Star Knightess Aura

This is one of my favorite games.
First of all, there are two primary things to know about this game:
1) This is an H-game, with a lewd content patch located here:
2) Despite being an H-game, this is a really unique RPG where resources are finite and careful planning is required if you are attempting to beat the game without corrupting the protagonist. It is unironically one of my favorite RPGs, and I would play it even if it didn't have any H-content
On the H-game front, the essential premise is that this is slow burn brainwashing. If you lean into the brainwashing or fail to win a "good" victory, the protagonist (name Aura) will slowly transform from a nerdy girl with a pure heart to a horny, incredibly evil, basic bitch.
The game has three primary phases: Roya, Aura's mind, and Earth. In Roya, the protagonist tries to save the fantasy world from the demon king. It is an RPG that is intentionally difficult due to limited resources, However, you can commit lewd actions, which will make the game easier, but also progress the brainwashing further. After finishing a day in Roya, either by doing an action which requires until the end of day to progress, losing a fight, or manually choosing to end the day, you progress to Aura's mind.
In Aura's mind, you control one of the primary antagonists and can use corruption points gained in Roya (from lewd actions, evil actions, using a special power called "Star Knightess" or simply many days passing). These corruption points get used to slowly brainwash Aura. The early items are things like slightly improving her feelings to someone or slightly decreasing her interest in books, for example. Changes start small and slowly build up over time.
Finally, in the Earth phase, you will see the effects of the changes in Aura's mind.
Most of the rest of the review will concern Roya, which is the primary part of the game. As previously mentioned, the game isn't the typical RPG maker fare. A "pure" playthrough, where you never commit any lewd actions in Roya, or spend corruption points in Aura's mind, is possible, but is very difficult and requires several playthroughs of experimenting. In chapter 1, your options are limited, but starting in chapter 2, there are many possible builds that can work for the game. But for your first playthrough, the expectation is you will be using at least some corruption to benefit yourself.
While the game does fit into the corruption genre mold, unlike many others in the genre, it isn't of the "protagonist gets raped until they like it" mold or whatever. Instead, lewd stuff in Roya is mostly transactional. Aura has a lewdness score, and can't take lewd actions above her required score. Usually taking these actions get you a benefit, such as gold, items, or stat increases. On the flip side, you might be forced to take a lewd action if her willpower (an in game resource) is low enough. A slightly different version of the scene will play out if you are forced to take it. Lewd actions also typically come with corruption. Above a certain threshold (that changes as you play the game), you will lose the game if corruption exceeds that point. As such, you need to spend corruption during the Aura's Mind phase if you aren't playing a carefully constructed pure playthrough.
The game's writing is generally solid by normal standards, but for H-game standards, the writing is phenomenal. The character writing is good, with characters having fairly distinct voices that are emphasized well in dialogue. Characters generally bounce off each other pretty well, and have some scenes where they particularly shine.
Generally, I recommend this game highly if at least one of the following is true:
1) You are looking for a fairly deep resource constrained RPG where every item is precious and routing better routes is king.
2) You are looking for lewd slow-burn brainwashing where the heroic protagonist becomes evil.
On the other hand, if you are looking for a quick fap, or a casual game that doesn't require much thought, then this game probably isn't for you.
Despite what looks like a low steam play time at the time of review, I have been playing the prerelease for a couple of years now, and am pretty familiar with the core game.

I've played this game a ton on itch.io, and I can say that it's one of the best corruption h-games i've played, maybe even something i'd call a "gold standard". While the porn itself isn't my favourite, the corruption is pulled off in a way that makes me quite riled up at times, and I think the way the fetish is integrated into the gameplay is top notch. I'll go into more detail below, but the TL;DR is that this is a very fun (and surprisingly challenging) RPGMaker game with a focus on corruption fetish that shouldn't be skipped if you're into both of those things.
You play as Aura, somebody who was chosen to be isekai'd into a Star Knightess to defeat the Demon King. Her first attempt doesn't go perfectly, and now she has the succubus/demon Lucelia inside of her head. During the day she goes about her non-isekai life of going through school, acing every test, reading horrible light novels, and other such things, and at night she is transported to Roya to help finish the demon king off and save the world. The school scenes are purely visual novel, and only happen in certain conditions, the Roya segment is the main part of the game and where the RPG combat takes place. However, whenever you swap between these two (by dying in roya, or doing something that causes time to pass) you instead play as Lucelia, and have to invade Aura's mind to corrupt her into a bitchy bimbo NTR'd kinky cheerleader... you know how this type of thing goes.
Where the game gets interesting, however, is the synergy between all three of these sections. Your main goal in Roya is to defeat the demon king and save humanity, but you definitely won't be able to do that all in one night! Playing as Lucelia is inevitable and common, and requires you to interact with a bunch of different parts of Aura's brain. These are surprisingly varied, and come in the form of a series of rooms that all interact with eachother. One room might focus on her appearance, and making her prefer to wear high heels or take off her glasses. Another room might affect what she derives happiness from, so you can make her desire popularity while caring less about helping other people. Aura is the most affected by this during school, which are mostly VN/corruption scenes. However, it also starts leaking over into Roya, giving a cavalcade of debuffs... but intriguingly, buffs as well. A big part of what makes Star Knightess Aura enjoyable to me is that the game is pretty difficult, and by engaging in the corruption mechanic you can actually make your life a lot easier if managed right. You've seen the trope of "blow a couple guys in a back alley to make five times the gold" in a ton of other corruption-style games, but on top of that you can also get stat buffs and lewd spells from reading books written by particularly horny wizards. For example, one gives you extra magic attack for every point of Aura has, so it's a pretty solid strat to start off the game degrading her morals as fast as possible via drugs, stimulants, and speccing into giving her fetishes. This all generates though, which is the main resource in the Lucelia sections... the more you have unspent the faster it goes up, and if you get too much she instantly dies and your game is over. So you can't ignore corrupting Aura, but you can do it smartly... I'm assuming it's balanced so people can do the classic "purity runs" of games like these, but there is a time limit set by how many times you die or pass time.
The writing is hit and miss, but in the right areas. It's clearly self aware it's a very trashy isekai setting, and is even poked fun at occasionally... I do find a lot of the characters annoying, but at least with Aura it makes you feel a tiny bit less bad about corrupting her. While the dialogue is very over the top and trashy (not in the horny way), the way the gradual mind control is written is honestly very solid and a good reward for paying attention to the character's interests! It turns out Lucelia is also somebody who is isekai'd named Alicia (Aura is pretty airheaded to not notice with names like those)... she's also her former best friend, which makes it easier to tug at her mind in more ways than one. So while the sex scenes happen mostly in Roya, the most horny content actually takes place in the real world, where you see Alicia tempt Aura into vapid and horny avenues while her brain is unknowingly being altered. While I found myself more aroused at the situation than caring about any of the characters, I also started to feel bad when things in my playthrough went really south- so maybe something's actually here in the writing and i'm not giving it enough credit. I definitely found myself enjoying these brain altering/real life segments more than the actual sex, but maybe that just speaks to my sensibilities...
In short, this game is fantastic if you're looking for a fun fetishy time where gameplay is actually well integrated into the kink you're interested in. The more you die in Roya, the more Aura gets corrupted, but that allows you to take hornier avenues to power up faster, but that can be a slippery slope... sure, test scores going down and caring more about fashion than books might not affect fighting ability, but now Aura gets sooooo booooored when reading, including those important stat books that give you new bonuses. Yeah, you now have an ability to distract humanoid creatures with your assets, but you're now used to wearing high heels on your armour, causing agility to be reduced for all stat checks. I find myself an equal amount horny and invested in the game systems while playing Star Knightess Aura, which to me is what all h-games should strive for. And if you're somehow this far in the review but aren't interested in the horny aspect of it... well, it's one of the better RPG Maker games i've played, even if it's on the basic side!

Advice: play normal difficulty.
What I thought playing hard mode was going to be:
- more likely to be partially corrupted
- less likely to have a boring playthrough where nothing sexual happens because it's too easy to always do the right thing
What hard mode is:
- a horrible tedious slog where even the real-world corruption plot doesn't progress because it's waiting for you to finish quests in the fantasy world
- a spiral where things really feel crushing and overbearing, and despite brief moments of getting a grip on things, almost seem to just get more and more difficult as the game continues
- nothing sexy happening for, well, practically 25 hours because progression is so slow (at 25 hours, the lewd stuff is just now getting past groping and kissing)
Also, yes, you need to install a patch. I didn't know that until I was FOUR hours in though.
I'm a patient person, but I almost rage-quit after the story line demanded that I spend 7 turns of a boss fight preparing my ultimate attack, only to have the main character killed in one hit despite me assigning other characters to guard her and her having full health and a defensive stance. There was literally nothing I could do to win that fight other than repeat the entire thing and pre-prepare for the battle in a way that I only ever would have rationally done if I knew what was about to happen. Sorry, but that's bull****. The *flow* of the entire game is woefully ****ed in hard mode. Just don't do it. It's such a terrible experience *it shouldn't even be an option*.
All of that said, I think this is likely a great game in normal mode. I've been reading the dev's blogs on Patreon for a year, and they are insightful and it's clear that a great deal of care was placed into the story.
I will, at some point, beat it, I'm sure. But at 25 hours and just barely scratching the surface of the game , I think I need to set it down for a while. I should feel excitement, not trepidation, at seeing more quests open up and the world map expand. I don't though. I'm just the incarnation of fear for how much of a slog this may continue to be, and while I can change my difficulty at any time, that's not going to compensate my character's stats or monetary situation for how long I've spent playing hard mode. I just... honestly. RPG Maker fights are not fun. Don't act like they're fun. Don't make me do this pointless work. I'm not playing your game because I want to fight the same set of monsters ten times in a row inputting the exact same strategy that worked for me the first time. Less combat, more story please.

HOW does this rpgmaker h-game have more compelling story and characters than the vast majority of 'serious' media? The premise is insanely tacky but the execution is 1000%.
DON'T start on hard difficulty. This is a tricky game.

GOLD STANDARD in the corruption genre. I played this on itch when it was incomplete and free, and I absolutely owe the Dev(s?) my money - they have earned it!!

The concept is fantastic, being bad is GOOOOOD, and you feel like you have earned every milestone. For me, the connection I feel with the characters makes me want to go through and play a purity run, for them!

I've played the game for over 50 hours during its early access, including a full pure run. I (obviously) enjoyed the game, but also understand that it can be hard to get into.
It's a game that requires you to take it seriously. If you plan to fastforward through all dialogues, and ignore all of the mechanics, you're going to have a miserable time. The game can be surprisingly difficult, even on lower difficulties, and unless you like losing (makes more sense with the Restoration Patch) it's easy to bounce off of the game, or yell at the game for being unfair.
However, if you do decide to take the game seriously, it's the most in-depth RPGmaker game I've ever played. Every quest/encounter can be solved in multiple ways and mechanically the game is very non-linear (though the story is linear). The areas are meticulously crafted (unlike the generic dungeon layouts you see in many of these games) with well-thought out encounters. I originally started playing the game for its story and themes, but that diversity is what made me do multiple playthroughs.
But again, there is a lot of text to wade through, especially early on (Put on Instant Text in the options, you'll thank me). And the game's difficulty and complexity can be daunting at the beginning. I think it's certainly worth it though.

Art 7/10, Story 8/10, Gameplay 7/10. I used cheats to finish the game since it started to drag out near the end. I like most of what happens in the fantasy world, but don't really care for the mind change content to Aura in Earth so I also used cheats to reduce corruption.

I would have liked to have more control over Aura's transformation instead of the only options being dumb and evil or smart and good.