I don't usually write reviews, but since this is one of the rare cases where gameplay and story matter a lot, I feel like I should
The positives are pretty obvious. The models are excellent, the corruption is slow and interesting, the gameplay rivals other cheap RPGMaker games on Steam which don't actually offer sexual content and there is definitely polish.
But there are some pretty major flaws. And no, the lack of graphics for the scenes is not one of them
First and foremost, the game is not an RPG in the classic sense. It is a puzzle. Whether you win or lose depends more on knowing what the game requires of you, not your party management, gearing or leveling strategies - none of that. The simplest example is the fight against the guy with plate armor. You can try repeatedly to chip away at him to no avail. Or know beforehand that you should ignore him until you learn a specific skill, and then you can completely stomp him. Similarly, I wasted a lot of time trying to up my mana points to 10, which is required for the extremely useful fire spell. Turns out, I had to win a specific fight which gave me a specific material which I had to use to upgrade myself in order to get the necessary mana. I guess what I am trying to say is this - knowing what you are doing will not only save you a lot of time and effort, but also make the difficulty trivial. And don't get me started on how corruption works here, you really need to know beforehand (the explanations given in the game are as detailed as they are useless).
Second, the main character. There is a reason why the game is so heavy on the text. The main character is the perfect example. But first, a question - do you know why in detective novels characters like Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot are usually not the main point of view? Well, one reason is to keep the suspense, but the other reason is that having their thoughts put on paper would make for an extremely lengthy reading. Here we have this very smart girl whose thoughts we are constantly subjected to. And she overanalyzes almost everything. Like shut the fuck up already, the world is not that complex. Insufferable main characters might be good when it comes to wanting them to get the D, but in this case (slowness and text-heavy), its just annoying. Oh, and did I mention that she also has a companion in her head? Yup, let's artificially increase the length of these monologues even more. You'll either love or fucking hate this, there is no middle ground. And its kind of sad that it needs to be like this.
Third, cut the anime crap. The characters constantly yelling each other's names and promising bloody revenge doesn't add anything other than childishness. Am I supposed to take the villains seriously? Even if its all a joke, it got unfunny after the prologue.
Fourth, a single upgrade ending the day (or night this time) is too much. Its really one of the worst pacing I've ever seen. And this is just one instance, simply advancing the plot a little sometimes throws you immediately in the next day. And then you are forced to watch time pass without any real world events. Or there are events but you don't want to see them. The game is already slow, it doesn't need this.
Fifth, the game is extremely frustrating to play with a mouse. Which is pretty bad because "modern" RPGM games should be playable with just the mouse. Especially ones which are turn based. For example, there is crap on the ground you can click on instead of a monster, your character starts running her mouth, the monster surprises you - reload. And, of course, it is very hard to "surprise" monsters from behind with the mouse to begin with. Really wish there is a different way to engage things.
Overall: Credit where credit is due - this is truly one of the most content-heavy and polished actual games on this website. But, to me at least, it is also one of the most annoying ones.
The positives are pretty obvious. The models are excellent, the corruption is slow and interesting, the gameplay rivals other cheap RPGMaker games on Steam which don't actually offer sexual content and there is definitely polish.
But there are some pretty major flaws. And no, the lack of graphics for the scenes is not one of them
First and foremost, the game is not an RPG in the classic sense. It is a puzzle. Whether you win or lose depends more on knowing what the game requires of you, not your party management, gearing or leveling strategies - none of that. The simplest example is the fight against the guy with plate armor. You can try repeatedly to chip away at him to no avail. Or know beforehand that you should ignore him until you learn a specific skill, and then you can completely stomp him. Similarly, I wasted a lot of time trying to up my mana points to 10, which is required for the extremely useful fire spell. Turns out, I had to win a specific fight which gave me a specific material which I had to use to upgrade myself in order to get the necessary mana. I guess what I am trying to say is this - knowing what you are doing will not only save you a lot of time and effort, but also make the difficulty trivial. And don't get me started on how corruption works here, you really need to know beforehand (the explanations given in the game are as detailed as they are useless).
Second, the main character. There is a reason why the game is so heavy on the text. The main character is the perfect example. But first, a question - do you know why in detective novels characters like Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot are usually not the main point of view? Well, one reason is to keep the suspense, but the other reason is that having their thoughts put on paper would make for an extremely lengthy reading. Here we have this very smart girl whose thoughts we are constantly subjected to. And she overanalyzes almost everything. Like shut the fuck up already, the world is not that complex. Insufferable main characters might be good when it comes to wanting them to get the D, but in this case (slowness and text-heavy), its just annoying. Oh, and did I mention that she also has a companion in her head? Yup, let's artificially increase the length of these monologues even more. You'll either love or fucking hate this, there is no middle ground. And its kind of sad that it needs to be like this.
Third, cut the anime crap. The characters constantly yelling each other's names and promising bloody revenge doesn't add anything other than childishness. Am I supposed to take the villains seriously? Even if its all a joke, it got unfunny after the prologue.
Fourth, a single upgrade ending the day (or night this time) is too much. Its really one of the worst pacing I've ever seen. And this is just one instance, simply advancing the plot a little sometimes throws you immediately in the next day. And then you are forced to watch time pass without any real world events. Or there are events but you don't want to see them. The game is already slow, it doesn't need this.
Fifth, the game is extremely frustrating to play with a mouse. Which is pretty bad because "modern" RPGM games should be playable with just the mouse. Especially ones which are turn based. For example, there is crap on the ground you can click on instead of a monster, your character starts running her mouth, the monster surprises you - reload. And, of course, it is very hard to "surprise" monsters from behind with the mouse to begin with. Really wish there is a different way to engage things.
Overall: Credit where credit is due - this is truly one of the most content-heavy and polished actual games on this website. But, to me at least, it is also one of the most annoying ones.