Unity - Completed - Saint Gear Force [v1.1.3] [Metamorphose]

This was a hard one to rate because I love the train investigator demo that this developer released after this game, but they just did not have the whole game and scene design figured out in their first game release (this game).

First, the game performs really bad for seemingly no reason. Laggy menus, slow saving, combat doesn't process quickly, and I have a great computer.

They had some good ideas for combat in this game that just didn't end up feeling awesome. The same few battle cut-ins were used for every enemy in the game pretty much, with no progression of intensity based on sensitivity, corruption, status, or anything. They had a bunch of cool status effects that all ended up falling flat. You would read the descriptions of them, think "oh this is going to be good," and then maybe get one stale cut in or something that triggers the previous cut-ins that you've already seen many times.

Map design was mediocre and you had to keep running back deep into a map without anyway to teleport to where you've been before. Just annoying to add more "gameplay" time. Grinding wasn't super rewarding, talent tree was bland. Great art though and attractive characters.

I did finish the game, which I never do with games I can't stand, so I can't give it less than a 3. I really wanted to like this game because I like what the developers are doing after this, but you aren't missing anything by skipping this one. I'll just accept that it was a learning experience for the devs because their next stuff is way better.

Overview (v1.1.3): Rather solid RPG with a unique battle system, good scenes and enemies that don't forget you are playing an H-Game. The story is pretty irrelevant but you play as a new member of Saint Gear Force and run around beating people up. There are 4 areas to go through, each with different enemies, different hentai mechanics and some stuff to explore. A bit of grinding is neccesary but nothing too bad. Hentai is all breast/vaginal but theres alot of different restraints, toys and conditions that make it interesting. Playtime is around 4 hours. Likely a 4/5 but i'm partial to the fetishes and battlefuck. Solid reccomend.

Gameplay (4/5): Despite being a unity game, its plays much like an RPGM while still managing to do its own thing. The action-queuing is interesting and meshes well with both regular combat and hentai. Planning between attacking, dodging/enduring H-Attacks and managing SP is the main gameplay and serves well for the playtime. Exploring the map doesn't take too long and gets you items, events and a way to counter each boss's main mechanic. As stated previously, some grinding is needed to level up, but as long as you don't waste your money on useless items, you can just buy the SP capsules and reduce grind. Maps have simple branching paths, not too large and no random encounters. If you don't like regular RPGM gameplay, this probably won't sway you but its a nice spin on old turn-based mechanics.

Hentai (5/5): Solid amount of battlefuck and some decent CGs and events. The battlefuck is the main draw with enemies having a good range of things to due across the 4 areas. Enemies can harrass, restrain, insert toys, hack your suit, spray aphrodisiac and more. Bosses have a unique mechanic related to some H-mechanic in their area. If you like milder BDSM and sex toys (like I do), this is game has a great amount. The CGs are not bad but feel less relevant compared to the battlefuck. Starting with a virgin run needed a few resets on bosses but not too hard overall. Would reccomend if you like what you see.

Nice little game, a bit too grindy on the last level so i would advise to cheat engine a few skill point as fights are pretty boring after a while.

Combat system is nice with a bit a change from default turn base fight (placing your skill on the time bar)

the game could clearly use some voice, not a full dub but some moan during battlesex action because right now it feel lackluster.

Version reviewed: v1.0.4 -> updated for v1.0.9

Overall
Grindy but has better mechanics than the average game.

Official Translation
Dev used DeepL to translate the game to English. It's not great but it's workable. The biggest issue for me is that i'm not sure what some of the items actually do.

Presentation
Pretty good graphics but dev used cut-in images to show the sexual actions and all those cut-ins are isolated from each other. So for example if someone gropes her while she has nipple vibrators equipped, the cut-in image for the groping won't show the nipple vibrators. It's still all functional, but not as good as it could have been. At least everything displays on the standing image, including equipped items, npc's, and facial expressions. No animations though.

Gameplay
Almost just like RPG Maker except each turn has two phases: planning and execution. During planning, enemies will queue up their actions first and you can plan your actions accordingly. Then when you're ready it will process the actions in order. It's interesting because you have to do some planning to balance attacks, arousal, and restraints. The best part is that there's no gameover. If you get stuck in a fight you can't win and can't escape, you'll get a scene and you'll be rescued so that you can continue playing.

The biggest fault of this game is that it's grindy. There's only a couple of enemy types per level and you have to fight them over and over again to be able to buy the upgrades. It wouldn't be so bad if there were a lot more enemy types with different actions or other ways to buy the upgrades instead of grinding. The other thing this game desperately needs is an auto button. I want to queue up my attacks, start the turn, and have it go through all the actions without needing me to press a button until the next turn.

Update: you still have to grind but it's less painful now because you can buy an item that gives you skill points.

With the official release and its official english translation the game is in a much more playable state now. One thing to take of note is that parry and counter work in opposite ways.

To address a few of the complaints:
Bug in the intro: haven't encountered it.
No instant ko button: There is an item you can find that literally does this.
Slow pacing once you get assaulted: This is an early game/pure run issue only because you gain more sensitivity and the speed at which you climax=take damage speeds up significantly as you continue your run.

Overall, the game has nice art with plenty of unique animations and CGs and the combat system feels quite unique and different for a rpgmaker style game (even though this one is in unity it basically plays like rpgmaker).

This game will not exactly blow you away and it does feel like it has some missed potential in certain areas but I will let you discover that yourself. Overall it feels like a solid 4 star and is worth your time.

Literally unplayable.

You get softlocked during the tutorial because the game disables your ability to choose different options from the menu, and locks your cursor over "defense", while the tutorial is asking you to "give up".

Had to retry it 4 times before the rng spanwed the turn order in a way that the cursor is no longer locked.

Definitely has high potential, but the game commits a lot of the same sins many games in its genre do.

First of all, why is this a unity game? It looks and plays exactly like an rpgmaker game, but with the added bugginess of unity. I got softlocked by a dialogue box once during my playtime.

The art is good. Character design is solid, though it has my most hated trope, which is the game having a hotter character you can't play as. The blue-haired girl is a lot more attractive, more womanly, than the protagonist, whereas the protagonist has more of a teenager look and feel. It's really a bait and switch too, because the blue haired girl is the first one you see, so you just assume you'll get to play as her. Can I just not play as a teenager for once in one of these damn games? Aanyway...

This game also has the really annoying trifecta: (1) You get h-scenes on loss, so many times you want to lose, (2) but there's no surrender/insta-loss button, (3) and the game is very easy so it takes forever for you to lose even if you pass every turn. The enemies do H-attacks and stuff, but those are mostly pointless because they don't deal damage to you, and only work towards making the protagonist orgasm, which basically just skips one turn. And to make matters worse, if you're in a restrained state, they'll do nothing but H-Attacks, which means you hardly take any damage and makes combat drag even longer. I swear, none of these devs know how to balance combat.

Speaking of combat, it's bland. Nothing to see here, really. It has some good ideas, but from what I've played so far, you can just spam attack and win with no issue. And the h-attacks and restraint statuses don't incorporate very well into combat.

But I'm still giving it three stars because it's a heroine battlefuck game, which will never not be hot.