Black Souls is a dark-fantasy RPGM game that follows an undead guy (kinda like the souls games) who's on a quest to clear up the fog corrupting the country. To do this, he must defeat or form a covenant with the four princesses and defeat princess Cinderella, the source of the fog. Well, there's more to the story than that, but I can't talk about it too much without spoiling the game.
Anyways, in porn games, the sexual content is usually one of the most important factors to the game's quality. But given the artstyle, I'd say the sexual content leans more towards the artistic-side than porn-side of things. So I'm not going to judge this game based on it's sexual content, and you shouldn't expect this to be about banging chicks sex left and right. Last chance to leave, Vanilla male MC Harem VN players.
Combat
For most RPGM games, combat is often poorly done despite it being the focal point of the game. You've probably seen it yourself. Fodder enemies constantly slowing you down, large amounts of grinding, and the best move in a fight always being 'highest-damage attack'. But Black Souls is able to evade these common pitfalls to create a combat system that is fun yet still challenging. For starters, most basic enemies can be killed in one or two turns, including ones with stats higher than yours. That being said, even the enemies below your level can kill you if you get too careless.
The critical flaw with most RPGM combat systems is that they lack decision making. It's just hitting the enemy with the highest-damage attack over and over again because nothing else is effective. Black Souls on the other hand, encourages you to experiment around with your options. Most bosses have far higher stats than yours when you first encounter them. However, just about every single boss has some kind of weakness to exploit. If a boss is slow, try defending against their attacks, and make sure to experiment with different debuffs to see which ones work and which don't. Some bosses can be completely neutered with the right knowledge.
Black Souls also negates typical RPGM level grinding with the Souls mechanic. Instead of gaing Gold and EXP when you win a fight, you gain souls, which acts as both currency and experience points. Leveling up is also done by expending souls manually, which coincidentally means you don't need to juggle party members in fights to manage who gets EXP. If you know what I'm talking about, you'll be glad to hear it.
Roleplaying and Expression
What's strange about a lot of RPGM games is that they don't have much of a 'roleplaying' aspect to it. They almost always give you a blank character that just follows the plot and never give you decisions or even dialogue choices. But once again, Black Souls gives you important decisions that you can make that effect the plot.
Whenever you meet someone, you're almost always given the option to talk to, kill or rape them, assuming they haven't attacked you from the get-go. You could be good, evil, or somewhere in between. You're free to express your character how you want. However, evil actions tend to have consequences, and good ones may not always be rewarded.
I'd also like to note that I usually don't feel bad about killing the good guy NPCs in video games, but it just felt vile to do so in this game.
Real Open-world
Some 'open worlds' in gaming are nothing more than a linear game with a world map. An open world isn't just the ability to visit a place when you want to, it's also about not being on a rail. Black Souls doesn't force you to follow a specific route to complete the game. There's very few times a specific condition is needed to access an area, as most locked doors can be opened with master keys. You can even go where the enemies are way above your level, and if you manage to avoid them, you might just find some powerful loot lying around.
Lack of Settings
Though for all that praise, the game doesn't have a settings menu. I know it's an older version of RPGM, but with how loud the game is, you're probably going to turn down the volume on your computer. It's just not professional to lack a settings menu.
Lax Ending Requirements
Without going into spoilers, there's 4 endings. The first ending (B) requires you to simply kill cinderella, the second (A) is the same but you need all heroines, and the others pretty much have you complete a side quest. The problem is that there are no 'routes' you go down to get certain endings. Basically, as long as you don't kill every person you meet, you can easily reach an endgame where all four endings are available.
Too many sins? Talk to the sin remover. Not enough sins? Well, they're pretty easy to get. Can't kill the heroines since you recruited them all? Go to posiedon hotel. The only ending you might get locked out of is A, since some heroines may be unable to be recruited depending on what happens.
Personally, I think if a game gives multiple endings, the ending given should reflect the choices made throughout the game, not just a few decisions at the end.
Summary
Now I haven't played very many RPGM games, and probably even fewer non-porn ones, but Black Souls is definitely one of the best out there. It doesn't turn the RPGM engine into something else either, it stays true to being and RPG. I give it a 4.5/5, but we'll round that up to 5.
