VN - Ren'Py - Completed - The Curse of Mantras [v1.0.3] [Winter Wolves]

Very good game! Tons of options and romance options to choose from. The story is very engaging and entertaining as well with a nice sexy appeal to it. Each character is very beautiful and well-polished in their roles. Highly recommend giving it a go!

This game was a massive disappointment for me. I chose to play the game as a visual novel first (without the card game aspect), because I wanted to get an idea of the writing and character development/interaction without any distractions to start off. I planned to try the card battles later.

After the first play-through I had to assume that the card battles are the heart of the game, because it feels like very little effort was put into the actual story and character interaction.

The fact that you need to interact with every single character on your side (either Chaos or Law) just to progress with whichever one you're actually interested in is annoying, particularly because their personalities and all of their conversations were so incredibly boring that I was skimming through it after a very short time. Even the romance felt unconvincing, with a compete lack of genuine romanticism there. Often it would resort to telling the player that Lily/Ace felt a certain way towards a character, with no real allowance made for the player themselves to develop that same empathy towards the character. For a choice-based romance-focused game, it had very little meaning in either area.

And if you went through all that pain just to get to the sexy bits... let me tell you, they were NOT worth the hard slog. Even 'uncensored' this game's 'spicy scenes', both visually and descriptively, probably won't get a response out of you, unless that response is disappointment and annoyance that you wasted your time just to get to that.

I did try to give it a chance, but after three torturous play-throughs (Lily/Krakan, Lily/Ash, Ace/Iszeria) I was done. Wasn't even gonna bother with the cards.

Also, I have to agree with the other reviewer regarding character art. It's weird to have a game that has obvious quality art yet simultaneously makes most of the characters feel tacky and/or generic despite the time that's clearly gone into it. Ace is the worst transgressor here, but most of the other guys are also poorly designed. The girls fare a bit better for visuals.

Maybe the writer was going through some writers block while writing this game? Cos it's hard to imagine this snore-fest coming from the person who wrote 'Loren'. Worlds apart.

Before I start this review proper: I played all major titles by this dev(Loren, Seasons of the Wolf, Planet Stronghold 2 and CD, Cursed Lands etc) as well as most of their older stuff. I also don't like the "gameplay part" of their VNs, so I usually play in Visual Novel Mode if I can.

Ngl I played this with low expectations and after finishing a single route, I don't feel like playing another route or different MC. But the game did manage to keep my attention. This title is yet another "underwhelming" game by WW, for better or worse.

Not much to say about the story of this game: I felt like it was more focused on character interactions with MC. Not a bad way to structure a VN, but it also puts a lot more pressure on character writing. And characters in this game will either make it or break it for you(unless you only came for gameplay). They're all simplistic, but do have their appeal if you like their archetype. And there are lots of options this time around, unlike majority of WW games Curse of Mantras has no gender restrictions!

However, there's the whole Chaos/Order alignment point system, which locks you out of romancing characters of opposing alignment. I don't like this system at all. Not only choices felt binary af, they also felt very stereotypical and boring. If you want Chaos, just be like Seto Kaiba and say "screw the rules!" to everybody, and for Order it's another way around. I'd rather just pick my alignment at the start of the game, thanks.

Speaking of romance, it works if you like flirting and implied sex. But it fails at the romance development. The majority of the characters like MC from the get-go and want to bang them after a few convos. I romanced Ash as M!MC and didn't feel any investment. They met, talked and banged. Okay. This game really should've been 18+.

I have a hard time talking about art here: I like the style, but I'm mixed on the designs. Maybe it's just me, but none of the male characters have as many thoughts put into them compared to female characters, I especially dislike M!MC designs: all of his variations look like fashion disasters. And his Order design even has an optional fedora hat. I hope it's just dev having a laugh. Another pet peeve: some male characters "sexy" designs are just them without an extra shirt on...wut?

Music is okay, sound effects are fine too. Typical WW stuff.

UI is boring, but serviceable.

In conclusion, if you like WW or played their other game, try this one. Maybe you'll like it. Or maybe try playing it with a card game gameplay.

If you like games without gender restrictions on romance options, maybe give it a shot.

Otherwise, I don't feel like I can recommend this to many people.

Ugh I was so hyped and it's such a shit. Story is.....simply stupid. Choices are choices in name only. Whole concept is so simple in a worse possible way. Yada yada christian mythology yada yada god and devil. Characters are annoying and ugly and it is suppose to be dating sim. Card battes are so random and bad, you simply pick only card you can and put it in free slot. No tactics, no anything. Enemy cards attacks your character, while yours do nothing, or attack the same enemy card. Really the worst WW game I played so far. Thank you very much for the opportunity to try it!