Orc Covenant: Gay Bara Orc Visual Novel

I've seen some bad reviews because some people wanted a more indepth story (translation slower burn on romance). But personally I think this game is giving exactly what it's advertising. It's a steamy, hot romance game for those with a preference for bara guys. This is exactly what was advertised and it's exactly what was delivered. The art work is great and you are definitely getting your money's worth in CGs when you consider the number of characters in the game. It's also making me want to try different choices in the storyline which is a good sign. Is it going to have moments where the story takes a ridiculous turn to let you see hot sex? Yes, of course. This is a game designed and created to view hot, erotic fantasies. Looking at the trailers it's obvious the game designers aren't misleading gamers on what this game offers. And they should be rewarded for that, not punished because someone wishes the game was something else.

meh The best way to describe this is simply...meh. Very disappointing, not worth the price tag Some scenes are just randomly black and white? Makes it seem unfinished Story is repetitive across all routes, rather than focus on your chosen lover, all routes go into every character, it gets tedious *fast* Severe lack of choices No consistency with the body proportions The quality in Y Press Games is dropping, while the price tag rises and it's a kick in the teeth to fans. Worse, is the amount of guilt tripping done by Yamila in the discord server and the lies being spread in marketing emails. So very disappointed in the game and company.

This game was a long-awaited and massively marketed project by Y Press Games. Even during the demo, I had a feeling that it probably wouldn't be the best 18+ game, but it still looked solid. The final product at 28,99 EUR is unfortunately more disappointing. The story was pretty fast paced, which I think is quite good. This game is not a romantic slowburn, but a clear 18+ visual novel. Unfortunately the speed gave the characters the easy going brand, there was no way to get extra attached to them and invest in the individual story lines beyond mouse clicks. The introduction and encounter with the orcs was a massive mistake from my perspective. All of the characters were revealed, they showed their "qualities" and it took quite a lot of drive out of their individual stories, where for example their reveal could have just been something interesting. Another thing that was clear to me from the demo is that the orcs had completely insanely disproportionate manhood to their bodies. If this was a specific trait in any of them, it could be understood, but this was completely off and very much took away my personal drive from the 18+ scenes, which felt completely unnatural. At the same time, their proportions vary from scene to scene, meaning any consistency is an illusion, and it always seemed to be the size that matched the scene rather than the character itself. The last comment is about some 18+ scenes that the creators didn't even bother to color and left them black and white. So were we paying for a finished product, or was it a version that the studio needed to release quickly so they could start cashing in players?

UPDATED REVIEW: I'VE NOW 100% COMPLETED THE GAME! Y Press Games definitely delivered on this title! If you liked Alpha Hole Prison, you'll DEFINITELY love this game! My favorite routes were Yundril's and Dagroth's routes. The story is engaging, the characters are consistent and fun, and the art is high quality. There are some black-and-white CGs (and having since asked the devs about this, I've confirmed that it's a stylistic choice), which I don't mind, but it's the only negative thing about the game, in my opinion, as I prefer the full-color CGs. There isn't an abundance of choices in each route (not like in their other title: To Trust An Incubus), but it is a lengthy game and the choices do carry more weight. I really appreciate how well fleshed out Xareth is as a protagonist! The man slays and I absolutely love it! There are some similarities between the routes (like learning about Xareth's and Galen's motives/goals and certain relationship dynamics between the orcs that carry over into other routes) but that's to be expected for a visual novel. Each orc has a different overarching story (different motivations, goals, and traumas) and different development that they go through with Xareth. It's worth it to play through the game multiple times to pick different choices and see the different endings in each route! Overall, this is definitely a banger from Y Press Games and I highly recommend you play it! I also think the price tag is justified based on the quality of the game, the art (extremely high-quality art), and the length of the game. Now, there are a few things I'd like to note: Do not let the negative reviews deter you too greatly from wanting to experience this game. As someone who's followed Y Press Games for years and has always loved (or not loved) the games they make, there's always one thing that's for certain, they constantly strive to improve and make games that everyone will love in the yaoi/BL gaming scene. Not every game they've made is a banger (such a feat would be impossible), but they have made some of my favorite BL games to date (Dear Monster being one such title). Even if this game doesn't look appealing to you, something from their catalog will definitely catch your eye! And having been in the Y Press Games discord server for some time, it's clear to me how much passion the devs have for their games. They listen and take in the feedback from the fans (I had seen this firsthand from the release of Monster Lover 1, which had gotten a lot of negative reviews, but the devs had taken in all this feedback in good conscience), and it's obvious to me that the devs never want to disappoint or put out a lackluster project. Now given all this information, you are entitled to your own opinion as a yaoi/BL game consumer. If this isn't your type of game, you don't have to buy it. But if you're an avid yaoi/BL game consumer like myself, you know that it can be difficult to find developers that are making games to this level of quality in terms of story, art, and characters. These devs will always strive to deliver on their games, and listen to the fans if there's improvements that can be made. Now that I've said my piece, I leave the choice up to you for whether or not you'd like to purchase this game or another game from the Y Press Game catalog! (If you love orcs you'd love this game btw!) Below I've made a list ranking my favorite Y Press Game titles (now updated to include Orc Covenant and some reasons for my choices). I've 100% completed almost all these titles, so I can assure you they're quite good! 1. Dear Monster - one of my fav BL games of all time, seriously you'd do yourself a disservice not to play this game... Momo my beloved 2. Alpha Hole Prison - such a wonderful cast of characters and the differences in choices and events that can happen is amazing, I think I've got 70+ hours in this game... Reaver my beloved 3. Orc Covenant - I loved the orcs, I loved the story, everything about it is fantastic... Yundril my beloved 4. Mister Verastile - hot superheroes... enough said lol i love the characters and the variations in what you can do, also the dlcs are awesome... Lascivion my beloved 5. To Trust An Incubus - love the characters, really interesting game overall... Harsi my beloved 6. Morningdew Farms - its such a cute game and has loveable characters... Rusty my beloved

Black and white CGs... At $35 that is not okay. Also didn't get to make a single decision in dialogue. Not good. Refunded.

I really wanted to like this game. I have played Dear Monster and loved it. Sadly I couldn't bring myself to like this game. I have a thing for fantasy settings, Orc's and Tentacles, even more so for the genre Yaoi (aka Boy Love). If a H-game has those things I tend to buy them. So I thought this would be another good game for me based on my preference's but I didn't like it. The game starts out with the MC's snake familiar telling you the story of the MC from his perspective, not long after that the MC is sent to an Orc Village where the Orc's wanna tie him up and etc. The MC in an effort to Avoid that offers himself to the orc's who then proceed to gang bang the MC. it just makes no since to me. How did we end up here, getting ♥♥♥♥♥♥ by a bunch of orcs? the reason why I couldn't bring myself to like this is being when I play VN game I tend to like to immerse myself in the story, when the snake shows up I am kinda snapped outta the experience. I am kinda disappointed by that fact. Please understand that I am not going to say this game sucks as I didn't play it long enough to develop an interest in the story-line. I am just saying it's not for me. Ultimately I am giving this my Negative review because I would't recommend this based of what I did play. If you like this type of thing by all means spend your money but if not don't.

If I could give this game a "neutral" rating, I would. However, when forced between positive and negative, I have to go negative. By all rights, Orc Covenant looks like it is targeted at me. Do I like orcs? Yes sir, I do! Do I want a gay romance visual novel where I get my pick of orcs to capture the heart of? Oh boy, do I! After having played it for a while, though, and thoroughly exploring two and a half of the orcs' routes...I mostly came out of it very "meh." First of all, character visuals. Xareth as a main character does not appeal to me. Orc Covenant is billed as a bara VN, but Xareth is a pretty typical pretty-boy elf in terms of visuals. If you're like me and you're interested in this for the orcs, know that the vast majority of the scenes involve either Xareth or the other elf character in the story. Orc on orc scenes are very rare, though I have found at least one brief one. What I really am puzzled by are the designs of the orcs themselves. Now, presumably if you're a gay man interested in orcs, usually that's because you're into rougher and more hyper-masculine men. Orc Covenant makes not just the elves but the orcs themselves a bit too "pretty" and traditionally handsome that kind of disarms the core point. Dagroth looks alright. Karn at least has facial hair. The others look like they belong on a magazine cover, though, and it's just weird. The CGs also didn't really do most of them any favors, and tend to make the characters look even more "pretty boy" despite the fact that we're theoretically dealing with barbaric orcs here. Finally, I probably wouldn't have made all of the main orcs have long hair, as it definitely reduces character diversity there. Now, all of that is very personal opinion. You can probably look at the screenshots and see if the art style appeals to you or not. The story has its own host of problems though. So, Xareth is kind of unlikable as a character even beyond his design. The story very much portrays him as a scheming backstabber who needs to be redeemed by love, which gets a little trite because all three of the orcs I've played the routes of have that as a major story point, which makes it pretty repetitive. More than that, though, the entire story is very repetitive across multiple playthroughs, which is not great when an individual run is actually fairly short. I don't expect a porn game to have amazing writing, but it also shouldn't take me out of the moment. Every route seems to go over the same points about all of the main characters, and you'll sit through all of the same reveals about every character regardless of which route you're on. Sometimes this even happens during sex scenes, which completely pulled me out of the scene I was supposed to find sexy. This becomes pretty tedious. A far smarter way to handle this is have some mystery in each route, and require players to play multiple routes to get the whole story. That would encourage replays and reduce the tedium of learning about Karn's father for the fourth time. So far I've been pretty negative, and the simple fact is that Orc Covenant is a porn game that I didn't find to be particularly hot. Dagroth, and to a lesser extent Karn, are probably the exceptions, and I do have to admit that their routes kept me entertained enough that I went through them completely and saw most of the variations of their routes. I want to finish off by saying I've seen some of the other reviews comparing this game to To Trust an Incubus and Mister Versatile. I have played those games, but they didn't stick with me enough for me to make any comparison. I don't think you need to compare this to those games to find it wanting, though.

DO NOT BUY! Hot Orc Tops with Twink Elf Bottoms. Man I really wanted to like this! Bought the $79 dollar package for the art book (2 whole pages) and the Strategy guide (1 whole page of cover art) Play through once and then you know the story. Then it becomes scrolling through different text to see different 1-3 orc elf sex scenes with the various choices. More orc-elf art on the net than in this expensive loooooong drawn out ckick through stries to get the the crumbs of the cookies. I will say this; Alpha Hole Prison was worth every penny and a much better buy than this story book. I want this company to succeed, but they blew this one baad. One last thing if the devs ever read this. Give us Polycule ending options.

◈ Came for the orcs, stayed for the story. Great writing in the shaman's route. ◈ The art is stunning. Some scenes are b&w, but they are still on the same level of detail / quality. ◈ A great variety of positions and scenarios. ◈ Many will enjoy the proportions of the characters and their size differences with the MC. Personally, I think "Dear Monster" managed to better showcase the fantasy of it all without disregarding basic anatomic limitations. Xareth is a wizard and an elf, though, so whatever. ◈ It's nice to see a well-defined protagonist instead of a self-insert. ◈ The music slaps... too much for something that is supposed to be on background. ◈ I appreciate the commitment to future updates. Overall: highly recommended to people who enjoy the genre (you know who you are lol, and you know we don't get many games like this). It's a well realized vision that is worth the price.

Having played a number of Y Press Games' games, I definitely think this is one of the better of them! The action starts quickly, and the illustrations are beautiful. There are a mixture of color and gray scale images, and the tone of the game is fairly serious interjected with bits of humor. The narrative itself focuses on a treacherous elven prince committed to revenge against the person who deposed his father, with the orcs initially serving as a means to an ends. The PoV character is the prince's dragon familiar, who offers both insights into the prince's mind and also tempers his regicidal fanaticism with a healthy dose of compassion. The game features four routes with multiple endings each, with the player's decision determining whether and how Xareth's goals are achieved. Additional backer-created content is slated to be added to the game over the next year, with the first of that put in the game just before launch. There are a few fun improvements over their previous games, too, such as an interactive gallery, that I hope they opt to carry into future games. After finishing two of the routes, I place this in a solid second place for Y Press Games' products, behind Mr. Versatile and replacing my previous second: Dear Monster. I personally prefer it much better than their sci-fi games, including Hardcore Cruising, Alpha Hole Prison, and To Trust an Incubus. Obviously some of this will be subjective, and your mileage may vary, but overall I find the game beautiful, the story more compelling, and the characters more enjoyable than most of their other products. If you've enjoyed any of Y Press Games' previous works, I highly recommend trying this one!