Golden Treasure: The Great Green

this is a visual novel and i somehow managed to play it obsessively for nearly thirty hours because i enjoyed the gameplay so much. the dance of destruction's music will always be in my head, the battles in this game feel like a fact-of-life rather than a choice. the art and writing is beautiful. 100000000% recommend. its great. spoilers below: i love how the dragons must change and adapt to the world around them, as their rule over 'natural structure' is trampled on, and their reluctance to ever view the world outside of what is 'natural' eventually leads to their own end. i have not seen many games go into this theme like golden treasure has. to see it's fairy-tale logic get flipped on it's head, and see the thing it's been refusing to address--that is, that every creature has it's own culture and speech--be portrayed straight, was great.

(slight spoilers) Golden Treasure: The Great Green is a very well-written visual novel that is a prime example of xenofiction for not just the Draak, but also delves into the perspectives of the various other beasts you coexist with. The writing does a good job of preventing human bias from taking away from the immersion as a Draak, explaining your actions through the lens of a solitary apex predator. For example, when you make selfless decisions it is often treated with confusion by the game rather than immediately being portrayed as positive like a game with lesser writing would be tempted to do. It makes these decisions more impactful as you go against your instinct, showing that you are still an intelligent species. And when you make ruthless decisions, the game takes care to portray these decisions as more sensible than cruel. To a human what would be cruelty, is simply a matter of loving life. The game does a tremendous job of building the culture of the Draak and why it is the way it is. Of course, the artwork is also amazing and a huge part of the game along with the soundtrack. The combat system is also unique and the battle music still drifts in my mind. This game is brutal, but also beautiful like nature and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys visual novels, xenofiction, or just writing and fantasy in general.