RPGM - Completed - Menasphere of Inverted Dreams [v1.08] [Crazy Nirin]

it's actually good. the beginning may irk some people (i personally loved their banters) but give it some playtime. as I'm writing this, I'm about to fight the Pianist boss (I'm avoiding spoilers in case you can't tell) and it's not just your mindless combat where you just improve your atk. if at that point the game hasn't sold you yet, I dunno what else to tell you.

character banters are great, even the sidequests are not just simply fetch quest. devs really put a lot of thought in this game even if the main story is pretty boring at first glance.

oh, and the music is a banger where I am right now. i could listen to it for hours and not be bored of it. i just need to decrpyt the ogg_ files into actually readable ogg.

Gameplay good enough to count as a proper RPG, with nontrivial combat and skill trees and equipment and (basic) crafting.

On the technical side, it uses a surprising amount of fancy exploration mechanics. In general that's pretty nice - there's minigames where you have to find interactables by sound, etc. In my opinion, this game does too much with z-levels - it feels like some designer learned that modern RPGMAKER lets you have multiple heights of walkways all across a level, and was so delighted they decided to do it on every single level.

Mostly, though, the game sells on its character dialogue - all the characters in the game are absolute freaks (affectionate), and their interactions are very fun to see. It's the sort of game in which one does all the sidequests because they're no less interesting than the main plot.

The translation is a bit raw in places, but is perfectly serviceable. If one has the motivation, one can fix stuff yourself and submit an MR to the git repo.

Reviewing v1.03

There's a lot to like and practically nothing to complain about. Characters, story, gameplay, music, etc. are all universally good.

This is an unironically good and well-rounded game, with a good story that actually manages to make sex and character relationships relevant. The meta-narrative is especially strong with this one.

The translation preserves all important story beats and the many, many character interactions with each other and the environment. Skits, inn scenes, field commentary, and more really sells the cast of characters. I also laughed a lot, so bonus points there.

All in all, one of the better h-games I've played in recent memory.

EDIT: After beating the game, this is one of the best h-games I've played recently. The game just keeps getting better, and doesn't stop until the end. No post-game is big sad, but literally everything else is great.

Final playtime just under 24 hours on customize difficulty.