RPGM - Completed - A.L.E. [Ep.1] [Vastitas]

This is a tricky one. Really, I'm stuck between 3 and 4 stars on this. Summary:

Good:
- Interesting worldbuilding. The story is long, although that could be a plus or minus especially since it feels like oftentimes the sex scenes are infrequent or repetitive.
- Characters are overall pretty good (and there are many of them) although the dialogue is often awkward. This does a much better job than most VNs of depicting characters that feel realistic (other than being super-horny)... they have their stories, their quirks, and their own relationships with eachother regardless of the MC. And it can be interesting to see how that plays out.
- The artstyle is controversial, but I come down in favor of it. The women are not supposed to all be 10/10 beauties.

Bad:
- Occasional bugs that require frequent saving / resets. This is especially annoying since the bugs feel like a dev skill issue, they all relate to how scripted scenes are triggered... basically every now and then if you trigger a scene by standing on the "wrong" tile, it will lock the game. I've played many RPGMaker games and have never encountered this issue so frequently, so I think it must be a problem with how the dev's scripting style. I noticed in the last chapter or two this became less of an issue since I think the dev made it so that when a scene is triggered the MC would always be teleported to the "right" tile - cool, please go back and implement this in the earlier chapters.
- UI is a bit lacking - no quest/character guide, no gallery, no strong sense of whether you've missed scenes or not. The game isn't hard to progress through, but these would've all been nice to have.
- Cliffhanger ending leaves some frustration, especially when it comes to character lines that clearly are leading to sex eventually but haven't before the episode ends. From what I can tell it's unclear when/if Episode 2 will be completed.
- One thing in particular that irked me about the writing is that the main thing that holds the MC back from fucking everything is that he's married. Yet despite this... he still fucks many of the girls. Yes he has some inner turmoil about this and that's one of the major story themes but like there are occassions where he will fuck girl A, and then when girl B hits on him 5 minutes later all of a sudden it's "oh I'm married, I need to resist". Like okay, I guess that's a good way to draw things out so he isn't like creating a harem by the 2nd chapter but it is wildly inconsistent and quite frankly frustrating.
- Related to the previous point, one general problem that these games can run into when the MC has a girlfriend or some of the girls obviously want monogamy is that it's unclear if the player will ultimately be punished somehow for having sex in an AVG. I hate it when this happens. It's hard to tell if it applies here... from the gallery at the end it does seem like I missed some scenes and maybe that's because fucking girl A means you can't fuck girl B? No clue, and there's not really a guide to help navigate this.
- My personal "this doesn't appeal enough to my fetishes" complaint is that I was hoping that there would be a stronger corruption theme to the game overall. There is this running theme that monogamy will break down in the post-apocalyptic society, but you don't really see it go very far. Casual nudity, public sex, open relationships... it would've been hot to see more focus on this, and seeing various characters come to embrace it. I think there were more teases of this in the beginning, but it sorta took a backseat to developing the main plot.

I'm hovering between giving this 3 stars or 4 stars, I'll go with 4 ultimately since the main bad point (bugs) are fixable, although I'm not sure if it will actually be fixed. I really am looking forward to Episode 2, though, if it's completed.

This game is one of those rare finds that is truly unique and engaging, leaving you craving for more. I came out of my way just to review it so that more people can discover this treasure!

The gameplay is straightforward; it primarily involves exploring the map after each scene and occasionally making choices. However, the story is excellent, with a robust and well-developed plot. The characters are compelling, and you genuinely find yourself invested in their journeys, eagerly anticipating what comes next.

*The best part: There are no resource farming or tedious repetitive gameplay to inflate a largely empty game!*

While some people might see the art as a downside, I actually enjoyed it, it really contributes to the game's uniqueness.

Absolutely love the art and the character models! Its different, unique and most welcomed. They can also be very hot during their respective scenes. The story is also rather good, and taking itself relatively seriously. The characters are written nicely, with diverse personalities and a mixed cast you might love or hate. Sometimes I wish there was like a quest log or guide or something, since at times I feel like a headless chicken wondering around the map hoping I didn't miss anything (and I've come to terms with the fact that I probably have, considering I might have missed some scenes I wanted). Regardless, definitely a good game I look forward to updates for.

Pretty awful art and models, dev seems to be into a lot of culture war topics, a lot of the cringe dialogue is centered around wokeism, antivax, forced loss of employment, tyrannical government, racism. Characters are also odd and act/talk in bizarre ways. Frequent spelling errors don't help.

But make sure you read all the dialogue because otherwise you will likely get stuck since there is no quest tracker. Also save frequently for bugs. Sex scenes are too rare and short for this to be a proper porn game.

Nevertheless there are some redeeming qualities, giving it 2 stars because the dev has a talent for word building.

as long as finding something unique this game has it all great story, great realistic art, Open choices that affect the world around the mc (the only downside is saying god is dead and using real religions in the story) as a believer in the presence of god found it kinda shocking) even if it's in a porn game (the irony ik) nevertheless, great work I hope vastitas a good healthy life and that he always be unique in his storytelling and the art he Provides.

Really like the art. I hope this project has plenty of success.

There's isn't much to be said yet, but at the time. The plot is seems satisfactory and the development of said plot seems to show that the team behind this is competent.

Hoping that this game gets the following it deserves!

Review of Version: Episode 1 - part two.
It's early in development but what we have already is pretty solid. Qute a unique art style and interesting story. Sex scenes are a bit far between but that fits the plot.

First game is unique, want to support this remake at least with my reccomendation) Good job Vastitas, thx for variety of remarkable characters and appearances, hope u dont dissapear after few episodes.

I played both the prelude and chapter one, part one. We have A fascinating world setup; I’ve never heard of this developer’s work, but I was immediately pulled into this post-apocalyptic world. I love the variety in character design, especially the artwork in-game. It might be some of the most unique art I’ve seen from an RPG maker game, but I’m all for it. The effort is there to tell a story, and it’s been really intriguing so far. It’s about two hours each, maybe a little less if you skip the number of side stories, but their presence makes the experience much more enjoyable. I did have some crashes in both games, but I didn’t lose much progress thanks to constantly saving. However, it might be something to look into. It happens around scene transitions after switching characters in part one and when you pass on going to the party in the prelude. As for the amount of content, I expect there to be a lot more in the future, as there are a few scenes as of now, yet they don’t keep you waiting long. Overall, we have a fascinating post-apocalyptic survival sim on our hands here, and I hope to see more soon.