Review for v1.00.0
This game always caught my eye for a very long time now due to it's unique, pixelated visual style, but put off playing it until the game was fully completed. And here we are.
The TL;DR: It's a great game with some amazing visual details and a recognizable art style that make it a visual pearl. However, there is a few minor inconsistencies with said art, and i found the ending particularly lackluster as it is currently implemented, along with a few issues with how the gameplay, story and quest arcs flow.
Let's break this down.
Graphics
PROS
This is obviously by far the strongest point of the game. The visual design and details of both the characters and the environment make it shine and truly stand out on it's own. The way shadows, lights and various objects are presented and cast in the game make it a very compelling, and beautiful experience. Plus, the animated sex scenes are INCREDIBLY well made
CONS
Sadly, i did notice quite a few inconsistencies with the sex scenes and animations in particular. Many of them aren't animated at all and are basically slideshows. I understand they are very likely difficult and time-consuming to animate, but it's still a shame to see relatively few of them having movement and animation. The few that does are all stellar tho.
Then, some of the sex scenes are clearly of lesser quality. No shading is present, the forms and shapes are simpler and less complex, the color range isn't as deep, etc... This would be passable for minor side-characters and such, but quite a few of the important ones have these.
Gameplay
PROS
This is by far one of the most surprising elements of the game to me; many of the implemented gameplay loops and mini-games are surprinsingly fun and well-made, an anomaly in a RPG themed game where grinding stuff endlessly and dealing with boring and annoying minigames is usually the norm. I found the dungeon diving mechanics (Melkor's Realm) the perfect amount of balance in terms of simplicity, combat mechanics and fun. The mini-games in particular are quite well-made, well-designed and there is a refreshing amount of it, leading to quite a bit of variety.
CONS
The first issue with gameplay is that, hilariously enough, there is not much point in grinding anything at all once you get to a high level and you get some decent pocket change in your purse, making most money-related jobs completely pointless. This is due to the fact that you really are using the money only to purchase quest related things and beyond maybe buying some ingredients directly from the few merchants there is in the game. You have the brothel that you can buy and "improve" but those are really just a bunch of silly fetch quests where you talk to people, craft a few things and that's it. Not exactly a money management marvel.
The biggest problem however with gameplay at it is, is that there is just a lot of complex mini-games or game elements that are used once or twice, then never heard from again. The nice dungeon mechanics you learned and leveled up for? Completely pointless for the "ending", where all of the events are dealt with in a cutscene. There is various mini-games for gathering firewood, training archery, running after Ohro, etc... that are basically many examples of this and create an issue of "unique" game mechanics being developed for a very narrow purpose. Ideally, you want to develop mechanics that are used throughout the whole game, or at least used repetitively, otherwise, you create a big problem of feature creep and significantly complicate and lengthen the game dev time.
SEXXXX!!!!
PROS
There is definitely a large amount of sex scenes with a great variety of characters and creatures. Some of the animated sex scenes are by far the most exciting and beautiful pieces of erotic media i've seen. The few that are animated, anyhow... All main romeancable characters have at least a few scenes each, with some of them having more.
CONS
The game's sexual content variety is fairly vanilla (Blowjobs, handjobs, vaginal and anal.). This is not something that i mind usually, i enjoy vanilla a lot, but in this case, a lot of the scenes tend to mash together and basically be "more of the same" in feel. There is nothing extreme or remotely "intense" overall. There is a lot of hinting and texts about breeding for example and pregnancy, a type of content i massively enjoy, but there is never any scenes or at least some end-game content about it. Basically, the game's sex content is amazing at first, but quickly can become stale at the end.
Story and characters
PROS
There is a lot of different fun, diverse and enjoyable characters in the game, and surely quite a few of them will catch your eye. The characters themselves are generally well-designed and well-made. They have their quirks, the preferences, often they are into something in particular or the other, etc...
CONS
Sadly, most of them just fall heel over head to you helplessly on their own. While it's fun to have a few characters like that in the mix, it does make it very "easy" and ultimately boring when talking to a women politely will just have her suck you off in the backroom five minutes later. Then, for a lot of them, there is no real conclusion or end to their story arc. For example, i very much enjoyed Lily, the librarian/alchemist, but beyond her initial scenes, you can't do anything else with her, and even tho she hints that her kind likes to bound with a single mate for the rest of their lives, there is no such possibility here. A few other minor characters such as Gerald, the cave monster is pretty funny to find at first, but once you complete the two quest tied to him, he is basically completely forgotten about and has absolutely no ties whatsover to the main story beyond that. There's lot of many such examples and that lead us to the biggest problem of all i have with the game.
The ending
Quite frankly, the ending just suck. Story spoiler ahead, you have been warned.
Anyway... Basically, you don't get to see an ending at all. It's basically just a conclusion to a relatively long quest. Bleh.
CONCLUSION
Despite all of the issues i have with the game, it's actually been a fun and interesting experience. It shines for it's unique and beautiful artstyle, well-made mini-games, decent music and atmosphere, decent characters and more. It clearly took a lot of time and efforts to make, and i can most definitely appreciate that.
But it's held back by the lackluster type of sexual contents, pissy ending, unconclusive and chaotic character arcs quests and such.
Easily a 8/10