Brilliant Shadows
Developed by Ithaqua Labs
Published by Ithaqua Labs
Brilliant Shadows is set in the mythical land of Celeste, a place of fun magic and tragedy written by Christopher Michael Hall. The story focuses on the character Veronica Ashmar (voiced by Mel Gorsha). Veronica is a Necromancer who just graduated from the Mountain School of Magic with her best friend Prudence Celeste (voiced by Olivia Brown) who gradated as a Paladin. At Mountain School there is an event called the Pairing Ritual that bonds you to your perfect partner for life that has the opposite magics of ones self. It was Veronica's plan to tell Prudence how in love she was with her after they got paired, but unfortunately things didn't go as planned.
Veronica Ashmar aka Ash is a woman who is smart, loving, an inventor of magic and a hard core lesbian. Or well, she's only ever loved Prudence. When she gets rejected, she tries to find love else where but getting over someone you've loved since you were ten doesn't go away easily. Despite all that Ash loves her friend as a friend even if she knows she can't love her as a lover.
Prudence Celeste aka Prude is a fiery minded, swear lacking, kick butt warrior, who definitely has a thing for guys. She cares about her friends and hopes to become as great as a King as her mother is. She is ill-prepared for the throne but she is capable of throwing down with anyone that tries to hurt her or her friends.
Hector Warlock aka Hek (voiced by Alex Weber) is an extremely capable mage, strong in battle, a little bit socially inept, and has some anger issues with authority. He's a Necromancer like Ash and is two years older than the girls. After graduating he helped at Mountain School teaching the younger students to hone their skills in Light or Shadow magic. Even though he doesn't understand the people around him very well he still cares in his own way. Especially with his love for Prude, but she helps with what she can with Hek.
Aelfnod (voiced by Daman Mills) is an older man who is quick to learn new tricks, cares deeply for the health of those around him, is wise, and is also very much gay. Back at home he tried to commit suicide when he couldn't learn the magic of his home land, couldn't live up to the role of leader after his father passed, and after his best friend supposedly died. Instead he survived his attempt and found his way to Mountain School and learned he was capable of Paladin magics. He befriends Ash, Prude, Hek, and Belinda through Hector's privet tutoring.
Belinda Vikki aka Bel (voiced by Jane Redd) is also an older woman who get's easily frustrated, isn't very inept with magic, loves her family, and has the biggest crush on Aelfnod. She's an adopted child who was raised in a rich house hold with many other children. Her goal in becoming a Necromancer was to prove to herself that she doesn't need the family money to make a difference in their world. Because of her lack in magical understanding she is also being tutored under Hector.
Luciana (voiced by Amber Leigh) is the Necromancer Head of Mountain School. She is depicted as the level headed one of her pair. She cares deeply for her students, but her limits can be pushed. She is married to Zakaria.
Zakaria (voiced by Marissa Lenti) is the Paladin Head of Mountain School. She is depicted as being the type to act first think later, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have her moments. She also cares deeply for her students and is married to her wife Luciana.
The art work of Brilliant Shadows is split up into two separate kinds of art, the puppets and the expressive digital paintings. The art was done by Sita Duncan and company. The expressive painting parts of the story show more raw emotions, detail, and gives a much better idea of what the characters are doing. The puppetry of the art are the stock photos of the characters in various poses, facial expressions, and costumes. They are what you would normally see in the story; interacting with each other and suggesting movement. Personally I enjoy the expressive digital paintings, Sita and company create such immersive expression that I feel exactly where they are coming from. But having the mix of puppetry and digital paintings isn't jarring and is quite enjoyable.
The music of Brilliant Shadows was composed by Johnathan Johnson and company. I find the soundtrack is most enjoyable and was done well to match the theme of the story. Even though there are other instruments in the soundtrack I find the most prominent instruments in Brilliant Shadows is the violin and the piano. Providing that much desired mythical setting and feel to the story, like you are being serenaded by the fairy folk themselves. Sadly though Ithaqua Labs don't have their soundtrack up on their official YouTube sight, but I did manage to find one person who decided to upload their copy of the soundtrack they got from Steam right here. Depending on copy rights it is possible it won't be there for long.
Brilliant Shadows is mostly the story of Ash's choices. You get three endings; The Good, The Balanced, and The Evil. You get the Balanced or Evil endings when you do things that give you negative points in the game. You are given a set amount of nondescript good points and every bad deed you do takes away from the about of points that you have until you reach the end were you have either all your points, only a part of your points, or all of your points are gone. It's simple and the game takes into account that you might not want to play through the whole game three time in a row to see the different endings. They have a skip option so you can just pick your choices quickly to see the ending you want to see.
You can find Brilliant Shadows on Steam and itch.io for $6.99. Also Ithaqua Labs are always looking for voice actors for their work so if you are one or probably aspiring to be one here is there auditions area.
Over all this game was fun, sad, interesting, and LGBT friendly. I give Brilliant Shadows 5/5 stars. I hope you have fun with the story as much as I did.
Prudence Celeste aka Prude is a fiery minded, swear lacking, kick butt warrior, who definitely has a thing for guys. She cares about her friends and hopes to become as great as a King as her mother is. She is ill-prepared for the throne but she is capable of throwing down with anyone that tries to hurt her or her friends.
Hector Warlock aka Hek (voiced by Alex Weber) is an extremely capable mage, strong in battle, a little bit socially inept, and has some anger issues with authority. He's a Necromancer like Ash and is two years older than the girls. After graduating he helped at Mountain School teaching the younger students to hone their skills in Light or Shadow magic. Even though he doesn't understand the people around him very well he still cares in his own way. Especially with his love for Prude, but she helps with what she can with Hek.
Aelfnod (voiced by Daman Mills) is an older man who is quick to learn new tricks, cares deeply for the health of those around him, is wise, and is also very much gay. Back at home he tried to commit suicide when he couldn't learn the magic of his home land, couldn't live up to the role of leader after his father passed, and after his best friend supposedly died. Instead he survived his attempt and found his way to Mountain School and learned he was capable of Paladin magics. He befriends Ash, Prude, Hek, and Belinda through Hector's privet tutoring.
Belinda Vikki aka Bel (voiced by Jane Redd) is also an older woman who get's easily frustrated, isn't very inept with magic, loves her family, and has the biggest crush on Aelfnod. She's an adopted child who was raised in a rich house hold with many other children. Her goal in becoming a Necromancer was to prove to herself that she doesn't need the family money to make a difference in their world. Because of her lack in magical understanding she is also being tutored under Hector.
Luciana (voiced by Amber Leigh) is the Necromancer Head of Mountain School. She is depicted as the level headed one of her pair. She cares deeply for her students, but her limits can be pushed. She is married to Zakaria.
Zakaria (voiced by Marissa Lenti) is the Paladin Head of Mountain School. She is depicted as being the type to act first think later, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have her moments. She also cares deeply for her students and is married to her wife Luciana.
The art work of Brilliant Shadows is split up into two separate kinds of art, the puppets and the expressive digital paintings. The art was done by Sita Duncan and company. The expressive painting parts of the story show more raw emotions, detail, and gives a much better idea of what the characters are doing. The puppetry of the art are the stock photos of the characters in various poses, facial expressions, and costumes. They are what you would normally see in the story; interacting with each other and suggesting movement. Personally I enjoy the expressive digital paintings, Sita and company create such immersive expression that I feel exactly where they are coming from. But having the mix of puppetry and digital paintings isn't jarring and is quite enjoyable.
The music of Brilliant Shadows was composed by Johnathan Johnson and company. I find the soundtrack is most enjoyable and was done well to match the theme of the story. Even though there are other instruments in the soundtrack I find the most prominent instruments in Brilliant Shadows is the violin and the piano. Providing that much desired mythical setting and feel to the story, like you are being serenaded by the fairy folk themselves. Sadly though Ithaqua Labs don't have their soundtrack up on their official YouTube sight, but I did manage to find one person who decided to upload their copy of the soundtrack they got from Steam right here. Depending on copy rights it is possible it won't be there for long.
Brilliant Shadows is mostly the story of Ash's choices. You get three endings; The Good, The Balanced, and The Evil. You get the Balanced or Evil endings when you do things that give you negative points in the game. You are given a set amount of nondescript good points and every bad deed you do takes away from the about of points that you have until you reach the end were you have either all your points, only a part of your points, or all of your points are gone. It's simple and the game takes into account that you might not want to play through the whole game three time in a row to see the different endings. They have a skip option so you can just pick your choices quickly to see the ending you want to see.
You can find Brilliant Shadows on Steam and itch.io for $6.99. Also Ithaqua Labs are always looking for voice actors for their work so if you are one or probably aspiring to be one here is there auditions area.
Over all this game was fun, sad, interesting, and LGBT friendly. I give Brilliant Shadows 5/5 stars. I hope you have fun with the story as much as I did.
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