Does anyone else find the gameplay design extremely bland and unsatisfying compared to Para Ark?
I haven't found an explanation for what the basic stats actually do, especially Luck and which exact skills scale with MATK vs ATK (guessing most sex skills use MATK based on brief tests, but impregnation "strength" does NOT for some reason), however since combat is discrete-time but not actually turn-based AGI seems stupidly broken as it not only lets you move "earlier" but also "more often" - and regen effects proc every time a character makes a move!
This leads to the next issue though: combat feels very tedious and same-y. The team members you get seem close to identical, divided into 3 "classes" with only a single ~10% stat variation marking the difference between each class. Sex skills are identical across all of them except for the futa who can't get rid of her innate dick. Each character also gets ~2-6 semi-unique non-sexual combat skills which range from atrocious (5% stat reduction on an enemy
) to completely and utterly broken if you actually cared to use them (-50% MP cost AND +50 TP regen in one self-buff!) - except you don't care because combat also seems to be piss easy.
Then there's the equipment, or rather lack thereof. The crafting table is full of gear options, 6 tiers of armours and a plethora of weapons and accessories. Except that is the only source of gear, there are no drops or loot chests with anything of value. And the ONLY way to get the required crafting materials is to sex up the girls and grind pregnancies over and over again. This turns what should be a titillating feature into a bloody chore! And if you don't go for penetrative sex specifically you get nothing! Fighting, using those few unique skills (and a whole bunch of gear options focused on direct combat) actively hurts your progression!
...except it doesn't actually stop you from progressing through the game. Gear doesn't matter much if you spam sex because whether you grind this enemy or their 5th respawn doesn't matter and they don't really hurt you regardless. Levels only matter in terms of getting more AGI so you spam more sex moves quicker. Explorable areas are short and you can always run out and heal for free. Boss battles are a complete joke, simply throwing a regular group of cell girls at you but maybe with slightly higher levels(=HP). I got all the way to the Slut Maker parasite and cleared all areas other than Lymph crafting virtually nothing, often taking newborn lvl1 girls into new zones to no ill effect other than the slight annoyance of battles taking even longer.
Why would I take lvl1 babies into the active war zone? Well, because the game doesn't just let you pick your favourite and bang her senseless either! Aside from the materials issue there is also an "affection" counter, which only tracks how many battles you won with that girl in your active party (because of course it does). And this "affection" is required for breeding new girls, which are required to progress into new areas in addition to giving higher tier materials.
Oh and small-scale balance seems awful as well. Why is a single-digit crit rate bonus considered on par with in-combat regen? Why is a minor max HP bonus on par with TP regen in a setting where enemies deal close to 0 damage and almost everything you do uses TP? Why does the highest tier weapon only grant half a bonus attack, which a) only affects the basic "Attack" command and b) doesn't even seem to work properly for that??? Why do some early weapons grant alternative forms of attack but none of the later ones do? - actually I can answer that one: good thing they don't because a bunch of lategame gear grants "attack modifier" effects but those only work on the basic "Attack" command not any of the alternate forms.
TL;DR: just play Para Ark instead if you like to engage more than a single neuron with actual gameplay.
I haven't found an explanation for what the basic stats actually do, especially Luck and which exact skills scale with MATK vs ATK (guessing most sex skills use MATK based on brief tests, but impregnation "strength" does NOT for some reason), however since combat is discrete-time but not actually turn-based AGI seems stupidly broken as it not only lets you move "earlier" but also "more often" - and regen effects proc every time a character makes a move!
This leads to the next issue though: combat feels very tedious and same-y. The team members you get seem close to identical, divided into 3 "classes" with only a single ~10% stat variation marking the difference between each class. Sex skills are identical across all of them except for the futa who can't get rid of her innate dick. Each character also gets ~2-6 semi-unique non-sexual combat skills which range from atrocious (5% stat reduction on an enemy
) to completely and utterly broken if you actually cared to use them (-50% MP cost AND +50 TP regen in one self-buff!) - except you don't care because combat also seems to be piss easy.Then there's the equipment, or rather lack thereof. The crafting table is full of gear options, 6 tiers of armours and a plethora of weapons and accessories. Except that is the only source of gear, there are no drops or loot chests with anything of value. And the ONLY way to get the required crafting materials is to sex up the girls and grind pregnancies over and over again. This turns what should be a titillating feature into a bloody chore! And if you don't go for penetrative sex specifically you get nothing! Fighting, using those few unique skills (and a whole bunch of gear options focused on direct combat) actively hurts your progression!
...except it doesn't actually stop you from progressing through the game. Gear doesn't matter much if you spam sex because whether you grind this enemy or their 5th respawn doesn't matter and they don't really hurt you regardless. Levels only matter in terms of getting more AGI so you spam more sex moves quicker. Explorable areas are short and you can always run out and heal for free. Boss battles are a complete joke, simply throwing a regular group of cell girls at you but maybe with slightly higher levels(=HP). I got all the way to the Slut Maker parasite and cleared all areas other than Lymph crafting virtually nothing, often taking newborn lvl1 girls into new zones to no ill effect other than the slight annoyance of battles taking even longer.
Why would I take lvl1 babies into the active war zone? Well, because the game doesn't just let you pick your favourite and bang her senseless either! Aside from the materials issue there is also an "affection" counter, which only tracks how many battles you won with that girl in your active party (because of course it does
). And this "affection" is required for breeding new girls, which are required to progress into new areas in addition to giving higher tier materials.Oh and small-scale balance seems awful as well. Why is a single-digit crit rate bonus considered on par with in-combat regen? Why is a minor max HP bonus on par with TP regen in a setting where enemies deal close to 0 damage and almost everything you do uses TP? Why does the highest tier weapon only grant half a bonus attack, which a) only affects the basic "Attack" command and b) doesn't even seem to work properly for that??? Why do some early weapons grant alternative forms of attack but none of the later ones do? - actually I can answer that one: good thing they don't because a bunch of lategame gear grants "attack modifier" effects but those only work on the basic "Attack" command not any of the alternate forms.
TL;DR: just play Para Ark instead if you like to engage more than a single neuron with actual gameplay.
