I already knew that RPG Maker games often have a lot of backtracking — going back to the same place multiple times, delivering an item to some character, solving a puzzle, and so on. But this game manages to turn that into something
extremely boring and tedious.
I decided to marathon
NLT Media’s games since everyone seems to talk about them. I started with the first one,
Lust Epidemic, late last year, and it quickly became clear that the developers don’t know how to balance the amount of quests with the pacing of the story. At some point, you just stop caring about the plot; you just want it to end. It’s always the same loop: sex scene, puzzle, more walking, more fetch quests… until all momentum is gone. And when something important finally does happen, it’s so predictable — the game can’t hide the obvious.
To be fair, compared to the previous game, there’s a slight improvement in the writing, but nothing that saves the experience. The characters are still shallow and annoying, the female leads have the depth of a puddle, and the MC is the usual cliché idiot who only thinks with what’s between his legs, completely detached from any serious drama. The sex scenes are average at best, and the soundtrack is still the same generic, forgettable garbage as before.
What really frustrates me is that the game tries to have an adventurous vibe — clearly inspired by explorer films like
Indiana Jones (even the protagonist’s father is named as a reference). The problem is that the mechanics turn what should be an exciting and rewarding sense of exploration into something downright boring. The worst part is that this is exactly the kind of theme I usually love, yet the game still fails to make it work.
I’m currently playing
The Genesis Order, which came after
Treasure of Nadia, and apparently they decided to make a shared universe. I couldn’t care less, but from what I’ve played so far, it’s actually worse than the last one.
Honestly, I just don’t get how these games are so praised when they’re repetitive, predictable, and full of design choices that do nothing but wear the player down.
