RPGM - Star Knightess Aura [v0.47.0] [aura-dev]

Ok. I feel like I need to get back to this and explain why this is THE BEST MIND CONTROL / CORRUPTION GAME in existence. (Sorry for shouting)

This is a unique game. And what makes it so interesting is the method and the intricacy of the approach towards her changing psyche. This is not really a porn game first, it's about the psychology of this process. The real focus is on her rationalizing the changes happening to her and the warped perception of the world around her. It's incredibly well done and I doubt you'll play anything like this ever again here.

At the same time, if that isn't your thing and you are just here for porn, you might be bored. You will also be frustrated if you skip text, because while the RPG part is good and the story fun, it's really all about mental changes and its repercussions.

Now I am sure many of the peeps here will find that boring and that's fine. You'll probably forget about this and play My-Slutty-Loli-Highschool-Harem or one of its 5000 brain dead derivates, but if you want something smart and different, do try this. It's a unique epxerience. It really is.

Edit: Also let me say, I really loved the self-insert / user discussion with her video game. It's really funny, given the audience.

very good game. needs to be more build up at the end tho. it goes from extremely slow burn to fucking. wish there was more teasing, bjs, groping in the mid/early game. Hope they keep adding more. probably the best corruption game on the site. also I ignored the earth part, found it boring.

Let me start this review with (1) I never thought I’d be reviewing a titty game and (2) never thought it would be negative, but felt it was worth giving feedback.

It can’t be denied that there's been a lot of work put into creating Knightess Aura. Aura-dev and the team have clearly invested a lot to do so and should be praised for work. However, for me, the game falls short on story, gameplay, and to some arguably most important, NSFW fulfillment.

TL;DR is if you are an advanced corruption enjoyer, don’t mind simple characters with a lot of text, get your rocks off more on the changing of a person's brain than actual lewd content (example - you LOVE permanent hypnosis effects), and enjoy very slow-burn, sometimes irritatingly lengthy RPG gameplay and numbers/counters tracking, this game might work for you. Otherwise, stay away.

I gave Aura 14 hours and I think by around 7 hours I was feeling fatigue. For context, I've played plenty of H-games, plenty of which have exceeded 25 hours, so I don't bail on time.

Lewd Content and Themes
So we’re all here because we want to choke our chicken. I consider Aura to be “advanced” in the genre. The main (human) villains are one-note shitty (in personality) characters and Aura is essentially a two-note character with her secret sauce being hidden arrogance. Side characters are plain but appreciable, yet after the intro are awkward in consistency. The "smartness" some reviews allude to is text wall after text wall of (albeit, very consistent! If there are multiple writers, they did a good job keeping each character contained to their trope) information that could be condensed for a similar experience in my opinion.

Overall I think character designs are fine but nothing special (though I find Richard incredibly dull for a main villain, and I actually think he'd be better as an entity or simply a voice in Aura's head, and he's one of the reasons I don't care to see to the end).

The slow changes made to the personality of Aura will excite you if it’s what you’re into, but it missed the mark for me. I found it mean-spirited at times and the RPG side isn't engaging enough. I'd also rather experience gameplay that indicates changes rather than the mind chamber method of removing personality that affects the real world. The real world and RPG world have some inconsistencies with how they affect each other.

In the RPG world, lewd scenes are far apart and with little art or action to compensate. You do get the H-game “build up and release” of lesser lewd events leading to something greater, but it’s very, very slow. In my hours I basically got three scenes maybe worthy of a fap depending on your preferences/fetishes. Didn't work for me. The art isn’t special but isn’t bad and wouldn’t be a problem if there was more substance. The problem for me? I was annoyed enough that by the time I even got to H-scenes I was just tired and wanted to get something better that never came.

I don't mind playing an H-game for a few hours without even touching my dick. But I would like to touch my dick at least once by like... 10 hours. When the gameplay can keep me engaged, I prefer it, but Aura misses this extensively for me.

There are a few moments where you think “here’s where it gets interesting!” and Aura has to do something lewd that would otherwise be outside of her comfort zone; but the discrepancies and distance between events of this kind are so far, it fades out fast.

I know I only dipped my toes into the full story of Aura, but it really feels like choices for advancement are limited when corruption eventually ends your game outright. I'd much more appreciate branching options that give you a choice to how you want Aura to be; not have it left in a railroady (and worst off - slow) story method. I could be totally missing the mark here if something was around the corner in playtime though.

There are no lewd events during battle and no lewd losses, just game overs. Also, you can't quickload; you'll have to go back to the title to reload a save if you know you're fucked, so more time wasting.

RPG Content and Pacing
For an RPGM RPG, Aura has interesting battle and puzzle mechanics regarding difficulty. It’s very rock-paper-scissors; once you discover the trick of an enemy, the enemy becomes trivial. The problem is, there are loads of heavy enemy parties and you’ll end up stuck in a forever-loop of slow battle animations just trying to continue where the game is headed. If you're not ready for what Aura throws at you, you'll end up maxing your corruption early and wondering how you got to a true game over so fast. Additionally, because there's no H-content in battles, you’ll spend time in certain battles that don’t give XP, items, or a reason to play a lewd game.

I have played OFF. Helen Mysterious Castle. Skyborn. Omori. One Way Heroics. I have played a few JRPGs. I get that Aura is trying to be a more advanced RPG, but it seems like while it only dips into basic RPGM systems, it sucks time out. I'd rather be playing something better or something more lewd. I wonder why the direction went this way?

The battle content feels too prioritized compared to the lewd content. Where are the H-loss scenes? The enemies grabbing at Aura's gear? This seems common for other H-games, but this one misses it completely. As an example (and there are many more) Magical Girl Celesphonia is able to provide decently fun RPG gameplay and keep the player horny. This game made me consistently feel like I should just be playing a normal, better (J)RPG.

As mentioned in other reviews, Aura’s pacing is slooooooow. You’ll play for 6-8 hours before anything truly lewd happens. I don’t mind that I’ve spent a number of hours in Aura; I do mind that it feels as though what there is to look forward to isn't engaging for my preferences.

This is a smaller thing, but I got very tired of villains’ monologues and dialogue. Having to skip past 20-30 dialogue lines of “AURA!!!!!!!!!!!!” or “I WILL BEAT YOU!!!!!!!!” got tiresome. It really needs work. Once again, if you're into the trope of "bestest girl gets all of her brain matter destroyed to make her into a bimbo" you might like how passionate about saving others Aura is, but really to me it was text wall after text wall and did not keep me engaged. I do suggest you avoid what I did and skip all dialogue if you don't feel yourself "catching" within the first hour or two.

Pacing on day-to-day activities actively harms the player. Do you want more lewd content? Sorry, that adds corruption… but you *have* to use that corruption, maybe in ways you don’t like, to not get a game over. At some point I set the difficulty to explorer to just forget about the diminishing values to keep track of. Compare this with many other RPGM-H games that often give the player more freedom/expression regarding how they want to "cater" their game.

Let me add here -- I don't have ADHD coomerism; I enjoy longer H-games. But I need some level of interest in both gameplay or H content. This game feels like it's not meant to be H and the gameplay eats time without substance.

Normally in corruption RPGM-H games there are options that can slightly "force" the player to a lewd choice. Aura technically has this, but often you'll find ways around it if you want. Your mileage may vary with if you enjoy that or dislike it.

Bad repetition shows in a few areas, and what broke me was at the end of the money realm, having to fight the same boss the same way multiple times, followed by a fun, but tiresome puzzley fighter-pick battle, followed by yet another boss battle. Early on I can accept the anime yelling I mentioned four paragraphs ago, but through this fight I just clicked "skip" and waited until I had to do the same battle (literally) over and over.

Visual Novel Content and Pacing
I feel the real world stuff starts strong, with quips like the “a kiss is for true lovers” as you can see in the preview screenshots. However, I find it gets tiring fast and was soon happy to skip through dialogue scenes. If you've read a few basic stories you'll immediately recognize the tropes of each character; no need to read pages of dialogue to get to the point. There just isn’t much going on with the characters to warrant so much dialogue in most cases. You can tell a lot of effort has been put into keeping consistency among characters in regards to what is slowly changed in Aura’s mind-chamber, but because the characters start rather one-note and I’m not as much of a fan of the mean-spirited changes, I didn’t really click with it. Again, if you like that sort of thing, this will be among the best H-games you've played. For me, it doesn't hit the mark.

I have made an RPGM game or two and I know how much of a bitch it is to script scenes, so there has to be praise for the movement, emotions, and changes of dialogue characters go through in cutscenes. But for what worth? To continually tell the player the same thing that's going on? Did you know that Aura is going to suck dicks in the future with passable but mediocre CGI?

Again. Are you hyper-fetishized to corruption? I guess then it's for you. I can't hold a boner, or attention, to a button being pressed that suddenly makes Aura go "hmm.... books are boring. I want to get shoes."

Once again I have to point at Richard and Alicia being super one-note and not interesting villains. The main characters can have their default tropes, but in H-games like this you would expect some more interesting or at least funny content from the villains. I was hoping for a memey early "good/bad" ending where Aura just straight up beats the shit out of them IRL.

Conclusion
I feel that other RPGM-H games do the RPG part better and other VN-H games do the story better. I was shocked to see how much Aura-dev is making on Patreon when the quality of content feels so… time-wasting and upsetting. I really don’t mean to insult the amount of work that’s been put into the game, and I’d never be able to replicate it myself; I just wasn't happy playing. I hope those that are paying are enjoying themselves to the fullest.

For those of you fetishized to the advanced brain-only part of corruption, this may hit a low 4/5. For the rest of us, this is a low 2/5.

Now this is what you call a good story, characters actually have personality and are not just some random NPCs, many people rate it low just want a quick fap for sure, cause this my man, is an actual game.

5/5 Corruption, well developed, slow but it all makes sense taking into count the MC's natural self.

5/5 Characters, they actually feel alive and not just random NPC

5/5 R18 content, taking into count this game is probably halfway, after it's completed I'm sure will have lots of good content.


4/5 Combat system, the same like most RPG maker stuff but still don't get that grindy or boring like most of the RPG's


5/5 Art, just love it, nothing else to say.

Ah! I can understand why some people rate it low, it's porn game and just to get to good part you have to play a fair share of hours.

But as a corruption genre fan I have played many RPGM games as most corruption games are made with RPGM for some reason or other. But to be honest it is one of the few RPGM games that I enjoyed PLAYING not for lewd scene but for the gameplay. (Though the story is good and scenes are really hot.)

People say it's grindy but if they played shit or mid level RPGM or Sandbox games then they should be clear that it's not grindy at all. You just have to think a little before and keep close eyes to your stats like Addiction etc. Then most time you won't see scenes twice. Normal enemies or bosses don't reappear so how come it's grindy.

And again

YOU CAN LITERALLY PLAY IT JUST AS A NORMAL RPGM GAME, NOT FOR THE H-SCENES

And if you love games then you'll definitely love it and will find that you're spending hours after hours in Roya just like Aura

Man, this game is good at what it does.
Almost TOO good.
Most Ntr isn't *that* emotionally destructive, because the characters are kinda bland or kinda stupid.
But Aura? Man, we really get a good glimpse into the person she is, and when she starts changing into a terrible person... It actually hurts. It rends your soul, just a little bit, piece by piece.
The transition from pragmatic heroine into self-deluded anti-villain is so slow and well-crafted that you barely notice how much she changes, day by day until she conciders doing something really fucked up, which would have been out of the question at the beginning of the game, but not out of character on the road you've taken her down.
Against all odds, you actually end up wanting to do the pure route instead.

So like I said, the game is almost TOO good at corruption, because you start wishing you hadn't gone down that path. Because if you keep doing the shit that the villains want you to do... eventually the villains win.

Anyways, yeah. Very long game, but none of it is really filler or padding. Gameplay is shockingly well designed for a RPGM turnbased combat-game where you most often only have one party member. You gotta use some braincells, as you can't rely on grinding. Takes a long while to get to any sex, but it's good when it gets there.

5/5, may ruin your week, if you go down a dark path.

V.0-44

Warning : This game is captivating, you will offer all your nights to Aura for a month after trying it !
It is focused on slow corruption. And GOD IT IS REALLY GOOD ! The best corrupting game ever see.

Gameplay : Really good, the best gameplay i've seen in a porngame, precisely in a game focus on corruption.

Story : Really good too, I really want to know more about the character, the world of Roya, what will happen to aura and others...

Porn : Perfect if your kinks are corruption, mind control, hypnosis... If not, I think you will not really like this game who don't have H-scene before long time.

HCG : The style is nice, there is now many HCG and the dev continue to add more CG every months.

If you like the game, don't forget to support the dev

It is probably the best female protagonist RPGM game on the site that has both good pacing and story as well as playability. Great for slow burn and corruption but really bad for a quick fap. Wish there were more games like this.

First time reviewing on here, so sorry for the structure.

I did not expect to get engrossed in the writing and characters, but the creator did a good job writing them and having them act consistent that I did get pretty invested. Even the side NPCs have their own quirks and personalities. This ties into the meat of this game: the corruption. I've played quite a few corruption games and I can easily say that the writing for the MC is top tier, especially the details with the inner thoughts. The approach used here is very cool where you can see Aura's Psyche and Her Corrupting Influence: Luciela battle it out verbally over how Aura should react. However the best part about this is with the color coded names/dialogue, since you will start to see the lines get blurred and can see how some of Aura's statements start to get "taken over" by the lewd/pink thoughts. This approach makes every scene feel organic and spicy in a way few other corruption titles did for me. Why bother going for the corruption path if the heroine puts up no fight or we can't understand her inner thoughts and her struggle with her values?

With that said, there are not many actual H-Scenes for this narrative approach to get used in, but this dynamic stretches across the whole game not just H-Events (i.e. deciding to steal stuff, turning against your irl friends, changes in morality, attitude towards your bf etc.) So like many reviews have stated, if you want a quick fap this game is not it and the actual CGs lack movement, moans, etc. This game thrives with its dialogue and characters providing the spice more akin to erotica. In fact, the corruption path covers all the bases so well that, it actually became hard to go down the path as things progressed because I actually felt bad for her friends, and the people around her in the other world too. All this to say that the depth of the corruption you get is far more than the surface level sexual and appearance stuff, like being able to see her fond memories and corrupt them at their core and see the changes reflect outward slowly.

The game elements themselves are very well polished, and the gripes I have against the game are minor mostly. First off, it's not clear to the player what your progression blocks are especially in Chapter 1. I do not recommend playing on Normal difficulty for this reason. The combat is hard yet fair mostly, but at the beginning it's rough, so if you spend a lot of time upgrading your stats, reading books etc. you start to soft lock yourself because the game does not make it clear that you are forced to progress Roya's (the alternate world) quests in order to make progress on the IRL progression. The game makes no attempt to tell you which quests are the important ones that block this progression, so I fell into the trap of overpreparing for some hard fights, racking up corruption, finding out too late that Rose's relationship will not continue to go down until you pass story events in Roya, and ending up with too high corruption with nothing to sink bc I was hoping the progression would continue albeit slowly. This killed my 6 hour save, and on Normal if you fail this way, you can't even start a NG+ (so do yourself the favor and avoid Normal unless you can cheese all the hard fights early without the collar). That being said this H-Game felt like a real game in the sense that I was enabled to have that freedom in the first place in approaching the questing system.

With the main nitpick out of way, what this game does awesome is that the the creator really knows how to sell the choices the player has (naturally in a corruption game you get less ability to actually choose as you get corrupted). A lot of corruption games I've played have basically featured the lewd choice as "flip your whore switch on" and then continue as normal afterwards. In this game, gold actually is very important, I actually ran out of it often with actual interesting things to spend them on like spells and combat skills (and most of them are relevant bc the combat system and encounters require more thought than the usual RPGM fare). Therefore, Aura's initial descent feels organic, and I as the player felt these lewd encounters had an actual gameplay draw to them outside of wanting to see fap material for fap material's sake. This wouldn't work if the lewd encounters weren't scaled the way they were. While the other reviews have a point in that you can go 10 hours without a sex scene, it feels organic that Aura starts with small stuff like showing her panties, showing her boobs, getting groped with her lewdness score, degeneracy and monetary reward (sometimes tangible rewards like exclusive skills) all ramping up as you progress. There's even "side corruption" style events like where you can have Aura's bar uniform change as see as she gets more comfortable/uncomfortable with the uniform and its effects on the guests. It's for this reason that I feel inclined to keep playing. Other games will have the heroine have sex quickly and from there, the only logical progression for her descent is to start throwing in gangbangs, sex slavery, etc. where it ramps up quickly, and it becomes hard to put weight behind any of the heroine's decisions.

Hermann's scenes were actually some of my favorite because they were plausible traps to fall for and the effect of accepting the events were not apparent up front, allowing for mystery in how the corruption would develop. A simple date for 300 gold might seem like a fair trade, but the hidden risks and being able to come out of said date with Aura having a new reputation for saying she is ok with cheating sex is one of many ways the lewd events are structured in a narratively interesting way. And for me personally, I like to play corruption games where I the player, can have plausible deniability of whether or not the corruption could have been avoided as it adds extra spice and flavor. The many debuffs/curses your character gets, some of which can be avoided, add to this by making it hard for Aura to get value out of reading, perform worse in combat, and drug addictions and withdrawals dropping your stats all provide organic incentives to look for alternative means to navigate the world and questline. Later this flips on its head, because if your willpower is too low and your other fetishes/corruption is too high you will not have a real choice when you enter these lewd situations ( more prevalent in chapter 2). This brings it's own rewarding flavor of corruption as you the player can avoid entering these situations with lowered stats and preserve your choice in the matter, or put Aura in these situations purposefully where your lack of control over the outcome and subsequently Aura's lack of control drive the degeneracy home (complete with flavor text dependent on if u chose willingly or fell victim to rampant urges).

Final thoughts: As a game it's great. As a detail-oriented slow burn corruption narrative, it's great. As a H-Game with CGs to get your rocks off it does fall a little flat. It unironically is a porn game where you care about the plot and have fun with the fights and exploring. While the artwork and artstyle are very good, if you can't get enjoyment out of reading (ironic given how you corrupt Aura) and are more satisfied by seeing visual degeneracy less than mental degeneracy, you should probably avoid this (I advise giving it a try still). It's a true Corruption RPG where you really get to put the role-playing in role-playing game, and some elements of this feel no different than playing a Bethesda or Bioware title in the good ways.

this game has a unique mechanic of playing as the mc and the villain at the same time to both try to beat the game as well as corrupt the mc. i recommend this for anyone who wants a simple turn based combat, good corruption 18+ content, good story and open world.

for those who like a game with slow progression, a focus on story mode with lots of text and RPG gameplay will probably like this game, otherwise you'll just be wasting your time.

which unfortunately was the case for me. Although the artwork is of good quality and the story is interesting, the game has a very slow progression, hours and hours of gameplay to see very few scenes.

It got to the point where I ended up quitting the game, it's not for me unfortunately.

Very good. Interesting new take on corruption genre. Actually good art style instead of some other styles in recent memory (ai). Main character can be kind of annoying at times and im still not the biggest fan of NTR, but otherwise, no complaints. Excited to see where it goes for the final product.

I kinda slept on this game for years. I always found the real world gradual corruption fascinating, and the fantasy RPG stuff not as interesting. Rather stock, if anything. How many female protagonist games in this same vein have we seen?

I was wrong. Having finally sat down and really sunk my teeth into it (three full playthroughs within the past week!), I have to say, this might be one of the crown jewels of RPG Maker games or WEG in general. I was repeatedly shocked by just how much there is to uncover. Phenomenal game.

Probably one of the best games on this site. It has a slow burn but the corruption of the heroine from inside her own mind is a mechanic that is both unique and hot. Maybe not for everyone but definitely recommended for anyone with a mind-control or corruption fetish.

As a note, I've seen reviews about difficulty. As with all rpgm games I play I put this on easy, and also edited my stats using a rgpm editor online to make everything essentially 1 hit kills. I would suggest this if you just want to be engrossed with the story and characters.

Probably the best corruption-themed game I've played. Usually I just tend to watch all the CG's and call it a day but this is something you absolutely need to play through. The slow corruption and the way she turns unapologetically evil and starts justifying her actions shown throughout her interactions is insanely hot, I don't think any other game I've played that did it so well.

10 Hours in, Not a single H-scene. My character is weak as Fuck, and have no way to sink corruption into anything.
Absolutely annoying stuff that really takes away from the experience (which has good potential).

Genuinely the best RPGM adult game. Hands down, no question.

This is the only time I have ever - *ever* - played a RPGM game and did not immediately think "Gosh, this could be great if only it were Ren'py/Unity". Star Knightess is an actual game, with graphics that rival the JPRG classics of the early/mid 1990s. Unlike most RPGM games, Star Knightess does not punish the player by making it a slog to get through. You'll actually enjoy playing the game, not just for the spicy scenes.


Speaking of, this is a pretty much perfect example of the 'female-protag-gets-corrupted' type of game. It's executed very effectively and doesn't take too long to get to the fun parts. There are even moments where you see the logical conclusion of your character's corruption, where you think 'fuck, she's actually turned evil!' Specifically, the moment where your character actually engages in slavery/binding someone's soul to a completely evil man. Dark shit, even for porn!

The only complaint I can offer is entirely subjective - I absolutely DESPISE the 'antagonist' ("DEMON LORD RICHARD"... a real dick!), not because he is evil, but because he is absolutely the most angsty, pathetic, emo 'villain' in history. Think of the most pathetic and annoying 'broody/tsundere' male character in anime, then magnify the irritating aspects of their personality by 100x. That's Richard. He constantly goes on and on about how people are 'meat', and shits all over characters that show far more depth and personality than Aura (who he inexplicably respects even after her corruption turns her into little more than a brainless bimbo).

I actually never finished Star Knightess Aura, because despite loving the game & story, once it got near the ending when the content was heavily focused on Richard, I simply couldn't tolerate his longwinded amateur nihilism. It was a snoozer, and not at all hot.

That complaint aside, this game is worth your time. It is without question the gold standard of adult RPGM games.

While I'd enjoy more and earlier sexual scenes that go all the way, I found the characters, plot and mechanics all to be amazing and I kept expecting to hit the end of the game... only for me to still have a bunch of hours of fun left. This was truly incredible and I am looking to scrape together some funds to support the development of this game.

<3

This is probably the best game about the corruption of an heroine.
The story is intriguing and I also like the CGs.
I tried this game a lot of time ago and there where very few CGs but now there are CGs of any event except the latest events added to the game.
There are regular monthly update and regular weekly pre-release for the patreons. Any aspect of the RPG is well made and balanced. This is a game that I really suggest to try to anyone that like to impersonate an heroine in a fantasy world and to corrupt her and to anyone who likes the RPGM games

Love that game, but the game have some problems for me:

Negative elements:

1) It's sad but modern world not have any gameplay, just only cutscenes.
(I so much love academy/college sandboxes, and still dream about Bully NSFW 2D RPG game (mix of Karryn's Prison + Celesphonia), with slow corruption and lewd streams, it's just IMHO)

2) There's no After Bad End Gameplay system when we can be captured like in DoL or Karryn's Prison and can escape after capturing.
But there's an instant Game Over, so absolutely not cool in H-Games, when we have 10-15 hours and get Game Over on late chapters of the game. (Don't like Karryn's Prison for instant Game Over too but in Karryn's Prison the game save all stats after Game Over)

3) S.K.A. is a first game where I afraid to be corrupted, because of Bad End and Pink Dialogues Brainwashing System. It's so easy to get Stuck and get Game Over after 10 hours of struggling in the game, so I afraid to get sex CG scenes at all.


Positive elements:

1) The game have a good combat system. However, there are not have harassment/sex events in battles (like in Karryn's Prison)

2) Level design is so amazing with good chances to avoid battles.
I never seen so cool level design in other H-games, because I should to think before I make some steps here, so it's a very cool. In many H-RPG and JRPG games I just have brainless running on locations to get some loot and Exp.
I so much love exploring in the game! <3

3) I love the story of the game. <3

4) The game have an amazing Corruption Tree System (^_^' but mostly times I played in easy mode, to not get that Corrupted Elements because these things will broke my game after 10-15 hours and I'll get Game Over, so it's not fun). But still it's a positive thing because it's have good ideas for H-games (It's like an advanced Corruption Tree from "Anthesis" game).
And I played in easy/explorer mode to have neverending shifts in the Bar, or else we have instant Game Over for 10-15 shifts.

RATING:
Level design - 12/10 ( So much love exploring system in the game <3 )
Gameplay - 7/10
Combat - 7/10
Story - 8/10
Graphics - 7/10
Corruption System - 5/10 (love the system but I afraid to use it because of Game Over after 10-15 hours of struggling in the game :'D )