For anyone who doesn't want to sit through several paragraphs of gushing, here's the short version: it's better than almost every porn game with a story out there. Play it.
Long version:
I found Claire's Quest due to the link included on the page for the developer's other game, Overgrown: Genesis. From the description, that this would be a game where your choices matter and things evolve according to what you do and the usual lies, I was ready to download it, spend a few minutes mucking around with the subpar, copy-and-paste combat-but-not-really-because-we-promised-there-wouldn't-be-any systems, see a few CGs and leave it on my hard drive to be forgotten.
That's not what happened. If I were to give a quick comparison to illustrate just how good the game is, I'd have to say it's something like the Degrees of Lewdity of RPGMaker games. True, it doesn't have nearly as much freedom of choice, but it has a heck of a lot more than usual, which is to say any. Your stats matter a huge amount in this game, and exploration is paramount.
Even the prologue is engaging and important, with the choices you make in that section contributing heavily to the growth of your stats, which are the single most valuable resource you have in this game.
Practically every major decision requires that you take your stats into account, as anything too low will not end prettily for Claire. Of course, having certain stats (Defiance especially) too high can gate you from certain content (submission in jobs that require it, as an example), so you have to decide very quickly what, precisely, it is you don't need to see, often without much of an idea of which opportunities will open or close depending on your stat distribution.
It's kind of like a lewd character builder in that way, with each scene requiring that you pass the appropriate checks for it to go well. So, consciously or not, your decisions start to revolve around which responses will build which stats, depending on the type of person you want Claire to become.
And there really is no combat, thank goodness. There are a few sections where enemies patrol a section of map, but the conflict that emerges upon being captured is usually solved automatically through items you have in your inventory, if you have them.
The art's great, too. It's definitely very western, but the marginally increased realism in that style works well for this one.
The jobs you can do aren't always obvious, requiring that you explore and unlock opportunities for yourself based on prompts and environmental cues. Claire can even develop in several different mission-specific directions, becoming a mercenary, thief, ranger, futanari priestess and more. Each one has its own missions that are surprisingly engaging. I always groan when I reach the end of the current questline implementation, because I'm so engaged by the time I get there that I want to know how it ends.
There's also a surprising amount of more dangerous fetish content in here, bestiality especially. Then there's some snuff, monster rape, normal rape, torture (no gore that I've been able to find, thankfully) and more. The art makes it really enticing, rather than being a turn-off, so that's a point in its favor for me.
Overall, it's a fantastic porn game, and one of the best RPGMaker porn games I've ever played, if not the best. I'm not quite sure whether I've even made it sound like it's something worth playing, so sorry for that, but just know that I highly recommend this if you're into RPGMaker games for the freedom of exploration rather than the combat mechanics.
