Meritocracy of the Oni & Blade
The Steam version contains Appended contents. (16 CG worth of extra scenarios not found in the original game)
[Story]
Her home town burned to ground and her parents killed by the abrupt appearance of the “Red Demon”, Aika Amagami was left orphaned and alone, to fend for herself in this brutal world.
Aika was born with a special power named [BRAVE] and noticing her potential an educational institution by the name of Hououin Academy scouts her.
It would seem that at this academy, there are other young men and woman like herself, [BRAVERS], who are ardently honing their skills in rivalry.
In order to grow stronger and exact her revenge on the “Red Demon”, Aika enrolls at Hououin Academy…
[Endings]
3 ROUTES & 10 ENDINGS!
[NORMAL], [BRANCH SCHOOL], and [CORRUPTION] routes
available for a variety of play styles and scenarios.
[System]
* Battles are symbol encounters!
(no random battles when you don’t want them)
* Battles are 1vs1 style!
(even if there are shown multiple opponents)
* The “Automatic Defeat System” is back (on popular demand!)
No need to fight, no hassles, no fuss, just lose automatically!!
(Can be setup in the configuration with / without manual selection)
* Easy to play system with…
– message skipping (fast forward)
– voice ON / OFF toggle, BGM / SE / ME volume adjustment
– scenario text log, auto text mode, window obscuring
– difficulty adjustment, already witnessed scene skipping
– animation in battle ON / OFF toggle
– animation speed adjustment, etc etc.
User Friendly Features IMPLEMENTED!
Battle: Side View Animated Battle
Self Destruction: Implemented (unlocked after clearing the game)
Clothing Removal: Implemented (possible after a certain event)
Voice ON / OFF Toggle: Implemented
[Contents]
10 Endings
137 base CG (63 Event CG + 58 Battle Anime + 16 Appended CG)
Steam User 196
There are a lot of negative reviews from people who didn't know what they were purchasing, so maybe this review will be helpful for someone considering purchasing this game.
I played this game when it came out on dmm and then again when it came out on dlsite. I had gotten most of the endings before the append disc came out. This is a high quality top tier RPG Maker game from Japan.
Graphics: (Very Good) Good RPG Maker tile sets, with nice backgrounds, and superb cut scene artwork.
Music: (Very Good) They have professional grade music with custom songs.
Story: (Very Good) A very good story with a logical progression. The good route is good, the bad route goes pretty far to the extreme. (You were warned.) The middle route is still pretty dark. Read the Mature Content Description. This is fairly dark story that does have the option of a happy ending ... and yes you can read into that whatever you want. It uses the win/fail system to determine endings. It has also come up with new ways of changing your h-status without the typical win/fail options.
English Translation: (Good, unless you are a Grammar Nazi.) It is superior to the previous translations on ONEONE1 games. If I nitpick, there were some grammatical errors, but to be honest, I make quite a few myself.
Censorship: (Mosaic ... some will consider this to be good, some will not ...) On first release it required you to buy the patch from dlsite, but the patch content now comes with the steam purchase. It is made in Japan and released from a Japanese company, so it uses the typical mosaic censorship that is used in Japan. If you have played a Japanese H game before you know what that means. If not, look it up, or download the demo from dlsite and play it for yourself before you spend money on it. There is not need to buy it and complain when you can play through the intro and see if you like it.
H Content: (Very Good ... Because ...) There are options in the settings that allow you to adjust H Content. You can set it to always skip, choose to skip or not, or always show. You can adjust elements of the game to suit your taste. (These should be standard options.) Maybe a person wants a cheap RPG, but doesn't want all the H stuff that goes with a lot of the cheaper titles. As for the artwork, it is well drawn. Some hand drawn and some animated ... Cut scenes, events, and battle animations.
Difficulty: (Moderate/casual) Even on normal it isn't that difficult. Time to completion is dependent on how high of a level you are shooting for, how much money you want to make, and how much you mess about with NPCs. The amount of grind, and also how overpowered you become, depends on your play style. After your first completion, you can carry over some items, gold, and levels to a new game. This makes going on a new route, and getting another ending, quicker. With that said, this will not take as long, or be as frustrating of a grind as a Final Fantasy game. These games focus more on the story and less on making the game into a part time job for the player.
Value: (Very good) ONEONE1 has included the patch with the game so it is less now then on launch. It is a much longer story line than you get in many RPG Maker games, and with much higher production quality than in many RPG Maker games. This isn't a AAA title game from one of the major game makers, but it also doesn't cost nearly as much as a AAA title.
Recommendation? (Yes, but with a caveat) I would recommend it to any fan of the genre and any fans of previous ONEONE1 games. If you have read the description, read honest and complete reviews, and have tried the demo, then you know if this game is for you or not. I would NOT recommend it to children or people who are looking for something to be offended by. On the other hand, this isn't a $60 game, so it can be worth it to take a shot.
Steam User 98
R-18 DLC patch has been applied to the Steam version!
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Steam User 38
What strange and interesting times we live in. Hardcore ero games on Steam! Been a fan of OneOne1 since Botsuraku Reijou, so naturally Ive been keeping my eye on Meritocracy. The English translation is comprehensive, concise, and free of SakuraGames butchery. I hope games like this, Meltys Quest, Treasure Hunter Claire set a standard for how H-games should be handled, and that developers dont get discouraged by controversy and draconian policy when bringing their games to new markets.
Steam User 20
Hentai Game Review
Im kinda always expecting a new oneone1 game and at the same time im dissappointed. I really like their games but they could always be so much better. Each installment suffers from the same few issues which could easily have been avoided. Still i like their games for what they are.
Art
Oneone1 offers very good CG´s but lacks variety. There are many different sex scenes but often with repeating artwork scenes. They have variations, sure, like with clothing, without, different facial expressions etc. So its up to the person that buys the game to decide if he rather wants many different situations or less situations but more different art. The amount of CG is good tough, the quality top notch, variety is there but only in form of details.
Fetishes
The game features mostly corruption, which i will explain more in the gameplay section.
Otherwise there is still pregnancy, which is sadly not utilized well. Your character can get pregnant, you can even see a picture in the menue if your character has male fluids inside her. That for some reason changes directly if you go to another place. Instead of needing to get contraception/clean it or just choose not to ejaculate inside, nothing will happen anyways because your character apparently can only get pregnant with monsters. If shes pregnant there arent any additional scenes except birthing. Which is strange because pregnant sex scenes are usually more popular than birthing.
Otherwise there is prostitution which is alright. You can have sex with random strangers or go to a brothel and and choose a costumer that wants specific positions. The positions and sex itself is very vanilla compared to the writing and themes.
Major point is also interspecies sex. It doesnt have many cg scenes, but the whole fighting system is based on it, your character gets groped , sex without consent or even later in the game your character can get corrupted and there are a few reverse sex without consent scenes in battle.
Drugs arent really a thing there except in one scene where someone says he gives you drugs. Neither do you see it nor does it have any impact on the corruption of your character. She also doesnt get addicted to it or anything.
Sound
The sound effects are rather meh but the game has a pretty good english voiced main theme. Main characters voice isnt the average high pitched japanese voice actress but a rather slightly deep voice which fits to the main character being a "strong" female warrior. Her acting is good, nothing mindblowing fantastic, just good. Only issue is the quality, it seems as it was been recorded in a good area but the microphone isnt a quality ive would expect in voice acting. Its minor nitpick tough, but compared to other h-visual novels the quality difference is clear.
Gameplay
Meritocracy of the Oni & Blade is mostly a corruption game at its core. Your character is supposed to induldge in sexual desires slowly and get lewder and lewder. Personally, it starts very weak in this game but ends very good. Your character basically gets offered by random dudes different types of sex. First she says no but when you lose in a specific bossfight she suddenly will even randomly prostitute herself to a classmate. There is barely any second toughts or reason why she would do that. She isnt cursed or anything or super horny. That is for anyone who liked this genre a no go. The brothel is definetly better on that part as it gives you slowly more perverse scenes. Its not entirely vanilla but also not really hardcore stuff.
Not sure where to put it, but there is also a huge issue for me: the game almost exacly plays out like the heiress. And that game was already very close to dark elf. I mean i get it, dark elf´s formula was an instant hit. The game looks like its added just another colour scheme and some menues are different. I would even suggest that the H history compared to dark elf became even less complex. I dont really want to compare those games because they are just the same type of h games, but if you buy a game that is way too close to each other after some time people get really fed up with that stuff. Heck even the brothel works almost exacly like in the heiress. My advice would be adding finally a working clothing system, side activities that not dont involve sex(like work, social bonds etc) at first. Oh and finally concensual virgin loss that isnt only at the end of the game.
After a while your character gets more experienced. You basically grind specific types of scenes and she gets better with her mouth, butt etc etc. This changes also her h-background which is really well made and one of my favorite parts in this game. Sadly there isnt really a clothing system. At some point your character is okay with running around fully naked. Something in between would have been nice to have, like different /sexier clothing or uniform, or alteration of her regular uniform. Basically the corruption system is really weak. Dark Elf historia ,their previous game, had atleast a slower paced writing, she slowly started to do lewder stuff in her questline. Not as slow as i prefered tough.
At the end of the game there is a corruption form where your character looks very different. It alters the cgi mostly only in that regard that the base sex scenes/ CG just got swapped out with her new look. Also the text is different.
There is a fighting system though, which is very different from the average rpg maker game. This one offers a fully animated turn based battle system. There are even sex scenes are aviable and for each enemy type its different.
The dungeons itself are sometimes maze like and feel like a chore to play. The abillties are pretty plain and in the end there is that single OP move you gonna spam over and over. At some point bosses can get high class damage sinks and are not really hard but annoying to beat. Would have prefered with shorter missions and dungeons. In hentai games long repetetive dungeons are usually killing the game for me, except it got something unique to it, like a battle corruption system.
Story
Surprisingly, this one is probably one of the best of oneone1´s works. There are many interestening characters and strangely the main heroine is the only one who looks rather "bland" because her uniform is the least special and her general personality is the same. Every other character has some detail that stands out. The main villain is rather unique but gets not enough screentime in the game for some reason.
Conclusion/TL;DR
Overall i would recommend this game to anyone who liked oneone1´s previous work or looks for some hentai game that is in a rather darker setting. The game jumps from being kinda vanilla (if you would count prostitution as vanilla) to having very edgy fetishes and may not please people who are liking either first or last much more. Still i enjoyed myself but i see many things that needs to be improved. Definetly weaker than their previous two games but i will still definetly buy the next game from oneone1.
Steam User 19
Thumbs up for developer willing to make changes to the game based on fan feedbacks. The game story is well plotted with lots of options to play. Many ero scenes to enjoy without cencorship thanks to Steam's latest policy. Definitely recommended.
Just a little suggestion: it'd be great to have achievement and trading card support, and then it's perfect!
Looking forward to the next big game that you guys are working on.
Steam User 15
Finally, a Oneone1 game with out the Sakuragames bullshit
Steam User 13
Just as i was going to write negative review of how this game is so heavily censored they patched all 18+ stuff back in to Steam version, no need for r18 patch!
This game is worth buying now.