Review as of version 0.9556
Since this will be a longer review, the tl;dr is that Paccsu is a rare gem in the field of western eroge. It's an RPGmaker game that actually feels like a polished RPG, fun to play, tons of content, and is actually finished. It's almost as good as the likes of the SEQUEL series or Diary of a Lewd Vampire. It's a longer game but absolutely worth anyone's time.
GAMEPLAY: Paccsu's gameplay is definitely the game's strongest suit. It's a traditional turn based RPG in the style of many classic JRPGs, taking the most inspiration from Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. The pacing of the game is excellent as well, and from a simple start the more complex elements of the battle system begin to show. Starting with just the main character, Namu, and later adding two additional party members in Kiva and Purnima, the game is constantly giving the player meaningful choices in how to create character and party builds. While each character has archetypes they initially lean into, there is a lot of customization available through the diverse and unique loot that the player acquires throughout the game. Namu, for example, can be played as either a magic focused damage dealer or a tank, complete with AOE taunts and debuffs. Later in the game she can also become a powerful healer and buff her allies. Due to the carefully balanced action, item, and MP/TP economy, no one character can be good at everything, unless the player grinds them to absurd levels. While this is possible, Paccsu's pacing and difficulty curve is airtight, and there should be no need to grind unless the player habitually avoids fights. For those looking for a challenge however, avoiding fights is possible since encounters are visible in the dungeon as roaming monsters. The gameplay, level design, and battle system are not just good for an eroge, but could probably compete with some larger budget studio releases. As a long time JRPG fan I was very pleasantly surprised by Paccsu's gameplay.
STORY: The overarching plot of Paccsu is nothing unique or particularly interesting, and long time fans of the Dragon Quest series or JRPGs in general might even roll their eyes at the "Demon King plots to destroy the world", but the story is a perfectly serviceable framework for the game. There are a few interesting twists regarding Namu herself that I won't spoil, but longtime fans of the genre will probably see it coming. What saves it from being utterly generic and predictable are some of the excellent side stories. While these are also somewhat derivative, they keep things interesting and some of them are surprisingly well written and executed. A standout favorite has to be the haunted mansion side-quest, which is at times genuinely creepy and disturbing, but manages to keep the tone consistent with the rest of the game. While Namu and friends aren't particularly interesting characters, they all behave consistently and it's hard to dislike them by the end of the game.
H-SCENES: One thing that deserves heaps of praise right off the bat is how h-scenes are unlocked in Paccsu. As opposed to many other games where the player has to intentionally lose to unlock a game-over scene, Paccsu does something so simple and effective that I'm shocked this method isn't standard. During battle, certain enemies will perform attacks that initiate h-scenes. This then unlocks them for Namu's memory room. Attacks that have already been seen then have an option to be skipped. Battle continues normally after these scenes. It's really refreshing since the default system often forces players to play intentionally badly, and usually requires them to reload a save or at least restart the fight. With this system, that hassle is totally avoided. The are a few game over scenarios, but the vast majority of scenes are unlocked via this method.
However, the tl;dr said that this game was ALMOST as good as some other RPGmaker eroge greats, and this is the aspect it falls a little short in compared to those games. It's not that the game's h-scenes are low quality or downright bad, in fact many are pretty good, but they're not as good or as numerous as they should be. Obviously one should always want more of a good thing, but the number of scenes for a game as long as Paccsu just aren't what they should be. By the last stretch of the game there's not a lot new to see. Quality can also vary, and there are a few scenes that are entirely recycled from other scenes. One particularly egregious example is a scene where Namu grows a dick and is given a handjob by the enemy. By itself it's an alright scene, but this exact same scene is repeated in the same dungeon, with only a few lines of dialogue replaced. But it's counted as a separate scene. It comes off as a little lazy, especially since it's the only unique h-scene in that dungeon. Art assets are also recycled between scenes with varying levels of obviousness. While this is understandable, this also gives the game a somewhat cheap feel at times. For some people, this might seem like a dealbreaker, after all the point of an eroge is the porn right? Some people might ignore the gameplay entirely and just unlock everything in the memory room right off the bat. There's enough quality scenes in the game for it to be worthwhile, especially if you're in to the subject matter. This game is one of the only eroge in existence that caters exclusively to fans of shortstacks, and it does the fetish plenty of justice. Since this game is still in development, it's worth noting that many of the lower quality scenes appear earlier in the game, while scenes made later in development are very good and don't have a lot of the problems outlined above. This is the developer's first game, and he has stated he wants to add more to Paccsu even though the story is done, so hopefully the lesser quality scenes were unfortunate casualties of the learning process.
FINAL THOUGHTS: Paccsu is a really good game that edges on greatness. It's not a perfect game, but definitely closer to a 5/5 than a 4/5. The reason I wrote this long review is because this is the developer, Zem, clearly has a lot of potential. As far as I know, this is his first game, hopefully the first of many, and it already blows so many others in the same genre out of the water. Feedback is important to growth, and since he does post in this thread I hope he sees this review and takes both the praise and the criticism therein to heart. All the problems the game does have are fixable. It could go on to be one of the greats with just a little more effort in the h-scene department. If this game just got around ~15 or so good quality scenes with minimal recycled assets, sprinkled around the existing story, this game would be perfect, and you would earn a fan for life. Since this game is still in development, I really hope this happens.
