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

Pretty good, the gameplay needs little work but it isnt generic RPGM combat and the card battling seems like a move in the right direction. The content is also pretty good and well drawn. I would recommend easy mode since I personally find only saving at campfires pretty annoying, but to each their own.

This is my first time playing this game and i'm suprised by the quality of it.

The game really tries to be itself, while also implementing a lot of good features from other similar games, of course there are a few things that could be improved, but as of now it is really going into the right direction.

So i would say try it out yourself if you like these kind of genres.

the game is painfully slow and confusing. everything, from top to bottom, is quite bad. the UI for instance is poor, unresponsive, amateurish. combat is extremely repetitive and time consuming. scenes aren't that good, and few in number taking the time invested into consideration. I assume there is AI art in this game, at least on the backgrounds. all in all, this 1 star score is a deserved one.

So far, the art is crazy-high quality, and the gameplay reminds me of the LISA games. Actually, a lot of the gameplay reminds me of the LISA games, but that's all subject to change soon with various planned updates as of writing this. There's a lot of potential here, I hope mr. Dev man can pull it off, the art is killing it, if the combat update and gameplay (and story) can follow suit, this is a hit.

The most similar to Karryn's Prison game that has well designed immersion environment and hot arts. Where else you can expect abs & rim jobs made by hot muscular dark-skin adventure woman? As bonus, tentacles & monsters included.

[v.0.13.1]

A game that has a bunch of decent, good, great elements - but never really manages to bring them together into something coherent.

A few positives to call out:

• The game world is interesting enough, made more so by the fact that you don't get hit over the head with exposition. The little hints or details you pick up about the various factions and forces are enough to keep things fresh for the most part.
• The art is solid - you'll find plenty of folks drooling over the main character. I actually find the environmental art and details to be more impressive, though the character art is - at worst - competent.
• There's evident care and polish put into various systems and overall presentation. This is not a slap dash effort of a first-time dev.

In the "meh" category:

• The combat is...there. There's an attempt at depth to the combat system with various unlocks and skill trees - but they are largely irrelevant to the content present. With one or two points invested in one of the three combat skill trees, you'll have little trouble in any of the fights.
• The in-battle lewds are fine, for the most part. The art is not a problem, it's on par with the rest of the game's assets - but tying the battle sex into the game's arcane, grindy, and ultimately meaningless corruption system leaves it feeling hollow.
• On that note: there are dozens (hundreds?) of "corruption" passives your character can get. The problem is that they a) take forever to grind through, b) almost require you to lose or draw fights out on purpose c) have little-to-no impact on the gameplay.

Elements that just didn't work for me:

• Saria's character is essentially flat, regardless of how many corruption passives you pile onto her blue-haired head. A few in-battle lines might change, but aside from that, Purity McPure Saira and SuperSloot Saira feel like the same person. Her interactions with the world, her approach to problems, 99% of her out-of-combat lines - all stay the same. Yes, the game is still developing - but this problem shows up even in systems/set-pieces that have already been "developed."
• Related to the above, the "static" defeat scenes for Saria are a downright baffling choice in a corruption game. No matter how "corrupted" Saria grows, the post-defeat lewd scenes will never change. The 3 bandits that leer at her in the first map will continue to leer at her without ever going further - even if Saria is literally throwing herself at every single other bandit in sight. Combined with the point above, it leads me to believe that the dev doesn't really understand or care what "corruption" games are about.

In the end, this game feels like less than the sum of its parts. Its pieces never really come together, often leaving strangely obvious and frustrating gaps.

It's a "corruption" game - with static scenes and little to no change in the MC. It includes exploration and fast-travel elements - but the dev has repeatedly said that the players are not really meant to return to "older" zones. It has relatively deep and complex systems for combat and corruption - that don't have any effect on the world.

All of it adds to a 3/5, and a feeling of an opportunity being actively missed.

A beautiful and interesting but very unfair game.

After playing way too many hastily made RPGM games, Saria Reclaimed looked quite intriguing: gorgeous artworks, its own skill system, a corruption theme and still a "real" game to play… So I tried it, and was positively impressed (and aroused) at first. Until I reached somewhat of a crossroad (first 2 hours of gameplay), where I had to either:

• go through the Mios Cave where I could barely scratch enemies that were raising my corruption like crazy,
• or fight 3 enemies (the bonepickers) that would knock me down every turn, preventing me from doing anything since standing up takes your action

Many ennemies can also chain-stun you, because getting stunned while already stunned refresh the stun-timer. I was killed several times without being able to act once.

Am I doing something wrong? It feels like I need to either let Saria get corrupted or go through a tedious grind process in order to actually progress.

Anyway, I’ve considered stopping but I reaaaaaaaaaally like the art so I guess I’ll just go down the corruption path or use cheats… Might change the grade later, for now I’ll stick with medium+ for "good but I'm quite disappointed".

Edit 0.14.2 (dropped from 3* to 2*): So there's a card system for the battles now. While I like the idea, it's currently pretty much half-baked and suffer several balancing issues. The HUD is also pretty confusing due to the abundance of information and absence of tutorial/explanation panel. I highly suggest waiting for the next update because currently the game is very messy and confusing.

Edit 0.16 (regraded from scratch, 2*): So the game was fully remade, it's no longer an exploration RPG but a VN with a card fight system. Beyond the sheer "wtf did the dev think?!?" let's rate the game fairly, as if it was new:

• Art is amazing
• There's almost no content (1 hour max to see everything)
• Fights are ok, albeit simplistic and unbalanced (no progession)
• Story is boring not the game's strongest point

If truly new, this would have been a promising game but knowing how much content was removed I'm extremely confused and doubtful about the dev's vision, as he's essentially abandonning his game and make a new one. This isn't a good sign, and I would have felt cheated if I did became a patron as I heavily considered to do when I first discovered the game.

[0.16] Update

I have to give 1 star for this mess. The first card change was okayish (3-4 star maybe) but currently the second change is just horrible. It literally made the game worse. Content is shallow, the gameplay is butchered and corruption is no more. I'll update this review (hopefully) when the dev regains his sense and bring back glorious days of this game.

Updated Verdict: 2/10. I had high expectations from this game and now I'm devastated with this update.


[0.11] Review

• Amazing game with amazing gameplay. Combat is well done. It requires further improvements to reach its peak but so far it's very playable and very enjoyable.

• Pretty main character. Art style is beautiful. It's a must have for a female protagonist game and Saria is definitely a heroine to be adored.

I've been following this game since the beginning and it gets more and more awesome with each update. We need more games like this. I wish the dev good luck.

Verdict: 10/10. A masterpiece is on the way.

Beautiful game. Very unique gameplay and the way main character moves across the map. Some quest weird somethimes. Like you need to bring something and then he nothing.
Honesty, I don't know why but this game resemblance Karryn prison some way. Every time game updates new scenes and animation are added. Sexual content very charming. You can "improve" every aspects of body and make your MC lewdier.
If you wanna play as a MC who get slowly corrupted then you should try it.

What, how?
Played about 2 hours and I really don't see a good game here.
I guess the female protagonist is sexy, but that's not much of a standard...
Seems like many people compare it to karryn's prison. To be honest, I wasn't a big fan of that game either (still enjoyed it though), just wasn't my cup of tea. But Saria Reclaimed? Nope, don't see it.

worst game I've ever played needs a lot improvements
1- Add some new skills
2- Add some animations
3-Sexual content is not enough
4- When talking an npc if we can see her/his name that will be helpful for recalling the name

Played the initial 0.01 release with barely any content and it was already fantastic, just checked back in and I am astounded with the pace of development for this game! Not only is the content phenomenal, its coming out at a pace that puts most other devs to shame. As a massive fan of Karryn's Prison, this is EXACTLY what I was hoping for, can't wait to see the final product!

Edited for V.16.

As with my previous review, this site has made me hate the word "potential" but I still think this game has high potential. In its current state, it has regressed on content which has lead me to drop the rating from 5 to 3.

However, the iterations show a game developer who is experimenting and evolving.This is not a finished game. and we should not be expecting a finished game.

That said the game is in danger of becoming a visual novel. which would be unfortunate because I want to explore this world, not just follow Saria's story.

The current design loses the beautiful scenery that evoked wonder. why is there a battleship in a desert? whats the deal bridge and lone tower? The burning villages?


While previous iterations allowed us to explore these, there wasn't much content in them, but it seemed like a larger world. Yes, I wanted to get Saria Fucked, but I also wanted all of the secrets. The current design limits that sense of exploration. The player is pulled by the nose scene by scene.


Now, I like Karryn's prison, but its piss poor gameplay, 0 story, an unimmersive world, and most of the time I am just running from one room to another. It was developed in a linear exacting manner as most games are on this site.

While I think Velminth should keep more of the visual aspects of the UI, I think experimenting is better than just copying Karryn's Prison with a new story.

A little experimentation and trying new things is exactly what we need. I am tired of rinse and repeat RPGMs, Renpys, and VN. I am still excited to see what comes next from Velminth. He will find something that works. You can tell by the quality of the versions released, he will the game mechanics he wants.


What I hope this game will deliver next: more art, more environment, more paths/interactions/puzzles, more story depth, and more motivation from the character.

After 10 month of update. This game has become quite a decent and playable game. Story-wise it's extremely brief as it's far from finished. Gaming mechanic-wise the combat part is almost mature but hopefully there would be way more waiting ahead.
CG-wise the art is just downright amazing. Now the reviewing rules stop me from mentioning another game but YOU ALL KNOW where this game gets its inspiration. Compared to that one, the CG is even better(not saying that one is bad, but this one befit my aesthetic better).
One thing that is even more important, the rate of update is once every end of a month like a freaking subscribed magazine. Who does that? Ridiculous. In a good way.
Anyway looking forward to more content. This is going to be another one of the kings of eroges. And you know who is the last king that Im taking about.

Better than most games here, even in this state. Also, the sound design and the general theme really sells it.

this game will become much better as more work is done. not to mention that it's been constantly updated every month from its v0.1 release, so it's fair to say that every 3 months you get to see a lot of improvements. I see no need to give a 4/5 or 3/5 for its current state since I know I will have to change it to 5 later.

POTENTIAL!

For now i guess it mostly a first playable area with enemies and a combat system which needs some balancing. Some bugs where the left guages dissapear or that the defeat scenes never end. Otherwise it is like everyone else has said and its a karryns prison in a different setting, different taste in main character and different tone. Hopefully it can be what KP is today and i will be following this one for sure

Now, lots of things have changed, quite literally. Honestly, the game deserves an extra star for artwork alone, but for me artwork is more of a wrapper than the candy itself, so I decided to rate the game for what it's become.

I have no idea what prompted the dev to remake the game from an immersive sim with battlefuck elements to a raw VN-esque game we've seen multitudes of times by now, but, hey, it's his game - I don't really care for his motivations, he's free to do with it whatever the hell he wants.

Now, would I want to play this? Aw hell no, I'd rather just take a look through an unlocked gallery or decrypt the images for a quick wank.

What I loved about this game that's gone missing post v15:

• Gradual corruption.
• An ability to "train" different bodyparts. Whenever possible in games like this, I like to make a slutty virgin hoe, and in this game this was possible.
• Enemies' actions and Saria's reactions described in various floating messages that made things feel more "dynamic".
• Speaking of dynamic things: battlefuck system to rival Karryn's Prison even in it's raw state.
• Exploration in a vast, foreign world with lore sprinkled all over it for the player to piece together.
• Character creation that was in a league of its own aesthetically.

Now we have none of that.

The dev is a pretty free-spirited person, which is something I can respect. It's important to do what you like to do and not what the others tell you to. However, he also possesses a couple of traits that I abhor to the point of borderline hatred: arrogance and lack of discipline. Refusing to listen to some of the more well-constructed critique and refusing to finishing what he's started initially - it's honestly not a good look nor a way to behave.

If you, dev, whatever your callsign is that I won't even care to remember or look up now, reading this: whatever you might yourself believe, in reality - you done and fucked everything up. That's all on you. At this point I'm pretty much speaking for majority of your former fanbase: none of us will want to "play" your "game" again, unfortunately. You might still have a chance to redeem yourself, but given your childish attitude in general - I wouldn't really count on that. Comebacks like NMS or CP2077 are very rare even on a smaller indie scale like this.

To summarize: the game that we've loved is gone, the art is still stellar, the dev is a dick with no hope for redemption.

I hope some dedicated fan will pick this project up and finish the job. With tools currently available to people now(AI image gen, for example), it's quite possible.

v0.16
"And so it was, that nothing is made to last forever."
Well, time makes fools of us all. I was hopeful last time I reviewed this that it was headed in the right direction. But v0.16 is literally an entirely different game. The gameplay is different, the story is different, the underlying systems are different, the vibes are different. Just about the only thing that remains is the RPGM engine.

I downloaded it to give it an honest shot, and truthfully, it is further from being a good game than the last version. Thus, moving my score from 3 to 2 stars.

The combat is boring and buggy. I think there's something going on with the menus/combat where the hidden clickable elements are still clickable. If you open the unclearly labeled "fetish" menu and then click down where the deck icon is meant to be, it opens the deck menu behind the fetish menu.

In general, it feels like the dev fell in love with Library of Ruina and made some approximation of it out of the assets they had available from this game. These kinds of reworks happen a lot in game development, but rarely in the public eye with people already paying you.

I don't think it's impossible for this to turn into a good game, but it solidly not a replacement for the game it was, or the game people wanted it to be. I also think that patrons should be wary going forward, because such a drastic change all at once means that the dev likely won't hesitate to do it again. Don't get too attached to a game that may never be.

Also, a small pet-peeve for English as a second language writers: punctuation like "!" or "?" goes right at the end of a sentence. There shouldn't be a space, it functions just like a comma or a period.

v0.11

Combat balanced has been improved, but much of what I said below is still true with the added problem: Lewd combat is pretty boring. It's possible to win with lewd techniques now, which is a huge plus, however, it does mean sitting through the same cut-ins over and over for way too many turns.

Also, not sure if this is a bug or not, but it seems that only one enemy is able to "finish" per turn. So you may be fighting 3 enemies with a lewd technique, and all 3 of them have filled their climax bar, but you'll have to survive 3 more turns to actually let them all finish.

Overall, headed in the right direction, but still pretty janky.

v0.9

This game has a lot of potential, but it's still a long way from what I would consider good. Obviously, I know this game is still in development, so this will all likely change, but I want anyone who is looking to play this the lewd way to know what to expect.

+ The world design and story (so far) is nice. Feels like a Souls game mixed with something like Kenshi.
+ The art is solid.
- The combat is very unbalanced. Standard combat is WAY too easy and lewd combat is WAY too hard.
- The loss "battles" are pointless and may as well just be static CGs because you cannot lose them, and you can't do anything besides wait for them to play out.

The lewd stuff is clearly inspired by Karryn's Prison, but it doesn't quite nail the pleasure, stamina, energy, willpower system. In Karryn's you spend willpower, energy, or stamina in a balancing act to do damage, buff yourself, restore other bars, or initiate lewd combat. Those bars typically recover on their own, but their max value is reduced over time as Karryn fatigues and orgasms. You lose when you run out of energy.

Saria Reclaimed's lewd combat is fundamentally flawed. You lose the fight when you run out of willpower, and as far as I could tell, there are no abilities to recover willpower in combat, it refills slowly each turn.

You know what else makes you lose willpower? Orgasms and most utility abilities. So even if you try to stop her from orgasming, you end up spending MORE willpower on reducing her pleasure than you would if you just let her orgasm. If you want to win a fight by giving a blowjob for example, you typically have to kill all but one enemy, get them to jerk off for a little bit while you let your willpower slowly recover, and then initiate the blowjob and hope that they finish before you orgasm yourself into a loss.
You can also very easily get yourself into a position where you're having an orgasm literally every turn, and the only way to stop it is to spend more willpower (aka kill yourself faster) to reduce your pleasure enough that it won't fill all the way next turn.

I wanted to be able to play this like Karryn's where you can fuck your way through all the combat, but normal combat is SO much easier and lewd combat is so broken that I switched back to killing enemies after grinding passives and lewd abilities for over an hour.

This game is amazing. I love the atmosphere, the skill tree, the stat tracking, exploration, fighting, and the clothing destruction. The dark skinned muscle girl protagonist is also really hot! I hope the game can have a "day-to-day" tempo, so that you as the player can "take the world in" and feel like you live in it.

This game requires you to lose to get scenes. This is problematic on its own, and made worse by the fact that when you get a defeat, the enemy kidnaps you and force you to do heavy backtracking. The scenes are also I think unsatisfying, the men kidnap you to a secluded dungeon to... jerk off on your face then leave?

She has a ton of spots of sensitivity, but she doesn't actually need to be touched there, if an enemy jerks off while looking at her sensitive spot, she just orgasms? Also, enemies will literally not care if you are killing them, they will keep just jacking it. There's also this annoying cut-in every time the enemy looks at you, the game in general is just sluggish and doesn't make sense.

The art is funny in that it has the same strengths and weaknesses as my own art. The detailing and expressions are good, the proportions and perspective aren't. So I will say it is good art. One thing that annoys me is the art is reused in ways that break immersion, for instance if you are getting ass grabbed by a green monster, the hands grabbing you are generic white guy hands. I understand small budget games they need to be economical, but all I'm asking is that you recolor the hands green, I think that's a reasonable expectation.

I've been pretty harsh on this game, but let's talk about positives. The atmosphere, world-building, and sprite-work is all very top tier. It's very rare an H-game gets me invested into the lore, but this is an exception. The main character is well-designed and voice acted. Having a side-scroller type world is a refreshing idea for this sphere.

I'm giving it a 3 star rating for now (v0.8), but this game has high potential and one I will replay when it gets future updates.