Sable's Grimoire 2

Been waiting for this release for a while now and I am very happy, that it's here now ^^ I might be mistaken, but as I understand there will be more content added to this game later, as it was the case with Sable's Grimoire 1, that being the case or not, I do very much appreciate the current character endings that exist, not getting to much into Spoilers here. Some of the newer characters or even pre-existing characters I now would like to see getting their own endings, be that romantic or non-romanitc, just learning more about them. For some Spoilerish stuff, again not to much should be save to read, but better save than sorry. [spoiler] I do want to learn more about Umika and I think there is a fun story there, Learning more about Fen maybe as I rather quickly got the "motherly" instinct to protect the little one. A Route for Bel would be fun, helping her become a great teacher or something. Obviously there is old favorites like Hel or Hira in need of a route. And a weird one, I kinda wanna see more from the humans Vi and GeeGee, Mary and Alice, what is Alice doing especially being a rather pressing question here I think? [/spoiler] Importantly I am not at all making demands for Zetsubou to release endless more Routes or other content, you can see from my playtime the game is plenty long as is. ^^ But well it can't be helped that I want more art from an artist I enjoy. ^^

Lots of magic-focused worldbuilding, slice of life, and comedy with occasional drama or action—it’s like this series was made just for me, so I waited with bated breath for the sequel. Sable 2 is less focused on romance and action in comparison to the first entry, but it greatly expands on the worldbuilding aspect. My biggest gripe is that two romance routes seemed shorter and less developed than the others. The fact that the MC really doesn’t want to get into a relationship made it difficult to even use the term "romance route." It’s not that they were bad, only that I expected slightly more from them after what I saw in Lisha’s or Drakan’s routes in the first game. On the other hand, the common route and the remaining three routes were amazing, and I greatly enjoyed reading them. New characters were introduced, and I learned a lot more about the familiar cast, all accompanied by some beautiful new CGs and music. As I mentioned before, the worldbuilding in particular was greatly expanded, with the direct introduction of aspects that were barely mentioned before but are incredibly interesting.

I absolutely loved the first game! I never finished A Dragons Treasure, which I should; and really enjoyed the story of A man and Elf. So far Sable's Grimoire 2 has not disappointed me, though I am still not far in I expect to enjoy the full journey! Cheers Zetsubou! Us fans appreciate the hard work and time you took to make this happen!

Great work and a must-buy for anyone who bought and liked the first game. If you didn't, what are you even doing here? Now for the thing that actually matters: a spoiler-free breakdown of the routes. Yay! The narrative is extremely linear in comparison to the first game. There are fewer points of divergence, but the narrative is much clearer; in fact, it would be quite difficult to miss an upcoming divergence in the story. Any deviations are mostly for additional details, alternative dialogues, and comedy, as they all eventually converge back at the main route. Speaking of which, the main route will henceforth be known as 'Sable's route', since he is the protagonist and we all love him for it. Sable's route diverges first into the Meadra/Kiori routes and later into the Eth/Narm/more Sable routes. It's easy to examine these two major splits in the story, as I only consider the first divergence important, but we'll get to that. Because the second divergence happens much later in the main Sable route, the Eth/Narm routes feel less consequential in a way that they, as well as their endings, could be easily folded into a hypothetical third Sable's Grimoire. This continuation of the plot thread and route merging would be similar to what occurred in the first game. To that end, I won't spend much time on these; they are both well-written, and I enjoyed them. The Narm's route is boring but feels consequential. The Etn's route, meanwhile, is inconsequential, but it isn't boring. They kind of complement each other in that way. Now for my favourite part of the game: the Meadra and Kiori routes. Because they both diverge from the main Sable route much earlier, they feel more like their own story, perfectly positioned for a spin-off, dare I say. To the shock of exactly no one, Meadra is the best. She was a highlight for me in the first game, and she got even better in the sequel. Kiori's route is technically Koko's route, but Koko herself feels far less important in her own route compared to her sister, so I gave the title to her instead. Not surprising since Koko wasn't a very deep character in the first game, nor is she here either. Still, I very much liked the both of them, and I do wish we could see more of them. The worst I can say about these routes (as well as the rest of the game, in fact) is that I want more. More routes, more spin-offs, more hilarity, more everything. Fortunately, time often resolves such issues, and I can wait to read more.

Great stories 8/10

Peak is back! Zetsubou absolutely cooked with this one

if you liked game 1 you are certainly going to like game 2

Great sequel! Though writing becomes a little bit compicated in the middle of the game, im talking about lessons on runic tools with Ein. Other than that, it's still same old Sable and his shenanigans with demi-humans and magic. P.S: Still waiting for Project Homunculus though. I will buy that game ASAP without questions asked. Drakan is the BEST GIRL! FIGHT ME!!

I have only completed 2 routes so far but my overall impressions have taken shape and I'll be surprised if the remaining routes change that. The overall rating is 'good but less so than the original'. SG2 suffers from a core, insurmountable problem. It focuses on the least interesting and likeable cast elements. With Drakan and Lisha peeled off into their own timelines, the core cast here are the annoying, frustrating, or underdeveloped ones. Most scenes are basically 'echoes' of previous ones, due to the one-dimensionality of characters like Hel or Rei. I think this rather underscores why my favorite route so far was the Sable route, in which I basically ♥♥♥♥ off and do my own magical thing without any of these side characters. SG2 also struggles somewhat with the direct contrast between its magical 'scope' and that of Dragon's Treasure or even Man and Elf. Compared to learning the secrets of dragon or elfkind and stretching the bounds of the possible while using that unusual setting to examine what makes us human, here we talk a lot about CPU design (under code name glyph arrangement) and don't really do much else. Nonetheless, the writing quality is very good and I get the sense this is a 'bridge' episode where the groundwork is being laid for a larger next step. I would recommend buying SG2 if you liked SG1 but tempering your expectations and not expecting this to be the grand climax but rather the setup episode. Edit: Koko route made me quit in annoyance within fifteen minutes, and the narm route was acceptable but relatively uninteresting, so it seems my initial impressions are still on point. The fundamental flaw of which cast members are given screen time remains the primary failing.

SPOILERS Amazing VS as usual from Zetsubou. This time in sable's Grimoire 2, he is much more focused on learning than he is into his classmates. Which for some of the game is mostly understandable, but some parts just didn't quite hit the spot that the original game + the sequels did. Let me get this first, I loved every bit, as every part was well thought out and felt immersive in their world. Sable's route was especially interesting as it dove into theory, which was welcome as that's what Sable would do. Same with Norm's route, his actions felt spot on and very wholesome. But for example, Koko's and Meara's route felt like Sable was just so detached from reality and wouldn't even try for an ounce of romance. Both of their routes ended in I'll keep you on my radar which kind of disappointed me a bit. I would also add that I felt Mears's route felt undercooked in a sense? I feel like there could be a continuation of this route if given the chance. Another note for Koko vs Meara's routes, is that Koko had an arc with sable, where they had intimate moments, emotional moments, and wholesome. A good chunk of Meara's route was spent with the other cast, and Sable's reasoning was way off. Eth's route was interesting and fulfilling, even though it didn't feel much like an ending. Also Rei's confession/ Sable's chocolate advance just died off, they didn't explore those feelings any further. Maybe room to expand more with an addition to the route? Another nit pick I would add is that it didn't have the same pacing as SG1. Critical decisions that chance the course of your ending only appear after you are 75% done, which takes away a bit of replay ability. Overall, I don't think you can go wrong with this game. Sable's Grimoire has been my favorite VN for its amazing story building, genuinely interesting characters, and phenomenal writing. This game is no different. Love the characters and to see how Sable has influenced the academy for his time spent in SG1. Any critiques I have made was out of love for this game and possibly suggestions for further development for this game or other future projects :)