Remember when you used to enjoy your childhood cartoon,? They are light-hearted, they don't require you to provoke your thoughts, they always ends happily ever after, but most importantly they are absolutely not realistic yet you enjoyed the hell out of it. Brave Alcumist Colette is the porn equivalent of childhood devoid of worries and everything's gonna be ok! And no, that wasn't a typo. AlCUMist because the game uses semen to do alcumy. This is genius because with my limited Kanji, the usual金 in 炼金(alchemy) is replaced for 炼精(sperm in this sense) to make it inconspicuous especially when spoken, much like how Alchemy and Alcumy is similar. Kagura games should give whoever on the translation team that came up with that term a raise because they nailed it.
Before I start, I want to forewarn that there is an unavoidable futa in the very beginning of the game involving her master and her which is unavoidable. Don’t ask why, it’s an Acerola thing. Ask for a save skipping that if that’s your nemesis and you wont miss out much. There will also eventually be a trap character but the game makes it quite clear and totally avoidable as long as you don’t fast forward the dialogue too much.
Premise of the game is that Colette, an apprentice Alcumist, looking to graduate from her apprenticeship in order to take on quest to help others independent of her master. But in order for her to become a full alcumist, ingredients used will have to be procured by her own. She will have to search high and low (usually lower) for semen in order to progress further in her sworn career. Sounds absurd? Which is absolutely why it makes the perfect excuse for a porn game. The plot is your conventional HRPG demonlord thingamajig, which may or may not bother you but like I said, recall your childhood cartoon.
Art style and direction is signature Acerola. Indiscriminating sizes across all characters and archetypes although they mostly lean towards "cutesy". However this time you get to choose between A and G melon size of the MC on-the-fly, and they reflect in scenes. I must confess that I went back and forth between the two and even though I would have preferred a size in between, you will probably find home in one if not both. Scenes and portraits are clean and crisp as always but this time with an added bonus of optional “filthiness” which you can unlock through proficiency. Not gonna spoil what they are but think of them as extra kinks which if toggled on, can slightly alter scenes for your extra cheese and peperoni. Safe to say scenes are overall very stimulating depending on your preference but if I had one complain, is that they aren’t animated. Scenes are aplenty coming up to the final boss, but I have yet to unlock even half of the gallery, and there are like 7 pages of 20 columns in it NOT including melon size and kink variation.
Gameplay mostly revolves around exploring dungeons and taking down powerful monsters in a party of up to 3. In between dungeons there will be side quests which requires the MC to craft items for submission which may or may not require back tracking into a previously explored dungeon. Most quest can feel by far and large similar but there may be worthwhile “rewards” behind each completion. There are multiple playable characters too and each female gets their own "fun” albeit not as much as the MC.
Combat remains largely unchanged if you played Hunter Claire’s outing -cut down monsters in turn based combat to collect materials for crafting and exp for levelling. It does not have a straight up “sex battle” but there are options for such approach especially if you’re collecting a certain sticky substance, or rather just to enjoy the scene. However the reason I think the gameplay loops works better this time around is due to the premise which I mentioned before, making the reason to collect and craft a whole lot more meaningful. Got to mention that there are 8, yes EIGHT different types of semen as alcumy base which, you guessed it, will have to be acquired from different “sources” yielding different results in crafting. Convenient excuse for more “enemy variety” if you ask me!
There is no doubt after so much praise I gave, this is an excellent game that topped my expectations despite being highly anticipated. Sorry if I spoke more than it’s necessary but I’m quarantined and needed to rest my meat. I am attempting this barbequed pork recipe that needs several hours of work.
P/S: Let’s say if you value each of your fap session for a $, this game is surely worth a dozen. Go support Kagura Games, we need them to bring us more.