Carol the Dark Angel - Interactive Comic Book Novel PS1 Review

Carol the Dark Angel is an interactive comic book novel style game that would have been released for the PlayStation in 1998. 

And this game would have only got a release in Japan and what's kind of unusual and yes quite unique about this type of game is the fact is that at various instances in other regions games were being produced as part of like a comic book style series that would have been used as giveaways for various competitions and various entries and so forth.

 So this game primarily focuses around an entity known as the dark angel where he is kind of like a superhuman that has incredible powers and he ends up becoming kind of like a lone hero or secret kind of protector of the city that he is inhabiting. 

So the game itself tells the story through a comic book style perspective but as yet it has video kind of elements and tells it from a visual novel type of style. 

But the one thing that's apparent from this game straight off the bat yes it does have some unique animations that play in the background from time to time but you also have a lot of dialogue in which you need to read to understand the story but again it depends on whether you can understand the Japanese language. 

But the game portrays itself in the comic book style where plays through different segments like as if you're reading three pages of a comic book but each section of the page plays through like a different style of animation before adding in various text elements to try and tell the story and it uses many visual cues to give you an idea of what's going on so it's typical of a real life comic book but just in a digital sense.

 The one that's apparent from this game compared to many other visual novel games that I have tried out on the PlayStation is the graphical style of the visuals and even kind of like the anime and action kind of style of the graphics that are on display as they are very reflective of the typical comic book art style and in all honesty the game and the visual style looks up absolutely beautiful. 

It really looks awesome if you're anything like me that loves comic books and that used to read a lot of comic books growing up and over the years I have become a fan of this type of style and even anime type of style of visuals. 

They are very unique in how they present themselves and yet they also look realistic in their own way and this game just looks beautiful. 

The way it looks even how it tells its story from the various dialogue boxes that appear even amongst all of their comic book strips that will show up on the screen. 

Now even though you don't understand the story again because it's due to the language barrier but you kind of get an idea of what's going on and if you sit down with this, right it's not going to be for everybody but the thing is if you enjoy the visual kind of prowess that the game offers you will enjoy it for what it is because you'll be intrigued and you'll be curious to try and find out what's going on next and for me personally the visual cues of the game and how good it looks and how well the art style looks because of how well it's drawn, for me that's what drew me in. 

So while I found myself playing it and constantly going past the text dialogues to try and see the next scenes and the next intro sequences and just to see how good they looked and in all honesty the game is phenomenal for what it does represent. 

While it does have very realistic style for the graphics and this cartoon elements it does also present some more grown-up and even adult themed elements in the story as well so that's just something to be aware of too. So it will appeal to those people that like more kind of like action focused but yet Grown Up Style Comics as such as well and there will be times in the game itself that you will be presented with various dialogues where you do have to make a choice.

Now it doesn't happen too often but when it does the interactions will play out different sequences depending on those choices but again they will still reflect the same outcomes leading on into the story and all in all when you play true the entirety of this game you will have it finished in little over an hour but again it all really depends on how long you spend going through all of the dialogue features and trying to understand the text. 

Now for most of us like myself you won't understand it because you don't understand the Japanese language but if you did I'm sure you get some idea as to how the story goes but even if you just like visual elements like I do with these type of games it is a sight to behold because it's very beautiful looking and how everything's drawn how everything is designed and this is the type of style of a Comic that I personally love as well. 

I just love the visual style of them because they're very dark, very gritty they've got a kind of like an almost Noir style vibe to it and the fact is that this game even with the character the dark angel where he is trying to protect the city and the story represents itself trying to protect it from powerful overlords that are trying to destroy various elements of the city and he has to deal with gangs that are causing mayhem and havoc throughout the city streets and trying to hurt or even kill innocent people and it's all reflective in the story you will kind of get the idea of that the more you play it but there's enough here to keep you engaged. 

It just has a very futuristic tone and the fact is that it is set in a fictional futuristic kind of city and the fact is that it has a Noir kind of setting really adds to the style and vibe of it and what's even cool is the various elements too that the game will transition into almost like a 3d style element where it will play a couple of video sequences from a different point of view so there's a lot of unique elements in this game that genuinely will keep you engaged for quite some time. 

Now I will admit these type of games really aren't for everybody as such but if you genuinely like comic books and you like engaging stories that has plenty of action and a lot of in-between elements then this is something you can check out regardless of whether you can understand the language or not, you will get an idea of how everything goes with the still images, the animations and how the story progresses you'll know by the visual presence of each image to give you an idea of what way the story is going and like I said to sit down and go through all of the scenes in this it will take you a little over an hour to experience the whole game but even at that it's well spent in all regards. If you just want to see something that visually looks stunning for what is on offer and it's just if like I said if you're a fan of comic books this is another reason why you should go and check it out for that reason alone at least. 

It's something that's very different but yet definitely stands out compared to many other visual novel games that I have seen on the PlayStation and the fact is this one is relatively unknown to many and it does Stand Out amongst the plethora of them that are out there and it just looks really cool overall. 

So if you're into visual style novels especially on the PlayStation I would recommend that you go and check it out at least and I would love to know your thoughts on this game if you have seen this or if you've experienced it at all and if so what do you think of these visual novel style games do you enjoy them or maybe not so much so be sure to share it in the comments below and be sure to keep watching to see more content on other games similar to Carol the Dark Angel, you can check out the blog where we will be diving into the iconic elements of these classic video games and as always keep those gaming memories alive...