RPGM - Completed - Star Knightess Aura [v1.0.2] [aura-dev]

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, but 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.

I played v0.33.0 a while back.

This is a fun game with lots of content. It gets pretty dark at times, but the protagonist's determination takes the edge off. The art is solid, and gameplay isn't boring. I'm eager to see how it progresses.

I'm all for slow corruption games, but i would expect a little more than 12 lewdness for 4h30 of game. It's slow but not realy in a good way, it actually drag on quite heavily.

The story, combats and mechanics are good though

It's just too sad that i don't download games from this platform for the story

Real game for real guys. It is really ez to corrupt but really hard to pure. If u want authentic, original and real story, u should try. If u want to just fap there is others ton of games for u not this one.

Very dialogue heavy, which sometimes takes me out of a scene. But generally solid as rpgs go. And the corruption is done as a slow but meaningful burn.

If I had a complaint, I wish you could opt out of certain corrupting aspects like bullying.

Now that the game had had its 1.0 launch, my views remain largely the same. I wish the game had more options in what you accept and avoid when it comes to corruption, which often feels fairly linear once you get the early bulk finished. Or more, you need every single corruption to get the evil end so order and what you choose to accept or avoid don't really matter.

Still, I like the game, the characters, the art, and the kinks. So this is a solid 4.5 for me.

Shoutout to everyone recommending this as slow corruption.
Slow in this case being the understatement of the year.
The game tries so hard to compete as an actual RPG, it forgets the platform it was uploaded to.
Consider the preview pics as A+ bait.
You'll end up sitting through this bs for hours just to see a kiss scene.

First of all, you should know that although the game is full of H-tags, first of all it is a Game, and then everything else... So if you came for fap material, then you will be disappointed.
But I was looking for the Game , so I'm satisfied.
Although, I played only a third and decided to postpone until the release. The game, though long, is linear and plot-oriented, so playing now will reduces the pleasure of playing the full game in release.
Anyway, great plot and dialogues. Suitable music and Umenico vibe. The only thing I would like to see is more sprites of minor characters... and CG without lewd or h