STORY
Arguably the best thing about Sorcerer is storytelling. This game takes you from a series of bad-written, random events onto a full-blown magic adventure. The writing skill of the developer got a lot better during development and more believable within a fantasy setting. There are many unique approaches to situations within this game and while there are hundreds of events happening, most of them remain memorable far after you’ve completed the game. That’s completely due to the diligent and consistent story writing, which highlights the developers research into this subject.
The devil is - pun intended - in the details. Subtle variations between faerie and sprite, imp and goblin, Japanese and American, titan and orc, angel and demi-angel - this writer knows fantasy material and the inherent characteristics that come with each variation. Impressive, especially with so many species in one game. Often, a visual signal representing a race will let you know who you are dealing with if you learn to look for it. That level of detail is a quality.
Note however - the start of the game is pretty low-quality story wise. The ending is way better and choices are handled appropriately, but I would love for this game to get an update where both of them are further developed. The ‘WTF’ confusion of the first 20 minutes doesn’t do the rest of the game justice at all and finally seeing/meeting the primary antagonist in the final 10 minutes robs the story of dramatic weight. The story arc is by no means bad - but I like it so much that the final climax should be equally as memorable.
In my 20+ hrs playthrough, a lot happened with a lot of races in a lot of locations. From different biomes to interiors, almost everything looks like it respects the environment it needs to represent. That goes a long way for Sorcerer, even though the writing has a tendency to show faults at times. Being such a strong story-heavy game, I hope someone can one day go back and polish this gem up. There’s so much fun story building in here that I can imagine people falling in love with this universe.
PRESENTATION
While playing on Android, I was impressed at the visuals on my tablet. Because the game sometimes uses small hints in the background of scenes, it’s important for things to look right. And they do, if maybe a bit old-school in rendering. For my taste, it looks great. Better than believable and it’s the outlier species where this game truly shines. From wings to elemental manifests, care is put into the way things are represented. Down to the way magic spells bound people and magic platforms keep people afloat, it’s believable while being unrealistic.
Swapping to PC I figured out the sex scenes were less of a hassle than on Android. It features screenshots and animations (which are usually just two screens alternating). Most sex scenes (and there are a ton) are pretty basic and dry - which is a bit of a let-down considering the characters are fleshed out. There’s almost no ‘sex talk’ and while courting and flirting is in the game, it’s kept to a minimum. It sometimes just makes you want to ‘skip through’ a sex scene, which is sad because the dev puts in so much work. On PC, there’s an additional ‘cum’ camera angle added and it’s welcomed, because there’s a gripe I have to mention next.
My biggest culprit with the graphics are camera angles. That’s not to say the camera angles in this game are bad - but this game habitually doesn’t do closeups. There are exceptions (like certain ‘small’ sex scenes), but many times I would have wanted the game to zoom in on something personal - and it sticks to wide shots. This dev does know framing well (as shown in conversation shots), so there has to be a deliberate reason for this. In example - when the cabin attack (intro) happens, I could barely make out what was attacking or who was attacked. I think the dev has since picked up the variation to make for better storytelling, but I would have liked more of that.
Overall, graphics are good to great. When in special environments, you can really tell the developer wanted to take the time to do something extra and it shows. Creatures look great yet practical and spells are fully believable. Personally I would have loved more facial interaction from the characters, but if you peep closely you’ll see some facial action happening. Yes, those facials as well. There are inconsistencies in placement throughout, but those are easily forgiven looking at the amount of content this game has.
GAMEPLAY
It’s a VN, so while there isn’t much technical gameplay - choices do matter and give you different paths leading to different partners. You can become a loyal soloist with a Lady of the Arts, just as well become a courter of many within your magical circle or even go commando on every hole which offers itself. I would have loved a hinting system that let’s you know what influence your choice made (either through direct feedback or in the end), but I guess that’s part of the charm of finding out. The game has rollback enabled, so if you feel like it isn’t the choice for your MC, pick a different one.
This is a great game and must-play if you like magic/fantasy. It needs a better start and it could use a more dramatic ending, but otherwise works well. Even the one supporting character I disliked most grew on me in the end. The game runs long and while sometimes it may appear a bit directionless, friends will always make sure you get into something. I don't know how it would work out with the baby-making factory, but I would love to see a return to this franchise happen.
Rating: 9/10
Developer: Talhotral
