Demonheart

Rating: 7/10 ("Good") Recommended for: Fans of romance visual novels/otome. I'd recommend this to a first time VN reader. My route order: Brash -> Raze -> Ari Demonheart is a western otome game where you play as Bright, a young woman apprenticed to a witch. You have a TON of freedom with Bright's responses -- you can pick nearly all her dialogue, which influences her personality and how others treat her. There's not really routes in the traditional sense of most otome games. You can actually manage to snag most of the endings in one playthrough, just make a save at certain opportune times and reload to pick different options and end up with someone else. It's not like a standard visual novel route where you get locked into one love interest's storyline and play through the whole thing. The main replay value is from the different dialogue options you can choose with the main character. Her attitude affects some NPC dialogue which can be fun or interesting to read through. There are also some smaller branching paths, like choosing to follow a certain character or not, which can lead to interesting outcomes. The overarching story is mostly the same, though, and you'll get put on the main path regardless of what you pick. Skipping through already read dialogue to read new paths can be tedious, as you pick almost everything Bright says, so it's not something I'd recommend replaying right after you've finished one playthrough. Raze and Brash are very well-written as love interests. They're morally grey at best and can be off-putting at first, but they've both got their own reasons for how they act or what they do and it's interesting to see their dynamics with the main character. Brash is very fun with a "good" Bright. Ari is a little disappointing and feels more like a shoe-in than anything. They really could have developed more with her but she feels lacklustre compared to the other leads. She also has the least amount of screentime/presence of all the love interests. She feels more like a secret side option than a fully realised romance. The other side characters are hit-or-miss. Some are pretty well-realised, while others feel like cardboard cutouts. They're serviceable. The voice acting is pretty decent overall. Not all the lines are voiced. The soundtrack is nice. Where the visual novel really shines, though, is the artwork. The sprites are gorgeous, as is the background art. There's a surprising amount of variety there. There aren't as many CGs as you would expect, though, and no CG library to view them after. The least impressive part of the game is the endings. They all feel very abrupt, rushed, and give little closure, apart from maybe Raze's. This may be intentional, though, as I see there's a sequel. Overall, highly recommend the game if you're not adverse to dark subject matter and morally grey love interests. The story is interesting and the love interests are a little different from the "usual" tropes.

Bad

I don't know what I was hoping for, but it wasn't this. The voice acting was not great, it felt like the VA's weren't given the context they were supposed to use and just had to do their best. While I really liked the amount of choices for dialogue and how you can react to things, I just couldn't get beyond the convoluted plot. Just when I thought there was an established relationship with someone, they turned the character against you for no reason. Worst part to me was the "mini-game" at the end of each chapter. I normally like when visual novels have some sort of puzzle or interaction to them, but this one just wasn't necessary.

Die Story war vorhersehbar, die Entscheidungen fühlten sich oberflächlich an und die Love Interest waren allesamt toxisch. Ich habe alle Enden freigespielt, aber begeistern konnte mich keine davon.

是很有趣的剧情走向，画风有些独特但是Ari真的画的很漂亮，好喜欢。人物设定都蛮带感的，无中文靠着机翻补丁啃下来的倒也能玩完，有些剧情和选项真的很有趣了（是没见过的类型）。选项丰富，也能根据不同的选项塑造女主性格，但是似乎对剧情影响不大，倒是刷成就更费事了。全成就也相对比较容易的一款游戏，多周目下来对于各个人物也更了解了些，三个可攻略角色都很喜欢，就是可怜了那个小恶魔🥺，只是好感度加成看不见的，也觉得不管我干什么所有人都会直接吻上来，原来女主是魅魔吗🤔。

正如标榜大女主的大多是废物点心，标榜成人向、黑暗向的作品大抵是屎味咖喱。归根结底这些标签都只是评论者们的主观意见，而没有统一的的评价标准或者门槛，指望从中找到适合自己的作品无异于屎里淘金。 如果你实在想知道这款游戏是不是你的那盘菜——难道整个steam已经找不到另一款让你感兴趣的游戏了吗？ [spoiler]  游戏设定中恶魔和人类的结合会产下恶魔之子，出于众所周知的原因，这类结合往往是人类女性和恶魔男性，而且人类女性往往会早死，存在的唯一意义就是给这个儿子铺路。 毕竟猎巫猎多了也就成了文化背景，殖民殖多了也就有了优越感。 如果你觉得这样的解读太刻板，简直像是为了抹黑而刻意歪曲，那么游戏里的确给这个母亲加了一点点表面乐于助人实际沉迷研究向往永生balabala的设定，然后她就在自愿为了儿子而死之前死在了另一个恶魔手里，我们的女主也因此从不死的保姆变成了不死的劳改犯，故事就这么开始了。 多亏了对剧情毫无作用的属性系统，你可以当个舔狗把除了你之外的所有人都舔舒坦（这种属性倾向在游戏里称为圣徒），也可以无差别辱骂所有人，反正对剧情毫无影响。 不管怎么说，如果你厌倦了不停道歉的日式点心模拟，也可以尝试这款不停舔人或者不停骂人的欧美点心模拟。 毕竟吃屎也可以换换口味，还能嘲笑一番不同口味的玩家不是。  [/spoiler]