General Info:
Developer: [Circle Group] SweetSprite
Language: English MTL (+Fan-Made corrections)
Progress: Complete (Finalized)
Series: [Series] (2) Forest of the Abyss
Engine: RPG Maker (VX Ace & MV)
Voices: Sfx
Fetishes: Vore (Oral & Unbirth & Absorption & Hard), Ryona ## Female MC ## Monster (Slight) & Succubus (Very Slight) Girls ## Sex ## BDSM, Multiple Partners, Pregnancy (Normal & Monster), Yuri ## Monstrous & Artificial & Undead Fetish ## Breath Play, Drain, Gore, Mind Control, Status Effects, Tentacles, Water Sports
This time, I'm Reviewing 2 games, both of them in the same series. It made sense to review them together, because of them having similar types of H-Scenes and some RPG mechanics. Most of the general remarks I'll make in this review apply to them both, and when I need to specify something for just one of them, I will also clarify which of them I'm talking about. And yes, in the Files, I did separate the Saves for each of them, to make it more orderly. Now with that out of the way, let's get to the Review!
Review Contents (links to each part):
Review TL;DR:
All Scores:
================ Plot = 5.5
======== Story = 6
======== Characters = 5
================ Gameplay = 4.75
======== Mechanics = 6.5
======== Complexity = 5.5
======== Uniqueness = 4
======== Replayability = 3
================ Scenes = 6.75
======== Visual = 8.5
======== Written = 7.5
======== Interactivity = 4
======== Replayability = 7
================ Development = ----
================ Obtaining = 5.5
======== Price = 5
======== Methods = 6
================ FINAL SCORE = 5.62
QuickView
2 relatively short RPG Maker games, the 2nd one being slightly bigger. Their gameplay is pretty grindy and basic RPG Maker stuff, nothing unseen as of yet. The clear focus is the Scenes themselves. The Scenes are quite decent, with good degree of Art quality, some uniqueness to the Artstyle, smooth animations where they are employed, and satisfying writting for those Scenes to complement them. Considering the general price of the game, I can't say I'd strongly recommend purchasing them, unless you find them on an offer, or you really like this Circle Group.
Full Review
Plot = 5.5
Story = 6
Pretty simple, but it does exist, if only as a general excuse for the RPG to take place (and to lead to the H-Scenes). In another, Fantasy-setting, world, mages exist, not many but they do, and Arle Nadja, the girl MC of the game, is an apprentice mage with lots of magic potential that even she's not aware of (or in control as of yet). She fought a big Baddie (Yog-Sothoth, god of space-time from another world) 3 months prior to the 1st game, with the help of other heros as well, and defeated that guy. Also, being that strong, she caught the attention of Satan, who wanted to marry the young girl (for her magic, you see), but ended up just giving her a creature named Carbuncle as a gift and did not advance relationship in that direction for the time being. From there, Arle now goes in to explore the titular Forest, generally to go for a picnic / vacantion, and that's how she gets roped up in the rest of the game, having to fight monsters along the way, uncover the problem of the forest (what baddie still lurks...), and beat the evil out of them, with magic. Because she's a mage.
 |
| Carbuncle. Looks pretty accurate |
That's the general idea of the plot. In the first game, being smaller, it's also a smaller plot, but both games revolve around her exploring the Forest itself and helping people, human or good monsters, along the way. Pretty basic plot, not much to look into, although the English Machine Translation might have cut some of it from being more clear, but alas.
Either way, don't expect to play this game for it's amazing, unexpected, plot developments.
Characters = 5
Not too complex. Actually pretty simple characters, really, but at least we get to see something in that regards. Arle is a basic happy-go-lucky girl, friendly with most things she first stumbles upon, and easily broken in by the Bad End H-Scenes or specific monster attacks. She has her side-kick companion animal thingie, Carbuncle, that, like a true Pokemon, doesn't speak much apart from onomatopoeia. She makes friends pretty easily, which is obvious if she's actually friends with the Demon Lord, Satan himself (although he'd want more with her, but aside from Bad Ends, won't get much).
Satan is also a chill dude overall. At least when around Arle for the most part (he might be trying to get cozy with her by being nice and stuff). He can get serious when needed though, to justify for the fact that he is the Demon Lord, after all. His ruling doesn't seem that hostile to humans (issues between the humans and monsters have generally been solved in the past), and he actively tries to quell possible threats, even coming from monsters themselves, by subtly employing Arle to do some of the heavy-lifting (pretty confident in her powers).
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| The Big S guy. Drawing comparisons is fun |
Those were the characters that are note-worthy, rest being side-characters, very side-characters or random mooks. Again, not much here either.
Gameplay = 4.75
Mechanics = 6.5
Pretty basic RPG Maker mechanics. Combat-wise, not straying much from the normal RPG fights. The 2nd game is the one to have a more complex combat system and overall more Skills and Equipment, but there are some core elements both of them share.
There are elements to attacks, and enemies can have Weaknesses or Resistances to them. The second game develops further on this system, but generally, there are the 3 main magic elements: lighting, ice and fire. Then you have Physical (those being your normal attacks with weapons without inherent elements to them), Holly (some skills have it), and possibly a few more niche ones. Arle will get to learn skills for those elements, in increasing effectiveness (and MP cost), and variants for both one target and all enemies to be targeted. She also has one more important skill, Empower, which is a Custom buff she can apply on herself, stacking up to 4 times. This buff is one that can empower most other spells to varying degrees, dependent on how many stacks of empower have been used. The next spell cast after getting the Empower stacks will be the one buffed, and will consume all the current Empower stacks. For damage spells affected, it will increase their damage, and for other Buff spells, it will increase their duration. Spells unaffected will generally mention it in their description, but you can already consider for this spells that don't really have a variable quantity (like Damage or Heal or Duration) to them, such as spells that Cure debuffs. It's worth stacking Empower up to 4 times, as the 4th stack will actually provide a much bigger boost than the boost provided by the 1st 3 Empower stacks (although for healing, just one stack is enough to get you to full usually). I do like this element for adding at least some more strategy to fights, and some variation to them as well.
Another element present in both games are the Bind attacks of special/boss enemies (the ones with better/modeled, usually animated, sprites, and the ones that actually get unique Bad Ends if you lose to them). Those attacks actually are multi-hit (although it is visualised like taking multiple turns in which you cannot act), and a lot of them drain HP/MP/both. Some of them can even forever-hit you until you die. There are different types of binds (eg: swallowing/thightening/etc.), those types are relevant when equipping accessories offering immunity to them.
Now for differences. In the first game, the whole Gameplay is smaller, with fewer mechanics involved. There is only one Shop and one Crafting bench to craft yourself new equipment. The Shop will unlock 1-2 more items with game progression done. For equipment, at Weapons, you get a simple upgrade system. You start with a Wooden Rod (also purchasable from Shop), that can be evolved down on one out of 4 different upgrade paths, each providing a certain advantage, and each having 4 steps on it (4 different Rods, each being an upgrade of the last). There is a path for normal Attack Rods (which I ended up using in the end, to save up MP during normal Grinding by simply spamming the normal Attack), one for Magic Attack (the path I took initially up until the 2nd step of it), one for Holly attacks / some other stuff (it's a more balanced version of the first 2 basically) and one for reduced MP costs (I'd say this one is usually pretty useless, as early on, MP costs are manageable, and later on, even though later spells will have higher MP costs, you'll get a steady supply of healing items to refill the MP whenever needed). Like with the other equipment upgraded/crafted, you also need other materials, with the last step in each upgrade path requiring a special gem, those being found near the end of the game. Also, material-wise for the weapons, the Wood materials are unique (not findable by mob drops, purchase or craft), and there are in total, in the entire game, almost enough to fully upgrade Rods down all 4 paths (just one piece of wood was missing, altough I might've somehow missed it in my exploration, it is possible). Each Rod also levels up separately from your normal level, increasing their main stat. Some Rods have unique Spells, usable only with them.
For the rest of the equipment, you got the Tiara and Pad slots, which you can upgrade each with 3 steps (and separate benefits for each step, but still always worth further upgrading). There is an Arm slot, 3 separate equipment can be put there, each purchasable from shop after a certain game completion has been done (and are straight upgrades to one another). Also there are 2 Accessory slots, in which you can equip miscellaneous Accessories, a lot of them giving immunity to 1-2 status effects or types of Binds the enemy can use, some of them giving other miscellaneous effects (like increased Money drops or increased Exp drops).
In the 1st game, Arle can use both skills from her Spell tab (those use MP) or special skills (that use TP instead). Some new spells (most of them being special skills that use TP) can be either purchased from the shop or found (well, specifically, one is found as a secret). There is also a Basement to the Shop that acts as a teleport hub between different unlocked areas.
The second game brings quite a few new elements. A lot more different equipment, for one (although the Hair & Pad slots are still Straight upgrades to one another, just with a lot more variation to them). Another important element is that Arle gets almost all her new spells by Learning them while having equipped the specific Equipment with those skills. Each skill to be learned has an max LP value that needs to be reached (stronger skills will require more LP) until they can be used, and you get one LP point per each enemy defeated, regardless of their level or strength, and all current spells equipped to be learned gain the LP at the same time. There is a grind area early one, with a possible encounter with a big number of weak enemies, just for that grind. There is also, later on, the option of trading levels for LP points. There are quite a lot more spells, because of this system (considering there are a lot more Equipments as well). However, in this game, all spells are in the Magic tab. Those that use TP are rare, but you do start with a "Deep breath" one at 100 TP that does not consume a turn (free action) and refills MP.
 |
| Up, first game, down... the one that remains |
On the subject of Arle, she also has a Job system now implemented. When she learns new Jobs, she can switch them at any time (except a few scripted areas), and each will have different weapons that can be used, and at times, for some quests, you need a specific job to be equipped to continue. On level up, her max MP and TP also increase (with only a few MP costs increasing accordingly). Her max level is 999 instead of 99, and Equipment slots are also influenced by the current Job chosen.
In this game, there are a lot more shops and crafting places, and a lot more normal consumable items and material items too. There is a Quest system (with Main and Sidequests), a return of the Teleport Basement (some areas can only be reached via teleport, but you'll unlock their warp when the Quest advances enough) and some more locations to be explored.
Now as for my general opinion on both games', well, gameplay, I feel it's pretty grindy. Extremely so at times. It was a tamer thing in the first game, perhaps due to a smaller overall scope, but in the 2nd game, with all of the new mechanics, and for how grindy it felt, I could not actually legit complete it fairly. Even cheating myself at level 999 with all items, it was still tedious to find all the required Quests to advance, although in part it might have been the Machine Translation's fault. While I did finish the 1st game legit, for the 2nd game I had to cheat myself all of the items while playing (when I usually do that after completing the game, for ease of replaying certain parts when needed), and then give up even on that and cheat the Switch values for unlocking the Scene Recollection (in this game, it is a separate option in the Main Menu, not needed to be accessed in-game) and all the Warp circles. While they do have some variety to their gameplay elements, especially the 2nd, it gets tiresome rather fast, and repetitive, and I've played some hard grinds before. But at least, those had different incentives to spice things up and keep you going. This 2nd game would have me grind up to level 999, and even considering increased Exp drops with later enemies, it's still quite a lot of time to sink. And yes, there were enemies hard to beat even at full level 999, so you will need it for the endgame.
For the time being, I do appreciate some of the unique mechanics, but it still has a solid basic RPG Maker backbone to it, and it does show, quite a lot.
Complexity = 5.5
Overall complexity for both games is relatively small, about what you'd expect from an RPG Maker game with some custom mechanics to it. The first game, being smaller, of course has even less Complexity to it, while the second does introduce a couple of new mechanics, however nothing too much to not be able to wrap your head around. Pretty run of the mill, basically.
Uniqueness = 4
Considering how heavily the games rely on the RPG Maker system, with not much alterations to it, they don't have much to set them apart in their gameplay. In fact, there are quite a couple of adult RPG Maker games with similar mechanics, but actually better as well. At least, more enjoyable, even in the eventual grind. Nothing to praise here really.
Replayability = 3
Also a really low point. A lot of RPG games, especially ones with more linearity to them or smaller in size, don't offer much in terms of variety in their gameplay, to justify multiple playthroughs or a completionist approach. You might want to play the 2nd game more, to learn all the possible skills, but most likely you'll get tired of the boring grind after a while, especially when looking at how high and daunting the level ceiling is. Really, I don't see a reason to replay those games for relieving that grind again.
Scenes = 6.75
Visual = 8.5
The scenes can be split into 2 types (applies for both games): in-battle Binds, which are animations of Arle struggling in the binds applied by the unique/boss enemies (each enemy has an unique bind, but only one), and Bad Ends, which are a couple of CGs that occur as you lose to one of the unique/boss enemies (which are actually animated in the 2nd game). The artstyle has more a shiny, rounded, slightly on the cartoon-ish side, to fit Arle's design, but has plenty of material to be enjoyed, even like that. It has pretty good detail too it, and the animations feel appreciably smooth, as well. There is also variety in those scenes, although most revolve around Ryona by monsters, quite a lot, but lighter on the gore. Pained facial expressions still exist though. Personally, I'm not that hard (pun intended) into Ryona, at least the more violent and Gory side (I'm more into lighter fetishes for that matter, like Drain, Vore and whatnot), so I can't express that much on the high quality apart from a more general perspective, but the facts still stand. Good quality overall, especially on the 2nd game, where its all animated.
Written = 7.5
Of course, the writing is present in the Bad End scenes, although it's not a huge amount of it. It's still enough to introduce the scenes, give Arle's perspective plenty of time, while still maintaining the Third Person narration for the majority of the time, and describing pretty well the scenes unfolding, giving them dynamicism, even in the Bad Ends of the first game (which were not animated, just CG). This, as well, pretty decent, although not that much off the norm.
Interactibility = 4
Little degree of it here. The most you get is to try to control what type of Bind attacks can actually hit you. Bad Ends, by design, are Game Over screens, so once they start, your best interaction is to scroll through them. While you're the one deciding how much should Arle loose or if she should stay (relatively) pure until the end, that's not a whole lot of interaction. Had there been more scenes for more types of attacks, or even Binds that you need to actively Struggle out of instead of just multi-hit glorified attacks, it could have been a tad bit better. But here we are.
Replayability = 7
Doing a bit better here, with the total number of Scenes and also having a Gallery in each game. In the first game, it's unlocked at the end of the game, and it's an in-game Door that you need to interact with to choose the Scene to replay, while in the 2nd game, you get a separate option in the Main Menu for "Scene Recollection", which gradually unlocks as you get those Scenes in-game. Sadly, in the 2nd game, from as far as I could investigate, there is no "Unlock All" option, even at the end of the game. You'll have to hunt each scene yourself (although, considering how obvious the Unique Enemies are from the normal ones, the only difficulty is the grind to get them all). For the games' sizes, the amount of scenes is satisfactory, and you could consider replaying the game sometimes for reviewing those scenes, if they pick your fancy somewhat.
Obtaining = 5.5
Price = 5
I'm not sure how worth it is, for the price. You get a certain variety of Scenes, but we also need to consider that you're essentially paying 90% for just the Scenes (as the gameplay is really nothing major here, and clearly not the main attraction). While the 1st game might not be avaliable in one piece anymore (check the Fantia, the First game is essentially the "Tied in Chains" series from what I was gathering), the 2nd game is avaliable on DLSite for 1,210 JPY, or ~$8.39 USD. If you really see something you like, or have a leftover Coupon, you might want to check the scenes, but only if it's really your cup of tea, or else I don't see this as a good investment of money.
Methods = 6
An easy thing for the 2nd game (being officially released on DLsite), although you might want to check the forums for the Fan translations (ULMF/F95 ones are a good start). However, for the first game, as I said previously, I don't see it avaliable anymore in one piece, and it was generally a Complete version of the "Tied in Chains" series of illustrations from SweetSprite. You might find it, each piece of it that is, on their Fantia as well. Worth a look. (You could argue that this also increases it's own total price, but it's your choice in the end how much you're willing to pay, if you like this Circle's work etc.) Kind of a hassle in that regards, and the general problem having to search for a Fan Translation for the games (unless you Nihhon hard and you know your way around arcane runes, mad respects if that's the case).
FINAL SCORE = 5.62
It was kind of expected, as I wasn't really that much impressed by the games, and even subjectively not really that into a lot of the Scenes themselves, with some exceptions. It is possible that I might've also been slightly influenced by the tedium I had to go through with the 2nd game's grind for Completion (for the Full Save). Overall, gameplay is really not much to see, it wears down its novelty very fast, and the grind is, in my opinion, not that worth it for the Scenes themselves. If you happen upon a Full Save (like, say, from here), at least you get straight to the Scenes.... which are fairly good, and in enough number for the games' sizes. The price would seem a bit discouraging, since there are better content to be found for that amount, but it really depends on each user preference, and if you get to lower it via offers or promotions. Myself, can't say I'd normally recommend the game.
Fluff (Intermission)
Nothing. Budget's run out. In all honesty, since I did not find much to speak off about the game, there is not something substantial enough to add here stand-alone. A guide on playing the games seems pretty useless, considering the general quality (or lack thereof) of the gameplay. A rant on the 2nd game's overgrind seems overkill by this point, and not much of essence I could add on that subject. Just know that I dedided I'd rather go ahead and work my way around the Switches of the game to fully unlock the Scenes instead of going on the treasure hunt through the whole game. Time effective and all that.
Saves
A man of my own word, standing in my dusty Library, I managed to make the Full Saves for both games. You get all the relevant items and equipment and Level, although I'm fairly certain you won't care that much about that. Also, all the Scenes avaliable and unlocked, for your viewing pleasure. Honestly, I really recommend just getting the Full Saves for this games and using them instead of playing the whole games, unless you're extremely in love with their grind, for some reason. I'll try to not judge either way.
A bit more of a slog, this one, than most of my playthroughs (it happens), and a more recent one as well (this games I just played recently, and hadn't played them in the past, just left to gather virtual dust). Either way, this is also done, for the fans, or just for the casual curious viewer, so now you can enjoy this games, the proper way! (full save in hand, I mean). I'll keep up the IRL grind, in the meanwhile! Next game I'll show around is one I liked a bit more! (well, did struggle a bit to find it's Save Location, but can't have 'em all easy, after all...)
Meta_Review,Meta_Files,
MetaFiles_Saves,
Developer_CircleGroup,
Language_EnglishMTL,
Progress_Complete,
Series_Series,
TypeGame_2DGameplay,
TypeGenre_RPG,
TypeSetting_Modern,TypeSetting_Fantasy,
Engine_RPGMaker,
StyleAnim_2DAnimation,
StyleCGs_2DCGs,
StyleView_2DView,StyleMiscView_XRay,StyleMiscView_SideBodyStatus
Voices_Sfx,
FetishMain_Vore,FetishMain_Ryona,
FetishVore_OV,FetishVore_UB,FetishVore_Absorption,FetishVore_HardVore,
FetishMC_FemaleMC,
FetishChars_MonsterGirls,FetishChars_SuccubusGirls,
FetishSex_Sex,
FetishSubSex_BDSM,FetishSubSex_MultiplePartners,FetishSubSex_PregnancyNormal,FetishSubSex_PregnancyMonster,FetishSubSex_Yuri,
FetishFocus_Monstrous,FetishFocus_Artificial,FetishFocus_Undead,
FetishSub_BreathPlay,FetishSub_Drain,FetishSub_Gore,FetishSub_MindControl,FetishSub_StatusEffects,FetishSub_Tentacles,FetishSub_WaterSports,
Links_DLsite,Links_Fantia,
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