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

Pacing is really off, takes a long time to get started for really not much payoff. Balancing the corruption spending with progression in the world is really not intuitive, without following a walkthrough I hit the max upgrades well before unlocking Nephlune. I understand there's a NG+ feature but the game really doesn't seem well designed around that

Good game but very grindy.

Review for current version 0.30.2

Pros :
Good art , really cute girl.
Interesting story
Rpg elements are nice with oufits

Cons :

A little bit grindy and text is very long
Slow updates

[v0.30.0]
Good game.
Hopefully there are more h-scenes in the future.

-Story, Originality
Some good basic plot.
Not my cup of tea, but many will like it.

-Renders
Cool 2D art.

-Sound
Basic sounds and music.

-Playability
Pretty big game, but I am not sure I can play through all of it.

-Performance
Runs like an average RPGM game.

-Bugs
Didn't see any.

-Animations
Basic picture changing animations.

-Voice Acting
Some sounds (Don't remember hearing actual dialog).

-Grammar
Didn't see any mistakes.

-Amount of content
Great ammount of scenes, but most of them are just dialog.

Almost all of the scenes are h-scenes in medieval part.
And ~7 h-scenes in the modern part.

After dumping 16 hours of my life playing this game, for all of you reading this, I'd say play it. A unique take on the hero vs villain story for the fate of the world, after the evil forces lose a major fight in the prologue, they decide their only hopes of winning would be through brainwashing. A curse is placed on the heroine which allows one of the villains to discretely change her mind, through her psychology, values and memories.

Reading the prologue, this brings us into one of the core genres of this game which is corruption. The progression from an innocent virgin woman into a full blown thottie is taken very slow. READ THIS, as some absolutely hate or love it because of this. On the easiest mode and with boosted stats to skip any grind, it took me 9 HOURS to finally see this fictional bitch give some head. 14 hours in she lost her virginity. For those looking for a more realistic timeline to corruption, you'll love it. If you don't want to sink in the time and you're looking to bust a quick nut, it's a nightmare.

The story is pretty good, that alongside the world building compliments the genre I've listed above. Outside of the Roya, or fantasy world you'll be spending a majority of the time in, the scenes in her highschool real world are kind of just there to show the results of the brainwashing and where she's at.

Last on the review is artwork. The scenes are varied enough and the illustration's good looking. Hopefully that's not because hours into the game, you'd be pressed to find any scenes but that's just me.

I don't understand how anyone plays this, I guess it's for hardcore coomers only. Lots of dialogue, some obscure gameplay system where you go to this room to move things around every five mins. I went to town, sharpened my sword, and the day ended. Like what is with all the back and forth, it's annoying. I guess the art is great, i didn't really see anything between mashing through pages of story and trying to figure out wth is going on with the gameplay. Like i fought 3 fights and ran out of health, died, and went to the next day. Damn.

This game is in my opinion, one of the best on the site.
I really like the slow corruption of Aura and the whole story behind it.
The dev takes this project serious and is working hard on it
And the art is pretty good, i prefer 2d over 3d.

I'm always to lazy to write a whole review.
Maybe i write one later, if the game is finished.

Writing in this game is very good. The characters are also not dumb which makes this one unique. The only big issue I can see is that the game is very slow but I actually like this game even more because of this but I understand if someone doesn't like the pace.

And walkthrough is recommended as the game doesn't guide you properly and is easy to get lost.

v0.29
- Cliche story with good writing.
- Writing is good but there is so much text, you'll be skipping most. Characters just talk too much.
- Towards the end of the current version, there are lots of scenes without any visuals and just text.
- - Game is way too hard and strict, it's really hard to play on normal difficulty without depending on the walkthrough(which I didn't and ended up switching to story difficulty.
- Scenes are not great, but the strong character writing makes up for that mostly. - Everything is limited, including your time. It was good until I come to point where I couldn't go forward no matter what I do. Shops having limited amount of everything doesn't make sense, earning money is useless if I can't buy anything.
- Corrupt route is hardest thing I guess, since there is so much debuff on you, you either switch to story difficulty or start a new game.
- After you are more or less done with the first parts of the game, it starts to feel empty. Your actions are way too limited, which balances the part which limits your time, but I would like to enjoy freedom and be a try hard if I wanted to commit myself, rather than being forced to commit myself and a huge amount of time.

All things considered, besides high quality writing and decent visuals(though I think lack of scenes is a huge flaw in that aspect), this game is hard to enjoy. It takes too much time and porn part feels like an extra, rather than the main focus. At some point, this game feels like it's not sure if it's trying to be a corruption game or not, having a strong willed main character and feels like a cheesy way to do it. It feels forced into the story.

This isn't a game for you if you are here for a quick fun, this is long, grindy, tedious kind of fun(if you can enjoy that). While story is decent and writing is good, h-scenes definitely fall short(especially towards the end). While I enjoyed my time at the beginning, after I'm done it doesn't feel like it was worth putting so much time into this.

Too much text. I get it was a slow pace corruption but having to read too much is too boring. There is no freedom in this game, you have to either unlock new location by having to complete quest, which there is no indicator to which quest, no clue where to go find the quest. If people just want to get to H-scene I don't recommend it, you won't get quick fap.

When the game need a guide so you can unlock all the lewd scene might as well make it a linear story telling instead of needing to follow the guide from this front page of the game. Make it linear make us follow the story instead of searching for it, even when you search for it if you don't follow proper step you will miss some story/scene. Following a guide need to be precise otherwise you will get confuse and lost couple of scene.

It is one of the best games I've played.
It has a very interesting and engaging corruption mechanism.
The dailogues are good and also the art is very erotic.
I've been following the Max Lewdness playthrough, and it feels awesome.
There is a lot of quests and lewd content in this game, and the update cycle is after every 2 weeks so I'll definitely recommend this.
This game is for people who are interested in a good story and want to have a good fap while enjoying it.
So definitely a W for me!

(written on v0.28.2)
tldr
this game is a 4 or 5 star for ppl who like the genre and 1 or 2 star for ppl who just want a quick fap. I also strongly recommend playing on Story Mode unless you enjoy challenging games and have a lot of free time to spend on this game.

this game is:
- slow burn corruption of a proud (arrogant), (self) righteous high school magic girl.
- challenging RPG with some hentai/nsfw elements. (hidden alternative methods to solve quests, puzzles, mazes and difficult tactical battles)

this game is NOT:
- quick fap (NSFW scenes are scarce and come at mid late game)
- easy game which you just intentionally lose fight for Hscenes, say yes to all the degrading humiliating requests for no reasons but hscenes.

============================================

now to the actual pros and cons of this game
Pros:

- great story, one of the best corruption progress
- MC is actually prompted or seduced to solve quests/fights with unethical or other corruptive methods. (Corruption = the easy way to go, Pure = very difficult path)

- great art
P.S. fairly frequent updates although this should not be related to a review as this could change anytime, only existing content can be properly reviewed

Cons:
- grindy. While you don't get any exp from fights, fights are difficult. Puzzles and mazes/dungeon requires some times to solve and can get tedious sometimes. Also, there seem to be some balancing issue towards the end of chapter 1 and the game is significantly harder suddenly. However you can choose "Story Mode" at the beginning of the game and fights will be easier.

- the corruption system could lead to game over when corruption is too high. (the game over is removed in Story Mode) While there are ways to reduce corruption, it is also continuously increased by debuffs and by different events throughout the game. For some people they might feel stressed they don't have enough time to explore the game freely.

- not that much of a "con" but
Conclusion:
Personally I would give it a 5-star, but I must say this is a slow burn and time consuming game. Once again I strongly recommend playing the game on Story Mode for most players unless they really really enjoy challenging games and have enough time to spend on this.

I've never actually left a review before but I had to for this game. Easily the best game I've played. The art and story in the game are great and the way corruption/mind control is implemented in this game is outstanding. 10/10

Great game for people who enjoy Fem Protag, Corruption, Multiple-Ending (Virgin Pure / Corrupt) Story Routing.

Engaging and challenging RPGM combat.
Detailed and populated unique maps with clear and conscientious design choices (obstacles, enemy positioning and patrolling, etc).
Unique enemy art, with tons of unique moves.
NPCs where choices matter, quests connecting, callbacks to previous actions.
Plot is really entertaining, with a great ticking clock that's fun to lose to.

Perhaps the perfect example of an RPGM H-game with combat. It's literally almost fun enough to just play as a game in its own right without any H-concepts at all. Aura-Dev has a great future ahead of them.
Looking forward to all future versions and the completion of the story!

One thing it's missing might be scenes for losing combat. Losing combat ends your day and gives you +1 corruption, but it would be great, and in line with the genre, if there were a little something extra with it.

One of the best games i ever played.
Ticks all my boxes, good artwork, good story an i love the mechanic of how the corruption works and how you can see it impacting the MC in her life.

This review is for ver. 0.27.2. It is very obvious as you play that the game is far, far from finished. For one, when it comes to the standard JRPG elements, you run out of quests to do and everything comes to an abrupt halt. When it comes to the porn and mind-control aspect of the game, it is also very obvious that tons of content is yet to be finished, but you can still spend hours grinding to unlock new mind-control scenes because, frankly, calling this porn game a slow-burn is an understatement.

Okay, so I'll first consider the slow-burn part of the RPG elements. Most quests involve several parts you have to conplete, and if you don't want to spam the corruption-gain super-form of Aura you'll have to go buy bombs to explode rocks to unlock new areas, learn new spells and skills to explode bushes, deal AOE damage, and beat enemies. There are also hidden rooms, some ways to complete quests that re not so obvious (e.g., collecting pieces of a magic formula that are hard to distinquish from background objects on the map), etc. While there is some complexity and momentary fun in the RPG-part, it far overstays its welcome and becomes tedious and boring.

The porn is sadly either quite limited right now (flash panties, tiny bit of kissing, etc) or so damn slow to unlock it doesn't feel worth it. Due to how the story is told and how awful Alicia/Luciela is I personally also didn't feel very motivated to help her corrupt Aura.

In the end, I think this game has some good concepts but bad execution of them. It also isn't hot right now, failing as a porn game.

Not to myself and others:
Play ti for the RPG, avoid it if you re itnerested in lewds cause they are not good enouh and take some time. Nice menus and nice system and all that, but thats just it, not worth.
The art is barely holding it, and the scenes are very simple.

This game requires a large time investment- it is as slow burn as they come.

However, it is well worth it. Although the premise is slightly shaky, the writing is otherwise superb. The characterisation, plot, and world building is absolutely excellent. It is so well written, that it is a corruption game which does persuade you to not corrupt.

The art is fairly well done, although the content is not super advanced just yet. In any case, I am eagerly awaiting future updates.

I think this game is underrated. It's a game with an actually fleshed-out story, and also works on an actual RPG level. It is long, but I think that will either appeal to you or it just won't, depending on personality.

To be honest, I think if the dev had the right tags (read: incest) he would get 5/5 instantly. I'm also confused by the hordes of people saying this game is too hard, despite it being literally impossible to lose on story mode, and having a walkthrough for those who want it. Then again, I once saw a guy on this site post that he got stuck following a game's walkthrough.

I think the message is not to take scores too literally. Many of the games that get 4 and higher are cookie cutter or bland as fuck or just straight up dogshit which only get played for the fact they give you a cock longer than your spine and let you fuck your sister and your mother and your friend's mother and beat up your dad and have 3 girlfriends before the dev disappears at 0.2, while others that get rated 3.x are actually good (like this one).

I am really enjoying the game!
I am a big rpg and lewd fan and this has it both and they blend well together!
Usually this kind of game the lewd stuff is tacked on but the developer has worked hard to integrate it as part of the plot/driver.
I checked my hours played and was surprised i have played this game longer then the last bunch of real rpg games i bought on steam!
Its huge and well crafted and you can tell the developer is passionate about hand crafting it all.
I love it! thank you for hard work! I will go look now how to support you as i feel after 20+ hours now i should probably be paying you for the game!

I rarely review games here and THERE IS ALOT OF GOOD IN THIS AS OF 1/5/23! Let me make that clear. First of all, the character writing makes me not want to corrupt Aura. Why would I want to hurt someone like her thats genuinely a good person trying to do her best with villians with motivations that are extremely petty to put it lightly. The motivation to play a corruption game is the protag is either too stupid to get she is being corrupted or flawed in a way where you want to see her fall OR in a deadend marriage and its just funny to ruin the protags life because she needs a change and you are her catalyst. Aura is NONE of the three. She's the "protag that could" in a world thats wild as hell, her isekai world and her school life that tries to mess with her. Her boyfriend is a kind, but plain dude. She goes out of her way to prove she is kind and decent, her flaw being? What exactly? Am I supposed to hate her and want her fall to two creeps because she is "too perfect"? I dont think this works. The art is great, music fits like a glove, the effort is clear but between the antagonists and the cliche RPGM battles, I dont think I would say this is a top tier game. Maybe some dont feel as strong as me about Aura, maybe she isnt a non-clumsy Maple from Bofuri that doesnt stumble into her power though I think she is. But for me, I see a lovable isekai protag that makes the world better with a fitting title. I cant break that. I dont feel it SHOULD be broken. She is a kind soul and she only deserves an ending with George and to send those needlessly bitter antagonists to humility where they belong over lost lunch money or an awkwardly timed fart or whatever the petty nonsense reason was and last but not least
Have a good night and good luck to Aura-dev. This may SEEM negative, but you are early in this I think and there is ALOT of good in this. You can still turn this around. Fixing the battle system and allowing more actions per day would help alot. Making the antagonists less vapid would help too.