Wolf RPG - Completed - Ice Heart & Jack'O [v1.11] [ya-ho-games]

I really enjoyed the game. It's a fun RPGM that rewards exploration heavily and has a lot of effort put into it.

It should be played as a game and not really for the porn - which to some that is an issue. The game is what it is and should be approached for what it is. It emphasizes exploration and game elements more than the porn elements. Like the previous title by this developer, the game is mostly about unraveling a mystery.
Your character finds themselves suddenly dead and reincarnated as a vengeful spirit after defeating the Demon Lord. The world around you has changed. There is a little girl missing. What is happening? What happened?

I think this is an enjoyable experience but it certainly won't be for everyone.

Jack-o would be a 3 purely as a game, but considering this circle's games, I would give it a 4. The game, in my opinion, is somewhat a better version of the previous princess Claire game and a somewhat worse Cecilia game. The map is too big compared to character sprites on map but way better when compared to what we got for Claire. But still somewhat a pain to interact and navigate. Story, as usual, is wonderful and the gameplay is great too, compared to the way too passive combat in Cecilia and too basic combat in Claire. H is, as usual, not really good.

The game in terms of RPG mechanics and story is 4/5, 9/10 for a H game. But for a H game in terms of H elements it's 2/5, or 3-4/10.

The games of this dev is EXTREMELY convoluted and appeals to OLD SCHOOL RPG fans since there are many hidden items in this game, hidden walls, secrets, etc that must be solved by the player without much of a quest marker (there are none) but you must rely on NPC dialogue and some NPCs can lie/misremember. The games of this dev makes the point about "don't be focused on your assumptions". For example is like you see a path, but that path is not always the correct way and there might be an entrance to a hidden place with even greater treasures.

The combat is very SMT (Shin Megami Tensei) like that you must utilize critting the enemy/ hitting weakness to beat enemies and most enemies will easily kill you if you don't know what you're doing/ your gear is bad. Once you get used to the combat/ get the better gears then you will easily beat/destroy enemies on normal difficulty.

In terms of the H scenes side, this game is extremely disappointing. Not due to the kinks but due to the extreme REUSE of CGs in the gallery/game. I think there's only like below 10-20 with lots of repetition in the terms of repeats/reuse (thus inflating the amount of "scenes" in the gallery.

There is a lockpicking "minigame" that is utilized for majority of the areas in this game but that is extremely shitty and badly implemented (it's based on skyrim lockpicking).

The story is TOP NOTCH mystery game story. The best part is figuring out the plot by yourself and piecing the story piece by piece. Getting the true ending is KINO (as most of this dev's game). So the basic plot of what makes the stories of this dev great is that the main plot point of the game is that "you" exist in the game as an outward interloper. An outsider that steers the path of the story into "miracle" territory. You control an avatar (a character in game) and make that character achieve "miracles" (things that are impossible to happen without "intervention from outside forces"). While the story of this game is great, I prefer the Cecilia game which is much longer and better story wise.

This game is very lengthy dialogue wise, and it's more of a gameplay/story type of game compared to H content/quality. There are many aspects of this game that is pretty eh... But in the grand scheme of things this is still a game made with passion.

TLDR: If you only want a quick wank, skip this game and just look at gallery or some shit or play some other game. But if you're looking for "unique" rpg game with unique gameplay/story then this one might be for you. This game is pretty hands off compared to modern games that are extremely hand holdy.

To me, this feels like one of those cases where the amount of effort put into a game is wildly disproportionate to the actual quality of the final product. Like, if we’re judging purely based on the time and energy that clearly went into this — sure, you could easily give it 4 or even 5 stars. But…

So yeah — as much as I respect the amount of work the developer clearly poured into this, I honestly believe a 2-star rating is fair in this case. The effort is there, no doubt — but the end result just doesn’t deliver.

Story is all over the place unfortunately. H-scenes don't feel impactful because you don't bond with the FMCs. Very average game, I had to stop playing after unlocking the CG room and seeing the scenes.

Short of it is: This is a potentially interesting non-H RPGM, but a very niche H-RPGM.

Bulk of the actual gameplay seems to be able to avoid most if not all H-scenes. As almost all H-scenes are either an outcome of being defeated in a fight or choosing to observe/making the wrong choice. I didn't fully confirm this but my playthrough and the full gallery suggests as much.

H-scenes are all heavily ugly bastard, very hardcore rape/ryona/hypnosis related. So if that's not your thing, there's nothing particularly erotic here.

As a standard non-RPGM it seems alright. Maybe a little grindy. A lot of text to read and apparent depth to the world...at least at a glance.

All in all, not what I was looking for and a 1/5 stars game for me based on not really having anything other than base character design that drew my attention. And doubtful it's what most are looking for. It seems like an okay RPGM game and a subpar H-RPGM game. To not knock it on personal preference and taking it as an assumption of "if this was my fetish..." probably still only worth around 3 stars