Battle Princess Lacia and the Fallen Fortress is "kurotozakka's" newest game since "Blazing Aries", which itself was a pretty good game with porn.
What I mean by that is that his games tend to focus more on the gameplay aspect of making a 20 hour adventure with "Tales of..."-like combat while adding mostly optional in-gameplay grapple sex scenes, and traditional sexual events. In that sense, the porn takes a backseat in his games, as it is possible to go through the entire experience with the protagonist remaining a virgin. In fact, it's an in-game achievement.
Difficulty-wise, you can make the game really challenging, or a total cakewalk, your choice. Personally, I played this one on "Easy", but I'm sure "Normal" would have felt just fine for me too.
As far as the controls are concerned, they're a little hard to get used to, particularly when it comes to the firearms. It's fine on easier difficulties, but on "hard" or more, you'll need to remember what everything does...it's suspect the A button is reserved for your super attack by the way, which you can only do once every minute or so. Meanwhile, Q is used for gun-switching, something you'll probably do more often if you like the firearms. It feels those two keys should be switched around...
On a more sexual note, I liked the way this game handled the protagonist's sexual opportunities more than the previous game's.
In Blazing Aries, besides a few exceptions, the main character is basically averse to having a sex life altogether, as is common in porn games with female protagonists.
This was a personal issue I had with that game, as it felt limiting to have so many scenes, yet the protagonist, story-wise, is really meant to avoid all of them (except the mandatory ones).
Thankfully, Battle Princess Lacia remedies this: although a bit roundabout, the protagonist of this game has the opportunity to pursue a sexual relationship of her own accord, albeit with one of two guys who admittedly went a bit further than most real people would have been comfortable with: they ain't saints, that's for sure.
Nevertheless, the game's narrative does a good job making them grow more as individuals who care for the protag as a person, so it feels believable to romance them despite their initial "unwanted" advances.
A lust stat exists to keep the protagonist from engaging in sex-related acts unless it is high enough, but for players who want her to be willing to do anything, there is the option to max out said stat from the get-go, although it does contradict the narrative a bit until a certain point.
Beyond that, the plot of the game is relatively engaging, albeit the current translation is poor due to being machine-translated, with some lines not even having been translated at all. And as someone mentioned before, it fails to realize "Crest" is the name of the town/fort, and basically gives out every different way of translating it in multiple places. Some names don't fare much better either: I still don't know what the family name of the main protag is supposed to be.
One thing I find very awkward is the plot insisting on making one of the main villains a tragic figure towards the ending. It's rather difficult to believe this given this villain tries to kill/capture the protagonist multiple times, almost destroyed the town twice, kidnapped and raped a previous girl...really, his laundry list of crimes is huge, yet the narrative tries to make you feel sorry for him, which is laughable given he survives way longer than he ought to have. The other villain has a more well balanced in portrayal by comparison, since the plot gave him a reason for his actions, but didn't dwell on them as if it justified him, nor did it give him a "sorrowful" end.
Ah, speaking of which, much like Blazing Aries, the last quarter of the game is much more focused on resolving the story and making you go through dungeons than adding sex scenes, which might disappoint some people: the game does warn you beforehand about when you'll be stuck in this final gauntlet, and even if you go through it to the end, once you get the good ending you can warp back to before this gauntlet and always have direct access to the final battle to get a different ending. Narratively, I found that Blazing Aries' conclusion was more emotionally charged, but this game's not bad either.
Sadly, the scenes do not all unlock upon a simple completion of the game: you need to use 1000 "achievement points" to unlock the gallery...and you need 3000 more to unlock all the endings! At least it's an option for players who prefer to play chaste until the end on first playthrough, but it's a little tedious to get enough points.
Besides that, I guess I should point out that the artstyle is still a bit underwhelming compared to some other games. It's clear the artist has some problems with anatomy in some pictures, and there's a distinct lack of detail in some cases too. There's some rudimentary animation put into some scenes that make them a bit more engaging at least, so it's a clear improvement over Blazing Aries on that front.
Something else it has over Blazing Aries is pregnancy, which was strictly ending-related in that game, but in this one, it is more of a mechanic: there's always a chance the protagonist can get pregnant when creampie'd in this game, and if it was by a stranger/monster, she gets put into a 100,000g debt and has to magically have the child in like a day or so. It's pretty ridiculous, but given the game doesn't happen over that long of a period of time, it's understandable it doesn't last over a period of 9 months, or even the abridged "1 week pregnancy cuz it's a goblin"-excuse some stories go for.
Regardless, the game has a nifty way of handling the romance partner's kids: once the protagonist gives birth to them, the guy pays off the debt themselves and then the protag is given an unremovable talisman that ensures she can never get pregnant again for the rest of the game (and the baby is actually kept instead of being put up for adoption). It's a neat way of guaranteeing you're on track for the ending related to the guy who knocked her up without letting her keep making more babies afterwards, therefore preserving some semblance of consistent narrative between their relationship.
Overall, Battle Princess Lacia and the Fallen Fortress is a pretty great action game with optional porn. It'd be neat if there was just a bit more narrative/gameplay reasons to pursue sexual content, but it's in a good spot right now.
Namely, I like that you have some opportunity to choose to have a consensual romance/sex life in this one, which is a rare occurrence in games with a female protagonist narratively presented as chaste at the start...and something I wish Blazing Aries had as an opportunity as well.
Gameplay: 4.5/5
Story: 3.5/5 (2.5 with current translation)
Music/SFX: 4.5/5
Controls: 3.5/5
Graphics: 3.5/5
Total: 4/5
What I mean by that is that his games tend to focus more on the gameplay aspect of making a 20 hour adventure with "Tales of..."-like combat while adding mostly optional in-gameplay grapple sex scenes, and traditional sexual events. In that sense, the porn takes a backseat in his games, as it is possible to go through the entire experience with the protagonist remaining a virgin. In fact, it's an in-game achievement.
Difficulty-wise, you can make the game really challenging, or a total cakewalk, your choice. Personally, I played this one on "Easy", but I'm sure "Normal" would have felt just fine for me too.
As far as the controls are concerned, they're a little hard to get used to, particularly when it comes to the firearms. It's fine on easier difficulties, but on "hard" or more, you'll need to remember what everything does...it's suspect the A button is reserved for your super attack by the way, which you can only do once every minute or so. Meanwhile, Q is used for gun-switching, something you'll probably do more often if you like the firearms. It feels those two keys should be switched around...
On a more sexual note, I liked the way this game handled the protagonist's sexual opportunities more than the previous game's.
In Blazing Aries, besides a few exceptions, the main character is basically averse to having a sex life altogether, as is common in porn games with female protagonists.
This was a personal issue I had with that game, as it felt limiting to have so many scenes, yet the protagonist, story-wise, is really meant to avoid all of them (except the mandatory ones).
Thankfully, Battle Princess Lacia remedies this: although a bit roundabout, the protagonist of this game has the opportunity to pursue a sexual relationship of her own accord, albeit with one of two guys who admittedly went a bit further than most real people would have been comfortable with: they ain't saints, that's for sure.
Nevertheless, the game's narrative does a good job making them grow more as individuals who care for the protag as a person, so it feels believable to romance them despite their initial "unwanted" advances.
A lust stat exists to keep the protagonist from engaging in sex-related acts unless it is high enough, but for players who want her to be willing to do anything, there is the option to max out said stat from the get-go, although it does contradict the narrative a bit until a certain point.
Beyond that, the plot of the game is relatively engaging, albeit the current translation is poor due to being machine-translated, with some lines not even having been translated at all. And as someone mentioned before, it fails to realize "Crest" is the name of the town/fort, and basically gives out every different way of translating it in multiple places. Some names don't fare much better either: I still don't know what the family name of the main protag is supposed to be.
One thing I find very awkward is the plot insisting on making one of the main villains a tragic figure towards the ending. It's rather difficult to believe this given this villain tries to kill/capture the protagonist multiple times, almost destroyed the town twice, kidnapped and raped a previous girl...really, his laundry list of crimes is huge, yet the narrative tries to make you feel sorry for him, which is laughable given he survives way longer than he ought to have. The other villain has a more well balanced in portrayal by comparison, since the plot gave him a reason for his actions, but didn't dwell on them as if it justified him, nor did it give him a "sorrowful" end.
Ah, speaking of which, much like Blazing Aries, the last quarter of the game is much more focused on resolving the story and making you go through dungeons than adding sex scenes, which might disappoint some people: the game does warn you beforehand about when you'll be stuck in this final gauntlet, and even if you go through it to the end, once you get the good ending you can warp back to before this gauntlet and always have direct access to the final battle to get a different ending. Narratively, I found that Blazing Aries' conclusion was more emotionally charged, but this game's not bad either.
Sadly, the scenes do not all unlock upon a simple completion of the game: you need to use 1000 "achievement points" to unlock the gallery...and you need 3000 more to unlock all the endings! At least it's an option for players who prefer to play chaste until the end on first playthrough, but it's a little tedious to get enough points.
Besides that, I guess I should point out that the artstyle is still a bit underwhelming compared to some other games. It's clear the artist has some problems with anatomy in some pictures, and there's a distinct lack of detail in some cases too. There's some rudimentary animation put into some scenes that make them a bit more engaging at least, so it's a clear improvement over Blazing Aries on that front.
Something else it has over Blazing Aries is pregnancy, which was strictly ending-related in that game, but in this one, it is more of a mechanic: there's always a chance the protagonist can get pregnant when creampie'd in this game, and if it was by a stranger/monster, she gets put into a 100,000g debt and has to magically have the child in like a day or so. It's pretty ridiculous, but given the game doesn't happen over that long of a period of time, it's understandable it doesn't last over a period of 9 months, or even the abridged "1 week pregnancy cuz it's a goblin"-excuse some stories go for.
Regardless, the game has a nifty way of handling the romance partner's kids: once the protagonist gives birth to them, the guy pays off the debt themselves and then the protag is given an unremovable talisman that ensures she can never get pregnant again for the rest of the game (and the baby is actually kept instead of being put up for adoption). It's a neat way of guaranteeing you're on track for the ending related to the guy who knocked her up without letting her keep making more babies afterwards, therefore preserving some semblance of consistent narrative between their relationship.
Overall, Battle Princess Lacia and the Fallen Fortress is a pretty great action game with optional porn. It'd be neat if there was just a bit more narrative/gameplay reasons to pursue sexual content, but it's in a good spot right now.
Namely, I like that you have some opportunity to choose to have a consensual romance/sex life in this one, which is a rare occurrence in games with a female protagonist narratively presented as chaste at the start...and something I wish Blazing Aries had as an opportunity as well.
Gameplay: 4.5/5
Story: 3.5/5 (2.5 with current translation)
Music/SFX: 4.5/5
Controls: 3.5/5
Graphics: 3.5/5
Total: 4/5
