I quite like the gameplay now, I played a previous version before when it was in a very early stage, I feel that I understand the game much better and playing it feels more fun!
I tried to do a 'seiso' run where I try to keep lust a minimum and fight appropriately. I focused on getting more adventurers and the tavern upgrades to reduce lust.
General Gameplay
General Difficulty Has Been Reduced Appropriately - I remember in a previous version it was difficult to even go past the second dungeon because adventurers would go down and the guild would go into a loop of dying, not getting rewards and so on. Beating ratkins feels a little easier since I have a seemingly unlimited amount of adventurers to rotate around now. Dungeons are also quite varied now and I don't think I've seen even 25% of the enemies now, will probably have to try out more.
Good Notifications on Skills - There was a point where my mage leveled up and I picked some new skills but didn't equip them. There's a gigantic exclamation that reminded me to put the skills in the slot. Maybe a tutorial popup for the first time saying "You have new skills to equip!" would help.
Challenging Adept Dungeons - This is probably more specific to the 'spam adventurers' style of gameplay, but if everyone is weak, it is difficult to challenge adept dungeons/ there is a fear of losing out if I go into them. My first one had a mecharat that kept spamming lust machines and hiding in the back, and the team couldn't break through. So there's a little waiting game where I am rotating adventurers and waiting for Tomo to become stronger from the training grounds.
Unsure of how to break this reluctance to do stronger dungeons, but I do want to get to that sus castle in the north. That's also another improvement, there are landmarks to make it feel like doing dungeons lets you advance somewhere. It just feels like it will take a long time to get to a level where clearing those dungeons is comfortable and I don't have to rotate my strongest characters before I try another adept dungeon.
My initial thought was to bring back (?) reccomended average party levels on the tooltip, because adept doesn't really describe much. If I am just grinding for gold for upgrades, I'll happily take less risk if my team is all new adventurers.
General Misunderstandings
Milk? - I got the milk farm running but the option to take milk while adventuring is oranged out. I understood that provision restocks and I should buy health potions, I keep trying to buy the wooden horse hoping to see it work, but alas I saw a single ponygirl and I forgot to buy it that run. Maybe harder encounters will feature more humans. I figured out later that the 'job' of slave is just a passive upgrade to provisions.
Musketeer only reloads? - I rolled an alchemist class and she had a gun, so I assumed in combat she had to reload and shoot, but no matter how much I reloaded, the skill would not activate. I am unsure if I needed some sort of provision to have it work or if its a distance thing. The other classes I could understand quite fine, only the alchemist was unintuitive?
What job does what? - Missions and how to accomplish them could be better worded/described. For example, my first one was to turn Aura into a maid, which I assume had to do with the tab with a maid icon. But only found out later I had to buy the job slot first, and I had other priorities for my gold, which is another step to go into? Same with another mission where I had to turn a new recruit into a slave, I am unsure about the time length/ requirements for the job.
Maybe when you hover over the word 'maid' in the mission, a small hovering tooltip that says which facility/ how much time they should spend in it can help.
Tutorial
I like that when an effect comes up for the first time it explains the effect. I took the time to read them and it helps to know what's going on, because the game can be quite complex! Most were quite self-explanatory except for the willpower one, which I didn't know how to check how much willpower a character had in combat, so when looking at the orange shield I just assumed it was a 20% chance to dodge debuffs.
Sounds and Music
The Narrator is a very nice touch - It really breaks up the monotony of going through the dungeons. A small suggestion is also to add voice for inside the base, especially when upgrading buildings/ you don't have enough materials or favor. Something short like "Needs more favor." would help.
The First Dungeon - The very first dungeon where you come in and the chorus suddenly starts blaring feels a little jarring, maybe a fadein should be used (laugh). I realized after playing a bit that the BGM sounds a little like battle music for Madoka, but more electronic.
Visual
When There is Insufficient Materials - There is a point where you try to upgrade buildings and don't have enough materials. The coloring when favor/mana is greyed out and insufficient looks different from the one on the bottom left. Maybe a highlight at the bottom left hand corner on the missing materials when you try to upgrade something and there isn't enough mana/favor will help because I squinted my eyes and wondered where to get favor (as I cancelled the first mission I got because I didn't understand the requirements and didn't come back to quests after that).
Seisoness - I played the desktop version, I don't think I got far enough to check for nudity, but in general it seems sfw enough, bondage aside. It might not be very youtube friendly because of the underwear and funny clothing, but that is the nature of this game, you can't really go full seiso without becoming a literally Kagura game with its soul ripped out. The game now is fun enough to me though. Gaben has far more risque games in stock claiming to be seiso, the adult-only tag should be enough.
Would I play another round of Ero Dungeons? Absolutely! I just need to make time when I am not doing art... And get over my fear of mecha ratkins with spinny aphrodisiac bots.
Comments
I quite like the gameplay now, I played a previous version before when it was in a very early stage, I feel that I understand the game much better and playing it feels more fun!
I tried to do a 'seiso' run where I try to keep lust a minimum and fight appropriately. I focused on getting more adventurers and the tavern upgrades to reduce lust.
General Gameplay
General Difficulty Has Been Reduced Appropriately - I remember in a previous version it was difficult to even go past the second dungeon because adventurers would go down and the guild would go into a loop of dying, not getting rewards and so on. Beating ratkins feels a little easier since I have a seemingly unlimited amount of adventurers to rotate around now. Dungeons are also quite varied now and I don't think I've seen even 25% of the enemies now, will probably have to try out more.
Good Notifications on Skills - There was a point where my mage leveled up and I picked some new skills but didn't equip them. There's a gigantic exclamation that reminded me to put the skills in the slot. Maybe a tutorial popup for the first time saying "You have new skills to equip!" would help.
Challenging Adept Dungeons - This is probably more specific to the 'spam adventurers' style of gameplay, but if everyone is weak, it is difficult to challenge adept dungeons/ there is a fear of losing out if I go into them. My first one had a mecharat that kept spamming lust machines and hiding in the back, and the team couldn't break through. So there's a little waiting game where I am rotating adventurers and waiting for Tomo to become stronger from the training grounds.
Unsure of how to break this reluctance to do stronger dungeons, but I do want to get to that sus castle in the north. That's also another improvement, there are landmarks to make it feel like doing dungeons lets you advance somewhere. It just feels like it will take a long time to get to a level where clearing those dungeons is comfortable and I don't have to rotate my strongest characters before I try another adept dungeon.
My initial thought was to bring back (?) reccomended average party levels on the tooltip, because adept doesn't really describe much. If I am just grinding for gold for upgrades, I'll happily take less risk if my team is all new adventurers.
General Misunderstandings
Milk? - I got the milk farm running but the option to take milk while adventuring is oranged out. I understood that provision restocks and I should buy health potions, I keep trying to buy the wooden horse hoping to see it work, but alas I saw a single ponygirl and I forgot to buy it that run. Maybe harder encounters will feature more humans. I figured out later that the 'job' of slave is just a passive upgrade to provisions.
Musketeer only reloads? - I rolled an alchemist class and she had a gun, so I assumed in combat she had to reload and shoot, but no matter how much I reloaded, the skill would not activate. I am unsure if I needed some sort of provision to have it work or if its a distance thing. The other classes I could understand quite fine, only the alchemist was unintuitive?
What job does what? - Missions and how to accomplish them could be better worded/described. For example, my first one was to turn Aura into a maid, which I assume had to do with the tab with a maid icon. But only found out later I had to buy the job slot first, and I had other priorities for my gold, which is another step to go into? Same with another mission where I had to turn a new recruit into a slave, I am unsure about the time length/ requirements for the job.
Maybe when you hover over the word 'maid' in the mission, a small hovering tooltip that says which facility/ how much time they should spend in it can help.
Tutorial
I like that when an effect comes up for the first time it explains the effect. I took the time to read them and it helps to know what's going on, because the game can be quite complex! Most were quite self-explanatory except for the willpower one, which I didn't know how to check how much willpower a character had in combat, so when looking at the orange shield I just assumed it was a 20% chance to dodge debuffs.
Sounds and Music
The Narrator is a very nice touch - It really breaks up the monotony of going through the dungeons. A small suggestion is also to add voice for inside the base, especially when upgrading buildings/ you don't have enough materials or favor. Something short like "Needs more favor." would help.
The First Dungeon - The very first dungeon where you come in and the chorus suddenly starts blaring feels a little jarring, maybe a fadein should be used (laugh). I realized after playing a bit that the BGM sounds a little like battle music for Madoka, but more electronic.
Visual
When There is Insufficient Materials - There is a point where you try to upgrade buildings and don't have enough materials. The coloring when favor/mana is greyed out and insufficient looks different from the one on the bottom left. Maybe a highlight at the bottom left hand corner on the missing materials when you try to upgrade something and there isn't enough mana/favor will help because I squinted my eyes and wondered where to get favor (as I cancelled the first mission I got because I didn't understand the requirements and didn't come back to quests after that).
Seisoness - I played the desktop version, I don't think I got far enough to check for nudity, but in general it seems sfw enough, bondage aside. It might not be very youtube friendly because of the underwear and funny clothing, but that is the nature of this game, you can't really go full seiso without becoming a literally Kagura game with its soul ripped out. The game now is fun enough to me though. Gaben has far more risque games in stock claiming to be seiso, the adult-only tag should be enough.
Would I play another round of Ero Dungeons? Absolutely! I just need to make time when I am not doing art... And get over my fear of mecha ratkins with spinny aphrodisiac bots.