Hentai RPG Game Review: Ouroboros

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Review written by BoKo, edited by Otaku Apologist

Sierra Lee is a savant in the porn gaming niche. I first came across the name when playing her Patreon-funded game “The Last Sovereign”, a brilliantly written game with a deep story and fun gameplay on top of quality erotica. When I heard she created and released a new game in November 2017, I jumped at the chance to play Ouroboros, available for download at Nutaku.net.

STORY

In Ouroboros, you play as a typical sword-wielding hero named Atreyan. You wake up with only the memory of saving the princess from an evil vizier that took over the kingdom. Atreyan has the supernatural power to instantly revive whenever he dies. You can NOT kill this guy, in story or in gameplay, as he’ll get right back up and ready for round two.

When Atreyan approaches the castle, he finds the bridge guarded by three types of gates; stone, ice, and iron grates. The only way to get through is to clear the three Great Dungeons of Belgiar Kingdom, find the artifacts that unlock the gates, and use them to storm the castle. Your main helpers on this quest are Slimey the simple-minded guide, Teira the daring adventurer, Amiel the half-fairy sweetheart, and Emantha the proud town witch.

If this all sounds like a Zelda game, that’s the point. There’s a princess to save, and a lot of backtracking in a small world map. Sounds simple, right? Only… there’s something horribly wrong in the world.

The greatest strength of Sierra Lee’s writing is deconstruction. If you want to avoid the spoilers and just get the verdict, buy the game and you won’t go wrong. If you’re not convinced yet, keep reading.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

The name Ouroboros is meaningful. Represented in Gnosticism, Greek magic culture and alchemy, it is a symbol of nature’s endless cycle of life and death, represented as a snake, or dragon, eating its own tail. You are actually playing as Atreyan one of his countless millions attempts at trying to save the kingdom, as foreshadowed in visions of dead bodies briefly appearing in certain cut scenes. In a nutshell, Atreyan is stuck in a never ending loop, and has already lost the fight.

But through persistence, you can try to figure out how to break free of the cycle, and learn how to bypass the story. You have to actively look past the road laid out to you, even when the game tries to railroad you again. From there, it’s a whole new game with some meta humor, drama, and new rules

GAMEPLAY

Ouroboros is an RPG, but not like most you’re familiar with. In the open world, you travel between a few dungeons all connected to a hub city. You have a jump button to climb elevated ledges, and to avoid monster sprites from touching you, and initiating a fight. Really, it’s better to avoid fights, as Atreyan has only three sword skills to use; a powerful slash to deal more damage, a piercing slash to cut through defenses, and a whirling slash to hit everyone.

The boss fights are a challenge, as you need to plan your attacks. Each of the three attacks cost “TP” to use, which you build up by attacking, or guarding. There is gold to buy items, which you only get by opening treasure chests. And since there are no EXP points, you can only raise your stats through better weapons, armor, and essence items.

On the flip side, there’s not a lot of complicated math. Boss fights won’t take too long, as the bosses rarely have more than a few hundred HP. This kind of gameplay can be both jarring and unfulfilling to newcomers. After all, the main appeal of RPGs is growing stronger as you progress, so that every fight makes the next one easier via gainin EXP points, and money to buy better equipment. But when your character is stuck in an endless loop designed to distract you, it’s a hard enough quest to manage with limited resources, as every time you lose everything and start all over… until you actively try to break the cycle sequence and find what stuff you can keep between cycles.

For example, when Atreyan finally awakens, he gets a new spell that can effectively one-shot humanoid bosses. He also learns how to awaken his three female friends to fight alongside him. The fights are no longer as tedious, but still tedious enough as you’re digging for all the secrets of the reality around you, bettering yourself with unique items and new abilities.

This change up really makes things fun, especially when you finally have an edge to fight otherwise impossible to beat superbosses. In the first half, Atreyan could probably beat only one or two on his own if he’s lucky, but other bosses have gimmicks like high physical defense or strong attacks that make it harder to fight solo and with three sword attacks.

GRAPHICS

As an RPG Maker game, Ouroboros uses sprites that I assume are part of the building kit. They’re cute sprites, of course, and it’s cool to see them line up from the right like an old school Final Fantasy game. The enemy sprites are also well beautifully done and realistic in scope and size. Human enemies, for example, look a bit bigger than Atreyan’s sprite, but only a little. And when bosses look big and menacing, they really ARE.

Of course, the real treat to the eyes are the sex art images.

HENTAI

The game was great enough on breaking RPG conventions, but the sex scenes are just as tastefully done. Sierra Lee’s writing shows in emphasizing the tentative love made in each action, from stripping down to doing the nasty. With the main girls Atreyan interacts with, there’s a lot of intimacy and affection, as their acts of love are an extreme action of trying to relieve the tension of the game’s plot.

There are also sex scenes sprinkled around for the fun of it, such as when Atreyan bangs a fairy or takes his well justified frustration on the villainess Viliana. Not to mention a healthy amount of bisexual sex scenes (girl on girl), and scenes in general that are hidden for you to find.

And to top off the erotic writing, each scene comes with a highly detailed image. The one image is usually all you get, so Sierra gets creative by having the image blurred out in mosaic as the sex starts. Once the text catches up to the art in question (and likely gets you invested in reading it), the image clears up. As a bonus, once you beat the game, you can save it and replay any of the sex scenes you’ve seen before, and enjoy your hard-earned victory.

MUSIC

Ouroboros was made with RPG Maker. While the core elements of the game are great, the music quality is passable. The first area of the game is the forest, and the music that plays there, is mysterious, it fits the place you always wake up in after death. The city theme is bustling yet humble in tone. The castle theme is both regal and somber as if things are about to end. And the battle theme is tense and exciting. There’s also a nice “victory”-jingle.

However, there is only one song for every single fight in the game, and there’s a handful of cut scene songs that only play once. Whatever sex scene you’re in, the background music that played before the scene started, is also present during the sex. This is irksome especially in one scene with dark music, where Atreyan razes the town and fucks a shopkeeper.

VOICE ACTING AND SOUND EFFECTS (SFX)

Sound effects are RPG Maker stock sounds. They’re generic, stuff you have heard in other RPG Maker games. The bounce when you jump, the sick sheen of a sword slash, the oomph of a magic spell, the ping when you select a save file, it’s all there. The sounds bring some atmosphere and make the game feel more solid, but they are very forgettable. Also, this game has no voice acting.

CONCLUDING WORDS

Sierra Lee went above and beyond to tell an excellent story of turmoil, loss, and love. The gameplay holds up, it’s fun, the hentai is good. I recommend this game whole-heartedly to all hentai gamers out there. Download Ouroboros at Nutaku.