Based on the (as yet) unfinished v0.09
My usual disclaimers when writing reviews on here are that A. I am here for the "plot" not the plot and B. I am very picky with visual novels and think broadly they can be very subpar. So, take both of those into consideration for my review when thinking about this game.
Pros
- Very nice art style – The aesthetic of Refuge of Embers is quite simply very, very nice. It’s unique, charming and quite simply nice to look at. It seems to very easily walk the line of “sexy and over-the-top” female costumes whilst still appearing like medieval fantasy. I can see this being very, very easy on the eye for a full visual novel. The animations present are also pretty fucking good too, so there’s definitely a decent standard of visuals here.
- Girls are hot – It’s a small thing, but sometimes can elevate a game, and honestly the girls in Refuge of Ember are just all pretty fucking sexy. If that’s the sort of standard of companion we can expect for a full game, it’s a great start.
- Sexy stuff is sexy – At present there is very, VERY little in the way of sexual content, but what is there is also very good. The scenes could perhaps be a little longer and allow themselves to linger over it a bit more (add in some more dirty talk and the like) but as a starting point, it’s definitely showing promise. The game also seems to promise a lot of very, VERY lewd stuff (harems, impregnation and roughness? Yes please)
Mehs
- Story feels somewhat generic – You are a (possible?) chosen one in a remote forest village surrounded by the beginnings of a harem of hot babes while there is some new and uncertain threat lurking in the forest. As a set-up it feels very generic fantasy and like a basic harem fuck-fest. However, this is not necessarily a criticism. As long as the writing is solid, it doesn’t matter if the overall plot is generic if it does some interesting things with it and carries out things through a proper beginning, middle and end. Unique does not always mean “good” and the opposite is true as well.
- Dialogue is also a tiny bit shaky – I largely put this down to the game still being in the prologue stages. People are still delivering exposition and are rushing to establish relationships and familiarity so that the game proper can begin. With that in mind, much of the early dialogue feels a tiny bit awkward and rushed, but hopefully this will improve.
- Super, super short – There is maybe ~20 minutes of content thus far. If that. This is also part of why the limited sexual content gets a pass from me, just because there’s actually not much content in general so far. It’s still very much in the set-up phases of the story and so it feels very difficult to make any real judgements about things. For the same reason, it isn’t really possible to make any judgements about the quality of decision-making yet, but I hope that you might actually be able to make meaningful decisions in the game.
Cons
- Length and development time – I don’t like to say it, but I feel I have to. There is maybe 20 minutes of content, and it is all still in the “prologue” of the story. That’s fine and dandy. What’s less fine and dandy is that this is in a game where the first build was apparently uploaded to F95 in late 2020. This is a game that has now been in development for at least 20 months, and we have about one minute of content per month to show for it. While it’s not strictly a “bad” thing, I think you have to go into this game with your eyes open knowing that it may be quite ambitious and development time is horrifically slow. So, if you get invested in it, there may be YEARS between significant changes to the game.
- Incomplete routes in existing build – I’ve seen this in a few games but this is now the first time I’m properly calling it out. Frankly, I hate this “style” of development and hope that this will not be indicative of how they build the rest of the game. If you create a decision tree, a particular path or route for the game to take and then halfway through said path the game says “this is a placeholder because this section of the game isn’t ready yet” and THEN goes back to the rest of the game, I fucking despise that. While it’s fine when your game is short and quick to play through, it is an absolute pain in the arse if you see the placeholder and then are allowed to continue the rest of the story. Because that means that if you want to see everything, you have to go back and do it all over again… Personally, I would much prefer it any routes added into a game have ALL of their content when they are first implemented so I don’t have to revisit multiple times.
Once again, I feel like I have actually said pretty much everything that needs to be said about
Refuge of Embers in my Pros/Mehs/Cons. The game is exhibiting an awful lot of promise and looks like it will, very likely, contain some absolutely smashing fantasy harem fun. It also seems like it may well be quite exciting and ambitious in scope, with the potential of having a decent fantasy narrative on top of any sexy fun times to keep me happy.
About 70% of the stuff I’ve said about the game, one way or the other, is very wishy-washy because it’s really far too early in the game’s story to actually make definitive statements.
One can definitely say that the art-style and animations are very nice and that I’d be very happy to see much more of that, but this is about as much as I can say for sure. The writing seems decent if a bit stilted, but this might improve as the game’s real plot gets going. Or it might take an absolute nose-dive. The overall plot is starting out quite generic, but it might end up surprising people. The sexy stuff sure seems like it could be very, VERY hot, but there might end up not being that much or they might not really keep feeling that sexy as time goes on.
Even my complaint about the development time might actually not hold up as the devs have said (somewhere) that they are still creating character art assets, so if that gets completed then that might actually drastically speed up the pace of creation. Who knows?!
Having said this, you might, very reasonably, ask the question whether
Refuge of Embers even deserves a review at this point in time. It’s quite simply far, far too early to say much for sure about it. You might also add that the fact I’ve given it 4/5 stars is therefore extremely generous.
Essentially, I think this is quite simply a game to keep an eye on. Stick it in your back pocket and come back in a couple of years and there might be something very, VERY worth playing here. It is exhibiting just quite a lot of promise.
I also have to add to that, that the game feels criminally unnoticed. Even for having so little in it right now, it absolutely deserves more attention than it’s got!
