RPGM - Claire's Quest [v0.27.3] [Dystopian Project]

I really wish I could rate this at least 3/5 but after revisiting to give it another shot I just can't.

TL;DR
Claire's Quest does some things right, and the unique artwork is a great hook, but as a game it has clunky issues and is far too open-ended without quality control -- the worst being player engagement to the narrative and respect for time.

If you are OK with a pure walk-point-A-to-B gallery unlocking H-game, then it's probably worth a download for a session or two, but that's about it.

What I think is Good
The art is very good, both in H-scenes and playing around the map. Could use some animation, but it works. Claire is sexy. The story is passable and better than bottom-feeder H-RPGs. I don't mind having no combat.

If you like the art, there is a lot of it. It just takes time and exploring to get to. If you're OK with gallery explorers, then this game should be fine for you.

I appreciate the no-combat rather than being a sloggy RPG-M fight-fest, however it does have a slight learning curve and can take extra time.

RPG Mechanics & Stats
There are choices to make at certain times where you choose a response or action for Claire. They're really dysfunctional and awkward. Two examples:

1. You pick one of three options as Claire. You're a bit bored so you choose to "push" a more lewd or degenerate option, but Claire won't because of her stats. Now you're stuck into another option without being able to go back or end the dialogue, so you either have to reload a save and grind/explore for stats or just move on.
2. You want to roleplay as a pure Claire so you pick something like "give him comforting advice" which leads into Claire acting sultry, then gaining +1 seduction. Huh?

This ties into how the stats are awkward to use. In my first playthrough I coincidentally ended up having like 11 defiance with every other stat at 1, which led to Claire just punching her way through every situation, especially those that may have been lewd. To me it was just roleplaying what I would expect her to do early on, thinking she'd slowly corrupt to lewd desires - nope, I just didn't choose the "correct" branching path, so I decided to restart and explore different options.

Corruption, or lack thereof -- including other tags
The "corruption" in this game isn't really corruption, sorta like how the "slave" tag doesn't take precedence in many F95 games where it does. While player freedom is technically fully there, it's locked behind stats required to get resolutions. Claire isn't so much corrupted or changing as she's just guided by what the player wants her to be, and it makes it feel that there's never a narrative base for the player to attach to -- it's just too open and sandboxy with no regard for consistency.

Claire is often not "forced" into choices like the narrative wants to try to push ("she's a poor refugee and has to do XYZ"). You can occasionally end up raped (usually not a game-over) or H-loss raped (which is always a game-over). With regards to the four stats, some scenes get changed, but overall it's like a switch flipped on or off.

The open-ended and sandboxy nature of the game makes Claire a super inconsistent character. Two more examples:

1. You'll land at a certain place, some guy will ask Claire to show her tits for a coin and she'll say "Eek! That's preposterous!" and slap him, but then 10 minutes later she'll be hot-dogged by 15 men in a secret lounge because you chose to race through a quest line that allows you to see that content.
2. Claire's working to get by and has yet to do anything lewd. Well, this kid drew a picture of her so she's going to jack his cock now, unprompted by any corruption or events other than him being moderately attracted to her with budding puberty. This makes sense, right?

Because there are so many questlines, the only grounding the game has is the four stats -- Claire is more of a vessel for you to unlock lewd galleries than a character who shifts or changes based on her situation.

General Gameplay Loop
Most of everything is a fetch quest, which is... fine, but wastes player time. At some point it becomes comical how many quests are "go to A from B" and then "go to B from A", repeated multiple times over.

The map can be confusing but isn't awful -- I just think it's too big with too much, and a condensed story with basic playthrough branches would be preferred.

There's really no backlog and the quest viewing system is super irritating to use (having to scroll often, having inconsistent controls between clicking or using WASD/arrows). It's easy to get lost during quests if you aren't very familiar with the map and sometimes the "most updated" part of the quest log won't give you the right hint. This also multiplies if you revisit the game after a break and were unsure of what you were doing.

Because this game appears to be in forever-development, there are a number of questlines that end in a "WIP". There are also event locations around the map that just say "WIP".

A weird time-waster; I appreciate that the game is a click-RPG so I don't have to WASD everywhere -- that being said, why is the Status screen not clickable, and I have to click escape for it?

Lastly -- what is up with the audio mixing? H-scenes are super inconsistent for what audio will or will not be there, but at times there will be droning ambience or loud noises in areas of the map. It's just something I picked up on after playing a while.

Conclusion
I have a big appreciation for the art of this game, so as a simple gallery collection and maybe a jack-session or two it can fulfil the purpose of a download. But the gameplay and narrative are sadly dysfunctional and it just seems like an open-top game that will never condense to truly be quality.

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Way too many people are praising a game that started 8 years ago. You know, around the same time as cyberpunk 2077. And still is only on version 0.2.

That in itself is insane. And leads me to believe this game will never be finished. And this affects gameplay significantly. Because you'll do a quest, y'know? Then you'll come across the "WIP" message that this quest is incomplete. Bitch, this quest was incomplete 3 years ago, why is it still?

This game just bothers me, because it gets so much praise and has a solid rating. Which shouldn't be the case, because there's other ACTUAL complete games on this site, that's been done in half the time of this one.

Besides the development issues, the game itself is just "okay". Just a scene collector where you usually do fetch quests.

This game is mid, it is not bad, there is plenty content, but it is not great either.
Heroine could do well with losing some weight and stop being overweight/obese. You are building your game on a single heroine, and it should be obvious if she herself is mid as a character both visually and in personality, the game itself will suffer.

Other significant downsides is an ancient engine, and almost 480p resolution of the game, so it runs in a tiny window, making it bigger worsens the image quality significant so not really an option..

I think the story starts well, I have picked "hard" prologue, which was not actually hard, alright in general, but it quickly loses its compelling points as soon as you move from the prologue location. It turns out first into errand running, and then in "WIP", this quest is not available in this version of the game message.

The plot lost its cohesion and any kind of sense, and from there on it is just random quests or "slut yourself at this brothel" kind of event.

There is always a feel that something is missing in this game, but I cannot quite explain it.

The stat and quest system is not bad in itself, but you quickly realize that a lot of quests have zero rewards at all, and most of the stats leveling can/is done via trainers by simply paying silver coins.

P.s. I was about to upgrade review to 4 stars, as Temple quest arc turned out to be hot and have some mildly interesting developments, only to run into "WIP" This Quest is in progress, wait for future updates.

Let's start with the pros, the fact that the game is addictive and the art and choices in the game are good, although not much, like press this to get a scene or press this not to get and fight, well, there are a lot of stupid moments about quests, because sometimes it's not at all clear where to go or how to get what, well, the game it's old, so we'll write it off, but the only thing I'm lowering my rating for is that after some quests, bandits attack you along some paths and the game ends, so you have to save every time, and I've had it after 10 quests and it's not clear, how it had to be removed and it is not clear why they attacked and that it is impossible to fight them back

One of the best RPGM games, a gigantic open world, an innovative gameplay style, lots of content and lots of sex scenes.

POSITIVE POINTS:
STORY: It tells the story of a girl named Claire (FMC) who has her place attacked by green pigs and ends up separating from her mother and running away. Claire then begins to explore the world around her, doing tasks, making allies and surviving.

PERSONALITY: Claire's personality can be shaped by the player, you can make her stronger and tougher, you can make her more calculating and seductive or you can make her a complete depraved slut.

GAMEPLAY: The gameplay seemed terrible at first, after all, Claire is not a fighter, there is no combat system, but you will enjoy exploring the places, collecting items, and unlocking sex scenes and it is not linear, you can choose your path.

SETTING: The setting of this game is incredible, well-made and has its own charm, especially in the forest areas.

SEX SCENES: The scenes in this game are on another level, especially if Claire's personality is depraved. I dare say that the scenes are the best among all pornographic games.

It is one of the best RPGM games I have ever played, I highly recommend it!

I like the this approach without fighting in rpgm games. The plot for dark fantasy setting is good, art is fantastic. World filled with references, systemized information, great work! Ive benn played 50+ hours on my first run and it was fantastic, cannot wait when game will be released.

A very good game, the advertisement deliver your many of your choices affects the route and story, the game's not finished yet but there are already a lot of content that can keep you for some hours.
The thing i dont like is just my bias, in this game most of the corruption not really forced to the mc instead it's the mc being lewd, there are of course events whether it main or sub events that force terrible things to the mc,
and other things thebranch of a sub story can branch depends on your stats and dont let you choose what will you do, for example

This game starts out pretty dark but gets fun very quickly. If you are not into dark rape and dire circumstances, which I am not, this fairly quickly turns around and becomes about choice and corruption. A very enjoyable game.

Good plot, nice pictures and a lot of other interesting things. I would like to say way more about game, but i don't know english enough for this
Хороший сюжет, приятная рисовка и множество других интересных вещей и событий

In my opinion, Claire's Quest is the best independent adult game of any genre that currently exists, The game is impressive and several factors, You feel really alive in Claire's shoes in the choices, Each choice has to be chosen intelligently, You always want to explore more and more of the game...I've played almost all the adult games, I still say, Even without it being 100%, It's the best game in the adult genre in my opinion, Thanks to the entire team at
Dystopian Project for the incredible game!

This game could be really amazing, sadly its far from it. There are many clear issues, since its big game i will make it short as possible:

- too ambitious, world is simply too big, there is too much of everything, its too easy to get lost, exploring takes forever to figure out and RPGM engine doesnt help with that (slow animations/cutscenes/dialogues). Game makes you feel dev first created whole big ass world and then started to take care of basics, which he failed.

- hunger and exhaustion mechanic sucks, simply as that. Whole hunger thing takes you to buy few apples from a merchant (or better food) and eat it before going to sleep, cus you lose hunger only when going to sleep. Exhaustion is more annoying than anything else, you get sex scenes that make you exhausted and now you cannot run and have to go to sleep, and it repeats a lot in many places around the map, what a not cool idea to force player to not be able to run and take it slowly to the inn every time, so immersive!

- writing is silly, just starting from the mansion and guy obsessed around his sister, its simply weak and forced to move on cus there is other stuff that dev wants to show player. Again too much content instead of less with good quality.

- H scenes are decent but not animated with no audio so its rather mid.

- music is so out of place, very loud and super epic for no reason on some random ass parts of the map, it reminds me Tales of Maj'Eyal music a bit, but worse and not fitting at all.

About anything rest i cannot tell cus i need to play more, although i dont think i change my rating.

Incredible game with a lot of scenes, lot of writing, the grind is really not that heavy. I think the beginning can be a bit slow but after chapter 2 it's pretty fine.

Still impressed on how the team handled that huge project. The old art is not as good as the last ones but damn it became something, almost every kink is covered in this game.

It's been what, 8 years now? I remember playing this years ago and there are still quests from back then that are still unfinished now.
I'm sorry but no matter how well made it is, if its still at 0.2 for years it will never be a finished game.
It does not deserve to be rated as high as others on this rating that were created in a fraction of the time this game has been in development and managed to get way more content, mechanics, art than this, it's honestly quite unfair to those games that are released as full games that don't scam their customers.
Besides this, it was really promising initially and the game at start is unique and quite fun, but after half a hour of game play you'll run into these unfinished quests that will likely never be completed.

TL;DR: A breath of fresh air in a sea of mediocrity, despite the version number being relatively low, there are hours upon hours worth of questing and gameplay, plenty of lewds as well

+ Pleasant art-style, not much more to say besides that I enjoyed it
+ Variety of scenes ranging from consensual, non-consensual, humanoid, bestiality, and monsters, something for everyone
+ Very in-depth choices that alter much of your gameplay experience, most choices actually do matter unlike some other games.
+ The 'pure' route allows you to play someone who is both capable and smart, a breath of fresh air when most protags are fucking idiots, but a high Intrigue (one of the four core stats) can detect bullshit from a mile away which is nice
+ Despite the version number being only 0.26, I've spent close to 5 hours on my pure run and I'm still finding more quests, more stuff to explore, and more scenes to save for later, genuinely having a good time just questing
+ Writing is surprisingly really good, don't expect much from Hgames usually, but so far I'm a happy camper

- Game has been in development for a while, but given the amount of content present atm, I'm not too bummed about that
- Could use more interesting romance options

Not much to say that is negative about this game, I'm having a very good time and I don't think that will change any time soon. I recall giving this dev's previous game a mediocre rating, so I wasn't expecting much with this one, but I stand corrected.

This review is directed towards v0.26.3, which is the latest version posted in the site.

So, what to say about this game...

It is honestly a very unique game, all things considered. We take on the role of Claire, which is a common girl living in a common rural area with her mother while her father is out serving the King and it still hasn't come back home

That in itself is already a very unique start that not many games really do. Most games out there are about a heroine, or hero.. or a knight, or someone in a rather high position of power. But it doesn't end there, the character in this game actually gets to experience literal hell as her world literally crumbles when her mother gets captured by the Swine and the invasion begins

Through your choices, the character gets to decide her future. Whether she decides to take refugee in the camp, the easy way out so to speak.. or should she decide to pursue the hard route which leads her to meeting Stella and progressing in a different manner (though it locks you out of some content).

Your choices matter, and that is absolutely great in a game, as it gives you a sense that the things you're doing are meaningful and have a purpose.

The storywriting in this game is very good. I have played Overgrown: Genesis from this creator and the writing quality is on par with that one

Believable writing, grounded, doesn't try too hard to be sexual. I really really like it and it helps create a better sense of immersion and worldbuilding, it is impactful when it needs to, it is light-hearted at the appropiate times. It does what it's meant to do very well

Gameplay mechanics are also pretty polished and well thought out.. through the decisions you make in the game, you build your character out the way you would prefer her to be.. more sexual, more defiant, more submissive, more insightful, etc.

Most of what I have to say about this game is positive, except for one rather big issue that I have with it.. which is, the story itself.

Not because of writing, no no.. none of that, but because it seems like the story is losing it's meaning. What do I mean by this? Let me explain

The world of Claire's Quest is a big one, there are many different places you can go to, many different people to meet.. many different scenes to hunt for, the game really is trying is best at trying to make the world feel alive... which is very commendable and I appreciate it, don't get me wrong..

But it is exactly because of this, that I find myself having trouble with the story. Many places to go, many people to meet, means many different side-quests that you can gather, many different things that you can do outside of the main story

And while this normally wouldn't be bad, it is overdone I believe and the main story is being lost amongst the many many different things you can do in the game that are unrelated to the main story.

I reiterate, I really appreciate that the creator is trying to make this world feel alive by giving us tasks to do in said work, a few side quests, new sexual CG's.. but there's just way too many of them and it needs to be toned down quite a lot in my opinion

The game is nowhere near finished and there still are many many things that the creator likely wants to create, wants to finish the game, but at this point it just feels like there isn't really any meaningful progress to the story whatsoever.

There's many questions that remain to be answered, many lore points to cover.. and at this rate it feels like those are not going to be answered nowhere near the future.

I really with I could get into the game a bit more, everything about it is great.. except for that one big problem.

Hopefully the creator realizes that they might perhaps be a little too ambitious with their game and focus on toning it down a little bit and continuing on the main story.

Side quests are fun until they entirely drown the main story and makes it lose importance.

One of my favorite games on F95.
Very well rounded game, depraved, well written, pretty main character and offers something for most - if not all kinks.
Looking forward to each update so far.
I also find the bestiality content quite interesting, especially since most other games don't offer much in this regard.
The game could offer more incest, maybe that Claire's father reappears and knocks her up or something like this, that would be fantastic.

Love the art!!! , really nice game.

Quality content and covers most fetishes with choices as well so you're not forced into any scenes which is a huge pluls


Great game , hope there's a sequel or prequel to it as well!!

Best sex RPG!

Lack of direct combat is perfect. You're rapebait, and it shows. Some can be avoided, some can't (the way it should be). Kinks are quite on the extreme side, but so well damn executed.

This game is pretty good for the first 30-60 minutes, there is corruption, story, some sexual content, not much of gameplay though, that's a decent start.

Sadly, after progressing further into the game it's pretty dissapointing: annoying features waste players time, content density is pretty bad, story is... there, bugs, still not much of gameplay and corruption is not reflected in the character behaviour outside of quests that support it.

I've played it on and off over the years and for more than 7 years in development it doesn't have that much to show for it.

The writing is good though.

Objectively, 5/5 game in terms of the actual game. However nothing is that simple these days.
Art is wonderful and even changes depending on Claire's depravity.
Story and character is well thought out.
Claire being nearly helpless and having to use her wit and body to go around is a nice touch.
There isn't that much grinding. The game is amazing in terms of fetish variety and spice it has.

Why does it get only 2 stars? It's now following a scheme of Summertime saga. You have 3000+ patrons but you're telling me you're unable to deliver an update in NINE MONTHS?
Behind the scenes, lead dev also taking private commissions to add specific content and story arcs.
Dystopian Project was able to deliver updates consistently. How they seem to be in ever mismanaged hell. With character redesigns, changing artists, delaying promised content and lacking focus.

You may notice while playing that a lot of the quests are unfinished. More so the main quest. Instead of focusing on finishing several core questlines and subquests, with each update the game gets more pointless scenes that add up to nothing and never properly finish questlines.
This isn't quests being open ended and up for adding of more content when quests have been like that for years.

I refuse to support these developers anymore as they have failed to deliver. This game had potential but as always, very few manage to deliver when they get too big.