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Anybody playing Re;lord?


Fred the Barber

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I just finished it, and I thought it was a pretty solid game. In full disclosure, I've opted not to write a full review on it since a couple friends of mine worked on the localization, but I haven't seen anybody talking about it, so I thought I should at least start a thread here.

First of all, the gameplay is pretty fun! I have only a little past experience with ero RPGs (like... three games, I guess?), and with the notable exception of Alicesoft titles, I've generally found them to be pretty thin on the gameplay. But Re;lord has pretty solid gameplay! The combat requires you to do a lot of clicking, trading off between left- and right-clicking to attack and guard, and it's all in real-time. No taking your time over a decision on a turn-based strategy game: click or be clicked. It's not the most complex system, and it does stop evolving about halfway through the game, but it's both active and challenging without feeling punishing or random (which often seems to happen to poorly designed turn-based RPGs). The leveling up of skills is fine; nothing special here, but still a decent gameplay element. And the last gameplay element is the map-conquering segment of the game, which is also pretty gratifying, though it's very easy (they didn't get the balance right here). The gameplay has various balance issues (for instance... you should probably just stick to the Wind spell most of the time and leave Fire alone), but they're only ever imbalanced in a way that makes the game easier, at least, and the game is still often challenging, all the way through the end (especially the optional hidden boss, which I eventually gave up on, because they were pretty darn difficult!).

The script is pretty good. More typos than I would like, and there's some issue with line breaking around ellipses that gets annoying at times, but fortunately there just aren't that many ellipses hanging around. The writing is funny (cape jokes for miles), and also timely (right-wing nationalists, ahoy). The latter admittedly makes me a bit squeamish, but given the ending, I suspect it's not going to stay quite as hard-line on that front.

The only downside to the game, really, is that, while the story reaches a reasonable stopping point at the end, it barely scratches the surface of where it wants to go. So, get out there and buy it, so we can get localized releases of volume 2 and volume 3.

Do it for the cape jokes.

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I did play it and found it enjoyable. The H-scenes were pretty solid too and the Mayor/Governor had some funny moments. Like you said the combat is simplistic, but interactive although I am concerned it has reached its apex and won't improve in vol. 2 or 3. I ended being able to beat all the side bosses after understanding what exactly the side character abilities did. Also if you never did, it's worth upgrading the block mitigation. It goes up to ~90% damage mitigation which ended up being why I was able to survive the mini-bosses.

Definitely worth a play though as long as there is hope for the other volumes.

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42 minutes ago, Fred the Barber said:

The writing is funny (cape jokes for miles), and also timely (right-wing nationalists, ahoy). The latter admittedly makes me a bit squeamish, but given the ending, I suspect it's not going to stay quite as hard-line on that front.

One of the fun things about reading fiction is we get to "know" people with many different viewpoints. It has the benefit of increasing our understanding and our empathy. And for a long time this was just something said with nothing behind it, so it's good that studies are starting to observe the same thing, psychological study though, so take it with a grain of salt ohohoho :

The study, conducted by Kingston University in London, found that readers were more likely to act in a socially acceptable manner compared to those who preferred watching television.

Instead, TV lovers came across as less friendly and less understanding of others’ views.

But, no ordinary book will do because it turns out the type of literature you choose also has a huge impact on your emotional intelligence.

The study revealed that fiction fans showed more positive social behaviour while readers of drama and romance novels were found to be the most empathic. 

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/people-who-read-books-are-nicer-kingston-university-study-fiction-a7721096.html

So when fiction helps us delve into the minds of people who we don't usually associate with, that's an excellent result. That being said the writing becomes terrible when people with certain viewpoints get inserted into a novel for the sole purpose of being knocked down. Often their views are painted as superficial or wrong or backward, and the superior views win out easily. This sort of horrible writing is often called "stop pushing your bloody agenda" and tends to become annoying (depending on your viewpoint obviously).

That being said, a right wing nationalist protagonist who likes to scream "sieg heil Zaalrant"? I expect either sillyness or some kind of agenda pushing from that. But you've convinced me to give it a whirl :) 

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45 minutes ago, skrewball717 said:

I did play it and found it enjoyable. The H-scenes were pretty solid too and the Mayor/Governor had some funny moments. Like you said the combat is simplistic, but interactive although I am concerned it has reached its apex and won't improve in vol. 2 or 3. I ended being able to beat all the side bosses after understanding what exactly the side character abilities did. Also if you never did, it's worth upgrading the block mitigation. It goes up to ~90% damage mitigation which ended up being why I was able to survive the mini-bosses.

Definitely worth a play though as long as there is hope for the other volumes.

Word on the street is that they tightened up the gameplay in vol. 2, both fixing some of the balance issues (you actually want to use different spells; map time actually requires some thinking since they don't just heap blocks on you) and expanding things (they added ice and electricity in vol. 2, and again, you actually want to use them).

36 minutes ago, Darklord Rooke said:

That being said, a right wing nationalist protagonist who likes to scream "sieg heil Zaalrant"? I expect either sillyness or some kind of agenda pushing from that. But you've convinced me to give it a whirl :) 

Then my work here is done!

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Yeah, as with every other ero RPG I've played, it's rapey: defeat your enemy (stripping their clothes in the process, in this case), then "subdue" them, for "reasons" (in this case, because, to the batshit crazy main character, "seducing" his opponent is a necessary step in his plan).

As these things go, it's on the lighter side (less pain described than a typical VN defloration scene; no blood in CGs; everybody involved is pretty into it within a few lines), but the lighter side of rape is still clearly rape.

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Tbh the gameplay element of Re;lord was decent: simple but still maintains its unique charm. The writing is also unexpectedly good for a game of its nature (no offense), the characters are unique and well fleshed out, Ria (the fairy accompanying the protagonist) in particular seems very realistic without falling into any archetypes such as tsundere.

The main thing about this game that kept it from being great was just how inconsistent the MC's actions were from one scene to the next. For example, from helping his enemy on numerous occasions because he felt bad for her incompetent boss to straight up raping her in the next scene because "dAd sAiD sO xD". I understand that this really wouldn't be an 18+ game (thus losing a lot of its audience) if the MC didn't have a motive/incentive for fucking girls but c'mon even I could shit up a better excuse than having an extreme case of a father-complex. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

To me I still didn't play this yet because it's just the first part of the trilogy. But after read Fred's take on this, maybe I'll consider to play ReLord here. I hope that Sekai release the rest of the trilogy as well, but seeing the state they currently in maybe it's quite hard to fulfill.

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  • 3 months later...
Quote

As these things go, it's on the lighter side (less pain described than a typical VN defloration scene; no blood in CGs; everybody involved is pretty into it within a few lines), but the lighter side of rape is still clearly rape.

However, it is explicitly mentioned they do suffer afterwards - whether its due to the rape or what Wilfried does to them after he's finished is unknown, but it's certainly not pain free during or afterwards.

Quote

 For example, from helping his enemy on numerous occasions because he felt bad for her incompetent boss to straight up raping her in the next scene because "dAd sAiD sO xD"

It's the whole point of Wilfried - his father complex is so bad (and Ria and co are either too sycophantic or couldn't care less to deal with it), that he follows his fathers teachings with almost everything - including "once you've seduced a woman, you can do anything with her".  The other reason for raping them is because he feels that they would fight back if he tried to extract mana if they weren't "seduced".  Don't forget that even with the earlier enounters, he regards them as nothing more than a nuisance, and Ria urged Wilfried to kill them on several occasions... 

It's interesting to see Wilfried's character change from being fairly decent to a right-wing, rapist, supremacist, killer, would-be dictator and all-round nutjob - and all because  none of his "friends" dare challenge him (well, Ria wouldn't as I think she has her own plans for the world - at least until later), whist Erika goes from being arrogant, lazy and using Fine as nothing more than a shield to being insecure, frightened and in desperate need of help from Fine - finally realising that she wasn't treating her friend as a friend...

I'm glad that Re;Lord 2 should be out by the end of the year/early next year - I had originally thought that 1 was just a testbed for Escu:de products (after all, the subject matter and what happens isn't everyone's cup of tea) - but obviously Re;Lord 1 did well enough for 2 (and hopefully) the pretty grim 3

I'm replaying it once more because I bought the OST and to re-acquaint myself with the story before 2 comes out.  It's still as disconcerting to play as the first time...

The "comedic" ending is pretty jarring, and I still haven't worked out why it was done like that.  I presume it's to lighten the mood after the main ending, but it's so sudden and out-of-place...

I do feel that the girls have all been setup to fail, which must mean the reason for their invasion was so important that they are all willing to endure humiliations are Wilfrieds hands... 

 

 

 

Edited by Guest
Added bits about the end
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It will be interesting to see what "fatal mistake" Wilfried makes to bring about his downfall - the most obvious would be trying to "rescue" Iris from the Huntsmen.  However, that is probably too simplistic - in order to be fatal, the Huntsmen would have to survive his trap, see him use magic and have Iris attack him as well.

It's more likely to happen when he starts his terrorist attack (and proving he was lying).  In addition, I wonder what Erika will do when/if she discovers that Wilfried was involved with that

Spoiler

It could be how her downfall starts too

I wonder how they are going to reconcile the two versions of that - the soldier who (apparently) started it and was executed and Wilfried doing it.

I hope Fine ends the series in a fairly good position - I think she has suffered the most out of all the girls.

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I played both Volume 1 and 2 (in Japanese).  The gameplay is amusing and the story is occasionally interesting, making it one of Escude's better titles.  The comedy gets old and distracts from a story that might've been better if it had been tackled more seriously.  I would've liked more focus on the darker aspects, instead of all the sugarcoating with comedy and nonsensical situations.

Edited by sanahtlig
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At least there is some comedy in 2 then :)  I like the story a lot in 1 : Both light and dark comedy mixed  with plenty of drama with a foreboding atmosphere - and it an interesting, if disturbing, story.  I suppose you could say that Wilfried, was doomed to fail (more or less) from the start - what with a corrupt rapist father, sycophantic friends and a penchant for capes

Have you played 3 ?

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  • 1 year later...

Any news about Re;Lord 2 ? It's nearly two years since Sekai announced it, and according to their status reports, they are still waiting for an engine update from Escu:de

I do hope it hasn't be abandoned or anything

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  • 9 months later...

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