I personally don't like female protagonist h-games as I hate playing as a hyper slut or as rape bait. I don't understand the mentality of wanting to play as that as a man. As such, I wouldn't have touched this game until I read about the gameplay and the moaning/bitching about how hard the game is.
You see... This is more a game to me than an h-game. A fairly addicting one at that. Sure there is h-content, but it's almost always grotesque and hardcore rape. Not my cup of tea and I'm sure it isn't most peoples. The h-content feels more like a worse-than-death punishment. So when I'm playing, I feel like my goal is not to see all the sex scenes, but to protect Lona. If she falls I feel like I failed her, which drives me to play smarter. This is what I mean by it playing more like a game, because normally your goal in h-games is to see all the scenes.
At no point in the game did I ever feel powerful. However, through your experiences as a player and through acquiring traits, you will slowly start to overcome obstacles. Indeed, player experience in this game is much more potent than in-game experience. While Lona is by no means a powerful warrior, I slowly turned her into a grizzled guerilla soldier. While I can't stand toe-to-toe with the fat ugly bastard 3x her size, I can instead throw a rock at his head and lead him through my Viet Cong hell of spike, arrow, and boulder traps. Then smack him in the back to stun him and lay down more traps to repeat the entire process again. In a way, LonaRPG is a game that plays to human strengths of ingenuity, tool use, and tactics. Strength alone will not save you as strength can be wasted on the foolish. That is why a gorilla ends up beings locked in a cage. You will need to learn how to carefully approach things no matter your class.
I would have played this game even if there was no h-content, but with the way the market is I probably would've never found this if there wasn't any. I'd put this game up there with LISA in terms of fun & unique RPGmaker games. It is dark and difficult yet has little bits of humor tossed in. It also feels rewarding when you overcome the unfair circumstances. I'm glad I played this game and while I know these types of games aren't for everyone, it's respectable that a developer kept committing to their idea and ignoring the criticisms. Even more respectable that they first put in the goal and ending in the game before adding all the extra shit as that's something a lot of developers don't do nowadays which cripples their game in the long run because they bloat it so much.
LonaRPG is a difficult game to rate. It certainly isn't average. The developer has clearly spent a lot of time and care on making the game refined to their vision. The only problem is that vision is questionable.
The world is meant to be gritty, dark, and unfair. But that doesn't really make for a fun game. Everything is out to beat the crap out of the main character. Walk around town? Meet some thugs that beat the crap out of you. Walk outside of town? Meet some undead that beat the crap out of you. Try a job in the tavern? If you fail, get the crap beaten out of you (and the job is an absurd you either succeed and get paid or get beaten).
This would be fine on its own, but every aspect of the world is grindy, repetitive, and mind-numbing. You have to constantly manage your hunger and stamina, neither of which regenerate on their own. Stamina is annoying, in a very bad way. It consumes hunger to replenish, and you literally have to stop moving for a good bit just to fully replenish it as you use your Rest skill multiple times. Hunger is worse. You have to constantly feed Lona and make sure you have an absurd amount of food in your inventory. No anime character holds a candle to how much Lona eats. Oh, and if you happen to run out of food and your hunger depletes, it's a very, very slow slog to anywhere, even though that 'where' is normally a bad end.
This is all made worse by the fact that if you want Lona to ever be anything beyond a defenseless child you will need to grind the crap out of trait points and money. Meaning, before you grind yourself into oblivion, Lona can do exactly squat in combat.
The developer has achieved their goal. LonaRPG is a dark, gritty, unfair game. However, it's mostly just unfair. And grindy. So grindy.
As for the good, well, you can judge for yourself about the art. The game is at least trying its own style with RPGM. It's very polished in a number of ways, visually, but that doesn't really fix the dumpster fire that is gameplay for me.
Oh, and for those who care, Lona is a bleeding virgin. Even for her arse.
First of all, content warning. This game can get VERY messed up.
That said LonaRPG is a very unique game that blends the dread of your own mortality, with the harsh reality that you should still strive to not meet your end too soon if you can help it.
While I can't say I've played a whole lot of this game, as I simply don't do well with harsh and unforgiving game difficulty, I have to say this game as an RPGM game is very impressive.
With good is a bit gross and unsettling art, fairly decent if hard to follow story lines and mechanics, it is very easy to say this game IS NOT for everyone and that's okay.
This game has all sorts of content, some of it toggleable (mostly just the scat and piss content as you're character is literally hungry and needs to eat or risk starving to death). Monsters, pregnancy, shit, bizarre piercings, pissing, etc.
So can you nut to it? It depends largely on what you're into, and ranges from yeah probably to hell no you'll probably gag instead. If blood is too much for you, probably not.
Is it worth playing for the gameplay or the plot? Yeah I'd say so. Rare that I can say that, but LonaRPG is truly unique in that there probably really isn't anything quite like it. If you enjoy challenging, brutal grim dark settings, with a goal of just surviving (as far as I can tell) then sure. Its interesting use of the RPGM engine is rather unique and if the content doesn't bother you its definitely worth a try.
7/10 unique, brutal, unforgiving, maybe a bit too messed up for the faint hearted, but worth a shot if you can look past that.
AA tier | good art , good mechanic , good story , very sandboxy , decent playtime length , replayable , good sfx too. still , a lot of thing and contents can be added. gives out a lot of unique experience even though it runs on rpgm
The game is great!
This game is beautiful not because of the hentai, but because of the story, the atmosphere, the gameplay! The drawing is great!
This is the erotic best game, there is no better game yet!
One of the best, complex, and elaborate survival RPG Maker game on the internet, even without the H content. In this game, you'll learn how painful it'll be to survive as a lonely orphan in a hostile grimdark fantasy world, and why we need (an army of) Goblin Slayer in that world.
While the learning difficulty is steep, the content of this game is huge enough (way too huge, even in it's unfinished state, at the moment of writing) that it could spawn several knockoffs for a quickie (looking at you, you half-assed "finished" RPGM eroges).
For those who doesn't have the luxury to learn the mechanics and just want to play it for fun, it's recommended to use the Cheat Mod, you'll need it.
And for the rest of you degenerates, remember, dying is fun.
On my top 3 for sure, wish there was more games with such good detail such as this one, the bruising and getting dirty are 2 examples of how very unique and very good this game is! keep up the good work!
Games got a steep barrier of entry. But once you learn the mechanics its actually a solid game and doesnt need the sex to make it good, the hentai is an extra bonus.
At this point, I'm playing to become the most powerful being this island has ever seen. The sex is great, mind you, but this game has rich plots, hilarious cameos and references, stealth mechanism and fucking achievements to unlock! You really don't skip all of that to go prostitution, just no!
Man, this game is great. And i can write a bunch of paragraphs about how this game is great and all(and i only played it for a couple hours). But i won't, it's already been done by the people more competent than me.
So that said, stealing is fun, traps saves lives, and my only complaint is that it's not a finished game yet.
P.S. Found a fun money exploit. You can keep stealing money from central square guards as long as you want. A literal life saver, considering how brutal the early game is.
one of the best hgames out there, it's on the hard side but it's enjoyable (at least for me)
it's a hgame where you dont want many of the h side of it cause it gives you a disadvantage or might kill you outright
the only downside of this game it's still has content update, cause you have to start over again everytime there's an update(there's always bug when i transfer saves from prev version to newer)
Nice gameplay and its hard, You need to think carefuly and fast, You can die easily in this world, This world is big and has many mystery. The art is good and has many way to play. Hope the gamewill update more, I Love to see Lona in Armor. The game has some easter egg tooo
guro dark atmosphere and nice gameplay, worth to play or try at least, definitely one of the fun rpgm out there, really loves it, cant wait for full release and more content added on the future updates
I love the dark setting, despite such setting not being my cup of tea, and the gritty, uncaring world it presents and the damage system. I really, really, want to love and play this game to my hearts content (in private of course) BUT.
Tha bad (which unfortunately overshadows the good):
The fights are unfair, not hard like dark souls, and there is a difference between hard and unfair. An unfair game punishes you for things you can't control.
Maybe it's not my type but combat is way too fast and too restrictive with a cumbersome control, where you're more likely to miss because the enemy moved out or dodge, wasting stamina, with little or too fast cues. And I find it impossible to dodge since the enemies attack too quickly, not to mention how damage is too low most of the time. If combat was slower or gave more leeway to allow the player to calculate while in combat it would significantly improve.
This is compounded by the stamina system, which sounds like a "good on paper, bad in practise". I find it rather stupid/unfairly limiting that every action outside of walking, picking up stuff, and running out of combat costs stamina, which consumes food and takes a few seconds to replenish, where you can be interrupted. Thus half of Lona's space needs to be filled with food and also making combat a further slog, since you would go into a death spiral since its next to impossible to regenerate stamina in battle. I feel that a regenerating stamina bar, like dark souls, which cap decreases until you rest, which consumes food, would be better.
The grind. I feel that it takes too long to level up once you reach ten, especially since the higher perks are way above. Leading to.
The restrictive skills. Why in the heck must we invest three and eleven levels to sneak and cook respectively. Basically, every guide says that taking the alchemy skill is first priority but that kind of contradicts the multiple playstyle angle since a vital skill is locked behind ten levels, thus needing to grind a few levels before you can truly play the style you want. I think it would be better if Lona can cook but only basic, barely efficient, food with alchemy improving the food and allowing potions. It would allow more playstyle exploration without unfairly handicapping the player.
There is also little reason to pursue the more dangerous quest as grinding the safer ones would be enough to get out, and little reason to help.
It's these mechanics that make it hard for me to like the game.
Personal nitpicks (I'm fine if these aren't implemented, except the first)
More outfits. Since there are only four sets despite Lona having slots for top, bottom, and shoulders.
I hate that all sex is rape or basically rape. And would personally like it if there could be a scene or two, likely hard to get, where Lona can have consensual sex with someone whose kind and/or loves her, where she is truly happy in the encounter. Leading to.
Love interests. For a combination of worldbuilding and to show Lona (and players) that not everything is doom and gloom, there's still hope, and a happier ending if she leaves with them. And also give an extra challenge if the players wants them to leave with Lona.
Again. I would like to play this more but the combination of fights being too fast and restrictive, the need to grind for a vital skill, the general grind which feels way too much, and controls being too cumbersome to use in fights severely drops the game rating for me.
It's a good game, if niche in taste (trust me when I say that you should not play it if you can't stomach rape and/or gore), that I want to play more but dear gods does it need more polish/rework.
Edit: Thanks to the update that makes cooking a default skill I bumped it up. But the combat really needs a polish and/or rework, especially since its one of the focus part of the game. Because real time combat using button prompts, direction, and needing to press a second button to change direction makes the combat unfair and unnecessarily teeth-grindingly clunky unless you have the APM (action per minute)/reaction time of an RTS esport player. Not to mention the enemy can dodge by simply choosing to walk in another direction for no reason. But I do love that Lona can now leave with Cocona (I think, I've only heard about that part)
TLDR for the combat: Either make the controls a hack-and-slash without needing to change directions or make it similar to nethacks where the enemy only moves when you move. Trying to make a turn-based esque directional system with key assigned abilities with real-time movement and attacks is absolutely horrible
This game is unforgiving, brutal, and will destroy you every single second you play it. This game does not and will not pull any punches. It will smash you into the dirt and throw in a few goblins in there to utterly rape the shit out of you. Yes, I died oh so many times trying to learn this game. Even with cheats I died (Don't ask me how... I am just that creative lol). And I am talking about the easiest difficulty... This game does not hold back at all... and I love it for it.
I'm the type of degenerate that likes the added challenge of attempting "pure" runs in hentai games (it's kind of my fetish now), and boy did this game give me a rough time trying to keep my precious Lona from those filthy creatures (basically all monsters and men in this game...). This is hard but it is fair. If you don't want to bother yourself learning this game inside and out but just want to explore the world (this game has a really interesting world to explore with lots of secrets) and find collect some noice art (Literally), play with cheats. Trust me... even with cheats you will find ways to fuck yourself over. If you want to play this game vanilla, I bid you good luck and not even god can save you in this game.
Enough rambling around haha, onto the actual review. I will be reviewing the game for certain things and be giving it a separate rating for each one. Visuals, content(story), gameplay, controls/jank, and fappable.
Visuals: 5/5 - Unique. Horrifically grim atmosphere that fits perfectly with the tone of the game.
The game's visuals fits the tone and theme of the game so well. It is almost like darkest dungeon but with its own spin. This game is not the prettiest to look at (Like I don't think you call monsters and bunch of gore, scat and god knows what else, pretty...), but the style of it just fits it so perfectly and just absorbs you into the game. The art is amazing and the pictures of the girls and some scenes are so well drawn, its perfect. There will be images that is disturbing to look at, but that is the point. The game wants to show the brutality of the world and it does it so well with its fucked up art. But it also shows some sexy/hot scenes that just take your pants off and start fapping.
Content: 4.5/5 - Loads of content and suffering to be had.
This game is a massive game. Massive as in there is a lot of content to be explored and you can easily sink in hours at a time because of how well the game immerses you into its world. For some, this game will provide an experience you will never forget, but for someone like me that explored the depths of hell(aka the internet) and back, this game is nothing ground breaking. It is just really well polished and explores the darker side of humanity and its demons.
This game is a sandbox with various missions and plot points that you can explore. Some of the missions, the repeatable especially, are just fetch quests of, oh go do this and go do that. Nothing special. But some of the missions are entertain as hell. I don't want to talk about specifics, but you get some plot twists here and there, and meet new and loveable companions that you totally didn't kill during your first play through.
The characters here are nothing special either. But again, really well polished. There is the generic npc that is just there to fill in space and then there is the named characters that have important missions or plots. And then there is the precious gem of a character that you must protect with all your might or else you fail humanity.
The game has a lot of small details that you may or may not have known about during your first few play throughs. Some things might be rescuing female victims from lairs and being rewarded for it, exploring the area of the map before interacting with anything, and etc.
Gameplay: 5/5 Unfathomable difficulty and Complexity.
This game has a slight learning curve *Cough cough Sarcasm*. There are many ways you can play and explore the game. You can play as a stealth assassin that back stabs the shit out of everyone, or a balls to the walls warrior who chugs a butt load of drugs to sustain herself in battle, or the cowardly mage that can't do shit early on but totally slaps once geared, or the most common, a coward that lets your companion do all the heavy lifting (90% of the early gameplay experience unless you know what you are doing).
This game has 5 things the player must always monitor: Health/current state, Stamina, Hunger, Mood, and Inventory/gear.
Combat is a major part of the game and the game handles it pretty well for the most part. Besides some radical AI movements, the combat is pretty straight forward with preparation being key to success.
You can play as a gallant dumbass who charges in dick first (wait Lona got no pp...) and gets hit a lot and most likely dies... or the much more smart option, being sneaky like an assassin and targeting isolated targets by smacking them in the head and assassinating them using back stab which most of the time 1 hit KOs weaker targets... or the "Ready Perfectly" hunts(wo)man who places down a shit ton of traps before engaging the enemy (works every time *as the enemy steps on the 9th trap I set in front of them*). Or heck, you can even be a mage with broken ass spells but that is totally useless during close combat(Honestly, mages are probably the most broken combat class you can pick as it is weak as hell but also strong as hell. They tend to be mostly supporting type of combat class, but they pack a real punch but also deadly to their friends as well...)
Bringing a strong companion to help with your adventures is very much advised as some companions are down right broken given the right situations. And because companions have their own hp and stamina pool but no hunger, you don't need to worry about your companion that much because as long as you leave the current map and go into the next map, your companion is fully recovered(Unless they died...)! Also, companions are excellent meat shields for those times when Lona has no stamina during a random encounter!
Cooking and Brewing potions is also nice way to reward players for learning how to use that system and get away with cheaper and self sustaining methods of feeding Lona and free emergency potions for whenever. If the player also knows how to farm certain areas of the map for natural resources, the player can easily sustain him/herself outside of any town/city for an indefinite time.
Experience is pretty easy to come by as literally any action gives you exp. However, the quickest way is probably via quests which gives you lots of exp. But do be warned as quests with bigger rewards tend to be much more risky compared to their easier smaller rewarding counter parts. The difficulty of the quest is linked to the reward amount most of the time so it is not much trouble judging the difficulty of the quest.
The stealth in this game is very fun as it is never unjust or unfair. The rock throwing skill is the single most used skill in this game and the most useful one as well. From triggering traps to luring enemies to certain places, it is the single skill that made the stealth in this game fun. Especially when you learn the layout of a certain map and patrol routes of the guards and pedestrians, robbing a certain place can be very rewarding as you can steal from this place constantly because you mastered when to move and where they cannot see you with perfectly timed rock throws. The game never forces you to use stealth but stealth is heavily recommended as it lets you avoid pointless stamina/hp drainage (and potentially items).
Traps are annoying, but necessary as it will keep the player from running dick first into danger. It is so frustrating to step on a trap as they just shred through your hp bar, but it is also so satisfying to use those very same traps on the enemy and just destroy the crap out of them with it. Of course when going through a place full of traps, the player should take his/her time taking each step to make sure Lona does not step on another one.
The enemy diversity is alright as there are armored enemies, shielded, ones with swords, ones with bows, ones with guns, ones with magic, etc. But most of the humanoid ones share similar enemies with some changes here and there per race. The one enemy that is vastly different from its peers is the flesh demons. Those nightmares are very different and alien compared to anything the player might have known, and I love it for that.
Controls: 4/5 Polished for what it is made on.
The Controls are great for a game restricted with 4 angles of movement. However, because of the game being restricted with these 4 angles of movement, it loses a lot of freedom and restricts the player and makes the combat kind of janky time to time. If you are not use to it, the enemy unit's hit box (when transitioning from one tile to the other) is quite deceptive as their hit box remains in their current tile for a certain amount of frames but is moved onto the next tile for the other, leading to an inconsistent hit boxes. The units also have collision so units generally do not over lap... except they do... this can lead to a cluster fuck of units of enemy or friendly and sometimes both, leading to an accidental hit of friendlies, making them aggro you as well. But don't get me wrong, most of the time, the controls work perfectly well. When you learn how Lona's movements work, you can move and do an action at the same time. This helps with combat when you are chasing down a fleeing enemy or stealth missions when time is tight and you need to move and throw a rock at the same time.
The player can also customize his/her own hotkeys and keybinds to however they like (a god send for any hentai game to have) and has limited hotkey placement for skills. Though I wish you could place more hotkeys for skills, I am glad that the creator had the foresight to see that keybinds were going to be a must. With Lona having 3 main combat moves per weapon combinations, the combat controls is not that hard to grasp after a few trial and error. I just wish we had more hotkey slots for skills but that is just wishful thinking. What we have now is mostly fine.
Fappable: Not really.../5
(Meme category)
Yes, the art and visuals are great, but the game is not designed for "fan-service" but more an rpg with heavy sexual themes in it. The game doesn't really go out of its way to please the player. Its more that the game's themes and content is very sexual. Sure the art is great and some scenes, I probably did fap to as well, but most of the time, you will not be fapping to this game. You are welcome to try, but good luck.
Final Verdict 4.7/5 (5 for the review cause I can't give it a 4.7)
The game right now is polished and has a lot details the player must learn to enjoy what it has to offer. This game is not meant for the casual degenerate that just wants his/her quickie session. This is a game meant for those hardcore RPG fans that wanted a Dark Souls experience. This game is fair. It will try to cheat you time to time, but the player can also cheat it whenever he/she desires.
If you are a casual player that doesn't want to learn the game's deep mechanics and interactions, I highly recommend playing with cheats. Heck, even I got into this game playing with cheats in the beginning cause the tutorial killed me. Even with cheats, you will find ways to lose... trust me you will... There are mods with convenient cheats such as god mode and summoning items/npc/mobs to help you out if you want as well.
There is a lot to explore and a lot to do in this game. It is not the usual fan-service game but a proper rpg with adult aspects to it. Play it at your own risk. Hard difficulty (the easiest vanilla difficulty) is the intended difficulty and is very much playable. If you need a easier time, there are mods to make the game easier. There is also a guide to help with learning the game as well.
I wish you all well, and sorry for this wall of text haha. Ima go start my doom play through now haha. Wish me luck and may god somehow save Lona from this cruel fate.
So this game, as I see seems to get some hate, usually on more of the extreme side, where either someone likes it, or not.
I have a feeling most people didn't come to jerk off, but to play this game like an rpg, of course with the art as a bonus.
To keep it short:
What makes the game good:
- Detailed, Captivating Art (For mostly everyone)
- Attractive, organized GUI
- Tough game, but with some time, not too much can play it well enough.
- Uses the systems of the game well, like hunger stats, survival stats etc. (Realistically)
-- Can't put it into words, but playing the game will answer stuff you might have
What Makes the game bad:
- During random encounters in the map rng's horrible, Sometimes you can escape, sometimes you can't, no stats to keep that into account?
- Tough game, some might not like it.
I listed some objective parts of the games good/bad aspects, personally, to me the game is nice, I like how we're able to use the weapons, traps, the battle encounters, although annoying sometimes it's fun, since I keep playing it.
Also! Just because what I say doesn't mean the game is good or bad, it's up to you in the end and how you handle it! Most of us say it's good, so the handles/controls must be adequate, all that's left is for you to give it a try!
I'd also like to point out, from what I've seen, mostly everyone likes the art, the only issue seems to be some of the controls, enemy AI's, and random encounters.
In the end you are the judge, and you can't judge something without experiencing it first.
It huts me a bit to give this game a low rating given the incredible effort the dev has put into it, but the game is kind of a cumbersome mess and I don't really see that changing. I have tried to play this game multiple times, the most recent being 0.6.4.2 , but I always end up hitting the same wall.
The game is intended to be oppressively hard. I don't have a problem with this, I've been enjoying the souls-like genre since Demon's Souls first dropped. The issue come with how cumbersome the controls are. Combat is mashy, like Legend of Zelda but with character belting out constant low-damaging attacks. The issue arises with character movement, with controlling facing and spacing becoming obnoxious. Enemies constantly shift positions like they're tripping out on Meth, which feels less like intentional dodging and more like the AI can't make up its mind as to what it's doing. Couple this with an oppressive stamina meter and combat ends up feeling annoying rather than fluid or tense. Combat is at the core of the gameplay, so this is a major problem. If this had had a slower or more decisive pace, with each attack feeling like it mattered rather than mindless flailing, I could have seen myself enjoying the system. As it is, it feels like a cartoon slapfight with characters flailing ineffectually at one another until your character runs out of stamina and needs to literally take a nap.
There are other issues with exploration. The game has a random encounter system in the world map, which unfortunately usually results in you getting cornered and either having to run away or losing and getting raped and/or killed. This likely corrects itself at later levels when you can actually put up a fight or make use of other options, but early on it feels like all the options for escaping result in failure and none of your choices matter. With no right answers I felt like I was getting screwed over by RNG rather than my own failings as a player.
There are tons of other little systems I can tell are chugging away in the background, all of which add a level of complexity I don't really need or want. The injury system means any misstep can ruin your playthrough early on. The game has a difficulty mechanic where the entire world slowly becomes more dangerous, which means failing to get a good start makes the game even more punishing and prevents a player from exploring at their own pace. I know some players love this depth and complexity, spending hours grinding away or cheesing the game, but I found it made me increasingly disinterested in playing further.
This is all a shame because, despite some of the content being a little too hardcore for me at times, there is a lot of excellent artwork and worldbuilding to be found. This keeps begging me to give the game another try, but I always walk away hating the cumbersome controls and obtuse systems constantly trying to hinder any sort of progression. Maybe someday I crack through this barrier in which case I'll update my review. For now though I find the game a disappointing waste of potential.
v0.6.3.1
Just, wow
All in the game its incredible, can't wait for updates
I like how it makes you feel the desperation of a child in the middle of the 1700 when a lot of perverts are outside hahaha
Like i said, i like the immersion, i also like the art, there its not much lore but i like it anyways, have much content to be in beta lol
So. After playing for a few hours, I realized that this wonderful game has a HUGE potential! Personally, I expect that the experience of creating this game will lead to another, even more interesting, and with different characters.
And Yes. I REALLY liked the game! I hope I won't be disappointed with the plot ending.
great gameplay, dark theme, they could add pregnancy to make it even better, survival feels real u need to eat anything from bugs to rats, u need to invest at first in survival then when u establish steady source of food u can concentrate on money and missions
