Sakura Dungeon Review (RedStar)
A game that is far, far better than it has any right to be.
On the surface this is a porn game but beneath that is an old-school, dungeon crawling RPG with far more content than you might expect.
I have just over 33h on record (at the time of writing) and I just finished the game. This isn't some 3-5h porn game, there is a lot of content here. To be honest, I'm surprised they bothered to put this much in the game.
A huge dungeon to explore with many (many) levels throughout. Boss fights, side quests, secrets, collectables. Oh and monster girls. If you like monster girls this game has you covered. I'd expected there would be something like 15 but it must be over 50: bunny girls, cat girls, mud girls, assassin girls, boar girls...it's a huge variety and there is something for everyone. Never mind the unique characters you can recruit!
Even the story is decent. I see some reviewers saying it's mediocre but for a porn game it's pretty fun. The writing is frequently great (I laughed out loud multiple times in my play-through) and tells an engaging, albeit basic, story of of Yomi trying to get her dungeon back while the hapless Ceri tries to help her do it. By the end, I was genuinely quite attached to the two main characters.
Also, install the patch and enjoy the art. There's a LOT of great scenes. My personal favourite being the Queen Bee and her interesting take on motivating her drones.
I also have to give them credit for how 'clean' this game is. The cast is entirely female and everything is consensual and nothing gets too weird. It's basically just a huge, lesbian comedy-RPG and it's all the better for it.
I only have a few criticisms:
1. The game can be awkward to get running properly. At first it crashed constantly when I'd try and save but there are solutions to that in the forum. Once I got it sorted it was very stable but just be warned!
2. The amount of girls can actually be a bit awkward as the game seems designed with the intention of you swapping out your party members as you find stronger monster girls. You CAN level them up but it just gets harder and harder to do so. So, if you like the catgirl in the first few floors of the dungeon, she will be totally outclassed once you reach even level 10. It's an odd design choice and I wish they had gone down more of a Pokemon style route of being able to easily level them up so you could use the characters you like most.
Aside from that, the game is genuinely great. It's funny, sexy and a lot of fun to play. You just have to like grindy RPG's!
I just wish they would stop shovelling out 'Sakura Bunny Girl's 97' and give this a sequel.