Pale Spectrum - Part Two of the Book of Gray Magic

EDIT : I have now soldiered throuh the ending and I can safely say that this is the most underwhelming and irritating visual novel I’ve ever read (really). The art is great, most of the characters are engaging, the voice acting is good... but everything else is just impossible. Too many storylines, FAR TOO MANY CHARACTERS, some of which even disappear mid-game as they were so useless you later wonder what actually happened to them. When you can cut half of your cast without harming your plot at all, you should ask yourself questions. . Please, don’t offer backers the opportunity to implant a character of theirs in a visual novel. You wouldn’t do that for a book or a movie, so why did you do it here? The game loses its plot a third into the story— not that it matters anyway, since the ending is so bad and anticlimactic that I can think of a single phrase, that if uttered at the right time during the first book would have spared us THE ENTIRE SECOND GAME!! Worst of the worst, p...

As a big fan of Brilliant Shadows, I really wanted to like this game. Unfortunately, I could never quite get into the story while playing due to the pacing. It felt like there was too much jumping around from beginning to end that I could never follow the story and invest in what was happening. Brilliant Shadows kept the focus on one character, had a gradual build-up of tension, and an excellent mix of suspense, action, and character building that made the story easy to follow and very intriguing. Pale Spectrum unfortunately had too much going on to acheive this. There were too many characters that needed to spotlight, plot points, and attempts to intrigue and create mystery that the game was left feeling very unfocused. Although I can REALLY appreciate the time and effort the creators put into creating so much content, and making the game long for their audience (I finished my playthough in about 9 hrs - hat's off), it just didn't have the magic of the original that made th...

I discovered this after playing through "Brilliant Shadows", having looked to see if a second part had come out. Unfortunately, I would not recommend this game as a sequel. While it maintains some of the positive themes of the previous instalment, it quickly becomes a choppy experience where we switch between characters quickly and without reason throughout the chapters. The story has no focus and no true driving conflict - any antagonist is quickly dealt with and seems to be an afterthought. The introduction of the magical spectrum also creates confusion, as we are bombarded with new magic with no explanation or focus. This creates logical dissonance with the previous game - we had two forms of magic, well thought-out and explained to us. That there are more forms of magic is not the issue, it is the lack of explanation that makes it feel like the characters are now overpowered but still in the dark about their abilities. I intend to see this game through, despite my disappointment...

An excellent sequel to Brilliant Shadows. Good stuff: [list] [*] Great writing and character development. [*] Unique and interesting lore. [*] Racial diversity, given that several dark-skinned characters have their own goals and ambitions that don't revolve around white people. [*] Queer representation, three different queer couples and a trans character. [*] Choices greatly matter, with several different consequences and endings. [*] Lovely artwork. [/list] Bad stuff: [list] [*] Several typos. [*] Despite the presence of a trans character, there were some instances of ciscentric language and cissexism. [*] Incomplete gallery? (Some CGs aren't available in the gallery) [*] Lack of compiled information for reference. With a story like this that has so many unique terms and variables to keep track of, it'd be nice to have an option in the menu for people to refresh their memory if they've forgotten what something means. [/list] It's definitely an excellent visual novel despite its fl...

Very well done sequel to the original. Honestly, I am very relieved that they didn't "blow it" on the second installment of this series, like many companies do. Everything that was awesome about the first one was all packed into this one as well; maybe a little more. The biggest issue that got addressed in this installment was the main complaint that many (myself included) had from the last game: Without giving away any spoilers, I will simply say that we get to spend a LOT more time with our main Heroine and her romantic life. This second installment really addressed that aspect of the first book in a very satisfying way. That's the good news. What’s the bad news you ask? Well, put as simply as I can: It's EXACTLY the same as the first book in that it will leave you wanting the next book ASAP. But, that is a good thing too, in some ways, right? ;) Dig into the novel today if you can, its just as good, if not better, than the first.

So, I recommend this game if you've played Part One and are familiar with the characters. In fact, in my eagerness to find the sequel I immediately purchased this right after I finished playing Brilliant Shadows, wanting to know what happened next. I'm writing this straight out of a completionist run of the first game and only doing one run of this one. Pros: + It has pretty much all of the original cast from before, fully voice acted + The art is different but still wonderful. You can tell who is who and it even explains why certain characters look much different from before (Belinda, Hektor). + The first half of the story comes across pretty solidly and brushes up a bit more on lore than we didn't know before. + I love the characters and how they interact with one another. They're all varied and issues are dealt with in interesting, sensitive, and realistic ways. It's a nice a diverse cast. Cons(Some spoilers below but I will try to keep it as spoiler free as possible): - The plot...

Fantastic sequel to Brilliant Shadows. Just finished one playthough but feel with the multiple endings I missed enough to have to go back and try to get the other endings!

Some of the characters are pretty good, but the story is just a big mess and feels more like fanfiction writen by a ten year old. I realy liked Part 1 so its a shame Part 2 turned out like this.

I played the first and fell absolutly in love with the world and writting and characters, I've been waiting on this one since the first annoucement. Spoiler Alert: [spoiler] Knife is the best, and Belinda needs to end up with Bao [/spoiler]

While I do think the first in the series is much stronger in terms of story-telling and over-all character development, Pale Spectrum is still a fantastic addition that I had incredible fun with and feelings for. It does takes a few run through to get several different endings to be able to piece the story together properly however as from a single playthrough there are moments where the sotry feels very fractured and missing parts that should have been there or glossing over things that need deeper looking in to. Also, there appear to be a few bugs within the game that could do with a bit of fixing. However, I would still heavily recommend for any person who liked the first part however and would also heavy recommend both parts to anybody that hasn't played the first yet.