RPGM - Crimson Veil [v5.2.1] [MKRUdesign]

A lot of really cheesy "GM vs player" moments and poor combat design make this game exhausting to play and makes it absolutely require save scumming.

Example 1: You find 5 coffins in a room. If you loot 4, you'll find gold in each of them, but if you loot the 5th, you'll trigger an unavoidable game over scene. There are visual cues on the coffins to suggest one is trapped, no clues in the room or leading up to it, no alternative way to examine the coffins BEFORE opening them. It's just the game maker setting up some dumb gotcha moment.

Example 2: Combat. Vampires will randomly bite at you. The bite has a very low chance to land, but if it lands, you'll lose health until you either die or cure it--and you only have 2 cures at the start. Also, the DoT ticks for 1/5 of your life, curing it takes a turn, and vampires hit for anywhere between 40-50% of your life, so you can't even really afford to cure it in combat.

Additionally, bosses are meat shields, requiring 10+ rounds of combat, any round of which you could be bitten, which will kill you, and then you'll have to reload and start over.

I really wanted to explore this world/story. I tried on 3 different days, giving it some space whenever I got frustrated. The game just requires too much save scumming/effort to enjoy.

v5.0.1: Truly good game. It takes a lot of ambition and care to do a full corruption route that isn't just another 30 second bad ending. There's a lot of attention to detail, everywhere, and you're constantly rewarded for exploring every corner of every map.

Very interesting game. I like the plot , and I also like the lack of grinding. I find the artwork interesting, I guess the artist has some Russian influence. The fact that the general sexual orientation is lesbian haw a great impact on the story itself, I mean it lack the usual brute scenarios and story in general. I have completed the previous version employing the save editor and this has allowed me to focus on the story more. I mean, even with 999999 gold coins, you still have to play. Keep up the good work!

Overall is good game have a lot of potential but is lacking on several areas.
1) The combat system is generic, the mc is supossed to outsmart vampires in combat but we don't see any of that we just charge in beat the vampire boss head on and period... aren't they suppose to be stronger than humans? Even when we become a vampire is horrible the basic enemies constantly debuffs you, act twice per turn(we as vampire can't do shit about it), they hit like a train(every 10 hits from them 3 are criticals) meaning the baisc enemies the ones we are suppose to farm before attack bosses can give you a game over screen fairly easy and there isn't much to do on the boss fights just out damage the boss, heal, defend when they go rampaging and hope you don't miss your attacks(which happens realy often when we have a 95% hit rate).
2) Lack of branching when we loose or submit to a vampire or succubus we just get a bad ending scene sometimes a extended one where you have some "freedom" to roam around as vampire. Other point when you go to the vampire route on chapter 3 (but don't have content just 2 chapters0


(SPOILER ALERT)


the mc wakes up 100 years later, everyone from the human path is long gone and what is even worse even if we take our time to complete the contracts for chapter 3 they will be ignored and have no impact on the story.
3) Then there is the grind which is not as bad as the rpgm games but still troublesome to do, we need to get vampire drops(ashes, fangs, hearts, etc) to level up and they are random on regular enemies and if you rush into bosses you are going to a world of pain. On vampire path is less troublesome because you just drink your enemies after the combat and if they were virgin you get the double of points of a non virgin enemies.

Really nice game with cool setting and plot and if I get it right couple of ways to play, including a decent one whihi is really cool imo. Althrough am only at half of current content/ history I really like the variability, the characters are cool and the gameplay is fun. Hope the game d keep that good next and hope for full release. Respects 4 devs

Really hard to give a rating to this game...
From my POV it's worth 2.5 star, but it doesn't mean it's a "bad" game, it just mean that I personally have been disappointed by this game , but I totally understand that some people LOVE it and will hate me for giving it only 2.5 star


This review is in 2 parts :

Part 1 is my personal thought about how the game handle corruption and transformation ( badly )
it's pretty long, have spoilers and consist mostly of my personal thought about a lot of theme present in this game
if you don't care, skip to part 2, but if you have time and are open minded enough to understand that it's just a personal opinion, then take the time to read it

Part 2 is a global review of the game itself

-----------------------------------------------


Part 1 : How to NOT corrupt
( seriously read it it's super interesting )


- The first thing that I personally didn't like in this game, is the total mind rewrite after becoming a vampire
( and that is for the protagonist as well as for everyone else )
When transformed, you end up forgetting your previous personality, like it's a totally new person in the body, the old one just died.
If your best friend of all time is transformed, you can be sure she is gonna try to bite you as soon as she wake up , not even thinking half a second about it...
( At some moment in the game it's even implied that you really die when transformed and your soul ( so you ) go somewhere else while your corpse stay here and wake up as a vampire, so when you are a vampire you really are someone else, a new character or protagonist... So maybe it's true, maybe not , maybe the dev have plan to add to the lore and explain how all this work, but right now I really don't like the direction it take )

Yeah later in the game ( far later ) we have a "logical" explanation for the mind rewrite, it's because when you are transformed, your creator have full control over your mind so if he want you to forget who you were before and instead just become a caricature of the evil blood sucker, then you will just be this caricature

( yeah in the vampire route we kinda keep our mental freedom ( even if not really, or at least we don't care in this situation, we will discuss it later... )

I have nothing against corruption to a point where you are no longer who you used to be, in fact I love it
But it should take time, and not be a instantaneous change ! because when you do it like that, it's like you play a different protagonist

You can't just erase a personality and replace it instantaneously with a other personality, you need to build up this new personality over the old one step by step
( I know it's a stupid comparison, this is fiction , but a good corruption or any personality change should be like in real life, when I remember who I was 10 years ago, I'm now a totally different person, there is nothing left of the old me except memories , but that don't mean I'm not "me" anymore, what I am now is build on what I was before, I didn't replace my brain one day and ceased to exist as the "old me" )

Each time I see a bad review in a corruption game, 90% of the time it's because the corruption happen too quickly.. but this right here in this game, it's not corruption , it's literally replacing the mind and personality of someone with a other
Ok you could argue that vampirism curse it so powerful that your bloodlust and normal lust are stronger than everything else
But please... even Vador still think about Padme all the time, so if even the full power of the dark side on the most force sensitive being in the galaxy isn't enough to totally erase who he was before, then don't tell me vampirism can...

I feel like it's just a easy way to avoid writing complex story and dialogue to fully explore corruption and transformation theme and that's bad because this game is supposed to be about corruption and transformation



- Almost all the vampire are so dumb... like a bad cartoon villain, only here to be your opponent and give you a bad end scene
no development, no real story, no choice ( unless you consider a choice to decide if you win or you loose )


- The worst part now : if you want to play as a vampire or you want to be a human getting corrupted and transformed as the story progress, you will not find what you're looking for here.

3 chapters ( so 80% of the game ) before you can enter the vampire route..
It's far too long...
So yes, you have some "extended bad endings" where you get transformed and get to play a little as a vampire before the "game over" but like their name imply, they are "bad endings", not a "route"
too short and you are not playing yourself, you are playing a caricature of a evil vampire with your personality totally erased
you simply play a other protagonist

I was waiting for this vampire route... hour after hour of play waiting for THIS moment
And the disappointment was total and absolute....

SPOILER ahead : you submit to a vampire, are bitten and wake up as a vampire........ ONE HUNDRED YEARS LATER !!

So say goodbye to all the possible story with all the people you knew, your friend, your family... all those possible interesting story reduced to nothing.

So yes, like mentioned before, this time you retain some of your personality because this time your creator is not a cartoon villain evil vampire, and let you keep your mind

But wait for it......... you've lost almost all your memory

So yep, again you are not yourself anymore, and by the time you regain your memory ( a few hours in game ), you have been a vampire for faaaaaar too long to give a shit about your old life
Again I repeat, I have nothing against a full corruption , but this is the fastest corruption I've ever seen

Dev : - "You are a vampire now, it's been 100 years, you've lost all your memory and all of your friend and family are long dead"
Mila - "Oh noooooo.... Anyway.



End of my complain

Yes... I feel pretty stupid to have spend 1h to write all this just to say that I don't like something in a sex game, but if anyone else also had the same thought about this game, then I did not loose my time ( and you can give me a like plz )

Also, to anyone ready to click on the report button just because I gave my opinion on something, I need to say that if I'm willing to spend so much time thinking and writing about all this, it's not for the pleasure of complaining about something, it's because I like this game (kinda).. more I like the theme of this game
And when I see something bad in something I like or something with great potential wasted or not developed enough, then it's when I take time to make a long review like that
If I didn't liked this game at all, I could just have stooped playing half way and never bothered to share my thoughts, but I still enjoyed playing it , and so I will take time to talk about it

------------------------------------------------


Part 2 : Global game review


The gameplay, no surprise here, it's grind after grind, a classical RPGM grind , nothing really bad, I've seen worst.. but I've mostly seen better
If you are used to RPGM games, there is nothing too bad here, but if you hate anything related to grind in rpgm games, you're not gonna like this one

Go from A to B, talk to someone, get him a item or slay a monster ( or lose to have a bad end scene ) and come back for your reward
Lot of puzzle, enigma, labyrinth, farming XP.... ( at least at the beginning you have the choice to have all your stats maxed so you can win fight "easily" )
Some passage of the game are just impossible to pass without the walkthough, or you can try but you're gonna have to click on every fucking pixel of the map and talk to every PNJ you can see

I can accept that when there is a good reward after, but here there isn't enough good stuff to balance all the grind
There is not a lot of content, it's decent but when looking at the size of the game, it's not enough
I know it's drawn art , it take time and a lot of effort, so I'm not gonna complain too much about it, just know that this game is not a fap fest with a scene every 5 min, it's more like a scene every 30-40 min, sometimes less sometimes more...

Add to that that a 1/4 scene don't have illustration ( probably not YET ), they only have one picture for 1 frame at the end of the scene
it's like : whole scene with only text and standing character image -> fade to black transition -> "Mila journey ended here" -> 1 picture of Mila as a vampire representing what she became after this scene -> and that's it , game over

The art is good, not breathtaking but good enough , but it clearly lack something..
the scenes are a little too basic for my taste, we are talking about vampire porn here, it's the perfect mix of eroticism and horror, but the scenes stay pretty basic , the dev take no risk and in the end it's a bit much vanilla


So I'm gonna wait for it to be completed and probably ask for a save for the vampire route when it's done
This could have a great potential but for now it's a bit much vanilla and playing as a vampire if you like all this kind of stuff is not worth it for now

Version: 3.3.1 Windows - 2021-08-06 UTC.

Story:

The story is quite nicely thought and planned, balancing the funny, sad and attractive dialogue and scenario elements that make a game interesting and the amount of work that was spent on roadmap planning shows here. Each character, including NPCs and enemies, has their own personality, including speech. The decision-making neither is too simple nor too complicated, and even without the strategy guide, a casual player will easily understand what's going on, what they need to do to progress and where this is going. The lesbian tag isn't a joke, and most battles, including the ones against random enemies, will have a significant amount of yuri/lesbian subtext without being cliché or corny. There are multiple routes and they branch off in a logic manner.

Originality:

RPG Maker games aren't rare and neither are RPG. CYOA isn't a brand new concept but it is hard to see such a game style done right without being boring to the average player. The undead are legion in adult games. What makes Crimson Veil interesting is the blending of all those elements into something that isn't a random "battle fuck" game and isn't a grindy RPG either. You get to choose whether you want to lose, when and how - the mini game overs encourage you to do so if you want to experience them, but you don't have to if you don't want to and the enemies are balanced, even to less experienced hunters (or vampires). The item based leveling system is also quite original but may be less appealing to naturally unlucky players, as drops are random and many enemies do not respawn. If you don't enjoy being a vampire hunter and slaying vampires, then you can just give in to Mila's fantasy and become a vampire so you can bloodsuck slayers instead.

Graphics:

The artwork is nice, sexy and definitely matches the theme. The sex sprite animations and effects always are a good thing when done right. As for CGs, there are no variations but the amount of base CGs definitely makes up for it. The lack of persistent data for the CG gallery is unfortunate, but a "master save", the developer's room and the vampire route manage to handle this.

Gameplay:

Controls are pretty straightforward. The Gemmare statue quick travel offers a convenient teleport option, and this is also the case for some dialogues. You can save almost everywhere, though extended bad ends generally will not allow you to save. It can take a while for the player to get used to the various skills they can use in battle, and they are advised to save often as bad ends (just like in an actual CYOA book) can happen at any time. Multiple routes, sidequests, extended bad endings and the occasional minigame are guaranteed to increase the playtime as well as the replay value of the game. Gear is balanced and not too expensive for the average player's expected ingame budget at the time.

Playability, grammar and bugs:

The game will play nicely on just about any device as it doesn't have too many gimmicks while still making proper use of the RPG Maker features. Aside from some typos here and there, the font which may disturb some players, but it can be customized by themselves if they so wish in their /www/fonts/ folder using a different font and the CSS file and the very occasional quirks, nothing gamebreaking.

Amount of content:

There is a significant amount of content to unlock in addition to the CGs. Casual players will not be left out as they can still play through the game in a more than reasonable timeframe. Completionists should get ready to spend a good amount of time on it but as this is all carefully planned, they won't have to worry about being driven insane... unless that is what they were going for, of course. Or they already were.

Sound:

Apologies as I cannot review this section.

Summary:

If you want to play a lesbian vampire huntress with a forbidden thing for becoming a vampire herself (or just happen to be one yourself - lesbian, vampire, or both), a game that combines traditional CYOA (choose your own adventure) RPG fun and quite a lot of sidequests, secrets and many mini game overs and bad endings, as well as becoming a vampire or succubus, then Crimson Veil might just be the game you want to try out. With even the most insignificant enemy giving you a detailed ending (as well as a CG) and the classic your journey ends here with a twist for each one and a summary of the outcome, you'll have quite a lot of stories to tell to your hunter grandchildren... or... vampiric descendents?

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this review!

So far the game is fantastic. I'm a sucker for everything this game has. The bad ends are great. The amount of content is already great. The story keeps you engaged. The only thing I wish this game had more off, is more willing bad ends. Mila has this deep rooted desire to be taken by a vampire, so I'd like to be able to give my self up more. I would love to just give myself to Bianca for example.

Great game. It's not overly grindy, has a crap ton of save slots, interesting storyline, great h-scenes, alot of content, fun game play. Dev seems to be very active, continually working on the game with a very clearly defined vision of where he wants to take the game. Having the walk-through easily accessible in game is a huge bonus, can't understate how good of a feature that is. Haven't really run across any bugs either.

Just remember to save often (no auto saving, but that's minor and there's a ton of save slots) and you'll be golden.

Gets better and better as he works on it! Dev is clearly dedicated to finishing this project. Interesting story so far and the art is beautiful. Its always great when the creator is also the artist as it matches the game. Keen to see how it ends!

This game commits every rpg maker sin, chief of which is deadly bosses with no autosave anywhere and no continue button. You better be saving every couple of minutes because you never know when you are about to walk into a boss or other deadly enemy that could otherwise set you back hours. The combat system is generic, but even for an rpg maker game the lack of skills stands out as exceptionally lazy. The porn is mediocre with relatively generic writing. The only reason I can't bring myself to leave 1 star is because I am a sucker for vampires.

This rating comes from a subjective place because this game is very important to me (inasmuch as porn games can be "important"). It was one of the games that convinced me RPGM is better worth my time than Ren'py; while not top-tier art (though I also tend to think at some point hyperrealism in 2D porn becomes unsexy), it made me appreciate 2DCG; and it turned me on to a kink I didn't know I had.
Now more objectively: the fact that many scenes in this game were originally text-only means that the CG images are far less compelling without the accompanying narration; I don't recall off the top of my head if there is a replay system in the game (I believe there is not, only a gallery, but I haven't played in a few months and am writing this just before downloading 3.2.1), but I tend to prefer viewing them in the context of the game anyway (i.e. losing a fight and *then* being dominated) so I have maintained a library of archived saves for each scene I care to replay. However, not everyone may wish to go to those lengths, and those people will likely find this aspect of the game frustrating as returning players.
Something people with an active interest in the game may enjoy is that MKRU accepts submissions for new "contracts" (sidequests) from time to time - you could make a personal contribution to the contents of the game.
The Hunter combat system is surprisingly well-crafted, and despite having a lose-instantly button (which is often a bad sign in these systems), fights represent a genuine challenge in the game. The Vampire combat is less deep thus far, but I can see the skeleton of something that could be similarly engaging. If you don't enjoy gameplay in your porn games, I would say CV is definitely not for you.
Super underrated gem imo!

The images are pretty vanilla and they ain't bad but they ain't good, the porn is also pretty fucking lazy you win fight you get image or you lose fight to get bad end and get image that's it.
the story is mediocre not interesting enough to to bother with.
all in all the art isn't good enough or niche enough to fap to and the combat isn't really that challenging the porn is lazy all it does is throw you some images and story isn't worth bothering over.

Idk play if you really like vampires i guess.

this game is too complicated, after first 10 minutes i am already stuck with code in the library, it is absolutely dumb to make main story with puzzles and riddles (if you are such a fan of puzzles make sub quests with puzzles but not the main quest) and i can not find a key to skip dialogues but not choices, is there such option in this game? is not it stupid to use walkthrough for every step in this game? Another dumb thing is that every wrong choice leads to bad end but some of them not like vampire in library, and you have to save load every choice million times or alt tab to walkthrough every 5 minutes, this game has serious problems with gameplay design

Version 3.0.1
Great game ! I liked a lot graphics, arts, style and open world, but there is so more, that can be frustrating. Why vampires does not have sex ? Aren't their senses and horny appetite incresed ? Strange.
Fighting part would be better, if it will be faster (skippable animations).
Also a frustrating part, where vampire king 100% kills you and makes you a vampire. Why I have no option to beat him or to run ? DIsappointed !
Anyway, great game, with a little bit of frustration

I'll give this a 3, not bad, not good. Okay as by my own admission I downloaded just to check out the whole become a vampire and vampire story-line where you can transform others.

So I loaded up a save just after the vampire route begins and you wake up a century later than the main story. your old friends and base now dead and in ruins.

Combat wise it's okay and the generic RPGM mechanics apply. storywise it quite good, be a hunter, lots of different personalities etc etc.

It's early days still for the project and i hope the vampire route gets fully fleshed out, hopefully with the option to be the most powerful vampire and take over.

So I didn't want to be unfair and I give this a 3 and I would suggest downloading it and making up your own mind. I will be keeping a cursory glance at it as it develops.

Reviewing Version: 2.4

Story Related stuff: This is one of those rare games where you can say that you're playing for it's story and not only for the hentai content, even if right now it kinda lacks in world building terms, it's still a nice story that makes me want to khow about the world and it's characters.

Gameplay Related stuff: In terms of main gameplay mechanics, its a standard RPG maker game, you walk, do quests, slay enemies in a first person battle turn system, nothing new here. The thing that will for sure catch your attention here is how you upgrade your MC, you need to collect certain items in order to talk with a certain NPC that will upgrade your "HR"(Hunter Rank), so no EXP system here.

Unlike most hentai RPG maker games, this one is not a walk in the park and will make sure that you have the best equipment and strategies available if you want to progress. However i have to say that part of this game difficulty is more pure RNG based than anything else. You see, it's not a rare thing in this game losing fights just because your enemeis (most of them are vampires) spam the bite attack, the catch is that attack is not a 100% hit confirm, so they can just miss it and lose their turn. The true problem with this is if the opossite happens, 2 or 3 times in a row will be more than enough to leave you in a real bad situation in most cases. But in general it is a very fair and adaptable difficulty, i have certainly seen more cruel games than this in terms of difficulty based on RNG.

Art Related stuff: Nothing extraordinary, but it fulfills its role satisfactorily. My congratulations to the artist who makes the art of this game.

Hentai Related stuff: Strangely it is the worst thing that this game has to offer so far. This game is one of those where the scene style is "lose the battle to see a scene" which is extremely cliche nowdays and anti-climatic. To make matters worse, most "scenes" are just black screens with dialogue in the background and at the end you receive an image for your gallery. And to complete what is already bad, there is no scene gallery, so it is impossible for example to rewatch a scene where you lost against a boss after you defeat him, only the photo at the end of the scene is available for the player to see again.

Final rating: A solid 4 stars, its a good RPG game, but a bad hentai game in my honest opinion. However, i can still recommend checking it out and supporting the dev on patreon, with hope he will make this game even better in the things where it's already good and of course, the things where this game need to do better.

PS: Bianca is the best girl.

Bad decision in game system:
Why?
1) This game is based GAME OVER only. There we can't save our friend without get turnad or without kill her. No way I'm gonna kill my friend i prefer get turned in vampire in days saving her mind.

2) There are only one main route, Vampire Hunter forever good guys whohave noe mercyto monstr, vampires. Killeing friends who turned vampire you are HERO. Killing friend you ave live misareble. No mercy by enemy. The no gonna live us away. Too bad.

3) Don't main route: Vampire Route is no main route = Too bad., I hoed this will be second Main Route based on our choise. But this is only Side Quest.

4) Vampire Route: Choise Afetr defeat the Hunters 2 choise only, I hopet on to more choise, like spare life (living her alone). Also no choise to make after turning the enemy in vampire (Send them to serc to in information on ours objetive o make e them spy for us).
Help human to go theri destinationlike a gir who wont goher boyfrind's home.) There way to make the place in the town better.

5) No way to rebouild HQ in ruin, to make hour base and place to stay for vampires.

Good decision in game:
Vampire Route, I can play as vampire: Cool.

Crimson Veil is a rare, precious gem - no doubt a product of both love and hard work. Despite, as of version 1.2, being an entirely one man project, MKRUdesign has proven himself to be a master of all: He combines fun writing with excellent usage of the RPGMaker engine, and supplements it with his own character and scene artworks. And while the artwork might not be S-grade, it is more than adequate for what it needs to do.


Definitely a game to look out for. I sincerely hope MKRU continues his hard work, and creates a product he’ll be proud of.

Review of 1.2 Demo version

Well, that was fun. Battles can be surprisingly hard (you really need to spend all your money in order to have the most useful stuff), but the writing is superior (pretty much every object has something worth reading), some perks are well hidden, and, if you follow the main advice given by the helpful girl at the start (which is: SAVE!), you can see all the bad endings (which have the only CG's for now, except for a minor mirror scene).

This is a RPGM game that uses the game engine intelligently and rewardingly. Will definitely keep an eye on this game to see where it goes from there (I mean, this already feels like it's a pretty big foe you've beaten by the end of the demo)