Preview: Saintess of the Golden Bow Otome Channels Isekai Stories
With how many otome isekai manga and anime there are, it’s a little surprising there are so few games about the topic. Transparent Games and Error 300 are attempting to assist with that with Saintess of the Golden Bow, which is fully funded on Kickstarter and still seeking support. In this case, it’s inspired by Korean web novels and comics, and it really feels like it tries to follow the lead of similar stories that came before it. Like many isekai shojo series, the Saintess of the Golden Bow otome begins with someone getting hit by a truck. Celine is a 21-year-old office woman and bit of a loner who enjoyed games, web novels, and web comics. She’s crossing the street in the rain after work, thinking about the fantasy stories she loves, when we have a “truck-kun” moment. She’s run over and wakes up in a forest as Celeste. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw15nQnwS4g&ab_channel=TransparentGames There’s a bit of a twist, however. The Korean web novel Celine is reincarnated into is a boy’s love one. The character she is now, Celeste, was supposed to die in these opening moments to set up the tragic backstory for her knight Levi, who would become the Saint of the Golden Bow. However, Celine has some archery skills and so does Celeste. She uses that to kill the demon that would have killed her. This means when the trial comes to find the person picked by the gods to wield the bow and face the Demon Queen, Celeste/Celine is actually picked. It makes for some interesting moments and takes on the genre. While Celine is familiar with Celeste’s fate and the course of the story from the one she read in her world, things aren’t going to go like that in this Saintess of the Golden Bow isekai. The one she read with as boys love story. Levi was initially madly in love with Celeste, but is bisexual and had potential love interests in Prince Noah and Elijah the priest after she died. Since Celeste didn’t die, Levi is still as infatuated with her as ever. It also means that as the saintess now, Noah and Elijah are having the interactions they initially had with Levi with her. While it’s a bit awkward, since the setup suggests that Levi and Noah were supposed to end up together, I did appreciate some ways in which this is approached early on. Since Celine also inherited Celeste’s emotions and memories, it means she’s aware of how she felt about Levi. The original Celeste was overwhelmed and uncomfortable since he was of a lower station and her knight, and she actually tried to fix him up with other men and women. There’s also the notion that Celine/Celeste isn’t really sure what pairings might happen, even as she starts to fall for and experience some romantic moments with Levi, Noah, and Elijah. Images via Transparent Games and Error 300 One thing I didn’t expect, both from this build and the game, is the level of voice acting. In some scenes, there is voice acting for the leads. The casting seems really well done for an indie otome like this! The art direction is rather good too, though I will say that in the case of some of the CGs I’ve seen, it seems like there’s a big difference between the portraits you see during conversations and those scenes, and it’s a little awkward sometimes. The quality on the portraits and CGs are all good! Just sometimes not as similar as I’d expect. Saintess of the Golden Bow seems like it could be interesting, and the otome game is definitely following the same sort of narrative path as the Korean web comic and novel isekai stories that inspired it. The voice acting is solid. There are occasionally insightful elements to the script. I do wish the character portraits looked a little more like the CG designs, but the quality is generally good! It looks like a promising dating sim. Saintess of the Golden Bow is in development for PCs, a demo is available on Steam, and the Kickstarter ends on April 20, 2025. The post Preview: Saintess of the Golden Bow Otome Channels Isekai Stories appeared first on Siliconera.
With how many otome isekai manga and anime there are, it’s a little surprising there are so few games about the topic. Transparent Games and Error 300 are attempting to assist with that with Saintess of the Golden Bow, which is fully funded on Kickstarter and still seeking support. In this case, it’s inspired by Korean web novels and comics, and it really feels like it tries to follow the lead of similar stories that came before it.
Like many isekai shojo series, the Saintess of the Golden Bow otome begins with someone getting hit by a truck. Celine is a 21-year-old office woman and bit of a loner who enjoyed games, web novels, and web comics. She’s crossing the street in the rain after work, thinking about the fantasy stories she loves, when we have a “truck-kun” moment. She’s run over and wakes up in a forest as Celeste.
There’s a bit of a twist, however. The Korean web novel Celine is reincarnated into is a boy’s love one. The character she is now, Celeste, was supposed to die in these opening moments to set up the tragic backstory for her knight Levi, who would become the Saint of the Golden Bow. However, Celine has some archery skills and so does Celeste. She uses that to kill the demon that would have killed her. This means when the trial comes to find the person picked by the gods to wield the bow and face the Demon Queen, Celeste/Celine is actually picked.
It makes for some interesting moments and takes on the genre. While Celine is familiar with Celeste’s fate and the course of the story from the one she read in her world, things aren’t going to go like that in this Saintess of the Golden Bow isekai. The one she read with as boys love story. Levi was initially madly in love with Celeste, but is bisexual and had potential love interests in Prince Noah and Elijah the priest after she died. Since Celeste didn’t die, Levi is still as infatuated with her as ever. It also means that as the saintess now, Noah and Elijah are having the interactions they initially had with Levi with her.
While it’s a bit awkward, since the setup suggests that Levi and Noah were supposed to end up together, I did appreciate some ways in which this is approached early on. Since Celine also inherited Celeste’s emotions and memories, it means she’s aware of how she felt about Levi. The original Celeste was overwhelmed and uncomfortable since he was of a lower station and her knight, and she actually tried to fix him up with other men and women. There’s also the notion that Celine/Celeste isn’t really sure what pairings might happen, even as she starts to fall for and experience some romantic moments with Levi, Noah, and Elijah.
One thing I didn’t expect, both from this build and the game, is the level of voice acting. In some scenes, there is voice acting for the leads. The casting seems really well done for an indie otome like this! The art direction is rather good too, though I will say that in the case of some of the CGs I’ve seen, it seems like there’s a big difference between the portraits you see during conversations and those scenes, and it’s a little awkward sometimes. The quality on the portraits and CGs are all good! Just sometimes not as similar as I’d expect.
Saintess of the Golden Bow seems like it could be interesting, and the otome game is definitely following the same sort of narrative path as the Korean web comic and novel isekai stories that inspired it. The voice acting is solid. There are occasionally insightful elements to the script. I do wish the character portraits looked a little more like the CG designs, but the quality is generally good! It looks like a promising dating sim.
Saintess of the Golden Bow is in development for PCs, a demo is available on Steam, and the Kickstarter ends on April 20, 2025.
The post Preview: Saintess of the Golden Bow Otome Channels Isekai Stories appeared first on Siliconera.
