Sheryl ~The Golden Dragon and the Ancient Isle~ + Append

 

Similar to the previous eroge I reviewed, Sheryl is mostly light hearted, but has some pretty dark turns here and there.  Its an action-adventure game made in RPGMaker, so the combat is not exactly great, but simple enough to get by.  Its actually a pretty solid game.

Sheryl is an alchemist in training, who is forced to pay the debts of her master, because her master is too lazy to do it herself.  As Sheryl explores the dungeon, a more sinister plot unfolds related to a dark cult trying to take over the world.  The plot doesn't exactly make sense. The cult has been around for centuries, and they want some symbols of power from the Fishmen, Halflings, and Elves, that you get with little to no problem, kind of makes you wonder what they were doing for all those years. The bulk of the game is actually alchemy related side quests, where you have to synthesize items from materials you find in the dungeon.  Because of that, there is a lot of grinding.  A lot of grinding.  Granted you do not have to complete ALL the alchemy quests, but you still need enough cash to open up the final battle, and the majority of your cashflow is from finishing the alchemy quests.   

As stated before the gameplay is action RPG style.  However, RPG Maker doesn't really excel at making action RPG systems, so its kind of easily broken.  As you level up, you gain stat points, and you can put them wherever you want.  The game suggests putting the majority into Attack, which you should definitely do.  It makes combat laughably easy.  Occasionally throw in some Defense and your good for the majority of the game.  If you get stuck, grind some more and pump Defense until you can tank everything at that level.  If you pump enough Attack, you pretty much one-shot everything but bosses, and enough defense, nothing but bosses can hurt you.   

The h-scenes are a mix between pixel art, and regular CGs.  Almost every monster in the game has a game-over-rape scene that will be animated pixel art.  Fortunately the scenes do not end in game over, you just wake up at your alchemy shop.  The downside to pumping defense is that its almost impossible to get the game-over-rape scenes,  Most of the event h-scenes are CGs.  There is a Lewdness meter that does open up certain scenes, and its not too hard to grind up your Lewdness to meet the requirements.  Most of the h-scenes involve rape with a few exceptions.   

Despite all the rape, its a mostly lighhearted game.  Most of the side characters are pretty goofy, and mainly for comic relief.  Sheryl herself is relatively naive, and just goes with the flow, sometimes for her detriment.  There are a few sex scenes that could have been avoided if she had some self-awareness.  Additionally, the plot does take a few dark turns that come completely out of left field.  And then afterwards its back to being happy-go-lucky.

The Append version of the game adds a few more h-scenes.  Theres a brothel that opens up near the end of the game, and with Append installed, you can recruit some of the NPCs to work at it.  A lot of monsters apparently did not have h-scenes, but the Append added them in.  The True Ending is only available in the Append version.

Overall, the game is pretty solid, and fun if you like breaking the game play.  The action-RPG style is pretty simple, and shouldn't cause too much problems if you grind enough.  Just beware that the game does get dark.  My game time was 20 hours, but I completed all the alchemy quests.  You can probably complete it in half that time. It appears there are 6 endings, but I am unsure how to unlock them all.  I got the True Ending, and one other ending.  There is a NewGame+ but I didn't play it a second time.  I can definitely recommend this one.