Luxaren Allure

one of the most memorable games i've ever played both for its well-written dialogues and its challenging gameplay. i'll write a bit of a review for anyone who's considering playing it (it's a long game).

the characters are endearing. the writing is great. the story never feels forced. it all has a very natural feel to it. one could make an anime adaptation. same thing with the humor: the writer never goes out of his/her way to be funny but manages to be humorous in an an intelligent, satirical way. it's still humor of the cute kind but always with a hint of irony. nothing that makes you laugh out loud but i loved it and in my opinion it's the signature of the game.

the combat is challenging and somehow manages to stay so throughout the game. not every boss was harder than the previous one but there have been many cases where i thought that an enemy was at the limit of what is beatable, yet the next was even more difficult and had me think even harder (i always choose the hardest difficulty stetting. i don't remember what it's called in this game, whether it's hard, hardest, nightmare or whatever).
this is achieved mostly by having the playable characters learn new skills, which you are forced to use to defeat more powerful enemies. as your characters become stronger, along with the enemies, they become richer and more difficult to exploit to the fullest.

my only complaint (literally this game's only flaw imo) is the sheer number of common enemies. you're encouraged to fight them all to increase your level and make sure you're leaving nothing behind, and it did get tedious. those fights are repetitive and usually easy.
they have their place as they offer a chance to test out your new skills and overall master the game in preparation for the bosses. they do a perfect job at this, but they're just too many and dealing with them felt too often like a chore that had to be done instead of a challenge and frankly a waste of time.
even for the story, if some of the weaker enemy groups were removed it would help make the playable characters feel more like heroes and less like exterminators.

the bosses on the other hand have kept me thinking and engaged throughout the game (however i downloaded this game on march 2023 and i think i remember reading about changes to an enemy when i checked the itch page after finishing the game).
in fact the final fight was the most difficult and had me thinking hard on whether to make the strongest knife for merel or the strongest axe for chisa. even though i thought chisa was more important for healing than dealing damage, what killed darkloft for me was foregoing merel's knife to give chisa the axe. i remember this from finishing the game early last summer and it's been a busy year for me; goes to show what a memorable game this has been, at least for me.

this brings me to resource management: i opened every chest and there wasn't enough of some materials to make all the equipment you'd like. this forces you to make choices. even the money is never quite as much as you'd like until the very end of the game as the most powerful weapons can't be bought. the main developer must have put a lot of thought into tweaking the prices, recipes and loot to make sure you can get enough for some but not all.

the art is good but it could be better. i think what attracts potential players the most are the cover art and screenshots and some improvements wouldn't hurt (those noses, for example). the landscape, the characters and the monsters are inspired but crude. both Unity, for the characters, and whoever drew the rest are talented and imaginative but were limited by either inexperience or lack of free time to polish their work. frankly, though, the art too is much more and better than should be expected of a free game made by as small team (or is it just Unity as far as the art goes? i'm forgetting the credits). btw i like how the characters change expressions as they talk, not just with their mouth and eyes but by moving their whole head. it may be a small touch but i feel as if the game would lose a lot without it.

thanks for reading.
TL;DR: if you like challenging turn-based RPGs this is game a must. you'll probably be pleasantly surprised by the characters and story too.

Oh gosh, this was honestly one of my favorite gaming experiences in a long time, just utterly delightful from start to finish. Thank you so much for making this!

Chisa and Merel are the absolute cutest. <3

Just finished the game and loved every second of it.  The romance was so sweet and well written, and I normally don't like turn based RPG combat, but you made it very fun and engaging.

Thank you so much for making this!

This game rocks and it's gonna be available on steam soon can't get any better than that. Darkloft is a badass mofo.

I love this game so much! You're really talented! ☺

this was one of the BEST RPG Maker games i have played in a very long time.  Finished the game in just over 12 hours and loved every minute of it!!!! Great Job. Lynette needs her own game now :) she seemed a little pissed at the end "YOU OWN ME ONE" hahahah :) great job again and keep making badass games please

Hi Unity :)

I love your game so much!!!! 🥰🥰🥰

I love the yuri romance and the whole story, the characters art style is beautiful.

the tilesets for all the areas are beautiful too,

even the monsters are amazing in their own monsters way!

I love all the hilarious moments, especially with Merel 🥰

Chisa yelling at the guards to shut up was very funny and so cute at the same time.

I love to see Chisa and Merel sleeping together in the temples, that was so heartwarming.

The love contest in Hotenshin was the most funny moment with Karuna and Lynette 😂

but also the most beautiful and cute moment with Chisa and Merel 🥰🥰🥰

My play time on the save before the last battle is 21h39, I never expected the game to be so long and it was a really good surprise!! I am a bit sad  that it ended but everything has an end.

 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

Called here by the recent patch. Just thought I'd chime in that I really appreciate the enemy "Un-holy Diver."

I registered to comment on this game, I really enjoyed it. Despite (or strangely, because?) combat damage was a bit swingy at times, I found the combat engine to be pretty solid and elaborate at the same time. Unlike the majority of rpgmaker games, the number techniques and the difficulty of the enemies motivated me to think about battle strategies ahead and also pay a lot of attention moment by moment in order to make it through. I don’t recall seeing as many by the skin of my teeth victory moments before, which I liked (this was from playing Normal mode). The enemy battles tended to take a little bit longer than I’m accustomed to, but because of the tactical decisions the combat forced me to make- it rarely seemed like a slog. I tended to hoard alchemical ingredients towards the end to make sure I could get all I wanted, but I appreciated having the full list of what you could make from the get-go in order to plan what to make.

Character wise, I felt like all the playable characters contributed at times, both mechanically and story wise. There was a little overlap between Aurelie and Chisa b/c of their lack of confidence, but their reasons for feeling self-doubt were very different (the former a lack of confidence in her moral goodness whereas the latter questioning her ability). Otherwise, the characters were very distinct from each other. Mechanically- the characters were all distinct too- Karuna was the best team buffer; Chisa was the healer and physical damage tank with her Heroic Drive and drain Impulse moves; Merel was the best elemental and mass damage dealer and refiller of the group’s MP, Lynette was a good combo mage/warrior debuffer, and Aurelie had an interesting self damage/massive darkness damage dealing mechanical going on.

Flavor wise, the game seemed to have a bit of dark tone but not really grim or gritty- the characters are always heroes and there’s not a massive body count of innocent bystanders- you get the feeling the heroes are always struggling against the darkness mostly on their own. I appreciated the moments of whimsy- the third king and his good-natured rambling tangents was a favorite. The fairy sidequest was also a nice change of pace- the options of freeing the trapped fairies vs. avoiding enemies felt like a meaningful one. After going through the long final dungeon, the detailed ending felt like the perfect way to top off the game.

Anyway, thanks for making this game. I got the impression there a lot of effort put into designing and play-testing it.

This was a wonderful experience to play through! Thank you for making it. <3

Finished the game last night and I thought I'd give my poorly written and disjointed thoughts on it. (SPOLIERS)

It was pretty good. You can tell its an earlier project, being a little...rougher? I don't know if that's the right word.The character portraits are good, but the occasional expression has kind of an odd angle to it, seems like a couple of them would make the neck sore. Character sprites (especially in battle) are pretty great, with the occasional enemy that seems a little out of place. The world itself is good (seeing a theme? :D). Actually the overall art style gives me real "Paladin's Quest" vibes. I wonder if that was intentional?
Artstyle: 8/10

The writing has the trademark unity charm to it, with dialogues generally feeling pretty natural with a smattering of wit throughout. But where the writing shines most, imo, is the romances, specifically Chisa and Merel. Pretty much every interaction was adorable and heartwarming. The Love Festival especially had me "aww-ing" and laughing throughout. Chisa best girl, as well as being an immortal juggernaut.
Karuna and Aurelie's initial interactions were a bit more disappointing to me. Their initial interactions felt like they were building to something, but it feels like we don't get enough time before Aurelie is taken away, I had a hard time being invested in her possession, but Karuna's conflict and determination to save her managed to be fairly compelling despite this. However, their reunion in the finale was extremely satisfying for Karuna's sake, and I found myself getting surprisingly attached to Aurelie the way I probably should have been to begin with.
And then there's LYNETTE. You might have noticed I've been describing the characters in terms of their relationships to this point, and that's because they adhere to pretty standard character archetypes with little deviation. Exception to Karuna, who manages to be more level headed than the general "I hit things with a sword!" protag. She (probably appropriately) is the ebst realized character on her own merits. Oh right, Lynette. I hate her. She's the jerkbutt character that's also the mistakenly self righteous paladin, AND has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Moving on. 
Characters: 7/10

Story is the standard "chosen hero saves the world" for the most part. The twist that the hero is in love with the dark lord is a fun one though, and keeps it from being boring.
Story: 7/10

Combat's fun. The system allows you to use abilities pretty freely as long as you are even half careful with your resources. Limit breaks are frequent and fun without being overpowered in short fights for the most part (Looking at you, Chisa!). Difficulty seems balanced well (note that I played on easy), with no real need to grind, simply fighting each overworld enemy as I passed by them was enough to keep par. The cost of equipment seems hand tailored to drive me insane. I'm type to compulsively buy our every equipment shop in RPGs, and I can't do that here. Instead having to pick and choose what's needed. The game's fun to play ya'll.
Mechanics: 8/10

Overall, its a fun romp that gets you invested in the characters. For what's, as far as I could tell, unity's first(?) published game, its a surprisingly good for a first full RPG. Definitely worth a play.
Overall 7.5/10

(edit) Oh, almost forget. The whole climax and finale was great fun to play through. Lots of bosses, sequences that mess with your party and available characters, suitably epic, its great. Someone might have gone a little crazy with the size of that final dungeon though. I went out of my way to explore all the side paths, got lost, and wound up at the final boss by accident anyway. I never even found out what the last 3 key items were for!

After the amazing Weird and Unfortunate Things, I thought I'd give this game a try. I'll save my thoughts for after I beat it, but I want to make sure I don't miss the Boss summoned by the harp. Where and when can I use it?

this game gave me dopamine (solving puzzles, making mans fall down), oxytocin (girls being in love) AND serotonin (general satisfaction with life from knowing that this game exists) so thanks for the brain chemicals

So fun to play! And I appreciate the difficulty setting. Sometimes one wants to slay monsters and some other times one simply wants to enjoy the story. This game deserves a vocal and populous fandom. It’s girls! Who love girls!! And they fight monsters!!! What more could you possibly desire?  

By the way: I LOVE MEREL! That little jumpy dance she does when she's excited lives rent free in my brain. Merel/Chisa OTP.

It’s a long game, with so much love and detail put into it, and I can’t believe it’s free. I would definitely recommend it.

(Spoilers below!)

I love the writing; it’s funny and engaging. And those moments like when Lynette falls asleep during her character introduction? Or Reginald getting banned for “repeatedly punching the king in the face”? The little inside jokes, like the Manos Bat having hands on its wings being a reference to Manos Hands of Fate, that aren’t guaranteed to work, but in this game they do? Prime Content™   

However, I wasn’t feeling the Karuna Aurelie romance. Lynette makes a fine point when it comes to the Darkloft. If you’re the hero “making kissy faces at her until she turns good again” is a sound plan, but to everybody else around you it is ridiculous.

I would’ve preferred a more complex character arc for Aurelie without the mind control aspect. She could’ve been a more interesting character. It was fun playing as her, though.

I hope there’s a sequel about Lynette’s subsequent adventures. It’s a bit disappointing that killing the sea serpent that destroyed her ship didn’t do much beyond giving alchemy ingredients. I was hoping to see how Lynette would react knowing her frenemies had avenged her fallen comrades.

My only complaint is that I would’ve liked a map option. Sometimes I got lost and that was not fun.  

Glitch report: during the last level, the hell dungeon stuff, the game would randomly stop responding to the arrow commands.

I see there is an option for a gamepad but I dunno how to get it to work lol

this game no have autosave feature , meanwhile when we dead we must load from last save , thats the weakest this game , from player who forget to save often hha ;(

I had a 20h game session in normal mode. The mechanics were impressing (no to hard but not too easy either).

I really enjoyed the part were you get to play caracters separately, and the bits of romance.

Really impressed overall. Cool stuff !

is there anyway to change the window size? it's a very tiny window ;n;

any tips on beating the manos bat? i tried focusing on the manos bat, and then focusing on A (drained both of all their mana using curse of the naga) but they still kept casting and healing for 3000 HP. just spent 30 minutes trying everything i could think of and getting nowhere hahaha!

i'm honestly stumped ^^'

I really enjoyed this! I liked the interactions with the entire cast, and appreciated the all-women main cast and having multiple good romantic relationships among them that have a different tone and pace.

I liked how there were a lot of cute romantic moments throughout, and that some of those were done particularly using the language of 16-bit JRPGs. A lot of those inn/rest stop scenes were very cute, and the occasional dual techs feel like a nice touch and surprisingly romantic in the RPG context.

Lastly, I want to say that I'd definitely be interested in getting/buying any spinoff/sequel/follow-up that you might release.

Could you give the update changelog ?

Did you make this in RPG Maker VX Ace?

This is a wonderful story wrapped around an engaging RPG core, and it's just long enough to make for a satisfying journey.  I especially enjoyed the narrative contrast between the two main couples.  Karuna and Aurelie danced around each other for years before being painfully separated, and you feel that heartache all through the game.  Meanwhile, Chisa and Merel are bound from the very beginning, and only grow closer (and more adorable) as the story unfolds.

I also love the decision to go with an all-female cast (the main villain included) and the easy confidence that the game shows in that decision.  I wish more RPGs did this.

I do think Lynette is a bit of a weak spot.  She's well-written as a fanatic with anger issues, but although she does grow somewhat by the end of the game, her role is fairly small and she never quite became sympathetic to me.  She hints at a painful history beyond what was actually shown; I would have liked to see more of her.

Thank you for making this.  It was exactly what I was looking for.

Thank you so much for this experience <3 Chisa and Merel are adorable together and I found myself looking forward to each rest stop hoping for yet another dialogue between the two as they became EVEN GAYER <3 also the mechanics were super engaging, A+ c:

This game is very good I love the music and the custom graphics the characters are gorgeous I love the face graphics and the environments look stunning and that battle system is great too this is scratching that itch I've had for a new rpg experience I hope to see more from this developer maybe something commercial if this is what you can do for free I'd only imagine how good a commercial project will turn out thanks for the great experience.

I just found this game a week ago. I am near the end. I just got 7/8 of those crystal things to make that weapon. I finished the treacherous journey to beat the bat thing holding the fairy queen hostage. I am close to the end. WAII!!!!!

I like it so much. One tiny issue I have is the audio. I have to turn my computer audio almost down near mute to even hear it. My computer made it play SOOO loud. Other than that tiny issue, It's cool.

I wish I could make things like this. I have great ideas for things, but I can't create them.

Was this done in RPG Maker VX Ace?

I can't tell you how many hours I have searched Itch.io for "That One Game" and I think I found it!!! XD XD 

This game is so so so good I wish I could pay you for it. I'd easily peg it at 15  dollars, or even 20 if there were a bit more polish on some of the enemy sprites or a few more side-quests.

Absolutely everything about this game is wonderful, it does a magnificent job of balancing the story's high-stakes drama with it's own brand of comedy. It might be somewhat derivative at times but it always makes it work and never feels forced for it's references and memes. 

Spoilers below

Additionally it plays to standard tropes of Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy in a delightful manner, giving an explanation for why the king gives the hero a pittance of starting funds, and showing another ruler as being reasonable and just.

Each character plays off one another excellently, with everyone exhibiting growth and development throughout the story as Karuna learns to open herself up to others, Chisa learns to be more confident, Merel becomes more earnestly happy with herself rather than acting confident out of spite for her haters, Lynette becomes able to admit her own weaknesses and failings, and Aurelie is able to reconcile the weakness that lead her to becoming Darkloft with the strength that allowed Karuna to rescue her.

SPOILERS

this game is great. I love it. ♥ 

The plot is amazing. maybe a bit lineal, but it also has few side quests. There is a lot of plotwists, usuful items, a lot of different enemies, nice people and interesting places to visit during game.  

All five mine characters are amazing. I love them all. What a nice bunch of cute and good fighting girls :) . If I'd had to make this extremely hard and choose only one, I think I'd choose Aurelie. She  is villain though most of the plot but when she became good again... I just can stop thinking about how adorable and cute she is ♥ . Merel can be my 2nd favourite and she + Chisa = the cust couple.

Artstyle is amazing.  Sprites in battle, sprites in travelling, portatrait, CGs and locations. Evrything looks great ♥  It the best and the best looking game made in RPG Maker I've ever played.

Even if I usually don't like game made on this engine nor the ones without choices in plot.

I think it's the longest (or one of the longest) indie game I had ever played. The plot, few side guests, getting evry chest, crafting items... it took me  15 hours !!! The gam has very small replay ability (especially when you tried has done evrything or almost evrything in first try)and only one ending but it's really enough. It's very good and underestimated game and I hope I'll never forget it :)

Help, I sent a review for your game but I don't know where I can read the others. I wrote it in portuguese, but I'll edit it to make it multi-language (english will be added). Where do I click to see all reviews for this game?

I wanted to say that your game has gotten me into a "search for games with inclusive narratives and gender/sexual orientation/ethnic diversity/etc" streak.
I'm trying my best to get other other people to play your game haha
And I can't wait for the full release of "Weird and Unfortunate" <3