Damn, that's a long name
REINCARNATION ASURA ZALANDARA: Journey of carnage and redemption's review
Developer: EIROS HENTAI GAMES (Published by NOFIT)
Genre: Shoot ‘em Up
Reviewed version: Final
Censored: No, except for the DLSite version
Patch Needed: No
OS: Windows
Language: English, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Spanish (Steam only), Portuguese (Steam only), French (Steam only), Thai (Steam only), Russian (Steam only), Arabic (Steam only).
REINCARNATION ASURA ZALANDARA: Journey of carnage and redemption is a mix of a typical bullet hell game with roguelike elements, visual novel-like storytelling, and sex.
Pros
It’s very entertaining
Interesting game mechanics
Decent art and animation
Cons
The UI is very unpolished
The writing is awkward
It’s very unbalanced
The soundtrack doesn’t fit the game
Story
It puts the player in the shoes of Zalandra, a king who was turned into a lustful monster by a supernatural being, and his wife Vrinda, who can empower him and recover his health every time they have sex. Together they have to defeat the Black Carnage before it destroys the world.
The story is quite hard to follow at times. The dialogues are unnecessarily convoluted, the English is far from perfect, and there are some inconsistencies with the characters’ names. It feels like they didn’t proofread it at all. Moreover, the jump scares are unnecessary. I get the black carnage is supposed to be a frightening entity, but no one plays hentai games to get startled.
Gameplay
The game is very original in this aspect. It mixes the usual elements you’d find in roguelikes and dungeon crawlers like being able to explore each level, open chests, pick currency to upgrade your character, and the like with being showered with bullets by each enemy you encounter. Additionally, you can’t attack your opponents like a madman because each of them consumes MP. Running out of MP is not the end of the world though since performing a ritualistic sex act is all it takes to restore it. Recharging your MP this way will also fill your lust bar, which in turn will make you invincible for a few seconds once it’s full.
As original as it is, its implementation leaves a lot to be desired. There are some serious balancing issues in the game to the point most boss battles are a walk in the park due to how strong your attacks are. Furthermore, farming for money and reaching each level’s checkpoint is incredibly easy once you can break walls.
Audiovisuals
The art is decent, even if it’s a bit amateurish. The art style is certainly different than what you usually see in video games, but it works in this game. There’s a noticeable lack of CGs, though. I get you can leave a few scenes with a black background for dramatic effect, but doing this in roughly a third of them is too much.
On the other hand, The UI was poorly implemented, which is a pity because I liked its design. The options menu overlaps with the main menu to the point you can’t leave it, and you have to select anything else from the main menu while the previously mentioned menu is in the way. The window size options also get stuck on the screen when you open the options menu while you’re playing, and you choose to go back to the main menu.
Its soundtrack is fine, even if some of the tracks don’t fit the game’s setting. It’s almost like they just picked whatever song they liked without paying attention to whether it’d suit the game.
Verdict: Maybe?
I’m on the fence on this one. There are more than enough reasons to give this one a thumbs down, but the game is entertaining enough to compensate for most of its faults, if not all of them. I recommend you wait until the game is on sale if you are considering buying it because its current state doesn’t justify buying it at full price.