Never played Battle or the Command series before, but I liked what I saw on YT when I looked up what it was like. And the little snippits of story I saw also seemed cool. I saw the numerous reviews on ehre warning me away due to issues, but figured it's been a while since the last one, surely it's working now, right? Nope. My experience was nothing at all like what I saw online. Sure, the game booted up (sort of - crashed repeatedly until I fiddled with DirectX settings in GOG) and the first few tutorials were fine if a bit jank. Was having fun in the first few. I actually aced both the Federation and Klingon tutorial first try. It was kinda weird, but I'd read the manual and first timer guides online, so I got what I was supposed to do with angular momentum and firing arcs. The ROMULAN tutorial, though...I got wiped out by the bird of prey. No big deal, I probably just suck at Romulan ships. Then I went into the campaign and died on the second mission of the game. On the easiest difficulty. Unlike in the videos I saw, all of my shots were passing through the enemy, regardlss of range, momentum, speed, etc. I had Veteran-level tactical officers with the best Comp I could load, and still missed everything. Meanwhile, the enemy could easily hit me, and in what appears to be an even fight, that meant death. My shuttle wasn't even hitting anything, and that's AI controlled! I tried again and again, but nothing I did made any difference. I tried reading guides. I tried watching YT walkthroughs on the hardest difficulty and tried to match their loadouts. I actually learned most of the keyboard shortcuts (on the second mission of the game). I even tried cheating, and still died! I don't know for sure, but based on the vids and forum posts I've seen, I think GOG broke something when they made this game work on Windows 10/11. This game is unplayable. A real shame. I was excited when I got it; was gonna show it off to my friends. Now I have to warn them off instead.
This game start off with a bang, and doesn't let go. The animation is great, as are the H scenes, and the story is also really good. The game is a bit janky, but there was never a point where I was truly "stuck", and I managed to 100% it without too much trouble. The difficulty of managing your time and money is hectic at first, but with a bit of practice and time, you'll figure a good schedule and how to manage everything properly. Even on Normal difficulty, I never once ran out of time on the assignments. And the characters were fun to discover and explore, too! Unfortunately, the ending for the game left me cold as ice. Without getting into spoilers (much), it basically takes everything you've done and rips it to pieces in front of you. It's so bad that, despite having fun with the game up to that point - right up to the name drop at the very end itself - I doubt I'll be touching this one again. Literally 2 whole starts down the drain for this ending alone. If there was a sequel (and there is technically room for one), my opinion would be different, but this title is pretty old, so the likelihood of that happening is nill. Thus, while I can recommend it for those who want some good H scenes to release themselves with, OR I can recommend it for those who want an engaging story, I can't recommend it for anyone who wants both. If you plan on 100%ing this one, be prepared to potenatially never pick it up or fap to it ever again. You have been warned.
This game is a great story-driven lewd game, though it's a bit slow to start by necessity. The animations are top notch, and the English translation is so good that I wouldn't have been able to tell it was Japanese save for the obvious cultural nods. The pixel art is really great, too, though I admit there are a couple of "meh" moments. What's more interesting about this, though, is that this really is a "Hentai Horror" game. You didn't think that was possible? Think that the horror would overwhelm the carnal passions? Yeah, think again - similar to how John Dies At The End proved that "Horror Comedy" is a thing, this proves that you CAN somehow combine the two extremes and get the joys of both. Sae, the main character, is instantly memorable; sure, she's a standard H-scene female protag for the most part, but the puzzle solving combined with several stand out moments of competence show that she's got an actual brain in her skull, which instantly endeared me to her. Speaking of, the puzzles were fantastic, ranging from easy starters to something straight out of Cyan Worlds' "Myst" series, though even then it was never too difficult with a bit of thought. My only real negative is that it does start slow, as it has more emphasis on the story and characters then the H scenes. So if you're looking for a quick nut-and-run, you're gonna be disappointed with the wait. But if you actually stick with it and let it warm up, *you will be rewarded quite handsomely*. Like the difference between a fast hook-up and a friend-turned-lover. And it's quick enough that you can unlock everything in about 3-4 hours, with scene replays built in at the end for if you come back for more. I laughed, I felt fear, and I felt joy and triumph. ...and I nutted. SO. DAMN. HARD.
I want to try and keep this brief, so here's the highlights up-front: The Good - Surprisingly engaging story and interesting characters (with the DLC), great sense of progression, absolutely amazing animation and world art, "Zombie Autiomation" is really intuitive and works quite well, amount of content and pacing is near perfect - always lots to do but never got "decision paralysis" The Bad - To get a good story requires the DLC, Numerous game glitches even after patching, UI is minimalist to the point of frustration, English writing has numeous spelling/grammer errors, DLC unbalances the economy which already wasn't great I had quite a bit of enjoyment with the game, from surprising directions, even, but I can absolutely state that it's not going to be for everyone. This is definitely an "indie" game in the truest since, both good and bad. For every "good", there is a "bad" to go with it. If you get this game, you need to a) Be a fan of Harvest Moon/Stardew Valley already, b) Get the DLC if you want the actual complete game, and c) Be prepared for glitches and writing errors throughout everything (seriously, it's clear the QA and English editing was not good enough) and d) Be ready to consult a wiki from the lack of in-game guidance and player information. That said, if you can get past those (admittedly big) hurdles, you'll find a beautifully detailed world that's full of lore and interesting characters to learn about, and lots of discoveries to make everywhere, all while having a close-knit feel that gives a more intimate experience then typical sandbox games. Depth is the name of the game, and the game gives that to you in spades, and though you have to dig deep to get to it, you'll find real nuggets of joy burried here. Overall, a good - if unpolished - little game. Not for everyone, but for those that fit the mold, they'll find the fit very comfortable.
