Enshrined: Sword of Fates

God, I loved exploring each and every one of these characters and this story. We love a badass protagonist that can hold their own in every way. I'm still chasing all the achievements and still missing at least one ending (Dyma's bad end), and I'm having an absolute blast exploring this world. Pros: - Only $8!! - Great systems for rewinding and trying again (the Log is your best friend for my fellow achievement hunters and those chasing every line of fantastic dialogue). - Raw, emotional writing with great characters that do not hold back (Niko's banter had me cackling CONSTANTLY) - Pro voice talent bringing the characters to life (SungWon Cho, Jonah Scott, and Dave Fennoy all absolutely killed it, as usual)! - Challenging dialogue choices (I had to really work to get Jun's good end; it's always the quiet ones!) - Dark Fantasy (it's so refreshing to see writing not shy away from dark themes! Yes it's a visual novel with romance themes but each of the romance choices are awful people in their own rights) - Tips and hints of varying degrees when a bad end is received; no need to go digging through walkthroughs if you don't want! - Content warnings in both broad and specific strokes for things you might not wanna engage in Cons: - CRYING at the immersion-breaking black box of doom over their genitals (drawn ♥♥♥♥ not needed, but I would've preferred if it was more artfully done like it was in Akash: Path of the Five's CGs, or even just cropping off the image there. ANYTHING but the censor bar D:) - On the shorter side (but hey, that's what fandom's for >:3) Overall, this game is a fun story with great writing and characters I'll be thinking about for far longer than the game's run time. Another absolute banger visual novel from Truant Pixel that I highly recommend, especially if you're a dark fantasy fan!

Excellent story, great voice acting, a creative scenario, and a love for the genre that's clear throughout.

Ok, first of all, let me preface this by stating that for the price point, this game is absolutely fabulous for a VN. On another note, I feel like the depth of the story and characters are severely lacking. I came to this game from Akash (which is a personal favorite and an amazing piece of art), and left a little bummed. While the characters are interesting and it supplied some challenge getting particular routes, I left with far more questions than answers. I still have very little understanding of any of what or how the background choices can change the story, and what the character's backgrounds themselves even are. When looking at this dev's other game, I was coming into this expecting a story that was going to impress me with the depth of the romancable characters. This didn't happen. It makes sense with the story/plot/timeline and I will say that it's still INCREDIBLY well written and I still HIGHLY recommend this game for the stated price-point as a cute, short, VN with romancable options. I just would like anyone thinking this can compare with Akash to take a step back and realize that perhaps that piece of art only comes only once in a lifetime. Still, 9/10 for this VN. Can't complain based upon price-point and writing quality. Story and characters may lack depth but it's still enjoyable and the quality is there.

The game is insanely good. I love that the whole thing is voice acted since it really added to the experience while playing. The actors did a great job giving the characters a lot of personality. The design of the characters and the backgrounds is gorgeous! The routes aren't too easy or too hard, though I will say Jun and Niko took me a few more tries than I'd like to admit for the good ending. The music, especially for the end credits, is great and complements each scene perfectly. And the writing - one of the most important parts - was excellent. It didn't feel too "wordy" or boring, the humor was on point, the dialogue was enjoyable, and the steamy scenes were so well done. If you've a visual novel fan and enjoy dark romance then this is definitely worth the purchase!

i can kind of understand being upset by the overall length of the game (to an extent, it IS $8), i have about 4 hours and ive completed all routes and endings, just missing a few achievements. but for me, this is like the perfect length of game as someone with cool guy syndrome and not a lot of time. but the quality of this game is mind-blowing to me. every single line is voiced, by well known voice actors, the art is lovely and the music is great- for $8??? i feel like getting these va's alone for a small title like this is crazy enough, and each performance is amazing. jonah scott saying "monstrous ♥♥♥♥" is worth $8 on its own. while i will definitely be going for the rest of the achievements, i do want more from this. not even necessarily these characters (although i would die for jun specifically from his credits alone), but maybe something else in the same universe. the fallen are really interesting to me as a fantasy race. i would love something larger-scale in this universe. like i want a vn-rpg now. i loved this.

Enshrined is a hell of a good time. I went in knowing nothing, but the basic premise and having played and enjoyed Akash. This game is so polished-- the writing, art, animations, sound design, voice acting, music (original music composed for the game!?) all comes together seamlessly. There's a solid amount of humor and I enjoyed that it wasn't always obvious which tack to take with the characters. (But at this point an initial bad end is basically tradition for me). If you're on the fence, but enjoy narrative games and questionable, if handsome, men, do yourself a favor and give it a go. ETA: I noticed some folks unhappy about the length. (I get it-- I would love more time in the world/with these characters, too!) But I find the price is more-than-fair for a game of this quality. (Seeing SungWon Cho and Jonah Scott in a game written by the creator of Akash and co-creator of First Bite!? YES PLS!)

I’ve played through all 3 routes so far and am currently in the process of getting all of the endings (I believe there’s a good + bad end for each of the LIs, so far I have all of the good endings). I personally really enjoyed this game and highly recommend it if the summary sounds interesting and if you’re looking for a spicier VN. If you’re unsure about if it’s for you, definitely try the demo (it has the entire common route and I think is a really solid representation of the game as a whole). The routes are definitely on the shorter side so be aware of that. Personally I find that for the price, the length is totally fine for me (and I absolutely can see myself replaying multiple times). While it doesn’t have a huge impact that I’m aware of, the additional stories/callouts that get added based on the background you choose for the player character was super neat (and I’m really glad the game gave you an option to be something other than human, though the human background was nice too!). I definitely recommend trying at least one play through with each of the three backgrounds. Overall, I really enjoyed! It’s definitely worth trying out if the premise sounds interesting and I also was pleasantly surprised with how much I really enjoyed all 3 of the LI routes (so much so I don’t think I have a number one favorite, all of them were great and really suited the routes they had). Honestly if anything the game definitely had me craving more (which I absolutely prefer to a game that overstays its welcome) so if there is ever additional DLC or a sequel I’d definitely be interested!