Here, the combat mechanics are quite classic. It's mostly about increasing the MC base stat by reading books or paying for upgraded equipment. When a fight seem too hard you click on "release collar", you win, and you spend the corruption you got from it when she's asleep or you buy some blessed water... So the whole combat system is more a chore than something you are exciting to do and learn (i played the game in the hardest difficulty so in "story mode" it must be even more boring)
The mission system is linear and you don't have any choices. You have to do all of them, one after an other to progress with the main story and to unlock one or two optionnal side quests. So again it's not quite fitting for a rpg since you don't personnalize your experience.
The erotic events (which are quite rare) are locked behind a stat called lewdness. You don't get to see any lewd event if you didn't agree on it. So no forced content, and actually no content at all if you don't always choose the lewd options anyway. If you didn't increase enough your lewdness with the first events, the later erotic events won't even be an option for you. It's really strict and again very linear : you are lewd or you have no erotic content.
There is nothing you can farm that contain gameplay. To win money you do the quest (that you are forced to do anyway), there are no side jobs with cool and fun mechanic that allows you to grind money or stat or ero events. To win stat you just pay the blacksmith and he will improve your gear. AGAIN : very straightforward, linear and without gameplay.
The game is saved by the effort put into the script. But without that it would be extremely basic. I don't think that updating the game to unlock more story is a good idea, i think the dev(s)s should focus on the base and make it really solid by increasing the fun of the gameplay and the replayability of the game.
I think the gameplay, while not revolutionary or open-ended, is better than the vast majority of H-games, including the Japanese RPGM games that inspired it. The
game that the dev cited as a primary influence is not only grindy, but the walktrough actually recommends that you do a sexless run the first time around so that the
real, lewd playthrough isn't such a chore. SKA has tricky but beatable bosses, no grinding, and so far has managed to stay challenging throughout.
Too challenging for quite a few players, in fact.
There is a bit of leeway with building Aura, in particular deciding what items to feed to the slime, what to take to the blacksmith and what to sell. Also deciding what order to train the skills in.
Most of the lewd scenes have some kind of reward to them, so passing on them means you pass on resources like money. So both Aura and the player have reason to do them. You can also lower the lewdness requirement with a certain mental change. Also, through the use of "pink" scenes, you reduce the number of early scenes you have to do and be more selective.
Corruption can overflow and lead to a Game Over, and this is something a number of players run into through overuse of Star Knightess. Personally, I use it to skip certain bosses and fight the ones I find easier for my build.
I do agree it would be nice to have optional jobs with different gameplay mechanics to add variety to the gameplay without being necessary or overpowered. Karryn's Prison really benefits from this, for example.
