RPGM - Cycle of Corruption [v0.3.0] [Kredyn]

This review was made for 0.2.0

Another game from the creator of Drain Mansion and it have awakened some old memories in me. Do you remember the times when you were young, you liked a game and the 2nd part came out of that game and you found out it is even bigger banger than the previous part?

Well this is how I feel with this game. It took another direction going from a platformer to a resident evil-like puzzle game. Everything else is just an upgrade. The art got better, the animations are better, the dialogs are better. It can be seen that as the game gets developed, they gain more experience and their skill gets better too.

This game so far created the atmosphere way better than the previous one. The puzzles are not *that* easy, but at least it makes me feel I play an actual game and not just a timed powerpoint presentation.

I am interested in how the game will continue.

I really enjoyed my time with this little demo.

The gameplay is a nice mix of puzzle solving horror from old-school Resident Evil with a dash of stealth mechanics similar to the MSX Metal Gear games. Nearly all the puzzles landed on point in the difficulty department, with my only real gripes being the clock puzzle and the chessboard puzzle.

The chessboard puzzle is too easy since a note you find straight up tells you where the pieces are supposed to go. What I originally thought the puzzle was before finding the note, and what I suggest would be the better option, would be to give the incomplete board and make the player figure out what piece needs to go where to checkmate the king. You could have pieces be placed on all open spots and swap the answer note in the current version with a hint to get the player started.

The clock puzzle, on the other hand, is too cryptic. Specifically the section where you figure out the minutes for the clock; counting the amount of times the candle flickers is something 99.9% of players are not going to catch onto since there's no mention of it (only "candles and digit" on the sheet). Easy fix here, put an extra note on the paper you interact with saying something to the effect of "times the candle nearly dies". I'm guessing most players were able to brute-force the puzzle like I did (hours and seconds are reasonable enough to find), but doing so left a bad taste in my mouth since the problem was solved through trial-and-error and not critical thinking.

Moving on, the atmosphere of the game is shaping up nicely. The creepy factor of an abandoned institution combined with the knowledge a succubus can pop in on you at any time creates great suspense, especially when you combine that with limited resources and saves (28 years later and the RE1 formula still works wonders for horror games). Also happy to see there's not a reliance on jump scares, although the one towards the end of the demo did get me pretty good.

Character designs and H-scenes are phenomenal as well. Not a whole lot since the game's still in development, but I'd much rather have the couple high quality scenes we got now instead of a slew of bilge. The imp gal is a pretty awesome character, especially with how she lets you win her games and saves your ass later in the story (...and has the best H-scene dialogue if you lose to her). Any monster girl guy like myself will be right at home here.

Will definitely be keeping my eye on this project, can't wait to see what comes of it in the future!

The camera view is moved to the bottom right corner, showing me 1/4 of the map's locations, this makes the game literally unplayable. They need to fix this. I couldn't proceed at all.

I can't really relate to the other positive reviews.

Really fun! (version 0.1.1 review)

The puzzles are mostly very well done, the dialogues are interesting and the atmosphere is really cool. This, obviously, isn't the game that you're going to really shake with fear playing, but some of the interactions really impressed, so you can get a little scare or two sometimes.

The story hasn't gone very far yet, so I believe it's still too early to judge completely. My first impressions are that the script isn't going to be anything mind-blowing, but it's good enough, the characters are quite charismatic, so I don't find that to be a problem.

The art is wonderful, and the scary theme is a really cool point in some scenarios and menus. I didn't encounter any bugs despite the warnings at the beginning of the game, which is really great.

In conclusion, it's really worth testing, the game is still quite short, but I can guarantee that it has a lot of potential. I really liked it!

Yeah like the review below, that's a promising game!

That's not my cup of tea as of now but hey! will please people who like riddle and exploration.

About the art, that's all animation and that's a plus. A little repetitive between each attack but that's an alpha.

Thanks and good luck dev.

[Review is for v0.1.0a and will be updated if I get around to it]

What a fantastic little demo! It's rare that I look at early releases, and even rarer that the quality is worthy of the hype. This horror-themed game clearly takes inspiration from the likes of Resident Evil and the RPGM games such as Ao Oni. But instead of running away from scary monsters, you gotta get away from the lusty succubi who want to drain our MC dry. I don't know why, but I just think horror and eroge just go well together, probably it's just the double thrill that takes your excitement to the next level.

In classic horror game style, you need to find items and solve puzzles to advance through the game. Thankfully, there is an option to make all interactables visible so there's no frustrating check every random object in hopes of finding something useful (unless you want to, for whatever reason). Piecing together clues from the notes you gather will help you advance, and it seems the developer is taking extra steps to make certain aspects of the puzzle procedurally generated so no copying someone else's homework.

The star of the show of course is the H interactions with the succubi, and each scene is rendered in gorgeous dot pixel animations. Succubi can appear in rooms, and when you enter their line of sight they'll give chase. When caught by a succubus, you need to enter a series of directions to escape. Take too long to escape, and you'll be squeezed to death. But worry not, because our hero finds a protective amulet that basically gives you a second chance against lesser succubi. Fail once and it breaks, which it can then be restored at a save point, but fail twice and, well....

Speaking of saves, this game has the option to be played with limited save items called paper charms, very similar to using ink ribbons in old school Resident Evil. But not only are these charms used for saving (or you can choose to save without needing them), they are used as part of the continue system. If you get drained by a succubus, they will corrupt the MC in the process. Give up a precious paper charm, and you can stop the corruption. How does corruption affect gameplay? Well, we'll just have to wait until the full release to find out...

There is a lot to appreciate about this demo so far. Besides the atmosphere and animations, it's so nice to have 8-way movement, and with sprinting movement just feels very smooth in general. The modular levels of game settings also lets you experience the game from more hardcore to more casual depending on how you want at the start.

If I had to level some criticisms, my biggest one so far is that Esc is the only functioning cancel key. I can use X to pull up the menu, but not to close the pause menu or cancel using an item when prompted. Not sure if this is a bug or an oversight, but it is inconvenient. My other criticisms so far have to do with sprinting: you have limited stamina for sprinting but there is no UI element for stamina. Same goes for your flashlight batteries, I presume leaving the flashlight on drains batteries which need to be replaced but I haven't used it that much to know for sure. I think these UI elements can be a visibility option for the player. Lastly, I think the randomized puzzles can also be a toggle. Some people are probably not up for figuring out everything themselves and will want to look up some answers, so I think a set puzzle mode would be appreciated for those players. Besides those suggestions I think this has been a very promising demo so far and I look forward to the full release.