As others have said, this game has perhaps some of the best writing I've seen - the MC is a likable person, the characters are interesting and varied, the worldbuilding is pretty deep. And I've never seen a game that got so deep into managing political resources or having to manage various factions. If you want a porn game that is also a medieval kingdom management game, this one's probably pretty good. I did actually play this game once a while back but gave up early on, but I did miss out by not pushing through the early part.
For the game mechanics portion, I should note that I generally dislike RPGM games for getting lost in RPG bullshit. This game started off much better than most in that regard - the very difficult fights were optional, and while you could follow a wiki to try and make the most optimal decisions, it didn't seem required.
Unfortunately, as I got deeper and deeper into the game that became less true. I did eventually hit a mandatory fight towards the end of Chap 4 that I could only beat by cheating, and from there I found myself relying on cheat programs to get me through more often. I got into the game for the story, not to try and min-max the perfect builds but it begins to feel more required. Likewise, because decisions continue to have effects throughout the course of the entire game and just keep stacking and stacking, making non-optimal choices starts to hurt you more and more. Even with following the wiki guides pretty closely I've found it harder to even get 'decent' results from the various political manipulations, and I actually got locked out of recruiting a harem member despite my best efforts otherwise. Things I passed up or missed like...80 damn hours ago are still haunting me. To actually enjoy this game in the long term I think you have to follow the guides and that costs this review a star at least.
Also, RPGM games should just not ever have timed sections. Never ever ever ever. Any time a guide section starts with 'okay, to get through this, go to settings and turn off the animations and text' something's messed up.
Pornwise, RPGM is just a miserable delivery system for porn. The art is decent, but it's damn tiny, even if you play in fullscreen it's still just a tiny image blown up. Nor is there any sort of gallery system until something like halfway through the game, and it's only accessible at certain times in the game so you have to remember to keep saves in the porn-accessible points. The game does what it can within RPGM limitations but the fact remains, RPGM is a bad engine for porn.
All in all I think I'm invested to see the game through to the end, but I feel like this is maybe as good as an RPGM game can get and it still feels massively weighted down by the end with all of the typical RPG problems. Call me a bad gamer if you want, but a built-in 'story' or cheat mode that allowed you to focus on the really good part of the game, the story, would make this far less stressful to play.
For the game mechanics portion, I should note that I generally dislike RPGM games for getting lost in RPG bullshit. This game started off much better than most in that regard - the very difficult fights were optional, and while you could follow a wiki to try and make the most optimal decisions, it didn't seem required.
Unfortunately, as I got deeper and deeper into the game that became less true. I did eventually hit a mandatory fight towards the end of Chap 4 that I could only beat by cheating, and from there I found myself relying on cheat programs to get me through more often. I got into the game for the story, not to try and min-max the perfect builds but it begins to feel more required. Likewise, because decisions continue to have effects throughout the course of the entire game and just keep stacking and stacking, making non-optimal choices starts to hurt you more and more. Even with following the wiki guides pretty closely I've found it harder to even get 'decent' results from the various political manipulations, and I actually got locked out of recruiting a harem member despite my best efforts otherwise. Things I passed up or missed like...80 damn hours ago are still haunting me. To actually enjoy this game in the long term I think you have to follow the guides and that costs this review a star at least.
Also, RPGM games should just not ever have timed sections. Never ever ever ever. Any time a guide section starts with 'okay, to get through this, go to settings and turn off the animations and text' something's messed up.
Pornwise, RPGM is just a miserable delivery system for porn. The art is decent, but it's damn tiny, even if you play in fullscreen it's still just a tiny image blown up. Nor is there any sort of gallery system until something like halfway through the game, and it's only accessible at certain times in the game so you have to remember to keep saves in the porn-accessible points. The game does what it can within RPGM limitations but the fact remains, RPGM is a bad engine for porn.
All in all I think I'm invested to see the game through to the end, but I feel like this is maybe as good as an RPGM game can get and it still feels massively weighted down by the end with all of the typical RPG problems. Call me a bad gamer if you want, but a built-in 'story' or cheat mode that allowed you to focus on the really good part of the game, the story, would make this far less stressful to play.