Sword Daughter

I understand this is an adaptation of an old "choose your own adventure" book. I LOVED those in the 80s! So coming from this mindset and with the beautiful graphics and soundtrack they put this in, I will give it a "thumbs up". Otherwise you might be disappointed because it is very short and some scenes/changes in feeling come very abruptly. You can't really compare it to a modern VN, so keep that in mind!

Honestly for any faults the game may have in regards to pacing, characterization, etc- the fact that it's a faithful adaptation of a 1980's gamebook makes most of those complaints irrelevant. It truly feels like an old-school choose-your-own-adventure RPG, there were no attempts to modernize or change the story; it is what it originally was, and I respect and appreciate that. I bought this game because it was on sale and tagged as an otome, and I guess it TECHNICALLY is? (for the most part every good ending has you actively beginning a romance with Gavin), but if you're looking for some deep, romantic visual novel plotline this isn't it. If you're looking for 'basic, cute romance with handsome elf' then you'll be satisfied.

Sword Daughter is an older E-Book from 2015, itself a "remaster" of a 1980's Choose Your Own Adventure style book. It's a venerable 10 years old at the time of this review. Sword Daughter is not a game, it's an e-book that's been dumped on Steam masquerading as a game. As a visual/interactive novel, this doesn't feature any notable gameplay, it's just a lot of clicking through short passages of rather mediocre "sword & sorcery" 1980's pulp writing. The original CYOA book this is derived from never reached the same levels of popularity as Jackson and Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy game books, or the official Choose Your Own Adventure branded books, either. This somewhat mediocre re-imagining of the E-book doesn't improve things... heck, even the art assets are delivered poorly at just 480p resolution. It's 2025, guys. Come on. 1992 called, they want their graphics resolution back. Visual novels/e-books are tedious at best... imagine the best novel you ever read, be that Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy or 2001: A Space Odyssey or Twilight (if you have terrible taste in literature), but then translate that to a format where the words dribble out and you have to click your mou…

I fought like a viking but died from pixel wind - even my cat covered its eyes with a paw.

It's cleary a product of its time. The plot had some very questionable parts (specially on the romance portion), but overall was fine. The art is nice.

So, the reviews are quite accurate: it's full of cringeworthy scenes ([spoiler]most of the times it's out of nowhere kissing[/spoiler]) But the art is good, and some routes are quite enjoyable. So, by the end of it I'm pleased The game would have been 100% better if [spoiler]the romance wasn't forced, or just wasn't present at all. I swear you just need to swap kissing scenes for hugging / cheering and it's done[/spoiler])