The story of this AVN is about a guy who unexpectedly participates in a competition with a mysterious background. During this he gets to know a few girls who all have their own interesting and sometimes surprising background stories and it is possible to romance most of them. Every girl has her own interesting and most of the time likeable character. The renders are well done and it is rare that I saw a VN with so many pretty good animated regular scenes - making this sometimes feel more like a movie than a book. The game has a LOT of choices and some choices result in a change of your stats which then again might prevent or allow you to make other choices later in the game. In the game you also get a phone which will be used to read about your relationship stats, chat with your love interests and friends, watch at wallpapers and more. The game offers a few mini games, has an unlockable gallery and you can even search for some cats hidden in the renders of the story to unlock additional wallpapers. (These cats are hidden really well - so I'd suggest to also buy the walkthrough mod if you want to find them all. This mod only marks the scene in which a certain cat is hidden so it is still fun to find them ... it also helps in finding all available routes in the game - which are quite a few). The sex scenes - which are mostly vanilla - are well done but they clearly are not the focus of the game. They can be the result of certain choices and they are meant to be and feel special. For those who like them the game also has ingame AND Galaxy achievements - both working 100%. The achievments are not just progress related but choice related and some of them are not easy to achieve - so that's possible additional gameplay as well :) During my 100% playthrough I only experienced ONE bug. Contacted the devs and they fixed it immediately on GOG. Such devs need our support. This AVN offers a lot for your money and it also shows why AVNs are not the same as books.
I've waited years for this game to arrive and I had to wait even longer for this to arrive here on GOG. After the mind blowing and confusing cliffhanger from part 2 I could not wait to play the conclusion ... I am aware that the production of this game was troubled and development several times almost abandoned - so I was not sure what I would get in the end - but my curiosity could not be tamed so I purchased the game just seconds after its release. Now, after 20 hours playtime (I played the game on expert level, so no hints and no skipping) I can only say that it was well worth the wait. Once again the game is a bit different than part 1 and part 2 and once again the story gets a new layer. The atmosphere and graphics are as nice as they were before and the puzzles were interesting and challenging ... but never frustrating. They picked up quite a few things from the other games making this feel like the conclusion it is supposed to be. These three games are one big story and the story you will get in the end might not be the story you would expect.... For spoiler reasons I won't go too much into detail but if you played part 1 and part 2 you are already aware how great Dimmy is in telling a story in a way you won't be able to tell what's coming next. There were a few WTF moments I had when I played the game and when the final explanation was given I did not feel disappinted at all - only surprised. Yes, what they did was working but I was sure that not everybody would see it this way. So be aware that it could be (50/50 chance) that you won't like the ending. However the game is still great - even if you dislike the ending. So many ideas, such a great atmosphere, soundtrack, puzzles, cinematics ... Imo the game is worth more than the 10 bucks that are demanded here. So if you like these games chances are good that you will love this final part as well.
This standalone DLC is meant to offer something for fans of the brawling part of the base game. For this to work the developer improved the brawling mechanics of the base game and the game takes place in a small bar that is all about brawling. I liked the setting and characters in the Brok universe but I thought a pure brawling game with characters just fighting each other again and again might be boring so at first I was not thrilled when the game got released but of course I still puchased and played it immediately. To my surprise the game is not just about brawling. It feels more like an additional game in the Brok universe. Embedded in a story which starts when Brok discovers the bar you will meet new characters and engage in new (fully voiced) dialogues telling their background always with the lore of the base game in mind. You don't need the background of the base game but it makes the experience even better. The brawling part is not as mindless as I was expecting it to be. We are talking about 60+ challenges all being different (platforming, collecting, surviving and many more). Sometimes you even will have to figure out how to do something that seems to be impossible first. You are playing different characters with different movesets to make things even more interesting For each beaten challenge you'll get some currency which you can spend on unlockables or food which can make certain challenges more easy. You can sitch difficulty whenever you want or use currency to skip a challenge, preventing you from being unable to progress. The game screams accessibilty with its many options and basically everything is rebindeable. You also get a mode to create your own challenges, a versus mode, survival mode, custom challenges that can get imported and daily challenges ... in short: you get a lot for your money and I absolutely recommend this game if you are a fan of this universe and did not completely hate the brawling part of the main game.
In opposite to those two bad reviews here I actually own the game and finished it. It is not a big game but it is really charming and the voice overs are also quite good and everyone of the hotties has her own history and charming personality. Trying to find out why each of them is in the camp is part of the story. One thing that is completely different from all those other AVNs we are used to is the fact that the MC has a girl friend when he enters the camp and he also did not expect that the patients in the camp would be girls ... which makes this one a bit different since he is NOT searching for someone. The game also has a bit more to offer in the "gameplay section", you can search the renders for hidden items and you also get offered quite a few choices which will change the way the story goes just a bit (of course the core story won't change much as expected). The game tracks all routes chosen and so it's fun for completionists as well :) The adult scenes are also done pretty well and you have the option to chose what you want to see. I only give it 4 stars though simply because I think that the end is a bit too abrupt and could be fleshed out a bit more.
This game is pretty similar and at the same time extremely different from their predecessor Gibbous. Both games are oozing passion, love for detail and beautiful handmade frame by frame animations at every corner. Both games are colorful and impress with interesting and charming characters and both games have a beautiful and fitting soundtrack. Everything in both games is handmade and it shows that the devs really love what they do and are aiming to deliver the best game they could. However. While Gibbous was a typical classic point and click adventure in which you could - by design - sometimes be stuck for quite a while the goal in Near-Mage was to provide an experience that is relaxing and engaging but never frustrating. The game is advertized as narrative-heavy experience and that is exactly what it is. The game is not meant to be challenging it is meant to be enjoyable. If you are aware about that you will really enjoy the many characters, the well performed lip synchronized voice overs, the coming of age story, the beautiful surroundings, the joy to experiment with spells, outfits and dialogue choices and the many animated wonders these devs have in store for you to surprise you. Without spoiling too much I'd like to add that fans of the predecessor Gibbous will probably have even more fun with it since both games are playing in the same universe ..... Choices in the game will influence the story and/or later quests. Sometimes a certain choice in one situation might even lead to a new quest later in the game ... so it is important how you chose - it is also completely up to you ... so you will have additional fun and replay value to try out different things and solutions. If you enjoyed the beautiful art, atmosphere and soundtrack of Gibbous and always wanted to have more of it but with a more relaxed gameplay which will give you the opportunity to really dive into the scene and enjoy the story - you won't get disappointed here.
Don't buy if you don't want to support censoring. It's sad I have to write this because the devs/publishers aren't to blame here. They offered GOG the uncensored version of the game but GOG decided to reject it because apparently they think they know best what is suitable for adults. It's a crying shame. If GOG gets sales for this they will think that censored games will selll as good as uncensored - so think twice before you buy cansored games - you have been warned.
Only on GOG the devs decided to include 30GB of 4K videos into the base game. Those can be switched on or off inside of the game but everybody - no matter if you even have 4K hardware or not will have to download it. On Steam the 4K pack is an optional free DLC ... the devs know about the problematic since they even expalin on their discord in their FAQ that the 4K pack is optional and will be provided as DLC to save spave for those who don't need it or cannot run it ... apparently this is only true for the Steam version but they never cared to mention this tiny detail. I went on their discord, explained the situation and asked them to reconsider and making the 4K pack a DLC on GOG as well ... they never even bothered with an answer. That was the moment that I decided to not bother any longer with this game. I don't want to spend my money on devs that treat me that badly. We have countless indie devs out there that value their customers and I am more than happy to give them my money instead, leaving this game and these devs behind for good.
Don't buy if you don't want to support censoring. It's sad I have to write this because the devs/publishers aren't to blame here. They offered GOG the uncensored version of the game but GOG decided to reject it because apparently they think they know best what is suitable for adults. It's a crying shame. If GOG gets sales for this they will think that censored games will selll as good as uncensored - so think twice before you buy cansored games - you have been warned.
Unfortunately you can't edit a review. Even more unfortunate is that I can't contact deku_knight because of privacy settings. In any case: The game is NOT abandoned. To realize this you just need to follow the Kinky Fridays discord. In fact they just updated the game about a week ago. I hate the fact that we have a few games here on GOG that don't get updated but I also hate it when we blame publishers like Kinky Fridays who actually DO update their games. I only posted this "review" to rectify this mistake. If GOG should remove this because it is not an actual review (which I am aware of) I hope that they will also remove deku_knight's false claim. It's only fair to the publisher and the devs.
The main characters in the game are almost all minoritys, they sometimes talk about topics that you would consider to be "left" (a few minutes of over 20 hours) and you could see some parallels to the world of today (no surprise since the game takes place in a parallel universe of 2030). I personally would not call this propaganda but rather a different pov. In fact the game is a fictional comicbook story like X-Men (each chapter recaps the story and shows choices and percentages in well done comicbookform). The main cast is hunted by a system called "Justice" which was created to serve the people and over time has been misused to opress them. They are hunted because of their powers of which they are afraid of - not because of them being minoritys. The game plays like all those later Telltale-Games but you can actually walk around much more and collect items which you can then gift to members of your cast to unlock new dialogue. You have a guitar hero like minigame and the fighting parts. 90% of the game is about dialogues and how your words influence your relationship with your cast. Each character has a special stat influenced by your dialogue choices that can change between three states and based on the actual relationship state certain events might or might not happen. So while most of the story will not be influenced that much by your choices your relationship and final decisions will. I was almost never forced to (mis)use my powers - so that statement is false. The fighting parts are rare and they feel clunky but you can skip them. German translation is incomplete in a few parts parts and sometimes faulty - a fate many indie devs share. The story has some interesting twists and becomes pretty emotional in the end and if you are willing to let it be ... unfortunately though near the end it feels rushed and as if some part is missing (there's a small timejump). You also cannot save manually. Even with these flaws I really enjoyed my time on the road :)
