RPGM - Completed - Miss Lisette's Assassin Maid [v1.02] [Hasoyua]

My scoring & reviews explained HERE
PROs:

+interesting gameplay mechanics n skill tree
+okay’ish scenes
CONs:

-not many kinks
-little scenes
-meh CG
-can get locked into battle lewds loop where u mange to hit enemy once b4 being disabled again…
Comments:

Long story short… just go play something else instead. Not really worth the time and CG was pretty meh with little amount of scenes…
DROPPED
5/10

Hasoyua games tend to follow a similar formula. There's clothing damage, combat has an element of battle-fuck with enemies grabbing and doing H-attacks and GOR. I thoroughly enjoyed playing Key of Egg so was looking for a similar experience. It's clear that the circle improved their output for the newer game because Miss Lisette's Assassin Maid lacks a lot of variety in H-content for it to be just as good.

The gameplay is, again, the major draw here. Unlike regular RPGM games where you'd just spam attack, this game focuses on stealth. You'd do much better by just avoiding enemies because defeating them certainly isn't easy especially on hard mode. Enemies attack you with a variety of regular, clothing and H-attacks. If your clothing gets damaged beyond a certain point, you're vulnerable to getting grabbed and fucked. The H-attacks target the three usual areas. The good thing is that you can avoid combat by either sneaking past most enemies or by upgrading the seduce skill where if you fail to sneak, you get to H a guard out of the way. But you don't wanna do that too much because guards will become alerted after a while and won't let you continue the shenanigans. Unfortunately, your seduction ability is useless in the third dungeon and it's a pain to get through. There's also a captive mechanic where if you get defeated, you don't get a Game Over (hallelujah), instead you're put in a cell and have to find your items to escape. Before finding your items, you're highly vulnerable. Items also don't really feature much during combat, they're of far greater use outside of combat in unlocking doors and chests. There's also an interesting throwing knife ability during combat which relies on a limited number of knives so you can only use it so many times. Oh, and you can unlock all scenes once you clear the game (I did it on Hard so I don't know if it works with other difficulties - always a positive)

Apart from that, I liked the smut. The MC is cute. But the game is far too short for me to enjoy it fully. There are only 10 or so scenes which is surprisingly low. I prefer my games with lots of content. And this game also suffers from translucent enemies in both combat and outside. Highly annoying. I also didn't enjoy the continuous teleporting to one location in one part of the dungeon after seducing someone. Why can I not continue from where I seduced the guard? Annoying. In short, a lot of the mechanics were pleasant but were held back by some annoying execution. Happily, they were much improved in Key of Egg.

Very playable game.

Turnbased combat RPG Game, with dungeon exploring, mid battlefuck, H-events.
The game has a H-status with H-counter, virgin status.
Interestingly You can choose the main protagonist H-weakness, y'know the senstive part.
Although there is no clothing system in the game, The Main Protagonist design still looked awesomely beautiful.
The gameplay is also balanced, no need to grind and stuff.
The story is a little bit extreme, like demonic thingy, but still enjoyable.
This is one of the game that i'd like to play again. Im simping for that maid!

Gameplay is the big draw here. Think Hitman x RPGmaker x That Sharon character from Trails of cold steel. Stealth focused around a map that you can hit your way through, but much easier to find the shiny plot object that circumvents the boss. Not many scenes, but the ones that are there are good. Around 10-12 or so. Not really a nukige, is a big takeaway.

On paper, I feel I should love the game, but in practice, I just... sorta like it?

The game is fairly short (<2h on a save to complete, took me closer to 3 due to fucking around). The art is pretty good, although reused a bit and with fairly static scenes. The mechanics are genuinely stealth-focused (avoiding >90% of enemies is realistically possible, killing them isn't stricly necessary, fights need to be quick or you'll be overwhelmed). The story isn't overly lore-heavy but does enough to get you invested.

On a more personal note: I like the design of the MC (just on the right side of being big-breasted but before I go into gross oversize territory. Plus, maid) and the girl she's trying to save (who's... petite, but probably strays into "too young" territory for some, despite supposedly being a similar age to the MC) gets some scenes too. I find the mechanics work well with the scenes - You aren't some beast who slaughters goons without a thought until they hit some undefined level of exhaustion and just lets themselves get raped; You're actually vulnerable and turning the tables with a bit of planning and decisive action, and it makes sense why you don't just stand up and slaughter everyone in the room when you wake up at the beginning of a scene. I also really like that almost all single losses aren't instant game-overs, but there are eventual game-overs for repeated losses in later levels, the gallery is available after the first level, and the game doesn't make you watch scenes you've already seen.

It's a solid, short game. Just the only thing holding it back from 5 stars is a certain missing... something. I'm not too sure how to describe it. I'm a big fan of most of the fetishes acted out, but there's just something missing to them that wasn't doing it for me. The lack of voice acting in them is notable, but is understandable for a budget release and hasn't held back similar games. The MC is maybe a bit too much of a blank slate - she's not particularly built upon except for her being an assassin-turned-maid because she has a life debt. Some more backstory to her and stakes for the kidnapping victim might have lent some more weight to the subby/loss scenes. I'm planning on revisiting the game in a few days to see whether that's just me being in a funk or something though.

EDIT: Came back today, felt pretty much the same. It's good, but missing that secret sauce that'd make it great. Also worth noting - the game does have a New Game + mode after you hit a game over so you can level up a few times, but I found it unnecessary, game is perfectly beatable on first playthrough.

Game which explains what you need to do, has a believable storyline, and believable motivation for the protagonist to behave the way she does. Only gripe is how a few generic enemies are a bit too strong for generic enemies, yes this is primarily a stealth based game, they're still a tad too strong in my opinion. Otherwise a nice game to spend a few hours playing and jacking off to when I'm bored.

The game is a little on the short side, but the content is really good. The battle system is pretty well done and the H-scenes are good. Would've been nice if certain things had a bit more of a hint, like the fact that you can recover confiscated items and cash would've been a great tip.