Angels with Scaly Wings Review

Developed by Radical Phi and published by Ratalaika Games, Angels with Scaly Wings is a visual novel with lots of choices that can change the story, with more than 13 unique endings. You are Fred (well, you don’t have to be Fred, as you can choose the name you are known by) and you are one a few human ambassadors that were sent to the world of dragons after finding a mysterious portal.

“Dragons?” I hear you say. Yes, you read right; dragons. Living, breathing dragons that can talk, speak English, and from the outside it looks like they mirror everything we humans do, but take on the appearance of the dragons.

The story takes an eventful turn when you meet another of the humans living in this dragon world and *early game spoiler* even more so when you are asked to help investigate the murder of a dragon, with the prime suspect being your human friend.

With over 175,000 words there is plenty to read and with all the different endings, there is plenty to bring you back for additional read-through’s if you like to see all the all the possible outcomes and how different decisions can affect the story. One plus point is once you’ve read a scene the game will ask you if you want to skip all non-essential dialogue so you can go straight to the key decision-making choice.

Another plus point for me are the side stories that accompany the main investigation – you can romance some of the dragons! As a big fan of the Mass Effect series I always appreciate these kind of options, and I mean, come on – romanceable dragons.

From an audio perspective, whilst the music is good there isn’t much variation and I often found myself distracted from reading the story and wondering if this is the same track I’ve already heard 10 times. The art style is good, and the backgrounds are well drawn. For a visual novel there seems to be more individual art pieces which is very much welcome. There is also an art gallery for you to enjoy in the main menu.

And finally, for the Achievement hunters there are 62 to collect and even though you can’t get the full 1000g in less than 5 minutes, it shouldn’t take more than an hour or so.

Conclusion

All in all, I enjoyed my time reading through of Angels with Scaly Wings, and with the numerous possible endings this should give keen readers to come back for more.

This game was reviewed based on Xbox One review code, using an Xbox One console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.