[7/24/"2024" update]: I have ... finished? The game and it gets worse. Bugs and incompletion abound.
One female character becomes permanently inaccessible if you turn down her offer *once*; selfsame woman hands you a part to take back to the school that you never actually can do anything with (this game lacks an inventory); Shower Steam achievements inaccessible; and after what the Steam achievements acknowledge as canon "graduation" day, nothing happens. Your character just gets trapped in a purgatory of never-ending pixellated lewdness and wizardry that gets boring one you know you've seen all of it.
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It's a really interesting premise as far as an NSFW game goes- and even as a game in itself - but there's a whole lot left disorganized, like they made a working prototype, added a whole bunch of stuff to it, then only worked some of that stuff to actually fit in neatly before deciding to just ship it as-is.
Obviously, it's anime-styled- more accurately, it's horny-teenager-tries-drawing-anime-in-his-school-notebook styled - yet, it plays somewhat like an old-timey Western RPG, with branching dialogue paths, a first-person view of rooms you're in, a sort of choose-your-own-adventure-esque way of moving around the (admittedly very small) world, and a general feeling and atmosphere much more like The Elder Scrolls than like Final Fantasy.
The story is simple. Like with most hentai, you play as a young Asian boyo who winds up in a new place filled with love -or, let's be honest, mostly ♥♥♥♥ - interests, in this case a magic school. From there you meet the ladies in the school.
There actually is another goal in this game, which is to become a powerful wizard. Enter the unique gameplay. Instead of relying on a typical level-up system, you "fight", if it can be called fighting, monster-women, usually in grids we'll settle on calling 'dungeons', to collect macguffin points called Arcana. Every thousand or so of these points you have on hand, el brujo's spells become more powerful. Attacks inflict increased damage, defense sorcery creates increased defense points, so on.
"Combat" itself is interesting and new for a game, as I know. You choose a spell, it comes with a pre-programmed list of arrow key commands to type to pull it off, then, if applicable, choose a target. Even if you make mistakes, the spell can go through; it'll just be weaker.
Eventually, you can take "tests" against dummies via conversing with the teacher Caith - if you ask me, one of the only consistently likable characters in this whole game - in which sake you gain an increased "rank".
To be honest, the "Rank's" purpose seems underwhelming. It only seems to have two uses. First, it's used to impress one of the female students you can interact with - and indeed, I'm pretty sure she's the only one who cares - and though I haven't gotten there yet, I assume it advances a bigger central plot.
This is a taste of what I meant in the first paragraph.
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The female leads themselves... honestly, I'm split. Saki and Jean are unlikable in most cases, mediocre at best. By contrast, Fae is likable but underutilized so far, while Ayla and Caith are *absolutely* the best girls, and Ayla in particular deserves nothing but comfort and the best things in life. Europa ought to be this game's mascot; she goes from having one of the most annoying personalities to one of the best, and unlike the lewd scenes you can unlock for the other girls, hers actually has buildup, timing, and some degree of in-universe acknowledgement.
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Of course, most of us didn't buy this just for a typical new game experience. I didn't. We bout it for lewds, and as far as the lewd content goes, I think it underperforms. Mostly.
The aformentioned stuff about a lot of content here not really being woven in right? That is mostly about the NSFW. Julie and Saki are callous ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ who hate you, the protagonist, and put you down often, not to mention making it clearer than clear that they are lesbian, *and yet* at some point, eventually, you can have a scene with each.
Now, the sex 'scenes' with the named characters in this game? Don't expect animation. It's a preset still image or series of images that linger, for a long time, with audio going on in the background. Now, I recently have taken to listening to lewd F4M audio stories on the orange and black YouTube, so for me it's a taste that can be got, but if you reserve the right for your porn to involve something definitively moving, the named love interest scenes in this game are not for you.
And on that note: With the exception of Europa, so far every intimate scene I've found has no buildup, just suddenly *happens* or is unlocked without reason. Eventually you go to your bed and can use it to scroll through lewd scenes - which is clunky and hard to figure out, by the way, which of course it shouldn't be - and that's how I found out Saki can even have a sex scene. Just scrolled through and found her there.
And Fae! She's one of the only characters who seems to be on our side; suddenly she has an unlocked sex... frame, it's just a frame. She doesn't even get any monologue like Europa or [spoiler]Jean's werewolf counterpart[/spoiler], you just suddenly can stare at a pixellated still frame of her with her tongue out.
LIkewise, there's wasted potential regarding a couple common enemies,two of whom can follow you from the dungeon and stay in your bedroom with you, but outside of Fae acknowledging they've made it in, and *one* new still lewd frame unlocked for each - with nothing but a light sigh for audio - there's no acknowledgement of them, no talks to be had, they're just kind of... there.
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As far as lewdness goes, most of the good stuff is in the interactions with the monster girls in the dungeon. They have a unique mechanic wherein a dedicated bar of theirs goes up through a fight, then if full, they initiate a scene with your guy next attack they get in when you're unshielded. Most of these are actually pretty likable. They're actually animated, and the sex is genuinely interesting with varied positions.
Just don't expect to see them outside the dungeon. Again, the way you're supposed to be able to view them in your bedroom journal is very clunky, so you may not actually find them there.
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This game has some good RNA, but plenty of stuff kind of just slapped in, and clunky journal menus, mean I can't recommend it at full price. If you truly want to see a proof-of-concept lewd game with RPG elements, I suggest waiting until a really... *really* steep sale.
