Sunset's Ashes

It's a game!

Experience the short story of Alex and Nic as they share memories with each other while climbing a mountain together for the first time. For years, Alex has been going for climbs, and trying to get Nic to join. Outdoor trips for her always meant renting a live-in recreational vehicle, but she’s leaving her comfort zone and do this one climb. It’s a chance for them to remember their lives together and know why this climb is so important. It features multiple scenes as they climb through different parts of the mountain to reach the summit. There will be an option to travel up a certain path during the experience, which provide different story elements between the characters.

A short lighthearted story with an emotional twist towards the end. The backgrounds are lovely and the one CG fits the artstyle of them quite well. In terms of storytelling everything is conveyed through dialogue between Nic and Alex, which immerses you in the story quite well. There is flirting especially at the beginning which can be quite jarring, at least it was for me. Having one achievement barred behind a DLC is certainly a choice, but not a dealbreaker. All in all it's a decent story you can read for free if you got some spare time.

The short sad story itself is 8/10 but the developer's choice to add one achievement that you can get only by buying DLC, makes it 6/10.

Birlikte ilk kez bir dağa tırmanırken anılarını paylaşan Alex ve Nic'in kısa öyküsünü deneyimleyin. Alex yıllardır tırmanışlara gidiyor ve Nic'in de katılmasını sağlamaya çalışıyor. Bu onlar için birlikte hayatlarını hatırlamaları ve bu tırmanışın neden bu kadar önemli olduğunu bilmeleri için bir şans.

Sunset’s Ashes is another extremely short Vn, that is trying to have “big plot twist”. Following the lead of failures like “Luminescence” and “Carpe Diem”, it only offers disappointment to the reader. The story feels very bland and uninspiring. It’s basically about a couple, that is trying to claim a mountain. Here, I summed up basically 95% of the story for you ,so you can save 50 min on this excuse of a VN. The characters sound weird? The dynamic, that they display is very unnatural. They say things that, regular person wouldn’t, or even if you wanna indulge then: “well written character of a VN wouldn’t say”. It’s wooden. It’s dry. It shows clearly, that there was no effort, or thought put into it. I complain a lot about various short VNs, that are lacklustre, but I want to mentioned that short novels can still be good. The prime example of it “Lilly of the Valley”. Two hours long story and it’s 10/10, because it well deserves this rating! The story doesn’t need to be long to be good. This one is neither long or good.. The art-style feels uncanny. Author tried to create the illusion of the realism with the sprites, but it ended looking odd. The backgrounds are very simplistic and boring. They fail to intrigue, or cause ave. Something you would except from a view of a top of a mountain, but I guess not in this case. The audio is following suit with the graphics. I won’t waste your time with describing it, like the VN wasted my time. However, the worst part is yet to come. This game has achievements, which is cool by itself, but one of them is locked behind a 1$ paywall. The author claims that the DLC, that you need to buy offer extra story and other goods, that you usually get with “Support packs” like this. From the other reviews, I was able to deduct, that it’s actually a waste of money. You are locking the one last achievement, that could lead to another 100% behind paywall?.At least have decency, to charge it up front like “Luminescence” did! It really feels scummy. Rating is 4/100

This is a sweet and sad short visual novel. No voiceovers. I enjoyed it. You have to go through 3 times with all choices and purchase the DLC and go through it to get all achievements. Cards don't drop so hope you have some crystals or cash in your steam wallet to max out the badge.