Man, I really hate the review interface... but I spent enough time with this game that I feel it's worth putting up with it to drop a review on it.
First and foremost, I'll say that the review is based on the 1.2.0 version of the game, though I also played it ages ago on... 1.1.0? Something like that... I don't remember. I just remember dropping it because of certain reasons at the time.
Now, I want to say that I really wanted to give this game 5 stars, I really did, however, it has some issues in my mind that drop its score a bit. The more correct score I'd give it is 4.5 stars, but the shitty review system doesn't allow for that sort of thing, so here we are.
About the game in general, it's a side-scroller with hack-and-slash elements, in a sense, with just a dash of RPG and enough platforming stuff that it can be annoying for anyone who doesn't like that sort of thing. (Hint: Rush the double-jump skill ASAP) Interestingly enough, unlike many other games of this type, the focus of THIS game is the characters (specifically Ricca and those around her) and the story, though, again, most of it revolves around Ricca rather than the other way around.
Everything in this game is designed to tell Ricca's story, and that's something you should keep in mind as you play. Certain gameplay sections make a lot more sense in how they work and where they appear when you realize that the devs were more focused on the story than gameplay convenience. More detail on that in spoilers later.
How good the story is will vary based on your tastes. I will say that in terms of what's happening, there are quite a few clichés going on. "Archlich" is such a generic villain that they didn't even bother giving him a real name, for example. You only get hints of his story and origins and those are in many ways just more clichés. Some of the plot twists are pretty obvious from a mile away for anyone that's read/seen/experienced a lot of stories. This does lessen the impact a bit at times... It's hard to be impressed with Succubus Miria's timely return when you knew it was coming several chapters ago. Same with Ricca's last moment powerup in the final battle against Archlich. I will give them points for making it clear that absolutely No One liked Archlich, not even his underlings, further driving the contrast between him and Ricca.
What caries the game past these cliches is Ricca herself. I suspect most people won't be able to stop themselves from rooting for her and hoping that she manages to overcome the latest hurdle that she ran into. The fact that the story is a cliché matters less than the fact that Ricca is the one going through them. Ricca is not a typical hentai heroine either and that helps. She's not even a heroine at all for most of the story. It's only in the latter chapters that she truly accepts the power given to her etc. She stumbles, she falls, and while at times I groaned at some of the dumb shit she did, I also accepted that it was consistent with her character, as well as with what she starts off in general, a normal girl from a medieval-ish society that is thrust in a horrible situation for no fault of her own. Even though Archlich does try some victim blaming at the end.
Moving on.
The gameplay.
The gameplays is solid, but nothing really special for this game-type. I do give them props for the way they implemented abilities, which more games could do, and the skill-tree is fairly decent... but it's also not that special. The one thing that does stand out, and which the game does a poor job of fully explaining, is the way the gear Ricca has in her knight form affects things. Ricca has a weight stat. The more weight she has, the slower she runs, but also, the lower her maximum jump height. Needless to say, this can affect the platforming sections a lot, making timing for jumps a lot tighter. Weight over a certain amount even makes it impossible to get to at least one location in a certain chapter. Well, unless you're REALLY good, but I'm not sure if it'd work even then...
However, what the game doesn't explicitly tell you and you have to notice yourself, is the fact that Ricca's weight is also affected by her proportions. Basically, the more "thicc" she is, the more she weighs. Put on those huge boobs and thicc thigs, and see how her weight increases. Reduce her to absolute loli-form, and see how her weight jumps down drastically.
Yet, weight doesn't just affect her speed and jump height. More weights also means higher physical resistance, even without armor (and more resistances in general) and more importantly, higher stagger and knock-back resistance. When Ricca is heavier, she's harder to stagger, recovers easier, is harder to knock-back and doesn't fly as far out (with some exceptions when dealing with some massive enemies).
In every way that matters, more weight is generally better for combat if you want to be able to tank your way through damage and want to have more room for errors. However, that is balanced out by the fact that the places where you need that the most are bosses, which are at the end of the stage... This means that having too much weight may make it difficult to reach those bosses in the first place. Then the game throws in another curve-ball at you in the form of instant-kill attacks on some bosses, along with grapple attacks that you want to avoid rather than tank... which means you need to think about Ricca's proportions and gear choices a lot, because it WILL affect how you can play the game.
That's a shame because the game has a LOT of costumization going on. There's bunches of outfit parts and weapons, and plenty of sliders to play with to affect Ricca's looks in a lot of ways. I wish there were more hair-styles though, particularly ones that fully exposed the ears... but whatever. The point is that while all these options exist, because they're not just cosmetic (even earrings add a tiny bit of weight...) means that you can't actually run around with Ricca looking however you want, not unless you're either playing on Casual, or unless you're so good at the game and so adaptable that the impact on play-style doesn't matter.
Furthermore, you won't know in advance what a stage will have in it for the most part, so you might end up going in with a heavy build, only to find out that it makes it too hard to move around. Or you may go in with a very light build, only to find out that Ricca will be knocked around too easily. The end result can be very frustrating if you don't know about the weight thing in advance, especially if you're on some of the longer stages.
Now. The H. The Smut. The reason why we often play these games to begin with.
The first thing you need to understand about this game's smut is that much like everything else, it bows to Ricca's journey... and Ricca's journey is a dark one. There are multiple unavoidable rape scenes, and every other scene can only be obtained from Ricca reaching zero HP under certain circumstances or certain areas or against certain opponents. There is only ONE semi-consensual scene... and even that one is... iffy, shall we say. Claret, I love you, but you're still a total stalker-ish weirdo with impulse issues...
There are also plenty of dark elements to the H, with implied snuff and maiming and whatnot, though there isn't any explicit gore IN the scenes themselves. Outside of the mandatory ones, every scene essentially implies death, slavery, insanity and other such lovely things for our unlucky heroine as the price of failure. Though there's only one scene where Ricca explicitly dies at the end that I can think of, and that one featured drowning rather than any hard death.
If these sorts of themes are off-putting, and if rape is something you don't enjoy in any way in a fictional medium.... STEER AWAY FROM THIS GAME!
No. Seriously. If you have IRL rape related trauma, then I definitely recommend not touching this game with a ten-foot cattle-prod. Ricca's reactions are a lot more realistic than what hentai games usually go with. Her suffering actual trauma from being raped is a significant part of her journey. If you can't detach yourself from those things, this game will not be good for your mental health.
If you do enjoy these sort of themes though, then man, this game is a total TREAT with the sheer variety of situations they get Ricca in. There's plenty to enjoy, and it's not really that hard to get any of the scenes either. The game is VERY generous with the continues after all. Furthermore, for most scenes, the gallery allows you to load in whatever appearance you want from your saved list of appearances, which in turn allows you to see them with configurations that the gameplay doesn't allow. It's entirely worth the effort to unlock all the outfit items just for all the variety you can have at your finger-tips.
The 3d models are also pretty good, at least in my personal opinion. Obviously, mileage WILL vary there a lot. However, as someone who normally doesn't like games with 3d models, I will say that this game hit the sweet spot pretty damn well, and gives you a lot of options for the scenes... even if the bigger boob versions of Ricca can look a bit awkward in some of the scenes due to clipping. Obviously, extremes can cause problems.
----
All in all, very good game. As I said, I consider it 4.5 out of 5. It's only the way it handles some gameplay elements, and the overuse of certain clichés that drops its score for me from a perfect five. Seriously, introducing a friggin' flight mechanic so late in the game is NOT ok dude...
First and foremost, I'll say that the review is based on the 1.2.0 version of the game, though I also played it ages ago on... 1.1.0? Something like that... I don't remember. I just remember dropping it because of certain reasons at the time.
Now, I want to say that I really wanted to give this game 5 stars, I really did, however, it has some issues in my mind that drop its score a bit. The more correct score I'd give it is 4.5 stars, but the shitty review system doesn't allow for that sort of thing, so here we are.
About the game in general, it's a side-scroller with hack-and-slash elements, in a sense, with just a dash of RPG and enough platforming stuff that it can be annoying for anyone who doesn't like that sort of thing. (Hint: Rush the double-jump skill ASAP) Interestingly enough, unlike many other games of this type, the focus of THIS game is the characters (specifically Ricca and those around her) and the story, though, again, most of it revolves around Ricca rather than the other way around.
Everything in this game is designed to tell Ricca's story, and that's something you should keep in mind as you play. Certain gameplay sections make a lot more sense in how they work and where they appear when you realize that the devs were more focused on the story than gameplay convenience. More detail on that in spoilers later.
How good the story is will vary based on your tastes. I will say that in terms of what's happening, there are quite a few clichés going on. "Archlich" is such a generic villain that they didn't even bother giving him a real name, for example. You only get hints of his story and origins and those are in many ways just more clichés. Some of the plot twists are pretty obvious from a mile away for anyone that's read/seen/experienced a lot of stories. This does lessen the impact a bit at times... It's hard to be impressed with Succubus Miria's timely return when you knew it was coming several chapters ago. Same with Ricca's last moment powerup in the final battle against Archlich. I will give them points for making it clear that absolutely No One liked Archlich, not even his underlings, further driving the contrast between him and Ricca.
What caries the game past these cliches is Ricca herself. I suspect most people won't be able to stop themselves from rooting for her and hoping that she manages to overcome the latest hurdle that she ran into. The fact that the story is a cliché matters less than the fact that Ricca is the one going through them. Ricca is not a typical hentai heroine either and that helps. She's not even a heroine at all for most of the story. It's only in the latter chapters that she truly accepts the power given to her etc. She stumbles, she falls, and while at times I groaned at some of the dumb shit she did, I also accepted that it was consistent with her character, as well as with what she starts off in general, a normal girl from a medieval-ish society that is thrust in a horrible situation for no fault of her own. Even though Archlich does try some victim blaming at the end.
Moving on.
The gameplay.
The gameplays is solid, but nothing really special for this game-type. I do give them props for the way they implemented abilities, which more games could do, and the skill-tree is fairly decent... but it's also not that special. The one thing that does stand out, and which the game does a poor job of fully explaining, is the way the gear Ricca has in her knight form affects things. Ricca has a weight stat. The more weight she has, the slower she runs, but also, the lower her maximum jump height. Needless to say, this can affect the platforming sections a lot, making timing for jumps a lot tighter. Weight over a certain amount even makes it impossible to get to at least one location in a certain chapter. Well, unless you're REALLY good, but I'm not sure if it'd work even then...
However, what the game doesn't explicitly tell you and you have to notice yourself, is the fact that Ricca's weight is also affected by her proportions. Basically, the more "thicc" she is, the more she weighs. Put on those huge boobs and thicc thigs, and see how her weight increases. Reduce her to absolute loli-form, and see how her weight jumps down drastically.
Yet, weight doesn't just affect her speed and jump height. More weights also means higher physical resistance, even without armor (and more resistances in general) and more importantly, higher stagger and knock-back resistance. When Ricca is heavier, she's harder to stagger, recovers easier, is harder to knock-back and doesn't fly as far out (with some exceptions when dealing with some massive enemies).
In every way that matters, more weight is generally better for combat if you want to be able to tank your way through damage and want to have more room for errors. However, that is balanced out by the fact that the places where you need that the most are bosses, which are at the end of the stage... This means that having too much weight may make it difficult to reach those bosses in the first place. Then the game throws in another curve-ball at you in the form of instant-kill attacks on some bosses, along with grapple attacks that you want to avoid rather than tank... which means you need to think about Ricca's proportions and gear choices a lot, because it WILL affect how you can play the game.
That's a shame because the game has a LOT of costumization going on. There's bunches of outfit parts and weapons, and plenty of sliders to play with to affect Ricca's looks in a lot of ways. I wish there were more hair-styles though, particularly ones that fully exposed the ears... but whatever. The point is that while all these options exist, because they're not just cosmetic (even earrings add a tiny bit of weight...) means that you can't actually run around with Ricca looking however you want, not unless you're either playing on Casual, or unless you're so good at the game and so adaptable that the impact on play-style doesn't matter.
Furthermore, you won't know in advance what a stage will have in it for the most part, so you might end up going in with a heavy build, only to find out that it makes it too hard to move around. Or you may go in with a very light build, only to find out that Ricca will be knocked around too easily. The end result can be very frustrating if you don't know about the weight thing in advance, especially if you're on some of the longer stages.
Now. The H. The Smut. The reason why we often play these games to begin with.
The first thing you need to understand about this game's smut is that much like everything else, it bows to Ricca's journey... and Ricca's journey is a dark one. There are multiple unavoidable rape scenes, and every other scene can only be obtained from Ricca reaching zero HP under certain circumstances or certain areas or against certain opponents. There is only ONE semi-consensual scene... and even that one is... iffy, shall we say. Claret, I love you, but you're still a total stalker-ish weirdo with impulse issues...
There are also plenty of dark elements to the H, with implied snuff and maiming and whatnot, though there isn't any explicit gore IN the scenes themselves. Outside of the mandatory ones, every scene essentially implies death, slavery, insanity and other such lovely things for our unlucky heroine as the price of failure. Though there's only one scene where Ricca explicitly dies at the end that I can think of, and that one featured drowning rather than any hard death.
If these sorts of themes are off-putting, and if rape is something you don't enjoy in any way in a fictional medium.... STEER AWAY FROM THIS GAME!
No. Seriously. If you have IRL rape related trauma, then I definitely recommend not touching this game with a ten-foot cattle-prod. Ricca's reactions are a lot more realistic than what hentai games usually go with. Her suffering actual trauma from being raped is a significant part of her journey. If you can't detach yourself from those things, this game will not be good for your mental health.
If you do enjoy these sort of themes though, then man, this game is a total TREAT with the sheer variety of situations they get Ricca in. There's plenty to enjoy, and it's not really that hard to get any of the scenes either. The game is VERY generous with the continues after all. Furthermore, for most scenes, the gallery allows you to load in whatever appearance you want from your saved list of appearances, which in turn allows you to see them with configurations that the gameplay doesn't allow. It's entirely worth the effort to unlock all the outfit items just for all the variety you can have at your finger-tips.
The 3d models are also pretty good, at least in my personal opinion. Obviously, mileage WILL vary there a lot. However, as someone who normally doesn't like games with 3d models, I will say that this game hit the sweet spot pretty damn well, and gives you a lot of options for the scenes... even if the bigger boob versions of Ricca can look a bit awkward in some of the scenes due to clipping. Obviously, extremes can cause problems.
----
All in all, very good game. As I said, I consider it 4.5 out of 5. It's only the way it handles some gameplay elements, and the overuse of certain clichés that drops its score for me from a perfect five. Seriously, introducing a friggin' flight mechanic so late in the game is NOT ok dude...