- Date Edited: 11/13/2022
Eventually, after thinking he'd say his goodbyes to Magatsu (on good terms, might I add) a few times, right when he was supposed to leave for good, they get ambushed by none other than The Daimyokai, expert on sleazy tactics and cheap shots. This way, she manages to trap Magatsu (when otherwise, with no distractions, she'd send the flat sorcerer packing, like she did before), and, in one fell swoop, become the main (also re-occuring) antagonist. Hakunen realizes this shift in plot roles, and he decides to actually help Magatsu by annoying Daimyokai into chasing him instead, buying time for the oni lady to break free herself. For the last chapter, you get to what you were doing before, run, but this time, you run from Daimyokai instead. In fact, you're actually (essentially) powerless against her, as your trusty 3 charms were hers to begin with, and she nabs them off of you when you attempt to use them on her. Chaos also breaks upon the village near the mountain, as Magatsu was generally acting as the Elder of the mountain, keeping the yokai behaved and within their territory, and with her temporarily immobilized, the yokai saw the free real estate right close to them and decided to strike while it was still cool to do so.
I know I got a bit in-depth, but it was the game with the shorter story, and setting the stage for the overall adventure and for some important elements such as Magatsu being Hakunen's Master, Hakunen starting on his path to become a Sorcerer, and Daimyokai becoming a general pest for the good guys. A good primer of a game.
....Of course he doesn't actually die. He gets rescued by Azuki, with the web gun she had, and everybody around helps in dragging them back out of the hole. Overall, job well done. Off-screen, they then re-imprison Daimyokai (this time not turning her again into a chicken. That was weird before...) and everybody lives happily ever after, Hakunene having become even more of a Sorcerer and starting to show some results for it....
Hakunen has the Final Battle with Daji, which has quite a few phases, before ending up... actually losing. But it's kind of a near-thing, and the other newly-befriended youkai jump to defend Hakunen's body (he's kind of dead at that moment btw), so Daji admits defeat and releases everybody from the Pot, even using the last of her powers to heal Hakunen back to normal (so he's probably also back to having his lifespan back), before he is also sent out of the pot. In fact, even a white fox ends up jumping from the pot afterwards, which prompts the rest of the youkai to go catch it. Well, either way, this is a Good Ending... or is it? Game alludes to the fact that Hakunen ended up with a bit of the Heavenly Eye power Daji had, which might influence how things continue in the future....
Hakunen then catches up to Karagara, and she's too weak to actually assault him, but manages to trick him into having sex with him regardless. Afterwards, she talks to him, he essentially confirms that she's not really Daji, but a remnant, and that, because of his current new power, he'd have to leave the mountain soon (to not rile up the youkai that much). He is fine with the idea, since it was a long time coming, for him to go into the world and further train himself. The game ends on that idea, that Hakunen is soon to leave...
In the last fight with her at the top of the tower, she decides to change form yet again, this time into Luka, the MC of MGQP (and MGQ). It is a Final Fight type of battle, so you don't get any Yaoi content (your pick if that's a good or bad thing). Upon defeat, she attempts to change form yet again, into something resembling multiple Heroes from MGQP world, but Hakunen, helped by Promestein, manages to send her back to her world before she ends her transformation. If you're interested right now into a bit MGQP lore, she ends up becoming Idea Lukas, the avatar of the third law, a Extremely Big Shot on the Chaos side of that game. But that's some plot to dwelve into at a later date...
General Info:
Developer: [Circle Group]
Collaborators:
- 3: [Circle Group] Toro Toro Resistance
Language:
- 1: English
- 2,3: English (Fan-Made)
Progress: Complete (Finalized)
Series: [Series] (3) The Three Charms
Type: 2D Gameplay ## Adventure, RPG (Custom Mechanics) ## Romance, Happiness, Humour, Serious ## Fantasy & SF (Very slight)
Engine: RPG Maker (VX Ace)
Fetishes: Femdom, Futadom (Very slight), Vore (Oral & Unbirth) (Extremely slight) ## Male MC ## Human (Slight) & Futanari (Herma.) (Very slight) & Monster ("Yokai") & Succubus (Slight) & Artificial (Slight) & Undead (Very slight) Girls ## Foreplay, Sex ## Multiple Partners (Slight), Yuri (Slight) ## Lips & Pussy & Breasts & Ass & Thighs & Feet (Slight) & Cock (Very slight) & Monstrous & Artificial (Very Slight) Fetish, Smell (Slight) Fetish ## Corruption, Drain, Mind Control, Size Difference (Very slight), Status Effects, Tentacles (Slight)
Links: DLsite
Been a while, huh? Well, Halloween and all that... Still, we're yet in the game, week's still not over after all.... (it's not that much of a reach, there are still american areas in Sunday, right?....) Either way, I'm coming hot with this one, so let's make it work! (No but for real, this whole review, gameplay and saves and all, took a serious while. I have to make it work out in the end).
Considering how I'm tackling on the 3 games of this series, and that, this time around, they have both a lot of similarities (duh) and differences between each other, I'll have, where relevant, mini-sections for each game. Score in each section will still be for all 3.
Review Contents (links to each part):
Review TL;DR:
All Scores:
================ Plot = 9.5
======== Story = 10
======== Characters = 9
================ Gameplay = 9
======== Mechanics = 9
======== Complexity = 9
======== Uniqueness = 9
======== Replayability = 9
================ Scenes = 9
======== Visual = 9
======== Written = 10
======== Interactivity = 8
======== Replayability = 9
================ Development = ----
================ Obtaining = 9.25
======== Price = 10
======== Methods = 8.5
================ FINAL SCORE = 9.18
QuickView
A hidden gem of a game series, has an unique style, unique gameplay and "combat", extremely hot Scenes and Restraints, and an interesting story to play through! Having what amounts to a steal of a price, I can completely support purchasing this series, wholesale, right now, not even needing Sales or Offers for it! And the Dev group is still active, so we'll get even more content in the future!
Full Review
Plot = 9
One thing I talk rarely about is music. Well, the soundtrack of the games, at least. That is because, in many games (at least those that I've covered so far), it wasn't a notable element. That usually goes double for RPG Maker games, who use a lot of stock BGM and SFX (at times, with altered pitch to give a sense of variety). It's, then, appreciable when you actually get to hear some good, mood-setting, original music. This series got that. While the musical repertoire itself is, by no means, huge, I do like the atmosphere and the style of the music, properly fitting the medieval japan feel of this series. The 3rd game in the series also brings a few new tracks. The BGM during the H-scenes can get repetitive after a while, but at least it's not really that grating, unlike, say, the one used in Monster Girl Quest. That or maybe I simply did not go through as many H-scenes in this series as I did in MGQ games, to get tired of this BGM.
In the sense of music, I think the most variety (and coolest tracks) were in the 2nd game. Plenty of the unique character enemies had their own dedicated tracks. Examples of awesome such BGM being in the Bathhouse Zashiki fight and the Arrow Grudge RPG-style battle. Cool stuff, would recommend again.
Story = 10
Finally, some good plot! I promised some after all, didn't I? Considering the actual existence of plot, I'll try to separate the general remarks on it from Spoiler territory. We'll start with the Intro/Synopsis. To the whole series, which means, to the 1st game.
The MC of this series is Hakunen (apparently, Japanese for "Innocent mind"), a shota-feminine-looking monk-type boy looking to learn some Sorcery. Being medieval-type Japanese setting, he walked to a village near the Mahoroba Mountain, where a lot of Yokai reside and scare people from the surrounding area. His goal: to find a renown sorcerer, called Daimyokai, and apprentice under her to learn the arts. His wish is to become stronger so that he can try to help humans and yokai coexist, since his parents were killed by yokai due to his father previously hunting a child yokai. So basically, human-monster coexistence reason. However, he is also aware that said Daimyokai is known for being the best at exterminating yokai, not quite exactly what he'd like to do himself. Now, he embarks on climbing the mountain to search for the Sorcerer, who went to hunt some yokai herself. Hakunen also knows that, on that very mountain, a strong Oni lady lives, dubbed by the locals "The Hag", one more reason for him to try to hurry and find the sorcerer, before night falls and he has to deal with yokai himself (which, at his current training, wouldn't go well for him). Will he find Daimyokai and apprentice without issues? (Of course not, there's always something more...) Will he become stronger? What will be his fate?.... Well, play and find out! I'm here to give my opinion on the story, not recap it for you!
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| Nice view you got here. Would be a shame if many things were to happen in the near future around it... |
What I can say, spoiler-free, is that it is the type of story in which the MC wants peace between the races. In this case, the "monsters" being the yokai, beings that exist made out of and reliant on spiritual energy. A lot of that type of belief to go around here, although you won't get much actual religious talk in-game. The game experience is pretty reliant on the story aspect, as the gameplay closely ties in to the plot. It's quite an atmospheric RPG series in that regard. Luckily, the story works quite well, not having too much tired tropes, having both fun moments and tense, serious ones, and overall being quite an engaging experience.
Now, let's get into some spoiler-y stuff!
1st Game
M'yea, things go differently than expected. As, well, meta-expected of us. The first game has a fairly linear narrative, and both relatively shorter (at least in comparison with the successors), and long enough for its size. Satisfying as well, for the beginning of Hakunen's tale. He does end up stuck on the mountain at night, and, after a misunderstanding and confusing The Hag herself for Daimyokai for a bit (and this, people, is why we should cherish the blessing of the modern capability of taking photos!), he starts his adventure for this game, which, essentially, is his attempt to now escape the mountain without being caught by the Yokai, wielding the titular Three Charms and his strong, fast, feet, as his only means of survival. A bit of a nitpick, but it was kind of weird how he ended up being stuck during the night on the mountain, as the game doesn't explain later on why he had, at a certain point, that sudden time transition from afternoon to night. It's possible the Devs forgot about that part, to explain it as some sort of illusion Sorcery or whatnot. Well, not that lore-breaking either way.
Even though, from the beginning, Hakunen was already all for peace, through his adventure, he gets to learn more about the yokai and how they live on the mountain, running into them constantly, getting to understand them while he also keeps on evading their predatory sexual advances, all the while still roughly aiming to escape the mountain. After each "chapter" of his travels done, he gets to talk, around a fire, with Magatsu (whom we previously were calling The Hag), and she does subtly help him with hints and information, basically fullfing a pseudo-mentor role for him (all of this as she saw him being good-natured, sparing yokai, and his pure motivations to get stronger). I'll say, it gets a bit funny, how he ends up extremely close to returning to the village a few times, each time getting rerouted right before escaping, into the next chapter of the game. Sometimes by budding ninjas, sometimes by falling his way into an hidden bathhouse... A longer road than expected, indeed.
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| Careful there what you learn, Rasengan might be trademarked already |
Eventually, after thinking he'd say his goodbyes to Magatsu (on good terms, might I add) a few times, right when he was supposed to leave for good, they get ambushed by none other than The Daimyokai, expert on sleazy tactics and cheap shots. This way, she manages to trap Magatsu (when otherwise, with no distractions, she'd send the flat sorcerer packing, like she did before), and, in one fell swoop, become the main (also re-occuring) antagonist. Hakunen realizes this shift in plot roles, and he decides to actually help Magatsu by annoying Daimyokai into chasing him instead, buying time for the oni lady to break free herself. For the last chapter, you get to what you were doing before, run, but this time, you run from Daimyokai instead. In fact, you're actually (essentially) powerless against her, as your trusty 3 charms were hers to begin with, and she nabs them off of you when you attempt to use them on her. Chaos also breaks upon the village near the mountain, as Magatsu was generally acting as the Elder of the mountain, keeping the yokai behaved and within their territory, and with her temporarily immobilized, the yokai saw the free real estate right close to them and decided to strike while it was still cool to do so.
Hakunen has a Final Fight against Daimyokai (also a reocurring theme in these games) (both the Final Fight and Fighting Daimyokai), aided by his new yokai friends, and does fairly well... until the actual trained sorcerer remembers she was only fighting some mook-level yokai and a normal human boy, and she blasts the yokai with some Poison-type attack that essentially fucks their shit up. Just as Hakunen was about to learn why you usually diversify your Party Members' races before dangerous encounters, he gets saved by Magatsu, freshly free from the trap. Then Daimyokai uses her last trick that she has, and does the "N I G E R U N D A Y O !" technique, running away (to be fair, at least she sort-of knows when she's been beat).
In the ending of the game, the villagers end up shunning Hakunen for working with the yokai against the sorcerer hired to deal with them, and because of that, ends up living on the mountain, among the yokai, for a while longer. He then officially apprentices under Magatsu (since she's also quite cracked at the whole Sorcery thing, being a strong yokai herself), and they become Master-Pupil, which, for a yokai, also means she gets to fuck him a bit as well. Post-game, the Gallery gameplay aspect is introduced fairly smooth (-ish) as Magatsu builds a whole Inn behind her home (where Hakunen also lives for the moment) for Hakunen to "train" by interacting with Yokai inside (aka Replay Battles) and also help his yokai friends that previously were blasted by Daimyokai, as their healing would benefit from him having some more sex with them. Great stuff overall.
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| Ah Shit, Here We Go Again |
I know I got a bit in-depth, but it was the game with the shorter story, and setting the stage for the overall adventure and for some important elements such as Magatsu being Hakunen's Master, Hakunen starting on his path to become a Sorcerer, and Daimyokai becoming a general pest for the good guys. A good primer of a game.
2nd Game
In this one, Hakunen becomes a Sorcerer (well, in training, but at least he finally starts doing sorcery-ish stuff). This game has a few plotlines throughout. The main one is that, after a while of not-that-effective learning from Magatsu, she relents at Hakunen's insistence on actually learning more practical sorcery and she sends him on the Trial of Spirits, climbing higher on the mountain to fight newer (and some older) yokai, slowly learning new techniques to help him overcome difficulties, and also make other yokai respect him through his own ability. The other main plotline would be the existance of other Big-shot yokai, specifically 2 other Elders that had a dispute with Magatsu in the past, and a 3rd mysterious, maybe-yokai? (spoilers: no, she's just a human built different). Hakunen will also have to meet each of them, gain their respect (through confronting them in his own way, by mainly using his 3 Charms and the Running Away technique he mastered so far), and even help them out to make up with Magatsu, and deal with Daimyokai once again.
This time around, the spiteful sorcerer has 3 separate attempts to wreak havoc upon the yokai: first, a successful attempt to poison-shot the Elder that is the most dangerous, power-wise (Shiraha, a previously-worshipped goddess) into making her go insane and destroy everything around. After Hakunen helps Shiraha regain a semblance of sanity and stopping the rampage, Daimyokai switches tactics and decides to try for a ritual of harnessing the ENTIRE MOUNTAIN'S worth of Spiritual Energy, which would both make her insanely strong, and also drop all of the other Yokai in one fell swoop (as the yokai are still kind of linked to Mahoroba's overall Energy. Idk, I don't make the rules, it's spiritual stuff either way) Funnily enough, even though Daimyokai hid quite well to do the ritual, she got unlucky, and Hakunen stumbled upon her mid-ritual while he was simply looking for Azuki to also prove himself to her (Azuki is the human-but-raised-as-yokai girl that is the last one he has to properly befriend). Obviously, Hakunen foils her ritual, using his new-found techniques (more than just running, for a change).
Hakunen then has a Final-type shoot-out with Azuki (quite epic) to finally prove himself etc. He wins, all things good.... But there is still the endgame to happen!
Hakunen then has a Final-type shoot-out with Azuki (quite epic) to finally prove himself etc. He wins, all things good.... But there is still the endgame to happen!
Daimyokai ends up escaping imprisonment (by actual luck no less), while alsoo preying on a random guy around, much like a yokai (the irony). Afterwards, she gets back to scheming, since she's not one to give up on a good plan, and retries the whole "Take Mountain's Energy" thing, in secret, and actually succeeds this time around. The good guys only realize the situation when she already errects a huge dome yokai barrier to imprison all of them while she finishes the ritual proper, catching them off-guard. Being the only non-yokai there, Hakunen and Azuki go after her to foil her new attempt.
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| Just Mahoroba issues, #1 |
She actually does become extremely strong, and with that occasion, she dubbs her stronger self "KyoDaimyokai" (it's a Japanese thing, with the prefixes and whatnot. She's not humble, is the idea). Hakunen, once again, distracts her to have her run after him, while Azuki fucks around with the ritual site to weaken the evil sorcerer (probably could have called her Sorceress this entire time... meh) and make her actually beatable. Then another Final Fight happens, with Hakunen and Azuki battling the now-returned-to-normal Daimyokai, and win.... at the cost of the whole cave, where the ritual had been done, crumbling, and having Hakunen fall into the abyss....
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| Damn, she was hot when in her KyoDaimyokai form.... |
....Of course he doesn't actually die. He gets rescued by Azuki, with the web gun she had, and everybody around helps in dragging them back out of the hole. Overall, job well done. Off-screen, they then re-imprison Daimyokai (this time not turning her again into a chicken. That was weird before...) and everybody lives happily ever after, Hakunene having become even more of a Sorcerer and starting to show some results for it....
This game had a way more complex story, but it worked out quite well in the end. Most ends were tied, Hakunen continued to train, we got the re-ocurring villain appearance, all is well.
3rd Game
.... All is not as well anymore. Hakunen, apparently, remained a bit traumatized by the previous game's ending. Namely, his brief freefall into darkness, which was a sudden reminder for him that, yes, he could die quite easily at any point. That made him have issues sleeping, be way more adamant to train harder (without proper rest even), and be a bit more on edge (sleep deprivation does that to you). While walking around, one day, a stranger approaches him, mistakes him for Daimyokai, and leaves a strange Pot in front of him, telling him ominous, red-flag stuff like "If you wish to get stronger...." and all that jazz. The young sorcerer, still having left-over feelings about his brush with death, considers the offer.... but initially passes on it, as he actually thinks with his head and decides to consult his Master first about the strange Pot. But, since we actually need a plot to happen, he hears a voice from the pot asking for help, and he approaches the pot, only to be sucked inside. Story now begins... Personally, I think the death-trauma that Hakunen got was a bit forced, in the current rendition of it in the game. I mean, it is obvious the Devs thought of this as a potential plot point only after making the 2nd game, much like how they brought the idea of more Elders for the mountain only after the 1st game. But, even considering this, I think it's a bit sudden for Hakunen to have actual traumas about his potential death, since he was already fending off yokai for a while, all of which could have endangered his life quite a bit. That fall might have been a bit of a wake-up call for him, but still.... Could have been a tad bit smoother, in my opinion. Either way, he continues through the story fairly normally, and will get to overcome even those traumas after a while, so it's fine in the end.
The rest of the Main Story takes place inside the Pot, with new, exotique, Yokai (and even a Succcubus!), all to unfold the ritual that caused this Pot's existence, the trapment of Yokai (and also humans) inside the pot, all to have only one individual out of all come out on top with everybody's power. Daji, an ancient kitsune deity, had been weakening in power in the past, and decided to get back up to strength using this ritual, and using other human sorcerers as helpers to realize this pot, with the promise that they could use the pot to strengthen themselves (a trap, since she was only planning for herself to gain all that power to begin with). But, you see, Daji is actually a kind Yokai goddess, actually wishing for Peace between Humans and Yokai, much like Hakunen. It's just that she also needs to become strong again for that to be possible, and she is willing to make sacrifices for it, in the form of other's lives (even fellow yokai), one thing which Hakunen refuses. The young sorcerer travels through the pot, meeting the new yokai and defeating each of them (since all of them live with the motivation that they could become stronger by defeating him and potentially escaping from the pot), but not killing them or taking all of their power, instead just befriending all of them, like he usually does.
Hell, he even befriends Daji's 2 trusted aides, before confronting her in an attempt to defeat her and free everyone from the pot. To have a chance at defeating her, he manages to make a new type of Charm to seal her dangerous Heavenly Eye power, making it a fairer match for him. In making that charm, he does end up using almost all his lifeforce, so it was looking a lot like his defeating of Daji would end up being his last feat alive.
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| 1st and 2nd forms of what Hakunen had to defeat. Cool, that. |
Hakunen has the Final Battle with Daji, which has quite a few phases, before ending up... actually losing. But it's kind of a near-thing, and the other newly-befriended youkai jump to defend Hakunen's body (he's kind of dead at that moment btw), so Daji admits defeat and releases everybody from the Pot, even using the last of her powers to heal Hakunen back to normal (so he's probably also back to having his lifespan back), before he is also sent out of the pot. In fact, even a white fox ends up jumping from the pot afterwards, which prompts the rest of the youkai to go catch it. Well, either way, this is a Good Ending... or is it? Game alludes to the fact that Hakunen ended up with a bit of the Heavenly Eye power Daji had, which might influence how things continue in the future....
If you somehow felt the game was not big enough yet, there's more! First, the endgame content. They end up finding the elusive white fox, and after Tsukumo, the scientist Elder, does some analysis on the fox, they discover it's actually a Youkai, albeit extremely weak in power. After they pump it with a bit of Energy, the yokai finally materializes in a bipedal form, which looks like a younger version of Daji. She does not have any of Daji's memories, however, and is most likely another remnant of Daji (I count Hakunen's Heavenly Eye power as one of the remnants). She takes the name of Karagara, and says that she's not Daji, but the other's end up suspecting for for a few days afterwards. After a few days, she actually runs away for a bit, prompting Hakunen to follow her. Suspiciously, yokai around him end up attacking him a bit more. He then visits the caged Daimyokai in search of Karagara, and after she messes a bit with him using illusions, she ends up understanding the situation that transpired in the Pot, including Hakunen's possession of the Heavenly Eye, and the fact that that power also causes the yokai to want to assault him even more than before (and that's saying something, really).
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| She got a cool new look in the prison |
Hakunen then catches up to Karagara, and she's too weak to actually assault him, but manages to trick him into having sex with him regardless. Afterwards, she talks to him, he essentially confirms that she's not really Daji, but a remnant, and that, because of his current new power, he'd have to leave the mountain soon (to not rile up the youkai that much). He is fine with the idea, since it was a long time coming, for him to go into the world and further train himself. The game ends on that idea, that Hakunen is soon to leave...
Well, not before the Collaboration Scenario, at least! To clarify, the Collaboration is with Monster Girl Quest Paradox, the RPG (who's still in development for its final part, Part 3). I'll try to be fairly brief, and not get too much into MGQP lore. I'll have a review dedicated to it at some point. Promise! Mahoroba mountain has yet another issue, with the sudden arrival on the mountain of peculiar types of monster girls, which are actual monster girls (from MGQP), not yokai. Hakunen makes his way through some of them, until he meets Promestein, another resident of the MGQP world who ended up in this world by mistake, being transported, like the other monster girls, by a portal. What's worse, that portal keeps linking to the MGQP world, which is currently suffering from an ordeal of its own. Long story short, that world is starting to be overcome by Chaos (which is manifested by the world "Corrupting" like it is an actual game), and now that Chaotization is spreading to Mahoroba. Luckily (for this game and the plot), the chaotization happening in this world is nowhere near as bad, and will revert if the portal is closed. Promestein then goes by Tsukumo's lab, to be able to work on closing the portal. She ends up requiring the power of the 4 elements, only problem being that the elements she's talking about, from her world, are different than the elements of this world. Magatsu's smart sollution is, essentially "Ehh, close enough" and you end up using the help of the yokai you saved from the pot before (since, as previously shown by the story, each stand for one of the elements; there are actually 5 elements, but you'll just ignore Metal for now, it's not required).
Just before going to close the portal, a fake Promestein ends up attacking you. After fending of that fake, that fake then changes form again, into Shiraha, since she would be the strongest being of this world. Hakunen manages to defeat her again, which makes her retreat into a newly-spawned Tower of Chaos. Hakunen then goes to climb the tower to face her. For just a smidget of backstory, it's shown in-game that her name is "Metamo Metamo", a high-class apoptosis. What's an apoptosis? From MGQP, they are basically born from the chaotization, although some apoptosis are actually normal beings, "corrupted" by chaos into new (usually extremely mutated) forms. Metamo Metamo is no exception. Being high-class makes her just that much more dangerous, and as shown so far in the game, her ability is to change her form completely to suit the needs of the moment. That is why she changed her forms so far, progressively getting "stronger" as she searched for the best form to take against Hakunen.
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| Just Mahoroba issues, #2: now with Chaos |
In the last fight with her at the top of the tower, she decides to change form yet again, this time into Luka, the MC of MGQP (and MGQ). It is a Final Fight type of battle, so you don't get any Yaoi content (your pick if that's a good or bad thing). Upon defeat, she attempts to change form yet again, into something resembling multiple Heroes from MGQP world, but Hakunen, helped by Promestein, manages to send her back to her world before she ends her transformation. If you're interested right now into a bit MGQP lore, she ends up becoming Idea Lukas, the avatar of the third law, a Extremely Big Shot on the Chaos side of that game. But that's some plot to dwelve into at a later date...
Indeed, this third game had a lot, a whole lot, more story to go around. The Collaboration event is also a good added bonus to it all. You even have a bit of small content for 2 New Year's Eves that passed! (Pretty small, each of them, but a general nice touch to see from the Devs) Keep in mind, so far there is no Translation of the Collaboration Event, so you'll have to rely on Machine Translation for those portions of the game.
Spoiler Over!
All things considered, the story holds up quite well in this series so far. Not too much in the terms of plot holes, has interesting plot developments, and it makes for an generally immersive experience. It's not even finished yet, since Minwa group is still working on next titles! From the Ci-en posts, it looks like the next game will be going into a different direction for a bit, instead of furthering Hakunen's story. Still, they are actively working on the universe! Extremely good story for a hentai game.
All these games have a Final Fight in them, in which the normal Restraint is replaced with a duel between Hakunen and that game's relevant Antagonist. This Fights are unique in some of their mechanics, and they also don't have any H-scenes (that's also why, sadly, they are not avaliable from the Galleries of the games to Replay).
As for Equippment, you'll get just 2 more Equipment pieces during your exploration, one for each of the "Hair" and "Garb" slots, which simply reduce a bit of damage from certain types of attacks. You start the game with an "Adornment" equipment in your inventory, that can help with small passive Will regen, and if you choose to admit the game's too hard for you (from the Key item "Hakunen's Notes", or from the Gallery Inn at the end of the game, talking to one of the Foxes on the Ground Floor), you can get another Adornment which heavily reduces damage and gives a strong passive Will regen. You can purchase Consumables from the money you earn from encounters to help you during fights. That's basically it for the general information. The games do a very good job of providing tutorials for all of this mechanics.... but then again, I also like to talk about them in general.
Either way, those additional elements present during H-scenes, at least for me, add a lot more information and immersion, connection, to the scene itself.
Characters = 9
Just as well, there are characters with some degree of depth to them! Hell, even enemies who're supposed to only represent species have characterisation to them, such as the Bride Fox, being just a Kitsune with backstory tied into Hakunen's. Of course, the best developed-characters are the ones more central to the story, thsoe being Hakunen, Magatsu and Daimyokai. There is still plenty of life into the others as well, as supporting cast, be it secondary (Yamachichi, Azuki) or a bit more distant.
Hakunen is a fairly good MC. While he is fairly timid usually, and fits the shota archetype for the most part, he still has his own strong values and beliefs he's willing to follow that carried him so far throughout his endeavors. He does evolve through the story to be a bit more decisive, at least as shown by the fact that he learns to sucker-punch women (He started with Daimyokai, which was understandable, then he moved up from her to others as well. A legend). It's also shown in the story that he is particular to Big Breasts. Lucky him that plenty of the Yokai around him can easily fulfill that preference.
Magatsu is, as expected, the wise mentor type, also with her own wit and wiles, considering she's also a yokai. A strong and old one, at that. As for Daimyokai, she ends up being the rival to Hakunen, as they end up trading actual blows a few times. She is selfish, crude, short-tempered, haughty and, most importantly, extremely sly and clever. She's also Flat-chested, so, indeed, a true rival to Hakunen's very preferences. It's also pretty funny that, despite being a very powerful sorcerer herself, with lots of feats to her name, she still has trouble dealing with just a spirited brat that gets in her way with his yokai friends. Then again, she's a Yokai hunter, so she might have a bit of a disadvantage in that regards dealing with an actual human for a change.
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| Epic Slugfest |
I enjoyed the characters of this games, they have their endearing and memorable qualities. More than just general horniness for girls and weakness for pleasure for Hakunen.
Gameplay =
Mechanics = 9
This.... might take a bit. While the games themselves are oftently tied with their story in the gameplay, via events, there is quite a lot of gameplay to go over, as well. Roughly speaking, the gameplay can be split into 2 main components: Overworld and Fights. Both of them have evolved along the series, each in its own way, but generally, becoming more refined and smooth overall. There are also quite a lot of "minigames", small instances of different gameplay segments, but they are often enough in the later games that it's a bit difficult to simply write them off as just "minigames".
Starting with the Overworld, something not as oftenly seen in most RPG Maker games. Well, its simple existance is a given, since you do need (usually) a way to navigate between battles and story beats. This games, however, also have Gameplay elements added to the overworld itself. The first game opens with mostly movement-based challenges. Essentially, you are either have to run from objects/enemies that end up dealing damage to you / stun you upon contact, have to dodge them in their pre-determined movement paths, or a combination of both. Can get a bit more difficult towards the end of the game, when you'll need a bit of skill in enemy pursue-juking (a skill you develop playing such RPG Maker games with enemies that follow you, at various speeds). It's even more challenging in the areas with both static obstacles and chasing enemies that can simply pass through the obstacles you're forced to go around (or get stunned by if walked through). Minimal puzzles in this game, apart from strategizing your movement of course.
The second game begins the transition of the Overworld shenanigans towards more mental-challenges and less movement-challenges. There are still areas that will require some skill in moving on RPG maps, but not as much as in the first game. The slack is picked up by having some map puzzles, more quizes, some QTE areas (as QTEs themselves have been introduces as a general element by this game, even at points during Fights), and even the Shootout segments! Most of them are fairly self-explanatory, so it should be doable to get the hang of each new aspect introduced progressively. This game also has a bit of metroidvania progress, as gaining new abilities will to access new areas, usually including 1-2 small areas from before (with a bit more loot for those that remember their existance). The 2nd game is not directly linear, as the first one, and has both a Hub area, and a Day (well, Night) system, relevant for a few gameplay aspects, such as developing some "fields" to essentially upgrade 2 unique replenishable consumables, and for the Night-Crawling mechanic (in which, after taking a certain type of damage from Overworld challenges, you'll be visited at night by the yokai responsible for said damage, and, you know, have copious fun). The plot does advance completely linearly still. It can get a bit confusing at times, when the game requires you to revisit past areas to advance the plot or reach new places, but it only happens 2-3 times. An important aspect introduced with this game are Shortcuts. Since the 2nd and 3rd game actually allow for revisiting most areas and the ability to replay almost everything, for ease of access, almost all Overworld areas have a shortcut that you can unlock after finishing them, so that you can traverse them easier on future visits. The games still contain plenty of ways to teleport around, including Teleport spots (especially in the Hub areas) and "Teleport" skills (technically, those are supposed to "move" you in-plot, but they are practical teleports).
The third game continues on converting most Overworld challenges to intelectual ones instead of pure movement. However, there is plenty of different types of gameplay aspects introduced, especially during huge Overworld Boss Battles, which end up using the gameplay elements introduced previously in the exploration. The Hub, and all the paths from it, are way more organized than before, completely eliminating any possibility of getting lost around. Plot is still linear, and Shortcuts come back in this game as well. I have to say, this game is the one with the most smooth-feeling gameplay, including the overworld elements present.
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| (Game Clear) Hub areas, 2nd Game VS 3rd Game |
Now, onto actual Fights. Well, generally speaking, they are not "Fights" per say. More like "encounters". One thing that I can mention is that this games are the type that have more strategic-based combat than simple RPG grind, and that don't have much of an RPG power increase to them. Practically, with the same setup from the beginning of each game, you can beat all fights, up to even the Final Bosses of each game (I myself can attest to it being quite doable, as I've done so, to earn the specific Achievements/Points in the 2nd and 3rd game). During said encounters, Hakunen usually needs to evade the enemies by Sealing their possible attacks and Running away from them, to Escape them in the 1st game, and exhaust their Stamina in the next 2 games. In all games, Hakunen's basic "attack" rpg command is replaced with "Escape/Run", relevant for the fact that, in all encounters, there is a distance mechanic in effect. You start combat in a general "Middle" position, and the enemy will try to get closer to you (using some of their moves for reducing the distance), while you'll try to get away from them as much as possible. To visually show the distance between the 2 of you, the enemy Sprite resizes, becoming smaller when farther away and bigger when getting closer. If the enemy gets close enough, they'll put you into a Restraint, from which you'll have to escape, again using the "Escape/Run" option a few times, while the enemy can now damage your "Life" bar (named Vit in the 1st game and Will in the other 2) during this Restraint. Speaking of Vit/Will bars, most of your possible actions, be them your Charms usage, additional Skills or even just the "Escape/Run" command, will have a "Stamina" bar cost (named Will in the 1st game and Vit in the other 2). It can be replenished quite easily, however, its efficient management during the encounters will be one of the essential combat aspects you'll have to keep in mind.
Another general aspect in all 3 games is the fact that a big part of the enemy attacks are done using one of 3 possible Body Parts: Tongue (meaning Mouth), Arms or Legs. You can seal each of this Body Parts with one of your Charms in the first 2 games, and with specific equipment in the 3rd game. If an attack is done with a sealed Body Part, that attack is instead blocked (and does not take effect). In the first 2 games, after a certain amount of such Blocked attacks, the enemy forcefully breaks all current seals on them and does a specific Rage attack. This is to make which Body Parts you choose to Seal a more strategical element. In the 3rd game this Rage mechanic is not present anymore, as you choose, before combat, which Body Parts to have sealed by changing the Equipped Ritual Implements you have. Now with the common systems out of the way, we can get into more specifics.
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| Figuring out which Body Parts are dangerous, on some enemies, it's Trial&Error. Especially when they can be quite unexpected at times.... |
1st Game Fights
Starting with the first game, that sets the start in the general Encounter mechanics. In this game, the goal in each encounter is to Escape, by reaching the Farthest Distance from the enemy. Each enemy has its own possible attacks, thus, its own "strong Body Part(s)", essentially what Body Part they use for their stronger attacks. The enemy, through its attacks, can either simply damage your Will (this is how the "Stamina" bar is called in this game. In the next games, Will&Vit names are reversed. I know, a bit weird, must be the difference between the Translators), apply debuffs on you (almost all of them simply stunning you for different amounts of turns, and sometimes allowing the enemy to do different attacks) or get closer to you (a few enemies can reduce the distance faster than the rest). Depending on what you consider more dangerous for you, or how you'd like to have them defeat you if that's what you're into at that moment, you can seal one, two or even all 3 body parts. Keep in mind, the more you Seal, the more often the enemy will have its attacks Blocked, meaning they'll end up using their Rage attack more often (and breaking out of the Seals, requiring re-appliance of them). Generally, you only Seal one Body Part, or rarely 2, if you can deal with the Rage attack and re-Seal process.
Starting with the first game, that sets the start in the general Encounter mechanics. In this game, the goal in each encounter is to Escape, by reaching the Farthest Distance from the enemy. Each enemy has its own possible attacks, thus, its own "strong Body Part(s)", essentially what Body Part they use for their stronger attacks. The enemy, through its attacks, can either simply damage your Will (this is how the "Stamina" bar is called in this game. In the next games, Will&Vit names are reversed. I know, a bit weird, must be the difference between the Translators), apply debuffs on you (almost all of them simply stunning you for different amounts of turns, and sometimes allowing the enemy to do different attacks) or get closer to you (a few enemies can reduce the distance faster than the rest). Depending on what you consider more dangerous for you, or how you'd like to have them defeat you if that's what you're into at that moment, you can seal one, two or even all 3 body parts. Keep in mind, the more you Seal, the more often the enemy will have its attacks Blocked, meaning they'll end up using their Rage attack more often (and breaking out of the Seals, requiring re-appliance of them). Generally, you only Seal one Body Part, or rarely 2, if you can deal with the Rage attack and re-Seal process.
Now, about refilling the Will ("Stamina") bar. You have the Rest command (instead of the basic RPG "defend"), but the restoration amount depends on the current left Will, an interesting type of mechanic you can see in a few RPGs. Considering the max Will being 200, if you're >=100 when you rest, you fully heal it. When between 100 and 50, you only heal 70, and when <50, you barely get a 5 Will back. Essentially, it is best to Rest whenever your Will gets around 100, and to try as much as possible to not let it drop under 50, since that is usually a death sentence unless you use Consumables to manually restore more Will back.
Apart from the Rage attack, the enemies can also have a special, "Ace" attack
(Most likely just a weird way of translating "Special" attack, but I kept the notation like this in my notes as well. It's a short word, after all). They show, in the turn before using it, a text prompt (in the RPG log box) suggesting what Body Part is involved in their Ace attack. If that Body Part is then Sealed immediately (which you should almost always do), the Ace attack is blocked (this Blocked attack does not count towards filling their Rage), and a few enemies can even get stunned afterwards for a few turns. An Ace attack won't be attempted if the Body Part needed is Sealed beforehand.
As said previously, during Restraints, the enemy focuses on damaging your Vit instead. Because of this, they have different possible attacks during Restraint, but for the most part, they retain what Body Parts they use for their stronger attacks and for their Ace attack. Also, if they start their Ace attack (have that turn in which you're told they are preparing it) outside of Restraint, and then get into it, they'll still use it immediately afterwards. During the Restraint, apart from Escaping, you can still do all your other actions, such as Sealing their Body Parts, and the enemy can still do its Rage attack (which will be different during Restraint, but will still break all current Seals on them).
Boss Fights have only a few unique details. To win those encounters, you need to Escape 3 times instead of just once. After each one of those 3 Escapes, they'll automatically put you in their Restraint, from which you also need to Escape each time. Also, if the Boss manages to close in the distance normally during the fight, and put you in the Restraint in this way, you instantly lose. Apart from that (and obviously being a bit more difficult), the fights are much the same as the normal fights.
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| 1st game, in-fight GUI |
As for Equippment, you'll get just 2 more Equipment pieces during your exploration, one for each of the "Hair" and "Garb" slots, which simply reduce a bit of damage from certain types of attacks. You start the game with an "Adornment" equipment in your inventory, that can help with small passive Will regen, and if you choose to admit the game's too hard for you (from the Key item "Hakunen's Notes", or from the Gallery Inn at the end of the game, talking to one of the Foxes on the Ground Floor), you can get another Adornment which heavily reduces damage and gives a strong passive Will regen. You can purchase Consumables from the money you earn from encounters to help you during fights. That's basically it for the general information. The games do a very good job of providing tutorials for all of this mechanics.... but then again, I also like to talk about them in general.
2nd Game Fights
A quick change is the Body Part written tells, before the Ace attacks. In this game, when the dialogue box shows up on the screen, it's increased in size, and the specific Body Part mentioned is also highlighted by a bigger font. Makes it easier to tell what Body Part to Seal at a glance.
A quick change is the Body Part written tells, before the Ace attacks. In this game, when the dialogue box shows up on the screen, it's increased in size, and the specific Body Part mentioned is also highlighted by a bigger font. Makes it easier to tell what Body Part to Seal at a glance.
Most mechanics are kept from the 1st game, with new gameplay aspects added to them. A big change would be the means of winning the encounters. From this game on, the enemy has a Stamina bar, and most of their attacks use up a bit of it (later bosses in the game use less and less, at times not at all). The goal now is to exhaust the enemy, by surviving in the fight until they use up all of their Stamina. The Distance mechanic is still there, with the same functions, although now, instead of Escaping the fight (and instantly winning it) at the Max Distance, the enemy instead has to reset the distance between the 2 of you (back to the initial, "Middle", positions, usually) by using a bigger chunk of their Stamina (this is the way all enemies use up their Stamina, even those that otherwise do not exhaust their stamina at all). Some enemies use Stamina chunks during their Rage attacks and Ace attacks as well. However, during Restraints, no enemy uses Stamina for their attacks. Now that the enemy has a Stamina bar, there are certain attacks that they can do at certain Stamina thresholds, such as unique attacks, instant Restraints (done by Bosses usually, since, like in the last game, getting into Restraints normally in their fights would mean your immediate loss) or even Temptation QTEs.
As said previously, the 2nd and 3rd game introduce QTEs, generally denoted by having to choose 1 of a couple of options during a small time limit. Not choosing until the time expires counts as choosing the wrong option. Usually, those choices are different forms of relenting to the enemy's temptation (such as "Listen", "Submit", "Entrust Body" etc.), while the right option would be the opposite. You have to read fast and get the proper options, which can be a bit difficult at times.
On the subject of new visual Bars, apart from the name change of Will&Vit bars (henceforth, I'll call the "Life" bar Will and the other one Vit, as this is the notation that stuck around from then on), and the enemy's Stamina bar, you also get an Energy bar. As an actual RPG stat, it is your Level, which is Maxed out at 30. It also functions essentially like an RPG Level, the lower it gets, the lower your Max Will&Vit get. Your max Will&Vit, at your Max Energy, are the aproximatively the normal stats you had in the previous game (the Max Will in this game is 120, but the Vit remains 200), so you're best of in the fights at Max Energy. There are a couple of ways to Lose Energy, both Overworld (where you can also replenish it easily for the most part) and during the Fight, by enemy attacks. There are also Consumables that can help in its restoration. One thing to note, all of the damage, heal and heal threshold values in this game are not percentage-based, therefore even at low Energy, you'll still receive the same damage (and the Rest ability thresholds are still the same values), which makes being on low Energy even more dangerous.
As for your own abilities, aside from your trusty 3 charms, you get new skills that can be used, some in-fight, some on the overworld. You unlock them during your adventure, although during the encounters, only 2 skills you get are usable: "Concentration" (which essentially converts its Vit cost into Will) and "Provoke", a fringe-use ability that makes the enemy instantly dash towards you, losing Stamina for each Position traversed towards you, then puts you into Restraint and keeps on damaging you in Restraint, using up Stamina for each Restraint attack (the only way for an enemy to waste Stamina during Restraint), until either you are beaten, or the enemy runs out of Stamina. A risky ability, only really usable near the end of the fight, when you're confident that you'll outlast the enemy's remaining Stamina.
In this game, there is another incentive to not go <50 Vit, since during the time you have that amount of Vit, the enemy usually will do its "Surprise" attack, which usually means getting closer to you.
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| 2nd game, in-fight (after Game Clear) GUI |
This game has more Equipment that you can find, all with minor bonuses, usually resistances to types of attacks. This game has a type of challenge, called "Unarmed Win", which is done by beating certain fights (usually, boss fights or the fights at key plot points) without any additional equipment on, or using any consumable. The only consumables you can use and still earn the Unarmed Win are the 2 unique replenishable&upgradable ones, one for Vit and one for Will heal. As said previously, the game is doable without equipping anything else, and it's a nice touch to have those 2 replenishable consumables as a bit of padding for the worst case-scenarios.
3rd Game Fights
Now this one changed a few things around. First, this game made Body Part tells even more obvious, giving each of them an individual Picture that shows up on the screen when relevant.
As for the more relevant changes... The new gameplay elements added in the 2nd game stuck around (the Stamina mechanic for the enemies, the Energy mechanic for yourself), but some of the older mechanics were changed. Most notably, you don't use the Charms during fights anymore to seal the enemy's body parts. Instead, you choose, before combat, what Ritual Implement to equip, each being able to seal a certain body part, some even having other passive bonuses. You could also equip the titular "The 3 Charms" instead, which seals all 3 Body Parts, but to balance it out, it constantly drains 5% Vit each turn. During combat, the enemy now also has some changed ways of attacking. Considering the removal of active Body Part sealing, the enemy does not have Ace attacks or Rage attacks anymore. Instead, the enemy can use Body Part attacks at times, and generally, they don't count as the attack for the turn; in later fights, they can also stack into having 2-3 additional attacks in one turn). Their normal attacks don't count as Body Part attacks anymore, only those specifically shown (via the specific Body Part pictures) do. Also, the enemy's attacks that would inflict any type of debuff, called "Special attacks", now have a visual tell the turn before using them (a prompt appears top-left, and that same turn the RPG dialogue will warn what type of Sorcery (what type of debuff) the enemy will use), and those attacks can all be Blocked actively using Phantasm Tear, which is part of a new Skill system you have. During Restraints, the enemy can directly apply debuffs to you, without giving you the chance to block them.
Speaking of new Skills.... Your normal Skill menu is fairly useless in-combat, as the only usable skills in-combat from that menu are "Converse" (miscellaneous stuff, depends on the enemy, but most of the time it just allows the enemy to attack you or debuff you), "Auto" (has the Fight done "Automatically" by constantly spamming the "Run" command, pretty fringe usage, depends on your own equipment if it is even doable, and the enemy you face), and Submission (need I explain?). However, one more command replaced is your Rest. Now, you instead use Focus, which puts you into the Focus state and Focus Menu. In the Focus Menu you'll be able to select the new Focus Skills, which will become avaliable after more turns spent in the Focus Menu. Out of the gate, you already have the options to "Accumulate", which makes you gain a Focus Level, remain in this Menu and end your turn, and the first skill, "Phantasm Tear". The next skill, "Honed Release", is avaliable the 2nd turn spent in the Focus Menu, and the 3rd skill, "Blossoming Evasion", from the 3rd turn. You can remain in this Menu for even longer (by either choosing the Accumulate option or letting the timer run out), and thus continue increasing the Focus Level. Using any of the 3 Focus Skills will get you out of the Focus Menu, as will any debuff applied to you that can stun you. Do note, being put into Restraint while Focusing will not interrupt your Focus! The timer I just mentioned will not appear if you have equipped the "Adrenaline" charm-slot Equipment (meaning you get to choose your option without a time pressure).
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| 3rd game, in-fight GUI. Yes, I did find a Kitsune fight in all 3 games for a cleaner comparison. |
Now to explain each of the Focus Skills, first you have Phantasm Tear, avaliable immediately upon using Focus, used to block the enemy's Special attacks (that can inflict debuffs). To be able to use this, you need to have at least 30 Vit (as it consumes 30 Vit, and if you don't have enough Vit to use it, it will simply fail). The skill will return some Vit to you on successful block. After blocking a certain number of such attacks, the enemy can also get stunned for a few turns. The next skill, "Honed Release", is the one that you'll use to replenish Vit in this game. Instead of working by the same mechanic as "Rest" in the previous game, at heals Vit using the Focus Levels you've accumulated so far. The more Focus Levels, the more you'll heal (starts at 80 Vit heal for the first Focus Level, and heals 20 more Vit for each further Focus Level). Honed Release is the only skill that uses up the Focus Levels, using the other two skills will preserve the Focus Levels between your Focusing attempts. Don't stack Focus Levels too high, since any damage done by the enemy to your Vit will also be increased by the amount of Focus Levels you still have. The 3rd skill, "Blossoming Evasion", is simply a stronger "Run" (equal to 2 Run commands), and can also be used during Restraints.
The equipment is much more varied in this game, and with greater influence. The Ritual Implements slot is the one where the equipment can block specific Body Parts. Equipment for the Outfit slot can be purchased from the shop using the normal currency, and the Sorcery slot can have equipment unlocked using Spiritual Energy you win in Fights. The game also has a Score system for each fight, and the score multipliers are influenced by your current Energy level, and the helpful equipment you got on yourself, as well as different actions done during combat. Essentially, the score multiplier is higher the less equipped and the weaker you are, and you get more score for spending turns in dangerous positions, such as in Restraints. A few unique scenes in the gallery are unlocked by getting certain high scores on some fights, however it is fairly doable to reach those scores, considering that Consumables used in this game do not detract from the score.
Finally, that was all for the Mechanics present in this series. The games have evolved progresively, adding new elements, refreshing the formula quite a lot, and keeping the focus on strategical combat instead of the more commonly seen in RPG games idea of constantly increasing in Level and Strength. I really enjoyed the combat in these games, even most of the puzzles and Overworld challenges. A good breath of fresh air in playing this games from the norm.
Complexity = 9
There are a lot of mechanics along these games. The first game in the series did start the tone, although on its own, it did not have as much to show. As the series progressed, more elements were added, and those elements worked together extremely well each time. The difficulty of the game is not that big either, although it's not as easy as simply grinding your way through it like most RPG Maker games.
Uniqueness = 9
Very few RPG Maker games go the route of unique combat, in the ways of not relying on beating the enemy's HP, or even standard stats for that matter. In this way, this games' experience is one of its own. The only thing connecting it to other types of similar games, in terms of gameplay, is being also made in RPG Maker. If the Devs, at any point, maker their own Engine, this might just become a new (albeit niche) game genre!
Replayability = 9
The Gallery areas present in each game (which, for the most part, are also integrated quite smoothly within the plot of the games themselves) allow for replaying most fights and events. You can try to challenge yourself if you wish, either to earn the Unnarmed Wins of the 2nd game, or simply a higher score for each fight in the 3rd game. It doesn't hurt that the enemies themselves are hot enough to make it worth re-fighting them. And there is a variety of Fights to be had in all the games, even in the first one, which was the smaller of the bunch. Of course, doing the Puzzles or most Overworld challenges again is not as enticing an option in either game, although the latter games also have various Minigames, some of which might be enjoyable enough to re-play once or twice. Either way, you can re-visit these series easily to have some more fun with it.
Scenes = 9
Visual = 9
Honestly? Exquisite, if I may say so myself. Even without having any actual Animations, this series manages to have enough dynamicism in the H-scenes through the simple CGs and through the usage of plenty of Special Effects (which only get better in the latter games). The artstyle of the games in pretty unique, and most drawings give the impresion of mystery, cloudy passion, enticing supernatural.... Plenty of usage of drawing the actual sweat and breath of the characters, making everything look way more realistic and generally lustful, even as 2D drawings. I really dig this style a whole ton lot, gets me hot everytime. Almost as hot as it looks like to be in all of those scenes, with all the steam going around....
Written = 10
Also incredible in this regard. The H-scenes flow quite well, they work extremely good in the context of the story, and within the scenes themselves, there is enough dialogue and action to go around for the entirety of the Scene to feel lively and immersive. Even just having the writting on its own could make for extremely hot scenes, but the dialogue and the visuals work wonderfully together just as much.
The writting style used is generally relying heavily on dialogue, with few 1st person narrative bits used at times to describe some of the relevant aspects, to complete the overall scene image started by the visuals themselves and further contiued by the dialogue progression.
All in all: good, unique, and awesome content to consume!
Interactibility = 8
There is a good degree of interaction during Combat, as well as with the presence of lots of Temptation QTEs that you could be too mesmerized to hit properly.... Not as much interaction when the H-scene start in full outside of combat. Although it is understandable to a certain extent. However, the scenes do have their own UI present, representing, in the top-right cornet, how many times Hakunen (or extremely rarely, other hapless individual in the specific scene....) will Cum during that H-scene. In the latter 2 games, the Energy gauge is also kept, and will usually deplete during the H-scene, in the moment of Cumming, although, depending on the Scene itself and the action of the sexy assailant, it can also temporarily be refilled. Almost all H-scenes, regardless, would end in having the Energy bar exausted and the Cum counter depleted as well.
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| Beginning of an H-scene |
Of course, there are also a few rare instance in the 3rd game in which you get to see even your partner's Stamina bar, when the partner could be the one to, well, cum inside you.... For example, if they were to be Futanari by chance....
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| I'm sure a reasonable agreement can be reached.... |
Either way, those additional elements present during H-scenes, at least for me, add a lot more information and immersion, connection, to the scene itself.
Replayability = 9
Much like you'd expect, having Galley areas in each game does help this a lot as well. This, coupled with just the general amount of variations between the Scenes, makes for a lot of content to be consumed just once, much less to re-visit it whenever you feel like it. Admittedly, a bit more in the first game, and rarely in the others, there are a few Scenes which recycle some oof the CG, but there is still quite enough different, separate CGs to go around. The writting is also up to bat to provide further variation and charm to each Scene, even if a CG looks similar. To how the Scenes feel and play out, the games actually feel around twice as big as they actually are.
Development = ----
I do know that the 3rd game at least was in active development, and did receive further updates even after the initial release, including the Collaboration event, the 2 small events for the New Year's, and generally more content added. So at least in that, I can appreciate how Minwa actively worked on improving an already-finished product to make it even better.
They are currently still working on games, although, from investigating further on their Ci-en, the "Mahoroba Hotel" game is postponed for now, while Minwa works on another game in a separate setting, called "Koreeden -Holy Food Corridor-" (rough translation), set in modern Japan in a facility. The game looks different in style (being first-person and with a few more options in-combat) but still seems to keep some of the mechanics from The Three Charms (from the looks of it, the Distance idea seems to be a constant here as well). This game gets updated ~monthly on the Ci-en, and it alternates between Free version month and Paid Tier month. The paid tier is only 500 Yen, so you could go for it if you wish, especially to support the Developer of this series and their future endeavors. I'll be looking into this game as time passes, and we'll see how it evolves. So far, it's going into a cool direction (although, of course, for now I'm exploring it with my MTL setup, so quality may vary like this. I'm alright with it though).
Obtaining = 9.25
Price = 10
To list the prices really quick for all 3 games (as they show on DLsite, without any other Coupons added), here they are:
- 1: 110 JPY / $0.74
- 1: 110 JPY / $0.74
- 2: 550 JPY / $3.69
- 3: 1320 JPY / $8.86
This prices are an extreme bang for your buck. Particularly the 1st game, which might look deceptively small, but you get more than enough content, almost on par with a medium-sized game. I'd appreciate it's actual value at about $4-5, honestly. An actual steal! The only game that is higher in price a bit is the 3rd one, but considering the current amount of content in it (coupled with the Collaboration event, as well), it is a pretty deserved price. That and keeping in mind that it is part of this series, and it makes sense to raise the price to a certain extent on subsequent entries in a series, especially when you keep on improving the general foruma for the games while also keeping them fresh each time. I can easily recommend the entire series, at once, even with just these prices and no additional offers for them.
Methods = 8.5
Your average "Is on DLsite" shtick. A disadvantage is the lack of an official translation for the latter 2 games, you'll need to rely on the Fan Translations for them. Good thing those already exist.
FINAL SCORE = 9.18
Wholeheartedly recommend this series. Even without actual animations, it manages most everything you'd like from an hentai game. It has interesting gameplay, variety, extremely hot scenes.... What are you still waiting for? Go buy them! (Yes, unbeliavably, I'm not sponsored. I just liked this games a lot. And they are objectively great, too.)
Fluff (Intermission)
Top ∞ Best Girls
I just liked all of them. Honestly. No point in making actual rankings here. Well, I mean, I see a point... Just that I'd have to look at the decimals to make a proper ranking here. That close it can be between them. I generally dig the style itself, and all girls drawn in it look extremely well. I might have some general preferences for some of the girls (eg.: Yamachichi, Zashiki, Nobusuma, Vampire, Byo Shogun, Kyoshi), but that says more about my own general tastes than the slightly-more-objective idea of classifying them solely on their in-game charm and merits. Hell, I personally even dig some of the scenes with Daimyokai! (those in which her propoortions don't make her out to look like she's legit emaciated)
Tips (of cocks) and Tricks
All relevant advices I integrated directly in the Info left for each game, usually around the mechanic that I could advise on. Example, around the Score explanation (in "General Info") of the 3rd game, I give some tips on how to increase your general score, such as unequipping Adrenaline for an instant sizeable increase, lowering your Energy to ~20 at most, and getting fairly often and for long amounts of turns in Restraints. Also that you can grind for buying Consumables and simply spamming them, since you're free to do so, the consumables don't shit on your score. Wait... I just explained it here as well. Oh well!
Rest of info (and this ones, but better explained and more structurally organized) is actually in the Files. Give them a read!
This stuff took me a few ages. The Info, I mean. The Saves themselves I breezed myself quite efficiently. I did like the games, after all. (Just had to take some breaks from time to time.... for recreational purposes).
Saves
As you'd expect. Full Saves, in the Gallery, and multiple saves where there are multiple relevant spots of interest (although all of them are just as easily reached, take a look at the times, I saved in all of the relevant areas consecutively).
To explain a bit further in the actual avaliable resources on the save. In the latter 2 games, after fully completing them legit (no shenaningans needed), I then cheated some Full Money and All Consumables, for even more ease of breezing through the Galleries as you wish. Doing this, funny thing, made me notice some unimplemented content, as well! Well, the only relevant, and usable, ones where in the item department. Some items where left in the games from the past, even if they are not used anymore in the current game. And most of them still work just as well! Keep that in mind when using some of the weirder-looking consumables, they were not meant to be used. Well, the basic heal items work just as fine, so there shouldn't be any issues. For equipment, whenever you see them being "4", it means it's a cheated, unimplemented, item. You can experiment with them as well, to see which work and just how much. Not all of them work though.
Info
This. This is the one. Took me ages. Damn. I did find constantly new information, corrections on older info, and so forth. Now I can only hope all of this helps people when in doubt. I split the info for each game in General Info and Enemy Info.
General Info details most general game mechanics, although its mostly for the battle mechanics. The overworld mechanics, interactibles and whatnot, are pretty straight-forward to understand, so I did not harp on them. Another thing, right at the bottom, where relevant, are Quiz answers met throughout the game, in case you don't want to fail too many times. There are a lot more Temptation QTEs with multiple rounds that have fixed answers, but I'll leave you to figure those when needed.
Enemy Info has the Stat information for each enemy. Well, pseudo-stats, since the enemy don't have relevant HP or Mana, and their Stamina values, for all of them, is 30, with the only change being how it is depleted and at what rate. The relevant information for each game, such as the Strong Body Part of each, the Body Part for their Ace Move, their Max Rage etc. That's what I noted down, for each enemy. I also noted here info on Final Fights, although it's generally self-explainatory. Also info on more important "minigames" that feel more like a fight, such as the Energy Shootouts of the 2nd game. You're welcome in advance.
Enemy Info has the Stat information for each enemy. Well, pseudo-stats, since the enemy don't have relevant HP or Mana, and their Stamina values, for all of them, is 30, with the only change being how it is depleted and at what rate. The relevant information for each game, such as the Strong Body Part of each, the Body Part for their Ace Move, their Max Rage etc. That's what I noted down, for each enemy. I also noted here info on Final Fights, although it's generally self-explainatory. Also info on more important "minigames" that feel more like a fight, such as the Energy Shootouts of the 2nd game. You're welcome in advance.
<<<<======== Edit: 11/13/2022
(3rd Game) Mod - Cut Content Revival
Note: It's likely you'll need to Decrypt the Files of the game (the "Game.rgss3a" file). In that case, take a look in the Index of Content Tab, in General Tools, where I have the link to the RPG Maker VX Ace Decrypter.
So, funny story, this is what took a good chunk of this week for me (this, finishing the Enemy Info on the 3rd game, and writing for the next Review). I did find, by mistake, a bit of Cut Content still left in the game, in good enough condition to not require much from me apart from coding just a bit to make that Content easily accessible. To explain further, Minwa initially planned Mahoroba Hotel, the next game to be made in this universe, as part of the last update for the game. That's why they added a bit of that content into this game, before deciding to make Mahoroba Hotel a completely separate game. Still, from one of the earlier versions of this game, the room with those 3 Fights stuck around, so I decided to use it and make it accessible once again!
To access the room with the Mod applied, you talk with the Shadowy Figure in the Middle Hallway in the Gallery that leads to the 3 Gallery Rooms. In the room, to the left is the explanation dialogue left by Minwa from before. To the top of the room, there are the 3 fights from Mahoroba Hotel intended update. I also left another Shadowy Figure there to explain about the room. At the bottom of the room, you see the 2 Fights I manually added there, the first being an easier way to Replay the Drunk Magatsu "Fight" from the New Year's Event, and the other being a Cut Enemy, Otsuyu (Ghost). Keep in mind, the content for Otsuyu is also untranslated, you'll need your MTL setup made for it. Still, enjoy!
To access the room with the Mod applied, you talk with the Shadowy Figure in the Middle Hallway in the Gallery that leads to the 3 Gallery Rooms. In the room, to the left is the explanation dialogue left by Minwa from before. To the top of the room, there are the 3 fights from Mahoroba Hotel intended update. I also left another Shadowy Figure there to explain about the room. At the bottom of the room, you see the 2 Fights I manually added there, the first being an easier way to Replay the Drunk Magatsu "Fight" from the New Year's Event, and the other being a Cut Enemy, Otsuyu (Ghost). Keep in mind, the content for Otsuyu is also untranslated, you'll need your MTL setup made for it. Still, enjoy!
Finally, if for some reason you actually don't want to apply the Mod files, you can still access that content from the Save I made in that room. Keep in mind though, the moment you reload the map (eg.: After doing one of those Fights), without having the Mod Files, all my modifications will be erased (and you'll have to reload the Save).
Edit: 11/13/2022 ========>>>>
Translation (Others')
The first game is officially translated. As for the latter 2, you have to apply this Fan Translations. For RPG games, it's usually fairly simple to apply the patches, at most only possibly requiring to Decrypt the main data files of the game, since the Translation Files are decrypted data files. There are easy program tols that do that automatically for you. If you wish to find some, you can look on my blog, under "List of Content" tab, for "General Tools", I got some links there as well. Or just google them yourself if you wish, whatever feels more natural.
[conty40] Full Translations, 2nd and 3rd games
For 2nd game: Link to Forum
For 3rd game: Link to Forum
Excelent translation job done. Almost everything got translated, even text from within Pictures (especially relevant in the 3rd game). Only notable issues I found myself was a certain instance of an event in-combat in the 2nd game that was left untranslated. I did note it in my Info, and what you need to do during that event (it is fairly easy to surmise the solution though). That and, more importantly, in the 3rd game, the Collaboration Event were left intentionately untranslated by the Translator, but I'd say it's still an amazing job so far, all things considered. For those left events, I recommend using Machine Translation tool, best one so far being MTool (got links to that tool in General Tools as well). I did play through those events to make the Full Saves. Worth a shot.
Finally, it is done. My god do my hands hurt. It is my fault for taking too big a break in the end.... But we're back in action, stronger than ever etc. Be posted for the next Review!
Meta_Review,Meta_Files,
MetaFiles_Info,MetaFiles_Mods,MetaFiles_Saves,
Developer_CircleGroup,
Language_English,
Progress_Complete,
Series_Series,
TypeGame_2DGameplay,
TypeGenre_Adventure,TypeGenre_RPG,
TypeSetting_Fantasy,TypeSetting_SF,
Engine_RPGMaker,
StyleCGs_2DCGs,
StyleView_2DView,StyleMiscView_Censored,StyleMiscView_XRay,
FetishMain_Femdom,FetishMain_Futadom,FetishMain_Vore,
FetishVore_OV,FetishVore_UB,
FetishMC_MaleMC,
FetishChars_HumanGirls,FetishChars_FutanariGirls,FetishChars_MonsterGirls,FetishChars_SuccubusGirls,FetishChars_ArtificialGirls,FetishChars_UndeadGirls,
FetishSex_Foreplay,FetishSex_Sex,
FetishSubSex_MultiplePartners,FetishSubSex_Yuri,
FetishFocus_Lips,FetishFocus_Pussy,FetishFocus_Breasts,FetishFocus_Ass,FetishFocus_Thighs,FetishFocus_Feet,FetishFocus_Cock,FetishFocus_Monstrous,FetishFocus_Artificial,FetishFocus_Smell,
FetishSub_Corruption,FetishSub_Drain,FetishSub_MindControl,FetishSub_StatusEffects,FetishSub_Tentacles,
Links_DLsite,
================================================================
UniqueSeries_TheThreeCharms,
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