Intro:

Hello my fellow Ameri- Ahem, I mean gamers. Dude, that was a close one. Kinda zoned out there for a moment, but stuck the landing. *Judges hold up score cards* Six point five out of ten? o. O Damn it… at any rate, this is going to be a bit of a bumpy ride. Strap in boys; and girls or assorted weird-arsed but oddly sexy fantasy creatures aside…

Let me preface this a bit. First, I have no actual problem with gay content. I’m not myself, so it does nothing for me, and on the point of most of an already niche audience, I don’t think you’re doing yourselves any favors funding wise. However, inclusion isn’t bad. That said, there’s a lot more to dig into. So let’s do that.

The Good:

There is a brilliant amount of world building. A protagonist with skills to build on, and a story that is well crafted with a fairly cohesive main plot. There is actually a cadre of protagonists, and they are somewhat distinct in and of themselves. This is a game that will try to challenge your moral compass. The problem: It doesn’t completely hit the mark. For now I’ll focus on the good points. What I liked, and what has potential. There is a diverse cast to pursue. There is a set goal, and a path to the end in sight. Sort of. There is a system that might actually play like there are a few different types of classes. The character is not an instant win mage. There is a building to relationships that make investment in each major character seem worthwhile to pursue.

The plot has a decent amount of believable politics ingrained. That might not be a plus for everyone, but keeping it straight is never easy to do. I give props to the Dev team for keeping it even halfway plausible. I do have experience in that kind of writing. Whether I originally set out to or not. Good on you. The art work is very well done, for the most part. There’s not a lot of it for some erotic scenes yet, but it’s good when it’s there. That’s to be expected when the game is as slow to produce as it’s been. It’s not nearly half done yet, I don’t think.

The Bad:

A BIG chunk of the story relies on events that already happened. Your MC is a hero from another tale, sledgehammered into position of having to “choose” to be a villain; more accurately how far and hard they’re willing to fall. What it will cost along the way to that end game, is incredibly up for debate. The choices are not always clear on the outcome. The events are all randomized, though they are to be fair, hammering that out in new updates. A bit. I’ll give points to the work done, but it NEEDS a walkthrough. Not a piecemeal attempt on some almost never seen forum site.

You are beat down and forced by a pair of demon overlords, into a very untenable situation, as the ‘rogue type.’ You can argue since he was more the morally light but still grey character as a hero, he was more inclined to shady acts in first place. This gives them wiggle room. However, not making him an outright demigod, or a paladin type does hurt your ability to effectively think you can EVER fight back. The entire exercise in fact feels like every step forward will lead three jumped back. I’ll give some prime examples…

Specifics:

• You can choose to attack a fortress very early to progress the game as the ‘brutal’ option. You can also it’s stated in dialogue, look for a sneaky subterfuge path to gain victory without fighting. I have never found the correct sequence to take that path. In all the varied attempts I’ve played through. In any of the update iterations.
• You can choose for the knight there to be your student. Your best noble friend or an acquaintance. I do not know if the other paths play differently because the ‘fuck me teacher’ thing is fun. Point being; in the “attack” your student (assumed) is beaten, and mentally broken by a magic cursed item. She cannot take it off. You are forced to either fuck her yourself, and claim her afterward to protect her, or watch her get rut on like an alley whore by orcs. The problem with that is as follows: You have a WIFE. She knows this. So do the demons.
• Taking the broken knight as your lover you can choose to make overt declarations. To both your wife, and her in fact, that you genuinely love her. Your wife will be understandably displeased. It is an NTR game, and I will laud they wisely ask if you want to see that before it even starts to show any of those paths. We’ll get to the problem though, because there is one.

2 seconds after news of MC “death” Good Wife? o. O

Seriously, how “conflicted” does she look to you guys?

Specifics Con’t:

• You cannot remove the ring, because the demon bitch who’s fem domed you put it on the knight you care for, and fucked her combat potential entirely, without having a means to take it off. She literally did not expect it to be so powerful. Gah. There is a scene where your knight and sex slave (because you can take either path to make her your sub, or train her back up) will have a dream scene of you domming the demon bitch while she watches; but here’s the thing… without help of any sort or any way to bend her over the metaphorical barrel – how the HOLY FUCK do you want the player to do that?!?
• The entire relationship between you and your wife is all but pointless; because it’s shattered before you even get back together in the first place once she’s kidnapped. In the lore shared, it takes the fucker “several” months to even get to the castle. Yet the demon brute male who wants her body without qualm of saying so at any point, just fucking waits? Yeah… right.
• If you choose the NTR scenes to be visible, Alexia (your wife) will actively choose whether she’ll do this, to “save her husband” (Which if he is alive, is bs logic, but we’ll get to that) She ‘gets tricked’ into fucking Andras (demon boy) and only realizes after being presented to her broken husband who’s succeeded once in gaining the demon would-be rulers what they wanted, that she was tricked at all. It was far too easy, and it puts her in a REALLY bad light. Especially since she’s not stated to be a D&D sorcerer.

Specifics Deep Dive:

• Alexia is gifted with magic, where Rowan (MC) is decidedly minimally to mid-level resistant to magics. She is essentially given the most bs power level possible as her gift with it is effectively fucking useless in any kind of battle. It’s tied to her belief that she is a wife, and that all women are innately good at multi-tasking. Which neuters a bad-ass; and is massively condescending to flat-out wrong. To top things she and Rowan both want kids, but she may be barren. Why?
• The big problem with NTR done is too many Devs see NTR as I will not care if my wife randomly fucks anyone she wants, or the wife being a seven/eleven for all comers. It does NOT work like that. Not even with Swinging. I’ve already covered that in the last article, and this is why. Let her choose to chase Andras and that’s fine BUT let her FOCUS on Andras. It redeems both through a darker love story, where you wouldn’t expect one to be and can still be massively kinky. Job done.
• If Andras is focused on Alexia; he is NOT the type to share his toys. Even with his sister. So fuck off. There are far too many instances the player is not even aware the scene is gay content. Jezera should be focused on molding the MC into what she wants. There is a BIG problem with the first major story beat that I’m going to get to right here.

Was This REALLY Necessary? o. O

Specifics Let’s Just Drive The Spike In:

• Jezera (the sister half demon twin) is supposed to be the smart one. So why did she pull all the trickery, and just let her brother fuck everything up. Why go the full frontal and break the hero outight, in a way that IF he IS as stubborn and heroic as you claim later in the lore to be, she had to know was going to be a MASSIVE risk. From the off. That just makes her come off incredibly stupid.
• Jezera COULD have shown proper subterfuge and seductive tendency by luring the MC with sexual congress. Holding off on the Fem Dom shit like an actual succubus (That’s what you have written her to be so screw off pretense this offends) until she knew he was fully her minion. Willingly. She didn’t have to break his mind, or fuck up his mental state, or use the wife as an albatross. At all. Hell; she could have known and stated outright that their lack of kids was definitively Alexia’s fault and offered to be bred on, as reward. If he did exactly what she wanted.
• The above would be a much smarter path as it could open up viable means as Jezera fell into her own twisty version of love with Rowan’s loyal dependability she didn’t expect, to turn the tables and be her Dom. Or to have him help her take her darkening brother out, as they challenged more frequently… and she knew she couldn’t beat him without help. Rowan sides with Jez, and gets the darker happy ending with the family he didn’t think he’d want. If Rowan allows the NTR to follow natural course, Andras can just disappear with Alexia and the darker love/family option for a “happy” end works on both counts.

Fem Dom Spoiled Princess is her ONLY mode

Specific Bad Points Still Going Strong:

There is a HELL of a lot of wasted potential in story line here. Mostly because the Devs want to fuck around with random side character kinked out scene BS. Which is fine. Really, it’s their call. They want to create a world of warcraft style game, a VN and an RPG rolled into one. That should tell you their mindset. It DOES NOT work. This story would beg in dying agony to be just a straight up VN. Give it a freaking Renpy Remake and I guarantee it’d sing like Sarah McLaughlin. It could really be a beautiful, dark and erotic tale down several potential branches. If you’d just stick to the major character developments, and the political empowerment.

Let the player find ways to actually make the best of the clusterfuck you’ve thrown him into. I love some of the characters, but – let me actually marry the fucking goblins, and only the girls thank you. It’s fine to ask if I want to play gay, but if I choose Cla Min the option to go with anyone other than her, and her daughters should go the fuck away. Period. Choosing it even once means I DO NOT want to see that kind of content in my playthrough.

Seriously Need To Change That 300 Word Warning Guys – It’s Really Annoying:

Sorry about that. Anway, you can pursue about four characters currently to any viable means. Jezera is openly too much the harlot to be worthwhile, and unless you’re into demigods you have no fucking hope against who ruthlessly screwed your life, the answer is no. Just no. If you are… you might want to see a psychiatrist. ASAP. The Knight, is best girl, since Alexia too often is made to mirror Jez. It shouldn’t be that way, for SO many reasons, but given the amount of sex situations she doesn’t need to be in, that she can endure… it is. Which leaves Cla Min. Potentially her daughter. Both of whom are straight up team Rowan. Down to fuck, and openly eager to breed. They’re goblins, so that’s okay I guess.

Not even going to note how that brushes up against my own tastes. Like Sandpaper; because as yet the best you can do is a repeated blow job from the daughter, and a tit job from the only goblin you’re actively “Married” to. Even though they are poly. Marriage isn’t really what it is, so much as a bargained blood sharing arrangement. She will never even actually refer to you as her mate. Never mind husband.

Last Go Round For The Bend On Bad Turns:

Small nitpicks now – you can’t see the items in Rowan’s inventory so you do not know what you’re equipping. You have a limited move count per exploration sequence. It wastes a week, when it should be a day or two at best, for every sequence undertaken. You have a fucking TIME LIMIT. Cardinal SIN. Rowan can and will almost always fail checks made. Which forces a LOT of saves before any decision made. You almost never level up, so you can’t increase any of your chances to do jack shit for ninety percent of the damned game. Since the game is RNG heavy, all of the sex scenes are random, and most of the trigger events are not listed in a journal even as hints. There are exactly two quests. One has so many varied outcomes you may well fuck up what you intended for it’s end.

Suggestions For Improvement:

Keep in mind, this game is not even remotely done development. I do understand that, but it’s also an incredibly slow process owing to the company in question being tied to several unfinished games as yet. With very limited funding. This is a NICHE market. If you fuck over most of the core audience, which is by and large straight white males, you will lose funding you already don’t have enough of. In short, you are almost guaranteeing you will never finish it. Which is a terrible shame. This story does have a MASSIVE potential. That prefaced and vented, here’s how I’d improve things to start.

First; Don’t make Rowan married. Make Alexia some bumbling young hedge mage. Who randomly wanders into the castle. Do what I suggested with Jez for a plan on Rowan’s path. Split them. NTR counts in any vested level of commited relationship. Not just marriage folks. Alexia deserves much better than she gets, and so does Rowan. Now onward Thudercats, hoe and rake besides…

Immediate List:

• Decide if you want it to be a VN, an RTS, or an RPG. You should never have tried to make it all in one. It slows production time by raw tinkering with mechanics as much as you think it buys you with the audience investment. It’s more frustrating as it stands to play, than engaging. That’s going to hurt you long run.
• Ease off on the Furry/Trans and Gay content. More accurately, focus on your Main Character development. Jez should not come off like an ultra slut/whore if you want the audience to invest in her side at all. Alexia as a “loving/loyal” and supposedly morally conflicted wife, should not be made to feel like she’ll ever get to the point she doesn’t care who or what she fucks. That’s not her motive. At all, and Andras if he wants her for any stated reason isn’t going to let it go that far. Far as he’s concerned stated or not, she belongs to him. Alone.
• While we’re at it: IS this a harem game? It should be stated somewhere that it’s a potential ending to pursue if it is. If not, fine. It can still lead to replayability, which isn’t a bad thing. At all.
• The pregnancy issue: If you’re not going to make Alexia carry, that’s fine. You can work around that with Cla Min/family and still have it be plenty kinky. Or the orcs. Or a female minotaur – that drago-ogre (whatevs) Have Rowan come to being okay with not having kids if they stick together, or have Andras’ magic be a dark draw into an illicit affair, which could steer Alexia into another path cleanly. Fully. It’s not that hard to come up with believable, viable reasoning.

Technical List:

• Corrupting a character still does not have to mean “I want all cock; all the time, no matter what size, shape or color.” It can be a slow, and personal decent into darkness. Alexia’s enjoyment of the whip scenes is perfect, but NOT against her husband. It’s okay for her to be pissed with Rowan. It is NOT okay for her to do to him what she would call him a demon for doing to her. What anyone would. What’s good for the gander works more than one way. That kind of “feminism” isn’t. It’s not empowering, and doesn’t need glorification. At all.
• Character exp should go up with every fucking step on the map. I don’t care if there isn’t a check involved. It means he’s got a better chance to be stronger, and maybe once in a blue moon pass a check the player wants down the road.
• Remove the time limits. They should not be there in the first place. I don’t care if you want to argue the demons are more visceral, animal and impatient in mindset. I understand that. Do you know what else I get? They DON’T have human life spans. Even if they are hybrid, they’ll likely be at least half immortal. Andras can want to brutally smash the world, but make him smart enough not to think he is invincible. They can afford to wait the decade or three it might take to actually conquer this world and BOTH of them should be smart enough to know it. You are only all the more likely to lose your audience with that arbitrary frustration.
• Give the player pictures of the equips. The merchant is all but useless outside of sex because the player has no clue what the fuck they’re even buying.

Secondary Issues:

• Tell me what every single upgrade in the castle will do. Not a lore bs text scrawl, just the effects. It would be much better for the player to know what they’ll get out of it.
• Fix the amount of gold gained. It’s tiny and meant to be entirely detrimental, when it really shouldn’t be. You’ve done far too much to hamstring this rebellion, and it’s major driving force specifically, right off the bat. Don’t expect the player to stick around when you’ve weighted the MC with an anvil and tossed him in the lake.
• Every completed aspect of the story – the ones that were time limited – should have given me at least one level up. I would argue even as many as three. Given the checks in this game are brutal. Other than that, the reward for getting them complete needed to be a lot more visceral. There is enough moral/emotional hammering that you need to have a viable reason the player SHOULD keep investing. This is wasted time, to many “normies.” It’s got to feel worth it, even to those who love the game and want to see the best for it.
• In the above section, I mention it’s okay for Alexia to be pissed with Rowan. bit of a problem though that she is, and it’s not clearly explained WHY she’s “understanding” when he’s fucked around with the knight. Point being, I don’t like the whip him scene. For a multitude of personal reasons, but chief among them is – she fucks around first. Willingly. At least a lot moreso than Rowan does with Jez. Show that she feels guilty for THAT reason. She should be less pissed at him than, indirectly herself.

You Get 2 Choices: See This Happen To At Worst Your Acquaintance…

Or Claim Her As Your Btich… BUT Wifey Poo As Shown Above, Will STILL Be Pissed Off?!?

Conclusion:

In the end, for me this game is a VERY mixed bag. It’s got a lot of wonder to it. It IS to a very fine point and with an exceptionally thick skin, worth your investment as a player. But boy damn, does it have a long way to get polished before I’d dare to call it the gem I think it should be. One day. Somewhere over a rainbow. Whether or not said natural phenomena ends up coming across Fifty plus Shades of Grey. Bet you didn’t think I’d finish off with an allusion to the game’s most monstrous shaft. That’s just how I play. See you soon, my menagerie of weird and wicked gamers. I’m off to sharpen my own set of fangs.