Future Fragments is an action platforming game similar to MegaMan (X series in particular) with a bit of a twist. As mentioned, this is an adult game, meaning there’s not just nudity on display here and there, there’s also sexual acts on full display rather than just off screen with some noises or fade to black before anything actually happens. If Talia is going to get fondled, mating pressed or turned into a white sticky mess, players are going to see it in one way or another. However while the game does have a fair amount of adult content, it’s actually not the focus, more like the cherry on top. You could actually strip the adult content out and not much would change. Would need to rework some of the narrative so that it doesn’t seem as awkward, but even then, it’s kind of minor based on what all I’ve seen, which is quite a bit actually. For transparency sake, I will say that I’m both a backer of the game as well as one of the people doing QA for it. That said, neither elements will change the opinions I have on the game. I always do my best to give the best assessment that I can of a game and the parts that are opinion oriented are obviously my own thoughts and opinions on it and not something that’s factual. So lets get started on this shall we?
The game uses 2D sprites for its visuals, but they are fairly well done, offering up some nice details and designs for the level assets and character models. Characters contain proper shading where needed and the animations, while not as smooth as some may like (there’s been many complaints that the game doesn’t run at 60fps, but everything is hand drawn, in order to do that, not only will it take longer to release the game, but it also require a lot of extra work from a team that really only has one person in the art department), are still good, even having some small details that aren’t always done in some games, then again, bouncing breasts in games with sprites has seen an uptick over the last decade, so maybe I just don’t play enough 2D games. Though not everything in the game is sprite based, during certain instances (most commonly seen during defeated moments), the game switches over to regular art work, showing off the characters in full detail, but these same scenes are also stills with some transitions rather than animated like the majority of the game. The artwork during these moments are, for the most part, really good, but there are some that seem a little odd to me, not sure if it’s the angle with the position they put Talia in, some inconsistencies, or just trying to mix things up a little.
While I don’t really cover performance for games being reviewed on PC, partly because a lot of performance issues tend to be addressed by getting better hardware (and my laptop isn’t all that great), I do want to point out something that mostly affects people who play the game on a laptop that has dual graphics. As it stands, the game doesn’t seem to automatically detect the dedicated graphics card. It’s more likely to run on the integrated one. You can try and set your system to run in high performance mode in your GPU’s control panel, which is more likely to automatically use the dedicated GPU (Nvidia in my case), then just have the activity icon enabled to confirm it’s running on it, or when starting the game from its .exe file, right click on it and look for the “run with graphic processor” option and select the dedicated GPU. This will ensure smoother gameplay and also less likely for you to encounter performance issues when using the better lighting options (assuming your laptop has a good GPU in it, mine doesn’t quite cut it for use of the advanced dynamic lighting option)
The audio in the game is kind of a bold choice given that it’s both an adult game and an indie one at that. Reason I say this is because typically such games have a limited amount of audio, particularly when it comes to voice work, usually noises of surprise, cheer, angry or enjoyment, sometimes also containing some odd words here and there because of a limited budget. But Future Fragments went the fully voiced route. All characters have their dialogue voiced and there’s plenty of voice work to be found, even during the sex scenes. The quality varies though, this mostly occurs in the databanks that you come across in the various levels. The dialogue for them hold up, but some of the voice works feels more like they’re reading the script than really acting like the character that they’re voicing. Most of the NPCs that you encounter hold up better and characters like Talia and Vie do really well (though they are voiced by the same person, but the VA does a good job at making them sound different, helps that Vie has a heavy accent while Talia does not). Faye is a bit more hit or miss, but as of the build that this review is based on (the public demo as well the QA build that is a bit dated to the public demo, but has all of the levels present), Faye doesn’t have many of her lines or cutscenes finished, so voice work is really just what’s found in the Electric level (which is what the demo on Steam contains). As for the rest of the audio found in the game, things are pretty distinctive with good audio quality, crisp and clean, can tell what kind of surface is being interacted with, the specific noise a weapon or machine makes when in operation, even some of the more sexual noises that are made during the game’s various sex scenes. Though there are some bits of audio that are still missing, but these appear to be few. One that stuck out to me the most was when travelling through the Ice level and some of the surfaces used the snow crunch audio rather than something that better fit a hard crystallized surface. Music is fairly good too, some variety that fits the theme of the level, character or the situation at hand. There’s a few others I’ve heard, but they’ve yet to be applied to the game, which while they sound alright, not sure how effective they’ll be within the game without seeing the context in which they’re to be used.
I can’t really talk much about the story, partly due to the fact that most of the stuff I’ve gone through is more lore oriented (most of the databanks give you glimpses into the world that the future has become), so it’s mostly just scattered bits of information, some informative, explaining some of the problems that happened later in the timeline from where Talia is from, some being there purely for comedic purposes, though some do still provide some world building. The other part being that they’d spoil things (that and some of the details may change between now and release), something I’d put way down in the spoiler section that I sometimes attach at the end of a review, but I very much won’t do that for a game that’s yet to be released. What parts I can talk about though mostly boils down to some of the character elements. As hinted at in my little intro for the review, Talia and Faye have their own plans for the weapon the King sent them to retrieve. Faye intends to use the weapon to take control of the world, Talia on the other hand is a bit more varied. She’d rather not use the weapon, wanting to rather destroy it and find some other solution to the Kingdom’s problem, but also having some fear that if it fell into the wrong hands (like Faye’s), things could become worse for the Spell Kingdom. However, unlike Faye who is only a supporting character, Talia’s opinion on the weapon could change by the end of the game based on the actions that you take throughout your run.
As for the gameplay elements, well my comparison to the MegaMan series is pretty accurate, not just because it’s an action platformer, but when you look at the design of Talia, Faye and Vie as well as the purpose that they serve, you see how similar they are to MegaMan, Zero and Dr. Light (I suppose a little bit of Dr. Wily as well given how Vie sometimes acts). Talia is the main character in Future Fragments, she uses ranged combat to battle enemies and upon defeating a boss, she gains a new ability from them to improve her capabilities. Faye is suppose to be a melee combat specialist, but since we don’t get to play as her (if I recall correctly, she was suppose to be an option, but due to work load, that was scrapped and she’s suppose to get her own game), it’s kind of hard to say how exactly her combat works, especially since in the builds I’ve played we don’t really see her do much other than constantly getting plowed by an enemy or trapped in some kind of sex device (okay, it’s really just a milking machine, apparently the future is powered by breast milk ... don’t ask). While Vie plays a supporting role, being from the future and keeping tabs on the pair, mostly Talia, but she does have her own plans, which she kind of share with Talia.
Anyways, shifting back to actual gameplay stuff than comparisons, those who have played any of the MegaMan games will feel right at home. At the start, Talia doesn’t really have much to offer other than shooting little energy balls at enemies. As you progress and beat the bosses you will unlock elemental abilities based on the level that you just completed. These abilities do two things, one being a specific ability while the other is an elemental charged attack. The first element that you unlock is fire, which will give you the ability to perform a Fire Dash when pressing the special ability button. The charged shot for it has Talia let loose what looks to be molten pellets kind of like a shotgun. These pellets do less base damage than Talia’s regular attack, but because enemies can be hit by multiple pellets, it’s possible to outright kill some in one attack if all the pellets hit, where as Talia’s regular attack would require multiple shots to kill them. Ice is the second element that you acquire. It’s special ability allows you to freeze a target, removing them from the situation for a time. These frozen targets can also be used as a step latter if you need to get somewhere that’s outside of Talia’s jump height, something to keep in mind when running into a puzzle problem. Its charged attack changed some time ago, originally being this curved ice blade that slowly moved across the screen dealing some hefty damage to the enemy that gets hit by it, now it’s this ball of ice that gets tossed through the air and explodes into a giant ice ball upon impact, dealing more damage the further it goes and is capable of hitting multiple targets if it happens to land in a cluster. Lastly there’s the electric element (no new powers are gained from the Earth and End levels). The special ability for this one allows Talia to perform a high jump. When you activate it, there’s a small delay as she builds up power before leaping into the air. At the height of her jump, Talia lets loose an electrical blast around her, damaging anything in close proximity. This ability does allow you to get up to some areas that are out of reach of her regular jump. The charged attack that it provides fires off a medium range electric bolt, hitting every target that is within its range. Though every target that is hit will take increased damage by 50% so if the base damage of the attack is 50, the person behind the first target will receive 75 damage, the target behind them would take something like 112, etc (I’m not really a math person, so keeping it at that). It can be a rather powerful attack if enough enemies are lined up (though the odds of that happening in the game itself is pretty rare as enemies tend to be evenly spaced out).
Both of the special attacks and charged shots do have a slight caveat; the special attacks consume mana, how much is based on the tabs that you see on the top left by Talia’s status. The Fire Dash can only be used twice in a row before a recharge is needed (mana will passively recharge right after using an ability, but it can be a little slow). Ice Shot can be used five times, though due to the delay between shots and the pace at which the recharge begins and charges at, it’s possible to get six off without really waiting. The Electric Jump can be used three times, though much like with the Ice Shot, the delay that it has between usage can get you four jumps before out of gas depending on how high you end up falling from (Talia has to be planted on the ground before the ability to work). The charged shots on the other hand have a delay as you need a moment to charge up (holding the fire button is how the charge starts and it won’t fire until you release it), but it will also be nullified if you take damage or use a special ability, forcing you to have to redo the charge up (if you were still holding the fire button at the time, it will automatically begin to charge up again). These are just some things to keep in mind when things get busy, especially during some of the more platform puzzle moments.
Aside from those combat abilities, Talia can acquire power ups while going through the different levels. There’s fifty in total and they’re rather randomized. While the location that holds a power up is always the same, what power up it contains is randomized. Each provide different bonuses that can fall under three different categories (four if you want to add in negative power ups), offense, defense and utility and you can mix and match just about every single one of them (there’s a few that kind of cancel out what others do, like the Handcuff power up will make the Blender power up useless as the Handcuff disables the ability to use charged shots, which the Blender makes it so you can charge that up faster (at the expense of its damage). You can equip only three at a time, but are able to add and remove them at any time.
To play into the adult nature of the game, allowing for some extra lewdness while not making things feel out of place or awkwardly inserted, Future Fragments has a stun system. Every time Talia is hit, she’ll have a tick applied to her stun indicator (a set of five orbs under her health bar), once it hits the limit, she’ll become stunned, to which you will need to hit the indicated buttons above her (what ever you have set to left and right) to recover. The number of ticks gained from enemies varies, some are able to stun her instantly while others require a couple of hits before stunning her. Boss fights are another matter though, stuns are suppose to be disabled there come release. Now, if there’s an enemy on the screen and you want to see what they will do to her while she’s stunned, you can just wait for them to wander on over and... do what ever it is they do. What enemies do to Talia while stunned varies by enemy, some may just fondle her, others have her perform oral or perform oral on her, etc. During this time she will slowly take damage as the animation plays out, taking additional damage if climax is achieved. If you’re trying not to take extra damage, hitting the indicated buttons will allow you to break free and even cause a bit of damage to the target. I actually thought that this was a good idea to handle some of the more “on the fly” sexual acts, because if enemies just manage to randomly grab her, it would have an awkward transition, while here, it adds in another layer of gameplay to (slightly) challenge players and when Talia does get grabbed, the transition works out better (some animations do require a little over looking, like how easily they manage to drop her pants or whip their dick out to introduce it to her, but this is pretty much a non-issue).
For those who are looking for a little bit more than some foreplay, there are the KO animations. Once Talia’s health drops to zero, she’ll get knocked out and flop to the ground, losing everything but her gloves (there’s lore related reasons for this), while on the ground, if an enemy wanders over to her they’ll perform sexual acts on her, these tend to be more vaginal and anal related with a messier finish if you let the animation play out. If you try to advance back to the Save Pad, you will first be greeted by a kind of aftermath scenario based on which ever enemy last interacted with Talia (unless it was a level hazard that beat her and none of the enemies touch her after that, then you just get sent back to the Save Pad), these are the still images that aren’t sprite based I was referring to during the visuals section. They mostly consist of a couple of similar images that progress based on progress of the scenario. They act kind of like a visual novel moment as there is dialogue and little flashes that act as transitions, these can be a moment before penetration and after, then again when there’s a climax, with the image doing subtle changes to showcase this when the flash occurs. Each of them have two versions (when looking at the ones from the Electric level, the other levels really just have place holders in the full game build I’ve been testing), one is the “first time experience” while the second version there’s some changes to the dialogue, with Talia having a more “alright, let’s just get this over with so I can go back to my mission” vibe. Some of them can be entertaining, showcasing a mixture of the hornyness and in some instances the simple mindedness of some of the people of the future, others can be a little endearing (Jumper Bot being an example of this, he just wants to pleasure her). If however you tire of seeing these little events after being defeated, there’s a skip option that’s pointed out on the screen allowing you to jump right back to the Save Pad to get back to work.
Future Fragment sports a moral value system consisting of kindness, hatred, justice, optimism, pessimism, pacifism, violence and sexuality. These values alter the way Talia views the world, which in turn affects what kind of ending the game will have. Most of the values change from actions taken from the NPCs that you talk to, but some can be changed by killing all enemies in a path or sparing them all. This also applies to instances where you allow Talia to have a full sexual encounter vs not allowing it by breaking free. However you won’t be able to see what exactly these values are during your first run of the game. You will see that a change has occurred during conversation moments, but not by how much. The reason for this is to make players accept the actions that they make (also the reason why there’s only one save slot during your first run) instead of trying to game the system for a particular outcome that comes from save scumming. While this may annoy certain people, it’s not that big of a deal as it’s only during your first run through the game, once beaten you’re suppose to have access to additional save slots so that you can mess around with things.
Now for those wondering about the levels and enemies found in them, well the game has five levels, each of which get progressively harder, but not too hard that they become impossible, they mostly just make you put what you’ve learned in the previous level to better use. The first of the levels is the Fire level, it doesn’t really have much in the ways of challenge in its design as it’s suppose to allow you get a feel for the way the game handles. The biggest mechanic in the level stems from the air vents that you can use to navigate around certain parts, but none of them really challenge you in their usage except for one area, but that’s by design since it’s a Fragment location and those are designed to make you put a bit more effort into the game than the rest of the areas found in the level. One could argue that the pillars are a bit of the mechanic since they are a little unique to the level (Electric has its own version, but they work differently) and require you to play with the Berserker’s some in order to break them, but they don’t have as much prominence in the level, just scattered here and there and can be mostly ignored. The enemies lean towards freakish monsters due to some kind of mutagen that’s meant to improve people injected with it but, kind of turns them into freaks. Really the only normal looking enemy in the level are the Fire Grunts, though the Grunts in general are kind of the only normal enemy in the whole game. They don’t overly change much across the four levels that they’re found in. Some changes here and there, mostly with their colours and weapons (the Fire Grunt uses a flamethrower), though the Earth Grunt is the most different, but it’s fitting for the level they’re in.
Up next is the Ice level, which introduces some puzzle solving, something that you learn just before entering the level in a rather organic way. Something the developers did was made it so that when you progress to the next level, you run through a kind of transition level, here you are subtly shown how the new ability you acquired works (the game makes you use it to advance) and what kind of mechanics the next level will have. Enemies in the Ice level are aliens known as Celodst’s, some are tall, some are short, then there’s the one in a shell with a spear. Then of course you have the Ice Grunt, which will try and hit you with some kind of ice launcher that lobs a ball of ice your way. The shelled Celodst is actually the most annoying of the bunch as he’ll try and advance towards you with the shell facing you, negating any damage you try to inflict on it. He’s also a rather persistent bastard as I’ve seen him try and clip through walls just to try and get to Talia, kind of funny really, but likely to be fixed by release. The Ice level also has a gang bang animation that can occur when stunned or knocked out and the short Celodst jumps on Talia, the animation will play differently depending on whether or not it’s just the one, two of them or all three (they tend to be seen in a trio).
After that you move onto the Electric level, which introduces you to the wonderful world of gravity, sex robots and milking machines. Yeah this one is interesting for sure, all of the enemies here are robots (the level takes place inside of a factory that I believe produces the various sex robots, but mostly just seems to be a milking factory, not that we ever see any other females in the game besides Talia, Faye and Vie and only the former two are ever seen milked), even the Grunt is suppose to be one, though he wields some kind of electric gun that he can shoot you with at medium range or slash you with. There’s a Security Bot that requires a bit of work in order to kill since they’re kind of the only enemy in the game where shooting them doesn’t really do anything, they need to be crushed by the Gravity Pillars. The Jumper Bot is kind of invincible as well, but it’s mainly due to the legs being easy targets, hitting the core will actually damage it. The big thing on the Electric level is mixing platforming skills and gravity shifts, which can be a pain in some areas if you don’t get the timing right. In order to flip the gravity you need to shoot one of the switches nearby, but if you don’t time it right, you may switch the gravity too early, sending you back to where you started or you may end up just dropping all the way down (or up depending on things) and have to climb back to where you need to be. The boss is also a little more unique compared to the others in that you actually get to select how the sex sequence plays out to some degree. All of the other bosses just have you along for the ride rather than “playing with” Talia.
From there, is the Earth level, where plant monsters exist, which does lead to some tentacle action for those who enjoy such things. Giant Mushrooms, a plant that reminds me of the Piranha Plant from Mario or the giant plant from the movie Little Shop of Horrors, just with more tentacling than eating of people. Some weird human-plant hybrid thing and a Grunt that just seems to be a blob controlling the armour of a Grunt (like I said, the Earth Grunt was the most different of the group), he’ll shoot what seems to be a poison cloud at you and any time you shoot him he’ll fling a blob at you which can damage you and even restore some of his health if he walks over it. As for the mechanic of the level, it’s mostly moving platforms and a day//night cycle. The latter changes enemy behaviour to some degree. The Shrooms launch these miniature versions of themselves, they won’t grow during the day, but when the area switches to night, they’ll grow and you will find yourself dealing with more of them than originally roaming around. The human plant guy will try and attack Talia with an underground tentacle attack during the day, but at night he sleeps, unless you disturb him, then here will chase after you until he’s either killed or has had his way with Talia. They’re kind of fast too, so depending on things, it’s likely a quickie will happen. The plant monster roams around and shoots little spitballs at you during the day, but at night will anchor down and try and reel you in with a vine grab to play with Talia, kind of like how Scorpion from Mortal Kombat but instead he likes to punching their head off, or cooking them with hell fire after reeling them in. The Earth Grunt to my knowledge doesn’t change between day and night, he just kind of does what he always does.
Finally, there is the End. I hate this level. Okay that might be a little unfair to the level, I mostly blame this on the fact that there’s no clear direction in what you’re suppose to be doing there. In the previous levels you have the hub area, then the various paths that have you go and turn off, collect or destroy something at the end of, only to return to the hub and move through the next path. But in the End, it’s not so clear as to what you’re suppose to be doing or where to go as presently there’s no context to the area other than “this exists”. It’s design is kind of intentional though as it plays into the plot of things, but since said plot hasn’t been introduced into our test build just yet, it’s a level that I find myself just aimlessly wandering around, not really sure where I’m suppose to go and randomly end up at my destination. It does introduce a reality switch mechanic as there’s this tears that allow you to transition from the real world to another world (I believe it’s suppose to be some kind of spirit world), kind of like how Raziel can shift between the physical and spirit world in the Legacy of Kain series. The enemies here are also a little bizarre and their appearance and attack methods change based on which realm you’re in. They also like their gang bangs and actively seek Talia would when stunned or knocked out, something that the previous enemies don’t always do, at least not right away, sometimes they do a patrol before remembering that Talia is just waiting for some attention. However, unlike with the Celodst’s, these enemies will throw you back to the Save Pad as if you lost all of your health if they all pounce Talia together, so while the gang bang may seem like something worth doing, it does come at a bigger cost since you can’t just get stunned, watch Talia be fondled by a bunch of enemies, and kill them after, you end up getting sent back to the Save Pad instead. Though they do have a unique animation that plays when all four get her, just not entirely sure what it is as it’s kind of bugged in the test build, only saw it like once or twice, and I’m not entirely sure if it was the full thing or not.
Something that is currently only available to those who backed at that tier, but will be available to everyone as part of the release build is a map editor. This allows people to create their own maps, either simple ones where they just show off the various sex animations with little effort on the player’s end, re-creating a level design from another game and giving it a Future Fragments spin, or creating their very own in-depth map and story that accompanies it. There’s a modest amount of creation options available, this is evident in how the game itself was designed using this same editor. I’m not going to get too deep into it, mainly because there’s elements of the editor that I’m still trying to wrap my head around (doing cutscenes I still find a little difficult, especially if I need it to make a check on something or alter some value), lots of trial and error, but much like the game itself it is still a bit of a work in progress, so things are bound to be made easier to use or at the very least better information provided for it, whether in the editor itself or a user manual put somewhere. It does offer a modest amount of creativity, but will disappoint those who were hoping to be able to import external assets. The editor doesn’t permit external assets, only what’s available in the game itself. This is mostly to avoid any problems the developers may get if someone creates something using assets or the likeness from a licensed IP who don’t like it when people use their stuff in adult games (looking at you Nintendo).
As for using a map that someone else made, all you need is the .ffpack file and select the Custom Maps option on the title menu. From there you will need to select the Import Package option then look for the .ffpack file. At present the game looks where in the folder it’s currently located in, no default custom maps folder. Not sure if this is something that will be changed in the future, but as it is now, the easiest way to get to the map you want to play is to drop the .ffpack file into the same folder as the game. Once you open the package, it’ll load into the game and you will get a bit of information on it, such as the name, creator and a description if one was provided, then just select the Play Selected Package and you’ll be on your merry way. Slight downside, at least at the moment, is the custom maps don’t really support a save feature that I’m aware of, so any progress made in the more advanced maps won’t carry over into your next session unless the author prepared something to address this, even if it’s a bit jury rigged and rough around the edges. I believe the developers will attempt to address this for the release of the game, but I’m not 100% sure.
Is it worth it?
The game has a lot of promise, particularly for the adult gaming sphere as there are few games out there that (both in terms of released and in development) are ambitious titles that are looking to be taken seriously. Most of the adult games that crop up tend to be rather cheap asset flipped games that feel more like the creator was just looking for a quick buck and people were willing to spend the money to get some porn in their games. Whether or not it will be able to live up to what the creator is aiming for and those who have been following it expect remains to be seen, but credit where credit is due in that the game was created in such a way that while the porn is what originally catches people’s attention, it’s the effort that went into the game design, story and lore found within that gets people to invest in it (this has been a common topic when people have talked about why they’ve been backing it or following it all this time, came for the porn, stayed for the game). It’s also a game where if you don’t really like the adult side of things, can be played without it (there’s actually to be a safe for work option for those who want to stream it or simply play it without the porny bits) and not feel like a huge chunk of the game is suddenly missing, something few other adult games can really do. So with that said, I say yes, especially given how cheap the price of the game is to be considering how much effort was put into it (game is suppose to be 20$ and priced regionally, so while it’s 20$ American, depending on where you live, it’ll be cheaper).
