You can find a more detailed review on the [url=https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/allusives-reviews-first-review-is-up-keeper-of-the-sun-and-moon/178235/4?u=allusive]Choicescript games forum here.[/url]
[h1]PROS:[/h1]
[b]Plot.[/b] *Keeper of the Sun and Moon* is great. For the reader it's basically *Harry Potter: College Edition* meets *Supernatural*. The "magical school" plot has been done seemingly endless times at this point, but Brynn Chernosky does it very well with enough differences and uniqueness that it never felt derivative to me. The opening scenes also had just the right amount of intrigue, danger, and world-building to keep me glued to the screen.
Your character's introduction to the magical world is much less whimsical than "You're a wizard, Harry!" and more ominous kidnapping with polite niceties. Chernosky gives you the opportunity to lean into either direction—you can be thrilled to be introduced to the mysteries of the magical side of the world and getting your very own acceptance to New World Magi Academy, or you can make it clear to everyone that will listen that it's all been under duress.
[b]Choices.[/b] One of my favorite things in Choicescript games is when the author lets the player be a sullen spoilsport and *Keeper of the Sun and Moon* delivers on that front. A nearly every junction (except for two or three where a little railroading for plot was necessary) what I wanted to express in any given situation was there as an option in the choices.
From the opening, you can come in hot as a character and throw matches at every visible bridge that presents itself. Chernosky even has an opposing stat for Kindness/Cruelty and one for Resistance/Acceptance (more on that one in a moment). In fact, there is an interaction early in the game where you can scream at someone to "Leave me alone!" that is nearly immediately followed by two polite characters introducing themselves to you and one of your options is "…Screw both of you." How could I *not* pick that?
You get to pick between one of two extra classes each semester, what species you turn out to be, how you fight, how smart you are, or even if you'll learn magic or not. In keeping with testing how committed Chernosky was to letting my character be an absolute rebel without a cause, I decided I was completely human and rejected any attempts to teach me magic. I was pleasantly surprised by how well that kept paying off for my character.
[b]Romance.[/b] There are (perhaps too many) romance options, with up to *ten* potential love interests according to the store page for the game. This is no doubt due to the fact the romance options seem to be gender-locked (I'm not entirely sure, some may change), so Chernosky probably wanted to make sure an equal number of male and female romantic character options were available.
From what I saw on my play-through of the game the romance-able characters are fairly fleshed out, with wide variety in personality types and dispositions and seemingly lots of chances to interact.
[h1]CONS:[/h1]
[b]Occasional odd choice format.[/b] There were a few times in the game where I was asked to make a choice about what a character said to ME, or how they reacted to me, which I thought was weird for established characters you already had a relationship with. For instance, one choice I received was to pick between a character complimenting my outfit for a dance or insulting it. My thought was that one of these was out-of-character.
I know the reason Chernosky likely added these choices - they serve as a way to attempt to mend bridges or continue to let them burn, but I feel like they could have been easily flipped to maintain perspective continuity and still give the player the option to mend or damage the relationship, for, by instance, letting the player choose to compliment, insult, or say nothing about the other character's outfit.
[b]Too many characters.[/b] I almost feel bad for putting this as a con, but at one point I went into the Stats Menu (thankfully, Chernosky included a Contacts option that kept track of character names and who they were) and counted characters. At a little over half-way through the game I counted just over 30 named characters involved in the story.
I played through *Keeper of the Sun and Moon* over the course of two days and learned my fellow dorm mates very well, and had a good handle on most of the other students. Thankfully the professors were referenced with their classes often enough I didn't need to remember them much.
Other than that, there is what feels like a near constant introduction of officials, politicians, student family members, and elites of New Magi City. Sometimes Chernosky has mercy and gives enough information to remind you who they are when they are mentioned again, but there were lots of times when a character would drop a name and I'd have to stop and do a dance I got very familiar with— going Stats Menu->Contacts->Other and looking for the name mentioned to refresh myself on who they were and why everyone in the scene gasped at the implication of said person's name.
[b]Disjointed pacing.[/b] There were multiple times the story felt a bit disjointed. Some of this was necessary for a story that spans an entire academic year. The genre itself, by necessity, leans a bit into 'slice-of-life' territory with jumping between classes, months, and events, but I would have liked for there to be more connective tissue.
Again, some of this, particularly in regards to the main plot, may be my fault. I know I could have seen a bit more connective tissue by getting involved with certain characters that I did not talk to in my play-through.
[b]Surprise game-over.[/b] I've saved my biggest complaint until last.
The game does a great job of allowing the player to express their displeasure over the entire situation they find themselves in, with repeated and frequent choices to call out other characters, express unhappiness, and refuse to perform tasks. I thought this was great. I found lots of fun in watching that Resistance meter increase.
Which brings me to this: Dying and getting a game over for making a choice similar to multiple other choices you've made really sucks. I don't think it's good narrative or game design to allow players to refuse the call to adventure and Chernosky does a great job throughout all the early story of letting the player do just that—insisting they don't want any part of attending New Magi Academy. I really did enjoy taking the opportunity to pick those choices every time, watching my Resistance stat rise, and seeing the friction or fireworks.
So, you can imagine I was shocked and annoyed that three chapters in, after a series of choices that felt similar to all the other Resistance raising choices, the game replies with 'okay' and lets you just *quit the narrative*, at which point *it kills you*. No checkpoint. No option to go back and make a different choice - and now you get to start completely over.
I was very much enjoying the narrative, my character, the interactions, all the sullen resistant options that had fun responses, pretty much everything up to that point - but when I made a choice I thought the game would block - like it had all others - and just get a bump in my Resistance stat - all that progress was, quite literally, **erased**. I was so bothered I actually walked away from the game for a day, almost considering dropping it, only to reconsider after a night's sleep because I had really enjoyed it up until that point.
So, uh, yeah. This con is that I almost rage quit.
[h1]Final Rating:[/h1]
(7/10)
Final verdict, I would recommend *Keeper of the Sun and Moon.* I look forward to reading the sequel *Keeper of the Day and Night*. My save file with my sullen, rude, non-magic human character is ready for a second year at New Magi Academy.
