RPGM - Completed - Once Ever After [v1.0] [Sierra Lee]

It's an interesting story with a funny twist. It's very well written with tons of funny and cute moments.

But BY GOD does the grind kill it for me. The pacing of both the story and the lewd scenes is way too slow for this game to keep my interest. The lewd scenes are about 2 hours apart throughout the story on average, and in between there's an ungodly amount of grind with "gear check/level check" bosses blocking your way, forcing you to go back to the grind or bang your head against the brick wall that these bosses are. It completely ruins the experience for me.

I would consider going back to this game again if there was an easy mode alternative, because the story is genuinely funny and interesting and I would like to see how it ends. But I'm definitely not curious enough to go grinding trash mobs for 4 hours just to clear the next dungeon.

The best thing Once Ever After does happens in the first 15 to 30 minutes of gameplay. It genuinely breaks my heart to give this game a 3 star (for now) after such a good, strong opening. For that reason, I'd heavily recommend to play up to that point before reading the rest of this review.

I haven't finished the game. I've played for a decent 3 hours sure, but some people might consider it unfair to review it at that point, and that's fair. I just wanted to make it clear.

What I can tell you from that 3 hour is that this games loves to make fun of typical porn RPG scenarios, which, truth be told, was rather entertaining. For a while. The issue that the game doesn't have anything instead. It's "Haha isn't it dumb that you always have this old man who wants to touch tits before he dies" but there's nothing in it's place. I've actually spoiled myself and looked at the image folder in the game files and was a bit surprised at how little scenes there are. In fact most of them are on the first page.

Well, there is something. The dialogue is charming, the concept for the story is actually very interesting, and the characters are cute. You could make a strong argument that this isn't a porn game as much as a fun story with a few porn scenes. And that's fine, some people might love that.

Unfortunately, this game suffers from a common RPG Maker issue : Slow combat. No matter how charming or interesting the actual game is, everyone is going to hit a point where they don't want to fight stuff anymore. But this a game with levels, classes and learn-able skills from those classes. And all these classes have specific equipment restrictions, which means buying gear, and making money is very slow.

Fortunately, this is all fixable. Adding more scenes is always a possibility. Combat could get a speed-up option (or, in a worst-best case scenario made easier so things die in one hit more easily), and part-time jobs could be added in the game for money. In the spirit of this game, these could have a few scenes that, instead of being dumb porn game scenarios, could build on the relationship of the protagonist and her allies.

What it all comes down to is this. When I opened the game the first time, I was met with a gorgeous big-tiddied waifu, who went around town making sex puns and flirting with anyone with a cock. I rolled my eyes a bit, deciding to keep going just to see if the scenes are worth it at least. Then 15 minutes in, I was shown that I was being mislead, and thought "Wow, I wonder what's gonna happen next!"

The answer turned out to be disappointing : an actually interesting plot cut into small pieces separated by boring grind.

I really hope this game improves. Even ignoring the porn elements, it has more to offer, and some of those things I'd love to dip my toes in. But in it's current state, it feels like something to suffer through rather than enjoy.