Before anything else, understand that this is a game with sexual themes rather than a game about sex; it won't provide a quick nut, but it may provide a satisfying one depending on your preferences.
Holy Knight Ricca (HKR) is a pretty complete game, and consists of three major components: The Game, the Story, and the Sex.
The Game
3/5
Everything that follows uses my experience playing the game on Normal difficulty.
HKR is a sidescrolling hack-n-slash with some RPG elements thrown in. When I first started playing, I was immediately concerned with how slow my character's jump squat was, and how bad it felt to move around and interact with the world (read: whack slimes). It turns out that this is an intentional choice that I believe is meant to emphasize the difference in the main character's power before and after the titular transformation. Movement in the game proper is mostly good. Controls are very reactive and precise, and it's fairly easy to traverse the world while engaging or avoiding encounters as you wish with some practice. That being said, there are several segments involving fairly precise platforming that shows some warts with the control scheme. Using a keyboard for everything, I had quite a bit of trouble making small adjustments before/after a jump. There is some aerial drift, but I wasn't able to figure out how much by the end of the game. Not that it really mattered much because most platforming boils down to "hold forward and jump at the right time", with the challenge being whether you predicted or reacted to the enemy spawning from offscreen only after you were airborne. Aerial knockback is pretty insane, and a fair amount of my deaths were the result of this sort of design over a bottomless pit or pool of lava.
As for the combat itself, it's fairly satisfying if rather shallow. You have light and heavy attacks, combos you can unlock from the skill tree (the "RPG" part of the game), a guard which can also serve as a parry with proper timing, and special moves tied to a resource you unlock by exploring the levels more thoroughly. You are also able to change your gear freely between levels (after buying it of course) which affects how much damage you do, how fast you attack and move, how effective your guard is, and how much damage you take from various sources. In practice this means it is fairly painless to switch between mighty glacier builds and glass cannon builds. I finished the entire game and the bonus epilogues using a speedy build that relies on parrying to stay safe, so any observations that follow are made from this perspective.
Combat vs most enemies plays out pretty similar.
- If it's an enemy you can kill by spamming attack, do so until it's dead--mix in some heavies or aerial attacks if you're bored. This is most enemies.
- If it's not, look at its health bar and use the corresponding elemental special before you start your spamming. This is most bosses.
Every enemy in the HKR will stagger after taking enough hits, but the amount varies wildly depending on whether you're fighting a goblin or a dragon. It was always either reliable enough that there was no reason to stop spamming, or unreliable enough to not be worth going for at all. The only bit of variety I found with the overworld enemies was using the magic sword projectile--the first special you unlock. It usually stuns on hit, which makes for very reliable approaches to some more dangerous enemies.
Bosses are fairly varied in theme but all fall under the typical fantasy adventure umbrella. They're also all rather samey in execution. The first couple bosses are of the "hit it until it dies" variety. The Succubus is the first boss faced that involves a more give-and-take style of fighting (read: attack, parry, repeat), which is then used in one form or another for the rest of the encounters. There are a few exceptions that add something different to spice things up, but effectiveness varies. Personally, I thought the Reaper's gimmick worked the best and the Final Boss's the worst, but YMMV.
Finally, the platforming is decent at best. As mentioned before, it's mostly easy with a couple of curveballs thrown in that are equal parts bullshit and reliant on surprise. And as far as replay value goes, once you've died in every way necessary to view all the scenes (which doesn't have much to do with gameplay but whatever) and collected all the silver crystals and holy swords, there's no intrinsic reason to go back, so replay value is fairly low.
The Story
3/5
Details will be light to avoid spoilers, although there are not many surprises to be had IMO.
It's pretty standard "Evil Guy vs Holy Knight (singular)" fare with adult themes thrown in. First thing to mention is despite the scope of the conflict, the world feels very small. We visit a couple of villages and a city, with some wilds in-between. There is mention of another city. There are generic guards to be found in several places. There is no government or military mentioned, despite the threat being of the "once in an era" kind.
Others have described the story as "Cliche but done well". It's certainly cliche, but whether it's well-executed will come down to personal preference. I do not think it succeeded.
The characters are a mixed bag. Some I'm meant to like, some I'm meant to hate, but I can't say I felt much towards anyone involved. Without spoiling too much, I can say that interesting plot threads are either tied up cheaply or forgotten altogether, and redemptions tend to be undeserved, or at least unearned.
The standout of the story is how the writing handles some of the more mature themes. I'll talk about it more in the Sex section, but the plot threads involving trauma in particular are surprisingly well-handled (before their weak conclusions). In particular it's very easy to empathize with the main character through all her trials and tribulations, and this empathy is the driving force behind most of the intrigue the story has.
The Sex
4/5
Some spoilers, naturally.
First, HKR is about rape. There is no consensual sex to be had, and to my recollection only one scene falls into the "starts as rape, ends consensual" category that eroge enjoys so much.
Second, Ricca will be raped. It is unavoidable and plot relevant. There are about half a dozen mandatory scenes, and minus one they are all varying degrees of rape.
Third, optional scenes follow the standard eroge format: lose to this monster in this circumstance and get a scene. All scenes are therefore "non-canon", but are also game over states; progression requires avoiding the optional scenes, which is both thematically appropriate and annoying as ever for a porn game.
The quality of every scene is top-notch. 3D rendering models and animation rigs with a lot of camera freedom, sequence playback, and customization. There is no player interaction during the scenes.
The subject matter ranges from mild to brutal rape, bestiality of various kinds, ryona, monster birth, some snuff (implied or otherwise), body modification, parasites, prostitution, mind break, sexual slavery, petrification, and lots of tentacles. The mandatory scenes include rape across the spectrum, body modification, prostitution, tentacles, and masturbation.
As mentioned in the Story section, how Ricca deals with her trauma from the mandatory scenes makes up the most interesting part of the narrative. Her feelings are both realistic and incredibly sympathetic. Personally, I felt she came off as kind of an idiot in general, but never once did I feel this way whenever her trauma came up. That being said, as mentioned previously, I do feel this thread was wrapped up both quickly and to a not-very-satisfying degree. There are also other characters who go through similar trials that do not get the same amount of nuance or introspection.
Miscellaneous
Time: About 13 hours for everything on Normal difficulty
Worth Playing: Yes
Fappability: Low
Extras: Uncensor Mod, Highres Mod, lots of customization with some body sliders
