straight out of Da Vinci's notebooks. ETA: Better when read without voice acting, imo