So I first played this game in 2018, and I decided to dust it off and give it a replay in November 2024.
I have good memories about this game, and I'll admit that nostalgia probably influenced my rating. OTOH, this also means I'm in a good position to gauge how this game has held up after all those years.
I'll be honest about that, though - it has aged, and not always well.
Gameplay-wise, this one is still solid. The difficulty is well-balanced. It puts up a nice challenge for the casual player; grinding is both entirely optional and quite rewarding; and there's a newgame+ mechanic.
You'll build up a base and a sizeable party of allies and beasts/demons, but managing them takes minimal effort. In battle, the strength of your summons and allies depends entirely on the MC's level, and their health and MP resets between battles. So no need to worry about levelling your teammates.
Hentai-wise, though... that's where this one is showing its age. The art itself isn't bad - but it's just so very barebones. Most girls get just one scene, and much of that is rape or forced prostitution. I mean, Flute? Cutest girl in the game. So what kind of content do you think she has? Some hawt futa lovin' with Pristella? Naw, just one scene where she gets raped by some random dude.
The content itself is quite varied. But each scene is just three or four variations of one picture. No animation or anything, either.
No options for romance or anything, either. Main character Pristella can become a futa, and one of the girls you get to recruit flat-out says that she swings both ways when she's not-so subtly coming on to Pristella. Yet, no romance. Not even any repeatable sexcenes with her (nor with any other party members, for that matter).
The hentai angle also comes with another problem: it's required for some gameplay mechanics. You need magic orbs to upgrade your ship or to unlock new locations... but those orbs are made using semen. No prizes guessing how you're supposed to get that. You don't have to slut it up all the time, but a virgin route is very much a no-go here.
(not to mention that Pristella gets raped in the prologue, and there's no way to avoid that even in NG+)
Speaking of semen... considering that, with those futa transformation clothes, Pristella would have the option to, uh, milk herself, right?
Apparantly, the possibility just doesn't occur to her.
There's other little plot holes and oversights in this game, but this is the most glaring one.
The writing of this game is mostly decent. But again, there's a few plot holes here and there that I just can't ignore.
For example, just why is Pristella standing back and doing nothing while Nana is being raped by that big fat orc? This one makes no sense because 1) Pristella is at that point easily strong enough to overpower the orc's bodyguards, and 2) she does in fact attack and kill the bodyguards once the orc is mostly done with raping the fuck out of Nana.
And for that matter, why does Pristella just give up on trying to find the High Tide kingdom in the good ending? Sure, she gave up her quest for revenge. But isn't she at least a little curious about what happened to that place? Especially because it was established earlier into the story that the Libaec kingdom has the resources to find the location of High Tide - and the other ending establishes that the place became quite a mess under Anemone's reign.
..
Then there's two aspects that I also feel I have to mention: the use of original art for the enemies, and the considerable music selection.
Both of them are major pluses in my book.
So, in all, I'm giving this one a 4/5.
I can't give this one a perfect score because of the plotholes and occasionally being railroad-y. But OTOH, the gameplay is solid, and the writing is still generally enjoyable.
I have good memories about this game, and I'll admit that nostalgia probably influenced my rating. OTOH, this also means I'm in a good position to gauge how this game has held up after all those years.
I'll be honest about that, though - it has aged, and not always well.
Gameplay-wise, this one is still solid. The difficulty is well-balanced. It puts up a nice challenge for the casual player; grinding is both entirely optional and quite rewarding; and there's a newgame+ mechanic.
You'll build up a base and a sizeable party of allies and beasts/demons, but managing them takes minimal effort. In battle, the strength of your summons and allies depends entirely on the MC's level, and their health and MP resets between battles. So no need to worry about levelling your teammates.
Hentai-wise, though... that's where this one is showing its age. The art itself isn't bad - but it's just so very barebones. Most girls get just one scene, and much of that is rape or forced prostitution. I mean, Flute? Cutest girl in the game. So what kind of content do you think she has? Some hawt futa lovin' with Pristella? Naw, just one scene where she gets raped by some random dude.
The content itself is quite varied. But each scene is just three or four variations of one picture. No animation or anything, either.
No options for romance or anything, either. Main character Pristella can become a futa, and one of the girls you get to recruit flat-out says that she swings both ways when she's not-so subtly coming on to Pristella. Yet, no romance. Not even any repeatable sexcenes with her (nor with any other party members, for that matter).
The hentai angle also comes with another problem: it's required for some gameplay mechanics. You need magic orbs to upgrade your ship or to unlock new locations... but those orbs are made using semen. No prizes guessing how you're supposed to get that. You don't have to slut it up all the time, but a virgin route is very much a no-go here.
(not to mention that Pristella gets raped in the prologue, and there's no way to avoid that even in NG+)
Speaking of semen... considering that, with those futa transformation clothes, Pristella would have the option to, uh, milk herself, right?
Apparantly, the possibility just doesn't occur to her.
There's other little plot holes and oversights in this game, but this is the most glaring one.
The writing of this game is mostly decent. But again, there's a few plot holes here and there that I just can't ignore.
For example, just why is Pristella standing back and doing nothing while Nana is being raped by that big fat orc? This one makes no sense because 1) Pristella is at that point easily strong enough to overpower the orc's bodyguards, and 2) she does in fact attack and kill the bodyguards once the orc is mostly done with raping the fuck out of Nana.
And for that matter, why does Pristella just give up on trying to find the High Tide kingdom in the good ending? Sure, she gave up her quest for revenge. But isn't she at least a little curious about what happened to that place? Especially because it was established earlier into the story that the Libaec kingdom has the resources to find the location of High Tide - and the other ending establishes that the place became quite a mess under Anemone's reign.
..
Then there's two aspects that I also feel I have to mention: the use of original art for the enemies, and the considerable music selection.
Both of them are major pluses in my book.
So, in all, I'm giving this one a 4/5.
I can't give this one a perfect score because of the plotholes and occasionally being railroad-y. But OTOH, the gameplay is solid, and the writing is still generally enjoyable.
