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

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.

I've been following this game for many months since it was 0.2 and it is hands down my favorite H-game.

To start off the art is absolutely incredible and Velminth does an amazing job with every new piece of art added to the game. Seeing some say it looks like AI art is a big insult.

The main thing that makes this game amazing is easily the gameplay mechanics. As many of said, the game drew inspiration from Karryn's Prison with how its mechanics work. I always liked KP and found the gameplay as a new standard of quality for gameplay in H-games. The only thing I wasn't a big fan of about KP was Karryn herself having too big proportions for my taste, but once again that's just personal preference. Up until the most recent update the combat was just as fun if not better than KP with how the enemy preferences worked and the cut-ins that came with them. The defeat scenes are also great as well.

I understand that many hate the "grinding" for content, but I personally like these slowburn games. Watching as Saria is slowly corrupted is great and engaging. I'm so tired of the massive amount of garbage h-games that have ok to great art, but no gameplay mechanics at all and are just a glorified gallery for the art. Games that include H-content into actual gameplay mechanics is what easily makes some of the best games on this site. I could go on for hours about this, but that rant is for another day.

Going off my previous point, Velminth recently released verison .14 which revamped the entire gameplay and added a sidejob (similar to what KP does). The card system is based on Library of Ruina and is way more fun than the previous system. The side job once the bugs were patched is also very fun. It says a lot about the game that I find it fun to play outside of the H-content.

Considering Vel is a solo dev, the soundtrack is pretty good and Saria even has a VA.

Overall, if you like a slowburn corruption game with actual fun gameplay that's rare among most of the games on this site then check this game out. Vel is taking this game in a great direction and it's worth giving him at least a dollar a month for the hours of fun I had with his game so far.

Great game! You can really spend a lot of time playing this game and it is not just a simple platformer where you have to go from point A to point B due to side quests and hard enemies that you want to gear up for.

I cant honestly recommend this in its current state. Combat has a few nasty bugs, and the game softlocked with an error message after one fight for me. The layer for cum on the MC also is out of place within battles.
Beyond jank however, it can simply be described as "okay" in its gameplay loop.
Given this is a corruption battle porn game the first thing I wanted to do was complete the deck of lewd cards. easier said than done, as the way to change enemy body part preferences is only given after extended use of the corresponding part. This makes early game a complete RNG grind, as the tools you really want are withheld for quite a while. The time it takes to unlock later techniques like "initiate titjob" takes the fun out of the game, and the desired reward is devalued by the effort.
I really hope this is streamlined for ease of play later down the development line, as I don't think I'm going to try this again until its full release. When the full game comes out though, I will definitely re-write my review, as I still enjoy the core aspects of the gameplay loop and overall art direction.

[Review made for build v0.14]

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