League of Maidens® is a free-to-play single-player action-RPG about a woman’s stand against Atonia, and her campaign of chaos throughout the multiverse.
At-a-glance
(Adult) Content?
(F) Nudity.
Censorship?
No. Woot! Woot!
Hours of Gameplay?
’til Heck freezes over.
Modding Support?
No.
Patch Available?
Purchase in-game.
Foreword
I received a free, early access copy of this game for review purposes — thanks Maiden Gaming Inc.!
Gameplay (4/5★)
Grind! Grind! Grind! Kill! Kill! Kill! Jiggle! Jiggle! Jiggle! Once you choose a “class” and create “maiden”, it’s off to explore the world (after a some hours of tutorials). There are five classes, which determine the weapons and abilities your character is allowed to use. The game is divided into vast, explorable areas — they are populated with baddies, dungeons (or “strongholds”), and quest givers. Progression is directly tied to your maidens’ stats and levels. You’ll have to rerun dungeons and quests hundreds of times to gain the necessary materials to unlock new content. Upgrades typically cost one or more “materials” — like progression, upgrades also cost time and grinding.
Honestly, the best part of League of Maidens® is the characters and tools at your disposal to capture them!
Using the Motion3D camera, you’re able to stop time to snap photos of your gameplay. I love this feature, so much! It’s like the “camera mode” in Borderlands 3. You’re able to capture all kinds sweet (and totally sexy) scenes! As League of Maidens® repertoire of “emotes” increases, Motion3D will only get cooler! Alternatively, you may pose your maidens any way you please via Pose3D tools. You’re able to save and share your maidens, poses, pictures, and scenes to the “Beauty Album”.
Fair warning, the “Beauty Album” isn’t exactly “SFW”; between nudity and Pose3D, would you expect anything less?
Story (3/5★)
Atonia, she who transcends time and space seeks to usurp Zeus as ruler of the multiverse. The United Nations Defense Council (or “UNDC”) is humanity’s last stand against Atonia’s army, the Fall. Through the Project Warmaiden, the UNDC produces “Warmaidens”. Warmaidens are genetically enhanced humans; they are stronger, faster, smarter and more resilient. Led by Merica Johnson, the League of Maidens are the most powerful humans ever conceived. However, they have been corrupted by Atonia’s destroyers, implements of her chaos. The fate of the universe rests on a single fresh-faced recruit, a Generation Seven Warmaiden. It’s up to her to unite the what remains of mankind, and thwart the evil machinations of Atonia.
At least, that’s what gathered — It’s kind of hard to follow along.
The story is divided into five “episodes”, the first three of which relegated as an extended tutorial. Between “main quests” are fully voiced cutscenes and exposition. However, there are no transcripts or means to revisit them. You can’t even “roll back” conversations if you miss something. As the game progresses, it becomes increasingly difficult to unlock the next piece of the story — making it easier to miss (or forget) essential details. The writing itself is competent, but it’s difficult to keep up. I think League of Maidens® would benefit from some form of gallery or “logbook” to review story content. I think the first few episodes could do a better job immersing players into the League of Maidens® universe (or rather, multiverse).
I’d love to see a “library” in the future, with story recaps and extended lore!
Visuals (4/5★)
The title menu looks great (but it’s not very exciting). From “Settings”, you may adjust a wide variety of audio, display, gameplay and graphical preferences. League of Maidens® features heavily populated, spacious worlds and quite a bit of visual effects. Due the speed of combat, it’s very important to maintain smooth gameplay — thankfully, the Settings menu offers a robust control panel to finetune your performance. I ran this game on a laptop with an RTX 2060, and I was able to maintain a consistent seventy FPS (or frames-per-second). The game looks and feels premium; however, the variety of enemies, outfits and environments clashed with each other. The overall aesthetic of the world doesn’t always work out, but it at least it looks pretty!
The Goods (3/5★)
League of Maidens® is not a porn game (but there is nudity and user-generated pornography). Nudity is unlocked via a “cheat”, which is purchased via the in-game shop for thirty dollars. Hold on, thirty?
What kind of dumbass would pay thirty dollars for tiddies?!
Oh. . . yeah, that’d be me. The price of nudity (among other cosmetics) can be reduced (by twenty percent) via a Maiden+ membership, which starts at seven dollars (for a week subscription). Alternatively, you may purchase the “Shower Pack” (for ten dollars), which allows you to undress your maidens in Pose3D mode or designated “showers”.
Also, the jiggle physics — easily the best part of the game, hands down.
To be honest, the nudity isn’t special, but it’s a lovely feature. It’s great for snapping candid pictures (using the Motion3D camera), and for the artistically inclined you can make porn via Pose3D. The women of League of Maidens® are equipped with huge breasts and booties. I guess you could say, they’re. . . beyond human!
But if thiccc ladies (with three “c”s) aren’t your thing, you can always make a “lolimaiden”. . . like me!
Verdict (3.5/5★)
It’s worth a try, but temper your expectations (and your wallet). League of Maidens® is an interesting specimen; it’s a single player experience with aggressive free-to-play elements. This game requires the same dedication and investment as a competitive, always-online multiplayer game. You’re expected to log-on everyday, and complete your daily missions and dungeon crawls. It takes days of game time to get anywhere — but arbitrary, daily limits will force you to spread your playtime between weeks, if not months. League of Maidens® is designed to be a daily ritual — but that’s exactly what some people are looking for. League of Maidens® is rough around the edges, but it’s a framework for something beautiful. If Maiden Gaming Inc. eases the grind and free-to-play nonsense, League of Maidens® would be on track to enter a league of its own!
Character Customization
You can get lost in the character customization screen — also broke. Outfits start at five bucks a pop, and nearly everything is paywalled. Realistically, you’re dream Maiden will cost around twenty to thirty dollars (plus thirty if you want to play the game naked). The character creation screen is decent, but it leaves a lot to be desired. Not all of the sliders are functional, and many of them produce awkward results (such as sharp edges or distorted features). For how much nudity costs, you’d think there’d be better controls for nude characters. You can’t change your maidens’ genitalia, or open them (within Pose3D). I wish there was a way to adjust areola size and color; my maiden’s nipples looked like shiny pencil erasers!
Also, there’s no “undo” button. . . really?
League of Maidens may be “free-to-play” (but actually, it’s kinda not)
League of Maidens® may be free, but it’s not worth playing if you don’t pay. Cosmetics can cost as much as ten dollars each (or thirty if you include nudity). If you don’t buy any new outfits, you’re stuck with the default “training” garb for the remainder of the game. Pets serve to automatically collect items — if you don’t buy one, you’re going to spend an obscene amount of time collecting them by hand. If you don’t upgrade your inventory and storage space, you’re going to spend every mission micromanaging those items (that you spent forever picking up!)
It’s best consider League of Maidens® to be a twenty/thirty dollar game (unless you hate yourself).
League of Maidens: more like, League of Grinding!
The grind is real. Progression and mechanics are directly tied to one or more levels (some of which reset every time you logoff!) It doesn’t matter how good you are; if you’re not the right level, you’re not allowed to progress. Making matters worse, some levels are barred behind limited, daily activities. If you don’t do your dailies, you may never beat the game.
Honestly, League of Maidens® arbitrary timers kind of ruin the game — it becomes less a game, and more a chore.
The leveling system is primarily based on “Light Cubes”, rare drops from dungeons and tough enemies. Light Cubes can be converted into Ascension Points, which are used to increase Ascension Levels. Alternatively, you may convert Light cubes into Battle Points, which are one of two requirements for Guardian Levels. Each day, you must complete designated “training” missions to work towards the next Guardian Level. Finally, Power Level is determined by the quality of your skills and equipment (I think). Equipment, like Light Cubes are extremely rare. Skills and equipment must be upgraded using “materials”, which are rare drops from enemies.
I ran out of steam an awful lot — I had to force myself to press on, and level-up.
