Sona-Nyl of the Violet Shadows Refrain Reviews

Sona-Nyl provides a beautiful, immersive experience in its wonderfully crafted world, populated by characters riddled with undesired secrets in a setting blanketed with a bleak mystique of elements juxtaposing fantasy and reality, all through the lens of its two female protagonists. One young woman and one young girl, lost souls treading through a post-apocalyptic city where they both attempt to reach the end of their goals, learning more of what could have caused the place they were exploring to have become the way it is and mingling with the citizens and the things they have left behind after the tragedy. The latter has no memories of who she really is, while the former suppressed her memories of who she was before, and it is by undertaking this journey through the city, so long as the woman and the girl keep their heads up in spite of everything, only then can the both of them discover their own identity and regain their lost humanity. The story may be slow-paced majority of the time, and the prose a bit too repetitive, but it is all significantly deliberate and meaningful in telling its tale. Every new location has something the protagonists will learn from, and every new character residing in those areas will always have an emotional impact on them, challenging their convictions and teaching them emotions lost and forgotten, for no chapter fails to fulfill its purpose of developing its characters in this story. There are fight scenes, but don't expect them to be action-packed because quite honestly, they all boil down to the enemy being regarded as super strong until they got defeated through one strike to the face. Yes, the fight scenes follow this simple structure. However, don't let that discourage you, for the focus of this visual novel is not to let you read cool fight scenes, but rather to make you feel the emotions and feelings emanating from all the characters. What do they feel about their situation? What makes them calm or uneasy? What will they do when faced with something unimaginable? These questions perpetually influence the progression of both the plot and the characters, and the conclusion they have arrived will manifest in their confrontation against the villains of the setting and the words they've expressed which steeled their resolve in defeating them. It is never much about HOW they will prevail, but rather WHY they will prevail. Why must she go through such a perilous and unrewarding journey with no clear destination? Why does she continue talking to the NPCs when she can just pass by them and focus on reaching that end? Why does it matter to us readers to know what they feel about the experiences they're having and the memories they've accumulated along the way? Why? Well, there's only one way to answer that question. Buy this visual novel, and read it from the beginning up to the end.