<\/p>\n
Image via Crystal Game Works<\/span><\/p>\n Years ago, Crystal Game Works released a free visual novel called Crimson Waves on the Emerald Sea. <\/em>It introduced a world of vampires in a Victorian era, exploring what those supernatural beings are like in that world. Crimson Waves on the Emerald Sea: Amaranthine Moon<\/em> is here to build on that in a longer, richer, and more substantial otome game that also explores themes of identity. It means we not only get to see Crystal Game Works\u2019 growth as a studio in terms of its scripts and storyline scope, but of lead character Lucie and the world the team created.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lucie is a vampire, but she\u2019s one who\u2019s not suffering from the effects of that state as Crimson Waves on the Emerald Sea: Amaranthine Moon <\/em>begins. That\u2019s because she\u2019s discovered the cure for the condition. If someone afflicted takes specially prepared emeralds, their abilities can be negated, they will age normally like humans, and they\u2019ll be cured. However, as she\u2019s about to make a deal to make this widely available, she learns the person she was going to work with didn\u2019t ghost her. Her potential partner Douglas is dead. Our choices determine what happens with her business and the murderer of jewelers, if she takes the cure herself, and if she ends up with one of three love interests along the way.<\/p>\n Now, as this is a follow-up to a previous game, someone might be concerned as to how good it is on its own. Rest assured that Crystal Game Works did a wonderful job of establishing Crimson Waves on the Emerald Sea: Amaranthine Moon <\/em>as a story that stands on its own. Does it help if you played the original game? To be honest, I started without having played it and only went back to check it out when I decided see what Lucie and Cecil would be like together, and I thought Crystal Game Works\u2019 characterizations and doling out of established information ended up executed perfectly. But if you do find yourself really liking Lucie, Cecil, and Nemo, I\u2019d say it is helpful to pick up the free game and check it out as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n Go Ad-Free With Siliconera+<\/strong>View the site with no ads, be able to provide direct feedback about what we cover, and be automatically entered into our monthly PC game giveaway.<\/span>Join Siliconera+ <\/p>\n The characterizations and mature way in which themes are handled and we see relationships develop is part of the reason Crimson Waves on the Emerald Sea: Amaranthine Moon <\/em>feels so enjoyable. Lucie herself is a good example. She\u2019s a strong individual, and as a result of the early storylines and writing feels in-character both as a human or vampire. Each of the love interests also feel well written, with many feeling like individuals who can stand on equal footing with her both in terms of maturity and intelligence. I especially enjoyed Rowan\u2019s route, but Cecil\u2019s does build up in a sort of friends-to-lovers sort of way and Elm is fascinating when it comes down to picking the state of being Lucie wants for herself.\u00a0<\/p>\n Another thing I appreciate is the sense of balance throughout the story. Crimson Waves on the Emerald Sea: Amaranthine Moon <\/em>is a love story for sure, as you\u2019d expect from an otome game. However, there is that murder mystery tied to Douglas\u2019 death. It fits in well with the romance, given he\u2019s both Elm and Rowan\u2019s father. But Lucie getting involved with sussing out what happened to him and the other murdered jewelers and how it ties in to vampires is fascinating.\u00a0<\/p>\n The only downside is, I feel like there\u2019s a lack of consistency with the art in Crimson Waves on the Emerald Sea: Amaranthine Moon<\/em>. The character portraits for conversations and story segments are fantastic! They look great. But once we get to those special moments, sometimes it seemed like the character outfits were the only way I could realize, \u201cOh, this was supposed to be Cecil.\u201d It makes me wonder if there were multiple artists attached to the project, instead of one working on both the portraits and those events. It breaks the immersion and adds a sense of dissonance that I really didn\u2019t like, to the point at which I think I\u2019d have appreciated it more if there had been no CGs at all since the events feature more cartoonish and wide-eyed characters compared to the more mature ones during standard scenes. \u00a0<\/p>\n Image via Crystal Game Works <\/p>\n Crimson Waves on the Emerald Sea: Amaranthine Moon <\/em>is an otome game with engaging storylines and character development. It\u2019s a fascinating look at how vampirism can affect a love story while, at the same time, showing how someone could fall in love even while dealing with high stakes situations like a murder mystery. It\u2019s very well executed and Crystal Game Works has grown as a developer. Unfortunately, there\u2019s an odd inconsistency between the gorgeous character art for portraits and the event CGs, which causes the latter to stick out like a sore thumb whenever one of those moments comes up.\u00a0<\/p>\n Crimson Waves on the Emerald Sea: Amaranthine Moon is available on PCs via <\/em>Steam<\/em>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Image via Crystal Game Works Years ago, Crystal Game Works released a free visual novel called Crimson Waves on the Emerald Sea. It introduced a world of vampires in a Victorian era, exploring what those supernatural beings are like in that world. Crimson Waves on the Emerald Sea: Amaranthine Moon is here to build on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[7952,1061,7951,6019,1942,635,53],"class_list":{"0":"post-8245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pc-gaming","8":"tag-amaranthine","9":"tag-crimson","10":"tag-emerald","11":"tag-moon","12":"tag-review","13":"tag-sea","14":"tag-waves"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beteja.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}