(18+)REVIEW: Re;Lord 1 ~The witch of Herfort and stuffed animals~ -opr

*The 18+ version of this game contains rape/non-compliance which cannot be avoided.*


Title	Re;Lord 1 ~The witch of Herfort and stuffed animals~
Developer	Escu:de/Element
Publisher	Denpasoft / Sekai Project
Release Date	March 9th, 2018
Genre	Strategy
Platform	PC
Age Rating	18+ or All Ages on Steam
Official Website

A title that caught my eye a while ago was Re;Lord 1 ~The witch of Herfort and stuffed animals~ from Denpasoft. This appeared to be a pretty nice looking strategy title with some stripping battle mechanics. I was never able to find time to check it out till just recently, but with the announcement of the sequel at Anime Expo this year I thought some folks might be interested in a review of the first game. Let’s see what I found in the world of demons, witches and teddy bears.

The story follows a young man named Wilfried Heisenburg. He has just escaped the demon academy he was attending when it was attacked by witches. The first thing he see when he awakes is his friend Ria Carossa, though she has been transformed into a fairy by the witch’s magic. In fact everyone but him has been turned in a stuffed animal, fairy or an object. The war started when three powerful witches invaded the land of Zaalrant. The demons had been at peace so long they had forgotten how to use magic and instead relied only on sorcery for everything from basic needs to protection. Sorcery requires spells in order to work, which makes it inferior to magic, which allows the witches to bend things to their will. Wilfried and Ria now devise a plan to steal mana from the witches to not only protect them from her magic, but to counter attack as well. They will now try to liberate the land from the clutches of these witches, starting with their home territory of Groessen.

The story here has a lot more depth than I can really get into in this review without rambling on or giving away too many spoilers. This game has a very colorful and interesting cast of characters.Their interactions with each other are fantastic and hilarious at times. It also does a fantastic job of explaining the history of this world, so you can’t help but get invested in Wilfried’s struggle. You will find some of his methods very questionable, however. I found a lot more here than I thought I would, and I’m very interested to see where they go with this in the next chapter, since the ending left everything wide open.

Wilfried is a very eccentric character that has a cape fetish, but only with popped collars! Most of the time he will seem like a complete moron, but he’s probably the one of the smartest protagonists I’ve seen a while. He has a keen mind for military and political tactics, but basically no common sense at all. He decides to steal the witch’s mana, and he figures the best way to do this is to force himself on them and dominate them. This is completely unnecessary and he only does it because he thinks highly of his father whom had done the same with women. His father who is being held by the witch controlling the area, Erika Anders, is a complete masochist and lacks any common sense as well. He enjoys being stepped on and and thrown around by her daily. Her assistant Fine Classen is your typical airhead. There is also Ria, who while probably the most sane member of the cast, still has some crazy quirks as well.

Since Wilfried is forcing himself on the witches, the H-Scenes in the game are all rape. This is not really in my bag of fetishes, but I think the scenes are written fairly well. The scenes don’t come across as overly violent, but he is still forcing himself on them. These scenes do fit into the story, and Wilfried really thinks this is the best way to steal their mana. If you’re not a fan of this kind of content you may want to go with the All Ages version of this one.

The artwork in the game is all top notch. The character designs are all done very nicely and you can tell a lot of thought went into them. Even the enemy models have a lot of detail and are drawn with great quality. There aren’t many CG cutscenes outside of the H-Scenes. Those are nicely drawn as well, but I was a bit put off that the mosaics were still there. This didn’t really take anything away from the game, but I find them distracting personally.

When gameplay begins will you see a map filled with squares that are not colored in. In order to move around the map you will have to color these in with Tetris style blocks. There are tons of blocks in different shapes and sizes and they can be turned 360 degrees to cover the most area. They will have to connect to blocks you’ve already turned, but it doesn’t matter if they overlap. As you uncover the map you will encounter enemies, find treasure and even uncover a secret or two. When you start each map section you will be shown a destination and turn counter. You will have to reach the destination before the turn counter reaches 0, but you can gain more turns by completing certain battles on the map. There will be an icon of either Fine or Erika on the map as well on the right side with a bar under them. When this bar fills, after a certain amount of turns they will attack you. This can get a little annoying when trying to explore the map even if they are pretty easy to fend off.

Combat is done by first clicking down the left mouse button and dragging it over the enemies to target them. Then you hold down the button to charge up your spells to attack. The element of your spell can be changed at any time with the scroll wheel, and you will need to pinpoint enemy weaknesses in order to obtain an easy victory. You of course will gain some EXP for victory that can be used to level up your skills. Boss battles work a bit differently. You will not only have to find their elemental weakness but also the best place to target their clothing. I mean, how can you win a battle against a witch if you don’t strip her naked? These battles are not very complicated, and you will find hints about how to attack them on them map.

All in all I enjoyed my time with Re;Lord 1 ~The witch of Herfort and stuffed animals~. The story was deep and enjoyable with a crazy cast of characters. I’m pretty hooked on this tale and I can’t wait for the next chapter now. I got around 10 hours of gameplay out of this one and could get a lot more with new game + trying out the other difficulty levels and such. The combat was a lot of fun and you can adjust the difficulty if you’re just wanting to enjoy the story without grinding too much. The game will run you $9.99 on Steam for the All-Ages version. You can buy the 18+ Version on Denpasoft for $19.99 or a patch for the Steam version for $9.99. I’m never going to be a fan of Sekai’s 18+ tax on these games. While I understand an 18+ release usually costs more than an All Ages release, it shouldn’t be double the price for the 18+ version. Despite that, I feel like this title is a solid title and if you’re a fan of games like this you should check it out.