Reviewed on: 2024/07/14
Score: 7/10
Playtime: About 4-5 hours (version 0.4).
[h3]TL;DR:[/h3]
“Fractured Realms” is a high fantasy story featuring sex, magic, and interdimensional travel.
It uses detailed and well-chosen environments to bring its story to life. A diverse cast of characters further enriches this experience. Not only are these characters all very different in their appearance, they also have their history, fears, and dreams. Some, even, are from another plane of existence.
If a harem game set in a high fantasy setting sounds appealing to you, this purchase is a no-brainer. If you're in doubt, play the demo first.
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[h3]Gameplay:[/h3]
“Fractured Realms” is a character- and story-driven game. Player-choice mostly determines how the Main Character interacts with various people and Love Interests, in combination with a largely kinetic main story.
The game is designed with attention for the player's experience. Choice menus will often inform the player of their consequence, and dialogue-/exposition-heavy conversations can be skipped, which respects your time during a replay.
Most important characters can be renamed, including Aaron, the MC. While most LI are (or will be) integral to the story, they aren't to the MC's harem. The player/MC isn't forced into intimacy with anyone, even allowing for monogamous or celibate playthroughs. There are no hidden love- or relationship-points either, giving players the freedom to just decide how far they want to go with an LI.
Currently, there are no Steam achievements, but the dev said these will be added in a future update.
[h3]Adult:[/h3]
There are 8 lewd scenes which feature masturbation, BJ or vaginal intercourse. Three of these scenes are the same event, which can happen as an MFF threesome, or with each LI individually.
While the game's story doesn't delve too deeply into these themes, it also deals with grief, betrayal, assault, violence, exclusion, slavery, and the decline of a civilization.
Love Interests aren't on birth control, as such, pregnancy can become a theme later.
[h3]Visual:[/h3]
[b]UI[/b]: While the game's UI is relatively basic, it still provides all the features a modern Ren'Py game would. It also includes a configurable textbox, a scene gallery, and an episode selector.
[b]Characters[/b]: “Fractured Realms” features a wide range of characters of varying shapes and sizes, some even supernatural or fantastical.
Their posing and posture is well done, and they have believable and realistic facial expressions. They'll open their mouth when speaking, and will gesture and emote.
Some areas can be improved, mostly with characters looking at the MC instead of each-other while talking, but this is an exception.
[b]Renders[/b]: The game's setting, backgrounds, and lighting are chosen well, and convey the atmosphere of a scene. It's noticeable how the dev uses lighting for effect, to let players intuit the passing of time, it changes depending on the weather, time of day, and location.
Like its characters, the renders aren't always perfect. There's some clipping, or hair moving with a changing facial expression. Every so often, the incoming light through a window will get darker, then brighter again. These are rookie mistakes, but looking at the dev's increase in skill from episode 1 to 4, I have no doubt he'll improve further.
[b]Animations[/b]: This is arguably the game's weakest point. There are no real animations yet. Instead, the dev opted to render individual frames and string them together in a sequence. This causes movement to appear choppy and robotic, and the animations as low frame rate. When interviewing the dev, he explained being limited by hardware, but that he plans to rework all animations in the future.
[h3]Sound:[/h3]
[i]Fractured Realms'[/i] sound design appears to be a work in progress. There are 11 soundtracks, only 2 ambient tracks and a few sex sounds.
The background music is matched to scenes. Its tracks aren't overbearing or distracting, instead adding to the general atmosphere of what's going on. I expect more sound effects, ambient noise and sex sounds to be added in the future, though time will tell.
[h3]Novel:[/h3]
We meet Aaron, the MC, traveling by train to Ketsef from Impor, to deal with the inheritance of his uncle, Kurt. For Aaron, Kurt's death was the latest in a string of bad events, having broken up with his fiancée recently, and having lost his jobs due to worsening economic conditions.
When the train arrives, Aaron exits, and we're shown someone using magic to teleport out of the cart.
During this intro, the writing immediately makes clear that we're in an alternative universe, and that it doesn't play by our rules. This kind of writing is prevalent throughout the story. Using visual storytelling and careful exposition, we get a general sense of this game's universe, and the rules it plays by. Occasionally, there will be larger conversations that explain certain concepts, like the way that magic works, but these can be skipped if you're less interested in world building. Similarly, we learn more about the various Love Interests and side characters in natural ways.
As far as criticism goes about the writing, I have two nuanced ones. The first is that the MC's tragic backstory isn't used for effect. This is a man who lost everything, but you wouldn't know it. Despite his fiancée having cheated on him, he's trusting and easy-going, eager to invite strangers into his new home, and him seeing them as girlfriends.
My second criticism is related to this; the pacing of him “getting the band together” feels off. Less than a week after arriving at Ketsef, Aaron will invite 5 (potentially 6) LI to live with him.
This pacing-issue is largely an effect of practicality. Aaron's personal trauma takes a back seat in favor of getting the girls together quickly. The writer needs to get to the A-plot, since that's the story they're telling, and to achieve that, the MC needs friends he can rely on.
[h3]Conclusion:[/h3]
“Fractured Realms” has a lot going for it. It's a high fantasy story, featuring one of the most unique worlds I've seen in an AVN. It tells its story competently, aided by outstanding visual design.
On the negatives, there isn't much to say. Sometimes dialog has issues communicating complex and abstract systems to players, like how a society functions, or how magic works. Other times, the story's pacing can feel a bit off… But much of this very subjective.
All things considered, and seeing the game's evolution from Episode 1 to 4, I'm certain its quality will keep improving. On a personal note, I found the dev pleasant to speak with. He loves the world he's creating, and likes to get feedback from players how they experience the game, and which aspects should be improved.
I've enjoyed my playthrough of this game, and can't recommend it enough, even at full price. If you're in doubt, play the demo first.
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