Gods of the Twilight Reviews

Quick review: An extremely intriguing, competently made, and entertaining visual novel. I honestly cannot wait to see how it shapes up. Might not have the budget of some of the greats, but I honestly enjoyed what I have seen so far even more than some of the legendary visual novels like Fate: Stay Night! In this review I rate the aspects that are what I personally think about with a visual novel. Graphics: I think the character designs are all solid, and meet a perfectly good standard within the visual novel spectrum with a good mixture of decent character sprites and unique art pieces. I will say that the art is not 'the' most amazing visual novel art I have ever seen, because that would be hyperbolic, and because there are some pretty uniquely beautiful outliers in that regard. Let me be clear though this visual novel does not fall behind what I consider the general good standard, no character is just awkward or ugly. I would give Gods of the Twilight a 7/8 out of 10 in that regard (Better than bog standard, but not in awe inspiring category, and it is particularly good for what I take to be an indie project.) Music: Really does its job, the opening menu music in particular left me feeling primed like I was in for an exciting anime series or something of the like. Naturally don't expect the absolute eargasms that some Japanese visual novels love to throw at you (their budgets are a lot, lot higher.). However nothing hit me as lazy or of a low standard. Because only the opening menu music really hit me I would give it a 6 out 10. Though please take my rating with a pinch of salt because I am not much of a music person so it takes some pretty amazing sound tracks to actually make me take notice. Story: Note for me this is the most important aspect! My goodness, this is where this visual novel shines. I think it has only just begun but it has me guessing about the mysteries, and the build up to drama doesn't waste time at all. The characters are fascinating, very fallible and human, but also actually quite likeable. That is an impressive juggle as sometimes in modern writing characters become so 'morally grey' that they just come across as nihilistic jerks that make me roll my eyes and quickly stop reading. These characters don't and that matters. They're fallible humans but I can imagine being friends with some of them. Other's I didn't like, but even that felt like a normal reaction to not liking everyone. I was in particular pleasantly surprised by the male MC... because frankly from his art design I was dreading him being a total edgelord, but turns out he is far more grounded and likeable than that. He might describe himself as a jerk and a A**hole, but the writing is multilayered enough that he feels much more than that. I feel that there is so, so much more to come in the story, but as long as writing doesn't nose dive in quality I think it is a solid 9 out 10 for me - (For context that's more than I would give Fate Stay Night!!) Choices: There are a fair amount of choices and so far I have felt a reasonable amount of opportunities to shape the MCs. There is some necessary railroading to keep the plot on track. I also particularly appreciate there aren't too many - dang you didn't follow the central lane : you die endings! At least so far, I really hope those don't get piled on as they are not personally to my taste (makes choices feel fake.) I feel in fairness that what should be highlighted is the quality of choices over the amount. There don't tend to be a long list of options, but the ones you are given have impact. I have seen quite a few visual novels with more, but they tend to be less deeply impactful and more just for flavour. 7-8 out of 10. Not as many choices as some visual novels, but definitely a satisfying amount for the kind of high drama story this is. Now for the absolute stand out aspect for me. Voicing: Goodness me the voice actors are slamming it home! The emotions are there, but thankfully not over acted. There is nuance and they - to me - manage to pull off sounding like they are properly interacting not just recording their own individual lines. I am pretty certain also that most of them are genuinely from the regions their characters are meant to come from since their accents come across as so authentic. I have seen top budget visual novels sound worse in this regard. So 10/10 for me they really drew me into the narrative and made me care about their characters. So that makes it 39/41 out 50, and I'm a harsh marker. If my rating seems still harsh, remember that story for me is king and that's why this visual novel stands out head and shoulders above a lot of its fellows. So if you happen to be thinking about giving it a go - do it!