RPGM - Princess in the Tower [v0.9c] [X-Dew]

one of the best games i've played.
as the most people here i wish it was faster on releases
but waiting it makes it more interesting.
great job Dev, both graphics and storyline.
cant wait to go til the end of this and hoping for new projects of yours.

The concept is interesting, and I like the art. So far, however, it's failing pretty badly on execution. The dev posted in their Patreon that their goal was to get this to 1.0 by May and start working on another game. Ummmm... yeah it definitely shows, this is a rush job.

Versions .5, .6, .7, and .8 were complete shit shows, with major performance issues and tons of game-breaking bugs. If you read through the discussion thread, the dev repeatedly tells people to use a game save editor to get around the bugs (lol) and is constantly pushing the fact that they include a new save with each release. Maybe... and I'm just spit-balling here but maybe... people actually want to play and experience the game, and not just load a freaking save with content cleared?

Version .9 seems to have removed SOME of the bugs, and largely improved the performance issues (you can still notice the game randomly speed up and slow down at times but it is not game-breakingly bad at this point so at least it's progress?) However, the main issue has not been resolved - this game is LOADED with events and triggers that are interdependent on each other, and it is very easy to accidentally trigger something out of the 'intended' order and then you are just fucked, the game will not progress. For example, as I write this, several players have reported getting stuck on the storyline quest where the game tells the player to make the princess dance for cake, but they have already done this, and basically nothing seems to work to get past this and progress. This is one example of many.

I got way farther in version .6 and .7, and saw a lot more content back then, than I am able to get to now in version .9. It was slow and buggy as fuck, now it is smoother, but there is significantly less content accessible. Despite multiple playthroughs trying doing things differently, I cannot get past several of these out of order events that stop you from progressing.

Also it is worth noting that, in version 0.9, there is still basically no sex, you can maybe!!! get one single BJ (probably not though because those out of order events fuck you up on nearly every playthrough and softlock you from progressing well before you get to this point.) The game hints at tons more content (clearly the MC is supposed to fuck the princess EVENTUALLY, there are skills in the talent tree that suggest anal, etc.) but when? Perhaps the dev does not understand what "1.0 "means.

Take this score and review with a grain of salt as the game is still in progress.

Princess in the Tower has potential! Something you hear in unfinished games all the time, honestly, potential is meaningless when you look at the sea of shitty games that are stuck in dev hell (scams) and such, this game is still relatively new, so the dedication of the developer is yet to be verified.

However, what's already here is really good, the princess is a bitchy brat, the corruption is slow but satisfying, the gameplay albeit tedious IS somewhat, dare I say, fun!

Reviews do little to change or influence devs of such games but really the only thing standing between this game and greatness is just dumping more time into making more scenes, and cutting out the tedium from the gameplay loop, and if one was to dream, to have the princess be a bit more dynamic as there's no variance in day to day for her...

Again, potential, yada yada, as it is there's not much to it besides charms, but if the updates keep rolling in at a steady and consistent pace, I can see this game being truly great in some time.

2 stars for cool idea and encapsulating the feeling of serving some entitled idiot, other than that this is a grind and chores simulator.

99% of the game is spent doing chores and grind, repeatedly, every day the same shit, for tens of days just to get her (literally) 10% used to MC. After many hours playing at 2x speed with a speedhack I've got one scene with a side character (while she was unconcious), a handjob scene and a footjob scene at which point I gave up and deleted the game.

Every day in the game consist of a tiny bit of interaction with the princess, chores (clean, cook, etc.), grind (every day you have to fight in dungeon for resources, the combat is annoying, a waste of time, it's not challenging as nothing can kill you if you just mash space), reading and crafting.

Reading is the limiting factor that prevents from progressing any faster than I did, you can only read once a day and you need to read around 15 times to complete 1st stage so 15 days gone (+ prologue). To illustrate how much progress you make in a stage, after first stage the princess allows you to interact with her from less than 2 meters away and massage her foot.

Version 1.0 (Played)

9.0:
Game is, without a doubt, promising. Nice graphics, solid gameplay, much possibilities. The developer can be proud of his game. But:

The content is lacking. I dont mean the sexual content, we still know its in development.
He made enough scene which can be get much more actions. Hes trying to develop/ rush the ending instead of sticking to basics. We have now 6 characters introduce. Only two has scenes. Nice? No, because: Questlog still is not working as intended. Every update comes with bugs, which get fixed yes, but make the game sometimes unplayable. The game is to big for lacking content (5 hours gameplay, with grinding for only 10 scenes at max). Also mostly old saves are never working in new versions and no possibilty of renaming the character. And this is something which frustrates you: Playing the same content again and again and again (grind grind grind).

Dont get me wrong: He can make a great game like Tinkerer, Chyos, y.v (his inspiration The Princess and the Tower) and other developers with similiar stories/ games. But he need to fix bugs and get his plans better. Also announcing a new game for May 2024 when this one doesnt seem finished and just to be started...

Until now this game is average with the possibility to be excellent, but check yourself.

1.0:
Much major game breaking bugs like instead of pissing in the vase you water them, then you get stucked. Or you read a recipe and then got stucked, because you need to read another recipe, because you need it to progress the day. Or if you load an old save, then some enemies will not respawn because you got to many days. And again we need to play every fucking content again (Grind Grind Grind).
Questlog is still not working as intended or shows correct quest progress.

One major issue with the developer: On his patreon side he dont communicate with you. Only if you praise his game you get a thanks. But not if you show negative review because of bug you experience.

Content: Yeah... we got the belt off. And this was is it. You now can lick the princess in bed or in bathtub. But we dont get a second BJ scene. The content is still lacking as fuck. But got told by a serious fan, we got monthly updates. Yeah, one scene per month. So we will be have a finished game 2028... oh wait. But its finished or so. Dont know, what the developer meant. He wanted to start a new game in May 2024 and a route will be finished in version 1.0.

So, im sorry, but i need to change my review from 3 stars to 2 stars.

Very nice for people who enjoy a slow burn corruption. It does have a bit of a tedious grind and day to day loop in order to pace the slow burn. But honestly it isn't too bad, and the scenes are worth it for me.

Both the facial expressions, character pacing, and bits of dialog it has really improves the H content. It is easy for me to get bored of 3dcg's especially for how many are out there and how similar they all are; but for Princess in the Tower, the dialog is just enough without getting too wordy / visual novelly, the renders and posing are great, and the animations are nicely done and decently varied.

The Princess's character is also great for me. She is lordly, prideful, quick to anger, and overall an asshole. Which is great because it makes the corruption that much better, as you make her more and more submissive. Yes she is also a bit naive because she is the princess waiting in a tower to be rescued trope, but in a "sexually curious" kind of way, not a "dumb as rocks" kind of way like many corruption game's girl tend to be.

(my best tip to help the grind is to not give her any potions if you don't need her mood to be high, and to learn/craft the rope and hook quickly and go to the top left to save the second girl, she will help with monster grinding for the first and second room a lot. Also there are talents in the right click menu which can make it so you can read more than once a day which helps a lot but isn't obvious)

This game is a grind but it is worth it as the progression and animations are excellent. I personally don't understand the obsession of games that just throw porn at you at the start.

You get to know the characters, the situation they're in and why they're acting the way they are first. The main theme of the game is corruption by deceiving the characters in the game and influencing them to your advantage.

TD;DR = this game has too much grinding for a little reward. This is basically a Simp Simulator.

Plot: 2/5
- Story isnt very deep. It starts with some witch saying "do this or else..." and MC is a goblin who is like "I am a Simp and you are a female. Therefore I will do anything you want with a smile on my face".
Then you are on a mission to "find out secrets of Princess". Problem is the fact, that princess is super spoiled stuck-up. 99% of your interactions with her will be like "Princess wants this." and you will happily slave away to grant her wish. It is boring.

Art and sex stuff: 3/5
+ Renders are okayish. But compared to current generation of erotic games, they are outdated.
- Art is mediocre.
- There isnt much sex content. Seriously, you will slave away for many hours for you to see tiny progress with erotic events.
- Another sad thing is the fact, that princess is wearing a chastity belt. That means NO SEX with her. The best you can get is some dick humping to her body parts. That means: handjob, titjob, blowjob and feetjob.
- There is even obligatory dream scene. But MC is a simp and that means no sex for him even in dreams. You will watch princess having sex with tentacles.

Gameplay: 0/5
- Game is typical RPGM game. What should you expect?? There will be a lot of running around to reach certain locations with quest items. A lot of dungeon diving. A lot of monster fighting. A lot of collecting and crafting. There will be a lot of repetition!!
- There is a lot of grinding in this game. Seriously the amount of grind in this game is insane. Forum is full of people asking"please share a save file". Only simps could enjoy the amount of grinding here.
- I especially hated the progression of the game events. You will often find yourself stuck with doing same events over and over again without any change.
Problem is in the obscure hidden requirements to progress with events. You have to keep doing certain events long enough for the stats to meet requirements. But the game will never tell you what stats has to change. You just have to keep grinding and hope you are doing okay.
- The game has a soundtrack and battle sounds, but it similar to some stock RPGM soundtrack. That means very retro music. And you have probably heard something similar in the past, if you play RPGM games.

My final complaint:
- Do you know what I love more than obscure game requirements and a lot of grinding??? Game updates that break the old saves and make you do everything all over again!!

To sum it up:
Are you a simp? Do you enjoy slaving away for many hours for a little reward? Then this game is for you.
Otherwise stay away.

I played 0.6a (Mac OS)

-Loved the game flow and graphics both are 10/10.
-The game flow and storyline are good but can start to get dicy at times (building the mirror and introduction of the queen). but still gave them 8.5&9/10.
-Game Bugs are super limited and dont stop story progression witch is a huge plus for a 0.6a.

Overall I enjoyed this game a lot and spent 5hrs ish total playing it. (2 play throughs with diffrent paths ) This Update was solid and makes me think this game has a lot of potential.

This is rough. In the way that rpgms tend to be. Too much grinding, too little reward. Sparse lewd scenes inbetween literal hours of fighting monsters and crafting potions.

It was inspired by a different game called The Princess and the Tower. And "inspired by" is putting it generously. Anyway, at first it was cool to see an alternate version of that game with a different art style. But it's been a downgrade in every other way.

Absolutely abysmal pacing. A decent concept that is mired by hours of walking room to room and grinding the same content over and over and over for barely anything that resembles progress. Reading should absolutely NOT be limited to once a day if the story is going to completely outpace what you can reasonably read. At the very least the reading stat should exist for something other than just ticking up one by one and increase your ability to read the higher it gets.

So many unexplained variables that seem to do absolutely nothing. Im aware this is a game in progress, but that doesn't preclude explaining (or being legitimately self explanatory) what all these variables are trying to achieve. Is the developer just a variable otaku and most of them do nothing? Thats what it feels like as the variables change and yet nothing in the game seems to be effected by the changes.

Conclusion: So far the only decent idea that Ive seen is the fact that the princess does legitimately look like she gains weight from eating too much cake. I like slow-burn corruption, but theres a difference between slow-burn and just time-sucking everything so that it seems slow-burn. Pacing for every aspect needs rebalanced. In its current state might as well be called "Grindiest Grinding Simulator 9000 with a Bitchy Princess Every Once In A While". Seriously dev, it desperately needs rebalanced.

Man the amount of grinding compared to the actual sex scenes is abysmal

Well I don't blame it entirely, it's a new game and all but really? all those repetitive task, all those mischievous stats just for it to not focus in trickery and just filled with you following every fucking thing the girl says and you can't use a lot of potions that could compliment the mischievous stats but noo, that stat is just for piss content, like literal piss

well i guess you can say it's more of a compatibility mis match on my part but nahh im sure 30% of it is just game developers bad game plot or kinks put in the game

The new goblin god, game is everything we love gullible corruption combat is good bit grindy crafting but imo just the right amount promising future content, guide could provide more clues for progression tho, cant wait for more.

So far decent amount of great content, already better than princess and the tower. Does get a little grindy but doesn't feel like isn't paying off, its a goblin working its way up. Hopefully content doesn't take too long.

Great game. Totally recommendable.

In the last 6 years I was avoiding rpg games with little sprite puppies walking on funny maps, but this one is an outstanding exception.

Its still in the beginning, but extraordinary promising. Dev is helpful, listening to ideas and suggestions. That means there is hope for a really great experience in future. Looking so much forward.

Give it a try.
(and this dev deserves some support impo)

Really interesting first glance at this game. I love the concept. The combat is a bit dull, but it serves its purpose. Maybe adding a ladder back at the end of the dungeon would make the way back not so tedious. There are a few bugs here and there but so far the creator provides immediate fixes in the comments
I am curious how far this game delves into female domination and if there are possibly two routes to go for; a more dominant and a more submissive.