I was wondering what everyone here’s experience with this series is. I personally got into it with Sekien no Inganock and moved on from there to Sharnoth and Gahkthun. I rather liked the games, though by far my favorite was Sharnoth. I’m curious about what everyone else’s impressions are when it comes to it and want to know if I’m the only one waiting with baited breath for the Sona-Nyl translation. Hopefully they get around to Celenaria and Valusia as well as the fandiscs soon too.
I’ve played Sharnoth. It was alright, but I wasn’t particularly impressed by it. I’m quite excited to give Inganock a try though~
I personally liked Sharnoth in large part because I have a major thing for the Victorian era and playing as Agatha Christie and being in Victorian London with steampunk to boot just really did it for me. The designs were also rather nice, especially the dresses that they had for Mary. They were just so very lovely.
Inganock has some issues, but I really do recommend it as well. Usually I say to play it first since it introduces some concepts important in Gahkthun and Sharnoth though.
EDIT: If anyone is wanting the sprites or backgrounds or assets for any of the translated ones, I can get most of them. I still need to find a japanese version of Ourai though to get the base game’s stuff. I can get around it through shining night though.
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I’ve read a part of Inganock, but I dropped it for whatever reason a year or so ago. I love the steampunk genre however, so I definitely plan to give it another shot in the near future, probably after I move house, it was definitely interesting from what I remember.
I only read Gahkthun, and it was a very fun read, with a very fluid translation. I liked the music and the art, a lot really, but I found the story very underwhelming. The episodic format worked very well in the beginning, I honestly had almost no problems with it whatsoever until the big finale, which was very irritating in how it made it seem like all the individual stories were build up for something incredible, only for it to be very long and boring monster battle against a character previously unintroduced, and lacking any intriguing features.
Still, it was fun and charming, and I’m planning on checking out the next one once it’s translated.
Actually very early on, probably episode one or two, the rose starts to be introduced in the segments where you are tasked to make a choice. He comes up several times before when it comes to that, and the mosnter is constantly referred to as the director up until then. Its not immediately obvious, but hes been behind everything, and the other games give a bit more context as to the cracking effect and shadows and what the bell might be
You should check out Inganock and Sharnoth, they both are translated but not on steam.
Oh, no, I mean, I understand his role in the story, I just wasn’t interested or intrigued by him. While the stakes might’ve been high, there wasn’t anything particularly unique or interesting about him and I found it hard to care- the fight against him was also, not only long, but bizarrely slowed my normally very nice computer down to an absolute slog, and I spent the whole time just trying to get to the end. All the other monsters and foes in the story had a sort of depth to them that the big bad final boss lacked- He was evil because he was evil, which isn’t nearly as interesting as the more personal and complicated battles in the episodic segments. I remember Berta and the Door much more than the end boss. The CG was cool, though.
Do you know where I could buy them, then? I don’t like to download games without paying for them, as a general rule.
Also, did they ever explain what was up with Izumi? I swear I read the whole thing, including the bonus short stories, but I don’t recall her whole deal ever actually being explained.
I don’t remember where to buy them, you probably could get physical copies of the japanese off of amazon or something but those are likely expensive. Its hard to get into VIsual Novels solely through purchasing htem unfortunately considering the very low availability of so many of them in the west. Its good to purchase them when you can, but sometimes it really is just not feasible due to availability being pretty much nil.
As for Izumi. Shes Kadathian. They’re cat people, its something thats mentioned in Sharnoth. The tail, hair, and ears are all real. Kadath is an alternate dimension you reach through a portal in the north pole. Its also where all the steam tech originated.
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