Dragon Essence:Color My World

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applegirl
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Dragon Essence:Color My World

#1 Post by applegirl »

After 6 years, the latest visual novel by Zeiva Inc. is released: http://zeiva.net/dragon/first_index.html

This was collaborated with another artist and I thought I'd start a thread discussing it.

Personal thoughts in spoiler ofc:
I realize now that Area-X for me was THE visual novel for Zeiva inc. Which is a good and bad thing, good in that I feel like Area-X was a really fantastically done visual novel that had such a long and in-depth story that it set the bar really high. Bad in that I miss the days that Zeiva inc did longer visual novels, but realistically I know that the market isn't feasible for that kind anymore. I start this because if I had to rank Dragon Essence, it would be less than Area-X but greater than X-note.

Storywise: this felt like a very personal story. Very different than the kind I'd find in the visual novel market and I really enjoyed it, or at least I really enjoyed one path in particular. The one with an actual romance while the others I felt were less. Which to be fair, I think may be due to the author being true to her story and characters, but made for honestly very depressing paths.

Art: Easily 10/10. No question, everything is beautiful and well done.

Music: The original music that was composed for this was very beautiful and poignant. Fitting for each scene and I found it well done as well

Characters: Having completed it fully, I found the characters to be strong and well fleshed out. They felt very real and while I personally had a few questions regarding their line of thinking, I found it to be well written and believable (to an extent---but that may be due to my own misunderstandings/lack of knowledge of the Three kingdoms).

Romance: Personally found it more romantic than X-note, less than Area-X but again, may be my bias.

Questions: I personally didn't get the antagonist's line of thinking. His revelation regarding the gold and the dragons didn't really make sense to me, at all. I personally would have interpreted it as an act of mercy? Not to mention, I was confused by how the dragons were so passive unless they had no power? Plus, the mother storyline (while strong) made me honestly confused how they could have left her in the first place (unless I guess they never realized possible consequences of their behavior but wow, that is really short sighted behavior). Also my main criticism of the romance is there isn't any beyond one path, and to be fair, I thought the childhood friend had seriously no flaws? Maybe I couldn't buy into the whole "abandon everything for a dragon" but like I wanted to choose the second guy :/

Mini-games: Honestly not too challenging and were very age appropriate. I liked how there were none I had to go instantly to the web to ask Zeiva for help, though I honestly preferred the mini games of Area-X to these.

Overall Enjoyment: I was glad I bought and played this visual novel. Do I honestly think it to be their best work? No, but it still is heads and shoulders above others in the market. I think X-note and AniCom are more in line for expectations than a long branching visual novel like Area-X, but I found it interesting and I like the fact that Zeiva Inc. takes risks.

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