Bewitching Sinners

4/5
the game has no trigger warnings here on Steam so here is my attempt on it (some story spoilers, difficult to avoid sry):
Dark Fantasy world, there is a lot mental abuse going on (blackmail, curses) on a daily basis and it is treated as normal and expected to be cruel to survive
your OC: addiction (sober alcoholic, mentioned drug abuse), mental illness (ptsd after car crash while being drunk)
the OC you are a replacement for: mental illness (self harm; shown in dreams/the diary quest), literally a "witch hunter" so violence
Main Plot: (cannot avoid): Racism ("pure" humans hating everyone else, vampires doing the same just being more violent), Death, Suicide, Slavery (children getting sold by their parents as "bloodbags" for vampires; hunting down sirens, mermaids), drug abuse being encouraged (one of the early study lessons is making "magic mushrooms")
Side Quests: attempted Rape & Incest (his backstory can be avoided if you don't befriend Ivar - not sure if it can be avoided at all)
Bad Endings: Forced Prostitution, mass genocide, mind control
++achievements are tricky to get (happy endings for the villains) which was fun to figure out
++the plot feels like a detective story sometimes, great replay value imho
++the three stats for the MC change some choice options (for example you cannot choose to hug persons if you havent a high enough "kind" stat) which was an interesting new mechanic; in the first playthrough I ignored it but in the 2nd one I found new stuff when focusing on another stat (being curious enables you to read more lore in the library); there are some choices that will destroy your stats and it is not being hinted at ingame so you have to look it up in the notes - hovering over your portrait.
+The game shines with its amazing artwork, the amount of it is insane and gives a lot of the "bigger" story scenes the feeling of a comic or webtoon (or even a movie); never seen any game doing this before and I loved it a lot.
+They/them pronouns are a possible choice and are used throughout the game which is great. Thank you so much for adding this!
+the routes, hidden stuff (like topics to talk about), all the npcs, the world lore are just great for people that love to explore
+some sidequests / choices really do lead to consequences that you regret (and give you a reason to replay parts)
+the long demo was a good way to get a feel of the game itself and get comfortable with the "dark" aspects of the world - I am not a fan of all the swearing to be honest but it just fits the world setting and it works out in the end.
~ some cgs are a little off, I romanced Arshem first but liked none of the cgs bc his face is totally diffrent in the ingame sprite; same happens with Thane rn in my second playthrough and it is a shame - I know artwork is hard work but the cgs are what I play/buy a romance game for and "Bewitching Sinners" gives quantity over quality imho.
~ the MCs portrait can't be altered in any way (as far as I noticed the choice of skin, hair or eye color isn't mentioned in the game ever apart from one time when Ivar is "into blondes") just disabling it would be nice imho
- music balance was off, I had to adjust it what felt like every single ingame day bc some tracks are just really loud
- amount of mispelling was too much for a full price game; would wait for sale
- - sometimes the events triggering are randomly choosed (on weekends, visiting the cafe, listening for gossip can give you more info or just make you "loose" a whole day)
- - bugs / plotholes / inconsistencies (for example you cannot fish in the iced over lake any longer which makes sense, but on the weekends you can do it the game just "forgets" this event); even if you rename your MC sometimes I was adressed as a "he", even with the female gender option and the they/them pronouns.
- - the dlc: I would give the base game a 4/5 - But the dlc you can get on itchio was a 2/5 for me. Yes, it is cheap, but also very rushed and feels unfinished. I really like the main game itself and am happy that there is work on another dlc with Ivar in the focus - but I really hope it will be more polished and not just "getting done with" to make more money.
- - The maker itself wrote that they tired / burnt themself out in the end, which is not something I want to encourage. For someone that wrote so much therapy stuff into this game (like selfcare importance) the writer should really try to take their own advice. And maybe not overshare personal information?

This was soo much fun. Even after having played through all Routes and having achieved all Endings it is still fun. I highly recommend this Game. I hope we'll one Day get an Ivar Route.

first time ever writing a review but this game absolutely deserves it. it is so sooo good!
it's mature, funny, charming - just everything I wanted in a VN and more.
looking forward to 100% this game!

⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡ One of the best Visual Novels i ever played! ദ്ദി(˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧˖⁺‧₊˚♡˚₊‧⁺˖
I highly recommend this game! The storytelling 10/10. At this point i´m around 20 hours in the game, completed every achievement, seen every ending and dated 2 out of 4 character's.
So yeah, there is still more to see and a lot more to uncover.
I have never played a visual novel where I truly could not bring myself to skip the dialogues... that was a first for me. ( ˘͈ ᵕ ˘͈♡)