RPGM - Completed - Black Souls [2025-08-15] [Eeny, meeny, miny, moe?]

the gameplay is quite entertaining. The first boss you encounter isn't very difficult, but if, like me, you don't quite understand what the gane is about, as was the case when i first played it, it can beat you by a narrow margin. After that, the enemies get harder and harder, and you have two options: either die a lot to farm black souls, or, in my case, farm enemies a lot to earn green and yellow souls and thus gain life and speed. It takes longer because you then have to go back and farm specific areas to get colored souls, but it's more entertaining than farming black souls by dying. There comes a point where you end up being stronger than the bosses and you even wonder if you should increase the difficulty.

On the other hand, the story is quite interesting, in terms of the lore of what happens with the fog, where it comes from, where we are, who the Grimm is, and the stories of each of the heroines.

In terms of character design in the scenes, i really liked the colors and the way the characters are drawn. It's very distinctive, and you cab easily recognize the game's art style. As for the scenes, it has the most famous mechanics that the franchise is known for, but doing the quest of every girl always seems best to me, with the best scenes too, but i guess you're free to do whatever you want in your game.

This is one of these "choices matter" game, where what matters more is the sequence of events you choose to go through, with some "choices" mattering in the sense that it's almost always going to be the most obtuse and seemingly innocuous choice that is going to give you a positive or negative outcome. So if you want to go through the game by recruiting all possible companions, you'll have to look through a guide. For example, a possible companion will die if you decide to follow the main road for your main objective, without doing an obtuse sequence of events beforehand, in some distant caves spread out around the "open world." This sucks, since the game clearly tells you to follow that road, especially since the enemy difficulty doesn't scale up enough for you to think that you need to come back later. This also sucks since you're never going to meet that character again. You are punished by getting even less story content than the game has, simply for not looking at a guide. "Choices matter" games are fine,when you get the same amount of events for each route. "Choices matter" games are fine when you actually make choices instead of letting a dice roll and pray to God you're on the right way. Another example is that you can miss a boss (that is required to complete certain endings), if you don't speak in the right sequence of events to 3 random knights scattered across the world (again, that's just a dice roll without a guide). Another one is if you decide to leave a "boss" alone after he's being friendly to you and gives you an object. I didn't kill him at first, since I was worried I'd end up sinning by attacking him first (there is some really stupid ways to accumulate them, but it's not like they matter one bit since you can just pay to have them removed). I went back after looking at a guide, but if I hadn't, a companion I only spoke to once would've ended being killed by a completely unrelated character.

I personally stopped playing after getting frustrated at the 13 hours mark, right before the end, when I realised I was missing one companion, because, hours earlier, I accepted her body as a reward for helping her, after she gave me the choice between her body or some souls (I should've declined both, I didn't even think about it, since I simply thought this would be an inconsequential choice). Another way to lose that companion is by telling her daughter to go talk to her to mend things (bad idea, what you're supposed to do is tell her to ignore her, without the game giving you any kind of hint that this might be the logical choice). You can also lose another companion by being "nice" to her by forgiving her.
So what you then end up doing, is save right before every single interaction (with no way of knowing which ones are the important ones), and either try them all out or look up a guide to see their consequences.
Problem being, like I said, these "choices" are innocuous and seem completely inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. There are no moral dilemmas. It's like having your best friend die (well... more like a stranger who could have become your best friend) because you wanted to eat a hamburger instead of a soup.

This game, also, barely has any story. It's all about the "lore". The only story presented to you are personal ones through characters' quests. Every character has a quest of some sort, that you can complete in a grand total of five minutes (most of these being spent in battle), for a few text boxes of reading and one H-scene. This game being famous for the "rape button", it's important to note that by raping these characters, they are completely removed from the story altogether.
So the best way to experience this game is by being "nice", so you can summon these characters in battle instead of just sending them to your sex dungeon, but you can't recruit (or even meet) most of them without going through some very specific events, or choosing very specific dialogue options.

What you end up doing for 95% of the game is roaming around, backtracking and fighting. The only thing that separates this game from other RPG Maker games is the rape button and the high amount of endings to a game otherwise completely devoid of story. It's a game with a singular path, but with different endings. What determines your ending is how much content you miss along the way.

game is made in an absolutely ancient version of RPGM and the playing experience is utterly miserable.
The resolution is locked to a ridiculously low value resulting in a teeny tiny window in the middle of the screen.
You can't fast forward text.
There is no command remember.
There is no auto combat.
You can't even set it to always run.
knight/thief just spams attack. sorcerer just spams basic spell (which requires several more button presses than basic attack. because FU for wanting to play a mage).
generic RPGM maps

If you are going to make the game be 90%+ combat then the combat needs to be not awful. My time is worth more than this.

The only original thing about this game is the hand drawn porn. but it isn't worth the misery that the rest of this game is.

This game has it's reputation for a reason, Black Souls is a titan of the genre with its unique art-style mixed with arguably one of the strongest stories in the medium.

This was the game that got me into eroges about 1-ish years ago, and I cannot understate just how much of a positive experience I had on my FIRST playthrough of the game. The exploration and the story are its two strongest traits and it genuinely feels incredibly rewarding to put together the story piece by piece on every cycle, learning from your mistakes and putting together the proper route to achieve the ending you desire.

The cast of characters in BS1 are honestly perfect in every way, I adore every single character since they all have their own traits + memorable moments that really lets you feel attatched to them. It hit the perfect sweet spot of having a good amount of characters but also giving each one of them a good amount of screen time and story relevancy. It does not feel like there are 3-4 who are the secondary meanwhile the rest are options, but rather that everyone chips in their own fair share to make the experience even more memorable.

The only issue lies with because most of what makes this game good is what you DONT know, It makes REPEAT playthroughs DRAG. It's gameplay is average and dragging yourself along (since your already aware of what to do) feels demoralizing to the overall experience.

But does that take away from this game? Absolutely not, its a must play through and through, I just suggest avoiding repeat playthroughs unless you are fine with knowing everything in advance.

Damn, man, this is fucking good. No, realy, this is one of the best H games, where H is not just "do your job and forget", no, you will remeber this game.

Art - "Firstly, you can found it a little, arhh... strange? But with time, you will accept it and find beauty in this ugliness (but personaly, i absolutly love this style)"

Characters - "10 psycho-sexopath out of 10, every char is unique piss of humanity. Its realy interesting how they interact with protagonist, with world."

Plot - "And most important, story, yeah... remember when in DS 3 whore get pregnant and her boss father tried to fuck you with... what, no? Welp, that not so important. story in BS is good, pretty crazy like other parts of game"

Gameplay - "Yeah... it's rpg maker, so waiting for some unique gameplay is poinless, but i would say (as "expert" with several 9999 disgaea chars) that working with builds and numbers is not the worst, maybe even pretty satisfactorily (welp, as a mage you can hold boss in sleep for tens of turns, get all buffs and kill him with a fart)"

Fuck, play this game for "eldritch" gOd sake.

The porn is not the strong part of this game, I treated it as a side dish to it and in fact downloaded the game knowing this, played this game as a story rather than porn material. The story (and stories of each character), as strange as it is on the beginning, slowly starts to get together for this one cruel world, besides, I always love having multiple actions affecting the story, and there sure is a lot of actions on this one.

A lot of scenes here, but the problem is they are too short with not enough dialogue for my liking. As this dev always does with all their games. Also the art is "unique" meaning it's bad and you can find better almost anywhere else. Hopefully this get a remake rather than a half assed steam release.

The game theme is basically Grimms Tale and many other children fairy tale stories adventure! In a very simplistic pixelated rpgmaker world you are trying to sex, yes.

The more you sex the more you question the premise of this game as if that is all there is to it, then you will find yourself immersed and gradually values thing, like an empty loser weeb trying to achieve, going through a more meaningful experience. Thats why you fuck around and finally start finding out what each characters are doing in the world.

First h-game I've ever played on mobile through an emulator and I must say it was so good I found myself playing it again after a few months since the first time.
The story is GOOD, you just might need to watch a YouTube video to progress in the story properly without making mistakes that impact the characters.
The artworks are really poor quality but I really feel like the rough sketches being colored are what makes Black Souls.. Black Souls.
Very recommended.

It's hard to review this game without mentioning it's sequel, but I'll try.

It's an Unique H-Game since the cover stand out among the rest when browsing through list of anime girl

Despite it's obvious intro as a nod to Dark Soul, the game setting is closely related to Demon Soul, there's no character playing the optimist other than you in this world, so whether you want to be a hero or soul monger is decided up to you.

The gameplay is novel at the beginning, mostly because it get tedious latter on when 80% of the map is filled with enemy you have no incentive to kill other than farming, there is also the problem it's an RPG Maker game having no way to difference enemy with Npc, especially when it's character driven story.

The story has a nice foreshadowing, by going along the narrative you'll obtain fairy tales from bosses that play significant role for you and the end game. Some character also point it out is an interesting nod, but ultimately under develop since no-one other than player pursue it.

I like all the character, but the requirement to get them is like reading through visual novel strategy guide, if it's what the game intended; for the player to try every aspect the game has to offer, is a bold claim to do.
Finishing a game to it's finale, you need a break to process everything and likely pick it up latter.

As many others have commented, this game is an absolute gem

Even without the H-scenes, the setting, the characters, the world, etc. Is absolutely gorgeous and a STRONG must play for anyone who's played Dark souls before

I've finished somewhere between 100 and 200 hentai games. Black Souls and Black Souls II together are the single best gaming experience I have had the pleasure to be alive for.

You must finish the story.

You must go to Alice.

You must relive the bygone memories.

One of the best stories i have ever played.

If you're going to play this game thinking about sex scenes, forget it. The scenes are crap. This game has a very good deep story. It's not just about killing mobs and having sex with a girl. Reasonable playing time, incredible plot, characters that captivate and make you interested in their story.

Negative points: some sprites don't match the real enemy you're going to fight. Lack of choices, having only the options to kill, join, or rape if it's a woman.

This game and the second hit me way too hard. I first started to play cause of how the artstyle was, didn't even was that interested in the porn of it yet it was so good, the story, the character, the emotion it made me feel. Try this game, please, if you have to turn off the adult scene but play it.

The first game in the Black Souls franchise. The first game in this saga that I played, and also the game that got me hooked on this world of RPG Maker.

The game is great, it has good lore and gameplay, although inferior to the second game.

Still, it's a good game for what it sets out to do. I've played it several times and I recommend everyone to play it.

im not really an eroge fan so those scenes through me off a bit. But the other 99% of the game is genuinely amazing. 10/10. whether you're a gooner or not this game is peak. The areas, lore, characters, combat, boss fights, endings, and plot twists... All peak.

The game cannot be played unless you install a program from a different site. And that's not something I can accept. I've played a lot of RPGM games on the site and I've never seen anything like this. I gave up playing because of this requirement.

Incredible game!

There's so much to see! So much to do!
Even though it looks like a generic RPG Maker at first, the world will absolutely capture your attention as every part of the world has it's own story, creatures and characters unique to their region!

A solid 10/10! What an absolutely fantastic h game! The h scene might look really sketchy and the anatomy might not be in the right places but it's just not fair how fitting it is with it's story and it's world! This game will not disappoint!

+ Unique story, unique mechanique, and Alice
- Quite confusing (if you care about the good ending) and H-scene not that great

ALICE ALICE ALICE ALICE ALICE

Joke aside, lets start with the positive. This game, have unique story and some mechanique that rarely seen in other RPGM game. Like, alright lets leave this place and save her later. Whoops, your heroine is dead. It makes the game feel more impactful and more unique. Andd, this game have Alice, what more you want? Also, if you didnt realize, yes. Its Alice from Alice and the wonderland, majority of the character is based/parody of fairytale like Hansel and Gratel. The negative, for me, this game quite confusing. The mechanique i say? Yeah, some ending require you to save all character, and if you didnt read the walkthrough. It will be more difficult. And for me, the H scene is not that great. So yeah, this game is recomended if you curious about the story and you like Alice, like almost all this game's fanbase do.

Time to make an unpopular opinion!

I played Black Souls a while ago, long while ago. I was considering revisiting this before I rated it here and gave it a review. However, I'm lazy, and this isn't going to be as in depth as the other two reviews I've done anyways.

Story
Is there even a point in talking about this part? Black Souls has brilliantly and flawlessly handled this as well as it's atmosphere.

Gameplay
This is where my complaints do rear their head, briefly, while Black Souls is a 5/5 game for me, it does fail to do anything innovative in the scope of RPGM. It's a rather generic turn-based battle game, whereas it's sequel creates a far more complicated and interesting system simply due to the depth of what you can do, the first game feels... simple. Too simple. However it works fine as a vehicle for the narrative it's telling.

Still, SHRIFT and Shimmering are both games that I'd say have made far more unique experiences out of the engine, even if I'd say their stories aren't as well written.


Bosses
Bosses in this game are forgettable, the first few times you hear that iconic boss theme is neat, thats about it. They get dry fast, especially when doing NG+.

Soundtrack
Despite technically just using a bunch of freeware and purchased copyright music, I think a creator's choice in music should be ranked and rated. And I will say that all of the tracks used here fit their molds perfectly. I'd argue BS1 has Quality over Quantity for that, but I'd be somewhat lying due to a few specific tracks in BS 2.

Conclusion
Good game, and I can turn scenes off, so thats pretty convenient for me(until you realize how much lore is in the scenes at times, god damn you toro)