RPGM - Completed - Enishia and the Binding Brand [v1.06 Steam] [Shimobashira Workshop]

Shimobashira Workshop has always been one of my top go-to devs for RPGM games. Magical Girl Celesphonia & Ambrosia are really great, and for this title they used the same formula but put a slight spin on things.

You're a nun - you go into debt because obligatory story reasons. From there, you have a contract crest that you can continuously add onto as you further progress through the game and make Enishia do dirtier things. The story is really similar to Ambrosia, but now you have a loose time limit in the form of debt.

The gameplay is walking around and doing various jobs. Sometimes you're a waitress, dancer, or prostitute. Other times you do charity work, help as a model, use experimental medicine, etc. Typical H-corruption stuff. The actual battle gameplay side of stuff uses a different approach. Instead of going through dungeons, you go through a board game format, utilizing dice rolls. The same goes for your attacks and skill checks throughout the game in general. Some people are mixed on this, but I personally like the approach for taking less time to get through main quests and such.

There's many H events, but they get hidden through story quests and some of them are time-gated. You can't access everything from the get-go, and it can be a little slow to start, especially if you're aiming to do a corrupt route playthrough. I do appreciate that they implemented a quest log, but I find it really annoying that they don't let you just track one quest and show you where to go. Or they tell you to look for x person, but you have no clue where that person is.

All in all, it's a great addition to their line-up. There's just many thing that could use some quality of life to make the gameplay flows faster and better imo.

Absolutely amazing game with a cute mc and well done scenes and mechanics.

But, there's one big downside — Main Quest:
• At many different points and especially by the end of the game quest log completely disappears and you are left with abusing the search feature at f95 to figure out wtf you are supposed to do next. The "translated" walkthrough is abysmal, so you are left with search feature anyways
• At many points it forces you to do some absolutely boring and unnecessary mechanics that have nothing to do with the game and h experience of it, or go do stupid quests to kill some monsters with, again, no h options around it.
- Examples:
1. It forces you to go fishing for specific types of fish. I mean there's a letter "h" in "fishing", but other than that you have to try really hard for a half an hour to wank on it
2. Fight ghosts. Just that. I mean there's "h" in "ghost", but again, quite a hard wanking experience
3. And all other similar fetch, kill, talk, find quests. If I remember correctly, two of them have an option to sell body for information, so good here.

TL;DR: It is by all means a 5 star game, but I got so fcking annoyed by fishing, I had to go for 4. sorry

I have played multiple games created by this dev. As usually it gives what it has given so far:
- an airhead dumb MC,
- a nun/magical girl/something holy,
- getting corrupted,
- having multiple routes.

This is actually something that really ticks all the stuffs I like (except the dumb MC). I mean... just check my name and profile picture lol.

Then you ask... why is it only 4 stars and not 5? Well to answer that all I have to do is just to lay down what I liked and what I didn't like in the game.

Lets start with the positives:
- It has multiple endings.
- Allows you to insert your own characters into the game with their own classes.
- I liked the D&D system of the game.
- The art still looks good.
- The maps for an RPGM game actually looked good.
- Clearly above your average RPGM games.
- Replayable.

Due to these points I am pretty sure it will appeal for most of the people who would play this game. If it were the first game I have encountered form this dev I would had given 5 stars for this game. Sadly since this is my 4th game I just cannot do that and here are the reasons:

The negatives:
- This is not the first game from this dev, so I actually expected some upgrades, but this game feels like the previous ones. I don't see the improvement at all.
- The MC of this game is way too airhead. I actually felt insulted she was so dumb. And no this is not a fantasy for some kinks, it is just really bad writing.
- The game still uses the same basic music and the same really lame sound effects. I didn't mind it when it was the first game really, but hearing the same stock music across multiple game releases is really lame. I don't think the money is the issue here. There are lot of free music available and free to use. The same goes for the sound effects. They are so bad, they hurt my ears. A titjob scene literally sounded like you are fingering a glass of water. Just buy an NSFW sound pack and make it better please.
- The writing is abysmally bad. Like I am reading an Attack on Titan fanfic level of bad. The character personalities are like dry sponges, the story is just the same as the previous games, but with different skin, the scenes are really not enjoyable to read. I swear it was written by some (hopefully) 18~ year old someone who hasn't seen a female in their life. Even tho the game looks good it doesn't have any soul in it.
- With the previous points I actually started to feel like that I was wasting my time with the game. Why should I grind in a mediocre story for a mediocre scene? This is not a good thing to feel during a game.

All in all it is a good game. It is better than what I have vented here, especially if it is your first time playing a game from this dev. I can't give it more than 7/10. It ticks in with my interests, BUT still leaves me uninterested. Imagine finding your favourite fetish content and not being interested in it.

The other worrying factor is that I don't see that the dev is improving. I feel like I am consuming the same content again and again. It does not paint a good picture in regarding the future contents. After Ambrosia I was really hyped for Magical Girl Celesphonia, but it did not live for the hype. Now I have encountered with this game and I don't even feel any hype for the next one.

TL;DR:

The game is really above your average RPGM games and I recommend you to play this game as well, but if you have played the dev's previous games you would feel that their games are not improving. Your first experience will be a 10/10, but the more you play the more it shifts down to 7/10.

Shimobashira Workshop producing good content although a bit disappointing compared to previous releases: Celesphonia & Ambrosia. Definitely a shorter game, feels like there were less scenes as well. I was not a fan of the dice roll combat as hitting double nat 1's three times in a row was a frustrating experience.

positives
- compelling premise for corruption
- does not spam you with mundane walls of text
- no grand kill the demon king storyline
- day to day game loop
- somewhat interesting minigames
- premise forces you to manage your money adding a layer of gameplay

negatives
- monotony of rpgm battles
- while the premise of the corruption is compelling, the way it occurs is through situations and odd jobs you get yourself into. which can be chaotic, disjointed and often too sudden
- there is a day, afternoon, evening and night cycle to each day but the world and it's npcs do not change much
- too easy with all game modes. unless you really try, you should be able to do a full virgin run half asleep

Solide game,,nice CGs, good main Story + advanced branching stories for you and side stories of your companions based on your decision.

Are you a real saint or a depraved Nun, decide it for you and your friends.

Excellent game if you have played in Celestia/Ambrosia 100/10

Gameplay so cool that you just enjoy battles and quests, lol

Scenes could be more but tbh the game overall super high quality

Jobs/corruption/quests - super high quality
HScenes - super high
Images could be better but good quality too

Just the fact that it is possible to finish the game, keeping the protagonist pure, is already a positive point for me. The proposal of the game where you have to pay a debt within a certain time is nothing new. But the fact that I can "pay" the debt in a way without humiliation and sex is something new for me. I liked being able to create my own characters within the game and I thought it was a cool way to immerse myself. But I have to say that making an RPG with dice-based combat gets old very quickly.

It's good, and I really like it, like all other Shimobashira translated works, but I still think Ambrosia is better
But I think the biggest reason this is my least liked between Ambrosia and Celesphonia, is because of the exploration system, you get a kind of board game map, where you throw a dice to decide how far you go, and something happens depending on where you land. I just really dislike that system, and it's mostly the reason why I played this game less than the others.

I still is a good game, and the H content is still up to par, it's just the gameplay itself.

Another banger by Shimobashira Workshop, the same devs that made Ambroisia and Magical Girl Celesphonia, though it's not quite as good as those two. Combat is standard jrpg stuff, but fairly well-balanced and consistently engaging. I was a fan of the "board game" maps that the dungeons worked on, and having skill checks run on rolling dice was very D&D/Balders Gate (in a good way), keeping moment to moment gameplay fun. The base CGs of the lewd scenes are all high quality, though it does default to the miniskirt outfit for a lot of them. Story was... average... The bad guys turn out to be the obviously bad guys who everyone says are bad, and Enicia beats them up. Did not have the 11/10 post-game content that their last two games had, which made me sad (especially as I was expecting it to be there, and it wasn't). The translation itself leaves a bit to be desired, it's MTL and a lot of little errors and awkward grammar litter the text boxes. Still, overall the game is absolutely worth your time if you like jrpg or corruption games.

I really like this dev's game. Their games are one of the few that I already finished but still replayed a few times.

But this, I don't know how to explain it, it lacks "soul". The game feels so hollow compared to their previous games.

GIVE IT A TRY, YOU WILL LOVE IT.

You are a nun. You have a debt to pay, and plenty of different opportunities to do so. Many different kinks to explore. Amazing graphics, wonderful game mechanics and over all really pleasant game to engage with. Its one of those games that feel like an actual game.
One of the few gems so don't hesitate to try.

If you are still not convinced have a look at the list below :

Points that make this game excellent:
- Great resolution and quality of pictures, animations, UI, scenes etc. Over all very nice graphically
- Sounds, background music, voices etc are awesome
- Concept of contracts opening certain aspects of game
- Steady progression of naughtiness dependent on progress in the story and on experiences (user behavior)
- Bunch of mini games that are fun and engaging and quite kinky.
- Exp levels for various side jobs and kink parts of your character
- Amazing combat with an actual system.
- Exploring based on this border like game with rolls etc, extremely fun and easy to get into
- Engaging story, and actually multiple stories from different angles
- Whole world to explore and be defiled in

and so much more that is hard to put into words...

Not as good as ambrosia, which might be my favorite h game, but still great. If you liked ambrosia go for it. Standard get corrupted to pay the deadline type game, but the scenes are varied and nice and the art is great in my opinion.

The "dungeons" are boards you go through with dice rolls which is not great but still better than your standard rpgm generated dungeons.

You can make a custom char, and if its male, he can have a "scene" with the mc while resting in a dungeon, which I thought was pretty cool.

I like the costumes, I wish more games like this one had a depraved costume you unlock, many dont.

I enjoyed it. If you liked the other shimobashira workshop games you will like this one.

Completed the game in 11 hours with a good ending (without corruption up). After completing, all the CGs were unlocked and I liked them.

I took a girl and a created character into the party.

There were no problems during the playthrough. There wasn't much of a grind. Except. I lost a lot of time because I tried to look for new content after every major event.

The plot is good, I liked it. However, I don't want to replay for bad ending.

The MC very cute and meek, the story quite insteresting and plenty freedom to MC stay coomer virgin like mine. Friendly to non-competitive player, there a option for who want jerk with too much grinding such reducing difficuly of mob and goal.

Even thou, grinding especially the dice is quite annoying, no history log, the UI bit less intuitive.

Overall, that is worth play imo.

After the release of ambrosia years ago, it made me expect more from the Devs on their future endeavors. However, celesphonia and now this game just look so subpar in comparison. The game is more than playable, but that is all there is to it.

Gameplay: It's definitely more creative than standard RPGM exploration, but having practically everything tied to dice gets annoying really quickly. This makes random events more natural, but also makes going for anything specific a lot more annoying. On top of that, having all combat locations makes them blend together.
Item balance is all kind of wacky though. According to the in-game weapon/armor list, I only found ~35% of all gear despite finishing ~98%of the game.

Story: Not very elaborate, but nice and neat. MC isn't dumbed down for plot, villians have logical goals, and ending is satisfying. Just fine as a backbone for a game of this genre


Scenes: There is a decent variety, although they are kept relatively vanilla. Art is good, costumes are okay. Some scenes support costumes, some default to one or another.


Overall: simply a simple high-quality game. I'd rate it 4.5 because I just didn't feel the dice and wished for more variety. But for an average user, this should be a good experience.

It's soooo boring.

The idea is good and the start is fine but you just gotta grind the same old shit.
Wanna try do modelling, okk did it thrice and it was just a swimsuit with no progression

The translation isn't great either

Pros

-very cute mc
-great art
-interesting story
-and gameplay

Cons

-Very,very slow burn to the point seeing the same scene 20th time because you're trying to get corruption up.
-boring because of slow burn.

conclusion:still recommend it but if you haven't played it dev has better (imo) games.

Ambrosia and
Magical Girl Celesphonia

Interesting story, beautiful character design, immersive world, and of course the ecchi. Like Always A Great Game From Shimobashira. The experitmental dice system, though. Not a fan of that. It's suitable in some places but gradually becomes annoying and thus lower the games replaybility value. However, don't get me wrong the game is still fun and I had a great time playing it.