SPOILER WARNING
It's been a while since I played the demo of The Divine Speaker, but since the game was so great, I finally decided to write down my feelings about it. English is not my first language, but I try my best to bring the message home.
The brilliance of the game starts right at the beginning with the opening scene. It’s not complete at this point, but already gives an idea of how extensive and detailed the finished sequence will be. Since only a few Visual Novels contain animations, this is a special feature that immediately catches your eye. Especially the body movements of the characters give the impression of watching an anime. It looks so professional it is hard to imagine that only a small team has done that. And it's their first VN! Kudos!
I also love the sprites and CG's. You can tell right away that the artists put a lot of effort into shaping the world. I especially love the frequency of the CG’s. This way, the world seems much more alive than it would be without them. The beautiful backgrounds impress me the most. In many visual novels, they are second thought or in need of improvement. Here, however, they look very detailed and atmospheric. It’s very easy to look at them and feel like a part of the world.
The same thing can be said about the wonderful music. I especially like the opening sequence, which is not only animated but also has an own song, which is very memorable. Both composer and vocal artist have done a really great job. But the other music pieces are also very melodic and atmospheric. I can’t wait to hear more of these beautiful pieces of art in the later course of game.
Also worth mentioning is the general atmosphere of the game. Funny scenes take turns with serious and sad scenes. It’s easy for the player to share many different feelings with the characters. I especially like the little horror elements that were included in the demo, for example the backpack scene. You really feel sorry for poor Raen at that moment.
Also a big THANK YOU for the many different languages the game has to offer. Usually I have to stay with English. But since English is not my native language and I don’t understand some words and therefore have to look them up, my flow of play is often disturbed at some points. It is a great bonus for me to be able to play in my own language.
The characters are also very intriguing, Leos for example is a fascinating guy. I wonder why he lied to Raen and got him into trouble. What’s his agenda? Why did he do such a thing to a person he doesn’t even know? I really want to find out. Plus his voice is hot as hell! Fawn already makes a very likeable impression. I especially like his wisdom and gentleness. I hope he shows more of these personality traits as the game progresses. It makes him so sweet and kind. I'm also curious about Cyne. Since he’s the only one we haven’t seen at this point, he’s kind of a mystery. But judging from his description, it could become a very interesting (and difficult) ‘ride’ with him. I'm curious. ; )
For the most part, the dialogues are very good and impressively show how different the characters talk and act. Especially The Speaker fascinates me. I really hope that the stretch goal with his background story will be reached. I would love to learn more about his past and, ideally, experience it first-hand.
Written language is the foundation of every story. That's why it's always very important to me that dialogues, inner monologues, and thoughts are plausible and make sense. They are crucial to whether or not you can relate to the characters in the course of the events. Without proper language, there’s no way to feel different emotions for them. I’m glad The Divine Speaker works so well at this point. It’s easy to understand how Raen and Fawn feel at various situations.
There are only few situations where I can’t understand or follow Rae’s way (or lack) of thinking. But please don’t take this personally, it’s just the way how I feel and reflects my subjective impression. I remember two situations that seemed a bit strange to me. At the beginning Raen told the orphan that bad guys and dangerous animals live in the forest around Aurelia Cavella. Shortly afterwards, the orphan asks him if really everyone lives in Aurelia Cavella and he says yes. But how can everyone live there if there are bad guys in the forest at the same time? I was also wondering why Raen is not surprised that there are so many human-made objects lying around the river in the forest, although allegedly everyone in the entire world lives in Aurelia Cavella? I mean, there were obviously a lot of things lying around there. It seems unlikely that the people in Aurelia Cavella threw all of them into the river and then they continued to flow to the forest. Especially the scrolls and books in Fawn's room would never have survived this way. Even someone as naive as Raen should be skeptical about the things they told him in Aurelia Cavella after seeing Fawns house and listening to his speech about other cities. I understand that he did not immediately have a clear head for those thoughts, but later he should have noticed that. I also wonder if he didn’t hear what the speaker said about his father when he chased Raen out into the forest, or if it just didn’t seem important enough to him at that moment? But if the latter is the case, why doesn’t he remember it afterwards? Why doesn’t he think that’s important? These are all little moments in which I wished Raen was a bit more thoughtful. He may be naive, but he is not stupid. And that's why it sometimes seems strange to me that he doesn’t question or wonder about various things at all… at least in situations where I think everyone would be skeptical. But as I said before, that's just my subjective impression.
The other thing that bothered me a bit was the long pauses between the interactive scenes. I would have wished for more choices, even if not all of them had long term consequences. It would give more individuality to a playthrough.
However, apart from these two points, I was very satisfied and can fully recommend the game at this stage. I'm really looking forward to the final product. You do a great job! Thank you so much. It was a great experience, and I’m sure I’ll play the demo again. : )