It’s rare to see a new H-game draw a lot of attention. It’s rarer still to see one with a lot of potential. Eromancer’s new title Malise and the Machine has a lot of that going for it. While supporters of its Patreon have been playing specific alpha builds in the last year, the public got its first taste on Valentine’s Day with the release of the first demo, available here and in torrent format. A mostly-one-man project, it nevertheless has a lot of good things going on about it.
At the same time, it’s worth investigating it in great detail. In our playthroughs of both the demo and the Patreon builds show us that this game has a great future in it that’s worth investing your money. At the same time, we do have concerns that should be addressed that would make this a far better game. Let’s us discuss this in better detail, shall we?
A Girl and Her Gynoid
The details on the lore and plot involving Malise and the Machine are a little on the scarce side. Each Patreon build will add to the story as it develops. What we do know is that Malise is a sexy mystery woman with a pair of revolvers, while her companion Neon is a cross between a sex doll and a combat droid with an assault rifle. One of the scenarios shows a third character, a flying eyeball droid named Doc, that seems to serve as a boss of some kind.
The RPG, created from RPG Maker, was designed with the mechanics of 90s JRPGs such as Final Fantasy V-IX in mind. It is an active time battle system which rewards quick thinking and fast gameplay, though it’s adjustable if you prefer something less frenetic. Techniques are a feature, as are guns as the main weapons of Malise and Neon. It’s laid in a futuristic setting that may or may not be post-apocalyptic.
The core mechanic that makes it stand out from other JRPGs is the Lust meter. Basically, it’s a stat that rises each time either Malise or Neon get groped and played with. There are a couple ways to break the hold, one of which is a struggle system. During the course of the hold, several portions of the characters clothing falls off, leaving them more exposed. If they fail to break the hold, they get further subjected to a different position, before being “finished” off with an H-attack. While some will leave our heroines dazed in the afterglow, others will knock them out cold. Moreover, this Lust meter greatly deteriorates regular stats the higher it goes.
A Sexy Apocalypse
Now let’s talk about what works in this game. The graphics are really solid. They use a unique aesthetic that mixes the fantasy with the reality. Whether it’s looking on the lovely ladies in the various states of duress and undress, or the few monsters that are in place right now, there’s a lot of well-defined and pleasant elements.
Another feature that we give praise to is the variety of H-content and H-scenes. There’s nothing lacking in style and genres that play out in the different scenarios. Robots? Sure, watched them get fucked by a cyborg cock. Humans? There’s a little bit of that. Monsters? Of course! There’s even some interesting ideas, such as toying with vore, a genre that’s not everyone’s cup of tea – and gets underrepresented in 3DX as a result – but nevertheless presents opportunities for new avenues of play. The creativity in the H-scenes is definitely prominent, and should be encouraged in the future.
While the combat system lacks tutorials, it gets to be very intuitive and straightforward once you get used to it. Sometimes you slip up because the targeting is a little on the finicky side. The added interactivity of the manual struggle is a nice touch as well, though its place in the No Wait function makes it usefulness seem limited.
A Yearning for Better
Of course, not everything is perfect. Granted, this is a game in alpha stage, so there’s a lot of work ahead. Many of the minor quibbles we had, including the combat functionality and the limitations of the tutorials, we can assume are because the game is still in heavy development. So we can give a pass to that. Now, if you want a functional game, it’s best to steer clear for the time being, since in its current build, it’s basically a framework. But it’s still worth considering an investment.
With that said, the issue at heart is the Lust meter mechanic. While it’s actually a great idea to incorporate in an H-game, it’s essentially trying to solve the wrong problem, and thus feels incomplete. In his Patreon page, Eromancer cites that he’s addressing the hindrance in hentai RPGs that in order to access H-content, you have to lose at the game. To some degree, he succeeds by creating a more struggle-based system. However, it begs a more fundamental question: Why is sex a bad thing in a game that’s all about it?
The game explicitly treats Lust as just a negative status effect, when there’s really no reason to. Whenever you get grappled, the character in question is not functional until the hold breaks or until she suffers an H-attack. You have to spend time trying to get them out of the jam, which is frustrating as an idea. If she gets hit a finishing H-attack, she’ll either be woozy for at least a turn, or killed outright. It’s counterintuitive that H-content is an obstacle to progress, and it adds a layer of arbitrary difficulty when it isn’t necessary. You’ll game over a lot to the point that you want to avoid what got you to purchase this game in the first place.
More to the point, all H-attacks are imposed on the characters, while the characters themselves lack the ability to perform their own H-attacks. Basically, the only type of sex that is acceptable in this game as a consequence is non-consensual, which is an uninspiring decision at best and an inability to think creatively about sex at all at worst. It’s a complete lack of balance on the part of the game. Rather than feeling good about the H-content, you feel disenchanted. And that’s not what players necessarily want.
A Bit of Western Influence
Solving the problem isn’t necessarily hard, though, and wouldn’t require changing much of the mechanic. It just means thinking outside the JRPG box the game is in by incorporating some Western flavor.
Consider the fundamental flaw of JRPGs since they became a genre: In the name of simplifying controls, the actual role-playing element gets greatly diluted. As a result, often the only solution to any situation is through violence of various means. In western RPGs, that’s not always the case. More often than not, you have a couple different ways to get into and out of a situation, none of which are necessarily “get out of jail free” cards. There is a recent, quite popular yet divisive game that while representative of JRPGs takes this idea to heart: You have the option of fighting your enemies or letting them live through befriending or mercy. Both are actual challenges, depending on the enemy and situation, and the tactic dramatically altered the storyline.
The Lust meter has the potential to present similar options. In particular, why can’t Neon and Malise weaponize their lust? Perhaps as an alternative to fighting, they can seduce and/or fuck their enemies into submission. Maybe they can have their own H-attacks to take out troublesome monsters or big bosses. They can reverse holds on them so that they’re the ones in control of the situation rather than the monsters. All of these can present their own challenges, and the Lust meter can be a great way to exploit them and create opportunities for unique experiences, variations in the storyline, personal builds, and more variety in the H-content.
This is not to say that the Lust meter should be overhauled completely. In fact, its basic foundation can stay in place. It just needs more to it so instead of treating it purely as a negative status effect, it becomes a more flexible mechanic depending on a person’s play style. Through that, a very deep game can emerge that’s different from any other H-RPG in the market right now.
A Brighter Future
We have concerns with Malise and the Machine, but we also know this is a game that is still early in development. We think that, with adjustments to its core mechanic, it could have a lot of great potential as a game, and there’s still plenty of time to make those changes. As a result, we think you should invest in the Patreon for this game to help bolster its release.
avis leasing
December 22, 2017excellent points altogether, yoou simply won a logho new reader.
What mighht you recommend about yourr post that you made a few days ago?
Any sure?
Dianaranda
February 27, 2016Really love the game, but i also agree with the comments above me, though i dont mind the rape at all.
I mean its monsters afterall, they arent known to just you know react to seduction and other human things.
Reshypoo
February 26, 2016It seems like a ‘story mode’ could be a useful feature, disabling Malise & Neon’s health bars and allow the player to experience the H-content without having to reload frequently.
restlez
February 26, 2016I agree too with the whole lust meter and its negative effects. I hope it gets reflected to Eromancer to come up with creative solutions to make the game more enjoyable.
Wobbegong
February 25, 2016This article raises a very good point about the whole needing to lose to access one of the very reasons we play it: H-content. I think it would be much cooler if making the Heroines actually invite the bad guys to fuck them would “disable” them. You could have one of them get her brains fucked out and the other finishing the other enemies or giving the enemy a kiling blow once it reaches orgasm (when everything is most vulnerable after all 😉 ). Also it would eliminate the bitter taste it leaves in my mouth because it always feels like they are being raped. Yes, its fantasy but I can’t help but not feel entirely good about it. Lust could be that the girl afflicted could do the “inviting” thing without your consent or something.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention!