RPGM - Harem in Another World [v0.85] [Jong Games]

I played v0.44
Pros
Really like the art
Animation is really good aside from one scene (where the girl is riding the dude on the chair, it is choppy)
Neutral
The humor and dialogue is hit or miss, some I was rolling my eyes, others like the with clown had me smirking
There are ways to improve combat to be less painful but...
Negative
The combat has virtually no purpose since there are no levels or stats to improve and it is just an auto-battle mechanic with no input so aside from the extremely limited pool of gear, there is nothing that goes into combat so it just feels like a waste of time
The bar mini-game was dull but would be tolerable if it gave more gold. The fishing mini-game was horrendous to control, at least on mobile, and getting to 1000 gold to get the better boat felt like pulling teeth
The scenes are pretty short for now so there is not a lot of tension or buildup to the otherwise nice erotic scenes

For things I'd like to see improved in future versions: if you want battling to stay as a gameplay, then it needs to give you xp to feel like you are still progressing in some way or gives more gold and there are significantly more equippable items available that do more than just give a flat stat boost to make the battles go a little faster. Mini games should give more gold so you don't have to spend as much time on them or they should be more entertaining as a gameplay mechanic. Even if it's playing blackjack at a gambling table or something I feel would be better than the current ones that have you click the screen mindlessly and intermittently. Hopefully this doesn't sound too harsh because I know the build is still early, just can see a lot of potential in this game and don't want it bogged down with clunky gameplay mechanics that bring down the fantastic art.

I played v 0.42

I quite liked this game. Great art, and decent story. Gameplay isn't bad; while combat is completely hands off, it has a few minigames to keep things interesting. Honestly, if combat isn't a focus, it kinda makes sense for it to be done as quickly as possible, so you can go back to enjoying the story and whatnot. I'm eager to see how the project progresses!

Review for Harem in Another World v0.42:

Overall: 3/5 - I am not a fan of RPGM, but I started liking this game until the combat and minigames started, then it just became painful to play. I assume there are players that like this type of gameplay, but it just feels to me like it was designed for 10-year-olds. The game needs to have settings to minimize the pain for players that don't like the gameplay style.

Story: 4/5 - Not enough of the story actually exists yet. So far, it's mostly a bunch of tiny side stories that don't contribute to the main story. The main story appears to be slowing unraveling a mystery around the MC and what little has been told so far is intriguing.

Writing: 4/5 - The writing is probably the best thing about the game. The English is good, the characters speak and think more naturally, and the humor is pretty good.

Renders/Art - 3/5 - I'd like to rate this higher, but I don't feel the art is what it should be for this game. The visuals during free-roaming are just default super low-resolution RPGM garbage. The art during scenes is good although the MC's penis looks like it's from an animal instead of a human. There's also some cheapness where each of the lewd scenes starts out with 15 to 20 lines of dialogue/narration with a black screen. It's cheap because it's obvious there should be 15 to 20 more frames of art in those scenes, but adding them would take more time and effort.

Animations - 4/5 - Animations loops are short, but they're smooth and they fit in well with the art style.

Sound: 2/5 - The music that plays during the game is usually annoying. The default RPGM sound effects are extremely annoying.

Gameplay 0/5:
- The user interface is the default RPGM UI which is terrible. It feels like it's designed for a game controller and it's just tedious to use on a PC. This game doesn't even provide a load option while playing, so if you want to load a save game, you have to exit to the main menu first. There's also no way to see how much money you have until you interact with a trader, which is really inconvenient [Edit: the dev pointed that the unlabeled number on the main menu is the MC's money, but still it should be labeled and on the inventory menu].
- Combat is terrible. Players spend their time trying to avoid enemies that can move at 2x or 3x the MC's speed while the player has only a small field of view. The only real combat strategy is to run away and avoid combat, but it's ridiculous with that small field of view and sheer number and speed of enemies. The combat itself is garbage. It's just 10 to 20 seconds of automated sound effects and mini animations of the MC trading blows with the opponent, but it's completely governed by a random number generator. The player can't do anything but wait until it's over. The payer can't even go to the menu and load a save game. Small animals like rats, bats, and scorpions are very overpowered and there are way too many of them. Players can buy "upgraded" weapons and armor, but they don't make a noticeable difference in combat. The only way to get through an area with many enemies is to carry a lot of health potions, but you can only carry 10, and in some areas that's not enough. To make matters worse, enemies respawn if you leave the area and come back.
- Navigation through the game world is terrible because there's no map. I'm sure the dev remembers where all of the people and locations are, after waiting 3 to 4 months for an update, I certainly don't remember.
- Earning money is grindy and boring. Players can find some money in crates and chests, and doing quests, but most money must be made by fishing or bartending. With a little practice, players can make around $100 to $150 per play of each minigame. Both games are boring. Consider that players need $5000 to do the bank quest and about $4000 to upgrade weapons and armor (which doesn't even seem to help), plus keep stocked with health potions that costs $70 each. Plus, thousands more to upgrade the castle. That's a lot of boredom.
- The Quest Log is sometimes OK, but it's also sometimes too vague and incomplete. For example, in the Horse Whisperer quest, it just says to catch the horse. After you catch the horse, it doesn't say you have to go back and get a reward, and the game kind of makes you not expect one since you are supposed to be helping the people to improve morale as part of another quest. Thankfully, a walkthrough is included, but... why not just put all that info into the Quest Log?

Content Quantity: 3/5 - So far, there's not much and the scenes themselves are short, but it's about average for the development time.

Content Quality: 2/5 - Scenes are short. They're too short to be very erotic. The game seems like it wants to go for the [text-based] tag. The scenes need more visuals and less of the blank screens with narration that reads like a cheap porn magazine.

Really good. I couldn't stop playing until I finished the version. The humor is on point, better than the average. Characters, dialogues and story aren't lame. Every quest made sense with the story and were fun. The gameplay in fights is good and fresh and I enjoyed the scenes too.

This is not a game for someone looking for a quick fap, it takes time to get into it and some of the puzzles are quite tricky. That being said when you do get into it the art and animation is great. This latest update (0.42) adds a lot to the characters and world. I think this game has great prospects. It still needs some more time to develop though. Seeing some of the default faces and enemies pop up can be jarring but they seem to be getting phased out over time.

Not enough games have this great hand drawn animation in them. It reminds me of what a legend. The art is so good I love. it. I like being able to build up the castle with the base building. I want to see more and that and maybe more customized things like you can choose decoration? Great game overall looking forward to more of it

Gameplay is pretty standard for rpgm. Art is very pleasing and scenes are pretty hot. Since it's a project early in development there sadly aren't many of those yet. I'm going to give this game a shot again once more updates are out.

Art 4/5
Story 3/5
Gameplay 2.5/5
Fapability 4/5
Originality 2.5/5

It's nice to play a game that doesn't take itself too seriously for once. Not everything has to be deep and dark its good to just have some fun. The art is great and the animation is really smooth. It's still early so I might downgrade my rating later but currently I think there is great potential and like where the game is heading.

I see a lot of potential here. Story might not be the best feature, but I find the characters and dialogues to be quite fun, and the art defenitely makes this game worth playing. The premises are good, and if the devs manage to improve the combat system and the minigames, as well as some other minor aspects of the game, I believe this one will be a really good playing experience. Can't wait for new updates, keep up the good work!

Game has a good set up. the art is great and so far still vanilla although you will encounter some events that seem not so vanilla. the world is easy to understand. combat system little different then other rpgm games very minimal and thats a good thing no selection all the time. I will update my rating as the game gets updated .

Story is boring, old and cliche. The jokes and memes just made me cringe. The battle system is not a battle system you just press a button and you either hit or miss and rats have this crazy amount of hit points for a damn rat. The battles are extremely boring and the rats run so fast you can't even use strategy to avoid them.

There is nothing noteworthy for the game at all.

Story/plot: boring
Combat: There is no combat system so boring
Humor: Just cringe not even funny stupid things like Shib to the moon and such

There currently isn't much here, as the game is in it's early versions, but I enjoy what is here. There are bugs and it's a little jank sometimes, but as far as I know it's one dude or a small team working on what I think is a pretty decent little game.

The art is good, the writing is pretty good, it's gotten a few laughs out of me. I don't mind a bit of a grind, especially if it's a fun grind, but the current grind (like fishing for money) is a bit much.

I recommend and I'll be watching this one with great interest.