Java - Labyrinth of the Forgotten Goddess [v1.36.1 - Full] [Andrew Gray]

this review is for v1.35.0

I can't give a very in-depth review considering the game began severely bugging out and glitching just going through the tutorial level until it crashed as soon as I tried minimizing the window, but even considering the fact that it was making my CPU work overtime from the moment the game started playing, I can only advise against anyone playing this as it will just rapidly degrade your computer parts unnecessarily considering it's a very low quality image game (seriously, Apex Legends runs better than this game).

As for what I was able to experience of the game before it glitched itself into oblivion, it is very clunky and poorly formed with many functions either not working properly or just are poorly explained.

The concept is nothing new, but the implementation, design choice, and chosen game engine landed it sorely at the bottom of my considerations for something playable.
If the whole thing was remade in literally any other engine, it would work better, and I would even go as far as to say that just turning it into an HTML based text adventure game would work better than the absolute processing hog that is Java, especially since 90% of the game as is is done in the tiny text box, with the only things not being relegated to text being the map movement (which is extremely clunky) and the images on the left and right of the screen.

As for the limited amount of gameplay itself, it is literally just "walk to a spot, do an action until the desired result happens, then move somewhere else." So it literally could just be a text based game that doesn't use insane amounts of memory for no reason.

The amount of text in the game is also plagued by typos and grammar issues, which is really unfortunate because the game relies almost entirely on the text to convey what is happening.
I'd put the writing quality somewhere around the level of Zork...which is not good considering that game came out in the 70s.

TLDR: avoid this game unless it gets switched to a different game engine or you have an insanely powerful computer with hybrid cooling and a ton of personal patience for an overly complicated text focused adventure game.

Let me tell you, the seeds of a good idea are here. This game really does want to be good, and provide a good H-Game experience. The problem lies in it's unfolding complexity and poor choice of engine.

Labyrinth of the Forgotten Goddess has you exploring the titular labyrinth in a take on classic 90s dungeon crawlers that includes a decidedly kinky bent. You have the option to physically or sexually defeat your enemies, and the game favors the latter. The equipment and magic system is pretty robust, the combat is amazingly complicated, and the growing array of monsters are interesting and in line with many of my fetishes.

So why three stars?

Because Labyrinth is very much a 90s dungeon crawl. The interface is intuitive to people not familiar with the system, the game is really poorly optimized, causing bugs and glitches galore (which the dev is dutifully squashing but again, you choose Java as your engine), and the text is doing the heavy lifting here. Now, normally I'm fine with that, but the text here is not at all descriptive as to what's happening to you, requiring a heavy investment of imagination.

Likely a large part of the reason for this is there's a pretty wide array of fetishes on play here, including the ever cherished Bodypart and item TF. It's wonderful to see the variety, but the feature creep does mean not a lot of it is very well explored.

For what you're getting, there would have been better ways to go about it. The developer gets credit, though, for sheer breadth, and many fetishes you've sorely missed from other games can likely be found here, once you learn to navigate the system.

[v1.34.0-Full]

The game is pretty interesting with can happen and events. However, the gameplay is where I feel, lacks the most. The control mechanics are pretty basic and easy to figure out, but the gameplay itself is difficult. It's turn based, as in after you make a move, everybody makes a move. You start off defenseless and at level 0. There's hardly any to no weapon you can find to aid in defense/offense. Understanding that is a kinky orientated game, but I would like to be able to have a fair fight against supernatural targets/anomalies. Trying to fist fight an enemy that has magical powers on the first level is a real pain when you're just trying to progress through the level. I've had the problem of getting easily surrounded, a spell casted on, or got easily seduced. It's pretty unfair if you're trying to keep your character clean. Somethings will just happen to your character, even changing your form, just because an enemy nutted on you. I wouldn't have a problem with this, if there a proper defense against this happening to you.
Using kink/sexual/lewd acts is a way to fight, but it seems impossible to not fight that way when your character gets seduced too quick. The combat can be pretty unforgiving at times. This game does have an interesting concept and it's not mainly text based, but it is a bit janky with some scripts. The events where something sexual happens to you doesn't necessarily give you a visual, as it tells you in text. I do like the game for its concept, but I believe the gameplay can be better and use more balancing, especially when trying to play on Easy

Very janky but probably the TF based game with the most freedom given to the player.

It's glitchy as fuck, and it tends to freeze a lot. But if you have a good computer it's playable I'd say.

I don't think I ever came across an actual game with TF as a core mechanic, and I'm very excited to see where this will go. Of course, a good polishing is in order.

One one hand this is the most instigated game ever made, if you have played games like trap quest, is like that, but then you will realize that almost all of your run will end up with you stuck in a loop.
Example: one enemy converted you in a doll, after you defeat her you return back to normal but you are surrounded by teddy bears that they stun you. you cannot move or doing any action because you are stuck.

There are also some things they do not explain, like why one of your body part suddenly grow up and UI is not the best.

It's pretty rough right now, but I see a lot of potential in this game, very buggy and I cant even close the game through anything short of task manager. I really look forward to seeing the progess this game makes; it's got a long way to go methinks.

My biggest praise for this game; and I never thought I would ever say this, is that it reminds me of a *really old* game called "Duamutef's Glorious Vore RPG" that I used to love; as it stands it is about as polished as that game used to be, and I feel it may even be vaguely inspired by it. I dont even think Duamutef's Glorious Vore RPG is still playable outside of the Windows XP operating system, so I really look forward to seeing this game reach completion.

4/5

Edit for current version of the time of this edit, 1.34.0 I think.
The UI and stability changes ive seen since I made this review make me even more excited! Still has a long way to go though, I reluctantly give this an extra star.

Rev @ Labyrinth of the forgotten Goddess [v1.26]

Has as much potential as it has complexity, but has the polish of a .126 release rather than a 1.26.

Art's mixed, repurposed RPGMaker chipset and realporn gifs of various qualities. Some of said gifs are offputting to me personally, but that's very subjective. They're also squirreled away in a corner of the screen and almost hidden, which makes the filesize feel wasted.

Writing isn't a thing and doesn't need to be. Might be fun to add a more structured scenario editor for us controlled TF fans later on in the dev cycle.

Porn's golden if you're a pure TF enthusiast. I'm not, so some of the kinks on offer are misses for me personally. Viewer results may vary.

There are quite a few annoyances with gameplay: I wish the UI was movable or a bit more tidy, especially with the gif presentation. Pickups randomly vanishing is a bit bwuh, and the true random nature of the TFs and curses makes everything feel disconnected and inconsequential. Unfortunately I don't have much for useful suggestions for fixes, just the observation that Somethin Aint Right Here.

TLDR: Great start, godspeed.

Putting 3 stars would be rude, and 5... unfair.
I've played for an hour and it confirms what I think... a lot of mechanics, a lot of complexity, and being in such an early state the game is unable to demonstrate its full potential at a technical level and at a content level.
No pros or cons for now, it's too early and if you like complex things, give it a try.
See you in 1 to 2 years.