Last time I was talking about the latest game published by Kagura Games Kunoichi Botan, which happens to not be their latest release anymore!
This time we look at one of their first releases: Fallen – Makina and the City of Ruins which is also being sold by our friends over at JAST USA. (We already featured the other game that was released alongside Fallen, Treasure Hunter Claire.)
Our protagonist is the Blazing Haired Makina, a famous swordswoman who travels the kingdom in search of adventures and treasures.
On her travels, she hears about the city of Gardona, about the unexplored ruins it’s built atop and some kind of mysterious curse that plagues its citizens who, so it seems, turn more deviant from day to day. Makina decides to visit the town – more interested in the treasures the ruins might contain than helping the city out of its misery, of course.
Makina has no interest in helping people if there isn’t anything for her in return. She also doesn’t really care about making friends or getting along with anyone… but maybe her time in Gardona will change that?
Will Makina be able to make friends or maybe even find love? Or will her opening up to the residents of this strange city be the beginning of her downfall?
Whatever it might be, on her way to the deepest level of Gardona’s mysterious ruins, she will undoubtedly encounter many interesting and exciting treasures, characters, and challenges. And lewd situations.
Seeing a strong woman submitting to her carnal desires is a trope we gladly see in our hentai games. Fallen presents us Makina as a confident and capable adventurer, and her high and mighty demeanor just begs to be compelled into submission.
However, contrary to how Botan was forced into sexual acts by her enemies, Makina’s fate is mainly decided by the player’s agency and how he wants Makina to react to certain situations.
Makina will encounter sinful events both in the town and the ruins of Gardona, but in nearly all cases the player can decide whether Makina will submit to the wicked temptations this city holds or remains the coolheaded badass the game presents her at first.
Engaging in shameless acts will increase her Depravity value which, if high enough, will unlock even more immoral events for her to enjoy. Needless to say that events unlocked by high Depravity will not only feature more deviant fetishes but also a Makina that is considerably different from how she was at the beginning of the game.
At first, I thought the corruption of Makina was a little bit forced since it was decided by the choices I made and not the result of her character development. But then I realized that determining the fate of Makina and the other women in this city was part of the appeal and the perfect representation of the Gardona’s curse.
Seeing the strong-willed Makina, who under normal circumstances would never agree to sell her body for information, items or money, being corrupted by the city (or by the player, if you look at it from a meta-perspective), and liking it, is a guilty pleasure only Hentai-RPGs like Fallen can provide. And I love it.
Makina will also find some friends in Gardona who, even though they won’t join her party, help her on her journey into the ruins.
There is Momo, a young woman who wants to be an adventurer but might lack the talent to become one. Maybe there is another profession she is more suited for?
Celia is an honorable knight who was sent to Gardona to explore the ruins and find out what happened to the town. She is, like Makina, quite capable and, unlike Makina, a warrior of justice. But are her virtues enough to withstand the curse that infested the city?
Another important character is Irina, the leader of the Gardona’s guild. She is efficient and righteous, but thanks to her bossy nature and the fact that she is a woman, the male guild members aren’t too happy with her being in charge.
That said, don’t get the impression that all that’s awaiting Makina is total depravity. Ironically, the Depravity value also unlocks the… true love events (and endings)! Honestly, I might even prefer Makina as a cute waifu instead of a lewd temptress. But hey, why not have both?
(By the way, except for one achievement on Steam, there is no benefit in keeping your Depravity value low. The game will not get harder, and you will simply miss most of the content of the game. I strongly recommend to gather as much Depravity as you can, if you plan to only go through the game once.)
Makina doesn’t like to team up with other people, so the player will only control her during the story. Other than having only one member in your “party,” everything else plays like a typical JRPG. Makina will learn both Magic and Skills by leveling up, and while Magic can be used by spending MP, Skills need TP which are earned by attacking enemies and being attacked by them.
Especially in the first parts of the dungeon when Makina is still low-leveled, her equipment is beginner tier and she doesn’t have the money to stock up on health and magic potions, spending your TP and MP wisely is essential. Gameplay-wise, this is the most interesting part of the game.
Sadly, after Makina leveled up enough and has a good range of magic and skill attacks as well as dozens of potions she looted from the enemies, exploring the dungeon gets a bit stale.
The dungeon design isn’t particularly exciting and while the shifts in environment are nice (she will encounter forest-themed, fire-themed and mountain-themed areas, just to name a few), every area feels bland since none of the enemies Makina can meet in the ruins really stand out and puzzles or other challenges are really, really rare.
I even encountered quite a few mapping errors while exploring Gardona’s ruin, none of which are game breaking, but this kind of lazy mapping clearly shows that the dungeon-exploring part of the game wasn’t the developer’s focus.
So it isn’t really a surprise that the game also features a ridiculously cheap “level shop” where you can buy a Level for just 50 Gold (max level is 30, and you’ll probably finish the game with level 20 which is also the last time Makina will learn any new skills).
There are no random encounters in this game, and every monster is visible on the map and can easily be avoided.
So if you’re tired of fighting the same enemies over and over again to grind some levels, or even if you don’t feel like playing an RPG at all, you can pretty much skip everything by using the level shop and focus solely on the story and the hentai scenes.
And, oh boy, the hentai in this game is excellent! If you really want to find any flaw in this department, maybe you can complain about the game not being voiced. In any other way, Fallen absolutely excels at bringing you the best fapping material possible.
Not only is the art absolutely gorgeous, but Fallen also features the widest variety of fetishes I’ve seen in any hentai game I’ve played. From vanilla to monster sex, tentacles, hypnosis, or prostitution… it’s highly unlikely that you can’t find your favorite fetish in Gardona.
While there are many unique CGs and sprites, Fallen also cleverly reuses them in a way that feels fresh and new, even though you might have already seen the CGs.
For example, if Makina’s Depravity value is high enough, she can seduce NPCs. Every resident of Galdona has its own place in the city, his own little story and reacts to Makina differently depending on his personality. Of course, that also means that if it comes to sex, this scene will be an original scene with this particular person, even though it might reuse the CG (with a faceless man) that is also used in other scenes.
While it’s easy to argue that these scenes might not be as exciting because they show pictures we have already seen before, I never was bored by them. I was intrigued to see how the different townspeople would react to Makina and how their little stories would play out after Makina got herself involved with them.
This right here is the strength of hentai RPGs, and Fallen knows precisely how to use it properly.
Some of the bigger side-stories in the game even have their own endings. There are also after-stories available for these side-story endings after you have finished the main game and I really enjoyed those. Who wouldn’t want to see the happy married life of Makina and her goblin husband? Just awesome.
Fallen – Makina and the City of Ruins was the perfect first game for Kagura Games to publish. It’s the perfect start to get into the genre of HRPGs. While the gameplay isn’t the best, it’s far from being bad and offers many hours of exploring dungeons and slaying enemies.
The town of Gardona is full of things to discover and people to talk to. The hentai scenes are great, and the range of variety is extensive.
It’s unlikely that you won’t find something in Gardona you can enjoy. And it’s pretty likely that you will find some new fetishes for you to enjoy.
