Sigh of the Abyss

I've played through the game twice now, and I can confidently say it's probably the best visual novel I've ever played. The story is fascinating, the characters are intriguing, and I absolutely love the artstyle. I also love that the developer is super receptive to bug reports, I put in one not thinking it would even be seen (and frankly the bug required a pretty niche case) but lo and behold within a day the patch notes dropped to fix that bug. Amazing developer.

What first cought my eye before buying this game was the artstyle and it definitely didn't disappoint. I love the unique look this game has and it really stands out with art alone but when buying it to play before bedtime on my steam deck I was not prepared for this to become my absolute favourite visual novel. All the characters were so well written, it really felt like they were people with their own problems and lives. The story was very compelling and never felt like I was railroaded into anything. The voice acting was really nice, even if the whole thing isn't voice acted it's very helpful to be able to put a voice to the text even when just reading, I wish more visual novels did that. My personal favourite character was Sylas, she just kinda clicked with me and during her romance route even more so. Rascal Devworks thank you for making this.

I'd had this on my wishlist for a long time before I finally picked it up, and ended up enjoying it a lot more than I'd expected. The writing and characterization are pretty good, and the art and character designs are appealing. I like the almost oil-painting style of it. The storyline is decently long. There are some interesting ethical dilemmas to parse, especially closer to the endgame. I appreciated the ability to toggle the main character's interest in romantic partners and also that the resulting flirting-type conversation options were marked as such. The ways to solve problems (or not) can vary between playthroughs as you select which sort of abyss power to focus on, or which characters you've befriended/helped along the way. It flows fairly smoothly and I don't think I felt stuck in any of the four times I played. Also (and this is I guess more of a personal thing) I was worried about playing a woman-coded character in a fantasy-past setting, but it was fine. The main character doesn't necissarily read as cis-femme and the setting doesn't have a great deal of misogyny built into the cultures depicted which was honestly refreshing. So if "playing as a woman" usually b…

Beautiful art and an interesting story, with lots of choices and role playing opportunities. I was initially worried that this was a "one bad choice dooms you" game, but my experience proved otherwise in the end. I rarely felt i had to compromise the personality i had envisioned for the protag to progress through conversations, which is a problem i often have with rpgs. Ive only done Ascanio's route so far, but if theirs is any indication of the quality of the rest, this is a top shelf otome to be sure.

Sylas is the cutest. 10/10

Good game lots of meaningful choices