I have to be sad again that steam doesn't allow neutrals, because I do feel like this game is pretty enjoyable for what it wants to be, but it's bogged down enough in execution by some jarring flaws; enough to make me think it deserves a bit less than "95% nice ratings". Some of them did express mixed feelings; I'm just doing the inverse in how I want my score to count on steam. If it was at 60% I would've thumbed up.

If you're a major fan of BDSM content and you have the money to spare, maybe buy it anyway to support the dev's future titles, because they've got certain things right in terms of creating the kind of game I'd want within this space. The systems here are great; scenes have surprising levels of interactivity within them.

You can expect a 3 Act adventure where you get acquainted with 3 different LIs: "Kaylin" (Warrior), "Estelle (Princess), and "Ravora" (Tyrant/Former Rival). There's a bit of a stat sim here; certain choices seen as Gentle / Harsh, which in turn changes some of their base dialogue lines (mid-scene talk bubbles or lines at the start of H-scenes), once you finish their "Act". Although in hindsight I felt they're pretty minuscule, they were a delightful discovery; and in some cases, the "Bonus Final Scene" differs depending on how you've shaped them. For Kaylin in particular, I sadly still end up with the “playful” personality even when trying to play middle of the road on my 2nd save. Despite trying to keep her temperament under the mid-bar through training scenes, it turns out options during Major Story quests also matter quite greatly in giving a “+2 kind” points, exacerbated by the fact that you can only be harsh in 2 of them (Orc & Slime Girl) out of 4, and the others seem to default to kind options for me? It’s a shame the game autosaves on top.

For Estelle, I feel like the “middle of the road” option is pretty dumb and is only there for the sake of it. Combined with her “bad end” + Ravora’s “bad end” not serving the player even though there is potential for it and the latter potentially appealing to femdom fans, it does seem like the game could’ve used more thought in plot outcomes.

Apart from those, the art inconsistencies, lack of sfx polish, and general quality of the game are enough reasons for me to want to give this a thumb down. Admitted AI usage for some backgrounds (Link in comments), although "slowly re-done" doesn't help. Steam has a section to disclose this, and I've seen noble VNs go transparent saying "98% of art is human-made, except some backgrounds". Dev can do the same thing and chose not to.

Patch notes do indicate art for Novindale (Act 2); such as Zaria's Room or Hallways got updated on May 2024. However, playing at Oct, I still thought the headrest & hallway doors looked odd, so I found the itch thread. But sure, maybe those aren’t blatant and it doesn't matter how inconsistent it is compared to other bgs; I've been told my hunches are worth sh*t. So let me link relatively more blatant ones and let you judge: The dream sections on Act 3 (Linked in comments)

(•)Playtime: ~12 hours for one route clear. All endings and speeding up a bit, it took me ~27 hours. Times may vary of course, esp. depending on how long you spend on scenes.
(•)Animated, with ok sfx / "moan VA" count.
(•)Has some basic plot minigames. Some may find it unnecessary and I think it could be toned down, but it does make it feel “game-like” if you care about that.

(+)Interactive: Toggles of speed/action choices, direct clicks. As said by others, this is very reminiscent of good ol' lewd flash games, and it's great. Spank clicks, Or hold-clicks for fingerings, rubbings are frequent. After all, assuming the role of the Dominant MC, this kink is all about control, right? Putting this fantasy in a game, it's almost no-brainer to allow players to suddenly speed up and slow down; randomly pepper spanks at their own command; using different toys or doing different things mid-scene.

(+) Passably fun adventure (7/10). I can say the general plot can get pretty absurd, but what'd you expect. It managed to throw a few curveballs that kept me hooked, and some lines are fun enough, if not bland.

(+) Fantasy of “training”, through good animations (7.3/10). Scenes with main LIs slowly upgrade themselves at times; from pretenses of necessity to depraved indulgences, tho there's enough side girls and story quests to keep things fresh if you want an even quicker break into it. The strong suit is definitely the amount of content and how a lot of them appear in lively ways.


(-)Art inconsistency. Particularly MC itself, and these don’t seem like they can be attributed to lighting alone. Easy example is on the Kobold Mine scenes, the first two animation has a darker, pale-ish skin tone, but on the CG closeup of both sisters at once, it has a jarringly bright gradient. The colors of MC in Kaylin’s official ceremony scene also feel weirdly dark, and he suddenly has a fat belly; which is rarely the case in other scenes.

But one of the worst offender is Primrose’s quest 2 (the glutton), in which the slave takes turn serving various orcs and goblins in your soldiers, except the text says she “starts with serving you”; starting with a skin tone close to a pure white vampire. Seeing how the "claws" stay there even when switching between “people” (more like switching between tints), it’s almost obvious these art aren't ever meant to be of MC, and it's more of an error. MC has no claws whatsoever in other art. Even between the 3rd and 4th orc serviced (interspersed with “you leave and come back later” black screen fadeout), there’s not even a tint change. It just seems lazy.

(-)Noise SFX re-use + Low quality.I’m fine if it fits, but one case doesn’t. Example: One of the Moaning Noises from the Punishment Room (the dark-skin elf when she gets c*mmed into) plays during Kaylin’s Scene; when (Act 2) choosing to let her be violated by Ravora. Dunno if it’s random but hopefully not? At least because Kaylin, Estelle and Ravora are unique “main girls”; I think their voices shouldn’t be shared with anyone else’s imo.

This rarely happens, but the fact that it happens once to a MAIN LI saddens me. If it was Primrose sharing a voice with one of the slaves then I could care a bit less, but even then, she’s still a bit more prominent compared to the other bedroom girls.

(-) Lost potential on some scenes. Again, I love the interactivity. But some scenes in contrast to those feel like they should have more of these, and just didn’t. Example: Final bonus scene with Kaylin (Foursome, Pos 2). Her a*s is sticking out and is in perfect angle view to be clickable to spank, it does not happen. Ravora also could use a horn tug there, but nah.

In the main pose of this scene (Pos 1), you only get the option to click between 6 holes of the 3 girls to f*ck her, Or slap their cheeks a bit, but that's it. Feels like lost potential.

The MC has two hands, why can’t there be toggles fingering the others instead of pleasuring one at a time? What about boob-groping? Despite the pose, each girl has a n*pple showing, and yet you can’t interact with it with your hands either. [feedback redacted to the comments section due to being hyper-specific and more relevant to devs and fellow players]

(-) Bugs: Some toys, such as the feather in Ravora's "Wall Stuck" scene stop working after 2/3 response dialogue lines. Changing things up just show some general jank here and there.

MASTER | Excellent story where choices matter matched with a wide array of fantastic adult scenes & interactive options. The game has layers of depth baked in, and aims to teach you a lesson.

• The story is interesting, and well thought out.
  
• Adult scenes are clean, and mostly all of them are highly interactive.
  
• Choices matter. Your game play is going to affect the overall outcomes, multiple times.
  
• A couple of mini-games and puzzles baked into the narrative.
  
• No terrible grind loop to experience adult scenes. You'll get some from the jump if you desire.

• Highly punishing. If you make a mistake, you're going to see the consequences of said mistake.
  
• No option to save manually, and no quick-save, locking in all of your choices.
  
• You'd have to grind again to experience all outcomes because there's no save.
  
• Lack of a back button, which can punish the player for an accidental option click.

The story was well done. There's several "major" story arcs that could result in a good or bad ending, depending on how you play it. I do like the team's thought process behind the results of the player's selected options. I thought the story was interesting & there wasn't any painful grind loops so you could easily focus on the objectives if you want.

This is the weakest point of this game. With no ability to save or press back, your choices are completely locked-in. The only reason this game dropped a few tiers was because of this. It would nearly be a perfect game otherwise.

Animated, highly interactive, and well-crafted. If you're buying this game for the adult scenes, you won't be disappointed. I thought there were so many options with a wide array of women - it was undoubtedly worth the price.

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My opinions about this game are mixed. I have been a fan of Pink Tea's games since the Flash days but this game just doesn't cut it for me. Perhaps it is because I've matured, become more sensitive, or the game is genuinely worse. I will excuse the usual Pink Tea defects like poor knowledge of human anatomy and what-not because it's a cartoon game about cartoon girls.

Spoilers be warned. I will not use the spoiler text feature. Just move on if you don't want to see them. The first problem I have with this game is that some of its more problematic aspects extend beyond mere porn logic. This is no more obvious than in Kaylin's treatment. Whenever you go to sleep (which is necessary because the girls' energy will go down and only replenish after you sleep), you assign an evening task for Kaylin to perform. Alongside this task is a descriptor of whether the task is kind, neutral, or harsh, which presumably affects the character outcome you get for the Kaylin arc. The two non-harsh options are sword fighting and cleaning. What's important to note here is that Kaylin wants to be a swordsman. If you were a writer and writing a character, which option would you say is "kind" and which "neutral?" Naturally, the sword fighting option is the kind option for the aspiring swordsman, right? Wrong! In actuality, this is the neutral option. The kind option, the one which increases her closeness with you is cooking! Kaylin's entire arc is convincing her, in lieu of becoming military, to be slave of some sort. This absurdity transcends any kind of porn logic. It is a part of the works' own understanding of the character that "woman want cook more than fight," even a character whose primary feature is wanting to fight! I want to make clear this is different than complaining about a porn game about training women to become sex slaves is unrealistic and/or not representative of how actual women behave. Anybody playing that kind of game knows this. The problem is that there is an inconsistency with the very character herself, granting whatever kind of logic the game works in, which can only be motivated by some kind of "women like cook more than fight" logic which transcends the game, obviously.

I understand, perhaps hope, that Pink Tea's usage of AI-generated artwork during the dream scenes was to induce a kind of dream-like sensation (though it appears to extend to some background artwork during the Ravora fight and others, but I am not as sure of this), yet I still find it to be a little tasteless. When I purchase a game, which is priced at ~15 USD as of writing this review, I do not want to see AI-generated art. I am not paying for "skilled prompting" or whatever. So, this is a major turn-off for me.

Overall, if the somewhat minor problems of this game do not bother you much, or if you are less critical with regards to the media you consume, this is a great game and I recommend it. It's a Pink Tea game and it requires basically no thinking to play. My only other problem is that (1) only sometimes does the game tell you how much a specific action changes the stats of girls, e.g. Ravora's spirit and (2) very often one of the earliest choices has the greatest effect or one of the greatest for both stats at once. This is most apparent with Ravora, who I remember most vividly as of writing this review.

It's a solid game.