Sable’s Grimoire: A Dragon’s Treasure
Note: this game is a sequel to Sable’s Grimoire https://store.steampowered.com/app/717850/Sables_Grimoire/
However, this game also contains an option to add supplementary narration which explains events and terminology from the first game.
So while it is still recommended that you play the original first, it is not strictly required.
Sable’s Grimoire is a visual novel series set in a fantasy world filled with magic and monsters. It follows the adventures of Sable, a young human who wants to become a magic researcher, during his time at Amadronia Academy.
Sable spends his everyday life at Amadronia surrounded by demi-humans, including elves, pixies, and succubi, as he learns more about this magical world and the creatures within it.
With Sable’s first year at Amadronia coming to an end, he wants nothing more than to spend the upcoming break at the academy, studying in peace while his friends and classmates head home for the holidays.
However, his half-dragon best friend and roommate, Drakan, has other plans in store for him. She has been trying to get him to visit her home for months now, and with a sizeable break right before around the corner, that time has finally come.
Before the duo can set off, a surprise visit from Drakan’s mother, Nidhogg, gives them reason to pause. Holding an ominous necklace in her hand, she forces the seemingly cursed artifact onto Sable, then sets him up with one trial after another.
Dragged to either extreme by these two frightfully powerful beings, will Sable manage to survive the holidays in one piece?
- Story with 168k word count leading to four different endings
- 28 CGs (plus 2 more with the 18+ patch)
- Optional explanations, so players can either learn the world or skip things explained in the first game
- Glossary and cast screens provide additional information about the game’s characters and terminology
- All original artwork and music made specifically for this series
Steam User 2
I had a massive thesis written up here as to why this game was a personally-affecting masterpiece, but since I didn't plan to write something that long I was typing it up in the review box instead of elsewhere like an idiot, and I lost it when I had a sneezing fit from hell and accidentally left the page.
To keep it (relatively) brief: I had a very different experience with ADT than a lot of other people, as many of the core themes (alienation, loss of control, identity death) hit my fears on a primal level that I was in no way expecting from a "monster girl magic school VN", even one as well written as Sable's Grimoire. Maybe I'm overanalyzing but I felt like it personally called me out on the reason I love world-building focused fantasy stories: escapism and the belief I could/would be better not if I was someone else (the power-fantasy a lot of anime leans into), but somewhere else. It feels like Zetsubou created a world I would absolutely love to live in SG1, only to turn around and say "yeah that paradise you were enjoying is actually a nightmare" and catch me the act.
That's not a bad thing, either. A good friend of mine mentioned that "something will never be a personal 10/10 unless it includes a character assassination of ", and I'm inclined to agree. ADT had me fucked up for a surprisingly long time after I finished it, making me reflect on my media consumption habits and even as far as some of my outlooks on life. That's not to say that I'd expect the average reader to come away with as much from this story as I did. Frankly speaking, it feels like Zetsubou conducted an extensive investigation into my entire life history just to write a story that'd leave me shook, but the fact that this story is able to be that affecting to anyone should serve as a testament to the quality of writing and level of ideas. If you told me what exactly Sable would go through in ADT after I finished Drakan's route in SG1, I'd probably end up believing you but only because what you'd tell me would be so bizarre yet specific I could only assume you were telling the truth.
The reason why I'm only writing a review now, 9 months after I played it the first time, is simple: to me, this story is extremely powerful, with power defined as "the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events." And to quote Sable himeself, "humans are a species that fears what it cannot control." I don't know if my experience was intended, but regardless, ADT's lived happily rent-free in my head for these past few months, indirectly asking me questions and challenging my assumptions on certain topics. I'm only writing this review (and the thesis lost before it) to help me process it moreso than to convince someone else to read it.
Drakan's sequel, as the name would imply, is a Treasure I'm not letting go of any time soon.
Steam User 1
Cant go wrong with a dragon