Saint Maker, Perfect Gold and The Letter

The sales at Nintendo eShop often bring some nice surprises among a big number of new games to discover. I stumbled upon some visual novels published by eastasiasoft (I think we write it as a word) and decided to buy some. They were very cheap and seemed interesting to dive into. The first one I bought was Saint Maker and the second was Perfect Gold. I wasn’t expecting to find some very open yuri content in there. I know that yuri is a thing, but I’m still living in a world where most of my game pickups feature a male main character and, through the years, I’ve learned to live with it.

The novels Yangyang Mobile creates, particularly the yuri content, doesn’t feel cheap or exploitative at all. The characters aren’t there as a prop for male viewers but as their own selves. Both in Saint Maker and in Perfect Gold I enjoyed that. I believe they don’t feature any male characters at all, which is a breath of fresh air in a landscape where female characters often play a secondary role. Saint Maker is heavily focused in religion and in dealing with our inner demons and Perfect Gold focuses on romance and the satisfaction we get from choosing our own path. Very simple premises that together with excellent voice acting, narrative and art, make for wholesome experiences.

Some time later, in the current Christmas sale, I noticed that The Letter, another visual novel by Yangyang was on sale. I didn’t think twice because I had previously seen very good reviews on Steam. I was curious to see what the main differences between these three games were. Without diving deep into the story – as it’s so easy to spoil a visual novel – The Letter is much more complex in terms of branching paths. We play the game from the perspective of 7 characters and the choices we make in the first one will affect the path of the others. A path has a main branch and then it branches yet again and again. This is where I think it’s something I do in another character’s path that makes the current character I’m playing choose one given action over another without my input. It’s a big puzzle for completionists and I’m enjoying it a lot.

I’d also like to point that the character development is thorough, and first impressions can be deceiving. There was a character I enjoyed at first, but after going through their story I didn’t maintain the same impression. I had the opposite experience with other characters. All in all, I’m still very intrigued about what’s happening at the Ermengarde Mansion. What’s actually happening. Playing the game reminded me of The Ring, and what a movie that was!

---

Discover more from Sword of Seiros

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.