Caball: sunset hour Review by JeminiJess

“…like a mosaic. Metaphors and self-deception, the true face… Lie, and you’ll burn in agony, eternity will take back what its due… Beg, demand, plead – they’ll be deaf to your cries… Serve.”

CABALL: sunset hour is the second game in the CABALL game “series”. It follows one of the endings from the first game. This ending is called “Shackles of the Soul” and it followed the character of Gaspar, as well as a bit of Mael. Due to this, these two become the main focus of Veronica’s life and the story they go through in this game. This is mostly a kinetic visual novel. There aren’t many choices and only one really matters.

Synopsis

A month has passed since Veronica got tangled up in the life and death encounter she had with Caball and Veronica’s now previous boss, Snezhana. She’s tried to go back to her regular life and has ignored the presence of Gaspar, a previous underling to Caball (and who Veronica is now tied to) while going to interviews to try to get a new job. Despite her wanting a semblance of her normal life back, she can’t seem to return to it. Her crescent earring charms that had protected her up until that point, don’t seem to be working correctly anymore and are draining her energy. She sees the faces of the “demons” in all the passersby she passes, even in her own reflection. Due to this, she has no choice but to get involved with Gaspar and Mael, the other mysterious creature she met in her adventure.

There are only two endings in this game, and surprisingly the split for the two “routes” is essentially at the beginning of the game. Although both routes cover similar plot points, they cover mostly different areas of those points. I really enjoyed that each wasn’t just a rehash of each other and that to be able to see the whole story, each route gave you different info. I do lightly recommend going down Gaspar’s “route” first, over Mael’s. While Mael’s answers a lot of side questions, Gaspar’s feels more right for the first bit you experience. It’s the answer you see nothing, not the young man one.

The Beginning

The game starts out in an inner monologue of Veronica thinking about what happened in the previous game. Although she fulfilled her end of the bargain, she messed up someone else’s plans and ended up all alone. She believes that she only survived, thanks to luck and that is bound to run out.

It then changes into a scene where Veronica is talking with her sister. Apparently Veronica was trying to get some documents and old notebooks from her family. We get a small amount of backstory with her family, that’s more so a setup for some plot points later in the story and then Veronica leaves. Seems she doesn’t have that great of a relationship with her sister or dad. What’s interesting is that Mira, her sister, seems to bring up the fact that she knows that someone is “bothering” Veronica. Veronica wonders how her sister happens to know this, although we don’t ever find this bit out. This is where we learn that a month has passed since the events of the previous game. In this time, she hasn’t seen Gaspar or the others, although she has been seeing the creatures in passersby and even her own reflection. She keeps seeing this vision in her reflection and whispers of something called the Sunset Hour.

It is here that the decision you make is the only real important one in the game. Depending on this decision, depends on which of the two endings you go down. One focuses pretty much solely on Gaspar, while the other one focuses more on Mael. But because of the deal that was made with Gaspar, he is still prominent in Mael’s ending. Gaspar will never truly not be involved in the game, so this option isn’t truly just a Mael route.

The routes do feel very similar in what they cover, as they both start with meeting Caball and conclude with the Sunset Hour, but they do feel different as well and the scenes all play out differently. For the middle parts of the route, they cover different aspects of the story and playing both routes helps to learn the whole story and overarching plot, since different plot points only happen in one route and not the other. There is a major thing that is learned in Mael’s ending, that we do not learn in Gaspar’s. While I understand that each one has to be different to keep the player interested, it’s interesting that something that big is only learned there.

The things we learn

The way that Veronica learns about how her earrings are no longer being protective charms and draining her, plays out differently. We do learn a few things in this game that were left open in the first game. We learn which other Caball that Snezhana had run off to. I believe this is answered in the first game, in the ending this one continues from, but we also learn a bit more about Veronica’s earrings, her protective charms, and who created them. There was also a bit where it was said that Snezhana talked a lot about Veronica in the first game and we finally learn what it is she said in this one. While there is quite a bit of information and lore that we learned and received in this game, there are still quite a few many questions and things left up in the air. Like what is up with her neighbor? I’m also curious what exactly the “Paths” are, although it feels like it was kind of alluded to (I may have not fully understood this part). The fae looking Veronica that is seen on the Steam page, we barely learn anything about it as well.

Gaspar

Gaspar is interesting, in that he very much wants to respect Veronica and her wants, as well as protect her in his own way. Which is where he differs from Mael, who is much more of the wild one and wants to let Veronica do things the way she wants. It reminds me a lot of Stefan and Damon from The Vampire Diaries in this kind of dynamic. Gaspar just wants Veronica to have a normal life as much as possible, especially since she will die one day and he will continue to live on. But he also has to interfere because a normal life is no longer in the cards for her. He is actually quite a sensitive person to Veronica’s feelings. He wants her to be with normal humans. He feels that she needs people that can understand her struggles. We actually learn more about his past. Because of his past, it makes sense why he is super protective over Veronica.

The teasing and sexual tension between the two is great, and the tenderness that he shows to Veronica is really nice. Do you want to know what he originally looked like? This game has that. Although I am impartial to how he is in the games normally, his other look is quite eye-catching as well. Also he does not get a true kiss CG, which is so unfortunate. This might be a choice because I believe that it’s not fully his interest (I can’t quite recall), but it’s such a shame because Mael gets a kiss CG.

Mael

Mael is very much the play loose and have fun, kind of guy. He is all for showing their world to Veronica and letting her do things the way she wants to. He is also a very suggestive guy. Because he is the way he is, he has no problem digging into Veronica’s secrets, which is very much the opposite of Gaspar. While Gaspar knows of Veronica’s secrets, thoughts, and past, because of their bond, he does not bring them up with her unless she touches the topic first. Mael does not have this kind of sensitivity and will just nonchalantly bring things up, even if the topic is traumatic. Mael even has this line “Old Blood [Gaspar] respects your secrets, while I prefer to study them. And cut them open if they start to fester.”

Mael’s route feels much more spicy, in terms of what is talked about and implied, while Gaspar’s was very soft on that front. Veronica is on the pure side, so intimacy is not something she is familiar with. And although Mael is experienced, he doesn’t push Veronica. He mostly does small teasing, but respects her. Mael’s clumsy-nature is a bit of a recurring theme, and it’s quite funny every time. Imagine this very old fae-like being, who even others are terrified of, just getting taken out by tripping over a chessboard? We do also get to learn a bit more of who Mael is as well, and his relationship with Gaspar and his past. We even get to learn why (first game spoiler)he was trapped/turned into a book. His route has some extremely hot CGs that were a big joy to see.

Graphics

The graphics for the game are basically the exact same/similar in looks and tone to the first game. The sprites look the same, except they have actually been reworked and are actually different when comparing. The sprites still look good and the new added details are nice. Mael even gets a new outfit and hair-do. There are new characters, so they get sprites as well. These new sprites look good and fit in with the other art, except for two. There are two new sprites that just don’t really feel like they fit and are a little uncanny. This might simply be because they only show up in one scene each, and weren’t as important for making it look like it fit.

The developers for this game are all the exact same from the original. Since there are two artists, it does show in some of the CG’s. Some of the CG’s have a more hard look, while others are more soft. Even the way some of the jawlines for Gaspar/Mael feel different between the CG’s. It’s not a huge distraction and the art still looks great, it’s just something that is noticeable to me. The first game was the same way. It also feels like the blue in Veronica’s hair isn’t always shown as well, even though some of the angles it would make sense that it would be there, I feel. Just like the first game, some of the backgrounds have movement. The first game had movement in terms of movement effects like shaking and vibration and an old school video effect, but some of them in this game have actual particles floating and an artistic steam coming from a house.

There are quite a few new backgrounds, and I really like a few of them. They feel like an improvement over some of the ones from the original game as well (some of those were made with 3D assets, and were very noticeable, compared to this game), which help me feel more in the game’s world.

Sound

I don’t really have much to say in regards to the sounds and music used in this game. The music sounds very similar to the first game, so I’m unsure if it is different. It still has that mysterious and creepy tone to match the atmosphere of the game. One of the tracks reminds me of lofi. Most of the music just felt very similar in vibe to me and there was one that I ended up really liking the sound of.

UI

Clean and simple, has: Back, Skip, Auto, Save, Options. You can press escape or right click to open/close the menu. When Veronica is thinking, black bars appear on the top and bottom of the screen to signify that the speaking in the text box is internal. There is a part where there is some yellow text with an effect that is a bit harsh on the eyes and hard to look at. This is probably the only part that I was not a fan of looking at the game and quickly got through this section.

There are 9 pages of save slots, with 4 slots per page. You can display fullscreen or windowed, skip options, language option between English or Russian, text speed, auto reading speed, music and sound volume. For a backlog, it only lets you scroll back to previous text. There is no proper text log where you can view all what is previously said. 16 CG’s (gallery)

Achievements

Getting all the achievements is easy. The only choice that matters is the 2nd one, and that just takes you down one of the two endings. So all of the achievements will unlock just for reading through the story. I do kind of miss the way the achievements looked from the first game. They felt unique versus this game, most of the achievement pictures just use CGs from the game. There is one that I really want to use on my profile that’s not a straight up CG, but will probably never get to use because of Steams whole “Steam is learning about this game” bullsnap.

Misc

There is a bit of spicy-ness. While no full nudity is shown, the characters do reveal exposed flesh in some CGs (ex: Veronica’s under-boob is shown and the guys are topless). They talk about intimacy, sex and it is implied. Some of the things they say are a bit steamy, which had be squealing a bit.

There is also some talk of violence, like a head falling off, stabbing someone, etc., but nothing is shown (except some blood according to the Steam page, but I don’t really recall if it is shown or just mentioned). There is a section in the game’s description for Mature Content that you should read before buying the game.

The description for the game mentions “Veronica finds herself in the epicenter of the Caballs games and is forced to become a full participant.”, but to be honest, it doesn’t really feel like it. It’s mentioned that there is a game that Gaspar did not finish while he was working under Caball.

Also due to the ending this continues from, we do not see Veronica or Lynn. Which also means, some of the questions I had about them, do not get answered in this game.

Final Thoughts

I’m so glad that another game was made in this “series”. I truly enjoyed Gaspar and what little of Mael we saw from the first game, and always wanted more. When I learned a second game was in development, I immediately added it to my wishlist. I really hope we continue to see more of these characters and the world. There are so many more questions to be answered and I’d be surprised if we don’t get more content based on how this game ended and what we learned. I am curious which ending the next bit of content will follow (assuming we get more). Although I’m glad that both routes/endings did follow mostly different lore bits and story, I do in a way wish they were more combined into one. Because of what we learned on Mael’s side. I feel that what happened on his end needs to be expanded upon, so it would make sense to follow this ending, but Gaspar’s ending also makes sense to continue as well because there are bits there that need to be continued as well. I am curious how things will be handled going forward.

You definitely need to play the first game before this one, at least the ending that this continues from. Otherwise you will not understand some of the content, characters, and what is being said. Besides, the first game is very enjoyable as well and it’s not expensive. I simply cannot wait to see more as a fan of this story. Mael and Gaspar are just such interesting (and good-looking) characters. I’ve always loved the “fae” side of fantasy.