RPGM - Caliross, the Shapeshifter's Legacy [v0.9.19] [mdqp]

3.5/5

Overally, the game is good. Good balance between rpg missions and +18 contents.

However, the biggest problem is the obsolete game engine (too low graphism for what we could expect at this time / can't play with pad) which alone make make doubt about (re)playing the game when I waited for some updates (I would want to see bigger).

I think developper should put and "end" to the game, to make a come back on a more recent engine with compatible save.

Lastly, as I said, most scenes are good, setting aside two of them:
- Male slave (male comportment not very imaginative, has already seen it many times, lacking "common sense")
- The futanari who come to you in your house. Same problem of imagination:
-> It's only a yes or no to fall under her influence BUT it's only this way we can play with her. -> Current settings concerning futa are the reason, making a graduation in the relationship arduous to do. Especially, we didn't need to involve "sexuality" with her, because a dom/submissible relatisonship could be seen during her conspiracy (after all, if player follow her, she could just pressure player into obeying her for her to not spill the bean).
Or another solution would be just to not make the player falling for futa for just one choice (I think a more graduable plot would be better).
Or again, simply accepeting to follow plan without trying to become intimate to try to create a more "equal" relationship.

I really want to give it a high score. The storylines are really interesting and the world is weaved together in a seamless way. The writing is solid for the story and hscenes alike. It offers a good sandbox of options and varied endings/paths. I love how your choices do seem to matter and are reflected in the game.

However! It is too damn hard to try to explore, and the game systems are too cumbersome and esoteric. I found it slow, repetitive, and tedious to try to hunt for scenes or follow storylines.

Unfortunately I can't really recommend it.

The sandbox is impressive as its open world and has a lot to go do. The porn is just still images with no sex sound effects. The game can get very grindy and confusing. There are lots of routes which lead to game overs and resetting the whole game.

This is a great game, with a solid story, well designed quests and good dialogue. I would play this even without the porn.

The H-Scenes themselves are pretty good too: situations and dialogues are believable and not over-the-top, but still exciting.

This however gets -1 star for using an awful, outdated game engine that is a pain to make work properly, and doesn't support resolution changes, which means this game runs at the size of a postage stamp. Thanks Valve for gamescope, I guess.

It's excellent if you love a pure female protagonist who is gradually corrupted to a nympho. It's a sandbox game which means you can choose different paths , like becoming a cow or slave. I don't want to list all the merits. If you love watching a girl being corrupted, this is a must-try game. Lots of contents, frequently updated, always giving you surprises.

But, I must emphasize that, this is a RPGM game, and the engine is even a very out-of-date version. The game engine is like 10 years old perhaps? So don't waste you time if you really hate RPGM games.

This game is ok, but its just barely too boring for me to get into.

Caliross actually has some decently robust immersive sim/rpg mechanics and a fair sprinkling of choice and variety to its routes. The devs also do what they can to minimise backtracking and needless walking, which is handy for an RPGM game.

But....it just isn't enough.

The artwork is meh and there isn't a lot of it. Scenes consist of one still image, MAYBE two if you are incredibly lucky. And the writing, while ok, is nothing special. This isn't one of those text games that carries itself hard on writing.

And even though there are mechanics to reduce repetitive walking, there is still barely enough to make the game dull. I don't want to play a 4/10 RPGM adventure game with very occaisional still images of the main character's tits. It just isn't enough for me.

If this game was just 10% faster paced or if scenes had multiple images rather than just one, this game would leap up into a 4 star easily. As it is, its just kinda competant but dull.

[0.9.7a]
This game is weird.

Because of the lengthy development time, there are parts of the game that are on different levels of quality. Due to the nature of the engine, most of it feels quite dated, but this is clearly a passion-project, and a labour of love, and does some things that you very rarely see in a good heroine-game.

First of all, what I like the most about the game are the themes. This hits on pretty much all of my favourite themes, from a female-protagonist, to various different forms of mind control, to sub/dom dynamics and lots of other shenanigans. The art is quite inconsistent, but it's never quite bad, and some parts where the art supports sex-scenes are quite exciting. This is very close to the tag-list of my ideal sex-game.

However... When you make a game where one of the main draws is the girl's adventures around the city where most want to mind control her into their sub, but then have the main plot has her track down an ancient temple where she gains the ability to turn into a literal mouse, and the temple has just a random room with a character who's just there in case you want to fuck, something has gone wrong somewhere. I get that the story started out very far back, before porn-games had even the nieche they have today, but it's still worth saying: This game lacks thematic consistency.

The main quest, and many of the sequences are just grinding on completely separate rails. Themes like werewolf- and ponygirl- fetishism are their own separate pockets that you can go look for, if you're into that, and the main quest leaves very open the kind and degree to which you engage in any of the sexual content in this heroine-game. Some of the content is even hard to find, and the game practically requires a walkthrough to be played enjoyably, which the dev helpfully does provide. It has the perennial RPGM-curse of large, empty environments you have to trek through, and provides very vague context-clues for important NPCs.

Also featured are some very standard, grating RPG-combat and sounds, which somehow have survived all the way up to the modern day, so I can't be too mad about their inclusion, even if they don't do much here.

As for the writing, it's likewise inconsistent. I don't think the erotic writing is bad, but it's not enough to carry scenes that don't have visuals attached, and scenes have to fit the pacing of the game in general which kind of lessens their impact.

It's kind of a beautiful mess, that tries to hide a lot of what it is.

Pretty good game that's got a lot of fans for a reason. It took me a while to complete due to the number of plotlines you can follow. Story's pretty good, but what stops this from going to a 5/5 is the limitations of the old game engine this runs on.

Review as 0.9.6

Amazing game that I would say features porn than being a "porn game" meaning its story and gameplay is the best feature not strictly the erotic moments. It's probably one of the best RPGS I've played period.

GAMEPLAY - 5/5
You could play this game mainly for quests and still have tons of content to farm through. I focused heavily for a day or two on erotic content but switched to focusing on quests and had fun as well. This game is brimming with content more than I've seen from any game, especially an indie game. That's the biggest reason I think you should play this game! I've been playing for 4-5 days now and I'm still not done with all the content. Similarly, this feels like a true RPG. There were many moments interacting with NPCs that I didn't expect them to comment on a certain action I made! The world feels real. The actual magic system is useful in solving quests. The magic is more used for puzzles than combat, so don't expect that here. I don't care about combat in r18 games so I don't mind it, but I know some people don't feel the same.

GAMEPLAY MECHANICS - 3/5
Yeah... it's outdated. If there was anything in this game that was frustrating it's the engine. You can't change the resolution to be bigger so you're fucked if you can't see well. Many times I was reading the walkthrough and accomplishing the steps and I had to try multiple times for the game to respond to the trigger (ex. triggering a cutscene after stepping on the correct tile). The usage of your magic to solve quests was fun to play, but once again doesn't mean the game will trigger the next step. Similarly, I HATE there aren't more save slots. I see this with many RPG maker games so there is a possibility this is an engine-specific issue but most modern computers can handle multiple save files! For a game so vast with content it would greatly help to have as many save slots as we wanted.

R18 scenes - 3.5/5
It offers good variety in scenes with certain fetishes, but as other reviews have mentioned it skews to mind-control/hypnosis for tons of erotic scenes. I'm not a huge fan of it, so it became a slight detriment in enjoying all the scenes. Don't expect tons of different fetishes featured in the game, but if you like the majority of them then you'll enjoy this game.

ART - 4.5/5
The only reason I don't give it 5/5 is that not every CG matches your character (most times you won't see your tattoos, piercings, etc) but it still scores high because there is an abundance of it! Around 1000+ possible CGs you can get, and I would say almost every r18 scene has CG!


STORY - 4.5/5
I can't say I was blown away by how great the story was, but it's very solid. The game devs can keep the story moving and fresh while balancing side quests and all the effects from it (such as traits, faction loyalty, etc). The storyline doesn't feel separate from everything else you do in the game.

BONUS RATING: Walkthrough - 5/5
Only adding this because it doesn't affect the actual game, but as someone who loves an in-depth walkthrough, this tremendously affected my enjoyment of the game. Kudos to the ppl who contribute to this walkthrough you are a big part of the reason why I love this game! I wanted to give them a shoutout too

In all, if this game was to be sold I would buy it! I encourage everyone to play it if it interests you!

Caliross, the Shapeshifter's Legacy is a classic of the Female protagonist mind control fetish. The corruption / mind control part is very good but the art style is a little lacking.

The main issue of this game is the useless RPGM engine with its horrendous gameplay that traps this game in the past.

The art is good, but oh boy is this one annoying.

It is insanely repetitive.
It will feature daily routines and the more spicy ones will give some interesting endings. For example, become a breeding cow or become a hypno slave.
Issues is, they are game overs. Enjoy restarting it.
Combat does not exists. And all of the sudden there is an an unbeatable enemy and you can't leave the map to grind. Enjoy restarting it.
Movement is slow, main city is relatively big. It also feels sluggish.
It seems like it has a lot of potential, but after 6 restarts, I lost patience.
It is punishing for no reason. Fun and progression are not really a thing here.

Definitely the best corruption game there is and possibly the best RPGM porn game there is (I see only one or two contenders). It has really interesting gameplay (good fights with no grind, there is no levelling up here by killing the same monsters again and again and we level up after each chapter plus we can learn new spells and get better gear) and tons of content. In most other RPGM games we get empty spaces with barely anything to do and lifeless cities with a couple of quests at most but here practically every building, every cave and every back alley has meaning.

There are also many hidden places and secrets here so every time you will replay the game you might find something new. And the game is very replayable because we have much freedom (and many quests can be done in any order we want), there are also "fork-choices" where we decide who we ally with for example so playing once you will only see some of the scenes (most if you will play your cards right but definitely not all). If you prefer to see everything there is also cheat menu included that lets you see all the scenes so those who aren't interested in the story (which is very good) can skip to the juicy parts.

Anyway, I could go on and on about this game (it's that good) but I'll keep it short nad make a tl;dr version:

Pros:
+ Great story and gameplay which makes this game very enjoyable
+ Really good world building with cities that feel like cities
+ Very nice sex scenes, although keep in mind that most of them are text based with some renders in-between
+ Nice puzzles, the best I've seen in a porn game
+ Awesome ending with a nice slideshow where the consequences of our actions are shown (which is a huge plus in my book and makes our choices even more satisfying)
+ Exquisite exploration with some really fun mechanics (I won't get into details to not spoil your fun)

Cons:
- If you don't want to read in a porn game sex scenes might feel lacking (each sex scene has only a couple of renders in it and very few have basic animation or a slideshow) but in my eyes they are great. Still, don't expect superb graphics and tons of images. I suggest you check out the preview in the opening post to set your expectations properly.

- Our protagonist can become a slave way too easily. There are many characters that she can't resist if we pick wrong dialogue options. It's not as bad as it sounds since we have some leeway still and before we become mindless puppets and get the game over screen we always have a chance to change our decision (to a degree).

All in all this is one of the best games I've played and despite its flaws I've enjoyed it very much (I've played it for over 40 hours and I still want to play it again this time doing totally different choices). I highly recommend it assuming you will want to read and play it and not watch porn only.

Edit:
After playing v0.9.9 I can only say that it's even better than the version I've played. I also forgot to mention that many quests can be done in various ways just like in proper RPGs. I love this game.

A game I have been following for years and it's only gotten better as time has gone on. A good story with a plucky protagonist, Lots of quests, and side content all set in a neat fantasy world. RPG Maker games can be very hit or miss but at least for me this is a hit.

Truly bottomless game. You can play it for hours and there is still more content. And there are pathes which you probably won't even touch. Author did amazing job of creating his world, it's just right size for game and map is very cozy. I genuinely enjoyed the story and puzzles even beside the porn. Amazing job.

4/5 because:
- Art is average at best.
- For this amount of content it's not that diverse. Beside vanilla, the main fetish here is instant mind break/hypnosis. If you chose relevant options it will happen without any struggle from mc, regardless of her willpower, which becomes repetitive very soon. It has some other content here and there, but you need to really be into this specific fetish to enjoy game fullest.

Just realised I never wrote a review for this game, so here is my 5 stars for one of the best RPGMaker games on F95.
As of version 0.9998, not only is the game bugfree, but it also has tons and tons of content, and is techically finished, since you can play the story from beggining to end. More scenes and side content is still being added anyways.

So basicly almost 10 out of 10 game. Sadly old engine + some "old fashion" desicions making me feel like this game is kinda empty. You should definitely add MUCH MORE art from SINGLE artist, make some hentai stats, statuses, make people react to statuses and makegame more interactive besides just ivents and quests. (but it's just my 2 cents).
If this game had constant art from one artist and some h-statistics, then it would be 10/10. But anyway good game overall.

Caliross is a game with a decent story and an interesting transformation gameplay mechanic that is unfortunately challenged by a far too immediately apparent breadth of choices that also unfortunately have massive rammifications on story progression later on.

If you start the game off, and you get bored before completing the first chapter and start just walking around looking for stuff, and then you start following one of the quests you find to its completion - such as the easily available cow quest - you end up irrepairably changing how your main character will deal with quests for the remainder of the (fairly long!) game and all of its chapters. Even less immediately obvious ones - such as the werewolf quest line - end up warping the game experience and quest resolutions. Perhaps this is a problem I've created in my mind, but as someone who likes experiencing all the options that a game has to give and all ways a quest can be resolved, this means several different save files with tweaks at the very beginning, and it quickly becomes tiresome - as fun as the gameplay mechanics are, having to do them 5 times over is unfortunately not that fun.

If you're here for a one-shot experience, then Caliross is definitely a wonderful game, but if you're a bit more of a completionist the sheer amount of content width quickly becomes an annoyance, especially because it is so readily available and will give rammifications even much, much later in depth, such as when you've got your own noble place several chapters down.

Probably one of the largest RPGMs I've played on this site, and thoroughly enjoyable either way, but do refer to a walkthrough or guide if you want your playthrough to go a certain way. It can get confusing quick. If you're a completionist, then the width of options becomes a bore as you're forced to pick one early and then grind it out for the long run - which is why I give this a 4, and not a 5. Perhaps this is a dumb complaint, but this game definitely suffers of "too much content".

Pros:
+ Very female friendly porn. Lots of lesbian content and kinks that appeal to women. You can mostly control the content you want to see or not see (even vanilla heterosexual content with a baker)
+ Hot sex scenes, large variety
+ The smut integrates with the main storyline. Your smut choices matter!
+ Good puzzles
+ Replayable (also a con, see later)

Cons:
- Don't bother with combat or being smart, it's not worth doing outside of a purity run since your stats need to plummet to see certain H scenes
- Art is not horrible but not the best (this is more personal taste)
- There's lots of content and very long story lines that are easy to miss, I beat the game and I still need to play through it 1-2 more times with the walkthrough open. For example, there's 4 similar bars you can order drinks at and there's an entire 5+ mission arc I missed since there's no side quest or quest exclamation mark icon. I also missed the Succubus area apparently too.
- There's also many layers of mutually exclusive content since you can ally with different factions, meaning you have to replay the entire game, meaning you will have to grind the puzzles, tedious gold gain, and tedious map navigation

I played through it once, enjoyed it, and would recommend. Maybe I'll go for the different factions and smut choices in another year or two after I forget most of the puzzles.

Entertaining story with a large number of erotic scenes...should you be inclined to yield your morals or even virginity . There are a number of groups (factions) tp which you may belong. ….
You may opt to not join any group and die a flat or full chested virgin,

Really dissapointing as a porn visual novel. AS a novelits good enough, but the visuals are not taht good, and the visuals are not that many compared to text.
Doesnt helop the fact athat there are a lot of black screens with just text, they are supposed to be transitions, I guess but they take too long. I always expect a new image to appear but many time the scene just ends.

Not the best Female protagonist game there. The inn events, are pretyt much 3, but they luck images, you never see people, only the girl so the scene relies heavily on text. Its a decent text and if it had images it would be pretty good, but there are no images.

Art is decent-ish, the girl is quite hot, but the quality is a little cartoonish and there are someimages where wholes are misplaces for the sake of something (I dont think someone drawin naked girls doesnt know how a vagina should look like).

Very underachieving and dissapointing. It has good ideas though, and some of the events I played are interesting, but not the journey and not the landing are satisfying