Shall We Date? Arabian Nights — Sindbad Review + Walkthrough

This review of Sindbad will contain spoilers. For the walkthrough, control-f “walkthrough”

This game was made for me. I adore One Thousand and One Nights. I have a weakness for any sort of Arabian prince/sheikh romance, even though 99.9% of them are horrible. Anyway, I LOVE THE CONCEPT ALREADY

And look at the guys we have to choose from —

The first man who caught my eye on looks alone was Sindbad. Those golden eyes! That beautiful skin tone! He’s wearing bright and bold colors! And pirates!!

So, the basic story of Arabian Nights is as follows — you are a princess that’s of marriage-able age. You have never left the palace because it was too dangerous. As a child, your mother often told you tales of the kingdom. You want to tell your own stories, but you feel like you lack experience in the world and your stories will suffer as a result.

Enter the mysterious Ifrit. He casts a spell and takes you away from the palace. Depending on who you pick, the story will change from there…

For the purposes of this review, I renamed my character to Maisha.

Sindbad and Maisha first meet in the bazaar. Sindbad saves her from some thieves and Maisha begs him to take her with him on his voyage. He agrees and off they go~ As far as beginnings go, it’s fairly standard, but it’s nothing I’m going to complain about. It serves its purpose and we can’t ask for more than that!

On the ship, the only member of his crew we meet is Zia, who is also a romance-able character. He and Zia have a great friendship and their spats are amusing to watch.

One thing that really surprised me is… how bashful Sindbad is! He is a truly confident guy and he’s quick to get ’em and stand up for justice, but he blushes around Maisha like crazy. He gets incredibly shy and awkward and watching him go from his almost cocky confidence in practically everything to a total red-faced dork the moment she looks at him is utterly adorable. He’ll even play at being a playboy, but the moment she starts playing along with it he starts turning red. I thought at the beginning he’d be one of the most assertive archetypes, but he’s not and I am thankful because it made his route incredibly more enjoyable.

The actual plot wasn’t anything special to speak of, but their interactions were really good. So while a lot of things boiled down to Maisha checking the book “oh no we’re in danger” then avoiding the problem, rinse; repeat, each scene invoked a smile or a “awww” or something, and I think that’s commendable. If the plot was just a little better, this would be five hearts, easily.

My heart scale is defined as follows – 5 hearts = a story everyone will fall in love with, regardless of preferences; 4 hearts = a well-done story that people who love the concept will adore, and people who don’t may end up liking it; 3 hearts = if you like this type of story or this type of hero, then you will enjoy this, but those who do not like either of those things will probably not; 2 hearts = it had potential, it squandered it; 1 heart = just a waste of time from the get-go; 0 hearts = why was this made?

 

Favorite Moments

Maisha: “Well then, I’ll just say thanks. Thank you, Sindbad.” My voice sounds weak as I give him my thanks for taking care of me.
Sindbad: “Oh, I’ll have you show your thanks once you’re feeling better.”
Maisha: “Huh?”
Sindbad: “And I don’t mean with words.”
Smirking, Sindbad dries the sweat on my neck with a soft cloth.
Maisha: “Thanks… Sindbad.”
Sindbad: “Like I said, I dont’ need words. You’ll have to return the favor once you’re well.”
Maisha: “Okay…”
Sindbad: “Huh? Hey? That’s all you have to say about it?”

It sounds like a playboy moment, but after she takes his teasing with a straight face, it’s all blushing sprites from there ahahahaa That’s what’s so great about his route. He says things like a playboy, but he gets embarrassed by saying them. (So why are you saying those embarrassing things? If anyone has seen Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun/Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun, think Mikorin and his flowery word moments that embarrass him after saying them. Same thing. )

There’s many more little conversations like that in the story. I laughed out loud a lot. She even takes a turn teasinghim several times, and it’s as adorable as you’d expect. It was all so cute! One of my favorite things to read, obviously cute & steamy romances, anyone?

It was hard to capture single moments. The conversations are what’s best in this route, not little single heart-tingling lines. (Don’t get me wrong, those are still there!)

When he said this, I thought, “whoooaaaa boy, another playboy. But he wasn’t at all.

This is an example of how he says things that are flirty but can’t seem to keep a straight face.

Look at him, getting ‘barrassed again

All of Sindbad’s face is kinda cute, lbr


You will get to know the Sindbad pout very well hahaha

 

CGs

 

In chapter two, Sindbad makes her a rose tea. I love tea. (Like seriously my instagram is like tea-Soot-food-tea-Soot ) So my next thoughts were, what makes his tea so special, and what did he do?

It’s never mentioned in the story. And thus I set forth to devise a recipe!

There are two ways of going about it that I enjoyed. One is a simple fix. The other required a little doctoring. I made Rose Petal Oolong from Queen Mary Teas (If you buy, please put Autumn in tea queen box so my friend can get credit) and added vanilla sugar to it. It tasted like sweetened rose petals.

The second method uses black tea. I used a normal black tea blend and added vanilla extract to it. Then I added dried rose petals and a couple of dried strawberries. It’s a naturally sweet blend that hits the vanilla notes first, then a hint of rose at the end. The strawberries don’t add much in direct taste, but without them the blend misses a bit of tart sweetness that makes it enjoyable.

Walkthrough

Starlit Night Ending

• Go outside
• Go to bazaar
• Ask to be put down
• Help Zia up
• Go see what’s happening
• Help Sindbad
• That’s not it.
• Help Sindbad
• Go to Sindbad
• I believe you.
• Ask Sindbad about what work to do.
• Stop Ferris.
• Look for Sindbad
• Squeeze his hand
• Refuse the offer.
• Hug him.

At this point the entire hourglass should be empty and you should see the star, ensuring the ending. Pick whatever choices you please for the final chapters!

Moonlit Night ending

Note — I’m still working on completing this. I skinned by the hair of my chinny chin chin doing these choices.

• .
• .
• Do as he says
• Watch what happens
• .
• Watch Sindbad
• .
• .
• .
• Go inside.
• Farris
• Tell Zia it’s okay.
• Let them fight.
• .
• .
• .
• .
• Smile
• Tell him you’ll help make the tea.
• Say you’re a crew member.
• Stand up straight again.