General Info:
Developer: [Circle Group] Mogura soft
Language: English
Progress: Complete (Finalized)
Type: 2.5D Gameplay ## Side-Scroller ## Action, Adventure ## Platformer ## Romance, Happiness (Slight), Drama (Slight), Cruelty, Serious ## Fantasy
Engine: Unity
Style: 3D Animations, 3D CGs ## 3D View (Multiple Perspectives) ## Censored (Fan-made decensor patch exists), X-Ray View
Voices: Full Characters (For most important characters)
Fetishes: Femdom (very Slight), Futadom (extremely Slight), Ryona, Maledom ## Female MC (Separate MC, once) ## Human & Magical (Holy Knight) & Monster (very Slight) & Succubus Girls ## Sex ## BDSM (Slight), Multiple Partners, Pregnancy (Normal / Monster), Yuri ## Pussy & Breasts & Ass & Cock & Monstrous & Undead (very Slight) Fetish ## Corruption, Drain, Gore, Mind Control, Tentacles, Transformation
Links: DLsite
A big one, ain't it? This one game, so far, is the biggest, most official one played, in how it looks and feels. This circle group might not have plenty of games to their name as of yet (this game being the only one for now), but this game sure feels like it's been made almost to the 3A-level. Certainly priced like one, as well. Will this overall be good for the game? We'll see, in this review....
Also, if you think you'll get your average nice fairy tale.... nah, that one chance has been killed, raped into death actually. It is one of those types of gruesomely-realist-sided fairy tales. Personally, I enjoy myself some Brothers Grimm-styled fantasy (and I mean, the original version of their tales. The cool ones.). Not sure what I like so much about this corruption of usually-pure stories, but what works, works. And hey, if this is your thing, and maybe even your fetish, here's another game for you!
Review Contents (links to each part):
Review TL;DR:
All Scores:
================ Plot = 9.85
======== Story = 10
======== Characters = 9.5
================ Gameplay = 7.62
======== Mechanics = 9
======== Complexity = 8
======== Uniqueness = 6.5
======== Replayability = 7
================ Scenes = 9
======== Visual = 10
======== Written = 9
======== Interactivity = 8
======== Replayability = 9
================ Development = ----
================ Obtaining = 8
======== Price = 7
======== Methods = 9
================ FINAL SCORE = 8.61
QuickView
A high-quality, AAA-tier game, with good H-scenes, challenging and detailed Gameplay, even having a decent Story to itself (and not overly cliche, either!). Still, the game is AAA-tier in price, as well. I highly recommend checking the Demo first (being a bigger game, even the Demo itself is sizable) before considering getting the full game. Also depends if you're into that high-quality of games.
Full Review
Plot = 9.75
Story = 10
First, for the Setting, it's your average Medieval Fantasy world. They have monsters (such as Slimes and Goblins), and Magic also exists (like Fairies and whatnot). They also have fairytale/legend about a Holy Knight defeating an Evil Wizard and his freshly-summoned Black Dragon. Nothing to surprizing here, although it's a bit funny for a fairytale world to have fairytales. It's about similar to us having Tales of the World Wars (which, in retrospect, there are certain stories from those settings.... so maybe not that weird?)
The game opens with Ricca and Miria, her older sister. The two of them lived alone in the village, as their parents died to an epidemic that swept their village 2 years after Ricca was born, and while they did receive monetary help from the rest of the villagers, they still had to live essentially by themselves. Miria grew into a the more maternal role, as an older sister, also doting a lot on her sister and worring about her often, leaving Ricca to be quite immature and spoiled, but also rambunctious. A bit of a bad combination honestly. Currently, Miria takes care of the home, while Ricca leaves oftenly for the mountains to collect Herbs (just classic village girl stuff) for both themselves and the Merchant of the village. Ricca would wish for her sister to be able to find somebody for herself to Marry, and be happy, since she's starting to feel like she's holding Miria back from living properly. But at the same time, she's also too spoiled to properly let go, and would still want to stay with her sister. On the other hand, Miria is pretty selfless, thinking only of Ricca and how to help her live her life, sacrificing her own true happiness in the process.
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| But really, what's wrong with Raw Tomatoes?.... |
This game actually has a lenghtly "opening" part, showing the daily life in the village for those 2 girls (as you play with Ricca as the MC. Of course). Everybody tells Ricca to be careful on her trek to the mountain for the herbs, as monsters have gotten more rowdy as of late. She actually does meet some Slimes on her way, but they are easy to fend off, even for a girl (even in-gameplay!) so there's no real issue. She also gets a Mysterious ruby necklace from the merchant to gift to Miria, as the merchant takes pity (the horny kind of pity) on the sisters to give the necklace for the low amount of Magic Stones Ricca collected on her way. A week later, Ricca goes again for herbs, and actually finds a Mysterious Fairy on her way (with the help of the village dog, Polon) and a Brooch with her. She takes her back to the village, but in the meanwhile, the village.... might not be doing that Hot, let's just say that.
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| .... Too soon? |
Is this, perhaps, the start of a new potential adventure? Possibly, maybe, just maybe, a story involving Ricca, and that Holy Knight tale the game started on? Hmmmm. Only time can tell.... And a lot of suffering. Quite a ton lot of it....
A good theme for the game overall, apart from the obvious ones (of growing up / confronting the cruel world and not giving up / the usual fairytale morals), would be Communication. You won't believe just how many lies you'll get to see between the characters, and so many of them being just trivial stuff, or situations that would actually require some honesty. So remember kids, no matter what you're involved into, be it fights, monsters, or sexual dilemmas, do talk with your close ones about it! (Well, hopefully nobody's a kid and also playing this game. That's one rough way of learning about the sexual side of life....)
Don't worry, I'm not gonna' go that in-depth anymore.
Of course, from there on, Ricca becomes the Holy Knight. Well, first, she tries to make her way to the Church of the town, where she gets raped by the goblins. Yes, that will happen quite a lot. She then tries to protect the basket where she placed the Fairy, and gets killed doing so. However, the Fairy, called Iris, starts properly waking up at that point, the brooch reacts positively to Ricca, and thus, she's able to bestow her the power of the Holy Knight and save her from that untimely death. Adventure ensues.
As it is a fairly long story, let's speed things up a lil'. The overall plot is that the big baddie of the story, the Archlich, is about to enact his evil plan and summon the Darkfiend Dragon from his dimension, a plan which he tried in the past, but was stopped by the previous Holy Knight. Iris is a fairy working for the God (well, she later clears up one of the misunderstandings with Ricca and explains that by God she meant Goddess, but alas), and currently searching for the next Holy Knight within the humans, to see which human properly qualifies, as her own Fairy village had gotten attacked by monsters, and her fellow fairies ended up killed either by monsters or taken in and enslaved by humans (to play with them as dolls or as weird attractions). Lily herself does not see humans in a good light because of her past. Now, it's up to anybody's guess why the Brooch chose Ricca as the one qualified for being a Holy Knight, considering Ricca had yet to undergo her Character Journey of Development, and at that point, she was just a weak, spoiled, sort-of-tomboy crybaby at best. My take is that the Brooch wasn't really that picky, aside from being particular to Females, and it just happened that Ricca was the one around the Brooch for the most part (when the rest of the village had been killed basically). Beggars can't be choosers, Holy powers aside.
Also to justify the title, her sister, Miria, is not dead, she was just taken by the monsters. Afterwards, she became a Succubus, as a combined result of Archlich influence and her wearing that gifted Necklace. One of the many reasons for Ricca to later despair. That's why the both of the are "Winged Sisters", one having Succubus wings, the other having Holy (Angel) wings (later in the story, or if equipped as Costume, but I digress). Ricca goes around the land, destroying Drain crystals (which are like clusters of Magic Stones, but filled with Dark Energy) to both deal with the monsters and also grow in strength to be able to save her sister from being a servant of the Archlich, and then possibly defeat him as well while at it. The first run-in with Miria has Ricca captured, and engraved by her with a Lust Crest, both on the outside of her lower abdomen, and even inside of her actual Womb. Engraved with Miria's Succubus Tail, in a painful fashion. Hardcore. She's also raped by monsters afterwards, something that makes her worry, for a good chunk of time, that she got pregnant with a monster baby (since she was not getting her period in a while). For the rest of the adventure, Ricca has to deal with the Lust Crest as well, which makes her hot when near monsters, a bit lustful at times, but all of this suppress-able by the magic of her Holy Knight-ness. She then faces her sister again after a while, when she wins (after a fairly hard fight as well), but the Archlich himself comes, defeats her easily, then also kills Miria as she comes back to her senses and sacrifices herself to allow Ricca to escape.
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| Looks hot. As hot as you'll be, sweating to beat her fight. |
With her sister's death, Ricca gets pretty depressed, gives up on being a Holy Knight, ends up attacked by monsters and raped (again), but then she gets saved by a mage girl named Claret, who takes her in, helps her mend back to full health (and Ricca finally gets her period, so it was just delayed by her Holly Knight powers), and then they live together for about a week. Ricca goes for some other herbs, then returns home to find Claret being confronted by monsters. I swear, Ricca should stop leaving to collect herbs alone, it's a bad omen by this point. She runs away for a bit, scared, but after a bit of quick soul searching, she gathers the courage to help Claret (even without having her Holly Knight powers), and they fend off the monsters for a bit, up until they need to deal with the big baddies of the bunch. Just before said big orc deals a strong blow to them, Iris also comes back and helps Ricca use her Holly Knight powers once again, to deal with the danger. From there, they make up, Ricca continues her Holly Knight-ness, ends up fighting the Archlich, gets some help for it from her sister (who obviously was not dead, and managed to heal back up in the meanwhile and also remain a good guy from here on out, even as a succubus), and beats the dude.
The Archlich was actually a court wizard in the past, who was a secret lover of the Queen of his kingdom. Sadly, he was only one of the many, and he tried to get stronger to be able to impress her, dabling into necromancy. He was planned to be executed for that heresy, but instead managed to make a ritual to sacrifice the lives of the people in that kingdom to survive and amass more power, then went on a power bender to become even stronger, this time to take revenge on the Queen (who apparently wasn't dead? I mean, she was part of that "sacrificed" kingdom, right? I don't know, seems like the character glossary ain't that consistent in the end). Anyhow, we don't need to worry about the status of that Queen, as he got beaten by another female knight "wielding the power of the Sun". He then somehow managed, on it's last breaths, to take over the female knight's body, but was still weakened for a long time, in which he could not act. Now, he planned to once again lay waste to the world using monsters, and preferably also get Ricca's body as his new body if possible (and especially if she were to beat him. Like she does.). Archlich still manages to awaken the Darkfiend dragon, and open the portal to his dimension, and so, to prevent said dragon from coming to this world, Ricca goes in with Iris to beat him up. They do that, but to leave that dimension and return, Iris had to sacrifice herself so that Ricca would be able to return. Iris also kept the Brooch to stop the dragon using the Holly Knight godly power, and thus, the world was saved, and Ricca became a normal girl for good.
In the bonus levels, you see the story of how Miria managed to survive her previous "death", make it out alive, but still be weakened, and then be found by a nice villager who took her in. She almost killed him (at least while feeling bad) by draining him to regain her power, but he willingly let himself die to her, and so she stopped. Girls, you can't even sacrifice yourself without them changing their mind. They end up together at the end of the story.
Also, Ricca still has some nightmares, remnants of her Lust Crest curse thingie, and Claret helps her deal with her nightmares by going into them and fighting inside them. She manages to also beat the remnant dark energy left in herself by the Archlich (this was his grand backup plan to take over Ricca's body. Once again, a failure for him). From how's framed, most likely Ricca ends up with Claret, which is one of the more organic lesbian relationships I've come across (as they are both cute together, and also make sense getting together in-story). In a adult game, while actual serious shows/games fail on this front. Then again, they could just end up marrying dudes at a later point in their lives, it might've been a fake-out, but this is already post-end story, so it's all fine.
Also, Ricca still has some nightmares, remnants of her Lust Crest curse thingie, and Claret helps her deal with her nightmares by going into them and fighting inside them. She manages to also beat the remnant dark energy left in herself by the Archlich (this was his grand backup plan to take over Ricca's body. Once again, a failure for him). From how's framed, most likely Ricca ends up with Claret, which is one of the more organic lesbian relationships I've come across (as they are both cute together, and also make sense getting together in-story). In a adult game, while actual serious shows/games fail on this front. Then again, they could just end up marrying dudes at a later point in their lives, it might've been a fake-out, but this is already post-end story, so it's all fine.
One thing I just noticed making this Review. Not only is Claret foreshadowed as early as the 1st level in the Story, but she is the one that sold that Pink Necklace to the merchant, who then ended up giving it to Ricca. Now, I'm not saying Claret shadow-orchestrated everything, from the sound of it, she probably did not know what that Necklace would end up doing in the future to Miria, or that it would end up on her or anything.... But, to be fair, she also does not react much when hearing from Ricca, later on, about the necklace having been sold to the merchant by a mage girl, which is also weird.... Is there possibly more at play here? (Nah most likely a faint plot-line forgotten, or simply a nice easter egg).
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| As the kids would smirk these days, pretty SUS of her here.... |
Overall, the Story is pretty big and in-depth, and does deal with the psychological side of things a lot more. Especially Ricca's psychological development, although you also get some aspects of Miria's mindset too. At times, it might get a bit grating, with all the crying and lamenting, but it is, if nothing else, fairly realistic, considering who Ricca was prior to the Story, and how she has a long road ahead of her in the mental changes department. Still, no lack of Plot here! Also having plenty of Story Scenes in the game to accompany it. A bit too many at times.... But all of them easily Skip-able, so even then, no real incovenience caused.
The game has a mild, 3.5 Wall Break (a bit less than a 4th Wall Break), addressing a few Game Mechanics in organic in-story dialogue, but it's pretty rare, just around the beginning of the game (and a bit when you learn new moves, around the tutorials for them), and those instances are fairly insular, so no worries about Ricca constantly wondering why the hell does she have Health and Mana bars generally above her head (though I would've chuckled a little if they made a small jab at that mechanic as well).
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| Just as likely, possible onset dementia as result of the repeated mental traumas suffered. |
Characters = 9.5
While there are a few focus-characters in the story (relative to its size at least), they are pretty fleshed out. The MC here, Ricca, gets a good treatment as a fleshed-out character (at least this is a form of good treatment for her to get. Other than that....). As mentioned before, she gets to grow as the main character, forced into saving the world essentially, and has to slowly mature to be able to do so. Her sister also gets quite a bit of development, even some individual one, not solely relying on connection with Ricca for her own side of the story. Iris also has her own mini-development (about good for her Fairy-size, I'd say), and hell, even the archlich has a backstory of his own, which is more than just general hatred for life (although he does end up doing much the same as your average chaos-thirsty antagonist, but this is about as much as we can get in the terms of big baddies of the Dark element). Also Claret is there as a supportive character, much like Iris. Apart from the afordmentioned, few other notable characters, and the rest are literal cannon-fodder or mooks. Clearly a quality-over-quantity approach to the relevant ones.
One thing to mention is the actual amount of Voice-acting present in the game, for the main characters. Not completely all of their dialogue lines are voiced, but I'd say around 90% of them are. Yes, out of all the lines, even outside the H-scenes, which is quite a nice touch. Moreso considering the size of the story in this game, and thus, the actual amount of total voice lines present in the game. I personally don't usually go out of my way for Voice-acting in Adult games, but I do appreciate the effort when I see it. (On a sidenote, I've watched way to many Anime, and at this point, it feels weird to me to hear actual English voices in Eastern-style animations and artstyles. I'm going through therapy for this by watching some Abridged series on youtube, wish me luck.)
Gameplay = 7.62
Mechanics = 9
As you'd expect, you've got your basic HP and MP bars, and at 0 HP, you die. You also get your Continues, allowing you to respawn back for a certain amount of times per level. Your Special Attack Cooldown bar and Lust bar appear only when they are relevant.
For your general movement, you can move, jump (and Climb and Hang off of chains), attack, guard and even do special attacks. There are plenty of different ways to attack, depending on what how you were moving during the attack. Simply tapping the Attack button starts the weak attack combo, while moving left/right while Attacking starts the strong attack combo. Holding Up/Down makes for High/Low attacks, and attacking after running straight in a direction for a bit (aproximate at least 2 running steps taken by Ricca) makes for a dash attack. All of those attacks (apart from the dash attack) can be done in the air, as well. Each weapon has its own attack patterns, with some being more similar between one another (the swords, for example), others being extremely different (comparing a sword to the scythe, or the club etc.). To be noted, this game is the type that actually cares about the physical interactions quite a lot, meaning that the animations are actually relevant to the effect of your attacks (including the damage area, the swing times etc.). In fact, without one of the Skill Upgrades, when your weapon hits a wall, it actually makes contact and stops your combo-ing.
Holding the guard button during movement makes Ricca walk instead, while trying to jump whilst holding Guard makes her do a Backstep. Most usefully however, is her ability to do a Perfect Guard if the Guard button is only pressed just as an enemy attack is about to connect. The timing for it is finnicky, as, again, it's all based on the actual animations, and almost all enemies have different attacks that they use. While a normal Guard reduces damage, of course, a Perfect Guard mitigates it completely, at times dazing the enemy that attacked you, and if you also have the proper Skill Upgrade and a capable weapon, Counter attack at that moment. Grabs cannot be Perfect Guarded against.
Holding the guard button during movement makes Ricca walk instead, while trying to jump whilst holding Guard makes her do a Backstep. Most usefully however, is her ability to do a Perfect Guard if the Guard button is only pressed just as an enemy attack is about to connect. The timing for it is finnicky, as, again, it's all based on the actual animations, and almost all enemies have different attacks that they use. While a normal Guard reduces damage, of course, a Perfect Guard mitigates it completely, at times dazing the enemy that attacked you, and if you also have the proper Skill Upgrade and a capable weapon, Counter attack at that moment. Grabs cannot be Perfect Guarded against.
Most important are the Special attacks, all using MP. The basic tap of the Special Attack button simply throws a light sword, which can lodge itself in straight vertical walls, also doubling as footholds (a mechanic used by the game). Enemies hit by the light sword are stunned for a bit. Holding the button, however, after unlocking the proper Skill Upgrades (you'll have to unlock each of the Special Attacks), allows for the actual Special Attacks. All are started by holding the Special Attack button, but you choose which of them to executed by the directional buttons pressed alongside. No direction pressed results in Lighting Rush, pressing left/right gets you the Blaze Charge, pressing down makes the Frozen Orbs, and finally, pressing up gets you the Holy Geiser. Each of them attack with different animations, during all of which you're invincible (with Frozen Orbs having the shortest actual animation), all having individual Cooldown times, in which no other Special Attack can be used (with Holy Geiser having the longest one by quite a bit), and each also temporarily imbuing your weapon with their respective element (for Holy Geiser, you instead heal all status effects).
Let's not forget about Iris.... Well, at least let's try our best in that. She's not that functionally useful, though. Pressing up while Guarding summons her directly, and she'll automatically shoot at the enemy in front of you for a bit, before going back into the Brooch. She can appear by herself at times, and you can re-summon her after losing a bit of health or after reaching checkpoints, or even force-summon her by expending a bit of MP instead. She also can come out when you've lost a lot of HP to provide a faint heal to you. Fairly useless overall, only niche uses in dealing with enemies while you're Climbing/Hanging from places, when you cannot attack them as easily with your own weapon (well, you can still try to Jump attack them with a bit of timing, but still)
As for the enemies, they generally simply go for damaging you. A thing to note is that they generally take increased damage if hit during their wind-up animations for their attacks, or even during their attacks (if you can hit them during their attacks, that is). A few have Grabs possible (denoted by pink sparkly-type particle effect when done), and if they grab you, you'll have to Struggle out of their hold by hitting Left&Right alternatively, as they progressively damage your HP. However, in this one game, recklessly mashing is NOT the way to go, as at a certain mash-amount, you'll actually struggle slower. Try to find the sweetspot pace, instead of growing that Carpal Tunnel in vain. Grab attacks will slowly fill up your Lust bar as well, with some Traps being able to fill the Lust bar by a lot more. The Lust bar will gradually drain away, but while it is on, you take increased damage, deal reduced damage, and your MP constantly drains away (and if empty, starts draining your HP instead).
Other than that, after taking certain amounts of damage, your armor (& clothes) will start getting damaged (can get damaged 2 times), which will make you take more damage from attacks. You can also be inflicted, just like your enemies, with status effects, those being Burn (gradual HP damage), Frost (depending on the amount, slows all your movement) and Petrification (also slows your movement, and if fully Petrified, dies instantly, regardless of HP).
For actual level mechanics, you can break the breakables, push the pushables (the boxes that don't break like the breakables), and yes, collect the Collectables (the Magic Stones for your currency, the HP and MP crystals for the needed refills) and fuck the-- I mean, interact with the Interactable spots. The yellow circles work as Checkpoints in the level, while the blue circles are there to refill you on MP (usually, right next to a wall that's needs a climbin'). Hidden in (almost) each level, there is one Silver Magic Stone, and some levels even have Skills to be collected (in the form of Swords planted into the ground).
When I specified the game plays in 2.5D, you might feel like that's not exactly the case, for the fact that your general gameplay is in a SideScroller fashion. However, you might have noticed, from the background movement and the map, that in certain levels, you're actually moving in the 3D space, even with the 2.5D gameplay. The most relevant aspect is for the rare enemies that can stay in the Background area, but still be damaged by a few means (hitting back certain projectiles, like fireballs or rocks, reflects them back to the source, and can also hit in the background as well). A good thing to keep in mind. Some of your own attacks also have more than just a 2D dimension (although rarily seen, for a few breakables that are close to your 0.5D sides).
There is actually quite a lot of platforming in this game, especially if you're on the hunt for the full-clear of the game. As another thing to get in each level, there are H-Scenes to find, usually requiring to lose to certain enemies (at times, in certain ways as well), or as part of the Story itself. You'll be shown, at the top of the screen, when you can unlock such a H-Scene, and its conditions. You can also see, from the Level Select, all the Collectable important stuff in the level you just completed, essentially letting you know just how much you missed back there. The silver lining here is that you can at least instantly unlock the H-Scenes from this screen, for the level that you just completed (fair enough I'd say). Would've been might useful for me to also know this before manually finding and unlocking all the game's scenes except the one in the 2nd last level. Yea. It would've been sweet....
....Speaking of the Level Select screen! From here, you get to spend your hard-earned Magic Stones to buy Consumables, Equipment, Skill upgrades to grow stronger.... Or just bling yourself up with Cosmetics, your choice really. How can a Holly Knight defeat the evil without also being fashionable, right?
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| The Fashion of a winner |
But about more serious matters. The Consumables can be used whenever you wish, during your playthrough, by pausing the game and selecting them. However, each of them has a maximum carry limit at one time, to limit even Full-Money saves from simply brute-forcing their way through any fight (though you can still get pretty close to that). You'll unlock more possible Consumables later on, including those that have Detrimental effects to you, if you feel like the game's too easy for some reason.
You can also choose to upgrade some of your Skills, in a Skill-Tree system. Keep in mind, since some Skills need to be found in Levels, some of the Skill Tree paths will be blocked until the proper Skills are found to continue. Most skills also have multiple levels to them. Those Skill Upgrades can impact the gameplay in many ways, from simple stat upgrades (to your HP, MP, damage from certain attacks), to enabling new mechanics (Counters, not getting dazed by the weapon smashing into the walls), and even unlocking and upgrading each Special Attack.
Finally, you have the Equipment&Costumes menu, from where you can unlock and equip both Gameplay-affecting Costumes and the ones simply for flair. Being the sweaty gamer that I am, I personally prioritized the Gameplay advantages over simply customizing Ricca to suit my needs, in an Adult game. Hell, I only messed around with changing her looks (haircut & eyes & such) just now, for the pic right-above. While equipping, you can also see, in the lower-right corner, the changed stats (relevant for the equipment that affects them), although, for the most part, you get keywords instead of direct values. As such, for move speed, you get "Slow", "Fast", "Fastest" etc, while for Attack (the damage), the Guard Effectiveness (how much damage the normal Guard can reduce) and your resistances to the damage types (Physical, Fire-Heat, Lighting-Acid, Ice-Water) are denoted by "Lowest", "Low", "High" etc. . You get to see your current weight as a number, which obviously will affect your Move Speed. Also, you get to see your current Weapon Buff, varying for each weapon you can equip. Not the most detailed Stats menu, but manageable (and a bit more realistic in terms of what you'd normally be able to tell, without RPG-given numbers). Finally, you can save Costume loadouts (including both the Gameplay Equipment and the Vanity Costumes, even the Body Customizations) in separate Costume Slots. Useful to choose them easier for later on, both for Playing the game, and Playing with the Sexy Scenes.
Overall, game's pretty feature-complete in my opinion, has a bit of everything, and is challenging as well, which, for me, is always a plus. A bit frustrating and difficult at times, but keep in mind I'm also kind of a masochist myself. Also, the Difficulty change option being a thing if you need it. That as well.
Complexity = 8
While the game is simple to understand in its mechanics, as they are generally explained and shown quite clearly.... It's difficulty is another story. It falls more into the "Skill-based" camp, generally speaking. Considering the amount of detail in the combat system, having the animations actually be distinct and matter in the gameplay, and the variety in equipment and, most importantly, weapons, you'll need to strategize what equipment you'd be best using, and then also be able to use it to its full extent. Also, not neglecting Skill Upgrades, which are essential in getting to full power as fast as possible.
Personally, in games like this, I first prioritize skills that allow me to earn more Currency that can then be used back into more Skill Upgrades, essentially upping the Resource Income (while still getting enough Skill Upgrades to still be combat viable, to reach the areas in which Currency-farming is most efficient). This game also has a Skill Upgrade to increase Magic Stone drop rate, although it's fairly deep into the Skill Tree. Also, in my own experience, the best level for farming the Magic Stones is near the end, but by that point, it starts being a bit redundant, so you might wish to either find an earlier level for farming, or passively gather Magic Stones and only stop for farming when you hit a personal roadblock in progressing. Or simply lower the difficulty, the also works....
Uniqueness = 6.5
Well, the game does play out much like your average SideScroller, although with a bit more AAA-style polish to it and more in-depth fighting system. Also attention to detail. Still, nothing ground-breaking in the terms of its own genre.
Replayability = 7
I could argue there's quite a good point of replaying the game, for the fact that it actually provides quite a general challenge. Even the Boss-Rush-type levels could be an attraction for trying to fight them again (if you already beat them, that is), maybe even with another loadout. The weapons do have their unique Attacks (although the Special Attacks remain the same in functionality), so seeing their different styles, and how they would fare against some of the levels, could be a thing. Having a Level Select (which also saves you on the latest checkpoint you reached) is not bad, either. Still, not a huge amount of actual gameplay variety aside from the affordmentioned. Just give the game a shot, in a certain themed outfit, that might be fun, or at least aesthetic....
Scenes = 9
Visual = 10
Quite the content to talk about here. This is the eye-candy of the game, after all. First, just for the customization of Ricca, you've got quite the number of options. You've got a number of costume parts to choose from (that you unlock as you progress through the game, and then buy when needed), and you can even customize Ricca's body, starting with her hair (style&color), the face itself, the body etc. I don't dable a lot into those functions, myself, but they sure can be useful to make your potential dream girl.... to play as, and see be abused.
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| The fairly-extensive Character Customization options |
Also, if you wish, during actual gameplay, to stop the whole action and observe the current predicament (of course, just for the curious viewing pleasure, that's all), you can do so by pressing "Ctrl" in-game, which will essentially freeze-frame everything and then give you the camera controls.
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| In-game Free Camera Mode |
This function could even be used, during gameplay, as a way to Pause the game mid-fight to gather your thoughts, maybe even examine your surroundings to strategize ahead. Considering the Free Camera movement, you could even explore the whole level ahead, even find the Secrets from it like that! (although it does take quite a lot of mouse movement to move around on that scale.... Still, a way to game the system!). Of course, it's intended more for the erotic side of the game, so you can clearly enter this mode even during Grabs, if you particularly enjoy what you can see at that point.
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| Moments before disaster |
As for the actual H-scenes, first, we can start with the Grab-attacks of some enemies. As said previously, the enemy starts sparkling pink when he's winding up for their Grab. The Grabs are not specifically review-able from any Gallery Menu, and that's why I consider the the smaller example of H-scenes. Plenty of them do unlock specific H-scenes if you get defeated during them though.
The actual H-Scenes, as categorized in the Gallery by the game itself, are of 2 types. First, the Novel type, which are basically story-driven H-Scenes, with plenty of dialogue, and you advance through them by simply advancing the dialogue. Those usually happen as part of the plot itself. The other type is "3D", but essentially, this are the "Free H-Scenes", in the sense that, when you get into them, they are split on Sections (usually alternating the positions, and the stages of each position). You can view each animation of each part of those Scenes individually, for as long as you wish (you do have some options in there for the animations), and then proceed to the next stage of the Scene whenever you want. There can be story (dialogue) segments between said H-Scene parts, depending on the scene. This type of scene happens rarer during the actual Story, most of them being the "Bad Ends" to the main story, or just alternate situations. All of them are skipable, and even fastforward-able. So no forcing you into any of them.
Of course their quality is to be expected. Both the 3D animations being of high-quality, having polished models, appealing style, and the voice acting also being up to par from the heroine. So yea, the Visuals rock, and you have plenty of options to customize what you see.
Written = 9
The writing also keeps up very well with the H-scenes. A lot of detail put through the writing, to properly finish painting the scene, and how the characters feel during them. Of course, there's less writing in the "3D" H-scene type, but it's to make space for the playback options for the animations of those scenes. In those, the writing is more or less to link the scenes between one another (although it still does make logical sense, the scenes were clearly made with connection between them). All in all, the writting is as solid during the H-scenes as for the main story, although it's more present in the Novel H-Scenes than the other type, where it can even be quite detailed and long at times. At times, a bit too long.... But not by much.
Interactibility = 8
Now, it depends on whether we're talking about in-game Interactibility or Meta interactions. For the in-game part, the best you'll get will be with the Grab attacks, out of which you need to actively Struggle. During the actual H-scenes, though, the story, and scenes themselves, progress fairly linearly, without much for you to interact with. Now, as for Meta interactions, those being the Playback options (present during the "3D" H-scene type), those are pretty thorough, allowing you to speed up/slow down the animations, change between animations, move the camera etc. Of course, the Scenes themselves remain the same, but it's still something to appreciate, the customizability offered like this. Sadly, the playback options are not avaliable for the Novel scenes (as they are dialogue-driven).
Replayability = 9
As said previously, you can Replay the proper H-scenes, but for the Grab attacks, you'll have to go to the proper levels with the respective enemies, and survive up until their Grab attacks happen (harder to do for Bosses, for obvious reasons). As for the H-scenes themselves, you can either replay them, per each level, from the Stage Select of that respective level (by clicking on the Heart symbol for them, the same way you'd initially unlock them after finishing the level from this menu, to not scour the level again for them), however the more efficient option is to go through the Main Menu, in the Bonus menu. That's where you'll see the H-scenes that you've unlocked. From here, you can also change the currently equipped Costume between the Saved Costumes you have (but to make new Costumes, you'll have to go through the game itself, and go to the Change Costume menu). Here you can also see in which H-Scenes will your costume show up and in which they have preset Costume for your character (usually, making sense story-wise why they'd have a certain specific costume for those H-scenes). Plenty of easy access to the previous Scenes, essentially. If they'd have also enabled a way to replay individual fights, that would make even Grabs be easier to reach. Alas, still solid way to revisit the H-scenes whenever you feel like it. Myself, I usually go through the Story in a more plot-oriented mindset, and collect the H-scenes for viewing afterwards, when I'm done being a hardcore pro gamer during the Game itself. So it does help to have Galleries. Can't get enough of them.
Development = ----
Well, they did update the game quite a few times after the initial release. A lot of updates to get to the current version number (v1.2.2), getting a total of 20 updates from the release up until now (being first released on 12/25/2021), with 3 of them even adding a bit more content (aside from Bug Fixes). They really polished this one out.
Obtaining = 8
Price = 7
Now here, it gets a bit complicated. I did not call this game as being "AAA-tier" for no reason. It's both for its quality (its polish etc.), and for the price as well. It's one of the pricier single-product Adult games that I've gone through, standing at a proud 3300 JPY or $23.72 on DLsite. Yeah. I'm not saying you don't get content for it, both a lot of Gameplay, Story and H-scenes to enjoy. Animated in good quality, awesome Voice-acting, all the jazz. Still, I'm not that keen on the price myself. Now I'm also quite subjective, not being into the AAA scene that much, and going for Hidden gems in my normal spare time. I'm not the type to hit up the CoD or Battlefield that much, though I rarely do hit up a CS:GO or Valorant. Still, considering how you can get so many other, smaller in scope, games that overall offer more content, all for much lower costs.... It's harder to spend all of these money on just one game. The price still fits for the quality, but regardless, it will come down to whether you have the money to easily spend on games (and of this genre), and if you find killer Offers or Sales for the game. This is the upper-tier of the Adult games in general quality, after all.
Methods = 9
DLsite. That's it, easy done.
FINAL SCORE = 8.61
To be honest, as purely an Adult game, myself I would not be that much into this game, considering my own fetishes, despite the game's quality. In fact, I'm not that much into seeing girls being extremely tortured or fucked by monsters or guys. Alas, this game also had enticing gameplay for me to dable into.... It is a pretty good game, having above average quality across the board. Not much at the top of my head I can say would be missing from the game.... But do keep in mind the price. Please. Think carefully if the outlined features of the game fit you enough to warrant the price. If it's all fine.... then go for it. You probably won't regret the purchase, if you made your mind to make it to begin with.
Just the basics. I tried for a Cheat Table too, but it's not easily happening, and I'd rather just get Full Money and use the avaliable equipment instead of doing too much rocket science when not needed. Work smarter, not harder!
Saves
As expected, has game fully cleared, all levels unlocked (although I'll admit, the 2nd last level, the 2nd Boss Rush that is, I did cheat in the Save Data. Do you know how hard it is to last through all of those bosses with no Continues? Well, I did remember afterwards I still had the game on Hard difficulty... alas). Save has Full Money, and all possible Consumables, Upgrades, Equipment and Cosmetics bought. For the upgrades, the toggle-able ones are all On except only 2, the Damage Burst (because it's chance-based and has an MP cost for being an passive ability) and Aerial kick (can mess you up depending on weapon equipped, in comparison to just the normal weak aerial attack), and for the Consumables, only the beneficial ones are fully bought (if you want the detriments or the risk-reward Damage booster, you'll have to buy them when needed).
Considering that half of the Costumes double as Equipment (with benefits), I have, on the current loadout of the save, Equipment that I deemed the most efficient. I did prioritize damage over speed for the most part, but still kept high overall resistances. And also, I admit it does not look at all like the best costume combination, but what can you do.
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| What works, works. |
Other than that, I made no other changes to the character, not even the ones strictly aesthetic. You've got those options to yourself to abuse. Have fun.
Other's Files
Only 2 patches (that need to be copied to the files of the actual game), simple functionalities to them. I also recommend, like per always (and for any kind of modifications that replace files), to make a backup before applying patches.
Uncensor Patch [funog1]
For Patch: Link to Forum
Simply removes the Mosaic censorship. Something that can be often done with Unity games, so long as actual uncensored models exist in the game (and the model is not straight-up made, or left, only censored in-game).
High-resolution (+Uncensor Patch) [Goshtic]
For Patch: Link to Forum
This one's a big one in size. Gives better textures for what would be relevant, but, of course, will also require better PC specs overall. Also includes the Uncensor patch (which makes sense, like why the fuck would you get your 4k-textured penis to be behind 1p-quality mosaic filter).
Another one down the content hatch, as they say! I did feel a bit like going for more action-based content, since I did review and play (on my own, for future reviews) quite a few RPG games, and need a bit more adrenaline for a healthy balance. Probably will keep this trend for a bit longer.... I guess we'll have to see about it in the next Review.
Meta_Review,Meta_Files,
MetaFiles_Saves,
Developer_CircleGroup,
Language_English,
Progress_Complete,
TypeGame_25DGameplay,
TypeLookGenre_SideScroller,
TypeGenre_Action,TypeGenre_Adventure,
TypeSubGenre_Platformer,
TypeSetting_Fantasy,
Engine_Unity,
StyleAnim_3DAnimation,
StyleCGs_3DCGs,
StyleView_3DView,StyleMiscView_Censored,StyleMiscView_XRay,
Voices_FullCharacters,
FetishMain_Femdom,FetishMain_Ryona,FetishMain_Maledom,
FetishMC_FemaleMC,
FetishChars_HumanGirls,FetishChars_MagicalGirls,FetishChars_MonsterGirls,FetishChars_SuccubusGirls,
FetishSex_Sex,
FetishSubSex_BDSM,FetishSubSex_MultiplePartners,FetishSubSex_PregnancyNormal,FetishSubSex_PregnancyMonster,FetishSubSex_Yuri,
FetishFocus_Pussy,FetishFocus_Breasts,FetishFocus_Ass,FetishFocus_Cock,FetishFocus_Monstrous,FetishFocus_Undead,
FetishSub_Corruption,FetishSub_Drain,FetishSub_Gore,FetishSub_MindControl,FetishSub_Tentacles,FetishSub_Transformation,
Links_DLsite,
1 comment:
Nice bro
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