[Review updated as of Version 4.0.2]
(This game centers around femdom and kinks related to it; there are (currently) no reversal elements, and it's likely there never will be. If that's not your shtick, please don't come in here to complain about it.)
TL;DR: Domina is a femdom game on-par with Tower of Trample in the execution of its characters, and features many, MANY options and scenes for maximum submission. The art for the female leads is high-quality and constantly leaves me wanting more. The gameplay and pacing could use some tweaking and a lot of the writing currently leans more towards the "momdom" style of femdom (if you're not into that), but the amount of content already present with only 4 out of 13 bosses completed is remarkable. I highly recommend this to any fan of combat-based femdom games.
—————————————————————————————
Despite presumably only being about 25% complete at this point, Domina already contains a satisfying amount of content among its four bosses. While text-heavy, the femdom elements of the game are varied and attractive. The game consists mainly of repeated combat against the boss dominas as you slowly build up enough cash (called "foreign soul shards") to buy better weapons and new spells so as to get further in each battle. Each domina has four to five unique attacks, each with three to four unique text lines when executed. Some attacks have a chance of triggering a slightly extended h-scene with different art. Losing lets you choose between four different humiliation/submission scenes, each fairly meaty and well-written, or allows you to end the fight without watching one. Finally defeating the domina allows you to either move on to the next one or submit to her forever, locking you into her realm and giving you access to a number of new femdom scenes you can view whenever you want, as well as the defeat scenes. The game lets you save before the crucial decision so that you may view the outcome and also progress with the story without having to beat the boss again.
The RPG elements are on the lighter side, as you will not be gaining experience with each fight (heck, the game throws you 25 levels right after your first combat to emphasize how weak you are); your progression comes through buying and equipping new weapons and spells in order to do more damage or last longer. Each weapon and spell is unique and rarely boils down to "stronger version of previous weapon", giving you some options in how you plan to take down your current domina. Your HP is high enough to keep you in battle for about 6-8 turns without needing to heal or cheese how you get hit; the challenge comes in figuring out how to use those turns as effectively as possible. Spells have pretty high MP costs for the amount of MP you're given, making spellcasting a utility to help with combat, and not an outright alternative source of damage. You start with two: a minor healing spell and a spell to increase your attack power, the latter of which I find extremely useful. 4 more are immediately available in the shop, each with a unique tactical use, allowing for strategies beyond repeated damage. You are also given the standard RPG Maker TP bar which increases as you guard, make weapon attacks, and take damage. Currently there are only three abilities and one spell that make use of the bar, and I only found one consistently useful (a stronger, more accurate weapon attack). A skill exists to refill your MP at the cost of a completely-filled TP bar, although it doesn't quite restore all of your MP, making the ability seem slightly less useful than it could be. Hopefully more options for this system become available in the future.
The game can seem brutally difficult at first: you are pretty much forced to lose twice to the first domina before you can start making progress, and it took me 10-15 tries on her before victory from a combination of trial-and-error and needing to grind for cash in order to become stronger. This may come as a turn-off for some people as it can become tedious, but fortunately you are given a "Surrender" ability very early on in order to facilitate grinding (surrendering still gives you money), and getting your choice of defeat scenes when you lose sweetens the losing process. Since losing is only ever beneficial, it's never too discouraging, and your HP and MP are always immediately restored right afterwards. The dominas have lots of attacks with debuff properties attached to them, meaning you'll usually always be suffering from something. Usually they only serve as an obstacle to be surmounted or strategized around, although the randomness of the dominas' attacks can sometimes lead to brutal debuff stacking that can cripple your effectiveness. The fourth boss in particular can cut your maximum HP in half with a debuff, which can only be removed by waiting or using a potion from the shop. When in doubt, buff your attack beforehand and use the Shadowbound spell to milk out a few extra turns in battle. By the second boss, you should have the right equipment to have a consistent strategy that only requires some minor tweaks for each encounter. Victory is always eventually possible, though it takes some patience to get there.
The cash system used to become stronger has some drawbacks, and it's tied to staying alive: you are given 7 "lives", represented by "soul shards", to defeat a domina, and you must refresh them by spending soul shards gained when you lose. If you lose your 7th, it's game over. In essence, this means you can only lose 6 times before needing to go back and refresh your soul shards, which costs 7 foreign soul shards. This can lead to a situation where the player might not be able to refresh themselves because they spent too much at the shop, and can no longer gain enough foreign soul shards from throwing battles to reach the proper total. While you always receive soul shards after a battle, even when surrendering or doing no damage, you'll have to plan out how much you can spend at the shop so you don't accidentally screw yourself over. This feels like something that can be tweaked in future updates, and I hope the developer finds a solution to this. As-is, the player can make the mistake of saving their game at a point where they will never be able to refresh their lives and lack the resources to either defeat the domina or gain enough soul shards to save themselves. That being said, the base amount of foreign soul shards gained by surrendering rises with each subsequent boss, so it's possible by the end of the game that refreshing lives is a trivial matter. However, spending too many soul shards to refresh your lives would still be a constant worry.
Another issue to note is traversal. Accessing the shop and refreshing lives requires the player to walk aaaaall the way back to the starting area and then walk aaaaall the way back to the domina's chamber. This is most obnoxious in the first two areas: the first has an S-shaped path to the boss's door that requires moving around chunks of obstacles, but the second, being in a realm themed around mazes, has a large hedge maze in its opening room that must be repeatedly navigated through. Fortunately the correct path is fairly straightforward and isn't too hard to remember, but it is still tedious to traverse over and over. Fortunately the third and fourth areas are virtually straight lines to the boss, showing progress in the level design. It feels like there is still room for improvement in this area with less time wasted walking around, but if the first two areas are reworked in later updates, this will be less of a problem as time goes on.
In terms of presentation, the girls themselves are fantastic. Each domina has about 5-8 battle poses made when attacking, some of which can only be seen as part of extended scenes that only happen periodically. They also have a few different facial expressions just for dialogue, which is always appreciated. The art is both alluring and intimidating, which I think is a vital part of what makes femdom attractive, and it pairs well with the dialogue. I'm not sure where the music comes from, but each piece works well in its context, and sound effects are frequent and varied. The main drawback in this department is the overworld and anything not related to the dominas themselves. While the contents of each realm are satisfying based on design alone, the stock RPG Maker assets are a little hard to ignore these days. The rooms outside of the dominas' rooms are also generally bigger than they need to be. (I specifically cite the corridors in Katrina's realm for being incredibly too long for their purpose. They aren't agonizingly long, but for simple item fetching, it's a little absurd.) The starting area where the shop is located, as well as the sprite for the grim reaper shop keeper, is also in a completely different art style, one that doesn't fit proportionally with the player's sprite. The art used for the grim reaper's speech at the beginning is also notably sketchy, featuring none of the care put into the dominas. Of course, the dominas are the main event, so it makes sense that's where all the effort has been allocated thus far, but it's a bit jarring as the first things you see in the game. Lastly, the doors into each realm are identical and all lined up on the same wall. With only four realms open right now, this is only a minor problem (by the end of the fourth realm, the fourth door is stuck open, making it a bit of a landmark), but if it stays this way in the future, it may become easy to lose track of which door is which. Hopefully these elements are updated as the game goes on.
In terms of kinks, each domina has their own special brand of humiliation. The first four are mainly focused on sadism, feet, body fluids, and pegging/slavery (respectively), though all feature bits and pieces of other femdom-related kinks, such as worship, sweat, and toilet play, and with 9 more characters planned, there's certain to eventually be something for everyone. The language used by all notably leans on the softer side, using words like "mommy" and "puppy" frequently early on. Personally I'm okay with this (more than okay actually but that's not the point), but for those who are really into being beaten to a pulp and regarded as completely worthless, there's nothing completely in that style quite yet. Katrina comes close as she revels in the cuts on your body and threatens to destroy your nethers, but even she falls back on this when the player is really hurting and submissive. Narcissa approaches this as well, but in a much brattier style with very kiddy insults that seem to be played for comedy more than anything else. The closest so far is the fourth domina, Mary, who demands your complete obedience and features a riding crop and strapon. That being said, the player is given some unique text responses during the events outside of combat, choosing to act more resistant or more submissive. The responses seem superficial at first, but after defeating the domina, you can gain access to unique scenes depending on your overall behavior. This encourages replayability, and I hope this trait continues as more dominas are added.
Overall, I am highly satisfied with this product at such an early stage in development, and I am constantly awaiting each update with great anticipation. This could go on to become one of the greatest femdom games of all time if the quality displayed here remains constant, and that's not even considering if it dramatically improves. I look forward to wherever this goes next, and I hope this very long and tiresome review helped you make an informed decision about it. Thank you, Dekarous!
-HP-
