Cardinal Cross

I don't typically play visual novel games. Not that there is anything wrong with them, mind you...I just rarely find myself drawn to them. Cardinal Cross's pacing really helped pull me in. By combining small scenes with larger chapters, I was able to pick it up and put it down easily. The dialogue is well done...sometimes passionate, sometimes funny. The music adds a bit to the scenes, but is nothing spectacular or noteworthy. The art is great though, with many characters. It is clear they have turned on the sex appeal for the main characters, but I found everything was tactfully done. It can get steamy at times, but not anything worse than you'd see on TV (and not nearly as far as some shows and movies go). There are enough choices and endings to give the game another shot, and it seems like the game tracks which paths you take to make exploring new paths easier. All in all, I enjoyed my time with Cardinal Cross.

It's nothing exceptional, but the writing is strong. It does tend to wax poetic and jump around more than I'd like, but it's good English and the author did put some thought into developing their world and its characters. If you're going into this with an eye on the romance aspect, don't expect much. It's T rated, or even G. We get a smooch, or, at least, that's all I could find on the yuri path. It's got some cute, old-married-couple dialogue, but any sort of deep delve into their romantic life is not there. Visually, it's not very exciting, but it gets the job done. It's the standard two models on the screen bouncing highlights back and forth the whole way through. The art is pretty good to look at and at least it's consistent, so I can't complain too much. The strong point of the game is the dialogue choice system. There's quite a bit of RP value to be had which, I imagine, could lend itself to replay value if you care to re-experience the story with a different alignment. All told, this was a story I don't regret reading, but I think I'm perfectly happy with a single playthrough. Visuals: 7/10 Sound: 3/10 Writing: 8/10 Lewds: 3/10

An excellent sci-fi visual novel with plenty of endings and an intriguing storyline with choices set up like Dragon Age 2 "tones". One of the best I have ever played, considering romance wasn't its main focus. The endings are fairly open, in terms of a possible sequel as well. Yes, it could have benefited from a few more choices/player agency, as well as a renameable player character however. Hopefully the dev takes this to heart in their future endeavours.

Non Spoiler Game Play Recommendation for First Time Players: I recommend turning off the affinity notifications for the first play through. This way I was able answer based on what I actually wanted to say and not have to be so worried about each characters affinity reactions Review: This was an awesome experience. It gave the feel of the original mass effect trilogy (which is one of my favorite series) in visual novel format. There were at least 100+ dialogue choices, with each compounding to affect how other characters viewed you, how it locked and unlocked different story paths based on who trusts you and who doesn't, it determines who lives and who dies, and of course which ending and final climax you get not only based on what your character chose to try and do, but what the butterfly effect of all your games choices allowed to happen. Overall the game felt very well planned out and that a lot of effort was put into it. It was very nice to know that every single choice mattered, and it was cool to see characters referencing past choices by making little comments here and there. It made you feel so much more involved in the story instead of just being along for the ride. Even the romance options, which were all kinda jerks in their own ways, were flushed out so well that you sympathized with them and understood their sometimes jerk-like actions. But even if you disliked the romance options as romance options, the story is still great even without any romance or flirty choices, and the romance options were still enjoyable characters as just crew mates. However, my one and only minor criticism lies with the romance routes, particularly if your try and romance more than one. I kept expecting one of them to comment on the fact that I was essentially sleeping with all three of them at the same time (Don't judge, I was testing the waters with each romance route, I didn't expect it to let all three go at the same time). But no one ever said anything about it, which was kinda weird, especially at one point where the female option (I'm using this way of saying it cus I was kinda surprised who it was cus I thought it was going to be someone else) was becoming interested in me and asked the 2nd male option if we were together together, to which he replied something along the lines of "I don't know, we slept together once and haven't really talked about it, why?", "I think shes cute", (again these are the lines that I remember they aren't 100% line for line). But after this convo none of the romantic options ever talk to each other about any romance stuff ever again. Even the other characters don't mention anything outside of the one comment about all 3 being outside my bedroom door and me having to chose who I wanted to see that night. It would have been nice to some reaction to all of this, even it was just to briefly acknowledge it. But again this is just a minor criticism to an overall fantastic story and game. Overall, It was so good that I almost want to replay just to see the other endings, but I got IMO the best ending with everyone surviving on my first play through, and I don't have the heart to ruin it. :)

To Rinmaru fans that are lovers of Ascension and other works I def say check this out. its nostalgic to me who was loving every second of playing the simulation game with Aida and her love triangle...square? lol, either way I hella missed the sassy responses from Aida, the push and pull of the romantic interactions with those love interests, ESPECIALLY zander honestly, but i made sure to try all the routs i had the chance to before she shut her website down. i was very sad when i could not play anymore and still look for ways to find an avenue to play the original again but holly cow is CC so much more advanced in details! I love it!! I cannot wait to be able to be a patreon member of hers to view and play more <3 Go ImpQueen! Go Rinmaru! Long time fan here (I'm 24 years old and have three kids but have been a fan since i was in school)

Clever and unique with beautiful, artistic CGs. Always a joy to go back and play.

Что ж, хоть пока что я и открыл лишь 2 концовки, но уже точно могу сказать, что эта история не оставила меня равнодушным. Давно я не получал столько эмоций, не смеялся столько. Но отдельного внимания для меня, конечно, стоит сеттинг игры - он довольно интересный, хоть и содержит в себе много типичных фишек фантастики. Кажется, какое-то количество новых идей для моей работы все же посетили мою голову в процессе прохождения, и это прекрасно. Ну и отдельный респект художникам - проделана тонна работы, результат очень хорош. Нигде не видел, чтобы ВСЕМ персонажам рисовали спрайты, даже самым малозначительным, а еще количество CG и прекрасные фоны. [spoiler] И черт возьми, как прекрасен Игон в гневе с этой его улыбочкой и светящимися глазами! Вообще за ним и Ланой было интересно наблюдать - они же совершенно ничего не знали о мирах друг друга. Очень радует, что не в один момент появляется между ними симпатия, а отношения позже реально взрослые и честные, но не скучные. [/spoiler]