I don't really see the problem with that? The game was a complete experience back in 2021, even with the cut content.
Now, of course, I'm not a fan of how much content they've cut, especially for floor 4 (IIRC), but a lot of games release with cut content that never sees the day, especially Hgames. Is it bad? Maybe.
I'm not comparing Karryn's Prison to "low tier weaker quicker buck browser VNs", I literally said "most corruption games".
Also, no, unique mechanics was, and still is, a rare occurrence, look at actually released RPG Maker games for example, there's like 80% of them that are either the classic RPG Maker gameplay, battle fuck that works exactly like the classic RPG Maker gameplay, or simple CG galleries.
30 bucks isn't a AAA price tag, what are you even talking about?
Most big indie games are around 20-40 bucks, AAA price tag is 60-70 bucks, sometimes even more, and let's not talk about DLCs, or else we could easily go to 100 bucks or more.
If you want some comparison, you could go to DLsite and filter by pricetag between 3001-5000 JPY,
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.
Also, Karryn's Prison doesn't need 500 hours to clear, most people would probably do only one ending, maybe two.
Even if the market "changed", like you said, Karryn's Prison would still sell, it's a big polished game with unique mechanics, a good artstyle, and a lot of content.
Also, Meltys Quest is very different, yes, but it still helps with their popularity. People who liked Meltys Quest would very likely want to try out their next game, it's the same with literally every game company.
Since we're talking about sales, might as well include numbers.
According to DLsite, which have the highest confirmed sales for both games (by that I mean that it's the only place we have actual numbers, since Steam doesn't show sales numbers afaik) :
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sold at least 19,619 copies
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sold at least 45,521 copies
Despite the "completed" tag, Rem didnt make much effort to polish the game to make it seems so, like at least put a blanket over the void of supposedly cut contents, which normally for a developer, they would try their best to hide and remove what were supposed to be there, where it could have been, and one has to really dig the game files to discover them.
Not on the case of Karryn's Prison, Rem deliberately leaves all the cut content visible to the player everywhere, which means either one of two things:
1st Rem want to remind torment the players with all those beautiful things that was cut from the game.
2nd Rem is promising to reimplement them in the future, exciting the player to stick with and support the game, why would Rem want to smear his own game?
Of course you have to assume it's the 2nd, despite the "completed" tag, the game is nowhere finished which all those unremoved "under construction" sights.
You loads into the game, walk out the room, bam the nursing room right at your face, which you cant even enter, why is it even there? why didnt Rem just remove it? By not removing it what does Rem mean? Torture everyone by reminding them what they could have but never will?
next to it is the barrack, with a bunch of out of place and touch icons that you are supposed to click in to learn about the game because Rem couldnt bother to make a proper tutorial, and that is it? that's the entire purpose of the barrack? you get in there only in the very first playthrough and read for 5 min, then never return there forever after? No Guard activities? No manpower management? no Guard duty or patrol job? When was the last time you was there? Why is it in the game? if Rem remove the barrack it would take a year for anyone to notice.
You go in cafeteria, oh same thing, more reading, you get in only once in your very first playthrough and that's it, no prison gang food fight, no Karryn the cook, nothing
and Dont forget the Prison Yard, I was there, 2000 years ago.
I';; wrap it up in short because you get the ideal, game is nowhere comeplete experience and purposedly so. No night activities, no time mechanic, why wouldnt karryn be able to get to those rooms that are under control? why are hallways only the room with blacklights? why couldnt Rem bother to put some activities or pixel animating prisoners doing something in these room instead of locking them up after a riot? No Karryn the Smith, why would you have to hire a secretary, Karryn is literally one, why would you have to get in a fight to fix your dress? why is reseting pleasure bar during a fight way less riskier than masturbating? There was supposed to be more for the combat mechanic but like everything else, left with promises. There was supposed tobe something more than jacking up every stat of every prisoner late game, a goblin wasnt supposed deal 3 millon damage without even a crit and Karry wasnt suppoed to orgasm 99 times during a fight with 3 prisoners. And why is the game eats my 10gb of ram after 20 min of run time?
All of these are eyesorely noticable because the game wasnt polished and flesh out enough to fill up cut and undercooked features, which you would expect Rem to do something about way long ago.
More on that, There are less and less things to to, less contents, less polished and freshed out when you get to higher levels. Are you supposed to stop at level 3? why are the rest so underdone? Why wasnt level 4 cut? there is literally nothing there but graveyard of broken promises, it's a museum of cut content that noramlly a developer would straight up remove it. It's unenjoyable.
If you finally trim out all of the "cut content" that was left, Karryn's Prison isnt really that big and the game itself feels isnt that significantly unique, more like a dlc of Karryn's Adventure with a world mapon par with other similar rpg maker games outthere, your average run takes 100 hours not because of all the contents it has but mind numbing repetitive grindy antiplayer, (or antifun to me) mechanics, or someone here previously described as "soul crushing", as the bar job can only be enjoyable for the first 100 times back to back on repeat every run, well Karryn's isnt the only one doing this so a pass I guess. Still the game is really on par with others on the market, it stands out and gained a fanbase because of the release date when people was in their worst time imaginable.
$30 is a price tag for aaa game, a sizable game, even in 2021 standards, yes there are also $40 and $70, Indies arent supposed to be big, and when they are, all their games are sopposed still to be around $15, example of which is stardew valley or graveyard keeper, which are way bigger game with bigger contents way better experiences, with half the price to Karryn's, Yes it is 2 different genres, but there's alway an objective meter in that, you can say adult contents worth the difference in prices.
Actually there are estimations of total sales for steam, owners of the game are numbered up to 200k (they outsold payday3)
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Which is very respectable, must be a really good game right, if you judge on popularity?
We do agree Karryn's is a good game, just have differences on how good the game is.
Here I show you another game, which I believe you will be with me on that this game is nowhere near Karryn's Prison and there is way less things going on for it, there gonna be 2 different genres and all, but still there is an objective. And this game was released last year on september 2023 and is on its way to outsell karryn's prison with 185k sold
Genesis's Order
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I only knew how popular this game was because of a post on top popular games on fitgirl repack and this game was there next to Baldur Gate's 3
They have respectable concurent playerbase on par with Karryn's too
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They will outsell Karryn's released on 2022 with this rate
It doesnt matter because dev of this game NLT Media did also released a game at the same time with Karryn's, not in middle of chrismas 2021 to become some kid's present, but in feb 2022, and it sold 580k, which is triple amount of Karryn's sold
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Same with Rem, they did made a less successful game like meltys quest and released in the middle of covid and gained a massive fanbase. but people's horniness is no way to rate how good a game is.
Unlike karryn's these game has norpgm mechanics, nothing, they have a world building and adventure going and all but in short just a interactive gallery.
3d animations, and bad at it, one can argue that each games has like 300 scenes while karryn rinse and repeat for 500 hours with 20cgs, but yeah you get it.
and all, you get the point
In short despite all that they are somehow way more popular and sold way more, in fact NLT sold the same game 3 times and people still pay $20 for each, they arent the only one, there a ton of others outsold these with way less efforts of a game.
and If I go to their page and type something like this,i'm gonna get bombarded with comments also saying how unique and awesome the game is.
Unless you disargee with me and say There something more to Treasure of Nadia (cough) than Karrn's Prison, then I dont know what to tell you. if they had no fanbase from the pandemic to built upon, you cant convince me they would still sell like that in 2023.