Azephir Games
Fantasy Visual Novel, 2022
The Alchemist is a visual novel that allows one to live out the life of an apprentice alchemist in a fantasy setting.
While the product description suggests that I would actually live out an actual fantasy adventure, the reality is that this is another dating simulation. Okay, I guess since I’ve already paid for this thing, they may as well roll out the meat.
Fans of the fantasy genre will surely recognize the archetypes right away.
From the left, there’s Will, the nature-loving lone wolf of a ranger. He’s not a man of many words, because, you know, rangers are all like that.
Next to him is Nath, the mischievous mage that is occupied with finding magical things and locating secret places like tombs and what not.
Then there’s Duran, the knight. He’s the love ’em, leave ’em type that predictably enough has plenty of angst and commitment issues beneath his exterior.
Finally, there’s Sullivan, the quiet, distant bard that has some secrets for you to unpack.
There’s also a possible fifth romance option here, one that isn’t mentioned in the marketing materials, but it should be pretty obvious whom this person is. I am, after all, given an option to present a gift to them, just like I can with the other four potential love interests.
The plot is simple: I play an apprentice in my fifth and hopefully final year of training, and for this trip, I will accompany my Master to meet up with her friend Iwen in Oolig.
Together, all of us will be part of a caravan that will head over the border between my country, Astera, and the neighboring kingdom of Bremar.
Supposedly this is just an ordinary trade caravan, but I will soon realize that there is more than meets the eye when it comes to this journey. Along the way, there is a chance at romance… providing that I have taken the right step to ensure that I won’t die in an unavoidable combat encounter at the halfway point of so of the campaign!
The overall campaign is pretty linear, with two possible diverging paths and each with some minor variations depending on whom I succeed with romancing. My character’s agency lies in somehow correctly guessing the right responses to win over an intended love interest as well as making the right decisions to stay alive during the dramatic battle with enemies that want to destroy the caravan.
Don’t be like me for the latter; I would buy a weapon when the time arrives, but for some reason, maybe because I am an alchemist and not, you know, a warrior, I would give away my weapon to people that actually fight in this false hope that this will help them avoid getting injured or defeated. No, this campaign isn’t that sophisticated; it’s on script that you must fight, as avoiding it or entering a fight ill-prepared means death.
Because this a romance sim with some plot woven in, the campaign soon becomes a juggle between training to use some, er, spoiler secret special stuff and pursuing the love interest. This one is easy to deal with once I get the hang of it.
The harder part is figuring out the correct route to some of the love interests. Will and Nath are easy to romance, while Duran and Sullivan need the right triggers to even initiate their romance routes.
For all its tricky twists and turns, Duran’s romance has the most angst but it is a predictable kind of angst.
I personally have a soft spot for Will, but his romance, while super easy to trigger and complete, basically boils down to “Nature is awesome, am I right?” heh. He’s cute, though!
Nath and Sullivan are, in my opinion, kind of half-baked and disappointing, especially considering their roles in the overall campaign. There is plenty of room for pathos, angst, conflict, but sadly, the romance routes all follow a rather linear and somewhat short-ish pattern, making their routes feel half-baked and even incomplete at times. It’s a pity, as I think Nath’s really cute too, and his personality is a 180 from that of Will but just as adorable.
Oh yes, this is a gay dating sim, but the level of raunch is toned down in the visual department. Don’t expect all-out pornographic images here, as for the most part things are kept to a more tasteful level of soft porn. The language can be every explicit, but one can tone down the raunch in the settings. Don’t ask me how that works, though, as for me it’s all the way or none at all.
On the bright side, the narrative isn’t cringe-inducing like some other dating sim visual novels I’ve come across. While it’s not extraordinary, it’s serviceable.
The visuals are alright, although some of them can be unintentionally terrifying, such as Sullivan’s toothy grin and the old women’s uncanny valley faces. My biggest disappointment, however, is how the ending slides are text-only. What, not even a grand, romantic visual of me and my bloke of choice kissing? For a romantic visual novel, this is basically a faux pas, one that some people may not accept, heh.
Oh right, I forgot to mention: while Duran happily puts out (and one shouldn’t accept if they want to trigger a romance with him, just saying) early on in the campaign, this is a strictly one-boy love game, not a make-your-own-harem campaign. There is no opportunity to juggle more than one bloke or to switch blokes halfway. This one is all about picking one guy, sticking to wooing him, and playing a new game to try out another guy.
My advice is to pick Will to get one’s toes wet in this game. Not only is his romance route super easy; he is really cute and his love story has some nice fairy tale-ish whimsical scenes in it.
All in all, The Alchemist is alright. It’s not as epic or grand as I’d have hoped, but considering the relatively low price I paid for it (pay as one wants, I shelled out $9.90), I probably can’t expect too much from such an indie game.
The romance is the main point of the game, the rest being only filler, and honestly, these romances feel more like tropes rehashed instead of breathtaking love stories. However, again, I suppose this is as good as it can get for the price I paid for it.
It’d be nice this one expanded to become a wider, grander campaign that is more than a time-gated mini-dating sim that it currently is, and who knows, maybe one day.
