Here it is, dear fellow gamers: the last 'Summer of Mystery' instalment, and
probably the meatiest as well. Ashen Hawk is similar to Black
Butterfly: a Choose Your
Own Adventure type of VN, with plenty of branching paths and no active
romancing. And as the title implies, it's really good. In fact, it's one
of the best VNs I've read, with a stellar build-up and sky-high production
values. Here's how PAH manages to be the cream of the crop of otome VNs:
— The leading lady is a genuinely deep character and not a mere placeholder for
the player. Forget about your usual mute, nondescript otome heroine: Jed is the
story's main focus through and through, and her personality and interactions
with the rest of the cast are lovingly detailed and get tons of screen time.
She's also fully voiced, and we get to see her 'act' on the screen instead of
merely seing her portrait in a corner of the dialogue box.
— NOT every single male in sight is a love interest, and the leading lady has
interactions with other people beyond her potential lovers. All too often,
otome VNs create some sort of love bubble that solely contains the heroine and
her beaus, as though the rest of the world had simply evaporated. If you're
lucky, you get one or two female friends, a baby brother or a bunch of comic
relief sidekicks; but there's never any doubt about the fact that those extra
characters are mere side dishes. Not so in PAH: not only is a good half
of the male cast out of Jed's romantic reach, but she also entertains all sorts
of relationships with all sorts of characters, from superficial friendliness to
deep filial love.
— PAH is a gorgeous case of 'Show, don't tell'. The game sports plenty
of character interactions that give us a good feel of the cast' personalities
and relationships, but also allow us to discover the game world and its stakes.
PAH really takes the time to establish its lore and atmosphere — which,
incidentally, led a number of reviewers to deem the story too lengthy and
drawn-out. It's a matter of taste, I guess: as far as I'm concerned, I totally
lapped up PAH's long exposition and patient world-building.
— PAH is blessed with the Greatest Art of Them All, a splendid display
of drawing mastery that enhances the atmosphere and makes us love the cast even
more. I honestly don't think I've ever taken that many screenshots in a VN —
heck, every single cutscene called for a screen capture! Not only that, but the
chara design is also stupendously gorgeous, with lovely outfits, stylish
aircuts and lovingly detailed facial expressions. I deem Lavan the Best Otome
Beau Ever as far as looks are concerned: not only does he genuinely look like
the young adult he's supposed to be, but he's so ridiculously hunky that he
manages to pull off a mullet and make it look darn sexy.
— PAH is rife with erotic and romantic tension despite its tricky
cross-dressing setting. Mind you, this was quite the tall order: having an
heroine pose as a male was not exactly the ideal setting to create a sultry
atmosphere, and I wondered how the game was going to pull the whole thing off.
The answer is: darn well. I won't tread too much on spoiler territory,
but suffice to say that the writers found plenty of clever little ways to sneak
in steamy moments without requiring any major suspension of disbelief from the
player. Cherry on the cake, eroticism stems from different settings depending
on the involved beau (spoilers!): Lavan knows that Jed is a woman yet
uses Jed's male act to get physically close to her without looking like a
pervert, while Lugus falls in love with the double cross-dressing female
version of Jed upon a misunderstanding; as for Levi, he loves Jed regardless of
her sex and is thus deeply troubled by any physical closeness or mark of
affection from her. (End of spoilers)
As dazzling a VN as PAH is, it unfortunately doesn't manage to be
dazzling all the way through. Somewhere around the two-third mark, things
subtly start going astray; and in a matter of chapters, PAH squanders
its amazing potential and fizzles out, going from a brilliant VN to a merely
decent one. Let's meet again soon for the story
of that demise, dear fellow
gamers; until then, thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!
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