Chapter One: Introduction
Apostle: Rebellion is a lewd RPG available on Steam. To experience the full game (with adult content), the Steam version must be patched. A patch can be found on Kagura Games’ website under “Patches”. I will only be discussing the patched version of the game.
I beat this game in roughly fifteen hours on “Normal” difficulty, but I could barely keep up with enemies (and I skipped most optional content). A realistic playtime for most players may be as many as twenty hours.
I received a free copy of this software for review purposes — thanks Kagura Games!
Chapter Two: Gameplay (3/5★)
Section One: Overview
Apostle: Rebellion is a combat-focused RPG with dating simulator elements. The bulk of the gameplay is exploring “Megiddos” (or what other RPGs may call “dungeons”). Depending on the chosen difficulty, the bulk of gameplay may instead consist of replaying and grinding Megiddos for level-ups and expensive consumable items.
Between “story events” you’re free to explore the open world and take heroines on “personal events”. Personal events forgo turn-based action in favor of dialogue, character building and the offhand quest. At the end of the game, personal events may pay off as marriage.
Or you’ll find out the hard way girls don’t marry losers, even if they saved the world.
Section Two: Combat
The combat system is not well balanced (which I’ll explain in the coming section), but some aspects of battle were interesting.
Each enemy is weak to at least one type of weapon or damage; for example, flying Magna tend to be vulnerable to ranged attacks, such as those provided by Amelia or Fuyune. On harder difficulties, exploiting weaknesses is necessary to end battles quickly and prevent loss of life.
Each enemy has a few different attacks with deadly results when combined with additional foes, such as healing teammates or stun-based attacks.
Section Two: Balancing
Random encounters are tediously common with little gain. To be fair, random encounters are optional — but even on “Normal”, skipping any number of fights is a surefire way to fall behind.
The overall strength of enemies (especially bosses) increases sharply, resulting on long and boring battles. If you come underprepared to a “story event”, the only solution may be to reload a previous save (or activate “god mode” to make your party unkillable).
I loved spending an hour chipping away at a boss’ health, only for a round of bad RNG to wipe my party out of the blue — and then spending two more hours grinding for a slight leg up for “round two”! I can only imagine how tedious they would have been had I engaged them with an equal-level party (or worse yet, a higher difficulty!)
The player party is highly volatile. The story regularly dictates one or more playable characters must be removed to advance the plot. When party members are unexpectedly removed, it can be difficult to progress with remaining members.
For example, during story events where Tsurugi must fight alone, it’s difficult to cope with the loss of support characters. If you don’t build Tsurugi as a purely offensive character, completing these story events may be impossible without cheating.
On the topic of impossible events, there are multiple unwinnable fights. I hate these fights because unless you know not to resist, it’s likely you’ll waste precious items trying to win. I wish these battles were relegated to cutscenes to prevent wasted time and items.
Section Two: Exploration
Megiddos (or again, what other RPGs would call “dungeons”) award exploration with respawning chests. The contents of chests vary, but I was seldom disappointed by loot in this game.
Outside of megiddos, exploration is punished. There’s little incentive to explore the centerpiece of the story, Neo City. Every dead end I ran into without a reward was a frustrating experience.
Chapter Three: Sexual Content (5/5★)
Section One: Content
If you’re a “boob guy”, the heroines of Apostle: Rebellion deliver.
Well, except for Ai Lin, the butt end of the Apostles’ flat chest jokes.
The gallery suggests there are a total of forty-four animated sex-scenes; unfortunately, beating the game will not provide an option to unlock the gallery. If you’re interested in sexual content, it’s imperative to spend the first half of the game hooking up with women; once you reach the latter half of the game, sexual content is nearly impossible to unlock.
Section Two: Implementation
Sex-scenes are primarily tied to “Exploration” and paid “Real Reality Brothels”; there are only three sex-scenes in the game that are integral to the main storyline.
Between story-related “events”, Tsurugi is granted “WP” to spend on “personal events”. Each female protagonist has at least two personal events which include sex-scenes. However, there’s only enough obtainable WP to unlock about a quarter of the gallery in a single playthrough.
It’s possible to cheat by reloading a previous save (to reset WP) — but the “marriage” mechanic insures that it’s necessary to replay at least half of the game to unlock the full gallery. After reaching a certain point in the main storyline, all WP is surrendered. To successfully propose to a heroine, Tsurugi must complete all of her “personal events” before his WP is stripped.
Section Three: Interactivity
Sex-scenes are comprised of linear animations with skippable dialogue.
Section Four: Quality
Wow, the sexual animations are awesome! Each sex-scene is comprised of multiple animations and lots of back and forth dialogue, complete with delightfully lewd sound effects.
I love how sloppy sex scenes are, characterized by dripping cream pies and tons of saliva! I’m not personally fond of oversized breasts, but I enjoyed watching them swing to the rhythm of Tsurugi’s pelvic thrusts.
Chapter Four: Story (4/5★)
Wombat is working on this section leave me alone.
Determined to clear his brother’s name, Tsurugi leads the Apostles of Aphesis to track Hydra and Magna.
Hydra is a a drug sweeping through the people. It’s said “taking one dose of it is enough to rot away your humanity.”
The Magna are monsters on the rise, only able to be defeated by the Apostles.
Chapter Five: Sound (4/5★)
Section One: Soundtrack
The soundtrack is great selection of electronic ambience and fast paced synth pop.
However, I wasn’t a fan of the orchestral pieces that are played during boss battles and end of the game; I can’t help but feel kamichichi just ran out of electronic and substituted for fantasy.
Section Two: Sound Effects
Combat is vibrant with satisfying sound effects and fun voice clips.
Section Three: Voice Acting
Voice acting is mostly limited to single words and vocals. Only a handful of fully voiced dialogues exist, typically reserved for narration or pivotal plot points. I can’t understand spoken Japanese, but the audio itself was high quality. Although most of the acting is comprised of exclamations and single words, I enjoyed the audio ques between characters during exchanges.
It’s too bad male characters (including the main protagonist) are completely silent. It’s not like Tsurugi was designed as a “player insert”. In his words, “I’m me”. . . “I am Tsurugi”. I think kamichichi missed a lot of opportunities to provide memorable acting for comic relief (such as the “Old Man”) and the most of the antagonists encountered throughout the game.
Chapter Six: Visuals (4/5★)
Section One: User-interface
The user-interface is professionally made with lots of graphical elements. I had no problem navigating any of the menu and I enjoyed the ample usage of character illustrations.
Throughout the game are numerous grammatical errors and untranslated text. Sorry Kagura Games, I don’t remember when or where — I am not financially motivated to proofread your games.
Section Two: Graphics
The production quality of this game is through the roof compared to typical RPGMaker games — but graphical discrepancies and crudely edited sprites show Apostle: Rebellion is in fact, a hodgepodge of premade sprites. Admittingly, the graphics occasionally impress, but they lack the polish of a “triple A” RPG (which seems to be what kamichichi was going for).
Neo City is a dystopia apparently ruled by Kagura Games. I’m okay with Kagura Games adding tactful nods to their games (e.g Real Reality Brothels), but it’s clear the publisher simply ported existing artwork onto Neo City’s billboards without even bothering to match the game’s aesthetic.
Chapter Seven: Verdict (4/5★)
Apostle: Rebellion is an impressive game with wonderful, animated sexual content. However, as a traditional RPG the game suffers from poorly balanced combat. It’s a shame, because combat and leveling are mechanically interesting, but the grind is bonkers and enemies take too long to kill.
I believe Apostle: Rebellion shines as an adventure RPG with numerous interpersonal dynamics and unexpected plot twists. I found the cast to be oversaturated with love interests, but the story will have you asking “what happens next?”
Chapter Eight: Recommendations
Reduce the freqency of random encounters and increase the rewards; additionally, the stakes should be increased.
Allow all party members, regardless of Formation to gain full experience from battle. As the plot will remove members of the player’s party without warning,
