Sanguine Roses
“What’s that! Looks suspicious!”-my PC
First Impressions:
Stunning Artwork, Unique Gameplay, Chilling Narrative, Not RPGMaker, Classy Card Combat System, Great Music
Mini Essay:
When I started playing I thought this was an RPGMaker game and was impressed by how smooth the movement was, it’s still very impressive how fluid the motion of all the sprites and map are but more understandable as something not made in RM.
In the first playthrough not only was I unable to read the starting text I also gave up on the run partway through because I was terribly lost. The lack of maps and menu screen and even the ability to save or exit the game from within the game were contributeing factors to what was almost the end of my experience, but the reviews and comments I had seen convinced me to give SR a second chance. I’m very glad I did.
This time, after a snack break, I started a new game prepared to read the narrative. The storyline is gripping! The writing of the grusome scenes was visceral and set my hair on end. (I’m pretty sure the second and third to last text blocks of the intro are dupes). The jarring crash sound effects at the beggining appear to only be used twice in the whole game and feel a little out of place but the rest of the sound design was on point.
The music was extremely fitting and in the second playthrough a joy to listen to. In the first I ended up with a little bit of sound fatigue from hearing the same thing too many times. Although the pathing is fairly intuitive when considering the phrase “Up and Out” It was less clear in casual passing.
The combat was really fun, I’ve been searching for games with similar combat systems and the interactive environment in combat was chefs kiss!
Thanks for the Great Game!