VN - RPGM - Abandoned - Saria Reclaimed [v0.17] [Velminth]

Okay.... Regarding the 0.16 update.... I'm kinda expecting the content will suffer a whole rework at the point it won't be a sidescroller RPG with corruption mechanics, I will talk about the update itself and give my opinion about the whole project itself.
The change into a VN it's not particulary bad, I would say that I think is really understandable the dev going into this direction, avoiding over-enginering a complex RPG system, let's be honest here, Karryn's Prison is a complex game, and it really took a time to be done. If the dev feels like he'll have a good use of his time changing into this system, good for him, and I'm still looking forward into the next updates, the VN's whole story rework looks promissing, the new designs and characters and the sprite work is still good, the new battle system is really simple and it's easy to learn fast, but if you're expecting that same ol' battle system back then, prepare to be disapointed, because it's just a plain simple battle system. The thing that really bothers me is the fact the whole corruption thing is removed but at the same time the replace is just... meh. I think Saria's will get more sluttier at the story progress in future updates. The CGs are fine, nothing that really changed from the other versions, and the game barely breaks now, if the dev's concern is avoid the game breaking, I think he managed to overcome this, even it's still a little bugs (that cum overlays for example but I know the dev is aware of that or already fixed it in another update).

That being said, even I'm still looking forward to the next updates, I won't lie to myself and thinks it's okay to just scrap 90% of your game's content, change the whole project direction and don't expect people being upset about that. The whole point about this situation is to play a RPG and enjoy the whole corruption system (that has their problems, but it really just needed some balances to make it work fine), and the way the dev just acts like a spoiled 12 years old kid who really thinks is big deal calling those who criticizes him as "downs-syndrome borne" in 2023 just says a lot about him. It's just painfully childish at this point. Really sad about the direction the project took, the new card system is really a interesting addition, it just needed a balancing.

In short, again, looking forward for the next updates, but seeing the whole edgyness from the dev just makes me care less about this project. And I really don't blame people cancelling their subscription because the project they're funding became another whole thing and the 90% of the content is just scrapped out it's just a gut punch.

PS: I was on his discord and I can testify that a lot of people who came to criticize him just got banned while he claim everyone on this thread as a "retarded", "mentaly disabled", "autistic", etc. Like, dude, grow up, we're not in 2015 anymore to being that edgy prick, also really toxic server, suits the dev well.

This game had promise at the start. It seems this dev is trying to take the YandereDev route and doesn't know what he wants this game to be, and insults everyone who disagrees with him. Everything that made this game good was removed or revamped to terrible systems he thought were cool. The next update of this game will be a 3D FPS shooter. I mean but hey, at least the MC has a cool design that's about the only thing going for this game.

Cool concept, nice art but lazy work. No animation, no new mechanics just a classic RPG Maker game. I dunno why people so hype about it. They need to work on it a loooooot more.

Art: 7/10
Animations: What animation?
Mechanics: What mechanic?

I kind of get the feeling the remake was done streamline the development pipeline, and make it into a project that could be 'completed' in a quicker time frame.

That being said, not really worth playing anymore as of right now anyways. Especially disappointing if you're coming from what was here previously.

from the initial releases to 0.15, the game was a promising contender to karryn's prison. saria's deep corruption and combat sex system, set in a pretty creatively arranged sidescroller view of rpgm with what launched as a straightforward combat system that eventually became card based... and now it's a weird vn with no mechanics, no corruption, nothing but text and clicking to not view a scene or to view it. actually unbelievable what happened to this game

the va, sfx, art quality and art style are still great, but i think ultimately the game is a skip in its current and future states unless he just decides to roll this back, in which case you should approach with caution incase it gets rolled back again lol, what a waste

Even after the Card update I still liked this game and was so excited for the next update..... Only to find a stripped down, boring VN in place of what was a great game with battle fuck to rival Karryns Prison. The fact that the dev has devolved into a prick towards all criticism is just the nail in the coffin. I'll keep an eye on the game and pray that maybe he pulls his shit together, but until then.... Well, one star.

V0.16

Initially, I would have given this game a 4/5 or a 5/5 depending on my mood, but having played the new version, I can safely say this is basically a V0.0.4 kind of game with no good future in sight.

+ Artstyle is amazing
+ Combat is interesting
+ MC is a hot tomboy
+ Setting is cool and the music is nice

- Game has been through two remakes already
- Content gets added, left in a shambled state, then removed from the game
- Dev doesn't seem to have a very clear idea of what the game should be, at one point it was a standard turn-based RPG, then it was an open-world deckbuilder RPG, now it's a VN sort of deckbuilding game with 15% the content of the previous version
- Current version is extremely buggy and unintuitive, lots of things left unexplained
- No progression in the current build, have to wait for V0.17 to get new cards...in this deckbuilding game...

Overall, I'd forget this game existed for 3-4 months then come back to see if the dev has started to bounce back from whatever slump he's fallen into lately.

[V.16]
As the others have said, the recent revamp of the game has hurt it massively.

The entire map system is gone, in favor of an incredibly simple Visual-Novel style approach.

The entire corruption system is gone, instead you randomly get 'fetishes' to equip that are boring and provide no real overview orsense of progression of Saria's corruption/lewdness.

The dev confirmed on discord that the in-game CGs aren't coming back. Instead there'll be 1 or 2 unique CGs that will happen regardless. There's no more dynamic in-combat scenes. No more sensitivity, no more arousal or orgasms in combat.

The current gameplay loop is to read a scene, fight a battle, lose, see a scene, then win the battle with the mediocre card system. Even after you win, you don't gain EXP, loot, or any other standard RPG things. There's 0 point in replaying old fights.

Pretty much all interactivity with the sexual side of the game is comepletly gone. It's a CG hunt with a mediocre battle system.

(review for 16.0) Really sad to see this game in such a state. The game's premise is great, and the initial mechanics were also great, expanding on those from Karryn's Prison's (the GOAT). This gave it a formula for interesting integration of sex into the combat. Unfortunately, it's become a visual novel now without the previous gameplay mechanisms including:

• equipment
• corruption passives
• free-roam world
• consequences (story is a railroad now with no choices or consequences) - you're literally able to replay any of the linear chapters at any time, so that throws narrative consistency out the window
• sex during combat

The game plays very much like a CG gallery now, with scenes on loss but those losses are dead-ends. You play through chapters to unlock the next chapter. Then with each chapter there is a loss scene, so you have to go through each chapter twice if you want to see the content. I don't think I need to say more about why this is such a step down from the initial systems.

I think its downfall was foreshadowed by the change to card systems for combat. This change was unnecessary, and led to many issues where the old system was only partially refactored. The dev's motivation for doing so was because they wanted to, which they also say is the motivation for the refactor into a VN.

On their discord, the dev is also very aggressive against dissent. People are not allowed to express their dissatisfaction with the direction the game is going. Their arrogance combined with their fickleness in changing systems for no good reason gives me no hope for this game's future.

The game gets a 2 star from me for how good the art is, but it really isn't a game anymore.

v0.16
After long 5 or 6 months game got reworked from scratch, there is almost nothing to do, but I guess with next versions game will be awesome. New fight system is pretty original, I think I haven't seen it like this anywhere. Fights can get really quick, which I don't really like but that is my personal preference.

For now I suggest staying with version 0.15.2 where you have most of the stuff ingame. I give it 4 stars, for that it's awesome game and things might change.

[v015.1] Review

I've been following this game since early beginning after playing Karryn's Prison.
What can I say? The game is very good and promising. I got that KP vibes and this game has a lot of potential.

Pros:
- Artwork and animations are amazing, no doubt.
- Sexy and unique MC.
- Corrupting system is one of the main pros, you can develop any part of MC's body through the battle and each enemy prefers different parts of the body, very simillar to KP. After reaching sertain level of corruption, you'll get passive skills and new possibilities.
- Voice acting is great.
- The game has side-job and it'll be a bunch of the them in the future, I think.

Cons:
- Hard to develop MC corruption lvl at start, you must grind your first lewd scene for an hour or so without cheating.
- The locations is kinda meh for me.
- At this stage the amount of usable items that you can buy is small.
- The main con is the new battle system, which based on cards. If you wanna corrupt your MC quickly, you must grind a lot to buy some seduction cards which trigger enemies lewd skills.
- There're some customizing options for MC (a few of them), this is just basic CG's, but for me the only one is attractive, the other ones is kinda missing something.
- Some minor bugs, but it's okay cause the game is still in development.

Suggestion:
- Adding some clothing system that you can customize.
- XRay toggle will be okay.
- CG's with current state of MC's body.

Conclusion:
The game is worth to play if you're enjoying corruption games. And from what I saw in dev's Trello, it'll be a lot of stuff outhere.
I'll defenetely buy the game, when it'll be finished.

Review Version of 0.15.2

Summary: Side scrolling RPG that has hentai elements as in-game CG pictures. When your clothes are torn, enemies will sexually harass you leading cut-in CGs. Fortunately, CGs are easily accessible through cheats on the menu.

Pros: Excellent art both adult and card art are just wonderful to look at.

Cons: UI and gameplay is quite unintuitive and the hentai element doesn't really mesh well. For example, I have no clue why boss characters almost lead to an instant loss despite my WP (will power) being full. Using corrupted lewd technique on certain enemies doesn't do anything (e.g. pussy or clit techniques on troglodytes).

Another example, you're given a few cards that cost 2 initiative after beating the 1st boss. I THINK you can only increase max initiative through equipment/accessories and class changing but I've never really found out.

Current suggestion: I think the current gameplay can be streamlined and be made more intuitive. PL and WP can likely just be made into a single stat.

Overall, the game is off to a solid start. UI can be made more intuitive and I think the lewd/corruption/pleasure/will power system doesn't really mesh well with the current gameplay loop.

Takeaway: For where it is in development, I would argue that it's coming along. I believe there are some improvements to be made with balancing and story but nonetheless, I would applaud the effort. Definitely something to keep an eye out for.

The amount of content currently is interesting but depends on what you want out of it. A majority of the encounters happen in battle, and are unlocked as the game progresses. The game has adopted a card system which has been hit/miss for some players. This is where balancing definitely should be kept in mind.

Regarding the story, I like the background selection in the beginning but there is room for improvement concerning character motivation and direction. Still, this game is in the works and the story is budding but maybe I'm just a dunce and haven't gotten that far yet.

Updated review 0.16

The dev scratched the game and recycled the art to turn it into a VN with card combat.

I don't mind turning it into a VN: the main issue with RPGM games is all the unnecessary travel, and the dev has fixed that by getting rid of it.

However, the dev also removed the best mechanic of the game: allowing you to use whatever body part you preferred, so instead of being able the get the content that you wanted, now you'll get preset animations like in every other generic RPGM game out there.

Most of the content was also removed - the current version features 4 scenarios that you can go through in 10 minutes.

Below is my original review.
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Fight groups of enemies and use lewd acts or combat actions to subdue them.

It also features some massage parlor mini game that I don't particularly like, but it's optional and doesn't detract from the main game.

The art and game mechanics are very good, it also features some very enjoyable voice acting. Right now the bad part is that triggering actual sex takes way too long, and oftentimes the encounters end shortly after the animation begun, either because you lost or because the enemies came.

Worth looking into. This game has a lot of potential.

I'll be mentioning Karryn's Prison and Library of Ruina a lot through this, because it's obvious that this game takes heavy inspiration from both.
The game changed dramatically over the course of its development, and for certain will continue to do so, thus I'd like to talk less about the state it is in, but rather what it could be considering what it's already offering.
Saria Reclaimed takes heavy inspiration from Karryn's Prison, and interestingly enough, also wants to incorporate Library of Ruina's combat in it. That premise sounds fantastic on paper, however as it stands, Saria fails to capture the fun essence of either, be it in either gameplay or H-content.

The appeal of KP is the extremely fluid integration between its combat gameplay and h-content, the nuance of making small bad decisions every day as you manage the prison as Karryn slowly making her lose "control" over herself and the prison she governs. Library of Ruina is probably one of the harder card games out there, and it makes so much sense to try to integrate that kind of difficulty with a game that wants to capture what's great about KP, and yet Saria Reclaimed isn't deep enough in its gameplay options, leaving the optimal decision very blatantly obvious, and having easy cookie-cutter gameplay actively conflicting with what the game is trying to capture.

The gameplay should be harder, Saria should be allowed to equip more cards, and equipping cards shouldn't be "free", like how you have to prepare spells when you long rest in DnD, there should be prerequisites to equipping cards besides simply unlocking them, this is especially important because of how the lewd cards work, they simply just WORK when you unlock/play them, regardless of the situation the battle is in. This can be fixed with something akin to the Emotion meter from Ruina, which builds up as the battle goes on, this can creatively have a lewder twist on it, which allows you to draw/play the lewder cards. Speaking of the lewder cards, as it stands they are nothing but gateways to the cut-in CGs, there is no state where you use them as “battle fuck”, leaving the flow of combat feeling VERY similar to a generic turn based RPGM game with a card game skin.

Why can Saria rest freely? Why is the map so needlessly big with enemies respawning easily? Saria should commit to the kind of game it wants to be instead of being a generic RPGM CG collector eroge where you beat mobs and loss to bosses with a fake “lewdness” meter in your pause screen, there’s enough of those already. A little mean spirited perhaps, but I have a particular passion for this game as it is the only game trying to make something in the “genre” that KP birthed.

As for the H-content, its quality is amazing, but it’s integration is lackluster, thinking back on KP, you don’t really unlock static vn-style H-scenes ever, every bit of erotica is interwoven with gameplay be it minigame or combat, and that’s important because it solved the problem with static scenes, it negates the whole passive/corruption meters and mechanics entirely, as they are, funnily enough, static. You won’t see Saria have a different reaction to the same move an enemy does in those, and loathe as I am to say it, it feels like wasted artwork that could’ve been instead spent on integrating more scenes and interactivity into the combat.

And as all the other reviews say, this game has potential, but as the updates rack up all I see is the game bee lining its way to becoming another RPGM game.

The art is cool, but what's to like here exactly?
There are like 4 locations, the card system is broken. You are sliding through enemies like a knife through butter. They do not even throw lewd attacks at you once you are strong enough, which is like after 30 mins of playing.

Very promising, the Gameplay is very similar to Karryn's Prison, with the different body parts all having their own bar to fill during battle. But unlike Karryn's Prison, this game plays kind of like a Card game, you have a deck of 9 cards you can put together, it seems complex at first, but it's really simple.
The Graphics of the Game also look Great, there are many scenes already, and they are all well done. The UI could use some work, tho it feels rather wonky, but I'm sure that will get better when the game gets further in development.

This game has a pretty good corruption system. Art is great, and so is the voice acting. The only thing that I'd appreciate is being able to see all body part corruption meters (vial-looking things in combat). Also, it would be convenient to see exact corruption value when mouseovering said vials. This game is definitely one of my favorites now.

Been with this game since v0.3, after finishing Karryn's prison, looked for a game similar to it and came across this. An amazing game, still in development, but once completed, it'll rival Karryn's prison or perhaps be even better. Edit: Game just lost its entire purpose at this point.

I think this game has a huge potential, however, the recent updates had made me think about the uncertain future of the project.

The good:
Artwork is beautiful, the design of Saria is amazing although her proportions are ridiculous, not talking about ass or tits but her waist, is very thing in some pieces o artwork and somewhat inconsistent.

The worldbuilding is really good, has that Lisa the Painful / Joyful visual style and there is a big cast of enemies already despite being in somewhat early development.

The bad:
There are not enough dialogues mid combat and there is a lot of missing artwork for battlefuck. This might change in the future but for the development this game has already, the lack of variety for the main mechanic is worrying.

The worst:
The new combat really sucks because doesn't work, but even if it works card base combat is really bad for a battlefuck, making everything way more RNG and less organic, independently of personal taste, cards are objectively the worst decision for such content.

And here is where the worst part for the rest of development start: Changes instead of improvements. If the game started with turn base combat, someone might think this will improve over time, with something better, instead we receive something completely different which feels worst and even if improves over time we have no guaranties about other elements changing completely again.

Is like if the development has no focus and doesn't understand how to improve the game, with changes that apparently are irreversible like the before mention card combat. In a related note, each new build breaks save files, is full of bugs and is sometimes unplayable, there is a general lack of direction here.

I might change this review in the future if the card system gets removed, there is more content with good mechanics, the builds stop being so messy and the development improves in general.

For the time being, this are my thoughts and sadly, I have the feeling this might be the rest of development direction... but lets see.