Yamizome Liberator is a good combination, of character driven VN, H-scenes focusing on the corruption tag, and a competent real time battle system. There's not much of a story, the art style (while cute) has self-evident limitations, and the tutorial makes the gameplay aspects seem unappealing at first, but overall this a title that manages to deliver a lot of value, and quickly becomes a fun experience.
Positive:
- A new spin on Character Archetypes - Personally, this is the most impressive part of "Yamizome". They present you the childhood friend, the student council president, the loli/kouhai... and then they develop all the usual traits, in accordance with the premise (slowly corrupting them to open their hearts - by means of rape...). That might not make things clear, so exemplifying: The childhood friend is in love with the protagonist, however she fears changing the status quo, not being what he needs, resents other girls coming close to him, and so on. It's tropey, without being shallow, and that's more than you usually get in the medium.
- 18+ that makes sense given the established lore - Let's forget raping someone being a source of any good to the victim. What we have here is a constant reinforcement of the premise, and the base concepts of desire/mental barriers. The protagonist shows genuine affection towards the girls as a high schooler (not exclusively), and then takes on an alter ego (dark hero) that "forces" them to face their inner conflicts, and be true to themselves. "Breaking" the heroines takes time, and you need to slowly get to the root of their problems using 2 different approaches (learning about them during the day, and you know what happens what night). It's a lot better than all the idiocy derived from instant addiction to pleasure.
- Combat - At first it seems a bit much (bad tutorial), but it's a nice (original even) system. Basically, you can cause 2 types of damage (physical and corruption), and your main goal is to cause as much corruption to the heroine as possible, in each encounter. After that you need to time/organize your skills (real time combat, no pause), and prevent downtime, to keep firing and enter the corruption phase (there's more to it). Finally, you need to be careful (escape from battles) because taking too much damage, means you won't be fully healed the next day. If none of that sounds good, easy mode is an option.
- More things - SoL is more than just pleasant; Some heroines are attractive (the blondes); Character likability is high; Hero costumes; Combat is accompanied by a managing mode that allows you to customize your fighting style against individual heroines; Lots of events with all the girls; A good number of H-scenes for duration; Harem is always a win, and that's one of the main motifs here; The "demon lord" is a good side character, that actually contributes to whatever plot is available; And more.
Negative:
- There's not enough for top tier - All of it put together is good, but no more than that. They are still versing on the usual themes, and messages; The adult content becomes repetitive quickly, especially if you are going for all the girls (same devices, same dialogue, it does get better once they are corrupted); And the combat devolves to mindless hit and runs (sometimes the heroines run too), where you try to hit them hard (lots of corruption) while watching your HP.
Score: 8/10. It's a solid VN, with equivalent gameplay. There's a lot to like here, and this becomes an easy recommendation, to anyone who is looking for some nice characters, systematic 18+, and distinct combat. Just be aware that there's nothing amazing here, so the "liking" turning to love or a favorite, seems like a long shot.
Positive:
- A new spin on Character Archetypes - Personally, this is the most impressive part of "Yamizome". They present you the childhood friend, the student council president, the loli/kouhai... and then they develop all the usual traits, in accordance with the premise (slowly corrupting them to open their hearts - by means of rape...). That might not make things clear, so exemplifying: The childhood friend is in love with the protagonist, however she fears changing the status quo, not being what he needs, resents other girls coming close to him, and so on. It's tropey, without being shallow, and that's more than you usually get in the medium.
- 18+ that makes sense given the established lore - Let's forget raping someone being a source of any good to the victim. What we have here is a constant reinforcement of the premise, and the base concepts of desire/mental barriers. The protagonist shows genuine affection towards the girls as a high schooler (not exclusively), and then takes on an alter ego (dark hero) that "forces" them to face their inner conflicts, and be true to themselves. "Breaking" the heroines takes time, and you need to slowly get to the root of their problems using 2 different approaches (learning about them during the day, and you know what happens what night). It's a lot better than all the idiocy derived from instant addiction to pleasure.
- Combat - At first it seems a bit much (bad tutorial), but it's a nice (original even) system. Basically, you can cause 2 types of damage (physical and corruption), and your main goal is to cause as much corruption to the heroine as possible, in each encounter. After that you need to time/organize your skills (real time combat, no pause), and prevent downtime, to keep firing and enter the corruption phase (there's more to it). Finally, you need to be careful (escape from battles) because taking too much damage, means you won't be fully healed the next day. If none of that sounds good, easy mode is an option.
- More things - SoL is more than just pleasant; Some heroines are attractive (the blondes); Character likability is high; Hero costumes; Combat is accompanied by a managing mode that allows you to customize your fighting style against individual heroines; Lots of events with all the girls; A good number of H-scenes for duration; Harem is always a win, and that's one of the main motifs here; The "demon lord" is a good side character, that actually contributes to whatever plot is available; And more.
Negative:
- There's not enough for top tier - All of it put together is good, but no more than that. They are still versing on the usual themes, and messages; The adult content becomes repetitive quickly, especially if you are going for all the girls (same devices, same dialogue, it does get better once they are corrupted); And the combat devolves to mindless hit and runs (sometimes the heroines run too), where you try to hit them hard (lots of corruption) while watching your HP.
Score: 8/10. It's a solid VN, with equivalent gameplay. There's a lot to like here, and this becomes an easy recommendation, to anyone who is looking for some nice characters, systematic 18+, and distinct combat. Just be aware that there's nothing amazing here, so the "liking" turning to love or a favorite, seems like a long shot.