#19 Soul of Sovereignty [chapter 2]
ggdg is a creative whose work i have been following on-and-off for a while now, and their newest visual novel project is quite a fun experience. as is typical in longer-form projects in the english space its released bit-by-bit, with chapter 1 releasing sometime last year and chapter 2 having been released like last week or something.
unlike most vns, this one actually has respect for the readers time [around 2 hours per chapter], the scenes are snappy, the worldbuilding is interesting and presented a bit at a time, and the comedy works quite well and tends to do double duty for developing character dynamics as well. it feels like the middle ground between a vn and a webcomic, with cgs taking up more than half of the visuals, as opposed to sprites, and having changing expressions as well. it also plays with using varying nvl/adv segments, and even moves the text boxes around. this sounds like typical ways to use the vn format but you would be shocked how few stories actually do it.
the writing and worldbuilding are clearly inspired by the works of ursula k le guin and the tales series, but with a definite soul of its own. gods who forbade humanity from using their speech, an ancient civilization that thrived by breeding new flower variants whose magic could be used to subjugate others, and the post-apocalyptic world where exploration outside of the tiny safe heaven has basically been abandoned... they seem like disparate elements but all tie together in a beautiful tapestry that will only gain detail with time.
its like an expensive cake, beautifully presented, with an exquisite taste where each bite invites you to try to figure out exactly what went into its creation and the those flavors combine into a whole, but so small to leave you wishing for more once youre finished.
