Release date: 2019-05-12 (Lost Chapters DLC added on 2021-06-24)
Developer & publisher: Dusky Hallows Studio
"Sanguine Rose" is a short one-shot visual novel published by a couple duo Dusky and Hallows. It has limited information about the setting, is set in a single location, has a small number of characters, and the events happen over a short time frame, but it is a beautiful and very enjoyable experience nonetheless.
 |
| Carmen in all her glory. |
We get very small tidbits of information about the greater world of "Sanguine Rose", beyond what we need to understand the current predicament of our characters. There is a war going on, and a small mercenary band led by our protagonist Roman had a job to kidnap the commander of the enemy army Carmen Valentine. The job goes well, as we see in the flashback, and Roman, his friend Glasha, and two people whom they have hired for this job - rogue Markus and half-orc Crow - all sequester within a cabin in the woods together with their prisoner, while they await for further instructions from their employer.
 |
| Not your usual prisoner interrogation tactic. |
Things don't appear to be going well, as their employer fails to contact them, while Carmen, a shrewd and manipulative woman, starts playing psychosexual games with her captors. It's quite surprising how willing Roman and co are to engage Carmen with her games, which doesn't paint a good picture of their professionalism, but I was willing to suspend my disbelief in order to enjoy hot and steamy situations that derive from their actions. And "hot and steamy" is right, as Carmen's perverse nature, coupled with absolutely gorgeous art, really makes "Sanguine Rose" an enjoyable novel to read.
The art is truthfully the very first thing people will notice upon launching the game. In the age of 3D renders and AI art, beautiful hand-painted sprites and CGs of SR are a breath of fresh air. There is some inconsistencies between the art, where sometimes the linework is sharp and precise, while other times it is more abstract, but that is absolutely forgivable, because the game always look gorgeous. The sprites are very expressive, and the sex scenes look hot as hell. And there are plenty of kinks to explore in this VN: bondage, public sex, sub/dom dynamics and various forms of seduction.
 |
| Guarding the prisoner is a fun job. |
The game is not heavy on plot, and takes just and hour and a half to complete once, but it has quite a few different endings, and in order to finish them all ad average player will take 8-9 hours. Unfortunately, the variety of endings is probably my main disappointment about the game, as when it comes down to it, only four of the endings are truly distinct, while others are just variations with minor differences. Some of the endings have extended epilogues to flesh out what happens after the events at the cabin, while other endings just end abruptly, while leaving us blue-balled.
In fact, the whole game kinda blue-balls us, as after fully finishing it I craved a more extensive look at this world, and the characters within, but that is not possible anymore, because the couple that has made the game has broke up and took the studio down with them, so we will never have a continuation or another game in the same setting. They did release a small DLC, called "Lost Chapters" that adds three small unlockable scenes to the game. And while they don't have any particular impact on plot, I found at least one of these scenes very arousing, due to its BDSM nature.
 |
| What's wrong with the dress you have? |
While SR has five main characters, I would argue that only three of them are of any importance. That being Roman himself, a shy submissive half-orc Crow, who becomes Carmen's main target to manipulate her and get into her head and her panties, and, of course, Carmen herself. I loved Carmen's unabashed nymphomaniacal nature, and how she was willing to be both a dominant and a submissive, depending on how the situation favoured her. She is a very proud woman, and her games are in part to prove to herself that she can escape her current predicament without resorting to something as uncouth as violence. Only if you refuse to play her games and act hostile to her, will she show her bloodthirsty side.
Carmen will inevitably end up escaping in some way in the vast majority of endings, but depending on the choices you made, at least one character will usually end up dead by the end of the game, and the VN contains quite a surprising amount of violent and bloody scenes. The objectively best ending is probably the one where Roman ends up in a relationship with Crow, but the one I probably liked the most is the ending where he becomes a submissive slave to Crow and Carmen.
 |
| Aww, thank you, Ash! |
Anyway, I think that "Sanguine Rose" is a shortie definitely worthy of attention, if you are not a 3D-fag and don't expect a game heavy on plot, but heavy on very hot sex and steamy teasing.
P.S. It's kind of weird that Glasha doesn't have any sex scenes with Roman and cannot end up in a relationship with him. Muscle mommies deserve our love!
Links of Interest
Final Verdict: 86%
0 comments:
Post a Comment