I love a little weirdness in my media. The strange and crazy attracts my interest and I listen. However, sometimes something comes along that just might be a little too strange for my tastes. And Angels With Scaly Wings certainly borders on this creepy but maybe just a little too creepy for my tastes. But, I was still filled with enough morbid curiosity to at least try out the demo and give my thoughts on it.
In Angels With Scaly Wings you play as a human ambassador sent through a portal to make an exchange with a host of intelligent dragons and perhaps learn a thing or three about their culture. All right, why not? I love dragons. Anyway, apparently a stable wormhole is discovered and we decide to make contact with whatever’s on the other side. Your friend is the first to go through and years pass when a cultural exchange is offered and you volunteer for the mission at hand.
Passing through the acid trip all 2001 style, you’re greeted by a white dragon wearing a dress shirt and tie. Um, yeah. Apparently some of these guys wear clothes. Anyway, he greets you when you drop out of the other end of the portal and takes you to where you’ll be staying for the duration of your…well, stay. You’ll also meet several other members of said reptilian species throughout the demo, some friendly and some not so much. You’ll also get back into contact with your old friend very early on.
What unnerves me the most about Angels With Scaly Wings isn’t the whole intelligent dragon angle. After all, I am a fan of anthro stories. No, it’s that almost everything seems so eerily familiar. All of the scenes could have been taken directly from any human only visual novel. The parallels are way too uncanny not to be concerned. Wouldn’t a civilization based off of the evolution of an entirely different species, particularly one as fantastic as our beloved flying lizards, have created something vastly different than our own? Maybe it’s just me, but it is very distressing to say the least.
And apparently I’m not the only one that thinks so. Your friend, and you if you choose these types of dialogue options, find it way too similar to Earth not to be at least a little distraught about it. And perhaps there’s more to this than meets the eye. He does ask you to clandestinely meet you by the portal at night to talk about something important. Unfortunately, his shadow decides to mess things up and your friend goes rogue.
There are four possible romance options in Angels With Scaly Wings and you can get a glimpse at the beginning of each route towards the end of the demo. I personally liked the drinking game with Bryce, but they all have their moments. Somewhat creepy moments, but there is something to like there. It’s a strange concept, but it’s not like it hasn’t been done before. However, it does feel weird to have the potential to date a dragon.
