Dragon Essence – Color My World –

This eighth visual novel from Zeiva Inc feature a female protagonist Chi An who was born colour blind. After an encounter with the dragon Tian Zhao, Chi An was able to see all the colours around her again. Years later, Chi An would be betrothed to her childhood friend Ming Jie who is studying and working hard for her with the blessings of both sides's parents, while Tian Zhao would re-appear into Chi An's life again and cause Chi An to question her perceived lack of personal freedom and the responsibilities expected of her. Chi An would also meet a half-dragon boy Tian Xi and a dragon priest Xu Wei, both with their own background story and personal motivations where Chi An could have an ending with.
Although there are no Steam achievements to obtain in this game and the Steam take screenshot button feature doesn't work, the game has an in-game achievement page that will track and show all unlocked in-game achievements that are awarded upon fulfilling various different conditions over multiple playthroughs where bonus unlockable extra content in the form of a side story, CG, character backgrounds and developer comments will be awarded upon obtaining all in-game achievements. The game has beautiful artwork, great opening and ending movie, theme song and soundtracks. On a linked Tumblr page of Zeiva Inc's website(Orz Corporation), a soundtrack DLC and a guide for the game was announced to be in development(3 June 2017), while an announced (reverse) harem ending (1 April 2017)seem to be in the bonus unlockable side story. The guide is now available at Zeiva Inc's website. I had originally planned to recommend the game when at discount of less than $10 (as it takes less than 10 hours to obtain all achievements, read and unlock all bonus content) or if the announced soundtrack DLC comes in a free DLC and when an annoying bug where a red screen might occasionally appear and block out all view of the screen is fixed, I have decided to reconsider and recommend the game at the current discounted price of 20% off at the time of this review after reading through the developer comments that this game took up to 6 years to produce and involved a lot of hard work from the developer. Overall, recommended for fans of Zeiva Inc(me, me! xD), those who enjoy visual novels in an ancient Chinese setting with a bit of background information on traditional Chinese culture, beautiful artwork, great soundtracks and does not have any Steam achievements.

It's my first Zeiva game and... The story, music and art, everything isn't bad, feels a little too childish, not enough background perhaps ?
But...
If you're looking for an otome game where you can choose the person you want to be with, it's not for you.
If you're looking for a game that end well, it's not for you.
Otherwise, go for it !

I like how Dragon Essence combine everything I like in one game dragon, fantasy and historical setting. Like all Zeiva art this game have beautiful sprite, cg and background. I love it. All the years of waiting are worth it. But reading the ending makes me wish there are more so if there's a chance Zeiva will release bonus content for this game I will definitely go for it.
Anyway I like how at the beginning we are able to see the world according to Chi An view. Reading the prologue make me think how fitting the tittle "Color My World" is. The writer also manage to describe the struggle woman of that time have to face and of course the struggle of being different. The endings are easy to archieve and the developer has kindly left us hint on how to get the other ending. Still even with that I find myself left with lots of archievement to unlock. Will try to get that when I went for the last 2 endings.
Well if you are a fan of Zeiva game than you should know what to expect. However this game is completely different from the X series. It's much more lighter but stick to reality even if it set in a fantasy world with fantasy element. It's an enjoyable experience with a bit bitter taste. I recommend it for everyone to try it.

A story that is funny at time, but that can also make you shed a tear.
I always liked the art and the stories in ZEIVA's game, once again I was not disappointed.
The art is gorgeous, the characters are endearing
I couldn't help but get attached to all of them (Even the Dragon Priest)
Finding all the ending and completing all the achievements wasn't too hard (It was actually fun)
The music is fitting and the ending song is really beautiful (Such a nice voice)
I can recommend this without hesitation. 10/10

So more one game from Zeiva
Ist is very good, But if you just wanna happy ends, so this game is not for you.
Art is beautiful as always and with personality, it is not that standard of anime that we see everywhere in the anime these days. The backgrounds are beautiful, simple but perfectly matched to the story.
We have a first Yandere here from Zeiva. <3
I followed the development of this game like many others of Zeiva and other Visual novel and I am happy about how this game came out.
Well rather than trying to please everyone we have a story that leaves a bitter taste in the heart, but at the same time behind laughter and joys. And it's very real, and it still brings a little hope and shows that it always has a positive side even in the worst cases.
But if you do not like classic stories like Tristan and Isolde, it's best not to catch that game.

A game with beautiful art and an interesting story. However, it's probably too expensive for what it has to offer. It's pretty short and you can get all endings in less than 6-7 hours.
That being said, I want to recommend this game because I like Zeiva Inc and want to support them. Also, I truly liked the game and it even made me cry. Here's a list with the pros, the cons and the neutral of this game:
Pros:
+Beautiful art.
+A plot that is at least interesting
+Decent soundtrack.
Cons:
- Pretty short for its price.
-Limited romance
-No real "happy" ending
-The characters, while likable, are not well-developed.
Neutral:
Little puzzles and riddles, similar to some previous Zeiva Inc games. I personally thought they were a nice addition, but some people might find them pointless as they don't really seem to affect the story much.

I was very enthusiastic to purchase this VN and after playing it I was satisfied with the amount I paid for it (I got in on sale so roughly $6- that amount or maybe 10 bucks would be enough for this game) So this is an Otome VN based in the settings of ancient China. If you are a fan of Akatsuki No Yona (one of the best shoujo out there) and are interested in Asian culture then this game is perfect for you. So I've noticed that there has been a negativivty surrounding the game because the endings were BAD but then not all love stories have happy endings and the readers should face the fact. Face the fact that most of the information especially about gender oppression is true in this novel and people are bound by their responsibilites and duties to the country, family and in the ancient times love was never considered a priority in relationships and marriages.
Story
Story is interesting, it has an odd development but is smooth and very simple. The endings are sad but didn't depress me because to my common knowledge most stories with dragons in them are tragic. The novel should be longer with more developments along the way. The story itself is inspired by the hardships and challenges the author had to go through in her life. The novel starts with an epilogue of how this young girl Chi An gets saved by a light dragon and being a patient with total color blindness, how she gets attracted to the dragon because she seems to see his spritiual light aura. Along with the dragon, you can date OR I would like to say- spend time with more 3 characters who are either supernatural, powerful or a plain doormat. The story deals with societal conflicts such as gender oppression, conforming to the norms and barriers of being unable to choose the person you love which is sometimes still seen in the present society.
Gameplay
As most VN's you can make choices and you can visit places to earn money to spend at the festival in chapter 4. But, in my opinion there should be more minigames in this VN other than collecting paddy, serving food at the inn and the lantern riddle festival. If you get all the achievements in the game then a side story woud be unlocked and then you can access the locked menu where the characters backgrounds, comic strips and the author's note can be seen. Collecting the achievements were fun and I hope they will get added soon to the steam achievements.
Art and Characters
Art is absoloutely breathtaking compared to the other Zeiva games, the art alone seems to be the reason why this game is expensive in my opinion. Note that the colors are really symbolic in this novel. The characterization is pretty epic as well- you find a great deal of different characters and their story backgrounds (unlocked in the bonus/extra menus) There seems to be cameo appearances of certain characters and the authors included- it was pretty interesting to see the hidden titbits in the story. You can find Xu Wei the evil mastermind who is flirty with women, Ming Jie the rich scholar who seems to have eyes on the protagonist and Tian Xi the lonely boy with a tragic backstory living in the forest. Other side characters like Jin-Sei is pretty impressive too.
Music
Music made the game very atmospheric and are pretty good.
Suggestions
*There seems to be a small bug in the bonus menu when flipping through characer expressions.
*The story should have been longer
*Voice acting should have added more worth to the money being paid
*Need more mini games
*Steam achievements should be synced
*Maybe more places to visit would be great
Overall this project had pretty much troubles getting through because of the lack of satifying endings and the author himself had to struggle for six years to get this project going. So in that respect I find the visual novel satisfying and the artwork breathtaking enough for the six bucks I have spent. However, I don't think its worth enough for 20 bucks so make sure to get it on sale.