RPGM - NTR Fates: Anamnesis [v0.3] [Mystichef]

I'm torn between giving this a 3 and a 5 as of v0.2:

I'll go through what I didn't like and what I liked:

What I didn't like

- the intro sequence: The first scenes were just going all over the place. It felt like the little timeskips were just very weird. That followed by having my character forced to move at a snails pace in long passage ways almost made me stop playing. Some of the longer winding trails also feel the same.

- the combat is too complex for how simple everything else is. There are too many numbers and too much info when the entirety of the overworld game bits are very simplified. Level design, dialogue, everything is simple. Yet the combat has so much going on. It's not difficult but I found myself using like 10% of the info. "How much health do they have? How much damage do I need" That's all I wanted to see.

- Other nitpicks include: The MC's avatar design, the beard is a bit strange touch. I do think the main 2 girls should have had slightly different body types to hit more tropes. Little bit of lost potential there. The main part bit about memory loss doesn't seem to be as serious as the intro makes out to be. I feel like it could be removed and the 2nd half of the current game would have played the same.

Maybe above is a bit harsh but only because I came in expecting nothing and found that this could actually be a hidden cult gem. So I'll go through the good now. The things I liked:

- The shape of the world is quite nice. The map design is simple, open and to the point. It's not detailed at all but in a good way. I liked the bites of exploration.

- The smaller story sequences are very well done. They are entertaining banter between the characters. The characters aren't super interesting but just enough for it to not go too overboard. All of their interactions during the quests were pleasant and makes you care for them slowly. Well paced after the main town is reached.

- The "antagonist" is also very well written. He's not a hateable guy. Even when we see him doing the "bad thing", I felt like he just has his own way of handling things. Given that, it definitely has me onboard to see what kind of danger the girls are in. I expect that I won't even hate the antagonist even then, only undersand why he's doing things like that.

- The sprite work is great! While the art works like avatars are amateur work and I don't mind it. The sprite work is really nice. The visual coding also feels like it has no bugs so everything works smoothly. If you worked with RPGmaker before you would know that it's easy to screw this up. But the sprite scenes are very well done, even the maids are bowing. Well detailed!

Overall good stuff. I write this review in hopes that more people will give this game a chance and perhaps throw a few bucks at the dev so the work can continue. Best of luck and we will be watching closely.

I will update my review when we get to bigger story updates.

The writing is pretty good, found myself chuckling at some of the jokes. I'd wait for a few more updates because rn the playtime is around ~2:00 hours (maybe a bit less) if you don't rush and explore.

(Written on the 0.2 release)

I gave this game A try and at the moment its little more then a demo but it has a whole lot of potential

I like the whole approach where the girl's aren't Ultra Bimbo's but instead two women who become victim's of their own naivety and having the Aggressors force themselves on to and or blackmailing them to do even more degrading thing's

I just hope the story does not fall victim to overdone trope's like the girl's suddenly turning on the MC and falling in love with their tormentors but instead i would love to see a display of conflicting emotions guilt by what those men had them do and a unwillingness to tell the man who they both love what happened out of their love for him that would add an extra layer of drama in my opinion

But as it stands now this game is very early in it's development and it could use some polish in certain area's like how the movement system works because it feels a little stiff at the moment and unique enemy portraits to separate itself from other RPGM games that use shared assets

But that's all for now if this game receives any further update and i hope it does I'll update this review to reflect that

Demo review

Optimistic but little to see to have a solid opinion.

The art style is nice, the combat is fine, the little sex we see in the demo is limited to a few pixel scenes (the dev says they aren't confident in their art so not to expect too much CG if any).

Cautiously hopeful but we'll see how it turns out.

Short edit after the second update:
I wanted to add a star to the rating because the game is coming together nicely. The battle system seems to be improved a bit by healing your party after each battle and keeping the number of battles to a minimum. The story is well-written and original (although a bit goofy sometimes) and the lewd scenes are nice but few (so far).

The only major thing that could still be improved in my opinion is the character portaits. They could use some more details and variety. Apart from that, very promising game so far.

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A very promising start, but the game isn't quite there yet. It shows some resemblance to other RPGM NTR games with a slow build-up. I just hope the dev can stear away from using the same predictable corruption cycles.

I wasn't very thrilled to see this game had turn-based combat, but even though some battles can be a bit annoying it's at least nice to see the battles aren't random (so far) and you need some strategy to win them.

The dev clearly put effort into creating something with a higher quality than your average RPGM game. The world feels atmospheric due to the good use of sounds and lighting. I just think the two female main characters could use an upgrade. The artwork is decent but it's also very basic. The two girls use the same standard female models with very similar eyes, body sizes and emotionless faces. A bit more effort here would make a big difference in future updates.

One last thing I want to get off my chest, I really don't understand why developers keep using the cliche dream sequence where you 'see' the LI's get plowed at the start of the game. Here's why it sucks: it happens so early in the game that you don't even know the two girls. You don't care about them yet and you don't even know what they look like. Therefore the scene isn't hot or exciting but it does spoil the suspense because it shows you exactly what is gonna happen later in the story.

Also the starting screen, music and the writing need some more polishing but I'm sure that will be fixed in future updates. Good luck!

Great start, I like the flow of the story; it isn't jarring to read. The art is really nice. The plot it's building from the dream sequence is a bit cliché but good nonetheless. It has sound for the pixel scenes, which is the sole thing I really care about. Nothing else to say. I saw some spelling mistakes, but nothing extreme. Good luck to the dev, he has something good going on.