Sable's Grimoire (Update)

I have decided to give a small update to my previous review about the game Sable Grimoire. After completing the last 3 positive routes (though I seriously question 1 of those) which were for the three girls: Eth, Leshia, and Rei (think in my last post I may have put her name down as Rui, I will go back and fix that at some point.)

Before I get too far into the happenings of the three mentioned girls in this review let me start off by saying that the protag in this particular VN does not follow the meta very well, and honestly, while I am glad he doesn't as it helps with a new fresh look for VN's, I think they basically made the protag a self-absorbed, self-serving, conceited, prick that somehow has managed to find himself in an 'almost' harem like position with women from multiple different races. 

Sable is a former shut-in with little in the ways of social interaction unless he has to, he's not physically adept and as far as magic goes he is not very powerful. The only thing that honestly makes Sable an interesting protag in my opinion is his cunning word usage, ability to create new spells, to breakdown spells and glyphs in a way to create those spells, and to comprehend spells in a way to find a way to remove them. I won't deny he also has a very logical way of looking at things and his ability to use his logic to breakdown situations and find hidden meanings in things is uncanny. 

All that said, Sable shows little in the way of any sense of compassion or interest in the opposite sex, which as a shut-in I can somewhat understand that his lack of social interaction and lack of romance has left him with little in the way of feeling any sense of romance towards others but the level at which he goes is beyond that of normal human understanding. In each scenario (with the exception of Jojo's route) he is either oblivious to the feelings of the girl he's talking with or simply does not want to pursue 'romance'. I mean sure Jojo would be an exception to the 'romance' rule I admit, but even in the end of that way he didn't do it because he wanted a romance, maybe a friendship but even that is not for sure.

That said, I will say that the romance options with Leshia, Dracon, and Tix are ones that could lead to further development at some point though with his character who really knows.

While I understand the ending they were shooting for here, I did find it to be a bit of an outlier of the other girl's endings. I get that with the exception of Jojo the other girl's routes were seen more as the 'romantic' interests so to speak. That said I think the ending for Rei was greatly hampered. I won't say it was a 'bad' ending as that has a totally different meaning in this VN, (as in most bad endings in this VN means the protag or another person dies) but I wouldn't call this a good ending either.

Rei's ending is based on the fact that she is struggling with the fact that she has feelings for Sable but lacks the ability to connect with him in order to get those feelings across. On their break, Sable, Eth, and Rei decide to take a camping trip with one another and during that trip both Eth and Rei attempt to be more open about how they feel to Sable. Of course, he doesn't really understand and puts the events behind him. This causes some friction between Sable and Rei but just a slight one. You find out that unlike Sable who is anti-social and prefers to be alone, Rei is the complete opposite of him. She wants to always be around family or friends and to have fun.

The three return to the academy to which Sable gets called for an urgent meeting at the Principle's office. Once he gets there he is told that his choice of friends was not good. That taking up friendships with the lowest two ranked students in the class was going to hinder his progression and his own research which he was being allowed to do. The Principle gave him an ultimatum of either stop being friends with them or he would have them removed. Sable gave him an alternative which was he was teaching them to use 'Terminal' magic and they would be allowed to stay.

With this in mind, Sable began to think about how he would approach this problem, but before he can do so he is thrown into an every growing tangle of deceit and lies that involves Rei, Eth, Dracon, and Tix. Eventually through an event between Sable and Eth, Sable approaches Rei and after an argument, she decides to return home.

At the moment of choice between going after Rei which leads down her final path, you can also choose to remain with Eth and this route leads Sable to explain everything that has happened, all the lies and deceits he tells to Eth. At first, she is taken aback by the Principles words and all the things Sable did to try to protect them, including attempting to remove himself from their side to keep them in the academy. 

Eth decides to help Sable continue to lie to Rei but simply modify it to make it where Rei wouldn't be hurt or figure it out. At first, Sable wasn't sure about going through with it but he not wanting to hurt Rei or her feelings but also not really able to explain how he didn't have any feelings for Rei other than friendship. 

So with that in mind, the lie was deployed, the lie they used you ask? Eth told Rei that Sable and she had been secretly dating for only a little while and when she kissed him in front of her that it was because they were dating. Rei at first was upset but not too long after that she accepted it, with the lie put out there Rei and Eth continued to study and had actually started improving their grades. Of course, the Principle was taken aback by this revelation but he accepted it and moved on.

Sable continued to support the lie even when it is plain to see that Eth, isn't really lying, she has real feelings for him and though the VN ended before he found out we can only assume that due to his personality he will just stick with her as long as he needs to, then who knows maybe he'll grow some balls and a heart and actually love her back. But that isn't my call.

With this I have completed all good endings, therefore I will be moving to after stories for the two that are currently out which is, Sable's Grimoire: A Dragon's Treasure (a story for Sable and Dracon) and Sable's Grimoire: Man and Elf (a story for Sable and Leshia) I will post those at another time.