Just a warning for anyone considering this game - it's not actually a complete story. It ends right at the start of "The Ordeal" of a typical Hero's Journey (basically like the middle of Act 2 in a 3 Act production). So it's clearly set up for a sequel.
That aside, it's surprisingly well-done.
The heroines are all diverse and fairly well designed/written. There are a LOT of H scenes with quite a bit diversity, though they do start wearing thin towards the last third of the game or so, and the situations start getting increasingly zany to try to maintain interest. The scenes themselves are serviceable - pretty typical Japanese style CGs, using a single overall pose with some movements/expressions.
The story is, as mentioned above, a typical Hero's Journey. It's decently written overall, but a very by-the-book interpretation of this narrative structure - so don't expect any particularly interesting surprises or twists aside from it including H. The translation is surprisingly alright for MTL - it's likely edited by someone who has at least a passing understanding of both English and Japanese (though story aside, some UI stuff has missing translations).
The biggest problem narratively is that the protagonist is implied to be weak no matter how much you grind or how much you upgrade your weapons/skills and such. This leads to some ludonarrative dissonance, where others will call the protagonist weak, even if you've farmed and crafted a bunch, and have them more effective in the RPG combat system than some characters who are considered to be strong.
This also leads to multiple "impossible to win" combat encounters throughout the game, where you will automatically be defeated after a few turns no matter what - this is an annoying mechanic in games in general, especially when handled poorly like this. The game could really use some events with alternative paths if you manage to win (like "whoa, you managed to beat them!?" kinds of situations) - it would provide some level of pay-off for those who engage in the gameplay systems more.
I'm not usually a big fan of RPG/sandbox H games. That said, this game actually handles things pretty well - these are some of the main points on gameplay:
Side Note:
For anyone wondering about the Pregnancy tag - it's mostly just one-off "What If?" scenarios. The main heroines can get pregnant from a minigame - it takes you to a short ending featuring a single pregnant H scene with that girl, then the game takes you back to where you'd be if you had completed the minigame without impregnating them.
It's pretty heavily implied in dialogue that all the main heroines want to get pregnant, so if the story gets completed in a sequel, it will likely have an ending featuring it with all of them. And the game already has you covered if you tend to like "impregnation dialogue".
There is also a single side heroine who does get pregnant as part of the story in this game already, with a couple pregnant H scenes.
That aside, it's surprisingly well-done.
The heroines are all diverse and fairly well designed/written. There are a LOT of H scenes with quite a bit diversity, though they do start wearing thin towards the last third of the game or so, and the situations start getting increasingly zany to try to maintain interest. The scenes themselves are serviceable - pretty typical Japanese style CGs, using a single overall pose with some movements/expressions.
The story is, as mentioned above, a typical Hero's Journey. It's decently written overall, but a very by-the-book interpretation of this narrative structure - so don't expect any particularly interesting surprises or twists aside from it including H. The translation is surprisingly alright for MTL - it's likely edited by someone who has at least a passing understanding of both English and Japanese (though story aside, some UI stuff has missing translations).
The biggest problem narratively is that the protagonist is implied to be weak no matter how much you grind or how much you upgrade your weapons/skills and such. This leads to some ludonarrative dissonance, where others will call the protagonist weak, even if you've farmed and crafted a bunch, and have them more effective in the RPG combat system than some characters who are considered to be strong.
This also leads to multiple "impossible to win" combat encounters throughout the game, where you will automatically be defeated after a few turns no matter what - this is an annoying mechanic in games in general, especially when handled poorly like this. The game could really use some events with alternative paths if you manage to win (like "whoa, you managed to beat them!?" kinds of situations) - it would provide some level of pay-off for those who engage in the gameplay systems more.
I'm not usually a big fan of RPG/sandbox H games. That said, this game actually handles things pretty well - these are some of the main points on gameplay:
- Travel around the world is quick and low-hassle. Where you need to travel to see new events is clearly labelled.
- It has 2 combat modes:
- A typical RPG menu-based system, where you can granularly select all actions. This is used for the more challenging combat encounters.
- A simplified auto-combat system, which has a lot of convenience features (it can basically be configured like an AFK game if you want). This is used for dungeon crawling and farming resources/experience.
- Technically there's a 3rd "combat" mode, but it's more of an H minigame, which is used to get points required to unlock skills.
- Progression feels a bit grindy, but not overly so thanks to the convenience features. I found it fairly easy to gear and level the characters sufficiently such that I could run the dungeon combat system in AFK-mode.
- The crafting system is pretty simple, and doesn't feel overly tedious, though the UI could use a bit of improvement.
Side Note:
For anyone wondering about the Pregnancy tag - it's mostly just one-off "What If?" scenarios. The main heroines can get pregnant from a minigame - it takes you to a short ending featuring a single pregnant H scene with that girl, then the game takes you back to where you'd be if you had completed the minigame without impregnating them.
It's pretty heavily implied in dialogue that all the main heroines want to get pregnant, so if the story gets completed in a sequel, it will likely have an ending featuring it with all of them. And the game already has you covered if you tend to like "impregnation dialogue".
There is also a single side heroine who does get pregnant as part of the story in this game already, with a couple pregnant H scenes.