[Rating for Act 1 0.5, haven't started Act 2 yet]
So, this game is a bit of mixed bag. A young mage turns out to be a
But it's all in decent fun, and despite the rambling story, can be enjoyed.
I was thinking about giving it 3/5, but decided to upgrade it to 4/5 somewhat due to what I see is persistence of developers, who have created really *a lot* of content, *some of which* is quite enjoyable.
The usual suspects:
Plot 3/5 -- the basic premise and plot is reasonably interesting (4/5), the execution is quite haphazard (2/5). The end result is something that is, as others say, rather disjointed, but does try to follow some narrative. In fact, at start and end of Act 1, it becomes a bit more coherent than in the middle.
Dialogues/characters: Dialogues 3/5 -- are quite primitive and straightforward, but in general acceptable. They are by far too many and not good enough to not turn on skipping after some time, but stop skipping at points and you get back on track very quickly.
Characters 3/5 -- there are many; many of them are LIs, as indicated in relations panel, but you can hardly do anything with most of them [see a bit more about it below]
Visuals 3/5 -- the renders are generally good, and the devs have really done a good job on somewhat different body plans. But there are no animations, and H scenes are of very mixed quality -- some are more detailed and nuanced, and some are just skippable.
Maledom -- as it is one of my area of interests, I put a separate rating for this in my reviews for "male domination" tagged games. So, maledom here is 2,5/5. It is usually associated with an evil path, which I chose. And, boy, the devs really don't seem to realize what evil is. There is some maledom, but it's somewhat overly goody two-shoes. Enough to keep one interested, but really not enough for the -24 alignment I racked up. There are a number of good ideas and scenes like
, but sadly they have very limited follow-up so far. Although there is some, and it does look promising (by the end of Act 1).
Which brings us The good, the bad and the ugly.
The good:
- there's quite a lot of content. the game is not VERY generous on H scenes, but is not blueballing MC either.
- the devs have built quite a grand story (even if seomwhat inexpertly)
- there are meaningful choices (not always clear), which will shift the story. kudos for not dropping into kinetic mode.
- there's followups for some characters which appear, then disappear (due to you travelling somewhere else), but are reintroduced later on in other places. Good, less new faces to remember, and some story buildup with girls. But see below also under "bad".
- there's instances of you being shown other characters' interactions [usually plot revealing, not sexual -- ie. you as viewer know more than MC]. it's something that somehow has been worked in pretty well here, despite there being lots of games and books where it doesn't work.
The bad:
- There's intricate magic system and fights. Which in itself would be OK, but there's literally no need to use more than 3-5 spells out of 10+ that are there. Thanks goodness, there's skipping combat option.
- There's an overabundance of girls. Which means less content for many of them. Out of 20+ girls listed in relations panel, by end of Act 1, I only got some 5-7 to have some love or corruption points for me. And I tried to go as much harem as possible.
- Way more love options than corruption, and I tried to go corruption route with as many as possible.
- Corruption isn't particularly clear. Supposedly it might be linked to submissiveness, but generally it is just some generic trait for some tendency towards more lewdness. Which is even not expressed in many scenes!
The ugly:
- The sandbox elements at College become very annoying at around middle of Act 1. You have around 10+ locations at College map to view, and they don't have interactions outside the story. Ie. you have to click hunt for the 1-2 locations where you've got something to do. All the time. This is annoying like hell. At the end of Act 1 it thankfully changes more into menu choices. Suggestion for devs, if you have sandbox, give option for repeatable content at locations. Otherwise it's very annoying to have to click all over the place without any good stuff except in the railroaded places.
- wrongly mixed MC. While being a a young promising mage he is quite deferential to most women, even after corrupting them, EXCEPT in sex scenes. This feels quite wrong. He's a somewhat wet blanket outside bed, and can sometimes start calling some girls sluts when in the bed. Make your choice, but make him more assertive in life, if he's such a stud in the bedroom. Otherwise it doesn't really match up. But, as I said, it's inconsistent, from scene to scene.
All in all, something to follow, but more clarity about characters and some more available actions to match chosen paths would seem a good improvement to me.