Sorceress Alive is a game that tries to emulate a pattern similar to MLA. Introduce characters in a generic setting so that it is easy to understand for readers, also serving as an introduction to the world. Downsides of patterns like that is you really have to endure playing something generic for the best part to come. Sorceress Alive does that pattern well albeit with some glaring weaknesses, if those weakness were solved, I wouldn't hesitate to call this one of the best fantasy VN's I played.

I'll start with the weaknesses first.

It tries to create a story with a large scale. They build it up well, honestly the world-building is very good. What they failed at here is that there were just too few characters. In large scale VN's you would probably have a lot of side characters to create a living world. The world of Sorceress Alive would have been amazing if they invested more in creating side characters. Whatever side characters that should have been important went sprite-less and had no lines.

There was also an obvious lack of graphics, things like CG,sprites and more animations. Some scenes had CG that didn't need one and some scenes that needed CG's didn't have one.

Side-characters should have been used more, there was just so more unused potential. Interesting side characters appeared only a few times and there were a lot of scenes that could have been used for them. 

Alive route, which is the real game, had a lot of twists. I loved it and I'll say more on it later but sometimes they don't know the tone they want to do leading to varying tone shifts. The story keeps jumping over and over that it's confusing on what it's trying to be. I absolutely loved the tone in the first half of Alive but it changes in the second half. Not that I'm saying it's bad, I just liked the first half better. It really played like an Utsuge that would rip your heart every moment.

I guess most of these weaknesses can be explained by them lacking funding, I dont know, I'm just guessing here.

And now to the strengths.

The game has strong world-building putting aside what I said in the weaknesses. The history and mechanics is consistent which is a big plus for me as I love world-building. Usually isekai writers skimp on this and just create random interesting worlds without a logical history but it's different in Sorceress Alive.

I don't know if this part will be a strength to some people but I loved how the game dared into going into something people might not like. The heroines WILL show you hostility to the point of murdering you. It's not the kind of hostility played for laughs but real hostility with actual reasons that is heartbreaking. It doesn't hesitate to show the ugly sides of everyone when forced into a corner. In a certain event, I was shocked they went there. Considering most eroge companies have their heroines have angel-like kindness and there is always redemption for them but seriously what that certain heroine did was understandable but there was no redemption for that. Even with that, that made me love their character even more.

Kouki, the protagonist had me fearing at first since he can't use magic. I thought he could be useless but his intelligence was his real weapon. I would have preferred if he had a voice considering

The tone of the first half of Alive made me discover what I love and that is putting characters into extremely troubling situations and their attitudes. The tone was grim and was completely the opposite of  the happy-go-lucky Sorceress routes. It's absolutely heartbreaking and the perfect introduction to the world of Sorceress Alive. Although sadly, the tone became lighter in the second half but it still had it's own tragedies. It's filled to the brim with story and suspense that it was hard to bring down for me. A medium-high level spoiler

Alive, had short epilogues depending on the heroine you pick and then you unlock the true end after clearing one. The true end had my heart aching but it was the perfect end. (Of course, I liked Akina's end more considering she was my favorite heroine along with Yumi.

If I had to compare it to something, this would be an inferior MLA. Although it may sound like an insult, that is a big compliment for me considering MLA was also one of my favorite VN's.

I would rate Alive by itself, 9/10. My overall rating for the game would be 8.7/10 because even if I completely loved Alive, I still think that playing Sorceress was quite a hurdle as it is a generic Isekai. I would heavily recommend people to try this and just try to bare with the first part. It may be a generic Isekai but it's not complete shit. It had it's own moments. Probably too early for this but I feel this would be one of the must plays this year.

Now going to play Sugar*Sweet by smee for some light fun. After that I'm going to finish ChuSinGura or something. I usually play Serious and light VN's alternatively.