ISEKAI: Demon Waifu

 

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The mechanical armies march on: ISEKAI: Demon Waifu

Today I bring you a game that is heavily advertised and as thus I didn't want to try it out for a long time because I feared it was another one of those kingdom vs kingdom pay to win games, but when I got into this I was surprised at the lac of actual pvp interactions at all. I will also note here, this game is marked mature, yet there is no actual 'adult' content I've ran across in this game. Not much actually happens here. This game is heavily stroy driven and has a lot of graphic novel aspects to it.

When I first played I got this premium Gotcha thrown in my face. It was a special even where you got a daily spin and had a very low chance of getting a rare consort. You can pay gold bars which is the premium currency in this game.

I seem to have lost a Screenshot for the main map of the game so I have to move on to one of the game screens you visit a lot. When you click on the capitol building you arrive here. You use the levy to collect your other resources, food, mana crystals and troops. You need to grab the food first or you can not obtain troops without it. Mana crystals are used to level up your generals you recruit to lead your armies. This game has a lot of things you have to collect around the map and you take a lot of time doing this rather than progressing through the game. I won't go over everything as there would be way too much to cover in this blog.

The harem tab takes you to where all your consorts reside. In this game you can have many demon wives. These girls you have to collect through various points in the game. Later on you can take them on dates and they earn you points to your overall kingdom's power.

Here is the screen of the consort. You are guaranteed one consort at the start. As you unlock more generals and consorts they all form bonds as well that can be grown to gain you even more power and reach with your demon kingdom. You can even give your consorts presents to raise their happiness or power. Over time you can also unlock new outfits for your consorts.

Now we hop over to the portal. Here you go on random visits throughout the world. Here you will run into many people and this is where you start to unlock more consorts. As you visit various women many times, they soon will marry you and your kingdom will grow in power. Not only do you have limited number of visits per your main level, but you also have to collect things to raise your luck to have a higher chance of finding a consort. This luck is used up every outing no matter if you find something useful or not. Later on you can also acquire one time use lands that give a boost of resources once you spend a lot of time to develop them.

Lastly, is the main part of how you progress through the actual story and the main way for your demon to gain levels. This is where all your troop collection comes in as the bigger your army the easier it is to progress. After you get to certain points, your generals are needed to fight bosses and hopefully you've been using your crystals to level them up.

Overall:

 4 of 5 cogs.

This game was surprising. It has a lot of things that drag away time that you have to collect each day. Once you do that, there isn't much you can do in this game until certain things refill. I will take the time to talk about something I noticed in the reviews recently. Many people have gave this game a 1 star complaining about the PVP is pay to win. The PVP element is very minimal and not even something that gets you anything in this game. The game is heavily and mostly a single player game with just a dash of other player interaction.

Story:

 5 of 5 cogs.

Despite some very questionable translation issues, this game has a rich and deep story in it. Each consort has an individual story as well you have to learn as you make them happy. I know, this is a mobile game with a story, and that story follows a kind of graphic novel approach but is executed in such a way it isn't a graphic novel.

Amount of ads:

none

There are no ads at all, none. No optional videos for anything but this game does take up a bit of space on the phone.

Accurate Advertising?:

20%

Let me go over the advertising. In the google store, the screenshots are highly click-bait showing paid models posing in each screenshot. The video ads for this game contain a lot less click-bait than the main google store.

Graphics:

 5 of 5 cogs.

The graphics are gorgeous and HD. A lot of time has been put into the graphics even down to the detail of the HUD. There are many illustrations of character portraits and some of them are even animated.

Gameplay:

 3 of 5 cogs.

The game gets very repetitive and you have many hours of downtime that forces you to play just a very tiny bit each day and suffers from many expensive microtransactions. You may get bored with this game very quickly as it takes a long time to gather everything else before you make any progress in the story.

Free play:

80%

This game is pretty easy to progress and get every consort unlocked except, there are 2 or 3 that are locked behind a VIP lv pay wall. Which means you have to spend a minimum amount of money to unlock these. So no you can not get everything with F2P

Fun factor:

👿 Demon harem, not for everyone and not for little kids.

Are you an indy programmer or game dev?

If so, you can leave a comment or contact me on social media for a chance to have an interview with you posted to my blog. I am looking for many devs that focus on mobile programming. If you have a cross-platform game, that is fine too as long as it's on mobile.

Thank You for reading my blog. Please consider donating to the tip jar as these are tough times and every bit helps. You can get updates by joining my newsletter. If you enjoy these reviews please show others this blog by retweeting or liking my posts on social media.

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The Greedy Cave

 

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The caves are filled with greed! The Greedy Cave

Today's game you think you are playing Don't Starve, but it is a mobile game about trying to survive a dungeon filled with monsters. This game is very difficult and remind me of Fatal Labynth for Sega Genesis. There is a hidden easteregg if you press and hold on the screen for a couple seconds.

Unlike Dont Starve, you can create a character. There isn't too many options to choose from, and I do not know if you can unlock more as you play.

You get plunked into a world that scrolls around like you are moving on a very tiny planet. You have the dungeon viewed here and on the sides are different shops or forgers to help you along. This game is odd as you can only keep golden equipment from the dungeons. There are ways to upgrade some common pieces up to gold but they are very rare.

So the first shop item holds these coupons you buy with real money. These items are then used to buy crystals which are used for various purchases of items. I find this a very strange system to use as it adds extra steps instead of letting us just by the gems.

Here are the second tab. As you see you the lowest set costs a single dollar USD. I do not know how much of a value this is as I did not have time to progress very far in this game. I hope to revisit this game sometime later once I get through my review pile.

There is a very complex inventory screen. You start the game with 2 pieces of gold equipment that has poor stats. As you progress you can use gold to unlock more inventory slots. I do not know if these are permanent upgrades or temporary ones. I also seem to have lost my screenshot for the Skill tab. Here you get a skill tree that use must use points you collect from leveling up. These give you abilities that can help you along in battle with a new attack or a healing ability.

The third tab has a list of temporary buffs you can pick up through the dungeons. These runes give you large boosts to stats that appear to also be temporary. Here you also see all the loot you will keep once you leave the dungeon. 

Here is one of the merchants that provide special potions for you to use in the dungeon. I never got a chance to really try these out yet.

As you progress on, you can unlock a cosmetic blacksmith that can make your gold items look different. These cost tickets as well. The difference is these cosmetics actually give you bonus stats.

This is a screenshot of some of the missions you can do to earm special crafting materials needed to upgrade you equipment. You can pie up some of these things as well from defeating enemies in the dungeon.

Now onto the main game screen. Here you get a reminder of your quests and you can see your stats in the top left. In the top right is a minimap that you can click on to see more details around you. The pack on the bottom of the screen is where you can set up your quick-use things like health or mana potions. This game has all the standard RPG elements you expect from games since the 80s. 

Lastly to wrap up the overview of the game is the map. This is a very beautifully rendered map. That concludes all the screenshots I have for you today and I will not move on to the scores section.

Overall:

 5 of 5 cogs.

This game has a lot to explore and it's impossible to do so in one sitting. Though There seems to be a glitch where if you do not finish a dungeon and return to town, you have a chance of loosing all progress. I do not know if this is due to losing signal or some other bug.

Story:

 4 of 5 cogs.

There is a bit of story you find hidden throughout the dungeons. The story seems to be locked behind maybe certain levels of the dungeon and is very random when you will find any of it.

Amount of ads:

 none

As far as I remember there are no ads ever shown in this game. It is nice to play though a game without getting hit by an ad every second.

Accurate Advertising?:

💯%

I recall only ever seeing an ad for this game maybe once. The screenshots on Google Play show the real gameplay and doesn't have any click-bait.

Graphics:

 5 of 5 cogs.

The graphics are great in this game. They appear to be higher quality than that of Dont Starve. I feel the graphics are high-quality for the kind of game this is.

Gameplay:

 5 of 5 cogs.

The game play works as you expect it to. you clock on a square to move to it or interact with any other menu without issues. This game has all the basics of older RPGs and it's a great nostalgic trip.

Free play:

💯%

As far as I know you can gain tickets from completing quests. I have not played long enough to verify this so as it stands it appears to be fully F2P with microtransactions.

Fun factor:

👿 must survive at all costs.

Are you an indy programmer or game dev?

If so, you can leave a comment or contact me on social media for a chance to have an interview with you posted to my blog. I am looking for many devs that focus on mobile programming. If you have a cross-platform game, that is fine too as long as it's on mobile.

Thank You for reading my blog. Please consider donating to the tip jar as these are tough times and every bit helps. You can get updates by joining my newsletter. If you enjoy these reviews please show others this blog by retweeting or liking my posts on social media.

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Mana Maker

 

Greetings mechanics and tinkerers!

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Gather your forces as we mine for: Mana Maker

Mana Maker does not have a title screen. When you start up the game it throws you straight into this screen. You choose your gender and you are throwing into the game with no real tutorials. As you progress, you get a few text boxes that tell you how to do things, but instead, there is a help manual that is included in the game to help you along. The creator of this game does not appear to be a native English speaker so translations may be off.

This is the first of the two main screens you will see most of the time. This is where you collect mana to sell to the wizards of the world. The first button with the plus in a red box will be things to update your idle mana collection. The green box with the arrow allows you to upgrade manual clicks and mana storage. The diamond is videos you must watch to earn special mana crystals used to buy some things in the store you manage to collect gold. Lastly, the grey button takes you to our storefront where you sell mana to random wizards. At least there are no microtransactions in this game.

The first tab gives you options to buy workers and other upgrades that increase your idle collection. Each item is capped based on the store level and adds many walls you have to overcome. Each one of these upgrades uses only the mana you collect.

Here is the second tab. You can customize your character here also with the gems you get from watching optional ads. Here are all the upgrades for the things you purchased in the previous screenshot. These are multipliers that grow as you buy them. They are subject to the same upgrade walls based on the store level.

Now onto the second screen. The red box here takes you to all the fixtures you can put into your shop. These all items can be leveled up and require an upkeep of mana and gold. The gold can be negated with the hiring of a repairman. The green box takes you to upgrades for the shop to increase the size of the building or hold more gold in your safe. Also at the start of the year, you get shown a tax amount. You must make sure you have that much gold by the end of the game year. You can also click on a customer, (which is very hard to do), and they will tell you what kind of object they want to see in the shop if they have a red exclimation part. The problem is, you have to click the blue lock and then kick out all the customers just to put out a new item.

The fixtures are divided into several subsections here. Employees require a lot of mana crystals to employ but the do a lot to keep your store running for you.

Lastly is the upgrades for the shop sise and a few other items. Everything in the shop requires both mana and gold to be able to purchase.

Overall:

 3 of 5 cogs.

This game is a very middle of the road game. It is a complete game loaded with some easter eggs but there isn't anything that really keeps you playing. You could potentially play through in one sitting and make it to the new game plus. The game is mostly stable but it does suffer from a few odd design choices

Story:

 2 of 5 cogs.

There is only a very small part of a story in this game. Most of it is just advancing along and buying more expensive machines to get more customers in. This game really forces you to have at least 1 of eachc individual item to make everyone happy.

Amount of ads:

  None except for optional ads

There are optional videos you can watch to unlock mana gems but other than that there are no other ads at all. This game is mostly ad free.

Accurate Advertising?:

💯%

This game is completely straight-forward and isn't doing any silly things. This is a very transparent game.

Graphics:

 3 of 5 cogs.

The graphics are kind of a tall and skiny sort of pixel art. This game reminds me of very early 90s computer games with simplistic graphics.

Gameplay:

 3 of 5 cogs.

Again this game has very middle of the road gameplay for the tap mechanic. That being said, the shop aspect is an interesting to the game. Though it is a very simplified game and it looses depth real fast. I feel this game doesn't have enough in it to keep people playing for too long. 

Free play:

💯%

There are no microtransactions in this game at all. This is truly a game you can play without breaking open the wallet at all.

Fun factor:

😶 average.

Are you an indy programmer or game dev?

If so, you can leave a comment or contact me on social media for a chance to have an interview with you posted to my blog. I am looking for many devs that focus on mobile programming. If you have a cross-platform game, that is fine too as long as it's on mobile.

Thank You for reading my blog. Please consider donating to the tip jar as these are tough times and every bit helps. You can get updates by joining my newsletter. If you enjoy these reviews please show others this blog by retweeting or liking my posts on social media.

Throw a cog(tip using PayPal) to your blogger.