RPGM - Completed - Ariadne [Final] [Eclipse Works]

Played this one a long time ago and only now doing my review, but from what I remember, its an amazing corruption game with a hot female protagonist, the Intro is kind of slow but after getting through it, the game gets so much better, I even remember being able to steal from a store or removing Ariadne's clothes in public and getting arrested, its something more of these games should have.

If you like corruption games, just play it.

Two years ago, I wrote a walkthrough for this game. Today, I realized that I haven't rated it!

Summary: As a work of eroge, it is poor. As a mainstream adventure game, it is excellent. Its gameplay and balance is top-notch. However, it has been published incomplete.

Combat

• Combat requires strategic thinking. If you enter a dungeon hoping the combination of persistent button-mashing and indestructible keyboard will win the day for you, you are wrong. In all the likelihood, you'll destroy your keyboard, hurt your fingers, and rage-quit.
• How to fight doesn't matter as much as when to fight. For example, completing Quest #3 (Haunted Mansion) requires completing Quest #20 first. There is an abundance of hints that you must not pick that fight early on. You can grind your way to the boss fight, but you can never grind your way out. You need proper elemental affinity.
• The turn-based combat system is unique. It takes some time getting used to, but it is thoroughly thought-provoking.
• Some debuffs are only there to scare you. In the grand scheme of things, they don't hurt. (I won't spoil it, though.)
• If I had to name one aspect of the game that disappoints, it's learning new skills. However, I always learned the skills that I needed, so perhaps it isn't entirely left to an RNG. (Actually, I know for sure that it isn't entirely left to an RNG function. I just can't understand its logic.)

Adventure

• The adventure part of the game requires revisiting locations recurrently. Fortunately, Quest #3's reward eliminates that hassle entirely. In fact, it allows you to go anywhere any time. So, instead of sleeping in the local inn for a hefty premium, why not teleport to some remote spot half way across the world and rest free of charge?
• There are no random encounters inside dungeons. You can see the roaming enemies. You can avoid them. Once your level is high enough, they avoid you.
• Saving inside dungeons is not possible, but not needed either. You can always teleport out.
• The game has three endings. None of them are strictly bad.
• I specifically enjoyed the optional dungeon of Monad. It was extra-challenging. Figuring out how to defeat its boss took a while.

Pornography
This title is not eroge. It uses pornography as a form of spice and a poor one at that. Instead, I played the game pretending that any erotic encounter was a form of punishment I had to avoid. It worked. The game became so utterly enjoyable that I wrote a walkthrough for it. I avoided corrupting my character just as I avoided a certain loan shark in the game.

That said, a community mod has improved its erotic scenes with higher fidelity. The sound effects, however, aren't that good.

Bugs

• The Dark Fencer skill is non-elemental.
• Ayano’s Cane increases maximum HP, not maximum PP.

Honestly, if this game let you save whenever, it'd be a 5/5. But it doesn't so it's immediately a 1/5.

The goddamn ghost boss in the haunted house is such an annoying boss because every single time you lose to him you have to run upstairs then run downstairs to interact with the statue, all the while the random mobs keep trying to attack you. You have an escape chance of 50% or something, so it's annoying af if you don't want to fight them.

And then once you arrive at the fight the stupid ghost guy counters you so much it makes me wonder just how many hours of grinding I have to do to kill it, even with the item that applies holy damage to my weapon.

Disallowing saving wherever is such a stupid mechanic in an H game. This ain't Dark Souls, this ain't Sakiro. We're here for a nice wank. Stupid mechanics like that have no place in porn games. It just make it annoying to play.

Also, the autoplay is utter dog water. Spamming standby at max stamina.

A game with a lot of potential, but a bit outdated and too many issues to be any better than average.

The story is fine, it's not too generic but not uninteresting either, so no complaints on that aspect. I would like to point out that I never actually completed this game, I got bored after 3 hours, mostly due to the grind, so I don't know how the story progresses or ends and whether that improves or not.

The character art is pretty good and I like that you can change the outfits of the MC. I also like the clothing tearing mechanic. However, it is a bit dumb that if your clothes are half torn, you are still caught by the city guards and in those scenes, you are completely naked, which is not what happened.

The combat system is fairly unique, I like the stamina system and the double move system as this adds a lot more variety compared to the average RPGM game. However, I find that the enemies are a bit too tough and there is a bit too much grind to progress. There is a fine balance between games being too easy and too difficult, and I would say that this game is just over the line of being too difficult for it to be fun. In fact, the game reminds me a lot like the Dragon Quest franchise which is quite grindy (and I actually do enjoy those games and the grind in those games), but the difference with this game is that it should be primarily a H-game, and having too much grind is not very fun. I do like that there are certain enemies that can rape you as well.

The scenes are pretty good quality, and the CGs are good. The issue is that the genitals are pixellated which removes the quality a bit, though it is kinda expected. It is also difficult to know how many scenes there are, as to my knowledge, there is no gallery and no scene hint feature. I got a fair amount of scenes in my few hours of playing this game, though I wouldn't know if I had missed any. Also, I find that with the difficulty of the combat in this game, scenes seem to be not as prevalent as I wouldve liked.

In terms of lewdity, the most I saw was monster rape and some drunk sleep groping, I'm not sure if there is any more depraved scenes than that.

The game itself is not very well optimised and as I said at the start, a bit outdated. By that I mean you can't change the volume level, there is no feature to skip dialogue or in scenes, no gallery/hints, and the overworld is a bit too large and I'm not a fan of the random encounter fights.

Overall, an average game which has potential but I dropped. I would only recommend if youre looking for games with porn as a secondary feature rather than porn games with combat (with H-scenes being the primary reason to play), and if you enjoy grindy games. C-tier game, 6.8/10

Oh god, this takes me back, I found this game from DirtyC101's forum back in 2016,

the music used is great, to this day I get nostalgic about it: the city themes, the field themes, the emotional music themes,

the combat mechanics with the equipment and weapons are legit, there are some difficult fights where you gotta come prepared, it makes for fun and challenging gameplay,

the different scenarios you get involved in through the story are interesting,

there is a clothing break system, when your clothes get broken you are vulnerable to sexual assault, there's even a special armor set which is unbreakable thus completely defending you,

there's a nice mental corruption in the game, just like every high quality lewd RPG maker game, though let's be real, real chads stealth through the entire game while remaining a virgin, you get a good ending like this.

This is a good game with a good story but lack of H-scene. But still the ending make me tear up and I really like this game. One could say Eclipsework should make a RPG game like this with a good story and maybe add more in-depth of it.
Came for a fap but leave with a good story.
For people that want a quick fap, this is not the game for you but if you like game mechanism and rpg this is the one.

If I could have given less than one star I sure would have.
The interesting storyline and cute graphic style can't save the game which is unjustifiably long, boring and tedious. The fighting style is difficult and requires a lot of items to use , which in turn require money to buy so you need a lot of farming. There is also a lot of random combat as you move between zones which coupled with not being able to save when you want causes frequent game overs; moreover, the h contents are few: so it's not worth playing!

One of the best games I've played. This game actually got me to the corruption, thicc, sweaty hairy genre that is fairly kinky and fetishy in relation to the more vanilla hentai experience. The cloth system is definitely a + too.

Story 9/10 - I liked the prison section of the game although it gets repetitive and grindy eventually.

Art 9/10 - good renders, Eclipse always exceed

gameplay 8/10 - fairly easy to navigate.

Worth noting that this game is not really a HRPG. It's a okay JRPG with interesting take on combat, but you should not play it for porn as there is barely any of it. It's clear that dev wanted to focus on combat and poured lots of effort to make it, but because of that forgot that he is making HRPG.

The story is your average 'go find 5 thingies and here is background what they are' . It can have some vibe to it, but there is nothing sexual to it. Just a normal fantasy story in indie JPG. Due to that all hscenes are optional and do not connect with story.

Still had some fun with it, because its quite good as jrpg, but just do not go in expecting corruption or some interesting use of sexual tropes in story.

I love many aspects of the game, especially the combat and the design. It can be difficult at first, but truly unique among other H games(in particular the combat aspect of "inspire"). It is very rich in content as there is a vast world to explore, together with many secrets to follow.

The only issue I face would be that I am not able to adjust the music and sound, but it is understandable since it is an old RPG game.

I played this a couple years back, still to this day one of the best games made, it is an old style of RPGM which is now outdated but still very worth the playthrough.

It has a lot of scenes, and a few different routes, theres also a mini prison route you can optionally go through.

There's also a decent amount of costume choices, and the scenes are of very good quality and very diverse, it also has minor sandbox elements to it.

Absolute classic, and if you don't like grinding, which admittedly there's a little bit of it, there's so many tools avaiable to skip the grind nowadays it is a non issue.

Current rating (4-5) is way too high.
This game really suffers from developer choosing worst things about RPGM and doubling down on them.
COMBAT.
- Most bosses require you to grind your keyboard off in order to defeat them (second boss can damage you more than you can heal by any available (at the time) methods and even gives you opportunity to run away instead of defeating it (guess even dev realized this boss is garbage).
- Some enemies have kamikaze attack (strong enough to kill you unless you have nearly full HP).
- Lewd enemies have unskippable lewd attack (each has only one and it is fairly long for an unskippable scene).
- Annoying stamina system (like MP but for every action, yes even actions what already eat MP) It only exists to prolong battles.
- Skills are unlocked based on some RNG mechanic (want an ice attack? Well, go grind enemies using consumables until you are lucky)
EXPLORATION.
- Random encounters. They are never (literally never) ok.
- Slow speed of movement.
- Annoying backtracking, you often need to go back for rewards. Unfortunately said rewards are often poor.
- No manual saves in dungeons. And some bosses don't have stationary save point near them. I wonder what developer thought when he decided to do it like this. Did he really though what after dying to poorly balanced boss i would enjoy running through 3 irrelevant rooms?

Overall this game feels like developer never even tested it. It's just too tedious. Although i must admit MC is cute and CGs are ok, but gameplay is way too high of a price.

A great game that's severely held back by the artstyle and lack of hentai scenes, but holds up incredibly well on its own because of its story, level design and gameplay. It's a bit grindier than usual but the payoff is worth it.

If you are looking for an rpg with minor H elements then maybe this is for you, but it definitely was not for me. I already am not a fan of combat in a porn game. Much less for it to be tedious, difficult, and a chore to get through. This game has almost everything I am annoyed by classic rpgs:

• Not being able to save when you want
• Random encounters
• Game over when you lose

These are just some of the things that are present that I wouldn't want in a real rpg game much less an H game.
Look, as an actual game it's not terrible, but if I wanted a real rpg I'd go somewhere else. The only thing stopping me from giving this a one star is the fact that as a game it still holds up. Not as an H game though.

While the art can sometimes be off-model, the fact it's an actual *game* alleviates that. Playing can be just as rewarding as viewing the H-scenes, as this takes full advantage of the RPGM engine to make the experience fun for whatever the demand. Overall a solid game with a decent variety of H scenes. In terms of RPGM titles, it's definitely one of the best.

Not a bad game at all but it can do better.

+Good story
+Good combat with some elements rarely used like stamina
+ok music
+ good art
-little sexual content
-grindy
-small map with few locations
-No party members
-boring and repetitive enemies

I played for a while but i found it eventually too repetitive,with some tweaks this could be a great game
-

No reason to rate highly. First and foremost this is a eroge with very little ero. Getting raped from losing doesnt count. Entire thing point premise setup and so on.... just go play a proper jrpg instead. Game has little draw or interesting side bits and ffs not being able to escape a enemy that can only do one damage to you is fucking stupid.

Ariadne is the second and at the moment last game the circle Eclipse Works made.
It's one of my earliest h-games I ever played and it was my favorite back when it was semi new.
Having replayed it, it still holds up quite well.

From a gameplay perspective it will still rival modern rpgmaker games in terms of using extra features (with no unnecessary features added), such as skipping text, text log and more advanced combat.
The pacing is well made and I never really found myself getting stuck or having to grind a lot to finish the game, the fact that there is an true ending gives you motivation to try and explore the world to figure out how to get it (or just look up a walkthrough).

While the forced choices the games put upon you I do think is a bit jaring, it certainly gives some entertainment with unique scenes for the player, at least when following the story.

And the story I certain do think is what has made this game such a classic and beloved, while the normal story can be a bit generic, it's the true ending route that really I think defines the game as one of the best and it's something well worth getting.

While the artwork has aged a bit (the breasts looks a bit goofy and facial expression seems a bit off), it still is pleasant enough to enjoy and certainly is defined by it's own style rather than trying to latch on to "quirkys" to impress the player.
However the over reliance on rpgmaker assets does make the game feel very generic from an ambient perspective, while the dynamic lighting and the usage of SFX does breath some life into these very overused assets, it still is most likely the biggest flaw of the game.

And while I won't spoil the ending, I think in a way it's the developer's way of saying farewell to their loyal fans.

One of the best RPG I have played in my life.
It is impressive, I did not expect everything I found. The battle system, the soundtrack, the story, very good hentai scenes, the challenge. Personally I think it is at the level of any RPG of the snes or the playstation 1, you can not see any hentai scene and still enjoy a fantastic game.