Brilliant Shadows - Part One of the Book of Gray Magic

Typically, a visual novel has no gameplay, and this places an extreme burden on the narrative. Brilliant Shadows is crushed under this burden. Devoid of even the most basic attempts to emulate a medieval or feudal culture beyond cliche visuals and terminology, I couldn't help but think of cheap, printed-on Halloween costumes. The script lacks even a crumb of verisimilitude. Every other text box is laden with current dialogue or something so profoundly out of step with reality it could only be the product of modernity. Consider the absurdity of a political system where a democratic election would elevate someone with no social standing to the status of "King" and that said status would convey no political or social benefits to his family members. I think we are supposed to see this as a positive example of Enlightenment values safeguarding against corruption, but all I see is someone who has no idea how humans or societies actually function. I found the dubious anatomy of stuffing your torso with the magical organs of your victims to gain their powers more believable. The romance is also severely undercooked and the actual plot is rushed. This is called Part 1, but "Prologue" would …

If you're going into this expecting a charming lesbian romance, you'll be sorely disappointed. Yes, the main character is gay, and yes, there is romance, but it is far from the focus of the story. Think of this more as the standalone prologue to a fantasy epic.

Lovable characters, good writing, interesting story. 10/10

I'm this game's target audience. Like, ♥♥♥♥ yeah wanna play a lesbian necromancer! This game didn't really do it for me though. First, having the protagonist non-consensually kiss someone, not once but twice is... idk man. It doesn't really get looked at or examined as bad behavior either, it just kinda is. The plot didn't make much sense either. Some of it I'm sure is just because it's only a part of a larger series, but there are definitely plot-holes. Like, okay, Hector was a grey-mage. Why was that at all a surprise to the heads? Especially since they had a device that can check that kind of thing? A device which one of the characters specifically mentions as a reason why Hector couldn't be a grey mage? The game also tries and fails to do a strong theme around being lesbian. A good 90% of the problems the MC faces can be summed up as the VN vaguely gesturing to some unspecified homophobia that we never really see or experience. And, besides one instance of a straight girl being super weird around Ash (to be fair, straight girls behavior there was realistic in my experience) it's never really shown. Especially when the two heads of the school are both sapphic women. MC …

A pleasant surprise! I was gifted this game by a friend of mine who recommended it and I was glad to finally getting around to it. The story was really interested and it was carried by the wonderful characters. Hektor was my favorite but Ash was a close second. I actually relate to her a fair bit and her friendship with Belinda was very cute. The story handles it's romance aspect with Ash very well but I won't really spoil it. There's on line in particular when Ash is talking to a female guard near the end the resonated with me a lot and I actually use that concept a bit in my own writings so it was cool to see another story tackle the subject. Cute artstyle too! I highly recommend this short read (it has 3 differnt endings and a sequel I am looking forward to reading) Sadly I don't know what the devs are up to nowadays since they have not updated their social media in 2 years and the extras menu in the game links to a defunct site. I hope they are doing well and wish them the best!

I love playing Visual Novels, but haven't been able to get into them lately. This one grabbed me and pulled me in, though. loved the artwork, the characters, and the stories. I love VN's that have Voice Acting in them too, and it was well done too. I can recommend this VN.