There is an old joke, "I read Playboy for the articles." The joke is built around the absurdity of a man claiming that, of all the magazines out there, the one with his preferred editorial voice just happens to be the one that also has pictures of naked women. I just explained - and deliberately killed - that joke to try blunt any comparisons when I say this:
I play "Love of Magic" for the story.
Oh, I'm certainly there for the sexy times too, don't get me wrong. But there's not that many games I've played through completely (End of Act III as I write this) twice. If I'm there for the art an image extractor or screenshot library or a few savegames works perfectly well second time around. Branching paths? I'll usually run multiple savegame lines in tandem so I can zip over the repeated parts while still fresh in my mind. Nope, here I went back to give a more solid read to things, to pick up hints I might not have noticed or had skimmed over. I found myself grabbing screenshots of talky scenes so I could refer back to them quickly later. I liked being in the world, and I didn't want to leave it. I found promise of richness and depth, urban-fantasy-turning-to-epic-fantasy built around Arthurian and Celtic (neo)pagan themes but with elements from the myths and folklore of other global cultures, and I want to dive deeper in. From the typical adult game start of "guy goes to college in a new town, meets a bunch of hot girls" I found something very, very different from the average fare.
The writing is good, not just in planning but in mechanics. There's some typos, sure, and a few clunky bits but as a percentage of the total probably far less than this review has. Each character has their own mannerisms and personality (and musical theme, incidentally), enough that their lines would sound wrong coming from another character and that a mocking impersonation of one character by another is both possible and sounds "right". Planning has gone into how and when events unfold enough that the day of the week is relevant. (I can't believe I missed the importance of Evoker class being on Thursdays, though I will smug it up a bit for picking up on the day chosen for the climax of Act III.) It also rewards being observant, from a hint in a character's passing comment on how their head feels to the amusement of having Emily brick-joke my own sarcastic line back at me three and a half weeks later.
There's also the realism in that it's not all about sex. Our hero is not a man who has a mission to deflower every virgin he meets (and for in-world reasons he meets a lot of them) and will even turn an offer down if it feels wrong. And he is building a circle of friends and allies rather than a pure harem - which leads to the occasional girl making questioning comments about the man in the group. (Hey, Dylan's my bro, that's credentials enough for this party. He can't have my girls but I'd wingman for him so much that I'd need a bomber jacket.)
Tied in with that idea of realism, the renders help bring things to life. Everyone looks great, and I am grateful for the absence of dead-eyed stares; the art design is on point, and the light animation applied to the characters and character portraits really helps. (Scenes are generally a series of static shots, but it looks like animation is starting to be introduced, we'll see where that leads.) I’d describe it more, but tastes vary and screenshots would probably be a better source of information.
But there's another thing to Love of Magic I enjoy - though it's probably going to look like fairly minor praise compared to the effusion above - the combat minigame. It's a simple thing with potential complexity, you and the opponent each have their own hand of five playing cards and share a 3x3 grid of cards. Place two cards directly opposite each other along the edge of the 3x3 grid to form a standard five-card poker hand, jokers wild. (A chart of hands is included.) A better hand does more damage, or whatever effect you've chosen using the game's gemstone mechanic. It's a fun little minigame that gets really interesting when you start getting more allies and a respectable set of gems, as I find it's very easy to lose hard fights if you don't properly balance your loadout against your allies. (You should gear yourself up for a defense-heavy ally set different from an offense one different from a deck/board manipulation one different from a mixed set.) It's a good idea to get familiar with a few play styles even if you have a favorite, since unlike regular combat plot-important combat events don't give you a choice in who's going into the fight with you. While the game doesn’t enforce it, it definitely assumes you’re playing the minigame at almost every opportunity, and that you're not using the same crew every single time.)
I do wonder if the tougher monsters are going to start gaining abilities rather than just their own gems and tankiness and punchiness to change things up, perhaps as a dark mirror to the protagonist's use of allies. Like perhaps a monster for whom deuces are wild (even as they act as twos for your plays) or one who only needs to count color, not suit, for its flushes. I mean, who better to cheat at a metaphorical game of poker than the bad guy?
Of course, there's stuff the game doesn't have. Total flexibility, for instance. You're not going to often be choosing responses to roleplay a snarky type or a smooth-tongued devil, your character's personality is mostly set in stone. While he does have his serious moments, he's the type who'd likely crack a joke at a firing squad, so do be aware of that going in. The game is also on a strict timeline, with events regularly firing off on specific days (the calendar is your best friend and it being riiiight next to that "do nothing but advance time" button is a bit annoying). Also, some girls and some scenes are totally mandatory so if you develop a dislike for a character don't assume you can ignore her. One lass I would say even fits in to the role of deuteragonist alongside the protagonist (but she's the best girl so it's cool - 100% objective assessment there, folks
). That Act III ends with character development for her, I'd argue even more than for the protagonist, is telling. There is a definite story being told here and while you have control over the fine brush strokes that directly influence the minigame and some of the non-plot content, the main lines are drawn in for you already. But then, it's hard to have an epic fantasy tale with a web of interrelated characters if one leaves open the option for the protagonist to literally sleep their way to the end game. This is NOT a game where the world will be static on "day 616" without any sign of change to season or people as everyone waits for the hero to stop grinding his way to a charisma stat so high that he makes panties spontaneously combust from six blocks away.
Given the tight time pressure of the game, I do suggest that - if you're not a purist - you occasionally use the cheat menu's "Force Start Day" to time-loop a day or two where nothing noteworthy happens and poke around and do things you wouldn't otherwise do. (If you are a purist, just save and reload. No cheaty extra bonuses out of it but I’m not here to tell you how to play.) It is easy to get into the min-maxing mindset as the game moves on, given how tight a resource time is.
As for the engine stuff: It works, albeit with minor bugs. It could use some refinement, as - for instance - it occasionally draws cards on top of cards. My real pet peeve is that the button to open the calendar is accessible during a dialog scene but the button to dismiss the calendar is UNDER the dialog window and unreachable. (Well, unreachable until you realize that manually hiding the dialog UI won't also hide the calendar UI so it works to get to the thing you need. That wasn't immediately obvious to me.) Perhaps making the calendar button a toggle would be good, in addition to the "proper" dismissal button. The developer is updating the UI alongside adding new content so I hesitate to name too many specific complaints for fear they'll be gone before long (or even now, I seem to be a minor version behind already).
In summary, I find myself admitting to the weirdest thing I thought I could say on a porn game site: This game isn't porn. Some of the imagery is undeniably explicitly sexual but by and large when I think of "porn" the plot is nonexistent, generic, or a parody/ripoff. "World building" isn't a phrase you use when talking about adult entertainment. It is here. And it cuts both ways: The carnal elements add a very worldly contrast to the lofty talk of archmages and gods and fears of an impending Götterdämmerung. The combination is unique, at least in the fiction I've read/played, and leads to things like sex acts that are integral to the plot or contain symbolism and character growth (not that kind of growth, get your mind out of the gutter, this is a respectable pr0n w4r3z review). It takes an interesting budding fantasy world and gives it a very novel spin as the genres complement and contrast with one another. It's quite the mix and one I hope continues. The developer reports having ideas for (I believe) 15 acts ultimately, split across three 5-act games. While I do try not to let my expectations get that high - the number of abandoned tags in my watched threads list and my former Patreon donations has taught me to not expect anything beyond a sunrise tomorrow - I will say I'm here for as long as this ride goes, and if it gets to the end, so very much the better.
