0.55.010-->0.59.004: Very promising but also very grindy, particularly if you're unaware of how heavily possession plays into the game. The game updates monthly and the dev seems to address (some) issues the player base brings up, so I can see this game making it to 5-stars by the time it is finished. I can easily recommend Town of Magic, particularly if you're looking for a bit more game in your porn games. I'm updating this review to reflect a newer version of the game. The original review will be in white, while changes/insight are at the end of each section in blue.
Lewds/Gallery: Animations are mostly of the protagonist (Celica) getting molested or raped by monsters mid-combat. Celica doesn't seem to mind it that much. You can disable monster sex in the options though, so then the lewds are getting molested buy a ghost, demoness, or slime girl and a bit of masturbation while possessed. There's no gallery in the game but most scenes are easy to trigger and only a few aren't repeatable. All are animated, which is nice. There's also some lesbian scenes which sort-of put Celica in the aggressive role, and it seems like the dev is going to incorporate more scenes with humans and humanoids.
Combat: Pretty straightforward. Cast spells, kill enemies. Sometimes enemies get a free attack at the start of battle, which is nearly as cheap as the way some get two actions per turn. I guess it sort-of balances out since they'll take a turn off to tear Celica's top while she can Magic Missile their face nonstop. Unfortunately, most of the spells are just the same single-target spell in a different flavor. Enemies molesting Celica is actually a fairly interesting mechanic instead of just being an avenue for lewds. Since you can still cast spells after they grab on, you can play risky by whaling on their friends instead of immediately struggling them off, making it easier to deal with them that way since Celica doesn't have any AoE spells. Getting molested also gives you more skill experience after battle (+10% per molestation, max +50%) so you might want to let them be for a bit. Of course, each molestation raises Celica's lust meter which stuns her for a few turns when full. An additional downside is that if enough monsters are molesting her at once you might end up stunlocked. It becomes less of an issue once you can bring allies along, but you might still turn off monster sex just to reduce the time it takes to grind. Combat is a bit slow, but that might be a consequence of the game engine. There are now AoE spells, though they're dual element and you don't have access to them until you've bought all the base spells. Your allies are more robust too, so it's unlikely you'll be stunlocked even with monster sex turned on.
Story: Perfectly serviceable. Celica rolls up looking to be the best mage; we hear there might be demons about; it'd be real neat if all the Celestrians hadn't left. Nothing groundbreaking, but I far prefer it over a story that does weird stuff just to try to stand out. The story takes some predictable (and less predictable!) turns. The general tone is somewhat lighthearted, so all-in-all the story really works for me.
The Grind: Theoretically, not that bad. You clear one area, head to the next, see that enemies hit hard and you need ice magic to stand up to them, go back the previous area to collect enough gold to buy the necessary spell while also gaining a few levels along the way. It works for the first few areas, but then enemies become simply impossible to beat without gaining five levels first. They also use status attacks which completely disable Celica (sometimes during their free turn at the start of battle), molester her to climax, and now you're stunlocked. Even if you turn off battle sex that just means now you're dead. So instead you have to save scum and hope your first few explorations yield the item you need to craft the relevant anti-status potion so you even stand a chance. And if that weren't bad enough, you also have to grind to raise affection levels in all the possession-based relationship routes. Once you get enough relationship bars you can actually talk to the people in the possession-based routes, so their grind isn't so bad. Allies have been improved, and each area now gives you a hint when you enter if a certain anti-status potion will be useful. I haven't played from the start in a fresh save, but it feels like the grind has been slightly lessened. You'll probably still need to grind to finally get the item you need for a new outfit to drop.
Possession!?: Yeah, possession plays a major role in this game. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's a "possession game," but certain outfits and the ability to progress other relationships are locked behind possession relationships. And the grinding! The demoness, slime and ghost all start off as enemies. You usually need to beat them to advance the story, but after that you need to sort-of lose to them to advance their relationship. I say "sort-of" since you need to let them strip and climax Celica which isn't a traditional loss. Even if they say they just want to talk there's usually no way to just talk to them until you've advanced their relationship significantly, so now you have to jam the wait key all battle since there's also no auto-wait or forfeit function. Losing against the ghost causes her to posses you and go battle monsters (which is nice of her), but it takes so many rounds of possession that by the time you realize what she's about you're too strong to really need her. But you gotta raise her anyway because those 10 relationship bars aren't just for show. On the plus side, you can eventually just talk to the ghost and ask her to train in a specific area, so that lessens both the relationship and item-acquisition grind.
In Development?: Notably. The Lewdness stat does nothing, the grind is real, and there are a handful of items/areas which don't really serve any purpose. Still, the dev adds content every month and has been pretty consistent with updates, even if each update isn't equally large. A decent amount of tips have been added to help smooth out the new player experience, while most updates also bring a new monster and NPC animations. The art in the newest release is a little wonky in places, but I can imagine that's just them breaking in a new artist.
It's no big deal...
