RPGM - Completed - The Last Sovereign [v1.0.0] [Sierra Lee]

This is such a frustrating game to review. High quality writing and content marred by good intentions that led to a terrible game experience. This review will parrot what many others have already said.

The world building, characters and dialogue are intelligent, interesting and high quality. You are easily sucked in.

The game's biggest failing is the convoluted handling of much of its content. Things you do or do not do can screw you over severely - often much later in the game, leaving you with a bitter taste and feeling miserable that you've overwritten all saves a dozen times over and thus don't even have the chance to load an earlier save without throwing away a huge time investment.

Secondly, the game is intended to be tightly balanced all the way through. There is no way to grind for levels or gear and thus no way to trade your time grinding for levels instead instead of struggling with combat encounters you might find difficult.

These two design decisions drive the player to keep a walkthrough open at all times to make sure content isn't missed, you aren't screwing yourself over by not collecting any of the limited xp or similar. The walkthrough becomes a script that you as a player merely act out in RPGM, and the game becomes, in effect, a kinetic novel with a buttload of superfluous clicks.

First thing that should be cleared up before anyone decides to try the game out: The Last Sovereign isn't a porn game, it's a game with porn. Meaning that unlike a lot of other games here, it focuses more on the game elements and isn't a walk in the park. The existing porn in the game is primarily written with a few still images, which I don't mind as I'd rather have that than hours of teasing. The big plus to this game, and why I believe it deserves 5 stars, is that it has hours of gameplay, honestly probably more than any other game on this site. It's got a rich story with interesting mechanics, but you'll need to be careful of the decisions you make, as they will have an effect on the story later on. If you're looking for pure porn this may not be the game for you, however if you're looking for a game with adult features, this is it.

Good:
Exceptional characters, some of the best I have seen really. Amazing world building. Interesting plot.

Bad:
1. The game takes ~150 hours to complete which is full of punishing grinding and unfun RPGM combat.
2. You will be forced to choose between:
a. restart the game many times while mapping the choices you must perform raising your hours invested to the thousands due to the many snowballing hidden fail-states
b. read 100+ pages of wiki to thread the needle. which spoils the story and completely ruins the gameplay by just making you adhere to the guides like a robot
3. No gallery
4. RPGM shit.
5. anti-cheat bullshit hidden in the game where if you cheat it detects it and fucks you over 100 hours later. haha! gotcha player! should not have used cheats.

I am sorry, as much as I love the (non-MC) characters and want to see what happens next I just can not do this.
There are simply too many bad choices by the dev that simply ruin what could have otherwise been an amazing game. 2 stars, could have been a 5.

Okay, I have played around 70hours of it, it is as great as others say , the story , the gameplay, the details , everything.

BUT , the porn part is somewhat lacking, I can't get off on texts so it may work differently for you but it certainly is not for a quick fap. I spent like 4-5 days to get to current level, it was very much worth it, but not for porn reasons.

Edit : 130 hours, I'm not in it for porn anymore, story is too great i will be big sad when it ends, looking forward to more!

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.

Writing is as good as it gets. The only games I've ever played that is even in the same league are Out of Touch and possibly Lessons in Love (but LiL suffers a little bit from a pretentious developer).

The worldbuilding is first class. Not, like, "first class for a porn game", I mean seriously first class. Economics, geography, history-- it all fits. This is a game that you can think hard about and not worry that you're going deeper than the author did.

The art is good, but sparse-- there is actually a lot of it, but the game is so *huge* that there are some significant stretches without CGs.

The RPG aspect is solid. It's well balanced, and actually fun. This is one of the very few adult RPGM games where the combat and equipment management stuff doesn't bore me. It's actually a game that would NOT be better if it was moved to another engine, if you can imagine that. The game makes clever use of a "projections" gimick that give you many of the QoL conveniences of a menu-driven VN game but within the RPGM world.

The writer (and I say writer, even though she's a good developer-- Sierra Lee is first and foremost a fantasy writer) delivers professionally and is appropriately engaging to the community, although there is no Discord that I am aware of so you have to use the Patreon platform.

Set aside some time and dive in, this game is incredible.

Edit: there is, in fact, a discord now. (And a fairly lively one at at that.)

Easily the best writing in any smutty game I've played. Lots of content, and a pretty solid JRPG / management sim game as well. I have no complaints about this game. The art is pretty good too.

Really though, can't emphasize the quality of writing enough.

Game Version: v0.57.3
The game has one of the best stories I've seen on the F95zone. MC is very well written. Not only the main character but also some of the characters are very well written, e.g Yarra, Aka and my favorite Qum. If I played the game well, there are about 30 harem characters and each has its own characteristics and story. The character development is absolutely very good. The main focus of the game is definitely not porn, you need to know that. The game has only two downsides for me. The first is definitely porn scenes (as I said in the previous sentence, this is because the game does not focus on porn) and the second is combat. Combat is very simple, nothing to talk about. But other features of the game destroy these two. There's a lot I haven't mentioned yet because I can give spoilers. Have fun!

I played this game a lot and as far as chapter 3 i've enjoided it.

I will not talk about the RPG and the fighting system because the most important part of the game is the story and the investment fase.

The story is well written and actions have consequence. That is at the same time the strong and weak point of TLS.
There are a lot, and i mean a LOT of choises to be made with a tons of consequences but the more the game goes on the more complex it became and you are overwhelmed.
Withouth the help of the wiki and therefore following the walkthought you start missing more and more content as you go on (both sex scenes and news characters) and thus you have to read pages and follow to the letter what to do.

Like the wiki says
" I can't take this anymore! I used to have a certainty inside me, but it's gone! Just tell me what to do! "

Sadly this is why i can give only 3 star.

So, funny story, when the game was still in very early development, probably around 2015, I played it for the first time.

And stopped after 15 minutes, because I absolutely despised the opening characters, and was not in the mood for yet another "choose between good and evil route"-type game.
Boy, do I regret that.

The Last Sovereign is the Hentai game with the best story. Period.

You should play it. Now.

Great game with a great story with a great cast of characters, dragged down by an extremely dull and uncharismatic protagonist, who basically reads as a 30+ years old woman's perfect husbando.

I guess it cathers to the same nice, but reverse, who think Rey from Star Wars is a great character, but that's not me. Which is a shame, since, like i said, i think the game is otherwise great.

Top 5 RPG ever, including the classics like chrono trigger.

The one game where I skip the H content so I can get to more story plot and gameplay. My parents would be proud of me.

A game about investments, choices, warring factions, tightly designed fights and i guess h-scenes

It's free on steam too, but you can donate on steam as well.

This is extremely good. Not as a porn game but as a game full stop. One thing I would say is while it is a game with porn that is not this games main focus.

The Positives

• The harem. Seriously they're flat out the best thing about this game. They're not just a bunch of stereotypical brainless idiots that fall in love with your characters amazing dick because oh my god its bigger than average we see in so many games. They're characters with their own strengths, goals, motivations and personalities. Who happen to share a goal with the MC and grow attached to him and vice versa. There's also almost 30 of them and in their own fields they're flat out better than the MC. The harem are absolutely vital to the MCs success and I love it because it makes them better characters, the story better and makes the MC feel like a leader not a mary sue. There's parts where you take over the characters in the harem and it makes it feel much more like the MC is leading a group, a group comprised of powerful individuals.
  
• The MC. Now I don't think everyone will like him as he's a break from the aggressive MCs we usually get. The MC is calm, mature, cunning and actually comes across as having a brain in his head on top of that his selfless but there is a ruthlessness there when it comes to achieving shit. He isn't perfect he has flaws his overly cautious, haunted by his past and has a tendency to be reactive. He is also too trusting. I found the game a breath of fresh air in regards to it's MC.
  
• Economics and politics yes seriously. It uses RPGM switches and variables in a masterful way. The game has investments, wars and summits. There is a social, economic, military and acceptance score that are affected by all these things ( you can't see these numbers making it feel organic) and have an affect on them wars, investments and summits. Characters have relationship values as well and all this ties together in the story but I don't want to spoil that. But you see the effects of these choices in game in so many ways. It's great
  
• The writing. It is extremely good. Both the story, the characters and the scenes themselves. There's also humour that is there throughout the whole game without been overbearing
  
• The story. The story essentially shows different stages of a characters rise. If I had to describe it the game is a power fantasy with a touch of how that'd actually occur in real life. The MC starts as a busted old soldier fighting succubi and orcs to something much more powerful. He goes from selling a wagon of stolen beer to someone rulers have to listen to. The game shows this rise in a way that feels right and natural. It's also fun seeing these changes.
  
• The characters. The aforementioned characters some of them are simply fantastic Yarra, Qum, Aka, Orcent are some of the best characters I have ever seen in a porn game and there are more. It's crazy how many good characters there are. It's one of them game where if fans all make a top 10 list the lists would all be different.

The Negatives

• The gameplay. It is essentially the most basic RPGM gameplay with I presume some Yanfly plugins. So if you dislike RPGM gameplay you need to decide whether hours of it is something your willing to bear to see that story. I like that gameplay so it's not bad for me. It will be for others and as I said it is basic RPGM.
  
• The sex. The porn isn't a focus. While there is a lot of scenes there will be big gaps in between. That said there's at least 100 scenes in the game. Probably more.
  
• Mostly Very vanilla. With almost 30 women you'd think some would have some kinks but I think there's like 3-4 bdsm scenes and 1 roleplay scene. Outside of liking titjobs the MC also doesn't seem to have any kinks.
  
• The art. It is not very good or distinct. A lot of the characters you'll see in other RPGM games I think Yarra might be the only one that has a unique faceset. I understand why but it undermines the game a bit when the big bad Incubus King is just your standard RPGM bad guy. The art for the scenes is just ok. It's not terrible but it could be better it'd also be nice if there were more for example if a scene moves from a BJ to fucking it'd be nice if the images actually showed that.
  
• Cheating. The dev has a dislike of cheating. There's certain things that don't go off if you cheated. I didn't know this and cheated on my second play through to get through the combat quicker. It just feels unnecessary.
  
• Walkthrough. There basically feels like there is a best route through the game because some choices simply seem better than others and that make you feel like you need to follow a walkthrough. Which sucks some of the fun out of the game. Some things could probably be a bit easier to achieve. However, the game isn't finished so what feels like the best way to do things may turn out not to be by the end.
• Latecomers. Some characters have joined the Harem quite late and as the games coming to a close it feels like there won't be much content with them story wise.

So now that I've gushed over the game in a big wall of text TLDR is it's a fucking amazing game with tijobs and investments.

One of the better RPGM games, Really liked the characters and story. The combat was decent there was a difficulty spike in a few places but its optional content so its fine. Had A lot of fun with the game.

Great theme, great characters, great everything really. Biggest downside, that makes the game very unenjoyable is the combat. You go from 0-100 in a matter of like 30 minutes. One minute you're fighting wolves and everythings okay, the next you're in a scripted event where if you didn't save recently or buy op items by grinding you lose. Such a waste as I was digging the game. Oh well.

I don't get it.

It is just so boooooooring.

I don't get who this appeals to?

Guys? Is your fantasy to be this caricature of a white knight (which is bad enough by itself)?

Girls? Don't believe it. They could find someone just as pathetic irl.

The art is meh at best.

The story is punishing. I don't mind reading. No, really. But the way the protagonist is treated by everyone is just so sad. He is such a deluded loser who is consistently treated like crap.

The sex scenes are also meh.

Seriously, this 'game' gets zero stars. Its only redeeming quality is Qum D'ump, who is just awesome. She's what each of the other characters should aspire to, especially that moron of a MC.

She's the only reason I'm giving two stars.

This is getting great reviews for its writing and characters but honestly I don't see myself playing this much more than I already have.

Everything you do has consequences, which is what you want from a video game. Except the game tries to fuck you over for making the wrong choice constantly. Shopkeepers will try to price gouge you, for instance, and you cant grind money or experience since the number of enemies in the game is finite. The battles are designed to be challenging but fair but then you have to go to the Infested House in Stineford and suddenly you have to fight through endless waves of stupid hard enemies that wipe your party like its nothing.

The gameplay quality is really inconsistent, which is a shame since the story is really engaging and the characters are quite charming. It needs a lot of balancing for it to be fun. Why should I have to use a walkthrough just to find out how to progress through the game with minimal hassle?

As for the H-scenes... they're OK. The drawings are pretty amateurish but they are accompanied by a fair bit of text that helps fill out the flavor and make it hot.

All-in-all I would not recommend sinking time in to this unless you're a glutton for punishment and can overlook the obtuse design.

Great story and caracters, with a good rol-rpg gameplay and an original setting. Text based sex scenes are not my cup of tea, but i liked so much the caracters that i kept going. The game has also a surprising amount of depth, having a lot of choices to make that have an inpact on the world that you play.

Yes. Just play the damned game. Enjoy the prologue, the entire game is full monty subversion on the genre. Cum for the porn, stay for the story... etc etc.

Once you learn to like this, try Ouroboros. Another one of Sierra's gems. And dont forget to support on Subscribe Star. Avoid enriching the bastards at Patreon, people.

Length of the game and depth of it blew my mind. Best game i have played. Thanks for the ride. Even with following guides (because i didnt want to miss anything) i searched for every corner of the each map i entered and read all character dialogues so it took 30+hours and i am already at halfpoint of the game. I had to stop playing games and took a break from the game came too see that this 2016 game is still getting updated. I cant say how happy im for playing this game again!