Demon Roots

H Scene Count- 75~

Created by Quick Nail Aristocrat, translated by Kagura Games

Length-35-40 hours

One of the greatest RPG Maker games I’ve ever read.

Story

This is one of those stories that I find hard to properly convey how much I enjoyed it without spoilers. I can say it hits really hard with great character moments that carry the story to a great climax, with everything building up to make a completely terrible world with but a fleeting hope that is the main party. A world that revels in slavery and with information manipulation to create a place most people don’t notice is going to hell, and the evidence is all around them. But that doesn’t really mean much more then it was a good read, and that doesn’t do this justice.

I’ve heard people compare this to Rance 10, which is kind of wild. Rance 10 is the longest Japanese VN in existence, with 9 other games and at least 2 decades to draw an emotional reaction from its audience. If this can be justifiably compared to that what is a rare great sendoff for a franchise, that speaks volumes to how good this standalone(kinda, it has a spinoff sequel that I want in English now) title is. An RPG Maker game with some good tracks that help the hard hitting moments hit extra hard, thanks to Shade, one of the only composers of VN/eroge music I know the name of thanks to the Rance fandom mentioning him a bunch.

The only RPG Maker game I could compare it to in writing quality or enjoyment of just the written half of the game would be Last Sovereign, but they are entirely different genres and so comparing them would feel silly. Though both are rare examples of using sex in a story to properly convey more character details and enrich the story.

But a summary at least is needed to give an idea of what this is actually about. Deathpolca, a demon who looks like a human. She is one of the few thousands demons left after the great war a thousand years ago took the life of her generations Demon Lord. Demons were chased to the Dark Lands, a decaying rotten land that is now on its last legs. They would attempt peace and coexistence with humans, but that is rendered impossible by the White Phantom, a master swordsmen thing that kills all demons it finds and is impossible for demon kind to slay.

Finally it comes to a head. The Dark lands will last but a few more years before all it’s land collapses. Demons form up behind the last few generals, the Remnants, of demon kind and they go to make their own country by force, laying siege on the most peaceful kingdom left in this godforsaken world, Behelos. Which was celebrating its founding saint that very day. The demons brainwash the king and take over, and Polca goes and deals with the White Phantom using decades of research. She finally beats it with the help of a passing serial killer and learns the true goal was to fight with a human to defeat the Phantoms.

After tossing the killer, Polca picks up Ange, a slave that was just there the day the kingdom was taken over. Polca promises that demons won’t mistreat them and the two team up as something of a symbol of slaves and demons fighting to end the discrimination and systems the Empire and it’s allies have set forth to destroy their futures.

And I’ll stop there. A few plot points can be a bit silly, like four of the party members have almost yandere crushes on Polca for what she does. Chapter 3 is a complete change in pace with it’s starting setting, though each country is almost a new genre, though each also shows the world abusing slaves for maximum gains. It’s a world where the system makes sense in how things are working and it makes sense that most humans aren’t for tossing the system with how beneficial it is to them. Just about every event works and foreshadowing is well done. It’s an amazing read.

Gameplay

Kind of a mess. It’s standard RPG Maker combat with a bigger Tp focus then MP, but so many moves give just as much TP as they cost you don’t really run out after turn 2 or so outside of ultimates. There is also just a huge disparity between the cast and how good they are. Ange is the tank and will only leave the party when forced or if common grunts are dispatched fast. Ange can redirect all damage to herself, and is an HP+defense+evasion tank. Other characters get tank like moves, but really Ange is the only one who can take hits from bigger threats so you live or die on her survival.

Which means your party of 4 is down to 3 slots for you to pick from, but the next slot is the gladiator. She does so much more damage then everyone else it’s not even a competition, if you want to get through the game decently fast she never leaves the party either. She has a spell set that multiplies her damage for a few turns and combined with later gear, out damages all but the last party member every turn. Physical is also way easier to work around.

Then you need a buffer+healer, which is either Deathpolca or the crossdresser. Either works at least. Which leaves one party slot for the last 4 options. Only one really gets close to the gladiator’s damage. Consumable fighter could work, but her stuff is limited and farming it is a pain. The caster has no ramp, so while good for mobs she barely slaps bosses. The male is a caster with physical stats, so no. So the choices are more or less made for you, since damage is the only stat that matters.

I love the party as characters, but combat was bland and I hated how my favorites were hard to use or felt vastly underpowered. There was also areas with just way to many mobs of enemies to dodge and you needed to fight a decent number of them or the next boss would be a major pain. The combat is probably the weakest part of the game, because unlike the story and the h scenes it’s nothing special. It’s most unique thing is the back attack mechanic, where if you enter combat through the back of an enemy, they get one of two states that are a mix of confusion and paralysis. Or they die.

As for the actual travel parts, areas are actually pretty small. Each country is slightly more then 10-15 screens. There’s a decent chunk of extra content, but it’s mostly more fights. Had a lot of hidden secrets though for achievements and good gear. Had a weird system for helping find those secrets, via buying clues with money from the h-gacha.

There’s a theme park you go to early on that exists for prostitution, more on the content in the next section. I bring it up because you don’t just choose from a list of scenes, you spend a consumable item to roll a gacha to decide the rank of scene you get. Each girl has 3 ranks they can roll, which give 10, 50, and 300 fuckoins(real name). You spend these for a small amount of gear options, optional boss weakeners, treasure hints, and some pictures. Plus costumes in NG+. It’s a weird system.

I just want to take a moment to talk about NG+. It wasn’t really worth it. You can get some costumes, which only show up in battle, in the menu, and on the map sprite. There’s also some super bosses and one actually cool thing where you get a kind of epilogue ish thing? It doesn’t really do any story beats but does take place between the end of the game and the after credits bit. The best part is probably knowing the payoff and noticing how many events are foreshadowed at different points.

H and Other stuff

Most of it’s hardcore stuff. Torture, humiliation, assault, gang assault and so on. A lot of it serves a purpose of showing how terrible the world is, and I’m not sure how many of these scenes would be erotic to people. I’m sure some would enjoy them, but it feels like they are a part of the game’s message more then most eroge bother with. Like, slaves and demons are treated like shit or holes, or both. Neither are treated as humans.

None of the story h scenes are vanilla. Barring the drug fueled ones, none of them are vaguely consensual. They all serve a purpose in showing how fucked things are.

The bad end mode, the game over dungeon thing you can skip entirely if you want, is where most of the game’s worst scenes are. While I skipped a lot of the text in here, it still has the writing quality of the rest of the game. It show how hopeless things are, how terrible the watchers of these atrocities can get, and shows a way to destroy any fragment of hope in a person.

Then there’s the amusement park. Most people call it the vanilla scene part of the game, and that’s not exactly right. It’s prostitution, and the girls are doing it out of necessity. Each girl has 7 scenes here, barring 3 exceptions that only get 6. 1 is the “true love” man taking their virginity, which honestly is the most romantic part of most of the place. Lots of good character moments here. The other 6 is from each girls h gacha. Each girl has two cg scenes, one foreplay and one actual sex scene. There are three versions of each of these cg scenes, with the higher the rarity usually equaling less clothes. The partners also change for each one and some of these were also good character stuff. There’s also some more questionable shit like idol sex on stage that just… no? If this is suppose to be the happy stuff why is it that and the spy thriller h scenes have to be a thing? Two of my favorite girls got the worst stuff here, I just wanted them to be happy for a damn minute but no… I should point out, the crossdresser gets scenes with women here, though in all other places his scenes are with men. He’s still not dominant, but there are boobs.

Nothing’s voiced and scenes are usually on the shorter side. Some of the more horrific things do go on for a while though… I do want to emphasis if it wasn’t obvious already, the porn in this game does things few games bother with. It advances the characters or the setting at all times. Sometimes it gets a bit much, but it all serves the plot and characters, which is kind of amazing. It isn’t very good at the whole being horny thing, but some of the scenes are worth reading for your favorite character if only to see a bit more into them.

Verdict

I wish I could proudly state that this was the best thing I read all year, but then I look at it’s competition and I find that wouldn’t be all that high of praise. The only other two things I’ve read/played that are better then junk food reading were Trails into Reverie and Rewrite+. Neither particularly amazing.

This was great to the point I had to put it down after the finale. I didn’t want to NG+ right away, I felt resetting the story would lessen the impact. That’s why I didn’t touch NG+ content for now.

I just wish the combat was more interesting. There are great moments in boss fights. But most fights could be cut and little would change.

Save for Demon Roots

Contains- Full cg gallery and all achievements. Save 1 is NG+ ready for a third run with all costumes. Save 2 is before the final boss really to just play the ending if I wanted. Save 3 is first run, during the last time you can explore the world so that any request h scenes can be done. These are on random NPCs throughout the game and are just more vanllia esque scenes. They aren’t in the gallery and just resue the park’s cgs.