RPGM - Completed - Panacea Z [v1.05] [HouseGame]

Look as soon as I realised that you can't rebind keys and therefore the game required 2 hands to play, I just downloaded a full gallery save. I can't comment on the gameplay but holy dooley those sex scenes were really hot. Inflation + cervix penetration, this game went for some kinks that you'll be hard pressed to find anywhere else.

[Review of v1.05 on 12/17/2022]

I try pretty hard to find decent porn games. Unfortunately, RPGM is what usually comes up.

In theory, there's nothing wrong with RPGM. It's an easy to use engine for making... well, RPGs. That also, inherently, makes it a good vehicle for making porn games.

What it does not do is make for a good action game engine.

Enter Panacea Z, an action porn game for RPGM, made by HouseGame.

HouseGame has been trying to make RPGM action games for a few years now, and I'll admit that their results have been admirable. Still, I can't ignore that fundamentally this game shouldn't be in this engine. It's like watching someone cook a soufflé on a charcoal grill -- yes, it's very impressive, but there's a better way to do it.

It's abundantly apparent that RPGM is bad for action games because the difficulty is mostly childish until the very final boss, where suddenly the game challenges you to fight through its glitched movement mechanics to sink somewhere in the range of 50 attacks on a fast moving boss without taking more than 4 or 5 hits yourself. If you've unlocked the rocket launcher, congratulations, we're back to easy mode, but why are you forcing me to monkey around for 10 minutes otherwise? Could the health not have been balanced downwards a touch? Christ, you chose RPGM for this, HouseGame, not me.

The art and scenes are good. There's a plot, and it's pretty much what you'd expect. The translation is middling -- mostly good, with only a few typos or grammatical errors that you should be able to ignore. Everything else is just fine. There's hints of a sequel, which I might even oblige myself to play.

However, I'm left with the question of why it had to be in RPGM. Gamemaker isn't expensive or hard to use, HouseGame, so put the damn charcoal away.

It's a decent game, just note that it's very heavily focused on zombies (and sometimes dogs) so obviously if that is a turn off then don't bother.

The CGs are pretty well done, and the gameplay is different to usual RPGM games as instead of being turn based you have to use guns + a dagger while moving. I enjoyed the early and mid game, although near the end it's very easy to get lost looking for the one thing you need to progress, so that got slightly annoying.

The translation is quite good where its present, and the only parts not translated that I saw were text above doors (which you don't really need to know as you can just interact with them) and some menu stuff (mainly the part of the options menu to change controls is a huge mess but the UI shows the controls anyway so it wasn't a problem for me besides forgetting CTRL aims the gun)

Took me 7 hours to beat, and I'd say while it has some flaws the overall experience is fun so its worth trying.

I'm a bit late to this game but I fucking love it. If you're a fan of rough sex stuff then you'll love this game. One of my favorite parts is how you get the cgs because it isn't actually defeat cgs as I thought when I looked at this.

The translation is great, couldn't tell this was mtl the person who edited it deserves major props, and what comes with a good translation is an understandable story line, a rarity in Japanese RPGM games. The story is actually quite good (although a pretty big rip off)and everything seems to make sense once you finish the game.

All in all super hot cgs with an enjoyable story shit combat mechanics but I never really fought anything aside from the bosses and about 2-3 hours of gameplay if you do absolutely everything (prob like 1 hour if you were to speedrun it without getting any cgs).
5/5 baby mastapeece

A really good game with unbelievable edited MTL till the point you can't even tell that it was MTL or translated.

Story: It has a Resident Evil vibe with a badass heroine who will slowly be corrupted by Zombie. Although the story is simple and straight forward, it can be really enjoyable due to how good the atmosphere was built in this game.

Gameplay: Your mission is finding the cure for the zombie pandemic (what do you expect, it has the RE vibe) and defeat the bad guys. Instead of using the traditional MRPG style which requires you to farm, wasting time going around to find better equipments, this game focus more about solving puzzle. Some puzzles are cleverly made and they're actually quite interesting. Honestly, i can only say that the gameplay in this game was well-made. (+1 RESPECT)

CG: I love the character, it's original, badass and attractive. Even though you are defeated by the enemies and trigger a scene, 90% of them won't cause any dead end scene and force you return to title. What can i say, i really enjoy these scenes because of how good the corruption was made. The only drawback is the lack of variety. Most of the scenes are purely normal humanoid zombie with the heroine, which can be quite boring as the game continue. Other than that, everything is perfect.

Overall, i really enjoy this game and man! Can't wait for the next game from this studio. If you're looking for a puzzle solving game with good amount of degrade and corruption, i highly recommend this.

HAVE A NICE DAY

MTL was insanely edited that you couldn't tell it was an MTL!

Story was definitely based off of Resident Evil 2, but it doesn't matter because the few twists the game provides is good enough to be distinguishable.

CG's are great. I love the mechanic where the more zombies there are, the different the CG outcome will be!! Best of all, you can get the CG's without triggering a Game Over! That has always been one of my biggest gripes with previous games, good thing this game fixed that dilemma!

Gameplay-wise, it's a bit clunky in the beginning, but you get used to it in the end. The battle system is decent enough for a Renpy game.

I'm surprised this game got such high scores because it has a lot of flaws. Like how you're given no direction and left stumped with no clue on how to progress. Like how there's no real way to increase your HP on demand except losing in battle. Like how infection is part of the game but there's only 2 infection decreasers. Like how the final boss is stupidly difficult because he just sprints at you endlessly. Its all very, unpolished. Not to mention how many times my character walked into a wall and got stuck!

Great game, inspired by Resident Evil, I guess, that will take at least 4 hours of your life, giving you pleasant experience.
Plot is short but nice, with a bit predictable plot twist.
Gameplay is fun and classical for RE 1-3 games, and creating something like that in RPG maker is unbelievable, but very cool.
I actually found at least two Resident Evil movie reference. That was very cool !
Graphics also fine and cool.
There is even corruption progression, that change look of your heroine and will cause something at the end of corruption progression, huhu ~
VERDICT: So... do you want to give 4 hours of your life on something good ? Play this game, NOW !

RPGM combat is usually incredibly stale. Most games don't put any effort into freshening up the combat system and have combat involving the usual tedium. So when a game like Panacea Z comes along that eschews the trappings of a turn based system all together, you can't help but feel a bit excited.

Panacea Z is the story of an infiltration gone wrong, the usual zombies showing up and it up to being the protagonist to fight or fuck their way out of the mess. The game's strongest point has to be its combat. While I felt the restrictions of the RPGM system completely given how slow everything seemed, it was still entertaining. Combat is real-time: you can get up close to enemies or melee them with one button or aim and shoot from a distance (this is all done through a keyboard). You have a number of weapons on hand and you need both weapons and bullets to be able to do damage. Frankly, I found melee to be far more fun so I stuck to it for the majority of the game. Bullets aren't too difficult to come by and after a point in the story, you killing or fucking zombies results in X number of bullets being delivered to your storehouse so you can stock up. However, the game goes beyond that giving you a number of time-limited skills you can use which temporarily increase the damage you deal from your weapons or allow you to run away from enemies faster. All these different combat mechanics were refreshing and somewhat enjoyable.

Apart from that, the gameplay is somewhat metroidvania where you need to get keycards to access doors you have already gone through. Going above and beyond and searching every nook and cranny gives you some additional bonuses such as an area where you can view experimental data which adds to the story. Searching around also makes the game easier so is a bit rewarding. The map layout is somewhat frustrating since I couldn't easily remember where everything was.

The H-Scenes are mostly of the combat defeat variety though there are a number of scenes with the people you rescue as well. The protagonist is the rare sort who actually enjoys getting down and dirty. Character art is perfectly fine and the scenes themselves are also great, censoring aside. My only complaint in this department is the utter lack of variety in scenes. There are only four enemy types and the scenes are dependent on how many of them there are when you lose and of what types. This does not lend itself to variety. Which is a disappointment since everything else in the game is great.

All in all, a short but enjoyable experience somewhat hampered by the lack of variety in H-Content.

Not the most content in the world but it is well done with a good revised MTL. It is very weak on the whole "penalize for dying" and "penalize for getting scenes" idea which is a trap many games fall into.

CGs are really good, combat is reasonably challenging, story is a bit lackluster and short, but enough to drive you forward. Main character is far from realistic, but fun. Could use some fleshing out, but what's there is good.

the game can sometimes be a bit frustrating at times in knowing where to go, but the story is actually pretty interesting (still simple, but interesting), the combat is fun enough, and most of the sex scenes are pretty great.

it's also a nice take on the "sex when you lose" style, because you actually only get a game over if you lose to the final boss - every other time you lose, you can either choose to continue immediately, or even let more zombies do things to the protagonist.

the only issue i have is that the map kind of blends together: my playthrough was around 2 and a half hours long, and then i tried seeing how fast i could beat it while actually having a map in my head of where stuff was - it only took me around 40 minutes. so, it's definitely a shorter game, with most of its length being difficulty in knowing where the hell to go sometimes, but i still think it's a fun game.

hope there'll be a sequel!

Very nice CGs
Feels like Resident Evil Light
Fun run for all 4 endings

Pros:

• Good art
• scenes look good
• MC has facial expressions
• Translation is good for edited MTL
• Combat system is good and different
• There is a struggle mechanic
• Events have different variations depending on types and number of enemies
• Like how there is a "cheat" item in the game
• Like how bosses have different attack moves
• NPCs have some uniqueness about them

Cons:

• Plot is different but very familiar
• THEY COULDN'T HAVE thought of a different Company (Umbrella Corporation)
• Aiming and moving is difficult
• Enemies move kinda fast and aiming and firing takes too long
• Ammo is kinda scarce
• Do not like having only one option to save (at terminals)

This game is fine without having anyone to manually translate this game as it won't take long to finish it if you are good at the combat system or have the special item. This game has a lot to it but what turned me off was the mentioning of UMBRELLA CORPORATION.
Final Rating: 3.4/5 UHH