Garden of Seif: Chronicles of an Assassin

TL:DR; Garden of Seif: Chronicles of an Assassin is the kickstarter-backed, debut title of Foxdrift Studios and it was released on October 4th, 2023; and like any good garden, I dig it! The art is gorgeous, the character models are unique over the generic styles I’m used to seeing, the character writing shines, the music is pleasing on the ears, and the plot is filled with twists and turns. What more could you want from the chronicles of an assassin?
I’ve been suffering withdrawal from not reading any VNs in the last month, and most of the ones I’ve read recently were on the older side, so I thought I’d look into a fresh release, and well, Chronicles of an Assassin is just that; fresh! I couldn’t find anything rotten about it at all~
The gameplay is straightforward. You have a couple of routes to choose from and if you play your cards right, you just might survive and maybe even get a little something more. There are lots of choices you get to choose from; over 30 - some are flavor and some are impactful.
Most dialogue choices lead to you building trust or betrayal with the character whose route you are on which will determine what ending you get. I really appreciate that the game tells you whenever you are gaining trust or betrayal. It also helps that the game has a fully completed walkthrough that will guide you to all the endings, super handy if you don’t feel like searching all the different combinations to see all the endings.
One thing that I partially wish was done a bit differently is the exploration of the bad endings. I think it would have been incredibly interesting to see how some of the characters react to the things that happen in a few of the bad endings, but instead it abruptly cuts off, shows a cool looking card that tells you where you went wrong, and takes you back to the main menu. I get it though. The game is from the point of view of the protagonist, Iris, and then the two people whose routes you can follow, so further exploration of some of the bad endings would require adding more character perspective changes and that might not flow as well. I guess this is sort of a compliment to the writing because it means that I was wanting more!
You are also able to enter a custom assassin name for Iris to be referred to. I thought that was a really neat touch and gave me an even deeper connection to a protagonist that I already liked a lot!
The UI is really pretty and does something that I’ve never noticed before with its buttons. Instead of having the buttons tab up off the dialogue/text box, it has the buttons go up from the lower right side. I like this! It doesn’t block anything important from the scene and it is not distracting off to the side like that while I am reading, plus it looks really good. I want to see more VNs do that in the future!
A minor but another appreciated thing is that the game is entirely playable with just a keyboard and even lists the keybindings. It’s not super important, but it’s something I noticed and thought worth pointing out.
There is also a journal function that not only gives quick access to the credits and music tracks, but also has a tab for viewing unlocked in-game letters and a lore tab. When I first saw the lore tab, I was pretty nervous. I was worried that it would be required reading for understanding the world of the game. It’s not. It’s a very expansive and enjoyable read that goes in-depth about the various factions, locations, and languages but thankfully it isn’t there to act as a lore dump/do the legwork for the story; it’s an enhancement.
Speaking of enhancements, the lore page comes with a viewable map of the continent where the game takes place. It’s a highly detailed, yet clean and gorgeous to look at map that gives you a better idea of the overall game world!
The characters do a fantastic job filling each other in on the details of the world and factions as necessary, to a point that it feels very natural. It’s something that the reader is eased into over a period of time as well, instead of just being repeatedly bombarded with information.
The writer knew what she was doing when she did her world building. The story repeatedly gives off a sense of wonder by mentioning something about the world; whether it be the name of a faction, an item, or an animal - to get you wondering what it is and then introducing you to it later on! It all feels organic/natural (which is what a lot of fantasy themed stories fail to do properly, in my experience).
The story itself is pretty light-hearted, often romantic and comedic, but sprinkled with flakes of melancholy here and there. I don’t want to get too deep into it because I don’t want to spoil anything, but I will say that there are more twists and turns than your typical racetrack! It was hard to put down, and even prevented me from getting some work of my own done because I kept wanting to read more. Garden of Seif: Chronicles of an Assassin clocks in at a satisfying 100,000 words! It took me around a total of 9 hours to read both routes.
The character artist, Cutecumber, did an amazing job. Her artstyle gave the characters very vibrant and unique designs. Furthermore, the character faces in the dialogue box have a wide variety of expressions. I thought I was done seeing all of Iris’s expressions by the end of the first chapter, but nope.
I’m not sure if it was who worked on the UI, the character art, or the CG Backgrounds, but there are these cool chapter title cards and a batch of them for one of the routes is that of a scorpion. I don’t know if it was intended or if I’m just seeing things, but I always see a heart-shape while staring at the top down view of the scorpion’s head on the title card, and I just think that is so cute and clever! That is good design!
The CG Backgrounds were well done, always matched the current scene, and perhaps most shockingly of all, I never noticed them repeating (as in to represent separate locations, they repeated, but only for the singular location it represented) - especially to the borderline off putting degree that it sometimes happens in a lot of VNs.
I’ve briefly mentioned characters a few times but haven’t given them a deep dive yet, so let’s get to that, shall we? The characters are so well written that if I was just staring at the script and the names next to the dialogue were covered I’d be able to tell who was saying what the vast majority of the time. The characters always feel genuine, especially the characters who are anything but. I loved it and had a fun time with all of them; from the supporting cast to the whole ensemble!
Garden of Seif: Chronicles of an Assassin gets a resounding, “Yes, you should buy it if you like visual novels. Especially if you are starving for a fantastic Otome!” from me. The $20 price tag is very fair, but if you are still unconvinced after reading this review, then consider getting it during a sale! Personally, I normally wait for sales to buy my games, but I bought this full price and am very satisfied with it!

This was a very stylish VN. The artwork was beautiful and all the characters had very lovely designs. The cinematic cut scenes really immerse you in the world. The story, while it fell flat for me at times, was still a fun ride with a lot of twists and turns.

This game has great art and music and effects....great characterization and realistic characters...the two main interests are both different but both amazing in different ways. It's better to play the scorpion before the snake in terms of story progression. I loved this game. The romance brought tears to my eyes and that makes it great in my opinion. I love a sweet story with a good, exciting story and the art and music together are just a perfect experience. The music is so beautiful - I just love it! 10/10!! Worth the full price! I got 5 hours out of it with just the true ends and a couple bad ends.

“You are enough. Never make the mistake of thinking otherwise just because a man, or woman, is unable to love you.”
-Dust Hunter
Plot
Zalstar, a mostly desert landscape, is the continent where our heroine, Iris Lapis lives. Iris is secretly an assassin and is on a mission to take out the culprits that were involved in the murder of her boyfriend. Her main target is Venom, who was presumably the one to kill her boyfriend. She begins to work as a dancer at a pub just outside of Nohiria’s walls, the nation she lives in. It is here that she begins to cross off the names on her hitlist, which consists of Imperial assassins. Nothing is easier than when your target is inebriated and has the reaction time of a sloth. It is at this job, that she meets the two love interests, Seth and the Dust Hunter. Both of these men claim that they want to help her and keep her safe from the league of assassins that are coming after the bounty that has been placed on her. Of course, both are equally suspicious. Trusting them will not be easy.
Characters
Iris Lapis: Our MC. Just your average twenty-something who totally isn’t an assassin and does totally normal twenty-something activities. She has retinitis pigmentosa, which is the reason for her heterochromia. Although she can’t see out of her left eye very well, it doesn’t stop her from being a good fighter. Iris is an interesting character. All she really cares about for most of the story is herself and her goals. It does make things a bit frustrating, but she’s got a good personality in terms of writing, witty comebacks, and a backbone, as well as being a straight-up badass. She does get some good character development in the end though. The player cannot change her name, but they can change the name of their assassin alias that they would like to be called.
Seth: One of the main love interests. Seth is working as an Nohirian Wraith, one of the various professions of the Immortals. They deal with anything that poses a threat to their nation, which in this case, is Iris due to her killing Imperials which could cause a war between the two nations. He proposes working together to bring down Venom as he believes that Iris can not take him down alone. His route focuses on seeing more of the world they are in and their relationship.
Dust Hunter: One of the main love interests. A traveler from another area on the continent. Dusty is shrouded in mystery. He offers to team up with her to protect her, for unknown reasons. He’s more than meets the eye. He has big plans for their world, but it seems as if there is also a hidden meaning behind doing so. His route feels a little bit left too open for interpretation with some loose ends. There’s a section where you see from his point-of-view and it was probably one of my more favorite moments in the game. Hearing his thoughts on Iris from himself was actually very cute and endearing. There’s also a weird scene towards the end that just kind of feels like it was fit in because it had nowhere else to go. His route is more focused on the specific area they are in and the relationship between Iris and himself.
Side Characters: I don’t have a single issue with any of the side characters that have sprites. They are all super entertaining and have their own lives, problems, and reasons for being in the story. Malz is probably my favorite and it’s a shame he had very little screen time.
Art
•The sprites for all the characters are very well drawn. Their outfits and color schemes fit the world they are in.
•The facial expressions for Iris sometimes look a bit silly, I was definitely thrown off by her kind of pouty face in the beginning, though it did grow on me in the end.
•Most of the CG art is very well drawn and I really enjoy it. Some of the eyes on them don’t look quite right to me, but are overall a moot point.
•Background art is nice and fits the world very well. You really get the feel that you are in a desert nation. Some of the background art has some oddities to it, like 3D objects or grass that looks a little too realistic for the artstyle, but they are all well detailed.
•Particle effects really add to the scene and CGs. Like the dust clouds that cover the screen and are moving and the little particle effects when one of the characters is using magic.
•The art for the small item popups is very well drawn. The food looks delicious and I really like the intricate designs for items like the vials and daggers.
•Cinematic cutscenes are a nice touch and really cool way to introduce some of the characters and scenes.
•Text box looks gorgeous. If it had some transparency, we could see the art behind it and it would be a nice touch.
Soundtrack
•The title screen music was very well chosen and sets the tone for the game. Reminds me of something from Aladdin.
•Overall the music is done well, beautiful and helps set the tone of each scene. I enjoyed listening to it. It never felt repetitive.
•Sounds like clapping, paper crinkling, birds chirping, adds to the atmosphere.
•No voice acting.
•Occasionally the music goes silent and is gone for a scene or there is no music, but some sort of background noise like being spooky and quiet for nighttime.
UI and System
•Settings options for music, sound, auto forward, text speed, display and skip option.
•There is a map of the game’s world in the journal.
•There is a note with a list of names that Iris wishes to take out with two random civilians, which include a guy at the pickle stand, and a lady who kicked her out of the bookstore.
•The journal has bits of lore for the world and how to say certain names. This was especially helpful in the beginning of the game while I was trying to learn the world.
•There is a weird flickering around the screen edges when in full screen mode, so I had to play the game in windowed mode the entire time. I’m unsure what the cause of this issue is.
•Keyboard commands section located under help.
•Text loads all the way, but sometimes there’s more to be added after when you click or press enter/space. I wish it would either just load everything or load in a new text box because it gets a bit annoying when I have to refind where I previously left off because more text was added.
•Can’t see previously made choices, so if you’re going back through the game to choose other choices, hopefully you remember what you previously chose. At least there’s an option to scroll backwards and even loading saves is very quick.
•We can access the gallery and journal from the visual novel part of the game, which I really liked. Being able to go and look at the Lore and CGs at any time is a nice quality of life option.
Overall
I had a lot of fun playing this game. It’s got a lot of great writing and even some really good advice that can be applied to everyday life. Although the story could use some tweaking, I enjoyed it. I kept thinking about it when I wasn’t playing, curious as to what was going to happen next. Some of the twists were easily figured out way before they were shown. I’m not sure if this was meant to be this way, or if the way the foreshadowing was written was just too obvious. The game doesn’t have true stat-building, moreso it’s either the choices typically have your trust go up, betrayal goes down, or nothing. Some of the choices for betrayal are kind of odd and I don’t quite understand why the choice is a betrayal choice. Either way this is a game to check out. I’m really looking forward to seeing what the devs have to offer going forward and will definitely be keeping an eye out. I’m hopeful there is some sort of sequel to the true endings. I want more of these characters and the world.
Otome Lovers wishes to thank Foxdrift Studios for providing a free review copy of this game.
Please follow our curator page, Otome Lovers, if you'd like to see more reviews like this one!

I loved it