RPGM - Horny Mage Academy: Dark Tower [v0.46] [HGameArtMan]

The animation is well-made. I get lost all the time with this big map, but I will say it's got potential, but over time you get confused about what to do after maxing out your character's abilities. Even if you try to beat the story, it just bugs out for some reason.


The main point of the first deal is to fix the bug.

It looks like another game not very good about Harry Potter, where GG Hermione. There's also 2 hours to figure out where to go, the map is huge, the quests are boring. I think the time has passed for such games. Now trending Unreal Engine, Unity
where the main character is a girl. Previously, yes, games in this genre were something new and I could study the map for hours and read even dialogues without missing. But now everything is the same and boring. But there are really good game projects. Moon RPG. The game is simply a masterpiece. Yes, there's not much drawing there. But when the team is working, it is visible. Here in this game I do not know how many people make the game. For 2 years of the project of this game, you can make a major update. It is better to draw pictures, work out the world, reduce the map, interesting quests. But so far, this game is only despondency and boredom

This game would work better in Renpy or Twine with button navigation. The aps are huge and sparse, which makes the gameplay loop uninteresting. I spend more time wondering where to go than actually playing. It's just not an engaging experience imo.

Art is pretty bad, not a lot of H content, pretty clunky and very unpolished. But well written, interesting and has a lot of neat features.
This might actually turn out pretty good if dev keeps developing this for 3-4 more years actively and gets someone to do art for him.

Several bugs/softlocks/??? within the first few gamedays, seems this is just not ready for prime time.

Maybe a walkhrough could help, but the in game guide is worthless and the direction or flow are non-existent.

Quit when the assignment said Study twice for Mana Manipulation and the when I tried it said " I have learned all there is on the subject".

Not sure I'd even call this a game in it's current state, more like a badly drawn Easter egg hunt with mini games that are full of bugs.

This is a decent game plagued by very anti-player design decisions. The most important thing a developer should consider is if a design choice wastes the players time. And, if it does, is the waste of time worth it? In the case of HMA : DT, the answer is a resounding no.

- Maps are huge. Absolutely massive. Also, the layout of said maps is eccentric. I'm guessing the developer was going for a Hogwarts-style setup, where the academy is confusing and hiding secret passages and secrets and blah blah. Instead, the way maps are designed makes the game a chore to play, and it never gets better.

- The secret passages and shortcuts aren't really shortcuts. Who has time to remember which goes where? Even the shortcut system wastes time.

- Game is a grind. Grinding grades, grinding items, grinding everything. This would be okay... if the very act of walking around wasn't such a huge chore.


Overall, this is a game that might have been good, but honestly I can't ever recommend it--- not now and not in the future. Regardless of the content added, it's unlikely the developer will go back make the Academy and other areas easier to navigate. The teleporters and etc. are band-aids, not fixes.

Extremely grindy and boring walking simulator. Maps seems to be huge for no other reason than to be huge and confusing. The characters even comment on this. 90% of the gameplay is a walking around as you are desperate to find content like it is an easter-egg hunt. I'll admit I only played 30 minutes but if a game can't spark interest in that amount of time it is a problem. I was forcing myself to play.

Pros:
-Good world-building.
-Interesting variety of Magic.
-Learning in classes actually felt impactful.
-Good amount of lore detailing the magic.
-Exploring is rewarding.
-You can get pregnant.

Cons:
-Too much grinding.
-Grind payoff is not worth the effort most of the time.
-Not that many activities aside from class, exploring, and side jobs.
-Can get boring and tedious.
-The Combat.
-Crafting felt wonky and if you're not careful it can move time forward even if you don't make anything.
-Can be glitchy.
-The Maps. There have been some changes but otherwise, it's still not player-friendly and looks quite empty.


Despite its flaws, I actually adore this game and looking forward to the dev to improve it (Especially the sex scene, please make it sexier).

(v0.23.3) I've been waiting quite a while for major updates that fix the glaring issues of the game (not player-friendly maps, etc) however we have not gotten it yet. Still hoping for the game to reach its potential.

Honest review here.

Here be a game that I've sunk many a dozen hours into. The attraction for this game is truly a wonderful mystery. Every time I expected less it somehow provided more.

That said, though, as of v0.15.2 the bugs present can still be quite game breaking so doubling up on your save files is highly recommended. Having experienced silly bugs from going swimming in uniform to the game completely crashing and corrupting save files simply by access the "Assignment" menu outside of a class door, it pays to be wary with this game.

The art style, I've seen a few critique here, personally I find is quite... cute? It's certainly something different but I certainly wouldn't call it a bad different. I truly hope the dev's keep the style the way it is, as it adds flavour. Sure we're playing an RPGM but with the way it looks it really helps to break away from that same look and style.

Aside from art style and bugs, though, the gameplay is appealing and rewarding. You'll likely find the various npc's to build relations with to be interesting albeit a little lack-lustre in terms of dialogue (small and easily remedied in later updates though). The various club's seem to be beneficial enough to be apart of and you'll find a good few things already have been laid out in preparation for even more additional content.

This game has a whole looks to have a lot of potential and I believe I'm not alone in this assessment. Absolutely looking forward to where this goes.

Happy gaming, folks.

Revised April 29, 2021

There is no clear ending yet. Game is still WIP. That aside, you can spend more than a few hours on this game.

Art: ~3/5
The art is steadily improving, there are still remnants of the past in the game.

Writing: 4/5
Occasional typos, and rarely redundancy in sex scenes.
There is a lot of lore for the mechanics and various classes/lectures in this game. The sex scene concepts are nice.

Fetishes: 4-5/5
There is pregnancy, prostitution, monsters.
If you search there is vaguely hypnotism and corruption.
This game is very consensual.

Gameplay: 3/5 but you can cheat if you want
The game played vanilla is very grindy, and if you think about it canonically, kinda dreary. You have to pay for tuition, balance jobs, study and do homework, while trying to balance an active sex life. The class system is very cool to learn new skills, and skill progression is very natural. It is one of the most unique things I have ever seen. But some classes can get repetitive, namely gym class. I would appreciate a skip button but I imagine that is limited by RPGM. The combat isn't as brutal as I remember it, but it does feel slower now as the basic arrow skill is nerfed.

But I myself prefer to find the debug stick and play on 'sandbox' mode.

Sound: 3/5
Standard for RPGM game

Stability: Tentative 5/5, 3/5 if considering historical trends...
So far in v 0.18.1 I have not had a dead save yet. I still recommend making mulitple saves though...

Overall this is a game I may come back to, as development is alive and well. I think there are at least a dozen sex scenes, but there a few easily repeatable scenes I do like.

I'm going to be completely honest to this developer right now, the game is nice. Obviously I can shit on the game like everyone else for the bad art, but it looks like you're improving, and I like that. Usually with high end artists you end up waiting months for them to finish their tasks on a game. I find it awesome that the developer is taking the time to learn to draw for his own game.

Someone complained about the maps being too big and confusing, I am sorry guy, but the developer provided a map with detailed explanations. So if you're still confused that's a personal issue, not a problem with the game.

I have yet to encounter a "game breaking bug" as well.

Honestly dev I give you a round of applause for your efforts. I can't wait to see your art improvements, and to give the community a great game.

This game has the potential to be one of the best rpgm.

Being a sandbox, it literally gives you freedom (not so absolute, but better than others that claim to be sandbox and are more linear than nekopara.

I only have two complaints.

1.-The illustrations, improve them.

2.-And you have more accessible the menu for the options. Honestly the first time I was playing it half asleep and I almost had a cerebral palsy that I did not understand what was happening.

You have a carbon in your hands, do not take this carbon badly, it is something that will help you a lot to work and if you work it well, you can get a very beautiful diamond.

The art is kind of hard on the eyes, but overall a game with a lot of potential. The crafting system does require you to use the wiki currently, but as with most in dev games you can't expect everything to be perfect on a first pass, nor can we expect every short coming to be fixed in one update. I really like how after the first semester the lessons you choose (or not) are mostly open, and for the ones that aren't the progression path to unlock them makes sense. I will definitely keep this on my watch list and wait patiently for updates.

Don't want to discourage author but... this is the rating for now.

1. Maps are mind bogglingly huge and confusing, takes forever to go anywhere interesting.

2. Art is kinda bad, if author keeps practicing might be good one day though.

3. Bugs, lots of bugs, including game breaking ones (when I triggered the first fight, with slimes, they just knocked me right outside the map and made the game softlock)

I forgot I had already played this game, and played it again...

4. EXTREMELY grindy, not just a little grindy, but EXTREMELY grindy, in 4 hours of gameplay I barely got anything done and saw only 2 scenes.

[UPDATED! (2020 Sept. 1]

The graphics are serviceable, but not great. The author is working on improving his skills, though, and there is progress.

Many of the maps are too large, but at least they have introduced a 'skip to class location' function in the morning. The combat is 'active' and when I first encountered a fight it was over too fast to know what I was doing*. It's a long time before anything interesting in the sexy way happens. Quite a few spelling mistakes.

There are a bunch of bugs, mostly minor some more vital, but the author does at least want to know about them and works on fixing them.

Note you can hold down the Z key during 'cut scenes' to speed things up a little.

* When you get ambushed you need to run and dodge right away.
Also, 'F' casts party spells, but when you are on your own press 'X' to cast combat spells.