VN - RPGM - Onhold - Saria Reclaimed [v0.17] [Velminth]

Version: v0.17

I had seen quite a few reviews that other people posted about how the game had an interesting and good gameplay system but was later turned into a generic card game. Although i havent played the older versions, only the .17 i can confidently say this isnt really worth it. The game is nothing more but a glorified rock, papers, scissors with 5 generic cards. I kept waiting and playing hoping to see more cards to spice things up, but i didnt receive any fucking new cards . What is the point of a card based game if you dont give the player any cards besides the very basic default ones???
The art is great and the sexual scenes are above average. The story has promise, but i really dont believe it could go beyond very good rating if it was completed fully. Overall, i would not say its worth it to download and play, there really isnt much content here and what is here, is boring at its boring.

The game was good until your rework, now its damn near unplayable. I can't even get past the forth level because the asshole instant kills me on the first turn, and the few times that I do get to hit him, I do minimal damage. Unless I'm missing something here, all RPG mechanics have been removed so it's clearly not a issue with leveling. I honestly have no words but I do have a question.... What the fuck were you thinking?

This game had promise, between the kinks and the setting it had a bright future a head of it. The side scrolling exploration let you enjoy the various sections of the world. In it's current state its lifeless. Would need yet another revamp to reclaim it's former glory.

Sadly the game from .16 version + is remade, and the gameplay style is more akin to a VN, compared to its prior version where you freely roamed a map and encountered enemy. Due to this its lost most of its redeeming qualities, on top of now being on hold, I have to give this game a low review

Please do not be discouraged, Dev. The shock of a sudden rework that removed tons of content will calm down after introducing more content onto the new system. The whiplash just shocked people, and this being V0.17, its not like this is the final version. People are just shocked. It went from Lisa the Painful to Slay The Spire (My bad attempt at humor to cheer you up hopefully).

For those who are struggling with the new combat system:
Its basically rock paper scissors with the stances.
Slash bets blunt. (Imagine someone failing to catch the blade of a slash.)
Blunt beats Pierce. (Imagine someone grabbing the an arrow out of the air.)
Pierce beats slash. (Imagine someone stabbing with more range against a slash)

So if someone is going to use a stabbing skill, before they attack, set your stance to blunt. (For example: The default resting card)

Hopefully this helps you out till the next content update. I know they will either restore some previous features, or introduce some new ones. Lets see what they're cooking, so to speak.

the total shift in gameplay is just disappointing, the original exploration was fun and the environments were great, but now its on par with a mobile game, maybe making a different side project to use the new system would have been a better choice and could very well have lead to a good game to go along with this one.

Terrible recent changes.
Asshole dev, bashing criticism and slinging insults like a child.
the game went from having the tiniest bit of gameplay to having no gameplay.
the art style is slightly above mid.
oh by the way most of the art like the massage and poster one has been canned and missing from the new version.

I don't want to be too mean about the game, but like other ppl said, it used to be great until the dev changed it to a VN.Another bad new is that the game's status become on hold. I would just play the legacy version instead.

As of writing this review, the game has been put "on-hold" which is just code for "abandoned but don't wanna say it is."

I was a Patreon supporter for over a year, and in that time I spent a good chunk of it being in the discord server, if not active then at least lurking.

Velminth would regularly ban people for speaking against what he had planned/put in the game, whether they were being friendly or an asshole about it. He would also, completely disregard criticism most of the time and say "You guys don't even know what you want, why should I listen to you for what to put in my game?" roughly.

When he announced that he would fully rework the gameplay and story, for the 3rd time in a year, I knew this game was going to go nowhere and I wasn't wrong.

Do not support Velminth, on any game, it's not worth it. I wasted about 60€ supporting him and got nothing in return but disappointment.

Saria Reclaimed could've been another H-game on the level of KP in terms of gameplay and art, instead it'll go down in the depth of forgotten H-games.

"I really liked this game before you changed the whole theme. It gave me vibes similar to Karryn Prison. If you had continued with the corruption mechanics that were initially planned, your game would have skyrocketed. But now, with this new plan of turning it into a visual novel and removing the mechanics, and the combat being worse, I think this game is done for. However, you still have a chance if you revert the game to how it was before the update. I would then gladly give it a 5-star rating. I used to enjoy it very much."

The game itself is nothing like how it was first presented; it went from an actual RPG with corruption-like mechanics and was gradually dumbed down, until it reached its current version where it is just a visual novel without any real player input. There might be a choice, but every choice leads to the exact same outcome, the combat is worse than ever before, and the story was rewritten to be far worse than before, the main character was redone to be unlikeable, and if this version of the game was the one that originally came out nobody would have cared about it.

All of this would not be enough for me to rate it 1 star, however the dev's response to player feedback has been nothing short of embarrassing at best and derogatory at worst. That, combined with the above issues are why I'm rating this game a 1.

I don't even know what to say other than the fact that this game was one of the most promising games in its category with some of the best art of any H-Combat game. Unfortunately its gone completely down the shitter with 2 redesigns in the past 3 updates. Almost every single update up to this point has added a large amount of H scenes as well as content. Unfortunately, 0.16 cut about 95% of the content out of the game while also redesigning the games genre in an awful way. With the 0.17 update our fears were basically answered as almost zero new content was added with only 1 new scene and 2 "new areas" of which is just the most basic amount of dialogue and 1 new enemy. RIP Saria reclaimed please revert to pre 0.16.

This review is pertaining to the current version of the game (0.17).

As a developing title, it is currently promising. The combat system is neat but, considering what's available at the moment, it needs more variety, as you're currently stuck with the same initial deck.

The story revamp seems neat, though I do wonder what it has in store for me now, since Saria has a established, although currently split, team instead of the vagrant lone wolf she was previously.

My only current problems with this title is the lack of clarity in some of the mechanics (most notably the map, location's progress/health bar, the hourglass and the "Doll" and "Axe" buttons at the bottom).

I'm also experiencing some technical issues as well, since most of the sexual assets from the "Bandit" game over screen get stuck in unless I reload to any save made before losing, and that the post-fight latest chapter dialogue is a repeat of the one in "Oscar the Drunk", down to the assets and everything.

Before v0.16 this game had potential to be next "REDACTED TO FOLLOW THE RULES" and i am sure many people see that but now as i already did said in comments on the main thread it's 1-2 months away from "abandoned" tag.

Was really hyped for this game and was awaiting future updates with anticipation before v0.16 when all my expectation was crashed to dust.

I really don't know what was the DEV thinking ...

I... have no words. What the hell happened?

So I played this game in 0.12 originally, if I recall correctly. It had a promising combat system with 3 separate combat trees you could explore based on your play style. It also had the same dynamic combat sex system Karryn's Prison had, which is a huge plus.

Then newer updates of the game started coming out with a card battle system, which I personally despise. It turns an engaging turn-based combat system into a system that's entirely luck based. Might as well change it to rock-paper scissors at that point. It also borked the sex scene system because that also became reliant on the cards.

Now in the most recent 0.16 update, the developer decided to gut all of it, both combat AND sex scene system, and go with a virtual novel format!? As of 0.16, everything in the game that I personally enjoyed has been completely removed for the easy way out, a cookie-cutter virtual novel with a deckbuilder. How disgusting. It can't even be called a game anymore.

Extremely promising rpg with corruption mechanics gets gutted and turned into a half-assed card battler. Mechanics are gone. Content is gone. The only thing left is the main character.

Another promising up-and-coming game in the community gets turned into something that belongs in a dumpster. You hate to see it.

Play 13.1 or 15.2, that's what I recommend if you want to actually see all the art the Patrons originally paid for.

They changed their rpg-based game into cards.......really that's all that should need to be said to justify this review. I can't imagine how upset the patreon's are that they supported this game, waited months for any new information and when the creator posted the "Update" they found out everything they loved about the game is gone. The change isn't even good, the cards make every fight a grind for a scene or two that is no more exciting than any other VN you've ever seen. Such a disappointment.

This game was so good when I first found it and I was looking forward to playing it again after it had some more updates. Unfortunately, that will not be happening as it is no longer the same game as it once was.

The open world was more engaging, had more freedom and felt more like a game. Where as this VN version just feels like a poor attempt at switching to a more story style "game".

Could have just added more dialogue, lore, etc to the original.

Could have been great

I do not share the community's attitute towards the dev, but the game at it's current state is a shadow of what it could've become. A few months ago I would've placed this project as one of the most unique and promising ones. No point in enumerating what it has lost now.

I just hope Velminth does something to improve this, because the game is just a piece of trash now.

this game was going to be great, but now its almost irredeemably bad.

If you like a generic VN with bad combat, basically no content (especially compared to what it had in 0.15), and a confusing, buggy UI this is your game. If not steer clear or find the 0.15 version somewhere