Others - Dryad Quest RPG: A Tale of Lust and Glory [v0.18.0] [Nekon]

[Review based on v18.0]

Having not played a game like this in the past, I found the game to be surprisingly enjoyable after the initial learning curve from interacting with the map (it uses an interactive map that you move on, but you can modify zoom settings and such to make it easier).

The Good:
Overall, the game's scenes are primarily text-focused, with a solid array of character art and designs to reinforce said scenes. There are some generic animations that'll play depending on the action being done, but these weren't specific to any encounter, and I felt like they didn't really add much compared to the text and character art.

I also found the plot to be interesting, as well as the amount of choice the player has (in the parts of the game that are completed anyway).

The Bad
The attribute and body system feels a bit underbaked in its current iteration. Some attributes receive significant temporary penalties in the aftermath of various scenes. While this is linked to the character's ability to store/use abilities and whatnot, it felt like my Strength (and 1 or 2 other attributes I forget offhand) were constantly being reduced for however many turns. That said, I did like that I could 'bank' unused attribute points, spend them when a skill check appeared, and be able to pass the skill check without having to reload the game or anything.

In a similar vein as Attribute Points, I felt like Body Points didn't really accomplish a whole lot. While I like the idea of upgrading one of three aspects of a particular orifice with every level-up, the actual impact seemed insignificant. The lack of a respec system to try out different Body Point combinations was also notable, though maybe one will be added in the future as the game receives updates.

With regard to the combat system, I think it's in a serviceable place at the moment. However, enemy turns proceed so quickly that it's difficult to tell what's going on unless you stop to review the log (which is important when you die to figure out what happened). Character messages are also easy to miss with everything going on, though they are nice flavor.

Combat difficulty also leaves a fair bit to be desired, which is something I particularly noticed in the latest update. As of right now, fights are subject to a considerable amount of RNG and the player has limited input in how the character grows or develops their abilities as the game goes on in preparation for these harder encounters. To be more specific, the player has access to a basic attack, up to 4 healing items/potions you can equip, access to 3 spells (fireball, thorns, earth wall), and an ultimate move you can use once per fight after 3 turns (which consumes an orgasm point, which caps at 3/3). The spells are the main means of attacking enemies, which consume semen and can have up to 2 additional effects at higher qualities, and most encounters can be cleared by simply using fireball and earth wall (which creates a barrier most enemies have to destroy before damaging you). I think this basic premise works well enough, but unlike the choices available to the player in the story, there's very little available to the player in terms of combat development. It would be rad to spend ability points on enhancing the character's combat abilities instead of their orifices.

As for why this matters, I found that an encounter with the drowned group of enemies in the latest update relied on RNG or I'd be immediately killed (I forget if this was on the hardest difficulty or just normal). Specifically, one (or a few) enemies had an instant-kill skill that they could use on any target after using another skill to 'lock-on' to the target. This effectively meant that enemies had to be killed in a specific order before I was immediately and unavoidably hit for 99999 damage. And with only one guest party member to act as a meat-shield and no way of avoiding it short of killing the enemies in question (or avoiding the fight via narrative choices of course), it took me somewhere between 10-20 tries before I was able to clear it with the right amount of RNG. A large component of this difficulty was also due to the fact that you have limited attack ranges, and I believe the existence of misses/criticals (I haven't played in a bit since that encounter so I forget what eventually allowed me to clear that fight).

Elsewhere in the game, I found a shadow creature miniboss on normal mode that was similarly brutal compared to everything else in the game, which I thought was unusual.

Another issue I found with the game was that as I played the more recent content for the game, there were an increasing number of typos and POV issues (passages using 1st person instead of 3rd) that crept up.

Lastly, it was also frustrating to start a quest, just for the journal to tell me it was a work in progress (which happens quite a bit once you get to the village). While some content does have to be set-up for a future payoff, why include it at all until the entire chain can be implemented? But I digress.

Overall
I wrote a fair bit for this review, and I know I spent more time on the flaws than the good, but this game is genuinely one of the best ones I've seen on this website, and that's saying something considering it's still in development. No idea what the development timeline looks like (and I do see it was first posted in March 2020...), but I'm hoping the dev/s keeps this project going, irons out all of the kinks, and finishes the project in a satisfying manner without milking it for years and years.

This game is captivation and makes you want to keep playing. It is super good and we genuinely need more like it. Can't wait until it is finished...............................................................

Game is good, I liked the story and concept eventhough the art is not up there.
However I feel like the game would be best if it continued as a semi-linear game, you would have the closed area, varius outcomes and character interactions to that area, then you move to the next (carrying some consequences of the previous area). When these games go open-world the character interactions are most of the time a short one-time thing, updates are long and may not advance the segment you wanted to see and that's because of the scale of "open-world" games.
For example: in the current version imo you don't get much out of the interaction from mosters/enemies. You either have enough currency to fuck or you fight and if you lose it's game over. Plus, after you beat the monster you never see it again.

Still, I hope the dev manages to make something nice, game is still early in development, not too many hours you can get out of current version so it can go anywhere really.

good quality, good writing, good kinks, decently expansive customization, paywall isn't too noticeably obstructive, and the updates are improving in a good direction relatively quickly. also, bigger dick and futa+ modes my beloved <3 fun gameplay and combat too, exploration is satisfying and combat is relatively straightforward but engaging with the "ammo" system of being full in different places

love it. Feels a little linear but the stories and characters are good. the Art is good too. Looking forward to it when its all finished and the white/sketch art is finished. I would like to see some more freedom in the world, but i like how this game is freedom in selected areas. It does it very well and is very sexy.

It says it's a character creation game, but that's not even obvious, the controls are confusing and there's no tutorial, it sells itself as an RPG, but it's just another fake game that limits the player.

This is looking solid for an HTML game: no stolen art, no poorly-written textwalls. Frequent enough lewd scenes intertwined with combat and exploration.

The story seems mostly linear (with many WIP sections), but so far it's engaging enough (with the usual silliness you can expect from lewd games - like storing cum for mana), so it's not a major issue.

I seem to get a lot of junk drops. I don't know if there will be a use for them later on, but so far it feels like the game could do without them.

The art of the game is mostly just rough sketches, the UI and navigation in particular is very tedious imo, and basically nothing is intuitive

A lot of the h-scenes are gated off by an 'allure' stat that requires the stat to be so high that some scenes are inaccessible without having the debug or 'slut' mode, both of which cost money

Could use an art upgrade, better UI, and a removal of the soft pay wall

Storing cum in the protagonist’s body to be used as mana is an extremely hot concept to me. So, I didn't even particularly care about the rest of the game. Just seeing all her three storage areas being filled to the brim was all I cared about. So, 5 stars for the concept alone.

Now my fetish aside, the game is a bit short. But I believe it is a work in process so hopefully there will be more added in the future. I also found it a bit annoying to move around the map by clicking arrows but got used to it anyway. I found the story to be rather fun, partly because of the absurd circumstances of fighting with the power of cum, and I liked all the other dryads too.

A fantastic bit of work here. The art style is extremely well done, and works very well for the style of the game. The writing is also very well done, and well thought-out. The usage of pheromones as a way to give the player a choice between battle and sex is an interesting one, along with the usage of semen to power magic, which provides a logical reason for your character to consume all the semen she can. The fact that being egged can provide you with allies in combat is similarly very clever.

About the only complaint I would have about this game is the slow pace of development, but quality takes time, I suppose.

Great game for now ! Beware tho : That's not 2 years of content, the dev isn't full time on that, it's obvious.
Also the beta isn't worth anything to this day, you won't miss a thing with public.
Great game overall keep it up and make that your job asap for us all.

An honestly incredible experience, definitely one of the best written games on here, with great art and even better gameplay to top it all. So far there isn't too much content, I was able to complete the current update in one afternoon but it shows great promise and I can't wait to see where the devs intend to take the story.

If there was one complaint I could make, it is that it is pretty easy overall and not "punitive" enough. It would be nice if some of the content would be harder to access through tougher fights (that could be avoidable) with very rewarding outcomes if the player manages to win them. There are hints of the devs trying to do that but honestly after you get used to the gameplay mecanics in the first cave and you're methodical enough in the gear you farm and such, it becomes fairly easy and loses the challenging aspect the game could have.

The whole idea of getting power from cum is a bit goofy and prevents me from taking the story seriously but at least it's creative and the gameplay is pretty good. Writing quality is decent. Art is good and it changes based on your character's current status, (some) items have art too which is good. Content is about 8 hours right now in version 0.3.5

Far from perfect but if you like futa on female it's a must-play

Version 0.3.4

Finally... A game with pregnancy where you can breed your units... Thank you, devs.

So I've found this game a few months back, when the textures for the first few levels weren't finalized and icons to move from one room to another were just placeholder blocks. I've played it once or twice since they added textures for the environment, but I only got to the end in the previous version (although I don't think they've added a lot of content since, but it won't matter for this review).

Although I would like to say one last thing about the new textures: It seems to me the devs didn't have the players with slow PC or connections in mind when making them. Sometimes they take quite a while to load, which becomes really annoying when you want to move to another location and hove to wait a couple of seconds for the game to catch up with you.

STORY :

Sadly, I don't have much to say about the story. You play as a fully customizable dryad sent on a quest to contain the corruption spreading all around the world, and it's up to you and you friends to stop it. That's it. The rest is fluff text that is just exposition dump, and honestly, it's not that interesting to read. I'd rather read about the interactions between the characters and with their environment, rather than something that could be in a codex in a side page. To give an example, I think Kobold Adventure does it best, where there is a few lines about what's going on in the land, but it's always used to push the plot forward and introduce new characters, whereas here it feels more like padding between fight scenes. The story is not bad, but there is definitely a way to improve the storytelling a bit. I know it's a text-based game, but in my opinion, the character dialogues are more than enough most of the time.

About the characters themselves, honestly I have mixed feelings here too. They are not bad, but they are a bit forgettable. You entourage consists of a few basic trops with legs: You have the dominatrix big sister, the young and playful friend, the innocent and smart friend#2, and so on. For the most part, they don't detract from their baseline, and it's fine most of the time, but a bit more spice wouldn't hurt. It's kinda alleviated by the MC, and you can make her say some extreme things to spice up the dialogues, like Wanting to drink piss from the satyr? Seriously, devs... ... That's hot, I want more!

That's all I have to say about the story. It's not bad, but it's a bit boring, and I found myself sometimes skipping through a dialogue or two to get things going again.

THE ART:

I don't really want to talk about the art, since I'm not a "art guy" or whatever, but the first thing that came to my mind when I saw this game is "Wow... This must have taken a long time to put this in". Because all the illustrations for characters and the environments are all high-quality sprites that take the whole web page (which might explain the long loading times), and there is a LOT of them in total. I wonder how much time it took for them to reach that point, adding to that the fact the actual sex scenes in this game are handicaped by this lack of focus on them, as they are all in black and white with barely any shadow to give a sense of depth. Again, they're good too, but with more of a focus on them they could be even better than they are.

I don't know if that workload will be sustainable in the future, but that's a bold thing they did, and they have my respect for that, because the renders do look good and enticing.

As for the artstyle itself, it's good, but I feel there's something missing here. It's got a bit of inspiration from anime artstyle, notably the characters, but there's a sense of... Stiffness, I guess ? In the way the characters stand. Their traits are not exagerated, and while I think it looks good and colorful, I think they could have got them a lot further with just a few more details here and there. I don't know, maybe wider hips, a different head shape, just something to give them more character and differentiate them from each other, because they all look like the MC with different colors and hair.

It could have been a little bit more entincing to look at, in my opinion. But honestly, it's already really good, and it does what it should do well (ie. get me horny), so I can't compain.

GAMEPLAY:

The game itself is a traditional RPG with elemental powers, different types of enemies reacting differently to each elements, the classic. But the main reason why I decided to try this game : There's pregnancy in this game, woohoo!

No wait come baaaaack...

The main gimmick in the game is actually breeding new monsters from the ones you've already beaten, giving you nice inflation sprites while you wait for the eggs to come out. These units can fight with you, but most of the time they're just here to take hits for you while you do all the work. What a good mom, I know.

It's not that much by itself, but there's a great deal of customization for your MC. I wish your units could also be customizable with weapons or accessories like the MC to make them more capable in combat, but it seems the direction for them is to be disposable units you can breed later (?), since there are multiple different NPCs that can lay eggs inside of you. For now, you can only lay eggs, but as the game is in development it remains to see how it will evolve. Although, the pregnancies take way too long in my opinion; by the time I left the manor and cleared every room in it, my MC had moere eggs but I only the worms from the previous level had hatched at this point.

CONCLUSION:

A really pretty game, and a very enjoyable experience if you're into RPGs with unit mechanics. The story is a bit on the weaker side for me, but it nevers gets boring or a slog to get through.

What I appreciate however, is that the devs seem to be really active on this site about their progress on the game, which is sadly quite rare nowadays. I think of supporting them on Patreon for their efforts, so we'll see where this goes.

Version reviewed: v0.3.4-Public

Summary
Tried twice, died twice very quickly while exploring the starting area. Disabling futa doesn't seem to work. Game overs require save-scumming.

Review
As someone who just came across this game for the first time, perhaps i'm just missing something that people who have been playing since the beginning know about. First playthrough, went North from the beginning, was ambushed by an earthworm and died, not even close to defeating it. Second playthrough, went Northeast this time, aggravated some mushroom things in a room and again i died with no chance to win. This is on the default medium difficulty. 1) Why am i encountering fights at the start that i can't win and 2) why do game overs even exist in this? Save-scumming is required unless you've played this before and know what to expect from everything.

In the settings menu, i have "Futa World" turned off and yet all i've seen is futas in the 2 short times i tried to play this. If that's your thing then great, but futas turn me off so i expect that if a game has a toggle for it, that it actually works.

I only had a short time with this game but the first impression is not good. Needs to replace game overs with scenes that you can recover from instead of loading a save. I only saw a couple combat scenes but they were just boring turn-based attacking. I was hoping for something more interesting like groping, getting caught, and struggling mixed in. The UI is functional but the layout could be better (why is the inventory button in the dialog box?). Lastly there was too much text interrupting the gameplay for my liking.

It looks decent af, the writing is a bit out there but isnt bad, art is fine, ui is clean, story isnt bad from what ive seen, but the gameplay is pretty fucking bad. Not the worst out there and you can probably get used to it but i just dont care enough to do that. Still its a promising start, albeit its very fuckin short. I sense a bit of a patreon milking to come with this one, its 0.3 and theres not much content in there so far. But as i said, it is a promising start. To sum up: pass for now, screenshots in the op are more than enough to see what this game has so far, just wait untill its like 0.5 or something like that.

Great game. A bit short for now but it's way too good to pass.

The art is good, and the gameplay is incredibly captivating.

A great find. The game is showing so much potential that I really hope that it will be regularly updated.

Found this hidden gem after looking at generic japanese 2dcg rpgmaker games and boring western 3dcg Unity games for hours. [Version 0.3.3 Public]

Story[6/10]: The story is decent, nothing too impresive but also nothing too boring. Personally didn't stayed for the lore. Gameplay however:

Gameplay [9/10]: I can summarize the gameplay into 2 sections. First is the exploration through the map part, you get to explore the map interacting with items, enemies and miscellaneous. second section is the combat, you can either seduce or fight enemies, in order to seduce enemies you need pheromones and you get semen from seducing. And you use semen to cast spells and get pheromones from winning battles. It's a pretty genius cycle. There is also alot of reading to do since this is a text based game. Haven't encountered any bugs.

Art[ 8/10]: This game has pretty nice art, which is rare for a html game, there are no animations or sound, but the artist decided to make art for all the scenes i encountered. Compared to real porn and borrowed assets you get from most html games i can't describe how much more enjoyable this makes the game.

Music/Sound Effects [0/10]: Haven't encountered any music, sound effects or voice acting in the game. Which makes the experience bland to the ear.

Character customization[8/10]: You can change mc's hair style, hair color, eye color, skin color and even nipple color. But you cannot change her height, body type, size of her breasts etc. You also get to see the clothes she wears which is a huge plus.

Adult Content[ 3/10] [The numbers here describe how fucked up the Adult content is] : There is inflation, gang bangs and stuff like that. The game is overall very tame.

Difficulty[ 7/10][The higher the number is harder the game is]: The game offers you three difficulties at the start. I chose to play on normal. But the game offers elemental advantage/disadvantage, skill cooldown and other rpg elements. From what i know you dont regenerate health or any of your resources, so you need to get good at item management too.

Replay Value[8/10]: You can seduce characters or fight them. When you seduce them sometimes the game gives you multiple ways to pleasure the characters. So you can get different cg depending on if you fought or seduced them and the way you seduced them.If you want to get all the cgs the game might require multiple playthroughs.

Summary: One of the most fun i had playing a h-game for a while. Most games feel too generic or bland for my taste. But this game was a enjoyable experience. I'm looking forward to its full-release and hope it doesn't get abandoned.

Very enjoyable game, has all the things you want from an RPG and a nice art style.

+ good characters
+ sex scenes with some choices
+ surprisingly engaging story

hopefully this game more content in the future