HTML - Inner Empire [v1.69] [Defiant Explorer]

Review for update 1.2
ok, so currently I have only played one route. Despite that I want to leave a review some where.
tldr: This is one of the better text based narratives I have experienced, the characters have a stunning amount of character and it seems to have an well built world. In the end I highly recommend it.

Also despite it being obvious spoilers ahead, read at your own discretion.

The only route I have played was the redhead characters trauma backstory, and the writing was fantastic. I felt genuinely upset and an actual grunge form toward the slavers. Yet I also felt the characters fear towards them and understood well why she was fearful. (then again that may be because of my irl experiences idk and idc) I loved the intro to the town and the choices and I hope that the sister gets treated well, hopefully bought by a guy like the protag in teaching feeling. I can not wait to read more and and explore every nook and cranny of this game.
The things I did dislike was how there was a lack of choice in the choices. Which I assume will be remedied as updates are released so I have little worry in that. Another was the abilities, although I do understand what each means. It is a bit frustrating having three separate abilities for charisma. Although I also recognize the necessity for it in a text based game. This was remedied by the inclusion of points you could spend to make up for any lacking abilities .

All in all, I give this game a solid 9/10 for its true score and I hope to see what this develops into.

Review is for v1.2
Not really bad or good as of now. The beginning was excelent, going around exploring the town was *chef's kiss*, but once the traveling started, it became a railroad of boredom.
At the end of the day, I would say this is a good game, it's just not a game I will enjoy.

I agree with some players below. The game is too short for us to do a solid review. If we knew the story was actually linear and advanced it straightforwardly, the whole process would be around 20 minutes.

We must admit that judging something or someone with just 20 minutes of experience is inappropriate, especially when the author declares officially in the game it is now only 20% of the planned gaming. So, it is particularly NOT genuine and honest to give a game five or one-star review with that short experience. Hence I give 3-start(the median number); I think it could be an excellent game if the dev pays much more effort into it.

Pro:
1, The dev is ambitious to develop a massive story; 30% of meaningful reading is about the background, which feels a little irrelevant at this development stage(you can skip it, and it would not affect anything). I can feel a massive story has been brewing, but it needs much more time to be readable.

Con:
1, It seems you have a lot of choices, but none of those would lead to the story ramifications. The story is simply LINEAR.
2, many choices have no content; when you choose them, they would have no meaningful response or even no response. (bad gameplay)
3, The current story is actually very simple and boring: a girl wants to find her sister and joins a group of circuit performers. It is more like the premise of a story rather than a story.

So, the game/story hasn't even begun officially yet; I don't understand how some people could read "the greatest story so far".....anyway, best wishes to the dev; I think this could be an excellent game if she/he focuses on the game itself rather than other irrelevant/costly stuff.

One of the best writings i've seen, characters are good, and setting is quite unique or rare at worst, choices are plenty. What more can a person wish for? More content, yeah...

One thing that should be noted, it states [v1.0], but if i were to compare, it really is [v0.1] with how long it is, though i agree v1.0, v2.0 and so on for chapters just looks much better for F95 lurker's tired eye. Anyway, it can easily be described as a demo-version, since it demonstrates how it all works and what you should expect.

Now, for the most important part, dev part and potential - portraits look simple to make, great decision for the author. It will be easier to manage making new versions, without bothering too much with the artwork. One author usually has only one or two directions he's comfortable with, so it's good that the artwork wouldn't be an issue. It might avoid being abandoned at all, and it should be worth it to watch this thread.

There really isn't anything bad to be said about this demo. Nice job, will wait for the next versions for sure.

good writing, fun characters, would definitely play again. Hopefully they will increase content in the future! And not make to many varied paths if they can't finish them. It does seem very ambitious, but still the best text game on the site right now

From the initial premises, this game delivers on every aspects what exactly you would expect from a good text-based RPG, and I've played quite a few of them - adult and/or non adult theme, it offers interesting plot points and choices without getting too involved on said plots making it too confusing for the grand view of the story/plot points.

I have only praises and nice words for the game as I don't see any weakness/bad things from it yet, and sure I'm interested on seeing the game develop going forward, good luck.

An original idea, with some solid execution that stands out from the pack. The writing is excellent, with some surprisingly fleshed out characters even when they're there to fill stock roles, and a well thought out and interesting world based on historical civilisations. The gameplay seems to really understand what makes the text adventure genre fun and rewarding, unlike most NSFW attempts at it. This is a great start, and I'm very much looking forward to future updates!

I have to agree with other reviewers, this is very well done but I am also concerned that Inner Empire might be abandoned due to the incredible amount of content that would be required to fill this world.

But pessimism is no way to support content creators and when in doubt, for the accused. World building, narration, character design and RPG features are all top notch and I didn't feel that I miss out by not having more visual representation. It has enough visuals to flesh out my imagination and as an avid novel reader I don't mind HTML at all. The game does not shy away from difficult topics like war, rape and trauma and does not treat them merely as a kink either. You can start with a very very sad background story or find a more pleasant starting point for yourself, that's entirely up to you. From there it's basically streamlined sandbox.

Inner Empire could become a great adult RPG and I will follow the development very closely.

The game as it currently stands (1.0) is quite short but really promising and displays really interesting mechanics. I like the fact that it went for a RPG-style progression while having a story that always moves forward, thus preventing a grind.
The lewd parts were well written, I am not sure that I have seen them all or maybe all the tags aren't implemented yet (twins and rape for example).
Also we don't get Bronze Age settings that often and they will always get points from me, so I didn't hesitate too much before posting a 5*-rating.

Well, the writing is very good, the pictures/graphics are nice and fitting. The story is interesting and one wants it to continue. Furthermore the characters are well presented. But the "game" is VERY short. Ok, one can go through the different origins, sure. But for a "1.0" it feels like a demo with a add for Patreon/Subscribestar at the end. Probably it is really to be considered more as a chapter than whole game.

This was such a fun game. Very well written and the play scenes were just so funny! I didn't come across a lot of sexy stuff, so that is sad. But overall I had a great time with this. Please write a lot more!

Not only fun porn but a fun and actually interesting game. I'm honestly a little sad that I have to wait now to explore more of the world. The in depth and colorful character creation backstories is a particularly impressive touch .

I've got a couple problems with this game:
The tags and the version number are very deceptive - For 20 something tags there are only 5 sex scenes, that are not very descriptive and consists mostly of dialogues. And while the author tells you the game is at version 1.0 which gives the impression of a completed work - it is more like 0.1, there is only one chapter with about 20 minutes of content.
Another problem is the game is way overly ambitious, there are many origins and a large amount of texts that come with, as well as different dialogue trees according to these origins. There are also a lot of encounters that do not lead to scenes and only serve the purpose of worldbuilding which takes itself way too seriously. This sort of work much more likely than not end up being abandoned but we will see.

This game is really good, especially for a text-based HTML game. I recommend playing this game at least once.

The writing is really good; it isn't overbearing or lacking. It actually immerses you into reading what the game is about instead of you just clicking that blue link to progress through the story.

The world building in this game is very intriguing. The expositions are tucked away in a single hyperlink so you don't have to read through a wall of text all the time.

The humor in this game is also spot on. It's not trying too hard or a hit-or-miss thing. Same goes for the the dialogue and the event(s).

That being said, some of the dialogue choices are a bit... forced. That, however, will not stop me from being piqued and watching over the game.

As for character arts, I honestly do not care about whether some game has pictures or not so I do not really care. They do look pretty and good enough for the game.

All-in-all, this is a promising game, no doubt. Should the developer read this review, please do prioritize on progressing the story instead of fixing any minor issues that does not really break the game in some way or form. I saw and played a lot of interesting games such as this one and had their potential stripped away with endless bugfixes and "polishing" the same scenes over and over for the past 3/4/5 years.

- Good Writing: The way the writer tells the story is persuasive.

- Wide Customization: Although it's an early version, it has wide variety of customization options. It's also great to have conversation options added from the selected background.

- Artworks: not so good, however, it is still an early version, and it is not a disadvantage to compared to other advantages of the game.

- Has great potential to watch with interest.

So much time and effort went into this game and you can tell. There are plenty of character customization options for the character and how you play the game plus depth to the story, it's a bit odd but I like that.

Now that is something else. Loved this game from the very start. There is roleplay, but it doesn't mean checking your stats every time. There is worldbuilding, but no walls of text with boring exposition. The dialogues are great, the characters are believable, the story is engaging and doesn't just drop you in a consequence of endless sex scenes. A lot of attention to details like the threat of pregnancy, which is usually totally omitted in adult games, and that makes it all very realistic.
Looking forward for more and more updates, hope inspiration will not leave you, love your work.
Reminds me a bit about lots of story-driven RPGs, especially A Dance with Rogues module for NWN, I chose orphan background because of it.

I really enjoyed this first chapter. The mechanics of the game feel very well-thought-out and clean. The Skill check system feels intuitive and engaging (it reminds me a bit of Disco Elysium).

Overall, I liked the writing very much. The Dialogs feel authentic, and I enjoy that the Game does not hit you in the face with a wall of text. Instead, exposition is hidden behind hyperlinks. I first ignored most of them and could follow everything pretty easily. On my second playthrough, I was more interested and uncovered them all.

The game opens up with a noir feeling and a mature atmosphere (which is ironically untypical for adult games IMHO). The pacing of Lewd stuff is not over the top, and the player character response to that content feels like an aspect of the RP element and not just random sex scenes.
The content of the Story is pretty slim at the moment but nonetheless thrilling

The Character Artwork is not Brilliant, but it does help immersion and feels consistent. The Icons for Skill Checks are beautiful and well placed (informative). The Maps are neat (like from a well-prepared Pen and Paper Gamemaster) and give you a good understanding of space.

I will follow the Games updates with great interest.

What a pleasant find this game is! Text based, female protagonist, customizable personality, no combat and it seems pregnancy will be a major part of it as well. Interesting world building in the right dose, gritty and grounded without unecessary bloat or ott fantasy elements. Writing is pretty good too, evocative enough but still straight forward.

I'm very excited to see where this goes.

Looks good so far for chapter 1, I like the branching choices, and different origins which different paths available. If continued could have nice replayability; the art is limited due to being a text adventure but it is also decent. Exploration is cool for this adventure game.