Disclaimer: The writer was provided a preview copy by the developer.

Kagura Games is preparing to publish its first title, Fallen ~Makina and the City of Ruins~. Here are our early impressions of this RPG Maker title.

RPG Maker is a very popular engine for the creation of adult games. It provides the framework, and all you’ve got to do is provide the story and the porn. Some developers get really creative and make something wonderful like Drop Factory; however, whenever you have a tool that’s easy to pick up and go, you get a number of hacks who churn out low-effort trash. I recently spent some time with the upcoming RPG, Fallen ~Makina and the City of Ruins~. It’s certainly not bottom-tier trash, but it may be lacking for anyone who’s not fully onboard with games of this genre.

First and foremost, let me say that the English translation in Fallen is absolutely on point. Kagura Games is another new publisher on the block in the market of localizing Japanese H-games. The effort they put into giving this title a proper translation can be seen clearly. It’s nice to have more companies out there doing things the right way, so we may move past the era of no-effort machine translations.

Speaking of translations, let’s get into the story, the very backbone of an RPG. Sadly, this is where Fallen begins to fall off. Keep in mind, I only played the first few hours, but in that time, the story barely developed at all.

The game begins by introducing us to the protagonist, Makina. We learn that she’s the most badass of badasses that could ever be a badass — something the game will bring up ad nauseam. She effortlessly dispatches some bandits, saving the lives of a few wannabe adventurers, only to turn around and demand all of their money as a token of gratitude. After that, she just walks away, presumably to find work in a nearby town.

That’s it. No tragic backstory, no ultimate goal, she’s just passing through. Her character is a lot like Risty from Queen’s Blade, a character who was rightfully put in a supporting role because she also had no real motivation aside from looking out for herself. For whatever reason, the game's developers, Another Story, decided to make this bland character the hero in this story. It feels like a sign of what’s to come because, after this, the story doesn’t pick up.

Soon after the intro, you arrive in town. You meet some more characters here, but at least in the early game, they don’t join your party. With the character’s sole motivation being money, there’s only one thing to do: Explore the dungeon for loot.

You speak to the woman in charge and she grants you access to the dungeon. She mentions that she has bigger plans for you, but again, those plans are not defined whatsoever. You aren’t given so much as a “kill the thing that’s making the dungeon unsafe” sort of quest. You are literally just sent to go fight random things for seemingly no reason. This drastic lack of structure does not make for a good opening. Fortunately, things pick up a bit eventually, and what I imagine to be the meat of the story is finally introduced. However, this wasn’t until a good two to three hours in. By that point, I was done. My interest was completely sapped. I can’t stress enough that this is only a preview, and I didn’t play the entire game. I certainly don’t want to bash a game that I barely started. All I’m saying is, that it started off really badly.

Fallen ~Makina and the City of Ruins~ looks like it does have some promise, though. For one, the art isn’t bad at all. The character sprites and H-scenes have a very nice style. The game also has an in-game gallery you can visit to rewatch any of the hentai scenes. If the number of open slots is any indication, there’s a ton of porn here. Once the game gets going, this could be on par with porn content of Drop Factory — one of my personal favorites. It even has a corruption mechanic, though it’s not fully explored during the opening.

The interactive gallery even offers hints on what side quests need to be completed to unlock them. With the adult scenes mostly being unlocked via side missions, Fallen ~Makina and the City of Ruins~ takes on a non-linear style of gameplay. This can be a promising challenge for someone who’s looking to delve deep into an adult game world.

Additionally, the side characters are downright adorable. As it stands, the beginning of the game has you interact with these characters during certain events where you cross paths. If the game progresses to a point where you team up with them and have a proper party, it could make for a very interesting experience.

The game offers the ability to level your character with in-game money so that you can avoid the need for grinding. It’s also well-balanced. You won’t find yourself getting raked over the coals during a standard battle with trash mobs, a common sin of other titles in this category.

Despite all this, Fallen ~Makina and the City of Ruins~ is still an RPG Maker game through and through. It’s certainly not going to convert you if you aren’t a fan of this style of game, and it suffers from the expected drawbacks of being what it is. Inadvertently exiting buildings and setting off triggers due to the classic RPG Maker pathfinding is a staple in games like this. As it currently stands, you could certainly do much worse than this. If the story picks up after the title's lackluster intro, it could make for a more-than-serviceable experience.

Fallen ~Makina and the City of Ruins~ will release February 23rd on Steam, MangaGamer, and JAST USA for $9.99. You can download the adult patch for the Steam version over at Kagura Games' website.