The Pretty Blerd Guardian!

It’s Tuesday! So you know what that meaaaaaaaaans-

Time for some tea. A daily article where I gush about newer titles coming out and what’s the latest news in our community! And while we have some bigger titles out here soon, I’ve been wanting to focus on indie amare/otome visual novels that are currently being developed. So get cozy with your favorite blanket and refreshment as I dish about these two upcoming indie titles~

Alaris

It’s not my birthday anymore but I’m really feeling seen here with this influx of fantasy based amare titles filled with my favorite mythical creatures and today is no different! Crescence Studio, the same game developer who brought me to The Good People, finally introduced their newest title! Alaris, a game inspired by the lore of dragons and fae.

A world of magic awaits! A game inspired by the lore of Dragon and Fae, Alaris is a fantasy-romance visual novel, where you can customize your character for a dynamic and immersive experience steeped in magic.

With choices that will shape your story, relationships, and even personality, you decide whether you will be brave, kind, wise, or charismatic. You take command of your fate as you uncover a history lost to the ages.

So off the bat, I’m noticing that we’re not stumbling headfirst into this fantasy world as a mortal but as someone already established within it with the ability to heal and detect the natural aura of someone which also gets kudo points for me because, and this is just a personal taste, you don’t have to adopt any kind of dependency on another character. You are your own support and that’s the kind of independence I enjoy, especially if our MC is trying to uncover some secrets.

And while we’re talking about independence, I’m really looking forward to another feature this game promises: choices. We will be given different options to choose from to help shape the story of our MC that will lead us to separate (and multiple?) endings, promising that our build of personality stats will present many variations as to how the game will unfold for you. Why is this my favorite? Replayability. I love a game that I can play through once, set it down for a while and be able to enjoy it in a different way. It reminds me of those Choose Your Adventure books I used to read and thoroughly love as a kid because, unlike the RPG games I sorely love, this gave me the power to decide what happens – for better or worse.

But who are we deciding our fates with? Let’s take a peek at our current cast:

I’d choose favorites but I literally love every one of them.

We’ve been blessed with six love interests and they’re all absolutely gorgeous! Every one of them has a pretty approachable, down-to-earth personality despite their mysterious occupations. Admittedly I’m a little unsure of what the occupations mean… maybe it’s what they can transform into? Are Kayn and Druk involved in some kind of faction? Is this going to be a dragon vs fae war story?

Also what the heck is dragon energy vision and does that mean we get glowing eyes?

So, so many questions about the story! And if you’re a lore gobbler like myself, you’re probably too excited to wait around so I highly suggest trying out their demo and also supporting their Kickstarter to ensure we can enjoy these elaborate game features! With Alaris already halfway to their goal, I’m pretty confident they’ll reach it before the month is out but we really want to push further than that to achieve voice acting.

Alaris feels like the start of something wonderful for the community and what it could mean for amare/visual novel titles in the future; the art is charming, its story gives us depth, and the developers work hard to be active on all of their socials by engaging with the player base. These are all hopeful signs of a successful game and knowing this is coming from an indie studio ran by a solo developer just deepens my admiration for their hard work, I hope that others will recognize this too and put in their support.

DEMO: https://crescence-studio.itch.io/alaris
KICKSTARTER: http://kck.st/3K2F0UX
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/CrescenceStudio

Garden of Seif

Play as an assassin navigating a world of danger–

I’m sorry, let me just pause a second – did you say assassin?
….
I get to play as a badass assassin?

Ahem, sorry I kind of got distracted there for a second. Let me finish!

Play as an assassin navigating a world of danger, adventure, and romance, and a meddlesome fairy godmother. Will you play with evil intentions or will you forge genuine alliances?

Foxdrift Studios presents a game following the less traditional path where we play as an undercover assassin named Iris who is currently on a quest to eliminate her targets somewhere within the vast continent of Zalstar until she comes across the path of a rival assassin’s guild and two handsome but untrustworthy strangers asking for her companionship.

What intrigues me the most about this story so far is our MC, Iris. It’s stated that while Iris is someone who we can sympathize with and consider a strong heroine, she is also mentioned to be a villainess. Honestly? I’m here for it. It’s about time we get the chance to walk on the wild side with a character who is strong in her convictions and doesn’t follow the same moral path as everyone else. They state that ‘as the story progresses, you’ll find that the lines between good and evil are blurred’ – which means everything will be left to our interpretation to decide what is the wrong and right decision.

This is SUCH a great factor in storytelling and I think it’s destined to inspire a lot of conversations between the players who will discuss why they made their decisions. The possible similarities between Garden of Seif and the show My Next Life as a Villainess didn’t escape me but I’ll admit saying that I thought more about the Witcher after reading the premise – a story about a monster hunter who slays beasts for coin but sometimes has to make difficult decisions and sometimes gets confused who is the true monster, the beasts or the people who hire him. It’s a game about grey morality and probably one of my biggest reasons why I love the Witcher series a lot, so knowing that Garden of Seif plans to do the very same – I’m excited to see what they have in store.

Oh no I love both of them..

As far as love interests, we are given two and they immediately fall into the ‘enemies to lovers’ category as they both claim to be worthy allies despite Iris’ obvious doubts. Personally, I enjoy the idea of having just two love interests to focus on because it means more time will be dedicated to not only their character growth but Iris’ too. And if we’re being honest here, both of them look like trouble – I mean look at that smug look on Dust Hunter’s face and that cocky grin on Seth’s! Yeah, I don’t think we’ve anything to worry about as far as fun distractions go.

And why would we be? With an entire supporting cast, detailed maps, animated cutscenes, and an alternate side story already in the works – Aeriel went above and beyond to give us a story about adventure, deceit, and love found in a world of villains. Their Kickstarter only has 7 days left with nearly 3k left needed so please consider supporting them! If you’re not willing to play by the rules and wait for its release, go ahead and get your baddie on by playing their demo.

DEMO: https://foxdrift-studios.itch.io/garden-of-seif
KICKSTARTER: http://kck.st/3b9UglV
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/FoxdriftStudios