Gilded Shadows Overview

Gilded Shadows by Steamberry Studio is an epic visual novel filled with adventure, romance, and intrigue. You will journey to a far off planet where psychic powers abound, dangers lurk in both the shadows and the light, and the possibility of romance shines through even the darkest situations.

For those who want to experience what the game is like before committing to purchase it, Steamberry has a demo available that goes through the common route where you can meet each of the romanceable characters depending on the choices that you make. By the end of the common route you’ve locked yourself into a romanceable target’s route and it ends on a cliffhanger that I personally couldn’t resist. Honestly? It was the best purchase of my life when I bought the completed game. I should say, I am not getting any kind of monetary compensation or anything for recommending this game. I genuinely just love it and I hope that more people will love it as much as I do!

I don’t want to give any spoilers in this review since the demo is available for free here: https://steamberry.itch.io/gilded-shadowsdemo and you can play through the common route for yourself, but I cannot say enough how much I love this game. The art is stunning, the backgrounds in the routes are detailed, and the CGs are lovely. Plus, every single character in this story (including the extras) have their own personality that shines through and makes everything blend together into an amazing package of quality entertainment. 

Gilded Shadows has one of the most dynamic and intricate settings for a visual novel that I have ever had the pleasure to experience. The amount of detail and intimate knowledge that the writer shares of Arcalis (the planet the characters call home) and how it connects to earth is glorious. Please forgive my flowery language in this review, I just cannot even begin to express my love and appreciation for this game and all of the time and effort that went into both the story and the phenomenal artwork. 

The glossary included in the game (under extras on the load page) shows how much detail went into the world-building of this game. It’s organized into categories with dozens of topics that give context to help you navigate and understand the background information of the world of the game. As you’re playing the game, certain terms are written in a different color text allowing you to click on them and read the explanation of the term. This helps make the story flow without having to put in long-winded descriptions from the characters.

One of these details that make me geek out with joy is that because this story is based on a different planet, Steamberry Studio actually took the time to acknowledge that the length of a year could be different since the planet’s revolution around their sun would be different than Earth. So a year on Earth is roughly 1.5 years on Arcalis. Their calendar is also different with a 15 month year and keeps a 20 hour day instead of the 24 hours we know on Earth. All of these little details just make the world that much more life-like and immersive, at least for me.

The premise is that humans left Earth long ago and went in search of a new planet to live on. They found Arcalis, a planet that was home to several alien species throughout the centuries but had since been abandoned. The previous inhabitants of Arcalis had left the planet an ideal place for humans to colonize though and they gladly settled in.

There were many differences between Earth and Arcalis, though. Primarily the nanites, which are microscopic machines that permeate the atmosphere of Arcalis. In the glossary under the Arcalis topic it says, “These tiny machines infiltrated and altered the physiology of human colonists and have become an integral part of society.” While under the nano system topic it says, “Nanites can also be used to give physical and mental enhancements as well as increased cellular regeneration.” 

Because of these nanites, most humans can connect to the “net” (basically the internet on steroids) through their minds. They can call people, send messages, read books, all IN THEIR MINDS! I mean, how cool is that?! The nanites also stimulated a part of the human brain called the foric system that unlocked special “psionic abilities” in a small portion of the human population. Oh yes. This story is all about Espers. 

There are several classifications for Espers (people who exhibit special powers through their foric system). I’ll let you learn all the nitty gritty details from reading the story yourself, but I LOVE how they chose to name the different types of Espers after chess pieces. You have your infantry (pawns), rooks, bishops, knights, queens, and kings. 

And I also LOVE how each of the different types of psychic powers connect to the chess piece that they are named after. For example, the knights have teleportation powers just like a knight’s chess piece can “jump” over other pieces on the board. I could spend hours going over how much I love the setting of this visual novel, but suffice it to say that a lot of time, love, and attention went into creating a really diverse and intricately connected world. I genuinely hope that you give this visual novel a try. It is so worth it!

Like all quality visual novels (in my opinion anyways) there is character customization in Gilded Shadows and the wide variety of options is phenomenal! The default setting is depicted in the image above but after playing through each of the routes multiple times I’ve found my favorite color combinations with the guys for the CG’s. I’ll go more into detail about that in the individual route reviews that I’ll post in the future, but having the option to customize your character is a major perk.

Although my only wish would be to have a lighter eyebrow color option. That is literally my only problem with the customization options, though. Oh, and I do wish that there was an option to have a nickname, but I’m sure that would be a nightmare for coding so that’s just a little “if only” of mine. 

While playing the visual novel you can see your customized version of the main character in the bottom left corner, which I really enjoy. All of the different expressions the sprite and the visual novel characters use make the story so immersive and fun. I love how smoothly they change and how well each expression fits the current sentence/situation.

There is a walkthrough kindly created and posted by Steamberry Studio on itch.io (and also in the community section of Steam) that has been a life saver. I mean, I can understand the appeal of getting the happy ending on your own, but personally if I’m reading a story I want to have the control to read the ending that I want, so I definitely used the walkthrough. And something absolutely marvelous about Gilded Shadows is that every route has multiple endings. There are two good endings (one sweet, one passionate), and depending on the route there is anywhere between 1-3 bad endings.

As a self-proclaimed superfan of Gilded Shadows I can brag proudly that I have completed every single ending and unlocked all of the CGs available, and let me tell you, it was well worth the time invested. I still go back and look through the gallery of CG’s to just admire the art and remember the story fondly. Usually that leads me to replay the storyline… but I don’t consider that a bad end result.

One feature that I find AMAZINGLY interesting is that you can affect the personality of the main character before the game starts! You get to choose between confident or cautious, flexible or stubborn, and emotional or analytical. These choices actually do cause differences in dialogue and how your main character reacts to different situations, which must have been a ridiculous amount of extra work for the writer/coder of the game that I appreciate so much. 

In the walkthrough provided by Steamberry Studio you will find the optimal personality settings for the specific ending you’re aiming for on each route. Throughout the story there are times that you must have a certain personality trait in order to make a dialogue choice, so I would suggest looking at the walkthrough to make sure you don’t miss out on a choice that would positively influence the character you’re trying to romance. But as the walkthrough says, it’s not necessary. It just makes things a little smoother.

Now, the main character. The default name for the main character is Morgan Leone so I’ll refer to her as Morgan for the rest of the review (although I have favorite names that I use depending on the route I’m on). But for now, I’m going to gush a lot a bit about how cool and epically amazing Morgan is. Steamberry Studio is SOOO talented at writing a strong, independent, but introspective and adaptable female lead. 

On Arcalis, if you have a certain level of psionic power you are forced to join something similar to a peace corps called Endgame and use your powers to protect the planet from whatever dangers normal humans can’t face. Morgan, however, chose to hide her powers. She found out later than most that she had some psi ability, but she didn’t think it was very powerful. Plus, she’d already found her passion for archaeology and didn’t want to lose her chance to leave Arcalis and study ancient ruins on a nearby planet. As she says, “I wanted to research, to learn about the history of this world. Not be some sort of psychic soldier.” 

The story starts with Morgan waiting to see if she passed the test to get into the Arcalis equivalent of a Masters or Doctorate program. And let me tell you, I LOVE that Morgan is highly educated. It gives her character a unique insight into the situations she faces throughout the storyline. It also gives her an amazingly rich vocabulary that I personally love. 

One of my FAVORITE lines in the whole game is on Caissa’s route where some arrogant rich dude has the gall to insult Caissa and insinuate that Morgan is a hooker. She puts him in his place magnificently and when he walks away with his tail tucked between his legs she calls him an “Insipid Troglodyte”… I mean… How amazing is that?!?! 

I laughed so hard when I read that and had to look up the word troglodyte to make sure it meant what I thought it did. For those who don’t know, insipid is defined as “lacking flavor, vigor or interest” and troglodyte is “(especially in prehistoric times) a person who lives in a cave”. So she basically called him an uninteresting caveman, which made my heart happy. I’m a word fanatic though, so I appreciated that highly inventive insult. That could totally just be me geeking out though. 

Another thing I appreciate about Morgan is her love for her family. She mentions her parents and brothers often throughout the different routes. They were a source of strength and safety for her even when she couldn’t physically see them. 

Morgan has her faults too, which humanize her and makes her relatable. She also has quirks, like her love of bubble baths and her disdain for pants which made me chuckle. She honestly is one of my favorite characters in fiction and I am not exaggerating when I say I have played through each route at least four times and still go back at least once a year to play my way through again to try different color combinations and remind myself of this beautiful world. 

Even though Morgan’s greatest wish is to hide her psi and escape to another planet to study ancient ruins, an incident occurs that alerts others to her existence as a hidden Esper. Chaos ensues and she is thrust into the world of Espers as the power she’d suppressed her whole life explodes. Now that she’s unleashed her full potential, she can’t go back to her old life. 

So she is faced with several choices. Whichever path she takes leads her to one of the romanceable targets. Depending on her choices through the route she may be able to not only find love but play a key role in stopping any number of insidious plots to bring chaos and destruction to the people she comes to care for. 

If you decide to get the full game (which again I highly highly HIGHLY recommend) before you start you can go into the settings. One setting that I was happy to see is the “Love Scenes” setting where you can choose “Full Steam” or “Fade to Black”. 

Now, this story is one of the most tasteful romance visual novels I have ever played. From my point of view there really isn’t anything offensive about the love scenes. By the time they occur the relationship between Morgan and the romance target has built to such a beautiful point of trust and genuine affection so the scenes are natural and lovely. 

Plus, the guys are so darn respectful and caring to Morgan that the love scenes are just sweet, intimate moments between two people who love each other. I mean, even the music that plays in the intimate scenes is soft, beautiful, and tender which completely matches the feel of the scene. However, if you don’t like to read intimate scenes, you do have the option to have it fade to black and leave things implied, which I think is a very conscientious of Steamberry Studio.

 
To end the review, I figured I’d leave my personal order of preference for the routes. This is purely my own opinion and I am happy to say that I don’t dislike any of the routes. In fact, I love all of them for different reasons and will go in depth about each route in later posts, but if you were curious, this is my ranking.

1. Caleb & Lance (They’re both the height of perfection)
2. Jack
3. Ari
4. Quill
5. Caissa
6. Reuben
7. Yuu
8. Magnus

So! If I haven’t already lost you while going on and on about how obsessed I am with this game, I want to once again recommend that if you are a fan of romance visual novels that you try Gilded Shadows. It is a beautiful blend of sci-fi, romance, and a journey of self-discovery that keeps you coming back again and again. I can guarantee that it will give you all kinds of exciting heart flutters as well as some lovely romantic heart flutters. Thank you for reading! Have a fluttery day.