VN - Unity - Completed - Cursed Covenant: The Demonic Pursuit [Final] [LarkyLabs]

I would prefer to give it a 4.5 due to some bugs as other reviewers have mentioned like it referring to the male character Exon if you pick Imazz however the dev is still doing bug fixes so if you report them there should be another version coming out that fixes them. Also the story will put a lot of people off the game I don't think its as bad as other reviewers portray it but will certainly divide opinions on the game. With the context out the way I will explain my score.

Characters: 9/10. I actually enjoyed each character and what they represent I think its done well and the banter and sex talk is fun but I really wish they all had their own routes. I know that would require changing the story but I think it would be worth while because the story is easily the weakest aspect of this game.

Story: 7/10. Unfortunately this a game with a lot of writing and perhaps does too much description at times as other reviewers have said. Basically the story in general suffers from the problem of too much telling not enough showing I think the central conflict is not well portrayed. I do like the ambition behind the story telling and appreciate writers taking risks but others will not care for it. Honestly if it wasn't unique and didn't have so much effort put behind its writing I would have probably given it a 4/10 as there are some major problems with the story I will explain in the spoiler section. However it would have been better as a story with multiple love options. I think the story will stop this game from selling better which is unfortunate as I think this game does do things a lot pf things better than other adult games do.


Art: 12/10: Easily best aspect of the game the artist did a great job the character models for both men and women are great and the art for the sex scenes was fantastic. I loved how the art changes as you progress through the sex scenes its a real shame this artist will not be used again in their next game.

Sex scenes 10/10: Great a lot of games barely focus on foreplay in sex and just go from blow jobs straight to fucking which does get boring. Their is some light bondage in certain scenes and the erotic banter is great too. I love how the love interest's expressions become more erotic as you progress through the sex scenes which can involve petting your partner's head, to nibbling on their ear to finger fucking them and licking their nipples. Great animations as well who knows how much time the artist put into doing this. I hope more erotic Visual novels in future can copy this style of interactive sex scenes as its really good.

TLDR 9/10: A game with interesting characters and fantastic art that is held back by overly ambitious writing that will divide players of the game and suffered from doing too much telling and not enough showing. Even if you don't care for the story I would suggest at least playing and picking the option to skip unread text as the art and sex scenes along with your preferred genders are at least worth your time. They are a good dev team and I hope they conclude the Oathbreaker story one day.

I loved it, and now I hate it.

Chapters 1, 2 & 3 were fantastic writing, it truly felt like a love story between two people who were destined for grief in their love, like Romeo and Juliet, just because of who they were born as.

Then, chapter 4 hit, and somehow, our story took a nosedive from so touching that I almost cried, to so absurd that I wanted to drop the story there. For some reason, despite saying at the end of chapter 3 that my character wanted to defy death and live eternally with the love interest, at the start of chapter 4, my character suddenly starts to curse the love interest and acting like we (me, the player and the actual player character) came to an agreement that we resented the love interest's particular form of love. I don't know when, but for some reason, now we resent the fact that the love interest was so deeply in love with us that they pulled some past life bullshittery, which, before, was treated as touching, and now is treated as despicable. Then, without spoiling too much more, we went from a touching tale of two lovers filled with grief from their love to an absurd let's end all of existence bullshitery.

Then chapter 5 hit, and whereas before it was gender ambiguous as to the characters, basically the player character and the love interest could be any gender, and it would have flowed perfectly, now, it becomes painfully obvious from the dialogue to visuals that the main love interest is supposed to be male, which further takes away from the incredible story we had at the start (assuming your love interest is female, or at least didn't want your lover to act like a stereotypical shoujo male lead). The love interest looked androgynous enough that either gender could be applicable, but then in chapter 5, the character starts posing and talking in a masculine manner (masculine being, again, a stereotypical shoujo male lead). Also, in chapter 5, we go from hating the past life bullshittery, to once again loving them for it, treating it as if it's a burden that you, the player character, and the love interest share. Another thing that gets annoying is that the main love interest goes from referring to you by your name to just calling you "My Heart" or "Mea Vita" over and over and over again. Every once in a while makes it touching, but when it's literally every time someone would normally say your name, it's grating.

What also doesn't help is that as you go further along in the story, starting as early as chapter 2, the text keeps referencing the love interest as male regardless of their actual gender, uses the male love interest's name regardless of gender, and starts referring to the player character as female regardless of gender or even uses the default name.

Also, as soon as chapter 2 hit, I could no longer manually save, and could only quick save, which was only an option when a character was speaking, and not during narration or choices.

Furthermore, there's no option to turn off the player voice, its all voices that are mute, or no voices that are mute. So every time there's an 18+ scene, I hear the female moans, but I also have to listen to the male breathing or grunting. Big shocker, but it's not exactly appreciated.

I will say that the artwork is good all around, including the female artwork, despite, like I said, the game becoming very apparent that it was made and written with a male love interest in mind. The music is also good, nothing that stands out or that I would listen to outside the game, but it is always fitting, and I appreciate that the creator had the restraint to sometimes just let the music rest and let the player read and just listen to the ambiance, such as footsteps in a hallway, or just the sounds of being out in a forest, or maybe even silence entirely.

Another thing to note is that the 18+ scenes are a treat through and through, though I do admit, it would be preferable if they didn't change the "controls" with every 18+ scene. Except chapter 5, where not only do they once again have the issue of wrong genders being referenced, but despite the female character having her hand positioned for a hand job, you don't have genitals, so she just strokes the air, and the just grunts.

Will update this after I finish

v. chapter 6

+ nice art (except for MC, who looks weird and out of place with the rest of the art)

- can't choose silent MC. you MUST pick between female or male voice.

- show AND tell. first they show me a thing happen. Then they spend multiple pages (and thus clicks) to describe what I litearlly just saw with my own eyes.
This gets extremely obnoxious extremely quickly. A picture tells a thousand words, so don't give me both at once. The picture alone suffices.
This happens repeatedly. sometimes less is more.

- the modern and bad RPG method where you have a short few words HINTING at what you are going to say.
example: when I first meet the familiar of the main love interest:
What I picked
> Who's your boss?
result
> *karen transformation ACTIVATE*
> Is this how you treat your adventurers? Throwing them into magical labyrinths, hoping for the best?! Take me to your boss right now!

this is NOT what I meant nor what I picked from the list.

- game keeps on putting words in my mouth and emotions in my brain. it keeps on telling me what I feel, think, or say. SOMETIMES you get to choose what you feel/say. But other times it is forced on you which is extraordinarily offputting and immediately breaks my immersion

Being rapidly and repeatedly hit with so many major issues killed my motivation to keep playing. I ended up dropping it very quickly.

Good game

I went looking for copper and found gold, man, I didn't expect anything from this game, thinking it was one of those generic games where the +18 scenes were all static CG, but I was shocked.

The game has a story that interested me (it's difficult for a game to make me interested in the story), interesting characters, and MOST importantly, good +18 scenes.

The only thing that bothered me was that it seems like the characters were initially made to be all male, and when the female version barely changes the facial features, the thin chin looks like a man's, but that's my only complaint because
otherwise it's very good.