English:............7/10
User Interface:.....5/10
User Experience:....7/10
Art:................7/10
Dialogue:...........3/10
Story:..............4/10
Opinion:............3/10................
Avg:.............5.14/10 [2.57/5]
I know exactly ZERO about this game. I've passed it over and blocked it out of my memory, I guess. The issue I have with the game, before starting, is the description says NOTHING. MC was a paladin and you can make choices in the game. Wow. It's all fluff text and the actual description is hidden at the end of the spoiler. Why? Are you not confident in your game that you have to include a quote from Kingdom of Heaven? This is also the 5th game in recent memory that uses this same renpy template. It's actually hilarious because they included a "Dialogue Box Opacity" slider and couldn't figure out how to match the styling for it so there's a default red slider that is very... Front and center. So, while they "customized" the UI, it's just a store asset, like everything else. But I guess the dumb quote is thematic in the sense MC waxes poetic in the opening about the world for...? No idea. A battle-hardened fanatic that became a paladin in the name of god SUDDENLY questions his faith because the writer wants it to happen. From what I can tell, the first little chunk of dialogue is all fairly well edited. I read the reviews and saw the story and English are issues. So at first I was hopeful to see it edited. But the Steam description even has poor English. So I'm not gonna hold my breath that this does anything but get worse. I'm also seeing others actually criticizing it having a black screen time skip where all the meat and potatoes is supposed to happen. I'm not there yet, but if OTHER people, besides me, actually call it out, I might bash my head agaist the corner of my desk from the frustration. Either way, I'm gonna give it a fair enough shake. There's already the minor points against it, but I'm a sucker for world building and dialogue so maybe I can be pleasantly surprised.
As said, this starts with MC suddenly changing his fundamental belief system on the battlefield. How or why he suddenly thinks killing in the name of god is bad? Your guess is as good as mine. But then we skip 500 years in the future? I think? How MC did this? Who fucking knows. But guess what? Do you like Skyrim? Because wagon meme!?! MC is on a wagon somewhere, travelling with Lyria, an Elf. Humans usually hate elves and they ridicule MC for travelling with her. But MC is so over everything he doesn't care. Oh, and they've NEVER spoken in their 5 years together before this point. Somehow they've never seen all these sights that they're going to see before now. Because writing is hard. It's so weird, almost every conversation, that Lyria starts by the way, she prefaces with "We've never spoken before now so how do you feel about XYZ?" And she's very keen on getting him to look at her naked too. But too bad MC is just this workhorse that never had time for women, only wanted money. They go out of their way to show how forward she is, but they've also made it clear neither of them have existed before the opening of this story. So their chemistry just doesn't work. And MC, as usual, just internalizes everything. Yeah, he's grateful for her presence but he's just "too tough" to say it aloud. The part that frustrates me more is she's made it clear she's lived longer than him, but he somehow has to tell her about every place they go. Which means MC already knows everything and you, the reader, get expository dialogue FROM MC to you. It's always weird, and kinda boring, when MC knows everything. He's supposed to be the player insert, but if he never needs to know anything, what is the point of the journey? EVENTUALLY, MC is given a task from some priestess, to clear out their temple. MC and Lyria have to find it and somehow she knows where it is? On top of cutting out them travelling there to find it, she, who seems to have never been to this area, knew how to find a secluded temple? This all feels so weird to me. Especially how MC has to tell her how careful they need to be. She's not a teenager, but acts like one.
I don't do this much, but I want to interject with how I FEEL about the game so far. Frankly, I'm so unbelievably bored, it's more effort continuing than anything. I just don't care about the characters. This feels like another game about the Vexations of a Wizard, because I'm not allowed to say the name because...? This site is trash. Either way, this protagonist is the same as that one. He doesn't want to deal with anything. He already knows everything. His companions are in love with him even though his personality can be summed up with "irritable and slightly driven." The dialogue is all either "as you know" or "remember the time" nothings. So I don't care about the characters, I don't like the dialogue, the story isn't established at all, and I'm bored on top of it. What is going on? By NO MEANS do you need to come out the gates swinging with a story. You don't need to dangle sex for the gooners, you don't need an epic battle for action fans. You just need to give the player/reader a good reason to give a shit. But "40 year old virgin man with no patience and is disillusioned by the world" is the state of everything right now. That's not a character that's interesting.
I've digressed a whole-ass paragraph, nice. Anyway, by this point, MC and Lyria have already completed a mission and traveled to multiple cities but nothing has happened. The mission was MC walked into a palace said "Hey, leave" and they did. All the while Lyria, a long-lived ELF, acts like a spoiled teenager. I think this might be written by the people who do Rings of Power. This is one of them Galadriel Elves. They made some money, are dead broke and MC says "Keep it below two silvers" so she just spends 150% that because she's a girl that likes pretty clothes? It's so weird to me that a character that would be ostracized by her race and has lived on the road for at least 5 years now, suddenly wants to go on a shopping spree for clothes because they got paid. My only guess is that they bought a new outfit asset for the DAZ model and wanted to explain it away. After all that, MC is exposited some dialogue about the north for no discernable reason and they go there. So now, we're on our way to a THIRD city and nothing still has happened. If nothing else, I'm glad they talk about her spending too much, but it falls flat when MC basically says "I don't like to deal with mad women." If not buying her new clothes would have done that, she is a child. Throwing a temper tantrum about clothes? I already don't like her. And EVERY SINGLE CHOICE has been meaningless. Every choice has been either say "I don't want to do that" or "No, I don't want to do that." What the hell is this? You get MAYBE three lines of dialogue that affect nothing and they just continue on. Even then, both choices are essentially the same every time. So the sentiment isn't even different. And again with this "Remember when we first met five years ago, we really haven't ever spoken before this exact moment, let us speak now." It does no favors. And when they stop to rest in front of bushes that are poorly made, she leans in to MC to tell him how good a man he is and that she'll always stay with him. Again, WHY? He even starts thinking "Hmm.. I don't know how old she is or anything about her past. Oh well, another time then." No! This is a rest stop on a journey to nowhere, this is the perfect time to ask a question about someone you've spent every day with for the last half a decade. Come on.
I was about to eat my words when MC started asking her questions but they were all dumb superficial questions. As if you go to Russia and ask about the Russian Revolution. The most he tried to ask is "how old are you?" but because in this moment she is a woman, not an elf, she says "that's rude" and moves on. How are all the races so secluded from one another but still act the same? It's almost like it's just empty world-building. I want to point out that there is almost a transition between every line, because the dev decided to render images for when they're talking and to change the depth of field a little too much. All this does, to fast readers like me, is make me have to click multiple times to get to the NEXT line of dialogue, it's very annoying. Only to suddenly have her jump into his tent and sleep with him. I genuinely do not care about forced sex scenes, and that isn't my issue here. But no choice, no dialogue, no character building would lead me to believe that they should have slept together here. Every choice is flavor text. Their banter is her talking to MC and him going "Hmm. Sure." And she basically begs him for it. Not to mention they JUST got done saying elves only ever take one lover their entire life. So in 40 years, when he dies that's it. (We won't get into his everlasting life ever, but still) This scene feels like it happened out of convenience, not romance, lust, or to even benefit the story. "We're making a night scene let's do a sex" that's what it feels like. When then finally get to the guild, that they had no plans to go to before the minute they mentioned it, I've confirmed that a writer of RoP must be involved in this. A blonde woman named "Tempest?" Come on, you can't be serious. And around this time the characters just start calling MC "Magnus." His last name, which they've never done before this moment. Which makes it feel like they made a mistake, addressing him as such.
MC eventually meets "The Guild Master" some weirdo that wears a mask for no reason. You know what you get out of this riveting conversation? MORE EXPOSITORY DIALOGUE THAT BOTH CHARACTERS ALREADY KNOW. None of this feels natural. It's all just MC telling people their own history, or like telling a church-goer the story of the bible. You know what you COULD have done? Had a character that didn't know this, better yet, have MC not know any of this. So it doesn't just feel like boring exposition. The biggest joke is MC is traveling north because he heard about it in passing, and now he's being asked to go north specifically because something is going on. Wow, so the story is now "You wanted to go to the store, and someone asked you to pick up more things at the store." What an epic tale. What's more is the guild master doesn't have a lot of time but most of their time was MC talking about some goddess they both already know. Waste of time. And when MC is asked to do the thing he was already doing, he no longer wants to do it because he was asked. Seriously? And when they get Elvira to tag along, apparently her and MC used to date then stopped because MC just... stopped? You get no information AT ALL about what their relationship might have been like. Here, MC even goes to find her, only to leave? The scene starts like this: MC goes to find Elvira, asks what she's doing, then tries to leave when she tells him? What? Why? Why go to her only to leave? I could understand if it was avoiding a hard conversation, but it wasn't even on the wind yet. He just said hi and bye. And MC won't even go into why it didn't work with her, much less what even happened. And all of a sudden MC and Lyria are close enough to hug, kiss, and act like lovesick teens. I ask again: WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN? It sure as hell wasn't on screen. And when they get to YET ANOTHER TOWN, all you see is MC haggle for a sword and a black screen skip. What the hell is going on? The entire visit could have been two lines of "Your party travels to a town for supplies. Nothing of note happens." Three things have happened in the story so far, a priestess of... something gave them a job, they met Elvira, and the worlds longest travel montage.
Soon after, Lyria goes missing during a CUT TO BLACK. There was no establishing text, no thoughts, no discussion. SUDDENLY it's the next day and SUDDENLY she's gone. SUDDENLY a GIANT DRAGON is the cause. How far could she have gone to not have seen or heard a big dragon in a snowy flat plain? Then, Time skip 3 months as the goddess of darkness revives him after the dragon attack and sends him to her worshippers. Time skip yet again as he does whatever in that place. The priestess even comments on the long talks they had during the time skip. Maybe BUILD A CHARACTER? Elaborate? Let the player be a part of the damn story. Being a player that was just told they trained a lot and had long discussions instead of seeing anything is a JOKE. They don't even say what they talked about, it's so purposefully vague that they should have just skipped it all in the black screen "I stayed there for weeks training and talking to the Priestess. They handed me a scroll with more instructions as I left." But no, filler filler filler. (And right at this point the English started to really go awry.) Upon meeting Aria, you learn that MC is indeed famous. So it, AGAIN, just copies MC from the other game. Come on, be a little original. And for all the skipping and black screens, MC has the most LONG-WINDED speech to Aria that literally just repeats "before you say no hear me out." over and over. It's almost comical how many times he actually says it. So he says "let me speak" then the DEV SKIPS THE DISCUSSION?! Are you kidding me? I had to listen to him blow gas for 10 minutes only for it to skip ahead? This type of writing is shit. It's CREATING a mystery box just to reveal it to you, the player, later. Not making any sort of plot for you to interact with or gain intrigue. Fuck you, this story will surprise you because I won't tell you anything. What a slap in the face. You don't even get to hear her terms for accepting the deal you didn't hear. I'm at a loss for words with how fucking dumb this is. And to add to my frustration, the writer just adds commas wherever they damn well please.
So this VN has two writing habits: Skip the important bits or have MC tell characters things they already know. MC and Aria sit down to talk and outside of her questioning him somehow giving a vibe he's lost a loved one, she asks him to tell her, her background. So not only are you reminded MC apparently loves Lyria for no discernable reason, but then have to sit through MC telling Aria why she's in her current situation. It's like listening to someone describe what happens in a movie. Instead of showing it, or learning over time through her, LORE DUMP all at once, fuck you, reader. Then they transform MC into the cringelord MC from yet another AVN. MC also changes personality-wise here as well. Suddenly he's a complete chatterbox, even if he says otherwise. Earlier in the ride he said "I only talk when I have something to say" then at night he says "It's too quiet, let's talk" Pick a lane. He's either the quiet brooding type that people fall in love with for no reason, or the talkative, debate-heavy one that everyone falls in love with for no reason. Either way, Aria pushes for sex as soon as a night scene is rendered. Can't wait for Morgana to be the same later on. It's so frustrating every time, there's a cut and you're just at your next destination without knowing why you went there, where you went, or how long it took. It's getting hard to comment on a story where every important piece of information is skipped over with a hard cut. The only time you have a conversation is when you meet a character for the first time. You get the first couple nights dealing with their personality, sleep with them, then everything is skipped. And there's a point IT EVEN SKIPS THE SEX SCENES. IN A SEX GAME. This is a joke, right? You have to be kidding me. I genuinely DO NOT CARE about the amount of sex in an AVN, but that is 99% of the reason people click download, to see sex. You can't skip the thing most people want out of something that is literally made solely for that. And DO NOT try to tell me this was made for a story, you've skipped all the important parts that make a story, a story.
By chapter two, I'm checked out. Wow, hooray, Lyria is back. A character with, well, no actual character. She is an elf and loves MC. Did I miss anything? Spoiler alert, no. I didn't miss her, no matter how much the stupid cave trials wanted me to think I did. I will concede and say cool, there's interpersonal drama. Usually these stories are filled with "world building"(or bare minimum plot building) and forget to add people that have issues with each other. As for how long it goes on, I can't say for the moment. Though, with what little dialogue there was with her, she pretty much said "I'll do good or evil as long as I'm with you" so I'm not holding my breath. Even though we all know this story is gonna go one way. MC will just about achieve his goal WHATEVER IT IS, and then have to be evil for two seconds because a plan is thwarted. Did you catch that? We still do not know what it is MC is even doing. Instead of how a plan unfolds being the mystery, what the plan is at all is the mystery. But only to YOU, the reader. Lo and Behold, she spits exactly what I said at MC and says "Grr I'm still mad at you, though." Back to the ..."Plot" Eris sent MC to this isolated fort for the plan we still don't know and alluded to a solution to it being so far away from everything. But another problem arises in that the fort has a bunch of portals to everywhere, which solves the first problem and will more than likely not be a problem at all. And I thought THAT was going to be the solution to which Eris was referring to in the first place. But no, It's a problem because it's the only thing on screen at the moment. (Future Jnx here, the solution Eris alludes to is never returned to again. She never brings it up and no one cares about travel time anymore anyway)And when MC FINALLY asks Lyria a question about her, she says "I'm not gonna tell you" Not only has MC said almost everything to her, we, the reader, know NOTHING about her. Suddenly her face tattoos are gone and we don't know what's happened with her all this time. Nope, she came for "...angry" sex with MC. You have to be kidding me. And not only that, but HOW DID SHE FIND MC? As far as what we the readers know, MC has been to one place, to get Yana out of jail. What could she track from MC being teleported by a god? If anyone knows, I'm all ears. And don't worry, the dev FINALLY put a time card up to tell you it's cutting to two weeks later. Great. There's so much we already don't know, let's know even less.
Apparently, MC did NOTHING for those two weeks, and when called on his bullshit his retort is "What are you jealous?" MC has conscripted a party of talented people to supposedly end all wars forever somehow, and when pressed about moving forward he acts like a sad teenager? He's never been like this, as far as we're told, so now he has to act like an idiot because...? An elf with no character traits found him again? So guess what that means, the writer even skipped the drama. Nice. And when Aria and Lyria talk about MC, Aria acts as if MC has gone through some life changing experince, and his whole worldview is different. But the only change we, the reader, can see is he talks more. None of anything that's happened has seemed to have made any impact on him. But I also want to say that they act like they're on some time crunch to change the world but, last time I checked, LITERALLY NO ONE knows what they're doing. They have not started any plan. The fort they're in has not been used in hundereds of years. They're backed by a god. Oh and they haven't DONE ANYTHING yet. Why are they acting like they're so pressed for time? Am I missing something? The only thing I could think is Aria is actually jealous and she's sick of looking at MC be depressed? But he hasn't been and she shouldn't be. This is supposed to be the "planning phase" and a section to ask questions, but the questions and answers are laughable at best. "What can we do? What are possibilities?" to which she says "We can do whatever you want" Wow, great... "What kind of resources do we have?" Her answer? "Whatever you need we can get" Okay, starting to look like non-answers. "Is diplomacy an option?" "Yes and no." I'm starting to get pissed off. "Will there be a war?" "Dunno, try to hold off on that." And finally: "Why am I not on the front lines?" "You're too important." Now, if I rubbed my temples any harder, I'd be clasping my hands together. This is the most empty story and dialogue I've heard in a long while. And make NO mistake, this is trying to be a story. Oh, and before I forget, apparently, they moved to ANOTHER abandoned castle in the middle of nowhere, completely unceremoniously. So you didn't know that until this conversation. Are you kidding me? They now have two bases in the middle of nowhere, for no known reason. Great.
The only justified mystery is how MC knows Eris. She's already admitted, to his face, she's in love with him. It's the only thing MC and the player are both in the dark about. I'm dead certain it will be revealed in some attempt to be emotional with Eris later, which I'm not looking forward to. All this leading to THE ACTUAL FIRST CHOICE IN THE WHOLE GAME. If it actually affects anything, I'd be shocked, but you can either send Yana or Lyria to go scouting. And since Yana has had maybe a total of 10 lines in the game, I chose her because I somehow care even less about her than the aforementioned elf with no character traits. It's also here you learn MC didn't tell Lyria about the goddess. So we didn't even know that he didn't tell her. Nice. Do you see how withholding information from the reader is a bad thing? It ain't rocket surgery. Then to suddenly have MC be this "You WILL do as I say" vapid overlord type is about as insufferable as not knowing what the hell is going on. And MC SAYS he's super fast and super strong now as well. When did that happen? We've seen no training. We've seen no spells. Hell, we've not even heard this before this exact moment. Have I said we know nothing about anything yet, because we don't. All for the game to halt and say "You're in semi-roam mode" are you serious? We've made ONE (singular) choice up to this point. And now you're adding a pointless linear sandbox to the game that still has no story? I'm sad to repeat this but, are you kidding me? It's not even a good looking one, it's all based in menu choices. This is ridiculous. And the choice made NO DIFFERENCE, by the way. Whatever she did happened off-screen, and you make the same choice again. You have no idea how much time passed or how long it took, it just happened because magic or something. Then, after another time skip, MC approaches Aria for no reason and is pushed away. Why did you bookend a time skip with a useless scene? There's no good flow to the storytelling here. All of the sex scenes have had nothing to do with anything before it. Aria comes onto MC again and she acts like she's been longing for him. But no character ever shows what they're feeling until a sex scene is nearby. Not only that but MC doesn't seem to care. Even beyond that, every sex scene is the same. "She approaches him. Jerks him off as if she's never had hands before. She sits on top. Then ends in missionary position." So even the "fun bits" aren't too fun. Yikes.
If we really want to be here, all day, having me recite all the ways the game just doesn't tell you things, by all means. But it's kind of tiring pointing out every time the writer is basically says "I'm not gonna tell you shit." Aria, the strongest mage, compatible with all forms of magic, tells MC "I can't teach you anything about your special magic, and might or might not be able to teach you other things but who knows." What this tells you is at some point in the future, MC will suddenly be able to control time when it is most dramatically fitting. You know, if the battle isn't skipped by the writer. MC asks Eris for advice and she says "Don't move too fast or too slow. And don't be too aggressive or passive." That's not advice. She literally told him what he said he was worried about. That's it. As of finally getting to chapter 3 I'm kinda done. Aria is the only character given any effort. She shows no emotion until a sex scene happens and is doing 90% of the work. Eris is in love with MC for the same reasons as Lyria, none. Yana sits there and complains the whole time. Morgana is a character made to embody the name she has. She's almost disney villain material, but nothing special. And finally, Lyria has all but disappeared from the game. MC is still uninteresting and the only tie I have, is knowing if he's lived for 500 years or just reincarnated later. I don't even care about what they're trying to do. It sure as hell won't be told to the player until it happens, so I won't lose sleep over not knowing it. At best, this is the literary form of edging. They get to a plot point then stop telling you anything and skip ahead. When something finally does happen, Sauron pops out of a portal and yells at MC about his "meddling." But my only question is WHAT HAS HE EVEN DONE YET? They're still in a preparation phase. They, OFF-SCREEN mind you, have somehow "taken over" a village. How and what they're doing there? I don't know. They made a portal to glowing rocks? I guess? And took over two abandoned castles. Nothing has happened outside a dragon and Saouron attacking. So I would love it if the writer stopped acting like things are going on. MC is even approached by Inara, said she's predictable, and that Eris has told him all about her. But wait a minute... No, no she hasn't! If she did it was during a time skip. She ACTIVELY avoided talking about her sister. So this big moment for MC to defy her is meaningless because the player knows NOTHING about Inara. So, again, I ask that if someone knows ANYTHING that's really happened in this story, you're invited to tell me.
And with the end of current content, my interest has also come and gone. I just don't care. Plain and simple. If I don't know what's going on and there are only TWO choices in the game, that don't even seem to matter, mind you, then this is a kinetic novel that doesn't even tell you the story. I really don't know a better way to put it. The English is not terrible. But I will say I know just from reading it the writer doesn't speak English, so 7 is as high as it will get. The UI/UX is an itchio asset that is in so many games, that I'm not gonna call it customized. Especially with the opacity slider in default red. The Art is nothing special. I've seen all the models infinite times before and the posing is stiff a lot of the time, especially during sex. The dialogue and story are never given to you. There are a couple decent conversations, but they usually end up as lore dumps. The ONLY one that isn't as egregious is the last one with the Shadow at the end of current content. How is it that the most "human" conversation is with a person that gave up their individuality?? ALL the LIs are nothing. They like MC because he is the MC. There is no romance, no lust, no intrigue, nothing. Things are happening only during a black screen and you are told about it... Never? I guess? I can't wait for Elvira to show up again. Especially since Lyria already made it clear she's a subservient cuckquean to share MC. For no good reason. This needs SERIOUS refactoring and I really don't know how anyone could save this. I might check in again after a few updates, but with how bad of a taste in my mouth I don't really want to. I can understand what the writer is trying to do, but their habits make it a terrible reading experience. It's as if they assume the picture in their head is the one you see when you read this, even though this is a VISUAL novel. Show, don't tell.