Moekuri: Adorable + Tactical SRPG

My opinions are very mixed so take this thumbs up with a grain of salt, but I think more people should play doujin titles regardless so tl;dr at least check it out when it's on sale I didn't enjoy my time with Moekuri quite as much as I was hoping, for a variety of reasons, some of which aren't really its fault. For some ungodly reason I binged what I'd say was a genuinely unhealthy amount of this game (like 18 stages not even including free battles) in one day, and thus certain aspects wore me out much more than if I had just spread out my time a little more and not been so focused on finishing. Also, I think I'm just very picky with srpgs compared to other rpg genres. That aside, while overall this is probably one of my least favorite doujinsoft titles I've played, it was still a relatively nice time. The monster girl designs are generally speaking fun (was surprised by the diversity of picks, like the Hindu gods and Ullikummi; the latter and some others are niche enough you'd only expect to see them in MegaTen) and it was cool how they all had different VAs and artists. The game mixes the creature collector style and srpg style fairly well. I think the music is freeware and it generally does its job, though the first battle track is pretty damn groovy. There's lots of mechanics that give plenty of depth if you want it and lots of potential for team build varieties. For the negatives, the story was kind of a nothingburger I couldn't bring myself to care about (though yay for the lesbian princess). Besides that, to me, a lot of the gameplay was kind of a drag. A lot of the times it felt like either my party members or Iruse were doing much, which I think is because I was expected to grind way more than I did. Most times I attempted build variety didn't go very well either. Also, a lot of the late game devolved into just wailing on the master to secure a win without even paying attention to its other summoned goons. Also felt like Iruse spent most of the fights getting SP for her summons but I also think I picked a pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥ class for a first time run even though the game said it was beginner friendly (the status effect one). All that said, it doesn't really overstay its welcome, and while I think some of the doujin game jank affects this work more negatively than it does others, it's still very charming. The game as a whole is very cute and the gameplay is satisfying once you get a hang of it. If you like indie Japanese titles and SRPGs, give it a shot at least. Will say though, damn shame the achievement for completing the game is so rare that it has the little glowy border for achievements less than 10% of players get. I guess most people pick this up on sale and just forget about it in the sea of their backlog. Even though I have my problems with it, I think it does deserve a fair chance. Also also, gotta say, while it might not have been my thing, Moekuri PvP would kinda go hard. [Copied from my backloggd except for that first line]