Amber's Magic Shop

"Amber's Magic Shop" is another visual novel from Winter Wolves, that I just can't recommend. [h1]Art. [/h1] I like the art style, although it is a bit inconsistent (different art styles for different characters). I like how characters grow, not only in description, but their sprites also reflects that [spoiler] Why Lair's though? Wasn't he like 70 already?[/spoiler] What I don't get are those panty shots and pin-ups. I'm more than fine with some teasing and even straight up adult content, but usually images like that fit to the context of the game. "Amber's Magic Shop" isn't too much focused on sex (although it seems to try). It's just a very plain romance story with fantasy setting, tiring alchemy sections and "main plot" going on in the background. [h1]Characters. [/h1] Good ideas, that came out wrong. You have prince with daddy issues, you have your best friend, who should marry said prince, you have vampire that wants to be human, mercenary, that has too high ambitions and gets more and more paranoid, you have two relatives in love and your mentor's son. All of that could be a start of a great story and interesting relationships. Sadly, characters are very one-dimensional and inconsistent. For example, Lair [spoiler] who, despite his age, blushes and stutters just because Amber decided to wear more revealing dress, has no issues whatsoever, to undress his fiance in the public library AND without her explicit consent[/spoiler]. Also, we don't have enough time to get to know these characters. You met each of them about ten times during the game and every one of those meetings is short and very rarely offers anything interesting. [h1]Story. [/h1] It's nothing outstanding, but the core concept is fine. You're an alchemist. There's a blight. Find a cure for the blight. All of that would be good, if not for the cardinal sin of this game, which is... [h1]Terrible writing. [/h1] It's shocking. I mean, this is a 20€ visual novel form experienced studio, yet there were times, when I was just shaking my head, baffled by what I was reading. Dialogues are awful. Characters repeat each other way to often. For example (it's not quote from the game, but my take on character repeating themselves, which happens all the time): A: I like it. B: Okay. I was curious. A: I know. I just like it. There are ton of situations like that. Not only that, most of conversations are just boring and lead to nothing, other than giving us, ultimately meaningless, choice. [h1]Sex scenes. [/h1] Part of the poor writing. They are literally the worst. I either felt highly uncomfortable [spoiler] Lynn and Lair's library scene[/spoiler] or confused [spoiler]Amber's night with Camosa and Reed[/spoiler]. Some of them came out of nowhere, other felt like they were written as a part of some terrible fanfiction. I expected Amber to have form some sort of bond with these characters. And I expected a choice. This game gives you neither. [h1]Break-up scenes. [/h1] I like the idea. I really do. Some of it was nicely done, especially when you chose to break up with someone later on (after, you know, you actually DID date them). But early on? I was so confused when Amber said to Daniel (who I had like one or two scenes in her adult life so far and it was mentioned that they haven't see each other very often), that they need to stop dating. And he seemed genuinely disappointed. I'm sorry, when exactly this whole "dating" thing happen? Why have I not seen it? Same goes for Bernard. God, guy just asked me to make him some stupid talisman, was pushy and unfriendly and somehow I find out that we were actually going out? It's extremely confusing. [h1]Endings.[/h1] Not only are they sudden, unsatisfying and without any real build-up. Not only "main story" endings are just few sentences of description, that do not link in any way with your romance ending. Not only you don't get any epilogue or nothing of that sort. No. Even romance endings are terrible. Bernard light plus endings, is not only extremely cliche, but done so badly, that I was surprised that's even possible [spoiler] Oh, so you tell me you suddenly found out that you're in love with me. And we just going to get it on, without discussing your behavior and growing paranoia. Great! It's nice to know, that all those conversations were really building up to something![/spoiler]. There are "dark" and "light" endings and, again, I like the core concept, but someone clearly didn't think this through. You can't have dramatic moments without relationship that you're invested in or characters that you care about. [h1]Protagonist.[/h1] All I know about Amber is that she is dark elf, raised by a witch, that likes alchemy and is, apparently, dating half of the town. I have no idea what sort of personality she has and choices the game gave me didn't allow me to shape her in any meaningful way. [h1]Alchemy system. [/h1] This is something that many people will have issues with, but for me, it was really the minor offence, compared with other faults that this game posses. You can turn it off, but I don't recommend it, since the whole balance of the story is off and the game finishes almost as quickly as it begun - especially if you disable some romance options. Again, that was a nice idea. I like mini games in visual novels, I like stat raising, I like all of that, when it's well done. Here, I was bored to death and annoyed. Instead of giving us option to try different ingredients and see what comes of it, instead of giving us some form of market and more clients and option to actually, you know, RUN our "Magic Shop" (it's in the tittle, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥!), you start by preparing for test and then have one client few other days with repeating, boring recipes that you've done dozens of times already. [b]In short: Really bad writing, tiring alchemy system, bland characters and lack of actual romance. Not worth buying, unless on big discount.[/b]

I can without a doubt say that this game is not worth buying. Not at it's current price, or any price. The game sells itself as a visual with an Alchemy crafting system, to help tell the story and to fill the space between the visual novel sections. However, what the game is in reality is 95% Alchemy and 5% visual novel. That's way to much filler if you ask me. But thats not the end of it. The Alchemy system is a barebones as it can be, with the player simply choosing a recipe, selecting what items to use and then crafting the item, only to then sell whatever item they have made for money. That's it. The only reason the 'Alchemy' mechanic is in the game is to serve as filler to make the game seem longer than it is. It's not fleshed out, or interesting. It's purely there to make the game seem longer so that the developers can justify a higher price. The visual novel side of things is also terrrible. The characters are bland. The interactions are lifeless. And the player made choices are so... bizare in how they affect the characters (Which they dont really do.) The game tries to sell the player an 'alignment' system to make the visual novel side of things more interesting. But again, similar to the Alchemy system, is purely there the pad out the game. It doesn't make the characters more interesting. It doesn't make the choices anymore meaningful. It is again, a mechanic that was only added to help justify a larger price tag. The developers care so little about this game that they didn't even add a proper ending. The game just... ends. No credits, no nothing. Not even an epilogue for the character you chose to romance. It's just a cash grab and you're not missing out on anything by avoiding it. In fact, you're better off if that's what you choose to do.

[h1]A dull and uninspiring visual novel that incorporates an alchemy system that ends up feeling more like a chore.[/h1] [h1]Gameplay[/h1] You’re Amber, a dark elf who’s an alchemist. The story...eh, I wasn’t really feeling it. I felt it dragged on at times. In other instances, it just felt fruitless to have a specific conversation with someone when it lead nowhere and wasn’t indicative of affinity. The only thing indicating that was the Dark/Light bar. I didn’t really feel any consequences going to the dark side. There are a wide cast of characters that Amber can romance. So, there’s variety there. But the variety comes at a cost of being uninteresting and having dialogue choices that feel like they lead nowhere or have any real impact. There is a point in the game where you can choose the path for the specific character you want. There's a couple poly options, a couple het choices, and one lesbian route. From then on, everything feels weird and rushed. You play through the teen(?) to adult(?) years of Amber’s journey to becoming an alchemist. You meet a colorful cast of characters that feel 1-dimensional with dialogue options that are glaring enough at times for you to discern what will go to Light and what will go to Dark. The ‘romance’ feels premature? I felt as if there really wasn’t a point where attraction could realistically develop. The dialogue just felt wooden, and it didn’t cause me feel a specific way towards a choice. Unlike other VNs where the story plays a pivotal role, it felt secondary to the alchemy. I did NOT like the Alchemy bit at all. It was frustrating at times and felt like it was hindering me from moving on. On top of that, the time between events and quests is so short, you can't complete anything without feeling like you’d waste time. Sometimes, finding ingredients were the most time consuming part of the story. Now, there is the option to play the game without the alchemy, but that just lead to a dull and hackneyed story, characters lacking depth, and limited choices. The day/night system progresses way too quickly. There are a few places to visit likes guilds and shops and buy things like ingredients and what not should you play with the alchemy. [h1]Controls/Graphics/Music[/h1] Controls, you only need your mouse. Even for the alchemy bits. The art is nice. I like the diverse characters and their expressions. The backgrounds are lovely as well. The music is nothing to write home about, but it doesn’t detract from the overall experience. [h1]Overall[/h1] For $19.99, I can’t recommend this on enjoyment alone. I didn’t enjoy this at all. I wanted to really like this, but I just could get into the story or care for the characters at all. The alchemy was more trouble than it was worth and playing the game without it wasn’t considerably better. You have plenty of choices for romances, but that’s not worth $19.99 in my book when the rest of the game, story, and alchemy feel wasted. [code]If this review/EAR helped you, please give it a thumbs-up. For more reviews like this one follow the [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/gamingwithNtK/curation]NeedtoKnow Gaming Curator[/url] page <3[/code]

I’m not usually one to leave reviews on games, I’m never sure what to write and I find that’s the case here, too. I spent nine hours on one playthrough of Amber’s Magic Shop, and I can’t bring myself to go through it again. I love Winter Wolves games, they were some of the first visual novels I ever played, so I felt no hesitation when buying this one. I was so sure it was going to be great, it has a light and dark system, gameplay, romance, so many options, and it’s set in the Loren universe. And I still found myself disappointed, and quite frankly, upset. So upset, in fact, that I thought it would be a good idea to give a breakdown as to why I’m upset. [b]Writing - 5/10[/b] I love Visual Novels, heck I write for Visual Novels, they’ve been my favourite genre since I discovered them, so needless to say I love the reading, the story, and the adventure that it takes you on. But with Amber’s Magic Shop, I found that the writing was a little mediocre. Not bad, but nothing amazing. I didn’t laugh, feel embarassed, happy, or really have any emotions towards the characters. I went through Bernards route and by the end of the game I was scrolling through the steam community page and found that I had actually forgotten all about him. There was no life, nothing to connect me to these characters. There wasn’t enough story. The scenes were way too sparse, especially towards the end of the game, and I found that I was skipping through days just to see the next scene. I realize I could have played the game in Visual Novel mode, but I wanted to experience it in the full, the way it was meant to be experienced. So, while the writing wasn’t terrible, it was lacking. I felt no soul, or love for the characters. [b]Art - 7/10[/b] For the most part, the art in Amber’s Magic Shop was really pretty. I love the designs of the characters, and the backgrounds are beautiful. A few things did stick out to me though, and the main one was that some of the art didn’t match. Lynn and her mother for example. It really threw me off, enough that as soon as I saw the sprite for Lynns mother I was thrown off of all of the sprite art, I was thrown out of what little story there was, and I was sorely disappointed. I realize that the original artist was no longer available to do more sprites, but I honestly expect so much more out of Winter Wolves at this point and it really made an impact. [b]Music - 3/10[/b] The music in this game is so sparse, I found myself sitting in silence for extended periods of time. I found myself bored with nothing to listen to aside from a few repetitive sound effects that quickly became more annoying than anything else. I’m not sure if this was an error in my version of the game, but I do know that it really ruined the experience for me, topped with everything else. There are few instances where no music works, and it really didn’t work here. [b]Romance - 3/10[/b] Akin to the music, there was practically no romance. At least not in the route I played. I got many scenes of Bernard being angry, and one scene where they kiss. A scene that takes less than two minutes to play through, and a scene that feels thrown together. There’s a part when you tell Daniel you don’t want to ‘go on dates’ anymore. They went on dates? When did that happen? When does anybody go on a date? When do they become as close as they are? I was extremely overwhelmed and saddened by this. I was hopeful for an epilogue after beating the game (the ending, as well, was extremely short and thrown together) but alas, my hopes were apparently too high. [b]Gameplay - 6/10[/b] I really respect the work that went into the crafting system because holy heck that is so much work. Though, I once again have issues with this aspect of the game. Unfortunately. I found that there was way too much grinding, I had 160 something days to reach level 10 and within 30 days I was there, and the rest of the time I was just clicking through and skipping days until I got to the exam. It was so boring, my boyfriend suggested I just stop playing, but I wanted to give the game a chance. So I played for nine hours, and all of it felt like I was doing the exact same, boring, repetitive thing for the entire time. There’s a right way and a wrong way to do things like a crafting system, and making players click through and skip hundreds of game days is not the right way to do it. It pads out game time unnecessarily and will scare them off from playing through to the end. Again, I know I could have just played Visual Novel mode, but I wanted to experience the game as a whole. [b]Conclusion[/b] All in all, Amber’s Magic Shop felt very thrown together for me. I understand that doing more with it would risk people being upset, or taking too much time and end up being ‘indie game suicide’, but sometimes you have to weigh time vs quality. In this case, Amber’s Magic Shop definitely needed more time to cook. Instead, I felt like I was being served a half baked cake, dressed up to look pretty, made only because you were forced to make it. The game needed more story, emotion, romance, love from it’s creators, and balancing. It felt to me, as a player, like a train wreck. I love Winter Wolves games, I loved Loren, Remember Me, Spirited Heart(at the time that I played it, it’s been awhile), Flower Shop, I liked Queen of Thieves, C14 Dating was so much fun, Nicole had amazing art and a great story, but Amber’s Magic Shop just fell short for me. Extremely short. I expect better quality from Winter Wolves. I, as a long time player of your games, am disappointed, angry even. I tried so hard to enjoy this game, and it felt like it was thrown together, like a slap in the face to a paying customer. Hopefully, your next games will be better than this.

I really wanted to like this game- I love Winter Wolves and I love the main character's design. I almost succeeded, but ultimately this game's horniness is its own downfall. Now, if you take a look at my library, you'll see that I'm no prude. I enjoy the occasional horny game. However, let's just say that the way this game engages with sex put me off. For example, Reed and Cosmina- [spoiler]You spend a good 75% of the game thinking they're siblings, and are only told otherwise once you walk in on them boning.[/spoiler] Or how, there's a scene where the main character and her mother are assaulted by vines, complete with CGs. Perhaps if this game were advertised as horny and silly, I would be able to accept these things, as I can with other games. But if it weren't for these scenes, Amber's Magic Shop would have been as plot-heavy as any JRPG. It feels like the fanservice is fighting with the overall tone, rather than contributing toward it. The truth is, that this game is mediocre. Without the fanservice I might have given it a pass, but with it, I'm afraid I can't recommend this game, especially not to people like me who love character-driven dating sims.

Pros: +You can date female characters and even have poly relationships if you're into these things. +The dialogue wasn't tiresome. I have played some visual novels that have heavy dialogue that bores you after a while. Cons: -The characterization is actually rather poor mainly because you actually barely get to spend any time with the characters. I wish there were maybe fewer characters so that you could spend more time with each one of them -The crafting is generally alright, however the final quests are a bit too hard, even on easy mode. It is way too difficult to raise the stats to the required level. I think they should have made it a bit easier. -There is actually very little romance. I felt that this was more of a game about friends than about romance. Overall, I was disappointed and I expected more. It's not a terrible game, but I felt like they wasted its potential. The idea of the crafting mini game was interesting but the execution was rather mediocre.

I loved this game, I found it delightful and interesting. As the synopsis suggests, you are Amber, and having grown up in the woods being raised by your adoptive mother, you’re sent to the big city to become an apprentice alchemist. You spend the first portion of the game at this stage, where you get to know your new love-interests/friends, and make decisions that shape how your personality develops (i.e. do you want a light or dark alignment, are you selfish or selfless, etc…). Later you progress to the ‘adult’ stage (complete with a change of appearance for you and the other characters), having (hopefully) passed your exams you start your own business, a ‘magic shop’. It’s slightly weird that none of this game seems to focus on actually RUNNING the titular magic shop. You gain ‘jobs’ elsewhere (and occasionally a customer will come in with a special order), craft the required objects and gain money/xp/loot/reputation (depending on what reward you wanted). You can upgrade your shop to give yourself various bonuses, like more daily cash (never enough to do much with, but it’s something), or allows crafting more advanced items. The ‘alignment’ system is a tad weird, sometimes the choices you make that gain you light or dark points don’t really seem to fit (an important decision that nets you a whopping 5 light points requires you to publicly humiliate yourself for someone else’s benefit, something he never really appreciates or apologises for). The crafting system I really enjoyed (though you can skip it entirely with the visual novel mode), even if the one ingredient I needed most was NEVER in stock… It was a nice change of pace, instead of a combat system, you gain xp by crafting. The main story is nicely engaging, and most of the love-interest specific stories are interesting too. I was delighted to see yuri and poly options for romance, the game also features a gay character and a trans character (yay!). Interestingly there is no jealousy mechanic, Amber just openly dates multiple people, periodically breaking up with them until she’s only dating one. I like this, but it can lead to some weird moments such as the character who’s arch largely revolves around him becoming paranoid and self-centred, seems perfectly fine with you dating other people at the same time (though will assume the worst if/when you break up with him). The worst I can say is that some of the love-interest stories seem a bit shallow and could have done with more fleshing out. Essentially my key criticism of the game is I want MORE. More detail, more story, more places to visit and things to craft. More little side-stories. I of course understand there’s only so much a developer can feasibly fit in a game, and honestly if the worst I can say about a game is ‘It left me wanting more’ then I dare say that makes it a pretty decent game. It took me about 30 hours to get ALL achievements and see everything, so I’m happy it was money well spent. If you ONLY played it through on visual novel mode, you might feel otherwise, I don’t know.

Interesting world and story, but characters fall flat or outside my tastes. The store/skill raising gets old kinda fast, and a good portion of the scenes feel disconnected and random. 5/10 Maybe buy on sale but not one of my favorite WW games.

I prefer a stat game to be story first. This one is NOT. It is very heavily stat based, with some "story" thrown in, but the story and characters lack the enchanting depth of some of his other games (AKA Loren). You have no control over Amber's personality; all you shape is her "light" or "dark" path--and this isn't well explained, so you're left ambling around trying to figure it all out. The game also lacks any real direction or main quest with a sense of urgency. You have to pass your test, and then voila, you're an adult, go do adult stuff. I have to say, I'm sorely disappointed. Instead of focusing on Loren 2 (which is truly what I'd like to see next), the developer has been releasing mediocre games that don't live up to the potential of a game like Loren. In this case, I'd argue for a hard pass, unless you buy it on sale and genuinely enjoy spending 10 hours of a game doing nothing memorable raising stats, waiting and hoping that you fall into a deeper storyline at some point. There's no creativity or freedom in alchemy; you literally follow recipies and buy ingredients to make more of the same. I couldn't even finish the game, I was so bored.

although this game isnt as good as loren the amazon was it is still pretty good. the story is pretty good but it feels like it ends a bit too suddenly and the romances arent very long, there are a few scenes but it doesnt feel as deep or meaningful like in some of their other games. im not too sure who i like out of the romance options because they are all likeable and cute romances. i liked Cosa's romance the best so far, i feel that we get to know her and her cousin more and you can feel a bit of a connection. although the "sex" scene did feel like it was rushed a bit but overall it was quite enjoyable. i liked the noble elf romance (cant remember his name) because you kinda build up to feeling inimate with him but you dont really see him very often and there isnt a lot of scenes for him. overall this game is fun if you like crafting and even if you dont you can play on story mode where you can skip the crafting. the main character is cute and relateable because she has a hard time making friends because of her race (dark elf) but she doesnt let that bring her down and tries her best to become the best alchemist. i do reccomend this game because its enjoyable and cute but also is quite fun if you enjoy games from this company and genre ^.^