RPGM - Star Knightess Aura [v0.49.0] [aura-dev]

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 )

It brings me no joy to rate this game so low given the great ideas it shows in its premise and mechanics.
The first hour or so makes a promise that the game doesn't keep as you progress because that's when the porn content is the most concentrated in the first 10h. Those first hours were great however ! I felt the slow simmer of the corruption and the act the MC was forced into and how awful it was for her. But after that intro where there are plenty of little scenes to discover in the city, the world is practically devoid of scenes to punctuate the adventure.

Some will say "well that's a slow burn !", and to that I would answer: No. This game is not a slow burn. If a slow burn is slowly building up heat to boil a pot of water, here it's more like a the cook started with a slow burn, but cut off the heat for the remaining 10h while sometimes putting it back on at max power for a couple minutes here and there. In the end you end up with a pot of lukewarm water.
There is no build up of heat, only flash releases dispatched in a sea of classic RPGM content without proper pacing.

What's a slow burn though is the corruption of the main protagonist, which is well done overall.
But the delivery of the scenes also lacks pacing and it sometimes feel like the two parts of the game (RPG and corruption VN) fight each other for the spotlight while rarely being aligned in their intent.
For example I had a couple hours where practivally nothing happend in the VN part while I was going through quests and neat dialogues in the RPG part. Then I had practically nothing left to do in the RPG part except the tiresome (and yet way too common...) RPGM stats grinding, and that's when everything started chaining together in the VN part. So I was left basically skipping days in the RPG, reading books for stats, just so I could progress in the corruption arc.
That's not a place you want a player to be.

This latter issue is compounded by the fact that the game gives you tons of areas where you can influence the MC, but it all feels pointless because I never felt like my choices mattered in the end.
For example you can choose to give the MC sensitivity to some fetishes and actions, but it never once became relevant for me in the time I played.
I guess the choices are there so people can optimise their paths on NG+ and unlock all the content. But on a first playthrough, the system is confusing and disappointing.

In the end I reached 10h of playtime, and finally gave up when the game teased me with a porn scene but locked it up behind even more exploration and stat checks.
This is fine on its own, but after nearly 10h of having seen only 2 scenes, it felt like the game was actively trying to waste my time (the one at the end of the refugee camp quest). And I think I might know why... I think that's a scene that was added in an update, and it was tested within the update, taking into account only the people that would catch up with it, and not the entire experience. I might be wrong, but it really felt like that was the rationale behind it, because otherwise it doesn't make sense to have people starved for scenes, and blue balling them even more when they're so close to one.

Honestly, this game has the potential to be great but at the moment it's held back by a couple core design choices that are honestly incomprehensible to me:
1- Pacing of the porn content
SOLUTION: Tightenening the overall pacing by adding small scenes like the ones at the beginning throughout the experience will already do wonders for the game's digestability

2- Real world and RPG plot feel disconnected
SOLUTION: Make the choices players do in the MCs psyche matter. Or, if that's too work intensive, make the delivery of this content line up better with what's happening in the RPG world isntead of having it delivered in blocks.
There's a reason a lot of adult games go with a "route" design where some actions have the potential to locking you into a set route for characters: it makes delivering content at a proper pacing easier, and it assures the writers and designers have more control on how the story is delivered to the player.
Here it felt like there were 5 starts to "routes" the game could take, but since it doesn't commit to the route design philosophy, it ends up diluting the way content is spread out (for example when I saw the NPCs at the start try to get the MC to undress, even one landing a kiss on her crotch, I thought "oh ! I can't wait to see how that's going to evolve afterwards", but 10h later, this is all the content I saw for those NPCs.

3- Stat checks and grinding
SOLUTION: Seriously, whoever first declared 15 years ago that RPGM games had to have repetitive actions to grind stats to progress through stat checks needs to never touch a game engine ever again.
There should be variety in the way players engage with the progression systems if the game isn't sophisticated enough to have a loop that's fun to play on its own. Grinding a stat progressively throuhout the game to get bonus content is fine, but if we are starved for content and the only thing we can access in hours of gameplay is locked behind the stat grind, players will want to access it, making the experience tedious (example of the painter scenes)



Anyway, that's a long review, I hope it didn't come out too harshly.
This game has a lot of potential, but I think a step back needs to be taken to refocus the way the progression is designed throughout the experience.
People are here for the scenes first and foremost, the rest is the cherry on top. So the goal here is to make sure players have access to scenes at a reasonable pace and avoid getting caught up in the trap so many porn games fall into: forgetting that they are porn.

The writing in this game is very good. It's a fascinating dive into the minds of heroes and villains, as well as a creative spin on the usual corruption games. I think Third Crisis must have been an influence, which is a great thing.

The art is good, the idea of the game is interesting, but this text heavy game should have been made in another engine, maybe RenPy or another visual novel engine.
Oh, and don't get me started on the pacing of the game.

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.

Giving a one star review isn't necessarily me thinking the game is 1 star material. However seeing the overall score of three and a half stars blows my mind.
DISCLAIMER: I am not a fan of RPGM format, so i always enjoy these type of games less.

The Art and the art style is what got me to download the game. This genuinely looks as good as anything else on the market. The dual world concept is very interesting. Its a corruption game.

The combat is RPGM at its worst. its exactly everything that sucks about rpgm.(stat checked,trial and error,lack of tools to manipulate odds in your favor,ultra grindy)
The corruption system on normal difficulty and higher only serves as a "game over" function with seemingly no other reason but to punish the player.
The writing is honestly middle school tier. If you said this was written by a 14 year old girl ,id bet my money on it that its true.
Its text heavy in all the wrong places,Tutorial/explaning systems are not concise and filled with flavor fluff, The 2 H scenes have ultra mega dull text and feels rushed through, But talking about a fictional non existent book takes 14 prompts. The Hscenes are filled with classics like ~mwhaaaah~
Uninteresting and very dull side characters. I literally have no recollection of any of the characters or their traits.
Pacing is unimaginably slow,Areas are confusing like calling the INN "boars hut" but not having any logo or indication that its suppose to be the INN.
Directions such as 'go here" "go meet x" are given often, with not memorable characters. No unique art to distinguish the unique characters, only given forgettable names. Areas are extremely confusing.
The new game plus feature seems like an insult. i gave this game somewhere around 12 hours and saw 2 Hscenes. You need to grind to get your characters power up, but also punished for it.
i could genuinely go on and on about my bitter experience and list of hundreds of issues. The game surely isin't all bad the art alone is worth 3 stars. but i can't recommend anyone this project. Your time is better spent elsewhere.

Star Knightess Aura: Simplified Review

"Star Knightess Aura" stands out in the RPG Maker genre, showing that these games can offer more than expected. It requires players to deeply engage and strategize beyond simple gameplay, making it a unique experience.

Gameplay Mechanics: Straightforward Strategy

Instead of just grinding, players need to strategize and plan ahead. Managing Aura's power adds depth and engagement, making every decision in the game's dual-world setting meaningful.

Narrative: Direct and Engaging

The focus on characters, especially the detailed portrayal of Aura, strengthens the game. Aura's struggles make the story engaging and every choice significant, showing the game's narrative depth.

Art and Aesthetics: Focused on Story

Even with changing art quality, the game's strong writing and story context keep it engaging. The game's world and story are more important than its visual inconsistencies.

Development: Ongoing Progress

The game isn't finished yet, but regular updates promise improvement and expansion, showing a commitment to making the game better.

Overall Experience

"Star Knightess Aura" demonstrates the potential for RPG Maker games to be deep, complex, and tell meaningful stories. It demands your time and focus, offering an intellectually and emotionally rewarding experience. You don't just play this game; you experience it deeply, making it memorable for anyone who explores its two worlds.

This game is definitely a bit of a slow burn but it's also definitely amazing with great content complete with a unique, cool story going on. The developer is the most on point for updates that I have seen in any other adult game. They're basically a machine.

I really gave this game a fair shot. I played for a very long time (weeks in, in-game), actually reading the dialogue, getting into the story, etc. And let me tell you, "slow-burn" doesn't even begin to describe how glacial the pacing of this game's corruption is. Practically every scene in this game goes about like this:

"hey sexy girl can i touch your boobs over the clothes"
"ew no"
"i will give you 100 gold coins"
"ok fine"

And, another baffling mechanic: if you do too many corruption scenes in a short period of time, a bar will fill up. If it reaches the top, you instantly get a black screen + game over... what?! I swear, I had to fucking ration out my corruption scenes per in-game day so I could avoid a game-over. When I'm playing a porn game, I'm trying to get off, not do the math in my head of whether I can allow pervert #29 to grope my boobs without risking instant death...

Also, the game is tagged with things like "rape", "vaginal sex", etc. This isn't really the game's fault, more the tagging system on this site being ambiguous, but I wanted to point out for anyone who was reading this review and wondering: there is not only no 'defeat rape' scenes (which may be a good or bad thing depending on what you are into), but pretty much no rape scenes I could find whatsoever. I'm sure there's at least one, hence the tag, but I really cannot find it after searching for it for quite a while. And, as for vaginal sex, it took me hours of questing and generic JRPG grinding before I could get to that. Which I guess is par for the course for an uber-slow-burn corruption plot, so take that as you will.

Anyways, the adult content in this game is really lacking, the gameplay is timewasting, and the scenes are really not a good reward for it. The art is fantastic, though, I'll give them that.

Fantastic game.

The high concept is great, and it's very well executed on.

It has the best gameplay in any h game I've played. It's complex and compelling, and consistently provides a challenge that you can't grind your way out of. This in turn feeds into the corruption system, which is excellent design.

The writing is fantastic as well. The characterization is good, the plot is interesting, and just wanting to find out what happens next is reason enough to keep playing.

The H content isn't especially impressive in a vacuum, and the art quality is inconsistent, but the writing is so excellent that it doesn't really matter. The context in which things are happening is the real driving force that makes it good porn.

As many have mentioned, it's a very slow burn. For me, that's a big positive. As a wise man once said, it's all about the antici...

The biggest flaw with this game is that it's not complete. But there's constant visible progress, so I'm not worried, just impatient.

Honestly I don't think I have the ability to praise this game enough in one review. There will be things I leave out. But suffice it to say that this game is a legitimate masterpiece.

Star Knightess Aura is a very serious game masquerading as one of those dime-a-dozen RPGM H-games.
Which is kind of insane.

Don't get fooled by lewdness, first and foremost Aura is an actual JRPG with a rich world to explore, monsters to fight and character to progress. The amount of thought invested in the actual game in terms of mechanics, world building, exploration and customization is ridiculous. You could even take the story, make a solid anime out of it and no one would know any better.

Speaking of, even though the plot in its core is the classic "defeat the big bad demon king" trope (with a twist or two), the writing is superb, and never failed to get me immersed so far. The parts where you control Alicia feel vile and make you question corrupting Aura even if you embarked on the quest of collecting all the H-scenes.

Continuing with lewd scenes - these are also taken quite seriously, there are no typical defeat rape (thanks aura-dev, I hate those), rather the idea is that as Alicia erodes Auras values the later becomes more susceptible to taking shortcuts to achieve her goals. The world of Aura is challenging and unwelcoming, and one's body is just another tool or weapon after all, so shouldn't one be trying to maximize all chances to success?
Well, I guess we all know where this is going.
The corruption progression is slow and gradual, taking just one tiny step at the time, so that it never feels rushed or out of place. It will take time but that is also what makes it feel more believable.


Ah I could rave for a while about this game. It's insane. It's too much. And it will eat a big chunk of your time shall you allow it. I shudder to think about the amount of content that expects us shall this game be finished one day.

Star Knightess Aura is long, tough, serious, quite dark at times and is definitely not for everyone.
But boy does it leave an impression if you give it the time and attention it requires.
5 stars

It's a really great idea and the polish on this game is unreal, I still can't love it. The writing is definitely good and I'm sure many people will enjoy the in-debt world building and dialog, it's just too much for me personally.

I played this game a year ago and it felt promising. But I played it again now and I have changed my mind. There is not much progress in development, the game is veeeeeery slow paced to the point it gets boring. Actual erotic content is very limited, it feels like very early stage of development.

Art is good but holy FUCK you better remember who and where everyone is because this game won't assist you with it at all. Even if youve never met the NPC it simply says "Go see them" with no indication where they are or even the city, and no symbol to indicate you found them before speaking to them.
So hope you like talking to EVERY NPC on a map hoping its the right one.

FFS dude game design 101: Don't make your game tedious to just turn in quests.

2 stars ONLY because the art is good. But depending how annoying it gets with these NPCs it may go to 1.
YOU'RE MAKING A H GAME FOR CHRIST SAKE!

this is borderline not a porn game and more a game with some porn in it and a LOT of text.

if you're into corruption then you have to be in a pretty far end of it for this to work, as not only is it agonizingly slow going, it's a very emotional and psychological sort of character erosion that i don't think would be attractive to someone interested in the typical 'progressively seeking deeper sexual satisfaction' trope of corruption

it's also worth nothing the game is intentionally as obtuse and difficult as possible, even on an easy mode, requiring a guide unless you wanna stick with an experience that'll feel incomplete through no fault of your own. i think the game should be commended for the dev's commitment, it just feels counterproductive to the purpose a h-game should serve even if this ticks all of your boxes.

Always wondering how people can ruin good game concept. And why.
At base it`s has interesting corruption+mind control combo with non standart approach. With enough to be good writing.
But, despise all creativity in this, game meets you with standart tileset parts, sounds, images. Hell, it`s has overstandart demon king. A Villain type that more common than sock. Where gone all fairy tales from childhood?
And game has slow pacing. Very, very slow. You can play a week and see nothing new, content and story wise.
Very standart JRPG gameplay amplifies that. You do same shit over and over in hope of something. That may be not exist at all.

After nearly ten hours of grinding, I have seen one sex scene. I have just reached the money domain where I've just basically found out that I need to gamble all my stats away on story decisions. I would advise anyone without brain damage to stay away from this cancer inducing nonsense.

Despite having some interesting mechanics, and a promising central gameplay loop, it basically fails on all levels. It fails as an eroge, having few sex scenes and literally hours of gameplay between each. It fails as an RPG since the mechanics are, frankly, frustrating as fuck. You are required to grind and yet you are punished for grinding.

"But it has a new game plus mechanic!?!?!"

I don't fucking care. I've wasted ten hours on this nonsense. And, by my reckoning, that's about nine hours too many.

Pass. Fucking hard pass.