You could have seen that over the previous few years I’ve coated fairly a couple of fan-service video games. Surprisingly, the explanation I typically choose these sorts of video games up is that they typically have some actually fascinating and generally even utterly distinctive mechanics which push the trade ahead. I gained’t lie, I do additionally benefit from the odd little bit of smutty humour, even when I’ve generally criticised the extent to which the fan service often goes
Properly, it’s time for an additional entry on this seemingly ongoing sequence, “Video games which shouldn’t be performed on public transport.” Let’s take a look at Seven Pirates H.
Genkai Tokki: Seven Pirates H is the fourth entry within the Genkai Tokki sequence, following Monster Monpiece, Moe Chronicle and Moero Crystal. All initially developed for the PlayStation Vita’s Asian market, the second, third and now fourth entries have slowly trickled their manner over to the west as Nintendo Swap ports – see our critiques of the earlier ports at https://invisioncommunity.co.uk/moero-chronicle-hyper-review/ and https://invisioncommunity.co.uk/moero-crystal-h-review/ respectively. In my earlier encounters with the sequence, I’ve praised the tongue-in-cheek character and creature designs, distinctive aesthetics and fascinating concepts dropped at the desk while discovering the fan-service invasive at finest, creepy at worst. Once I discovered that the following one, Seven Pirates H, had a swashbuckling aesthetic I simply needed to strive it; however sadly in lots of areas, it appears like an enormous step backwards from the heights of Moero Crystal H.
You begin Seven Pirates enjoying as Parute, a younger Pirate shipwrecked on an island and trying to find a ship. She has a magic compass, which apparently can level to a legendary treasure, however which hasn’t really labored for so long as she’s had it. Fortunately for her, Otton – the one returning character and infamous pervert dick-seal – drops in and is ready to get it working. From this level on, you management her and her rising band of pirate monster-girls as they seek for treasure on the excessive seas.
It’s a reasonably simple plot, and while it’s no Monkey Island it will get the ball rolling. On the intense facet, not less than you aren’t trying to find panties this time. As she travels round trying to find treasure Parute encounters varied monster ladies, every with a novel look. While in earlier titles the playable roster has been very intensive (80+ I feel; I’ve to confess I by no means bought round to discovering them ALL,) Seven Pirates H has 7, though you do come throughout others. As soon as all seven treasures are collected there are a couple of extra occasions, however total the plot is fairly bland in comparison with earlier video games. Admittedly, the plots of the others weren’t precisely Shakespeare – trying to find the panties of sunshine and the bra of darkness being a very unusual quest – but it surely virtually appears like this time round they had been extra centered on the transition to 3D than together with fairly as a lot ridiculous humour and fascinating story-beats.
Character Designs
Fortunately, among the character designs themselves are simply nearly as good as final time; even if they’re far much less quite a few. I’ve all the time loved the distinctive manner through which characters have portrayed their monstrous inspirations – utilizing lore and mythology to tell design – and while there isn’t as a lot originality of thought within the designs I did like a couple of. Jewel is a infamous slime lady with an enormous gun, and I really like the truth that her hat, hair and a few of her clothes are made completely of mentioned blue slime. All through her design are various skulls, paying homage to the concept in video games equivalent to Dungeons and Dragons slimes are fearsome foes due to their means to soften natural matter. In different phrases, I feel a couple of individuals bought a bit too shut! Then there’s Claret, who’s impressed by the Kraken and different big squid monsters. Her headdress creates a beak-like form and her clothes – which splits on the backside into tendril-like strips – is roofed in studs and buckles which resemble suckers. Her character additionally utterly suits this idea, along with her really monstrous urges conflicting along with her fairly face to nice impact. Each examples mirror what I really like about this sequence – distinctive and unique twists on mythological creatures, however sadly, there are way more duds this time round. Sakyura – the demon/succubus – is virtually nude except for a couple of strips of leather-based (granted, barely resembling wings,) and her horns. Sure, it’s arguably demonic, however I’ve seen it earlier than too many occasions. Poron is meant to be a skeleton, however in reality, the one skeletal features of her are the a number of cranium motifs on her jacket and hair clips. While you evaluate these to the kitsune Yoko, the kikimora Papain and Moero Crystal H’s skeleton Neferia it’s simple to search out them disappointingly missing. I perceive that the pirate aesthetic left much less room for originality within the designs, and I like the very fact they often caught to monsters present in that setting, however there’s no excuse for this dip in high quality after setting the bar so excessive. Earlier than, characters had clearly distinct personalities derived from their inspiration however which additionally made them their very own character. Right here, the monstrous origins are more durable to search out and the personalities simply appear to meld into each other. There aren’t even some other costume choices right here – while in earlier titles, every lady had not less than 4, with not less than one among them displaying a lighter, extra humorous facet to them.
Enemy design has additionally had a definite drop in high quality, with most easily coming back from earlier video games with copious recolours. They’re nonetheless all both genital-inspired or tongue-in-cheek, however the precise variety of unique designs has taken a dip and I discovered their 3D representations missing within the attraction and humour of earlier entries.
Gameplay
The gameplay this time round has had an enormous change too – switching from a first-person dungeon crawl to a 3D third-person wander. Beforehand, you’ll search a dungeon’s many flooring in a turn-based style, with occasions occurring as you moved, random encounters and fight occurring in a turn-based, static-sprite style. While the fight stays a turn-based RPG affair, exploration of the dungeons is free-moving with overworld monsters which may be averted. On one hand, it feels simpler to interact with, and I preferred having the ability to get your hands on sure enemies when on the lookout for specific loot. Nonetheless, the draw back to that is that dungeon design has additionally taken a dive off of a cliff, with principally linear areas and little or no in the way in which of reaching the exit. Earlier than, an space would take various hours and a number of journeys, however that’s all been stripped down leaving them feeling slightly chilly and lifeless regardless of the tropical solar. Once more, it’s disappointing to see.
Exterior of those areas, you journey round a comparatively giant, 2D open sea map, which slowly expands as you full quests. These quests are delivered by the Booby-kin, who you discover in your adventures and who supplies information, retailers and in-battle skills. Sadly, the quests they supply boil right down to both killing various a sure enemy or gathering a sure kind of merchandise, resulting in a hefty quantity of grinding within the under-levelled areas for the sake of it. Nothing fascinating, simply “fetch this” or “kill that.” There are additionally some restricted character occasions on this map, however once more, they’re simply brief VA cutscenes with out the character or attraction of earlier titles.
Fight System
The fight system, fortunately, does carry with it a couple of new mechanics; though I nonetheless don’t really feel it replaces what has been stripped out adequately. As a substitute of parts every lady now has a sort and the red-green-blue kinds a type-effectiveness triangle. You’ll be able to change every lady’s kind utilizing sure skills in battle – a welcome addition – however there’s far an excessive amount of emphasis on this with precise injury quantity being vastly modified by it. It additionally doesn’t assist that fundamental assaults do negligible injury. Every lady has particular assaults, nevertheless, that are activated utilizing their H power. This builds up via profitable assaults and taking injury. At 100, the lady enters an elevated state often called “excited,” and at max, they enter “aroused,” from which they are going to die after various rounds however which additionally permits them to make use of final skills. Utilizing the specials (consisting of standing modifications, buff/debuffs, poisoning and therapeutic and so forth.) is the one actual strategy to do any vital injury, and sadly, it takes a superb variety of rounds to construct up the meter. Battles typically really feel drawn out as you wait both for a smaller means to be usable or their arousal assault to be prepared. The smaller assaults barely even have their very own animations. Fortunately not less than the ultimates do, even when every appears to exist solely in order that the digital camera can spotlight both their crotch or breasts. I did discover a few of this humorous thoughts – the legs-akimbo leaping bonk of Waffle making me giggle particularly. Lastly, sure bosses require a ending transfer from Otton, the aforementioned penis seal. To activate it you a lot improve his…pleasure…by rubbing the women frantically. In handheld mode, this felt gross because it felt like I used to be merely rubbing off a perverted seal. It didn’t assist when this AMAZING FINISHER turned out to be a literal white beam spraying from the highest of his bulbous head in direction of the enemy. Sure, I did simply write that. General although, the gameplay simply isn’t that compelling. I’d even go as far as to say it’s boring at occasions and gross at others, and that isn’t even mentioning the fan-service portion.
Oh, my lord. This subsequent part I’ve been completely dreading writing – could God have mercy on my soul and should my mom by no means learn it.
Skills
In additional RPGs, you stage up mechanically, with stats growing and talents unlocking as a matter in fact. In some, you must actively exit of your strategy to stage up after you have sufficient expertise. On this, you unlock “booby extracts” by gathering experiences which may then be used to stage up exterior of battle. Doesn’t sound too dangerous but, proper? However what if I had been to let you know that so as to stage up you wanted to drag, squeeze, pinch and faucet the character’s chest within the “booby coaching” minigame so as to make any significant progress? Properly, you do, and in doing so you modify various totally different parts of their breasts, which additionally confer bonuses and penalties to totally different stats. Would you like Parute to hit like a truck on the expense of defence? Enlarge her spheres to frankly painful ranges and it’ll be mirrored each in her stats and on her mannequin! Need Jewel to be small and perky? You are able to do it! On one hand – utterly objectively – the mechanic might be essentially the most fascinating factor about Seven Pirates H, because it makes use of dynamic character-model modification as an indicator of stats and talents. This has been seen in a few different video games, however so far as I’m conscious by no means with fairly as many variables, and on this side, it’s a real success. The physics concerned are additionally very spectacular, even when bigger characters do find yourself wanting like they’re smuggling baggage of booze right into a competition from the way in which they bounce round. Alternatively, it’s just too far. After being uncovered to so many fan-service video games I’ve grow to be fairly arduous to shock however this made me really feel extremely uncomfortable and like a real piece of labor. If it had been an optionally available additional mini-game – like in most different examples of the style, I wouldn’t be so essential of the lingerie-clad breast-bouncing fan service. For it to be a central mechanic to precise development, repeated a whole lot of occasions with out an opt-out simply spoils it. The primary time it was vaguely amusing to quickly inflate a pirate, however by the hundredth, it had simply grow to be annoying and gross.
I really feel like many of the points with Seven Pirates H come down to at least one factor and one factor alone, as is usually the case when a sequence tries to evolve – the transition to 3D. Within the early days of 3D, this was deadly to so many titles, as builders spent extra time on a brand new engine and graphical development than making an precise good recreation, I can’t assist however really feel just like the Genkai Tokki guys fell into this age-old entice. Sure, it’s a handsome recreation with a cutesy aesthetic and beautiful, thematically acceptable music, but it surely’s not a good recreation. It’s extremely brief when in comparison with its predecessors, has a tiny under-developed roster with no further costumes, has a lack-lustre story and quest construction and a small variety of abysmally designed dungeons. Sure, among the attraction and humour of Genkai Tokki did make the transition, however in all honesty, this entry is a big step backwards and it’s unsurprising that since its unique launch in 2016 there have been no new Genkai Tokki titles introduced.
When you just like the sound of some cheeky, impolite humour with comparatively optionally available fan service and nice character designs impressed by mythology, Genkai Tokki is certainly the place you’ll discover it. Sadly, Seven Pirates H is not, and I merely can’t advocate it as a primary dip within the franchise. Sure, there may be some good right here – it feels very charming and pirate and the 3D battles do look a lot nicer than in earlier entries. I preferred the aesthetic design of the dungeons, they usually’re a lot easier to navigate if intensive, difficult first-person dungeon crawling isn’t your factor. Nonetheless, earlier than even contemplating choosing this up I’d advocate attempting Moero Crystal H – it’s merely a significantly better, significantly extra fleshed-out place to get your repair of tongue-in-cheek puerile giggles.
Builders: Felistella, Thought Manufacturing unit
Publishers: Compile Coronary heart, EastAsiaSoft
Reviewed on Nintendo Swap
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