[b]Brilliant Shadows[/b] is the first part in the Book of Gray Magic series. It is not that long – just about 5-7 hours of reading for one playthrough– and serves as an introduction to this world of Shadow, Light and Gray.
[h1]The story[/h1]
This visual novel starts out when Veronica Ashmar (or just Ash) is getting ready for a big day – the pairing ritual. According to the tradition, necromancers have to pair up with a paladin after the graduation from the Mountain, a special magic school. Each of them will receive a special mark that will determine who is supposed to be together with whom. However, this is not the only reason why Ash is so excited: she is desperately hoping that her best friends and secret love Prudence will become her lifelong partner. They have known each other for a long time, so it would be only natural if the ritual chose them for each other.
But life (even in visual novels) can be tricky, as we all know. During the ritual, everything goes wrong – Prudence is paired up with one of the most unpopular mages and Ash receives a mark that nobody else seems to have. Now, in order to graduate and become a full-fledged mage, Ash needs to find her mysterious partner and decide if she is ready to give up her love for Prudence.
[h1]What do we have inside?[/h1]
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1445189986
[u][b]Pros[/b][/u]
- The art. This was what caught my attention when I first saw the game - Ash looks absolutely gorgeous, Prudence is lovely, Hektor is cute and scary at the same time, and other characters are neatly drawn. I like their design, as well as CGs, some backgrounds, and UI design (but not all parts of it). Characters’ sprites are partially animated and have different emotions. There are also many animations that looked really good and add some new colors to the story. The scene with horses is great! It really felt like characters were moving all along. And the quarrel between Ash and Hek was so intense thanks to animated moments!;
- The writing. It is consistent and I noticed just a few typos here and there, but no major problems with grammar and vocabulary. There were also some good jokes, and dramatic scenes made me feel a whole specter of emotions, from being sad (the scene between Ash and Hak in her room) to angry or even scared (Ash’s madness);
- The story and the characters. Even though the game is not that long, I still think that it is more than enough to present this story in its full glory. There are no loose ends or plot holes and the characters are well-developed. I liked Ash and it was interesting to follow her along the plot twists and memories. Other people in the game also had distinct personalities;
- Music. I think all tracks are good and bring new flavor to the story – they went well with all scenes and there was a nice variety of them;
- Voices. Every character has a suitable voice actor and I did not find any of them annoying…except for just one girl…;
- UI design. It is special and you can see from the very beginning that developers paid a lot of attention to bring it in line with the story and characters. There is a cursor that looks like a dark green rose; at the bottom of the dialogue zone you will see to green leaves that work as arrows; the Menu looks like a big black rose at the bottom right corner; and the Settings menu is so beautiful! However, there are still some minor aspects I did not like and I will mention them in the Cons.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1445162876
[u][b]Cons[/b][/u]
- Some parts of the UI. The main thing that bothered me was the black font in the Settings. It would be better to just leave the green color instead, while it is visible enough and goes well with other parts of the design; black letters are barely readable, in my humble opinion. The second thing I would like to mention is that the text is right in the middle of the picture most of the time. Sometimes it hid parts of characters or scenes; maybe it is just me being more used to the dialogue zone at the bottom and under pictures, but I still felt somewhat uncomfortable from time to time, so I cannot but bring it up among the Cons;
- The beginning of the story is a bit rushed, in my opinion. I would rather they gave more information about the characters and the world before getting deeper into the story;
- Not all backgrounds are equally good. For example, the one during the ritual could have been better – it is very simple and shows nothing more than silhouettes of people;
- During the fighting scene a wrong picture of Ash appeared – she was wearing combat clothes, but when her expression changed to anger, she all of a sudden got dressed in her usual attire – it seems there was some mistake in coding;
- And just my personal complaint – Belinda’s voice was killing me almost each time I heard it. I thought only Japanese visual novels have high-pitched characters, but how wrong I was!
[h1]My thoughts about the game[/h1]
To my mind, Brilliant Shadows is a good visual novel for adults that has some awesome features like distinctive art, some interesting animations, beautiful user interface and suitable music. However, some small shortcomings might spoil the impression when you just start the game. Still, I do not think that they are game-breaking in any way; so, if you just continue playing, Brilliant Shadows will lure you into a fascinating world of magic where laws can be pretty harsh and having the same mark on the hand can even take your life away. And I am quite sure that it will be difficult to leave it without finding out the truth.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1445300692
P.S. The scenes after the ending were just hilarious!!! I was laughing like crazy. The person who decided to add them to the game is a genius!
[h1][i][url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/LucyCorner]You can find more reviews at my personal Curator Page. Please, give it a read ❤ [/url][/i][/h1]
