Garden of Seif: Chronicles of an Assassin

I hope this review is taken as constructive criticism and not negativity... I really wanted to love this game. The art style is lovely and the initial plot and characters seemed intriguing. The attempt at world building was also pretty cool. But man. The story execution was highly disappointing. The writing was confusing. It started off decent, but after I entered the scorpion route chapters... I just couldn't get through it. It was frustrating. I'm usually pretty forgiving when it comes to small missing story aspects here and there. I just couldn't get past it here. The progression made no sense, and several times I was left reviewing the history, trying to see if I just missed something. I'd be happy to give it another shot in the future, if the writing is revised.

[i]“You are enough. Never make the mistake of thinking otherwise just because a man, or woman, is unable to love you.”[/i] -Dust Hunter [h2]Plot[/h2] Zalstar, a mostly desert landscape, is the continent where our heroine, Iris Lapis lives. Iris is secretly an assassin and is on a mission to take out the culprits that were involved in the murder of her boyfriend. Her main target is Venom, who was presumably the one to kill her boyfriend. She begins to work as a dancer at a pub just outside of Nohiria’s walls, the nation she lives in. It is here that she begins to cross off the names on her hitlist, which consists of Imperial assassins. Nothing is easier than when your target is inebriated and has the reaction time of a sloth. It is at this job, that she meets the two love interests, Seth and the Dust Hunter. Both of these men claim that they want to help her and keep her safe from the league of assassins that are coming after the bounty that has been placed on her. Of course, both are equally suspicious. Trusting them will not be easy. [h2]Characters[/h2] Iris Lapis: Our MC. Just your average twenty-something who totally isn’t an assassin and does totally normal twenty-something a…

TL:DR; Garden of Seif: Chronicles of an Assassin is the kickstarter-backed, debut title of Foxdrift Studios and it was released on October 4th, 2023; and like any good garden, I dig it! The art is gorgeous, the character models are unique over the generic styles I’m used to seeing, the character writing shines, the music is pleasing on the ears, and the plot is filled with twists and turns. What more could you want from the chronicles of an assassin? I’ve been suffering withdrawal from not reading any VNs in the last month, and most of the ones I’ve read recently were on the older side, so I thought I’d look into a fresh release, and well, Chronicles of an Assassin is just that; fresh! I couldn’t find anything rotten about it at all~ The gameplay is straightforward. You have a couple of routes to choose from and if you play your cards right, you just might survive and maybe even get a little something more. There are lots of choices you get to choose from; over 30 - some are flavor and some are impactful. Most dialogue choices lead to you building trust or betrayal with the character whose route you are on which will determine what ending you get. I really appreciate that the…

I've only gone through the snake storyline, but oh my goodness. The writing is so sloppy, there are more plot holes than actual plot. I've been on a big visual novel kick lately, and if I didn't get this as a birthday present, I'd be requesting a refund. There are some fun twists, but any time tension was built, suddenly there was a convenient, unsatisfying way it was relieved. I can only compare this to some of the absolute worst fanfictions I've read, and this is still somehow worse. The characters aren't even likable, which isn't even a requirement for me, I love an unlikable character when they have substance. But everything felt very flat and formulaic in a really disappointing way. Not worth the time or money.

This game has great art and music and effects....great characterization and realistic characters...the two main interests are both different but both amazing in different ways. It's better to play the scorpion before the snake in terms of story progression. I loved this game. The romance brought tears to my eyes and that makes it great in my opinion. I love a sweet story with a good, exciting story and the art and music together are just a perfect experience. The music is so beautiful - I just love it! 10/10!! Worth the full price! I got 5 hours out of it with just the true ends and a couple bad ends.

I really went back and forth for a while on how to rate this game; I don't like tearing down indie games unnecessarily when they're at a disadvantage in funding to triple A games, but ultimately, this is still a commercially priced title that received Kickstarter funding on top, and I don't feel that my experience with this game reflected the quality that I would expect. That said, there were some things in this game that I did genuinely like or impressed me, so I'll do a quick pro-and-con list. Pros: -Gorgeous art. I like this artist's style a lot and it was part of what got me to check out the game in the first place. The CGs in particular are incredible, and I was stopping and hiding the textbox to get a nice, long look at each one. -Fun, immersive visual effects. Not every VN takes the time to make its presentation less static, and clearly a lot of effort was put in here. -Lots of different endings. Because I wasn't enjoying the story, I found them a bit tedious to get, but I do think that the variety was fun and the death endings added some stakes to the story. -Love interest POV chapters. These chapters were by far the most interesting and immersive to me on each route. -A …