Obscurite Magie: The City of Sin is a lewd, turn-based RPG about Louse’s quest to retrieve her father’s dagger that leads her into a rabbit hole of misogyny and debauchery.
Adult Content?
(F, FxF, FxM) sexual content.
Censorship?
No. Woot! Woot!
Hours of Gameplay?
Four hours.
Patch Available?
Not necessary.
Foreword: published November 20th, 2021
I received a free copy of this game for review purposes — thanks Kagura Games!
Gameplay: published November 20th, 2021 (3/5★)
Though the vast majority of dialogue and sexual content is optional, the gameplay is but a fraction of content. To get the most out of Obscurite Magie: The City of Sin, it’s best to treat this game like a visual novel with RPG elements. There’s no incentive to preserve Louise’s innocence, and there’s no penalty for death. By starting a “casual” game, you may begin your journey with an over-leveled character to focus on the “story” and gloss over combat. Though I chose the more difficult “roleplay” mode, with a little grinding I plowed through every boss! The only character that was of any consequence was the last boss. She was the only enemy that forced me to do something other than spamming “attack” — I had to click defend three times!
While exploring dungeons, you may avoid or engage foes as desired; enemies won’t pursue you, making it possible to easily weave through them (but supplies are cheap — there’s no good reason to avoid battle!) Toggling “easy mode” allows you to destroy enemies on contact (saving time by skipping the combat screen) However, sexual content is tied to combat, and skipping battle means skipping sex! By grinding for levels, you’ll unlock a repertoire of powerful magic-based attacks. Unfortunately, progression is uninteresting. There is no need to strategize or prepare for battle — the solution is always use a stronger attack (or level-up some more!)
Sexual Content: published November 20th, 2021 (4/5★)
It doesn’t take long to see Louise raped; maybe fifteen-twenty minutes into the game, I came to a jellyfish! Sex-scenes are tied to optional dialogue (indicated by a heart icon), but most of them are reserved for combat. Instead of dealing damage, enemies will periodically tear Louise’s clothes. Once broken, she is exposed to sexual attacks and rendered unable to enter select establishments. Whenever Louise is raped, her “lewdness” will increase. How far her foes go depends on her overall lewdness: as it gets higher, cream pies and extended sex-scenes become the norm as Louise stops resisting! Boss fights typically have “defeat events” (but don’t have to lose to unlock them). If you’re not in the mood to fap, previously-viewed sex-scenes may be skipped.
Each character’s respective scenes use the same dialogue and a single CG (with variations for undress and climaxes). While “lewdness” offers some variety, I wish Syun-kan Flowlighter took the time to write more scenes. They already shamelessly reuse the same artwork — it can’t be that hard to randomize premade dialogue and sound effects. In their defense, there’s a healthy number of sex-scenes to unlock (covering the whole cast of female leads), but they don’t offer a lot of replay value. Once Louise is totally lewded-out, there’s no turning back. It’s great to see her gradually “corrupted”, but once lewdness is maxed the same sex-scenes will play every time.
Story: published November 20th, 2021 (2/5★)
Tracking her father’s dagger, Louise is led into Ruedidalia, “a place plagued by extreme sexual discrimination where men are free to rule over and dominate women”. Stringed along by Kelly the “information broker” and the Milyusia, “Guard Commander”, Louise accepts bounties in hopes of finding her beloved heirloom amongst the “local wanted men”. Little does she know, the corruption of Ruedidalia is something sinister — a mysterious force guarded by a criminal hierarchy for human trafficking.
I wasn’t impressed by the story. The dialogue is poorly written (or translated?) It reads like a teenagers shitty fan-fiction. Character development is poor, the pacing is awful, and most of the “story” is useless fluff. Everybody, including the main protagonist are about as interesting as cardboard cut-outs. The plot goes from “A” to “B” so quickly, I felt as though I wasn’t playing a completed game. The baddies are just there to pad gameplay, not to expand upon the world or telegraph an ending. If the game started with the last boss monologue, the climax wouldn’t make any less sense. Obscurite Magie: The City of Sin is full of disappointment, but I’m sure most of the people that are buying this game aren’t paying too much attention to the “story”.
Sound: published November 20th, 2021 (3/5★)
The music is a bit repetitive, but it fits the bill for a fantasy RPG. It features a blend of orchestic and electronic sounds, sometimes reminding me of early Final Fantasy and Hyperdimension Neptunia. I tuned into the sound track for “immersion”, but they only “wowed” me sometimes. The sound effects are what I’d expect for an RPGMaker game. Some users may be peeved by the “foot step” sound effects, but they’re toggleable.
Visuals: published November 20th, 2021 (3/5★)
The sprite-work isn’t great, but it’s tolerable. Obscurite Magie: The City of Sin utilizes a collection of generic, premade RPGMaker content. The level design fails to make the most out of the sprites, producing mundane scenery with sharp edges. I enjoyed the detail of the character sprites, but they felt a little out-of-place. Battled are conducted with the most default RPGMaker monsters possible. It would have been nice if some of the art-budget was invested into original monsters — it’s clear as day the monsters in the sex-scenes aren’t the monsters shown in battle! By far, the user-interface is the prettiest thing the game has to offer.
Verdict: published November 20th, 2021 (3/5★)
Unless you plan on furiously fapping to the artwork, I can’t possibly recommend this game at full price! With only two or three hours of mediocre, unbalanced gameplay, Obscurite Magie: The City of Sin is only worth its weight in sexual imagery. Obscurite Magie: The City of Sin offers a solid gallery, but the gameplay mechanics leaves so much to be desired. Combat is so unbalanced and disinteresting, it might as well be removed from the game — I guess that’s why Syun-kan Flowlighter implemented not one, but two gameplay modes to help you skip it! You know you’re in for a treat when instead of improving gameplay, the developers help you skip it instead! If the artwork speaks to you, I think the gallery is worth unlocking on a (really really big) sale. I can safely say Obscurite Magie: The City of Sin is one of Kagura Games‘ weakest publications I’ve played so far — for twenty dollars, there’s a slew of other releases I’d rather buy from Kagura Games. I recommend buying games such as Ambrosia or Kozue’s Strange Journey. Not only are they cheaper than Obscurite Magie: The City of Sin, they provide substantially more gameplay!
