Played the demo all the way back sometime before New Years (well, Nyx's portion at least, I had enough trouble with her that the idea of dealing with not having SP recovery at all didn't entice me so I skipped out on Sasha) and I was intending to write a gushing review since it was an oddly addicting experience, despite some... obvious shortcomings with the gameplay.
But now I decided to give the new version a shot with the recently released color mod and oh wow. What the fuck was the dev thinking with that new grab system? It's not self-explanatory at all, the instructions in-game are vague and it's frankly just worse in every way. Like sure, no more QTEs to break free but at least that was a pretty natural motion to do since it doesn't require moving your fingers from the movement keys. Also, it was actually reasonable!
I got grabbed by the hand enemy from mistiming a slide badly and even though Nyx still had all her clothes on (they weren't even visibly damaged, actually) and I was as fast as I could on holding space, the bar didn't even come close to filling up and I instead got a game over. Bullshit. Under the previous system I could freely fuck up with enemies without incurring a massive penalty - sure, it'd add up over time but that actually served the H-game elements well since seeing Nyx get progressively more naked and eventually even get raped without having to restart was one of the better-functioning design elements in Moon Rhapsody.
Now though, I just don't see this game being any fun to play. All the tedious gameplay design elements are still there, except now there's no counteracting it with H scenes and nudity because it's literally a game over for the most part and there's no chance to enjoy any of it since it goes by so fast and makes little logical sense. How do you go from groping to full penetration in a few seconds without the character losing her clothes at some point in process? Not to mention how badly the balance is out of whack now that most enemies have the potential to just stun-kill you instantly.
Fuck, man. I'm just so disappointed. I was expecting to continue loving this game with new content but instead I'm met with the disappointing reality the dev has no idea what he's doing and completely fucked the balance of his own game for honestly no real benefit.