Re: [RJ188011] (Ahriman) 鎮魔剣風伝アオイ
Ugh... I really hoped up until the last minute that Ahriman would lower the price. At first, he said that Aoi's volume would exceed Asagi, then a little while later he said it was less but had more variations in battle, and then eventually he even updated the DLsite description to clearly state it was short... but he didn't lower the price. Then I hoped that Japanese consumers would be less vicious in their criticisms than they're usually known to be... but some of the comments on his blog have proven otherwise. Well, they could be worse, and are mostly disappointed.
While Ahriman honestly deserves criticism for this, in the end 1500 wasted yen did not ruin anyone's life, and I don't want people who vent their frustrations to cause us to lose his unique talents. IMO, it was obvious to anyone who paid attention what Ahriman intended with the price + unclear early promises + short development time, and it should also be obvious that he has some circumstances that forced him to do this, probably financial. He should know that what he did was incorrect, and that it would hurt his brand, and now he wants to minimize it as best he can in the form of more promises (hopefully not empty ones) of updates. Ahriman is clearly a dreamer and someone who wants to create ambitious works, not someone who makes shitty mini-games, and he really doesn't need people to "motivate" him to make better works. Fortunately, he seems to be handling the criticism fairly well. He's been apologizing profusely, criticizing himself for being overconfident and shortsighted, and emphasizing how he will work hard from now on.
Anyway, I enjoyed Aoi for what it was. I found the battle system incredibly sexy (I'm a fan of the Japanese interpretation of the DID fetish). Unfortunately, it's just battle after battle and stats don't matter which makes it feel like a tech demo (which it was, actually). The maps are simplistic, there are no puzzles, and ironically the most effective way to beat the bosses is to skip the battles that lead up to them. Still, I took my time with it and played for 2 hours. Here are some less obvious elements of the battle system I'm not sure some of the faster players noticed:
- With the blindfold, you can't use glare or 太刀風・颶 (because the latter is an attack at a distance). With the ballgag, you can't use the two presumably spoken spells to recover HP or TP. They can be removed outside battle in the skills menu.
- If you use the clothes repair item when you're wearing the bondage outfit, it will repair your outer clothes but not your inner bodystocking.
- The second level introduces a hoodlum enemy in the back row who uses 回り込み (Circle Around). After it's used, the next turn Aoi will be bound with 100% certainty unless she uses 太刀風・颶 (30 TP) on that enemy for an instant kill. The third level has a kidnapper enemy in the back row who uses the same move. You can tell because a bubble with an evil face appears next to them. The third boss uses 身構える for the same effect.
- In the third level, when Aoi's 刻淫 stat reaches 0 and she's captured and sent to the reset point as always, unlike the first and second levels, she's equipped with a face harness, not just a bondage outfit. Until she uses a restraint key (which now removes both the bondage outfit and the face harness), any blindfolds or ballgags can't be removed once they're applied. Also, she receives permanent whip marks (in the previous 2 levels, she just received body graffiti).
- The third level introduces an enemy in the center of the front row who puts Aoi in a pillory.
- As RogueTwilight mentioned, the second and third boss have two kinds of holds, IIRC a "humiliating" hold for the second and seed injection for the third.
Of course, I also had many issues with Aoi. Comment #100 in Ahriman's latest blog entry does the best job of summarizing the overall ways it needs to improve, but just to nitpick on top of that... There's a heart icon amid the status icons which turns more red the lower your HP is, which seems totally pointless. When Aoi is first restrained in battle she suddenly wears broken chains, which should be the chains she snaps off after her first faint/respawn, so it's obvious Ahriman didn't think to, or have time to, create separate art for her in-battle art from before she first breaks out of the chains, and on top of that, each time she faints/respawns she breaks out of her chains repeatedly; if Ahriman plans to have her keep the broken chains, it should be a one-time scene. There should be art for the harapan and spanking attacks. When failing to break out of restraints, there's no response message. And selecting New Game+ doesn't restore HP or 刻淫.
While I'm not sure what's up with Ahriman these days, he seems to still be seriously planning to make that collaborative work with Segami Daisuke, so I look forward to that. I'm sure he will improve Aoi with updates too, and he has made some incredible promises already, like adding an actual scenario.
