Symphony of Delights is a lewd visual novel about a pair of women that explore the outer reaches of mans’ dreams as they seek adventure (or maybe more!)
At-a-glance
(Adult) Content?
(FxM) Sexual content.
Censorship?
No. Woot! Woot!
Hours of Gameplay?
Two or three hours.
Modding Support?
No.
Patch Available?
No, not necessary.
Gameplay
Click through text boxes and read, read, read! Symphony of Delights has a few minigames to spare, but as a visual novel the bulk of “gameplay” is reading. There are numerous player decisions to make along the way, some of which leading to lewd, side stories — most of which leading to you doom. Thankfully, you can save at anytime, and even when you pick the wrong options, you’re always permitted to try again without penalty. There are a few turn based, RPG-eske battles in the game, but they don’t provide any form of challenge. They’re probably there to break up visual monotony (or fluff-up the game’s trailer, hmm. . . )
Story
Elylah is tired of life. She and her bestie, Kathleen enjoy sucking off men. For reasons unknown, their clients haven’t been receptive to their advances. They are members of the Dream Soup, a tangible realm humans enter as “Dreamers”. Kathleen wants to find out why Dreamers don’t visit them anymore, and Elylah wants some excitement in her life. She has stolen her father’s “mystic keys”, keys that’ll grant them the ability to leave their island, and explore new realms — perhaps, if her father’s guard doesn’t catch them first, get to the bottom of the Dreamers’ absence.
The story is somewhat difficult to follow, subsequent playthoughs may be necessary.
Visuals
If it wasn’t for the horrible “Caution” box, I’d call the titlescreen a work of art — it features a wonderful, romantic painting. From “Preferences”, you are able to adjust audio and display settings. “Help” brings up a written guide to the game’s controls. The artwork is something to behold — apparently, it was rendered using “Acrylics, watercolors and rough pastels.” The artwork fumes with style, but it isn’t nearly as clean or refined as typical, digital artwork. Symphony of Delights boasts a wonderful selection of art, but some people may find it “crude” or undesirable. I think it’s nice to see a novel not joining the hentai bandwagon. As I played this game, I couldn’t help but wonder, is English the writer’s first language?
The Goods
There are quite a bit of animated, sexual CGs — I’m unsure exactly how many there are, but if I had to wager a guess, I’d reckon twenty-ish. Most of the adult-content is told through short stories Or “fantasies”. In other words, it’s generally not necessary to the story — but it’s welcome nonetheless. The artwork is drawn using traditional media. With that in mind, I’m thoroughly impressed. However, I strongly suspect the roughness and style of the art will put-off some people. I feel as though I’m viewing pieces that belong in a retro RPG, or some dirty mag’ from the 90s. The animations are jerky sometimes, but again the artwork is very high-quality. There’s BDSM, tentacles and juicy cumshots. . . not bad a mix indeed!
I think the developers should release an artbook DLC or purchasable wallpapers. . . I’d buy ’em!
Verdict
Sure, I recommend this game! As long as the artwork appeals to you, it’s definitely worth checking out Symphony of Delights. I seldom see visual novels with “traditional” artwork, especially of the lewd variety. There’s plenty of lewd scenes to see, including BDSM and tentacles — heck yeah! However, as a visual novel Symphony of Delights struggles somewhat as a coherent story. I found it somewhat difficult to follow along, due to the amount of characters and lore that are front loaded. I found the English to be somewhat awkward, but it’s no problem understanding the text. I sincerely hope Enygmage continues to produce titles in the same vein as this game, complete “Fully hand-drawn” artwork.
