Sacred Earth - Reverie

When I first played this game, I didn't know what to expect. All I knew was that there were cute girls in it, there's some JRPG elements, and some really nice pixel art. What I got was a throwback to Riviera, a cult classic JRPG, with lots of charm oozing from every corner. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] The game very reminiscent of Riviera in how you explore and enter combat. For those not familiar, there's laid out maps for you with various points of interest for you to interact with. It's very similar to point and click adventure games. Just like Riviera, there's a ton of Visual Novel elements, too, meaning that if you're not keen on reading, this might not be for you. However, I'm not a big VN player and I enjoyed the dialogue and banter all the same. And finally, for the third key part of Riviera, there's turned-based RPG combat, which is really well done. [h1]Combat[/h1] Don't be fooled by the turn-based combat. There's some real time elements to it where you have to chain attacks to to make the most out of your turns. There's a bit of strategic depth to it, and you can't just face-tank face-roll enemies either. Character have lots of mechanics involved in them, such as delaying enemy turns, cutting down damage, and skills that produce different effects when the characters are buffed a certain way. After that, there's EX attacks, Union attacks, and more! [h1]Graphics[/h1] There's a lot of care going into the art for this game. There's two styles of art you can choose from, too, so pick whichever style suits your tastes the most. All of the characters, major and minor, have custom facial expressions. They also have very large ...personalities... yeah, let's go with that, both in appearance and in character. The enemies look great and so do the pixel art maps. [h1]Voice Acting[/h1] There's actual voice acting in this game! It's in English and they all sound rather great, ie not your 4kids Funamation stuff you hear from anime dubs. Sadly, the whole game isn't voiced, but it's certainly a treat whenever you hear the voice acting. [h1]Music[/h1] Lots of fantastic music tracks, especially the boss themes. I've found myself head banging to quite a few of them and they really add to the tension the boss fights incur. [h1]Story[/h1] The story isn't the run of the mill slay the demon lord. Instead, you're just an ex-soldier who wanted to find some answers about the meaningless war you've been fighting. However, what really got me invested wasn't so much the story but the characters, their interactions, and the banter. The characters are all rather fleshed out, including the main character. The main character isn't the usual silent protagonist who's meant to be the voice of the player. Nope. The main character is his/her own character and that's what makes it more interesting for me. Each character that joins your party has their own conflicts to resolve, their own stakes in the journey, and their own perspectives to share. What I loved most was, despite this diverse cast of characters, they all felt like close friends sharing friendly banter with each other, making it super fun to read through. Even the minor NPC's in town have small stories attributed to them and while I didn't expect myself to care much for them, I got heavily invested in these day to day stories, too. In a way, I almost wished there was more in the game about them, or that some of them had a game themselves. There's multiple endings to be had, too, some bad ends, some good ends, and some wtf's. [h1]New Game+[/h1] The game isn't over after you beat it the first time. There's a New Game+, too, which adds extra bits to the story, further exploring different things happening in the adventure. New characters appear, too, major and minor. I don't want to spoil too much here, but definitely give New Game+ a whirl once you beat it. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] I've had a good 10+ hours playing this game. I went in knowing nothing and having zero expectations, and I left wanting more. The colorful cast of characters is the biggest selling point for me in this game, and I can see myself going back for some replays just to revisit their banter once again.

[後半に日本語レビューあり] [h1]A JRPG Paying Earnest Tribute to the 2000s Anime RPG Era[/h1] Set in a world under the perpetual shadow of endless war, this is a classic fantasy RPG following a former knight of the Kingdom of Amarcia who sets out driven by a single doubt: is the Demon Queen truly the enemy of mankind she has been made out to be? In the long years since the collapse of the golden age built by the legendary heroes of Illuminate, humanity has fought on beneath that banner without question. After one catastrophic campaign too many, the protagonist feels the crack in the narrative the kingdom has fed them, discards their armor, and rides out alone in pursuit of truth. It is an earnest starting point — one that draws directly from the lineage of the questioning hero so beloved by 2000s anime RPGs. The journey begins with a choice of protagonist. Selecting either Cain (male) or Abelle (female) shifts certain lines of dialogue and the subtle coloring of how the world is perceived. The underlying story is shared, but experiencing the same arc through two distinct personalities adds enough texture to make a second playthrough feel genuinely motivated — personally, it is the kind of setup that makes trying both feel necessary. Exploration is point-and-click driven, with dungeon maps traversed as the party hunts for treasure and environmental puzzles. Each step costs Travel Points (TP), and encountering an enemy brings up a pre-battle decision: Engage, Boost (spend TP for an advantage), Reroll, or Retreat. This pre-encounter judgment layer adds strategic texture that prevents dungeon traversal from collapsing into rote corridor-walking — notably, sufficiently dangerous enemies can be avoided entirely as long as TP holds out. The hub town of Istina complements dungeon runs with equipment shopping, quests, and VN-style ally and NPC conversations. The rhythm between the two spaces effectively softens the monotony that can creep into extended exploration. Combat is turn-based, with each party member wielding a unique Arts set alongside EX Arts. Chaining specific Arts together triggers amplified damage and conditional effects, and individual Arts can be customized via a perk system. The two-axis resource management of EP and EX adds meaningful pressure, ensuring brute force alone rarely carries the day. Hunting for the optimal four-member configuration and mastering chain interactions is where the battle system earns its depth. The narrative weight of this game is its clearest asset. The world of Miltiadès has its mythology, history, and factional relationships built out with care, and understanding deepens the further one explores. Comparisons to Riviera: The Promised Land arise naturally among reviewers — the density of its worldbuilding and the sincerity of its storytelling appear to be what drives that affection. The hand-drawn character artwork is a genuine pleasure to look at, and the personality of the allies it depicts comes through clearly — reviews expressing particular fondness for Kanna are numerous enough to speak for themselves. Player choices accumulate into multiple endings, and New Game+ unlocks additional scenes after completion, building replay architecture that feels purposeful rather than obligatory. The OST earns consistent praise, particularly its boss compositions, and together with the English full voice cast it delivers a level of immersion unusual for an indie JRPG. There are rough edges worth noting. Certain boss encounters feature difficulty spikes that can leave specific party configurations simply outmatched, and a game over offers no quick-retry — mercilessly so — requiring players to navigate back to the title menu and reload a save manually. For players accustomed to the conveniences of more forgiving modern RPGs, this friction is worth anticipating. For players who can appreciate the earnest storytelling sensibility of 2000s anime RPGs, the satisfying weight of strategic encounter management and chained combat, and allies whose banter is consistently worth savoring — this is a title that arguably delivers. HHF-chan's comment: "The hand-drawn artwork is genuinely warm and inviting — but the game itself pulls no punches, so anyone not looking for a real challenge might want to start on Easy!" [h1]2000年代アニメRPGの魂を今に伝える、JRPGリスペクト王道RPG[/h1] 終わりなき戦争の影が落ちる世界を舞台に、王国アマルシアの元騎士が「魔王女は本当に人類の敵なのか」という疑念を胸に旅立つ王道ファンタジーRPGだ。伝説の英雄集団「イルミネイト」が活躍した黄金時代の崩壊から幾星霜、今も人類は魔王女を共通の敵として戦い続けている。ある壊滅的な戦役を機に主人公は王国が信じ込ませてきた「正義の物語」に亀裂を覚え、鎧を脱ぎ捨て一人で真実を求める旅に出る。2000年代アニメRPGが愛した「問いかける英雄」の系譜を正面から引き継ぐ出発点だ。 物語は主人公の選択から始まる。男性のケイン（Cain）と女性のアベル（Abelle）のどちらを選ぶかで、セリフの一部や世界への接し方のニュアンスが変化する。骨子は共通だが、同一ストーリーを異なる個性のレンズ越しに体験できる設計は周回プレイへの動機付けにもなっており、個人的にはどちらも試してみたくなる作りだ。 探索はポイントアンドクリック式で、ダンジョンマップ上を移動しながら宝箱やギミックを探す。移動するたびにトラベルポイント（TP）が消費され、敵と接触した際には「突撃・強化・振り直し・撤退」の4択を迫られる。この「エンカウント前に判断する」設計が探索に戦略的な厚みを加えており、単なる移動作業に陥らない仕組みが機能している（強すぎる敵はTPがある限り戦闘を回避することができる、など）。拠点のイスティナの町では装備購入やクエスト受注に加え、仲間・住人との会話がVNライクに展開される。ダンジョンと拠点のリズムが探索の単調さを巧みに緩和している。 戦闘はターン制で、各パーティメンバーが固有の「アーツ」と「EXアーツ」を持つ。特定の組み合わせで連鎖させることで大ダメージや追加効果が発動し、アーツには「パーク」付与によるカスタマイズも可能だ。軽量ながら確かなビルド要素が組み込まれており、EPとEXの二軸管理も相まって、単純なゴリ押しでは通用しない場面が作られている。4人の個性的なパーティと最適編成を探す楽しさが戦闘全体を引き締める。 本作の核は物語の重層性にある。舞台のミルティアデスは神話・歴史・勢力関係が丁寧に作り込まれており、探索を深めるほど世界の理解度が上がる。レビュアーの間では『Riviera: The Promised Land』との比較が自然に生まれるほど、設定/神話/歴史の厚みと物語の誠実さが評価されているようだ。 見ているだけで嬉しくなる手描き絵で表現される、仲間キャラの個性も際立っており、特にカンナ（Kanna）への愛着を語るレビューが多数存在するほどキャラクター描写の密度は高い。選択肢の蓄積が複数エンディングへと分岐し、NewGame+クリア後の追加シーン解放が繰り返しプレイへの動機を明確に作っているといえる。また、BGMはボス戦楽曲を中心に賞賛されており、英語フルボイスと相まってインディーJRPGとしては異例の没入感を提供している。 改善の余地がある点も挙げておく。一部ボス戦で難易度の跳ね上がりが発生し、特定パーティ構成では一方的に削られ続けるケースが報告されている。また、全滅時にクイックリトライ機能がなく（慈悲もなく）、タイトルメニューからセーブデータを手動再読み込みする必要がある点は、ユーザーに優しい現代RPGに慣れたプレイヤーにとってやや煩わしく感じられる可能性はあるだろう。 2000年代アニメRPG感覚をもって真摯に物語を語ろうとする姿勢、戦略的なエンカウント管理と連鎖コンボの手触り、そして掛け合いを常に楽しめる仲間たちの存在——それらすべてを愛せるプレイヤーには、十分に楽しめる一作だといえる。 HHFちゃんコメント: 「手描き絵がほんと温かい王道RPG！ゲーム部分は結構厳しめなので…チャレンジしたい人以外はイージーモードが良いと思うワー！」 [quote][b]Check out our Steam curator ([url=store.steampowered.com/curator/36364102-Horny-Hentai-Festival/]link[/url]) , YouTube channel ([url=www.youtube.com/curatorhhf/]link[/url]), and X(Twitter) ([url=x.com/hhfcurator]link[/url])![/b][/quote]

Plot: Cain/Abelle, a former knight who quit their job after realizing they'd rather not through their life away trying to fight someone known as a "Demon Queen" capable of soloing armies one day decides to pay her a visit to ask exactly why she's even here. On their way they wound up being accompanied by a quaint group of people like a fox girl who revels in teasing the protagonist and an air-headed elf woman who has lived for centuries and knows quite a bit about the setting's history. Being a game with VN features we have multiple endings, the ability to save anywhere and a bunch of reading. One thing I really enjoyed about the story is the amount of lore the universe has. There's talk about historical events that happened way before the protagonist was even born which shaped the world into what it is in the present day and what led to the events scene here. Another thing I really liked is whenever you enter a new area or chat in the world map after you complete a chapter there's new dialogue involving the cast chatting about whatever is on their minds. It could be them bantering or speaking their minds about something or asking a question but none of it was either boring or obnoxious, nor does it try too hard being funny or random. The same goes for the town NPCs and the opened treasure chests whom are probably sentient. It helps that the game doesn't hit you with unnecessary walls of texts, only focusing on what matters. All in all, I left the game wanting to see a whole lot more of what happens in the series. Gameplay: A turn based RPG with your usual tank, healer, nuker etc but with a focus on chaining your party's moves together to hit the opponent's weaknesses until their defenses shatter and to stun them before they do the same to you. Simply keeping your party topped up like a traditional turn based game won't be enough here, especially if you're playing on the higher difficulties. Whether you're delaying enemy turns, buffing/debuffing, healing or defending, it's something that'll keep you locked in. My first playthrough was on the hardest setting and I don't regret it a single bit even if it wound up with me spending a lot more time otherwise. Artwork, Music and Voice Acting: All 3 are very good. I'm thinking about buying the soundtrack when I get the chance. The entire game isn't voice acted as I'd imagine it'd be VERY expensive for an Indie game to be fully voice acted but every voice fits their respective characters (I was caught off guard by Kanna's posh British voice but now I can't imagine her sounding any different). There's one fight where the voice lines repeat a lot after every individual hit of a multi-hit move but it was funny. The artwork's nice too. There's inconsistency here and there but it's nothing major. Reaching an ending will unlock the gallery where you can see all sorts of art from various artists, the main one included which shows how he improved over the years he worked on this (chest size got bigger too) Sacred Earth Reverie is a nice little RPG that reminded me a lot of the ones I've played growing up, long before any of the shady practices that permeate the industry became commonplace. I deeply enjoyed my time with it to the point I got all of the endings. I'd had gotten all the achievements too but by the time the latest patch came out I've already done everything that could be done. I'll revisit the game at a later point so it's no big deal. I get the feeling that several things were cut whether it be for time or money constraints which left me curious as to what they would have been had they made it in the final product, which is nothing new in game development (especially for Indie ones) but that just makes me more eager for whatever they'll put out next.

I am really enjoying this game so far, the art style is beautiful. The characters are interesting and the story so far has been engaging. I really love the combat, it is turned base but with a fresh take on it. The game has some VA at moments and I have been pleasantly surprised by it. I love the point and click, very easily playable with just your mouse which makes it very relaxing. Highly recommend to try out ^_^

A fun Challenge even on Normal and plenty of pretty characters to interact with.

ビジュアルノベルな感じで進んでいく王道なJRPGです。 ダンジョンマップの探索はキャラクターを操作して歩く、 というよりは方向キーでエリアチェンジしていくような形でした。 ただ、各エリアに会話イベントが用意されていたり、 武器を買ったりしたときにも会話イベントがあるなど、かなりのテキスト量があり、 魅力的なキャラクターをさらに知ることが出来る作りになっています。 エンディングがいくつかあるらしいのですが、 どこをどうしたらいいのかわかりにくい（なんなら今もわからない）です。 なんにせよ、ストーリーを追うだけでも楽しいゲームだと思いました！

[h1]Just One More Timeline, I Swear[/h1] [h2]Story[/h2] This game takes place long after the events of Promise and maybe at least a decade before Alternative, and Miltiades has changed a lot. Most technology has regressed, humans can no longer use ether, and many humanoid species have gone extinct. And the Kingdom of Amarcia constantly orders raids on the Demon Queen's Castle, but never comes close to winning. However, the protagonist, a former knight, wants to have a talk with the Demon Queen in order to learn her motives. With this setup, you are probably going to assume that the protagonist will have to fight the knight order, [spoiler]but that never happens. Turns out the Demon Queen is from around the era of Promise and is keeping a promise to the old heroes, and the true villain is also a relic of the past. Can't believe the guy who fast tracked the Myrrines to a fancy school is now a villain again. Oh, and the main villain is going to make the same mistake as the main villain of Alternative, but this time, we can stop it. In a way, Alternative could be considered a cautionary tale of what will happen if the protagonists lose. Since the game is not taking place in a husk, you have an entire town of NPCs to interact with. Although their conversations aren't that important in the grand scheme of things, all of their mini-character arcs are still fun to read. You can also find character profiles of these NPCs after beating the game and learn things that they may not express in public, which shows how much care was put into them. The big twist of the game is that the party is trapped in a time loop where they always fail to negotiate with the Demon Queen and fail to defeat the true villain, and the only way to break the loop is to find a specific key item in the 3rd dungeon. That's an interesting idea, but there's ludonarrative dissonance because of how easy that key item is to find, to the point where most players find it on their first playthrough. Seriously, there are secrets and puzzles in Promise that are way harder than finding this fancy sword. The strangest part is that there are a ton of story/skit events that are New Game Plus only, but for some reason, the Almace sword isn't one of them. Maybe the idea is that some players only want to do a single run and therefore should be allowed to get a good ending on their first and only run. I wish more was done with Aylin, who like many characters, is descended from someone from the Promise era. She joins as a sort of non-canon party member in New Game Plus, but doesn't really get as many interactions as the other playable characters. She does reveal a rare trait of dragonkin that was only ever seen in Bonds and comes up with her own innovation on it, but that's about it. I wish she became a canon skit-participating party member like Phonon too, plus I feel like she would have some funny interactions with Phonon and the fairies. As someone who prefers getting bad endings before good endings, I recommend keeping a save file in the 3rd dungeon and getting the bad ending first. Then you can reload to the 3rd dungeon, grab the sword, and get the normal ending next (preferably with Leanne first). Then on a New Game Plus, you should aim for the Proxima Lumeris ending before getting the Fairy Blessing ending. For a New Game Plus run, you may want to backup save files at critical ending-changing junctures to ensure you can get all the endings with as few runs as possible. Of the endings, I actually like the normal ending more in some ways despite never recruiting as many characters in it, since the post-final boss cutscene is a great display of CG and teamwork. Plus, it gives Solomos a lot of moments to shine as a villain, especially if you get the secret stinger with Rutina. [/spoiler] [h2]Gameplay[/h2] This game has a party size of four and allows items, along with making the initial chain strike a single button input. Despite that, I feel like its Nightmare mode is harder than Promise's unless you grind a lot. For one thing, almost no skills are "instant" anymore, and you get short delay moves at best. That means you can't just fully buff at the start of a fight and obliterate the enemy like in Promise. Additionally, the battle system is CTB, which means enemies can easily get multiple turns and delay you, though you can delay spam them back and buy time to set up your own buffs/debuffs. EX Recover doesn't shorten cooldowns, which lowers your ability to spam, so you must learn to use most if not all of your skillset. Like Konoe, everyone has their own unique buffs and gimmicks that stack with regular buffs. All their playstyles are fairly easy to understand, though there is a clear meta that favors [spoiler]Almace, the MC, Kanna, and Phonon, since this results in a lot of good group buffs while having three members who have decent HP[/spoiler]. Still, even less meta characters can be viable if the player is skilled enough, showing that there is a good amount of thought put into each playstyle. It's very satisfying to pull off combos like in Promise, and the animations make the frontview system look amazing. Additionally, the UI for combos is way more intuitive than in Promise, since it uses arrow keys instead of letters. Additionally, some offensive Ether Arts can combo into EX Arts, though the window of opportunity is usually smaller than chain strikes if your EX isn't already high to begin with. Similarly, EX Arts have windows of opportunity to input an EX Limit to deal even more damage. Dungeons have "nodes" in a way like previous games, but with point-and-click maps and paths other than the four cardinal directions. This is probably the best compromise between the two exploration systems of Promise, since you have the nodes while still properly portraying what the dungeon should look like. Unlike previous games, encounters are infinite rather than one-time only, meaning you can grind to overcome bosses on Nightmare. However, you cannot leave a dungeon until you clear it and you cannot reenter cleared dungeons, so you usually want to do everything you can in a dungeon as long as it doesn't interfere with the ending you're trying to get. Of course, that means players will be even more tempted to grind for money, since they also have to predict how much they need to spend at the next shop. The game features a boss rush facility, the Lunar Mirror, which is accessed on the world map or second half of the final dungeon. You can fight stronger versions of story bosses, and you can add penalties and boons to either side of the battles to increase or reduce rewards. This kind of undermines the restriction on entering and exiting dungeons, since you can go between the Lunar Mirror and town easily in Chapter 4/5 to grind money and buy stuff. New Game Plus lets you carry over your levels and items, though some overpowered gems and accessories won't carry over, which includes everything from the Lunar Mirror. Non-Lunar Mirror enemies will be boosted, but their EXP will also be boosted to compensate so that you can keep getting stronger. Note that the EXP boost applies to Lunar Mirror bosses even though their stats haven't changed, which means you can use the Lunar Mirror to reach the level cap fairly quickly. [h2]Verdict[/h2] 9.3/10 This is the best Sacred Earth entry so far, having an excellent cast and battle system where every character feels unique. However, you will have to devote a lot of time if you want to get all the details of every character, since you need to see multiple endings and outcomes in order to get all the gallery entries. This game drops a lot of hints about what happened after Promise, but I hope we still get a proper direct sequel to Promise anyways [spoiler]because I want to see Gunnar's villain arc. It's still hard to believe that he went from being tricked into chewing with his mouth open to becoming the freaking God King[/spoiler].

[h1] Initial Thoughts [/h1] Alright, so being a bit into the second chapter now I figured I'd leave a small review real quick to get this game some attention maybe. I'm really enjoying it! It's charming, and the combat is surprisingly really fun. Can't pinpoint what it is exactly but combat feels fast and impactful (?) idk. Words and such haha The story is just starting to pick up, but at no point has it actually felt like a drag for me. As someone who's not really a *huge* visual novel fan, the game never feels draining to read. I have a problem with a lot of visual novels where I feel like they take too long to get to points and get too wordy for simple things, and this one feels much snappier. That's not to say the writing is lacking or anything, just that it doesn't drag on. Exploration is fun, but I would say it's not really trying to be the games strong suit, and that's perfectly fine. Its decent enough and I still have fun going through the areas of maps. I don't anticipate this game being super long, but I could be wrong since I haven't finished it yet. What is their feels very polished though, and it feels like it's going to be able to maintain this pace and stay interesting if it keeps doing what it's doing, and I can imagine it getting even better from where I am moving forward! There are sprinkles of voice acting here and there (which caught me off guard the first time it happened) and its nice! Also worth noting, I think certain quests might be missable if you go too far into the story (?) or at least I can't find blueberry girl anymore at the moment and I'm like "what about your blueberries? ;O; come back!" But yeah I genuinely recommend this game based on what I've seen so far!! [h1] Curator Page Thingy [/h1] Also, if you have any interest in some of the better RPG Maker games that are out there, I have a curator page full of games! I've personally paid for all of them with my own money, so zero bias. Generally if I like the game it'll be on there and if I don't it won't. https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45733614/

I just finished my first playthrough of the game, and I got a lot more than I expected. 10/10, Kanna is the only reason why anyone is alive.

ビジュアルノベル要素が豊富なJRPGライクゲーム。テキストがとても多くこれだけの物語を良く書き上げたと感動しました 戦闘はとにかく敵を殴る！というだけではなく攻撃をつなげたりする要素があって頭を使う場面が結構ある 最初に難易度選択ができるので純粋に物語を楽しみたい方も気負わず楽しめます