RPGM - Completed - Bard Trainer [Final] [noxurtica]

I'd consider giving this 2 stars given the length, but it's not a trainer (as tags show, despite the name) and is largely just a little VN interspersed with mostly typical RPGM combat mechanics but flavored as a bard/waitress managing patrons.

The game play is literally just RPGM combat and deciding what to buy.

The story is just reading the fairly typical H-game storyline of: girl's father was in debt to the mob and fled. Girl takes on debt in father's place. Mob coerces girl into sexual favors.

The art is decent but a bit wonky.

If this had no combat or a faster-paced "choose an option to deal with patrons" and that's it, it might be worth 2 or 3 stars as a short, 15-30 minute mini VN. But as it is, nothing really stands out in such a way as to merit playing this game. The gameplay is nonexistent, the story has been done 1000 times, and the art is just okay. A decent concept poorly executed.

I liked the unusual combat of this game, where you serve the clients instead of fighting, but it isn't as deep as I thought at the start, reading all the skills. The multiple endings are fine I guess, the thing I disliked more was that it's very very short, maybe you can finish it and cum in under a hour.

Quite a short game, took me some 40 minutes to get it all done and even read the text. 6 scenes, art is good and my pipi was hard. I count that as good enough.

As for gameplay, it's a turnbased combat with a twist, you fight customers in a bar by giving them drinks or playing one of two different kinds of music.

Have you ever heard of a "feel good" game? Y'know, a game that leaves you with a fuzzy wholesome feeling? Yeah, usually hentai games aren't quite that, but they still make you feel good. In a not so wholesome way, of course, but you still feel good about playing it; you had FUN.

Qualities might include:

Good, fast, balanced/in you favor combat. You don't feel frustrated or annoyed by the combat. Even if you have to grind for levels, you don't mind it really.

A storyline that, either in a good or bad way, ends up with the hero/heroine enjoying what's happening. Sometimes they learn to enjoy sex, sometimes their mind breaks until they enjoy it, but either way they don't hate it the entire time.

You also have choices! YOU influence how the story is going, even if you can't change the ending. Choose whether or not you fuck this person or not, that monster or not, or choose whether or not you, perhaps, pay debts with your body or just money. If you don't have choices, how can you possibly call it a game? That's, at best, a visual novel.

Awesome sex animations and visuals so that when you DO see sex scenes, whether through losing battles, getting surprised, or choosing to fuck people consensually, you actually enjoy them and can get off to them. Of course, for games that are text based, you could replace this with amazing descriptions instead, but the point stands.

Now, stay with me here, what if you were to take ALL of those awesome things that make a game great, and completely strip them away? You would end up with Bard Trainer.

In this game, you play through excruciatingly slow and frustrating battles (No, there are no options for changing animation speed), you watch various stuff happen to the heroine with ZERO choices along the way, you see some mediocre sex animations, and then you eventually quit before making it to the end, because why would you keep playing this game?

Now, the IDEA of the game is great. Your father got kidnapped and you have to run the tavern to pay off his debt? Cool! Mafia that offers its "services" to keep you "safe"? Also cool! Conflict with rivaling mafias and thugs that want to use you and your tavern for profits? Amazing! Are any of these expanded upon in interesting ways? Absolutely not!

The only consistently impressive things about this game is its ability to underperform and an absolute refusal to expand upon any of the most interesting parts. SO much potential, so much disappointment.

Needs:
Better animations, better writing, better storytelling, better battles, better almost anything. Oh, and if it was also a game, and NOT a "watch the story and do some boring stuff in between!" it would also improve immensely. 0/10, can't give it 0 stars out of 5, but trust me when I tell you that I want to.

Artstyle isn't too bad, but the gameplay isn't that good, the storyline is mediocre at best, and the amount of actual sex is terrible.

Save yourself the trouble and don't bother. It's an interesting concept gone horribly wrong. It's on the level of a cash grab really with how little effort was put into this.

Gameplay:
+/- Serving customers is in shape of fighting against them. Your serving and music skills are basically your attacks. It is like a normal RPG fighting game.
- No real management, no real trainer game
- Different status effects or combat skills actually don't even matter that much in the end. You can win just by spamming without any knowledge. Only thing you need to do, is, heal yourself once in a while and upgrade your equipment. Status effects and skill types feel very trivial.

Frequency of scenes:
+/- They do happen while progressing days. Based on how short the game is, the frequency is ok

Dialogues:
- The type of gameplay makes the story kind of trivial. Story is about a girl paying off her father's debts by earning money in the tavern and being convinced/forced to offer her body. (not to the customers she serves, but when a work day ends, some certain people visit her and make her do things)

--> All in one: The story idea is okay. But the execution is nothing different than an RPG fighting game. You buy better equipment, get stronger, and defeat the customers in battles with your serving and music skills. 1 of 10.

Should I give it a try?
If you expected a Management or Girl Trainer game, then no, skip this. The Description and Title were unfortunately misleading. This is just a turnbased combat game with scenes and dialogues.

Hi my name is Siderophilia and I have played Bard Trainer by noxurtica.

Bard trainer is a very short game, which might be its biggest flaw. Even unlocking both endings, we're talking below one hour total playtime. If I were paying 10 $ for this I would be quite disappointed, but for downloading it from here I think it's a decent experience. It weighs somewhere on the 3-4 star range for me.

What this game has is a simple yet satisfying gameplay loop, fitting art and well made maps, a quaint soundtrack, and a somewhat well executed blackmail story. When you consider the strengths that the game has it's almost surprising more wasn't done and the developer settled for a lazy cash grab.

I suppose the combat is on the simple side, but it has an interesting enough set of buffs and debuffs to retain the player's interest for the 20 or so encounters the game has. Difficulty scales with time, though I believe it may be on the easier side for a knowledgeable player (I never felt inclined to bother with anything but the final tier of upgrade items). Perhaps there may have been a lack of ideas of how it could be extended into a longer game.

The writing is decent all things considered, but could have afforded to be a little more fleshed out in places. At least the dialogue certainly doesn't overstay its welcome. I think especially the part where the protagonist chooses to become the blackmailer's woman was cut very short, to the point that the writing even points out how fast she finds herself naked and being fucked. Had a little more time been taken here I probably would've bumped the score up to 4 stars, but as it stands I can't agree with the previous reviewer that things don't feel the slightest bit rushed. Apart from that, all the default names being eastern European adds some flavor to the world.

Artwise the game has some animations which aren't very fluid even by RPGM standards. There's at least a decent set of CG:s considering the game length

The author has with their prior work Mistress vs Slave proven that they are well capable of developing a more extended game and there really aren't very big flaws here. It's just that the writing feels rushed and the game a little underdeveloped. I mean who makes a bartending game without groping? Literally just extending the story sections a slight bit would have this feeling more like a charming but simple RPGM game and less like a quick cash grab.

Oh and by the way, why on earth is the game called "Bard Trainer"? The protagonist is a bard, but the game in no way puts the player in the trainer role.

When you first boot the game up, it seems super promising.

The battles make sense - You fight to "entertain" or serve the customers, and when they run out of HP they are satisfied.

You then need to use your money to try and get more equipment to try and pay off the debt. Sounds like a simple, but great way to setup a corruption storyline, with making the player character make hard decisions regarding doing lewd interactions to try and earn more money.

Unfortunately in reality, this opportunity is squandered. There is zero interaction between your player character actions and the lewd scenes. Theres no alt costumes, no way to earn more money through lewds and no progression on what you can/cant do day to day.

In fact, I am not even sure that theres any reason to try and earn money, since the story appears to never require you to pay any money back. Regardless of your choices, the Player Character will perform lewd acts as part of the story.

The most disappointing thing is that the battles are interesting enough and the chiptune music is actually really cool. I liked the limited scope of the story, and the Player character is pretty cute. As it stands, its not really worth playing as a H-game, and not really deep enough to stand on its own legs as a RPG.

I am giving it two stars rather than one since theres actually some decent parts of the game for someone else to use to make a better game, or even have a sequel or something, but its pretty disappointing.

Even if this game has a warm and pleasant style and good music... In the scenes, the heroine is simply raped, given an ultimatum, and there is no actual development of her desire. The NPC has the effect of being charmed, but there is not a single image of harassment, and the heroine does not receive flirting skills. A deceptively alluring picture - a dull game inside.

A cute and charming short game. The story is simple and to the point, but doesnt feel rushed. The cute pixel art is what drawed my attention, I hate even good rpgs that feel lifeless. The music is also really soothing, I wonder if "bard music" is a genra.

The protag is cute. The corruption, and therefore the dialogue would be expected to be forced and rushed, but it doesnt feel like it. For whatever reason its quite enjoyable. She also still remains shy and good in the end and throughout the scenes, which is cute.