To start this off, I like The Last Sovereign. I’ve played over 10+ hours, beaten the first chapter, of the three available, and read multiple guides / the wiki. I think this is a really solid game with a lot of potential, but right now there’s some serious gameplay problems holding the game back.
This review is written on version 0.34.2 with the idea that this game is not just an RPG but also an erotic game. I am a completionist who was playing the game in large part for the sex scenes and that influences what I think.
Art: This game is made in RPG maker so the main things you’re going to see are sprites. There is character art, but there is no art for sex scenes (which will be discussed later).
The sprites are okay, very passable for what they need to be.
The character art is lacking in many places. Sierra Lee should get someone to come in and redo many of the character portraits. Many of the characters are bland or uninteresting looking, including some of the harem members, and this can really take away from the game. The main character looks just like one of the stock character models which is really distracting as you see him constantly. Many/most of the harem members need new art overall and art for their reactions. I’m just not attracted to quite a few of the key members of the story and that doesn’t make me want to earn their affection.
Many of the side characters could also use some new art, but that can wait. Most still use stock character art which can be distracting.
Story: The story is great so far, but overwhelming. There is so much going on and so much lore that it gets caught up in itself sometimes. I’m very interested in the world and fighting evil, but its hard to grasp the scale a lot of the times. The tone of the game is also hard to nail down. There’s a lot of tongue in cheek humor mixed with some brutal world descriptions that kind of work against each other.
Gameplay: The game is hard and much too complicated. I have lost numerous times due to common enemies getting a lucky shot on my party member. There needs to be a difficulty slider in the game for people that want the challenge, and for people who want to enjoy the NSFW elements. I shouldn’t need to grind out over an hour in a dungeon to unlock a small sex scene. I enjoyed the RPG fighting, but it’s nothing to write home about. It’s pretty standard and doesn’t take many risks or do anything experimental.
When you hit the end of the first chapter you encounter the first big gameplay change. You can now invest in things using the money you built up over the game. However, it is extremely confusing and overly complicated. It is a great idea by itself, but it is not presented in a good way. Many of the investments you make will drastically impact future moments in the game / relationships with characters / your ability to succeed. But it is really hard to know which investments are good and will benefit you the most. I am a completionist so it was massively overwhelming going from “kill the corrupted bat” to “here’s 12 things you can invest in now, pick the right one or your party will never love you and the country will collapse.”
The game had been rather straightforward up to that point too. Then a time element is introduced and things get even more complicated, and not in a good way.
Then there are the 10000 hidden variables. These are both good, and bad. Make sure to say the right thing or invest in the right way, or else you won’t get the hidden economic point. This is a great idea but is very overwhelming. It stopped being fun when I started worrying more and more about the hidden values of my characters. It’s very strict too if you want to get the best results so never make a mistake, which also isn’t fun.
Sex Scenes: Lacking. I like erotica too. I’ve read a lot of erotica over the years and I never really felt excited by what I would read. All the scenes, of the less than 15 I got, were very short and vanilla. If that’s something you’re into great. But it was really boring reading 5 short non-descript paragraphs of sex. Even an 4-way scene was boring to me, the desciptions and actions were all rather weak. The scenes are described in an extremely small amount of detail, which really hurts them as sex scenes. They need to be beefed up with more descriptive words and actions.
I also only unlocked like less than 15 scenes total too. After 10 hours, less than 15. I would play for hours to unlock basically nothing. Scenes aren’t replayable too, so unless you want to have 100 saves for every scene you better enjoy it the first time.
Simon, the main character, isn’t the best to RP as in a sex game either. I’m not ‘excited’ to be playing as a 55 year-old, semi-unattractive, bland person. He’s great to RP as, he’s an old soldier who just wants to help the world, but to imagine in a sex scene? He just comes off as boring in many cases. I like him as a main character but Sierra Lee needs to make him better to play as him when you're having sex.
Looking on the wiki too there aren’t many ones upcoming that interest me either. Many of the scenes I read are still bland or very far away. The amount of work needed to unlock them is massive. It seems like there’s a lot more as you get deeper in the game, but I shouldn’t need to play more than 10 hours to get to the good stuff. There needs to be more frontloaded content.
Improvements: I wouldn’t be writing this review if I didn’t think the game had great potential. It could be the best erotic game out there when it’s all done, but this is a game that really needs to be completed before starting it. The games already 40+ hours without the addition of the 4th chapter (which I believe is the final one). Not being able to see how your actions will play out really hurts a game that ties itself so tightly to long-term investments like this one. Saying, or picking, the wrong thing in chapter 1 can fail you in chapter 3. And I really don’t want to redo things to fix that.
Character art needs to be updated. Many Harem members could do with some new artwork that makes them stand out more or look sexier. And the ones whose design is fine could use some new reaction artworks.
Gameplay needs a difficulty slider and there needs to be some help for investments. It is really overwhelming reaching the end of chapter 1 and being presented with a whole new massive gameplay mechanic that’s not well explained and is very easy to mess up.
Sex scenes could use some fleshing out. More descriptive words and additional kinky scenes early on could really help. Being able to re-watch scenes would be massive too. It’s really annoying watching a scene knowing you’ll never see it again.
If you’re not looking to do as good as possible some of this can be overlooked, but not all. You can’t just blaze through the game looking for the next thing to do or fight, you have to stop and worry about the economics. It can be really boring, especially as the final results of your investments aren’t fully known as the games not fully done. Was it a good idea to pick A over B in chapter 1? I don’t know, it did affect chapter 3 but maybe C will be better in the long run.
When the game is fully out its going to be amazing. I’ll probably come back in a few months to see where the developments at but it looks like everything is running smoothly. I believe with time Sierra Lee will update and fix everything I find wrong with the game. And if she does, this game will be in the talks for best western erotic game.
This review is written on version 0.34.2 with the idea that this game is not just an RPG but also an erotic game. I am a completionist who was playing the game in large part for the sex scenes and that influences what I think.
Art: This game is made in RPG maker so the main things you’re going to see are sprites. There is character art, but there is no art for sex scenes (which will be discussed later).
The sprites are okay, very passable for what they need to be.
The character art is lacking in many places. Sierra Lee should get someone to come in and redo many of the character portraits. Many of the characters are bland or uninteresting looking, including some of the harem members, and this can really take away from the game. The main character looks just like one of the stock character models which is really distracting as you see him constantly. Many/most of the harem members need new art overall and art for their reactions. I’m just not attracted to quite a few of the key members of the story and that doesn’t make me want to earn their affection.
Many of the side characters could also use some new art, but that can wait. Most still use stock character art which can be distracting.
Story: The story is great so far, but overwhelming. There is so much going on and so much lore that it gets caught up in itself sometimes. I’m very interested in the world and fighting evil, but its hard to grasp the scale a lot of the times. The tone of the game is also hard to nail down. There’s a lot of tongue in cheek humor mixed with some brutal world descriptions that kind of work against each other.
Gameplay: The game is hard and much too complicated. I have lost numerous times due to common enemies getting a lucky shot on my party member. There needs to be a difficulty slider in the game for people that want the challenge, and for people who want to enjoy the NSFW elements. I shouldn’t need to grind out over an hour in a dungeon to unlock a small sex scene. I enjoyed the RPG fighting, but it’s nothing to write home about. It’s pretty standard and doesn’t take many risks or do anything experimental.
When you hit the end of the first chapter you encounter the first big gameplay change. You can now invest in things using the money you built up over the game. However, it is extremely confusing and overly complicated. It is a great idea by itself, but it is not presented in a good way. Many of the investments you make will drastically impact future moments in the game / relationships with characters / your ability to succeed. But it is really hard to know which investments are good and will benefit you the most. I am a completionist so it was massively overwhelming going from “kill the corrupted bat” to “here’s 12 things you can invest in now, pick the right one or your party will never love you and the country will collapse.”
The game had been rather straightforward up to that point too. Then a time element is introduced and things get even more complicated, and not in a good way.
Then there are the 10000 hidden variables. These are both good, and bad. Make sure to say the right thing or invest in the right way, or else you won’t get the hidden economic point. This is a great idea but is very overwhelming. It stopped being fun when I started worrying more and more about the hidden values of my characters. It’s very strict too if you want to get the best results so never make a mistake, which also isn’t fun.
Sex Scenes: Lacking. I like erotica too. I’ve read a lot of erotica over the years and I never really felt excited by what I would read. All the scenes, of the less than 15 I got, were very short and vanilla. If that’s something you’re into great. But it was really boring reading 5 short non-descript paragraphs of sex. Even an 4-way scene was boring to me, the desciptions and actions were all rather weak. The scenes are described in an extremely small amount of detail, which really hurts them as sex scenes. They need to be beefed up with more descriptive words and actions.
I also only unlocked like less than 15 scenes total too. After 10 hours, less than 15. I would play for hours to unlock basically nothing. Scenes aren’t replayable too, so unless you want to have 100 saves for every scene you better enjoy it the first time.
Simon, the main character, isn’t the best to RP as in a sex game either. I’m not ‘excited’ to be playing as a 55 year-old, semi-unattractive, bland person. He’s great to RP as, he’s an old soldier who just wants to help the world, but to imagine in a sex scene? He just comes off as boring in many cases. I like him as a main character but Sierra Lee needs to make him better to play as him when you're having sex.
Looking on the wiki too there aren’t many ones upcoming that interest me either. Many of the scenes I read are still bland or very far away. The amount of work needed to unlock them is massive. It seems like there’s a lot more as you get deeper in the game, but I shouldn’t need to play more than 10 hours to get to the good stuff. There needs to be more frontloaded content.
Improvements: I wouldn’t be writing this review if I didn’t think the game had great potential. It could be the best erotic game out there when it’s all done, but this is a game that really needs to be completed before starting it. The games already 40+ hours without the addition of the 4th chapter (which I believe is the final one). Not being able to see how your actions will play out really hurts a game that ties itself so tightly to long-term investments like this one. Saying, or picking, the wrong thing in chapter 1 can fail you in chapter 3. And I really don’t want to redo things to fix that.
Character art needs to be updated. Many Harem members could do with some new artwork that makes them stand out more or look sexier. And the ones whose design is fine could use some new reaction artworks.
Gameplay needs a difficulty slider and there needs to be some help for investments. It is really overwhelming reaching the end of chapter 1 and being presented with a whole new massive gameplay mechanic that’s not well explained and is very easy to mess up.
Sex scenes could use some fleshing out. More descriptive words and additional kinky scenes early on could really help. Being able to re-watch scenes would be massive too. It’s really annoying watching a scene knowing you’ll never see it again.
If you’re not looking to do as good as possible some of this can be overlooked, but not all. You can’t just blaze through the game looking for the next thing to do or fight, you have to stop and worry about the economics. It can be really boring, especially as the final results of your investments aren’t fully known as the games not fully done. Was it a good idea to pick A over B in chapter 1? I don’t know, it did affect chapter 3 but maybe C will be better in the long run.
When the game is fully out its going to be amazing. I’ll probably come back in a few months to see where the developments at but it looks like everything is running smoothly. I believe with time Sierra Lee will update and fix everything I find wrong with the game. And if she does, this game will be in the talks for best western erotic game.
