I'm a huge fan of BL visual novels. It's so hard to write a review for such games. I struggle every time to find strong enough words to express my excitement.
This game is simply awesome! Beyond any expectations...

Frankly speaking my first impression was not quite favourable. When I first started it and watched the opening, I felt a bit disappointed 'cause I didn't really fall for any character (except Linnaeus's long hair). When I heard Rivian's voice it seemed unnaturally sweet, I guess I'm just surrounded by too harsh people in real life :) Quite soon I realized there was Sabre's route. And that bearlike man was more frightening than really appealing. His voice was so loud and unpleasant...

But it didn't take much time before my opinion changed completely. First of all, voiced VNs are the best! I'm ready to pay for such games it's really worth it! All characters seem more lifelike when they actually speak. And in this game all voice actors are so great. I read the text much faster and then just immersed myself into pleasure of their speaking. All voices are chosen perfectly, they help to reveal the characters in a better way. As for Rivian's voice, soon enough when it became obvious what kind of personality he had, I started to enjoy listening to him a lot, I mean A LOT. He is so cute!

The plot in this game is really captivating. And it was a pleasant surprise that the storyline in every route was quite different. The main idea was the same but all events felt so fresh and intriguing. The game is not that long as I'd like it to be :) But still absolutely every story is so fascinating and well-written! There were many funny moments, I was chuckling practically every time while reading. The soundtrack is also amazing! When I play VNs, I usually turn it off not to be distracted, but not here. So, everything is almost perfect!

I enjoyed absolutely every route. They are just gorgeous! Even Sabre turned out to be much more complicated. Linnaeus was from the first sight and still is my favorite character. He is just my type indeed and not those muscular beefy men. I was afraid it'd become a real torture to read through Sabre's route. But oh my gush, everything was so exciting) Especially the final scenes. I can't unsee and forget what I've discovered in those 18+ images. It was my first experience, never ever before I crossed the line of just romantic relations among boys in my imagination. But I really recommend to download that patch if you're of a legal age for it.

Despite all my excitement there are still some things I'd like to be improved. First of all it'd be great if some notification were made when you come to a bad ending. When I appeared suddenly in a main menu, my first thought was that I had some kind of crash again. Every time it happened (it was actually twice but still quite enough to make me frightened that there's some problem with my computer) there was no feeling of completion, it's as if you never played, didn't get any ending at all actually, no sign or image indicating your result (I hope it's clear that I don't mean any route's bad endings, but general ones at the very beginning).

And one more thing that was so irritating for me at the first day especially, then I got partially accustomed to it. Before reading every VN, I change the text speed to the fastest in the settings. So with every click I always get the whole message written, but not in this game :( When you click your mouse you just get one sentence... Why?! As usual I started reading the text from the very beginning just to realize that I already read it and had to find that place again where I stopped. Yeah, just seconds of wasting your time but it always happened with me 'cause it's just how it worked in absolutely all other games I played. And it is so hard to change your habits((

But these are just little things that can't actually spoil my general very positive impression. This game has definitely become one of my favorite. Thank you for creating it!

TL;DR: Great protagonist, great art direction, great romantic chemistry, but weak story. Recommended if you're interested in gay romance. About 9.5 hours to fully complete.

I love Rivian as the protagonist. He's relatably antisocial, delightfully snarky, and occasionally kind of an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, all in a very likeable way, and the narration was just fun to read. His love interests fit some recognizable archetypes -- the flirt, the childhood friend, the ice king -- but the chemistry between them is well-written. I ended up liking Linnaeus more than I expected given his jerkiness at the start, and Franz less (what started off as sexily aggressive quickly pushed past the line of "actually pretty much just sexual harassment"), but my favorite was Arden, whose childhood friend nursing an unrequited crush route was so adorably sweet I couldn't help but squee (and then feel bad for him on every other route afterwards).

The voice acting, while sometimes over the top, fits the characters well. I'm glad voice acting seems to be becoming more of a standard for English VNs, since it adds a lot to the experience. And the art direction does so many little things that I wish were standard in visual novels, like crowd scenes that actually have people in the background and zooming in on smaller sections of high-resolution CGs instead of just staying on one image. Altogether the voice acting, dynamic art direction, variety of character expressions, and side character sprites help the world feel more alive.

Unfortunately the mystery is the game's weakest point. Evidence appears out of nowhere when it's convenient, and characters jump to conclusions based not on what they actually know but what the plot requires. The overall effect is that it feels less like Rivian's investigating and more like the plot's happening around him and he's just dragged along for the ride. The characters and the chemistry between them were interesting enough to carry the story for me, but it was still a disappointment.

Other disappointment: no Silas route =(
I'm, like, 89% serious and 11% attempting a forced meme.

The R18 content is a mixed bag. The voice acting feels a bit timid in places, and in particular Rivian's unenthusiastic moans are kind of a turnoff. Franz wasn't my favorite to begin with, but it didn't help that he has the worst HCGs. The other H-scenes did, er, cater to my personal interests, so that was nice. If it's not your thing, the game's fine without them, although I wish there were some kind of alternate scenes there instead of just an awkward gap.

There are a few more minor techincal things I would nitpick. The writing is generally good, but shows a few hallmarks of amateur fiction, like using awkward descriptors to avoid repeating a character's name or pronoun and using "orbs" for eyes. (Seriously, I know I'm not the only one who cringes when they see that.) And some of the voice acting has serious sound balance issues. In particular, Celeste's lines tend to start at normal volume but end in a barely audible mumble, and Sabre's dialogue ranges from "blowing out my speakers and scaring the cat" to "is that line even voice acted?"

Overall, though, I really enjoyed Chess of Blades. Argent Games does impressive work for such a small team, and I'm looking forward to their future projects. If you're a fan of yaoi VNs, definitely check out the demo.

Patch[argent-games.itch.io]

~ YaoiRecs ~
~ Kimchi Tea Reviews ~

Another queer-o-rific game I played during Pride Month. This game was from the same people who did Red Embrace, which I also enjoyed: Argent Games.

This is a royal court setting, with mysteries to be solved and yaoi romance to be had!

Romance Options
Franz -- The most forward and flirtatious of protagonist's suitors. He doesn't conceal his attraction to Rivian (the protagonist) in any way and often talks of him as though he's prey to be caught. While he uses predatory language, it is obvious from the scenes that ensue that Rivian is attracted to Franz as well and all that happens is consensual. This route is quite lustful rather than romantic.

Linnaeus -- The cool, calculated type, with glasses and who often puts on airs. He has difficulty putting trust in anyone due to past betrayals, so when he comes to have feelings for Rivian, he's slow to admit it. While it seems like he isn't capable of caring about anything other than his work, this is proven false, as his romance with Rivian blossoms. He also likes cats.

Arden -- The childhood friend who longs for Rivian's love and attention. He obediently follows the protagonist throughout the story, wanting to get closer to him and protect him from harm. While he appears to be pushover at times, it is revealed that he has a darker side than how he initially seems. When Rivian eventually admits his feelings to him, he is overjoyed that he finally won his affections.

Sabre -- (This route is considered "hidden" as Sabre is not an obvious romance option at first and his route is unlocked after playing Arden's route.) A big, burly fighter that is seen in Arden's route first. He is heavily involved in the mystery that takes place during Arden's and his own route. Despite his wrongdoings, he has a kind heart and almost immediately falls for Rivian when he realizes how honorable he is during the investigation. He seems to have a fondness for Rivian's feminine features, which makes the contrast between their physiques even more obvious.
Spoiler details: He's the villain in Arden's route, but with specific choices, it goes from Arden's path to Sabre's. It is also heavily implied that a sexual threesome between Rivian, Sabre, and Kiaran (Sabre's friend) happens toward the end of the route.

Overall, I really enjoyed the game. I would've liked to see more diversity, as all the characters are white. I don't really consider Franz's one shade darker skin to be enough. I don't like tokenism anyway. It would've been nice to see different body types too. All the men are either fit/lean or muscular. However, I was pleased with the artwork (mostly), the writing, and romantic/lustful narratives.

I recommend it to anyone who enjoyed Red Embrace or who likes yaoi/BL stories in general.

You are searching for a good Boys Love visual novel? Definitely try this one out!
"Chess of Blades" is one of my favorites in this genre.

Positive:
+ the art is extremely beautiful and the unlockable pictures are stunning as well
+ the backgrounds look good too
+ every character has a lot of different faces for all possible situations
+ the whole game has English voice acting (even the side characters)
+ the music is nice and fits for every situation
+ the choices that you have to make while playing aren't too obious
+ I adore Rivian! The protagonist is the cutest Tsundere I have ever seen <3 and he is manly as well and I like the way he is thinking
+ every love interest is different: we have a childhood bf character (very cute and overprotective, I adore him xD), than we have the cold and intellectual type of guy and last but not least a mysterious guy who loves flirting... AND there is a fourth route which you can unlock by playing the other three routes... let me say you that every guy is totally worth your time
+ the side characters are loveable as well
+ the background storys are realistic and they fit into the storyline
+ the accident during the celebration (the one that our protagonist has to explore) is in every route something different so the game never gets boring
+ you can choose if you want to play the 13+ version or the 18+ version
+ the R-18 scenes (additional content) are veeery good and I was surprised about the one with Sabre (in a positive way).. that's all that I'm going to say xD

Negative:
- it felt kinda rushed when Sabre fell in love with Rivian but well.. that's a side route anyways
- it was a pain in the @ss to install the R-18 patch but maybe I'm just not good with stuff like that (the official description how to install the patch was good nevertheless.. it also has pictures)
- some voice actors sounded kinda strange in R-18 scenes xD
- if you don't remember to hide the menu than it's still visible when the scene changes (I'm talking about moments when there should only be a background painting and nothing else)
- it was a long enough game but ....I need more! Please!! I loved it so much D:

That's it. Play it if you want to check out a lovely BL game with beautiful art and cool characters.
(And just for the record: English is not my mother language so if there is something wrong with my text.. so be it)
Have a good day! <3
Tsubasa

Heads-Up, don't judge this review by the small amount of time I played this on Steam--
I purchased the game via itch.io before it was launched on Steam and therefor finished my playthrough off of Steam.

This was honestly a nice experience. Mostly because it was one of those games that gave choices that weren't too obvious, yet obvious enough that I didn't have to go looking up a walkthrough because I ended up feeling frustrated after not getting that one route I've been trying to get for the past 567x attempts (which includes the side-romance as well).
Aside from that the writing is feeling nice (a few errors here and there, but as usual I forgot to take screenshots or whatever of them, so-- just know they're there even if rare), the voice acting isn't bad (though the r18 scenes sounded a bit..awkward at times), the art is really nice and fitting to the theme of the game and I find myself wishing there was more of it. Not because the game was lacking in length, it sure as heck wasn't, but it still kept me longing for more simply because it was just such a good read and, again, experience. The mentioned side-romance or side-route is also really nice and didn't necessarily feel like a "side-romance' at all but rather like a proper route even if slightly shorter overall.

I can't really say much or anything bad about the game
and before I end up spoiling something by accident, I'm gonna end the review here--
certainly, do recommend.

I've enjoyed work from Argent Games before, yet despite this seemingly having a far greater budget, it's far, far worse. If you intend to get this despite my review, buy it on itchio, as there is a better value for money there, where you will get both an itchio & steam download, along with both PG and 18+ versions.
In this review I will give a general Overview, Trigger Warnings, Pros, Cons, Bugs, Accessibility, Suggestions and a Conclusion.

The romantic interests aren't generally very appealing, and the main character is abhorrent.
The setting is a bit confusing, I'm assuming it's in a fantasy land, but seems to be based on multiple past eras in Britain. They mention women wearing corsets and laugh about how they couldn't wear them, despite corsets being something men did regularly wear in the past too. Also misunderstanding that not all corsets were waist training Victorian style corsets.

The writing is a bit dodgy, and it makes them say redundant things like 'Extravagant extravaganza' or 'they're so giant', 'his face was inimitably amusing' and that time both 'felt like hours' but also 'passed in the blink of an eye', which doesn't sound like they make any sense to me.
Having the MC proudly declare they're xenophobic, but not nationalistic because they like the goods from abroad, wasn't a good look and implies the Devs don't know what impact that kind of statement makes. The fact they're not fearful of all things foreign implies their 'xenophobia' is specific to the PEOPLE, which is much more in line with racism. I'm not sure what they mean by nationalist but it's not a defining factor that makes it less racist at all. The messy usage of these words is even worse when combined with the general way of handling foreigners in the game.
The racist MC is surrounded by 'suspicious foreign delegates', who you pretty much never get to see. The only possible POC I've seen are the Tarot reader and the medium white character described as tanned and eXoTiC. Yikes. Not to mention this egg washed white man is the most predatory character, not taking no for an answer. You know, that harmful stereotype that's often attributed to darker skin...
So not only does the MC seem racist but the entire story is steeped in not so subtle racist concepts without ever addressing them.

This game is questionable and has been my most conflicted game of the lot I've played by Argent Games, and I'm seriously questioning the fact they have a string of customers suggesting diversity in their future games and them repeatedly ignoring it. Then making a game about a xenophobe looking for the suspicious foreigners to exotify. While I doubted the route of the egg washed man would combat racist ideologies, I really had hoped it would, and the lack of effort in this regard is discouraging.

*Kidnapping,
*Death/Murder,
*Predatory behaviour implied to be romantic,
*Unaddressed racism/sexism/ableism within characters and general story,

+Pretty art and characters,
+Voice Acted,
+Self Voicing for narration - Press V (Explained below in Accessibility),
+Log,
+Achievements,
+18+ and PG version. Purchasing on Itchio will give you the Itchio PG and 18+ copies, + a Steam PG key and a 18+ patch (although it's tricky to apply).

-As usual, no diversity in the cast. No brown people, fatter people, or disabled people.
-Racism: 1) Racist xenophobic main character.
2) The only established foreign character is described as 'tanned' and 'exotic', but is an extremely predatory man who looks the colour of a piece of white bread that spent 2 seconds in an unplugged toaster.
-Ableism: The only character with a condition, is basically disliked FOR having it. Every time his stutter is mentioned, it's to say someone is getting fed up of it, and how it makes them less cute or sympathetic. Stutters are NOT a plague for listeners to suffer and judge. That's gross, and making every character hate their condition seems like a statement of the writers views.
-Sexist: There's only 3 women (+1 girl & 1 disembodied stalkers voice) in this game. The aunt who is called a witch/hag, a servant mother who has no personality, the mischievous delegate. We see the sexism most in the last mentioned, where the MC patronises her, calls her an air headed, assumes she's dating or having sex with every man she's seen with, and who disregards her help because she must only know about fashion... We're here for gay romance not misogyny, shockingly they don't need to go together.
-Most love interests aren't appealing.
-Main Character is obnoxious, rude, and not very bright. It's a strange choice having such a character solve mysteries before everyone else, because he's extremely incapable and the 'hints' hit you over the head and literally spell stuff out and your character is like 'wow thanks for that useful hint. Now I need to go consider how and why water is wet'. It's kinda insulting to the reader to indicate we need this much hand holding and time to figure out the most obvious things being spelt out letter by letter.
*Bad writing. I don't really understand why the writing in this expensive game is so bad, but half the time things written just don't make sense, or they use words they don't seem to actually understand. Everyone has the same quirk of saying 'you know' for no reason, it makes sense for one or two characters but not every single one.
*Accents were really shaky and distracting, eg; a posh accent with T-glottalization. Most of them sounded like an unusual blend of accents; Irish/Cockney, Indian/Scottish for example.
-Self-Voicing option isn't in the Main Menu at all, and the sound was too loud compared to the voice acting and music.

* Voice acting sometimes cuts out part way or weren't read out at all, and there tends to be a delay in speaking sometimes.

+Self-Voicing option; this is basically a built in screen reader enabled for the menus, choices and narrative text. This seems to be an accessibility feature associated with Ren'Py games.
+Good contrast colour for text and the background, text is a decent size and stable.
+Adaptable sound for each individual main character, and adaption for grouped side characters.
-Epilepsy safe but migraine triggering flashes during fights & panning.

*More diversity, again, many customers have requested this. Please increase the racial diversity, use different body types, introduce different disabilities/conditions. Normalise the reality of the world; we're not all thin white gay waifs of people, and it's beautiful to have diversity!
*Don't have a characters impairment ONLY mentioned when people are hating them for it.
*Include information in the Menu on the Self-Voicing feature, as I found it on accident!
*Add a sound option for Self-Voicing, as it was too loud compared to the music and characters.

Argent Games have raw story telling talent and passion, yet despite this being one of their most pricey games, it remains one of their weakest. It introduces interesting heavy subjects and handles them badly, have somewhat varied characters that fail to be developed into anything beyond stereotypes. Blade of Chess ultimately fails to build on previous successes or implement suggestions fans have long been asking for.
The characters seem to represent acceptance of horrible viewpoints and harmful interpersonal behaviours.
It'd be advisable to employ a more diverse pool of proof readers and beta testers, to ensure these kinds of colossal issues are caught early and addressed before release.
Where there is consistent failure to diversify and handle sensitive subjects, it'd be reasonable for readers to believe the harmful viewpoints presented but not addressed, may reflect the Devs actual beliefs.

I've spent nearly 18 hours on this game and I'm done with it. For me, that's not a good sign. I usually spend hours going back and replaying parts that I like or viewing the CG over and over again to look at the *Ahem* pretty art.

This game was not the case.

The story was mostly uninteresting, I never 'cared' about what was going on in any particular route. I appreciated that each one was different in their own way but none of them really carried anything that had any particular weight or stuck in my head for longer than was required to explain what was happening at that moment. The writing was decent and the voice acting adequate; though some characters could be a bit monotone it never distracted me too much at any given time. Well maybe Kieran, his voice I remember being tonally odd.

I personally never warmed up to the protagonist, which made this game a major slog. Rivian starts off as arrogant irritating and never really changes until it's a bit too late for me. Perhaps that's why I'm giving this a negative review? I see that there are a lot of people that actually like him as the protagonist and that's fine but for me he was this droll little irritating thing whose character had no positive change until another character I had no inclination towards was put in danger.

The romance options were fine but a bit lacking or all around uninteresting. The path that I was most 'excited' about was ruined half way through when I found out the character was nothing like he was portrayed at first. I was a bit salty at this betrayal. The threesome placed a band-aid on the wound but it was still bleeding.

WARNING this review contains spoilers and lots and I mean LOTS of criticism.

I’ve been waiting for this game for so long and was elated when it finally was released on stem, but, after playing it, I must admit, I was a bit disappointed. The game is not bad; it is just…super mediocre.

I will start with the things I liked:
-Fully voice acted. It is the first time I see bl game made by western developers with English voice acting and it was one of the main reasons I bought it.
-Art is super colorful ad pretty.
-Good writing.
-Characters voices are all likable (except for one. Will talk about him in the “things I didn’t like”)
- Side romance aka Sabre was in my opinion the best route

And now to the things that I didn’t like:
-The 3 main love interests fit the most overused yaoi clichés: playboy, childhood friend, sadistic megane.
- Rivian’s voice. It is too sassy/annoying for my taste. And super awkward and unenthusiastic during sex scenes.
- Anatomy in the nsfw cgs is reaaaly weird.
- Can’t refuse threesome
-No Silas route.
- The plot is not bad, but it has a couple of plot holes and the mystery aspect of the game is weak. That was super disappointing because the mystery aspect was the second main reason I bought the game.

All the clues and evidence the main character finds appear out of thin air and seem obvious. Because of that all the criminals, the grant inquisitor and our beloved main character seem incompetent and clueless.

A bunch of questions were left unanswered. Why the prince’s daughter lives with a maid and works as one? Who the hell is Ignatious? Why does the king take away little kids from their homes and force them to be gladiators? Is he a bad guy? If the king is the bad guy does that mean that Ignatious is right? With what did they blackmail Silas?
I really hope that the devs will release a bunch of dlc’s that will expand the plot and add Silas route. My personal rating for this game is 6,5/10.

Slight spoilers below, though not heavy!

I very much enjoyed this game, in each and every aspect. I easily fell in love with all the characters, and was enticed with each story line and how different they were depending on who you chose to romance -- I was always kept on my toes. I am a sucker for the dark and mysterious type, so I of course started with Franz's route, and was not dissapointed with what I was given. Arden is such a sweetheart, and it hurt so much whenever I had to "kick the puppy" when delving into Franz's route, so I made a promise to myself (and Arden) that I would romance him second. I hate sad endings, therefore I was inclined to keep everyone alive and happy, to the best of my abilties. Getting to Arden's route proved to be a slight challenge, as there was a few twists and turns, but I managed to do so after a bit of searching through different options and save files. Linnaeus was swell, if a bit of a jerk at first, though I fully understand that what he deals with on a day to day basis can drive any man to be bitter and low on patience. The side romance was lovely, and I adored the males big exterior, but being a soft hearted "tiger" on the inside. Though, the good R18+ ending scene threw me for a loop, though not an unwelcome one!

All in all, I highly reccomend this game to everyone. I loved it and I got loads of fun time out of it!

Lets just get this out the way real quick: I'm obsessed with this game.

It's short but sweet and I love the OST as well as the CGs. I always got a bit choked up when I saw the ending CG's for all the guys. I like seeing them happy, what can I say.

The voice acting was about 4 out of 5. It was good but not excellent. For me I quite liked the voices but I can understand how some folks wouldn't. Especially some of the more...spicy scenes, which are not available on steam.

As for the characters I very much liked... well all of them! The love interests have very different personalities and are not to complicated (you know; there's the stoic, mysterious type, the stubborn aristocrat type and the dorky best friend) to understand.

I wouldn't say this Visual Novel is on the deep, content heavy side. It's more on the wholesome, one shot side.

I loved every minute of play time and I actually played a few routes twice.

100% recommend.