Game – Amayui Labyrinth Meister
NOTICE: ALM is a lewd SRPG game. If not of age, do not play.
Time to 100%* – [did not max 99 lvl every character or stat boost to max by farming subsequent playthroughs and bosses for those item drops]
Playthrough 1: 92:27 [hr:min]
Playthrough 2: 72:09
Playthrough 3: 5:47
Total Time: 170.73
This time around had decided since it is a shorter game than a usual Eushully title, why not go all the way and full 100%. As in max everything possible. Yes, the items that generally take half the playthrough time lol. Well tis done, and the damn Spirit Soil has been obtained. ~~more on that later~~
The Main Game –
Dropped back into the world with our beloved Anya… oh wait Fia, they have the same VA so easily mistaken yknow. Both are beloved with one having a bit more of a cuck fetish one could say. Got to get that bond quota up though, no way around it and there sure are a lot of bonds being made. Avaro is a bit more into the experimental stuff this time around though, monsters are not off the table anymore, if it has legs, er, well even no legs it seems, its getting dicked down to keep it simple. However these are just experiments and definitely not what Avaro wanted. He simply is there to help those in need no matter the semen cost and toll it unloads onto them.
Getting back to it, Avaro and Fia are still in their honeymoon phase where neither has done a 100% confession but that will change partway through and helps to conclude the question of how traditional Avaro is. Some would even say he goes beyond traditional into the primal aspect with how many he has come to bond with but I digress. There are only 2 routes this time around which drastically cuts down the amount of time required to finish and run through everything the game has to offer. It is a lot more linear where there is no way to select/enter into the second route without having first completed the game once. Simply getting into a certain someone’s personal space the second playthrough onwards will allow for the second and true ending to be accessed. Bad Avaro, bad, but the mans got to do what a mans got to do to gain access to the true ending.
Either ending will provide a good conclusion, with the second true ending giving a more complete and satisfactory one with more questions answered and less loose ends hanging around.
Anyways Avaro and Fia are of course the bee and the honey, a cucumber to her pickle type deal. Yet they have yet to have a child. The gods have spoken, not Fia type gods though. As such Kuna, or Kuu, is brought to life. She is the spirit of Guaracuna fortress. Sort of wraps up and ties together that oddity that happened in ACM. Guaracuna acting on its own for seemingly no reason. It was brushed off as, anime logic but in ALM it is clarified that there was reason behind it. The fort has heart, soul and is now considered Kuna. At first she is spotted around the fort and thought to be some ghost or some creature of the night, peering out from the darkness. Avaro and Fia investigate and upon finding the source of these complaints, find Kuu and accept her as their illegitimate/adopted child. Kuu is also indirectly brought to life due to anomalies that have been occurring in a country to the north, called The Duchy of Mephi. Unsurprisingly these anomalies are going to lead to a grand fight by the end. Not as grand as ACM Paraia fight but close depending on how one would interpret the tier of threat by end of game.
With Kuu taken in as Avaro and Fia’s daughter and they make their way to Mephi, Kuu enabled them to easily move the fort due to her being the spirit of the fort. She can control it as she pleases. She is birthed as a child, and knowing how that sounds, in this verse, spirits and gods do not have to be born as children and are often popped into existence full grown. However, with Kuu, she is a child and as the game progresses has a wholesome message about them raising and instilling good hearted ideals into her to raise her into a kindhearted person.
The Duchy of Mephi is a place that is known across the entire world of Dir Lifyna for being the place to go and be if a person is wanting to learn and study magic. Their customs there are very straightforward and contested by one of our main antagonists. Mephi believes in only weighing the value of a person by their magical skills. Names and families are there and important but if the skills of a said person are not up to par, they are nothing to the others and considered a grave disappointment. Not a lot of interactions happen between people of this country as they are focused on studying and furthering their magic, be it for themselves or for the better of the country as a whole. Namely for themselves and to expand their own knowledge.
In the capitol, Mephi Riwelon, this is where our gang has their first interaction with magicians and are immediately noticing the stark difference and tone shift from the Infrus kingdom to Mephi. Mephi is independent and neutral state, not following any particular god which is a oddity in this world of Present gods. In this capitol is where nearly everything happens, unlike other countries this is the hub to transport and base of operations for pretty much anything. Inside Mephi tower is where their national secret lies, their mass teleportation magic that seemingly costs nothing and can be used to transport into their places of study, the labyrinths.
In these labyrinths, there lies trials that one must take and pass through to become acknowledged as a full fledged magician. Increasing in difficulty as more are unlocked/allowed to be able to visit. Some after passing all the magician trials will seek to pursue in a single labyrinth for their personal studies. Inside these labyrinths can have cities and places for a populous to live. However, these labyrinths also have a strange mechanism in place that once transferred into, the odds of an interaction with another is near impossible. Explained as the game progresses, our party breaks that mold of course. Within these labyrinths is where the anomalies are occurring therein raising the difficulty greatly as a side effect. It is Avaros goal is to get to the bottom of what is causing such strange things to happen. The Loki family is the one who is considered the greatest and their head, Sacrifa Loki, is the one that greets Avaro and gang upon arrival. They discuss and are quickly sent off with Sacrifa’s daughter Amber Loki :mrclean:. She is to be their guide around the entire Duphy of Mephi during their stay/investigation.
The first labyrinth they enter, Gear City Defar, sets the groundwork for how the labyrinths will typically play out. Enter in and search for the anomaly. Once the anomaly is found, deal with it in a specified way then move on to the next labyrinth. As more labyrinths are explored, more companions from the first game are sprinkled in and add to the character counter. Throughout these labyrinths is where our antagonists are found and discovered to be the source of how these anomalies are happening. It’s a bit of a goose hunt cleaning up their actions with a bigger problem to arise later due to their plan in action. It is a losing situation with a thought out plan that no matter the course of action, the end result will be the same… or so the antagonist thinks.
There are some very fun and entertaining scenes that are to be had from the Sacred Haze Tower Avaro and Diet scenes to the spa or even giant teddy running away with children hehe. It is varied and keeps the enjoyment at a high without much downtime between entertaining portions. Pacing between each labyrinth regardless of the options chosen when allowed a selection will not matter too much as all selections must be completed before chapter progression can occur. Selection mainly being a `what diff does player want, easy med hard`. Will have to say that the diff curve for this game is of such that it starts out hard, has a diff spike drastically fall off but then has some spikes here and there where player will need to consider moves made more carefully. Speculation on my part is this is a purposeful occurrence though. It helps represent that the cast is end game characters in strength and dropping them back to being weak wouldn’t make too much sense as they all fought a literal present god, Paraia, shortly before these events in ALM. It shows them getting accustomed to how magic works in the Duchy of Mephi and their proficiency at handling magic maturing to match their latent raw talent already achieved. When putting into this type of light and consideration, the easy difficulty cant be hounded on too much. However, this is for normal mode, strap on for hard mode first playthrough as that is an entire different beast and cant be blind bumrushed. Crafting and upgrading would be a must.
After the first 6 labyrinths are conquered, the final ones are a set order that must be completed in a select order. Immediately after followed by the end game area that will change depending on the route one takes. Simply peer into a innocent child’s mind when given the option and route B will be unlocked.
Route A focusing more on a organization while route B going further and linking back to a country. A country which Mephi is all too familiar with from years past. Actions of this time are what brought about one of the main antagonists.
Routes & NG+ Content [spoilers section] –
With the first playthrough route, A, it is not a true ending as mentioned above. There is a conclusion and would be satisfactory for those not wanting to play again to uncover the true ending. Route B can be accessed on subsequent playthroughs.
In route A, the evil seal group is at their shenanigans again. This time they are aiming to unlock a device and reincarnate a being that is sealed away. Geary Gaidal, she is directly related to our previous man Gaidal. Luckily with her being a girl though, she is of course given a lil bit of love, or better put she is the one giving some affectionate love to another, allowing them to be gifted the present of her body lol. Geary is plainly put, evil, debatably more evil than our previous Gaidal, sort of runs in the fam, they are built different. She doesn’t just want to overthrow the present gods and reclaim the human clans glory. She instead wants to tack on destroying the world in the process. She is more of a go big or go home type. In doing this her plan is to destabilize every labyrinth in the Duchy of Mephi. Using the magic wedges she forcibly implants into these labyrinths. These wedges amplify the effects of the labyrinth and cause a runaway affect that is dangerous if left untouched and not dealt with swiftly. Kuu is luckily able to deal with this problem though. Geary has been able to use the Evil Seal Groups influence to have infiltrated the Belgarad Kingdom. With this influence makes use of a noble called Zinamea Netestas. Zinamea is in a special situation as she has a heavily dedicated follower to herself that is a General of the military. Gasch Rondo is basically in the palms of her hands and whatever she says he will do. To the point where if she said for him to suicide he would. His unwavering following plays a bigger role in Route B with route A and him being relatively untouched.
Geary has also convinced a local from Mephi, Liru Fullard into her plans. Geary is in need of specifically Liru for her race to ensure her plan works accordingly. Geary has intel that should otherwise be lost to time in regards to why she specifically needs Liru. Liru is an orphan that was adopted into Fullard family due to being a prodigy. Fullard family being the second most powerful family in Mephi. There are politics and such surrounding the Fullard’s family head, Cabert Fullard. Cabert does not necessarily agree with the status quo and came to start using his wealth to adopt abandoned children so they had a place to go and be accepted into. However, Liru is the only orphan noted to have been fully adopted for inheritance of the Fullard name. While Cabert does not agree or pursue entirely the views of the nation, its not entirely left his mind either. Liru the one he adopted though pushes farther than Cabert and insists that the way the country is in their views is wrong and aims to fix it, hence why she got corrupted into Geary’s plan. Geary simply used her views against her to manipulate her into going along with her plans. Even though Liru knew what she was doing was bad. As all the labyrinths are finished putting wedges into, geary’s plan is finally set into its final stages it is made clear to Liru that she was used, although realization too late.
Geary with both Zinamea and Liru in hand, is able to make her plan a reality. Her plan being to destabilize enough of the land by targeting specific points, leading to the unsealing of the 45th Solomon Devil Vinea. When Vinea is unsealed having Avaro or somebody else manipulated into weakening Vinea enough so the seal she was there to protect can be broken. With the seal broken, Devil Queen Shiba, who was the lover of King Solomon, leader of all of the Solomon Devils, is then vesseled into Lirus body since Liru is a perfect candidate that closely matches with that of Shiba. With Shiba now in Liru and the seal broken, the Sealed Temple of Vilkes will be unshrouded. Shiba being the one who rules over this temple can than be used by Geary to control this temple that is also a weapon of mass destruction that makes guaracuna fortress a weak small weapon in comparison. Geary cannot simply indefinitely control Shiba to her every will though and must make a sacrifice to have her wish granted, therein sacrificing Zinamea who is greatly loyal to her in a sick and twisted way ~~shown in route B~~. After these 2 sacrifices are made, one being liru and the other being Zinamea, Geary’s plan is in its end stages. The stage of world domination baby. Geary sets out to start out by eliminating Mephi Riwelon. Yet Avaro stands in the way and is the main reason why Zinamea had to be sacrificed… at least earlier than intended.
Avaro and others must then find a way to reach this Temple of Vilkes. Searching through records leads to a possible solution and riddle. Solving the riddle uncovers 3 towers that must be conquered in order for them to make it past and into Vilkes. Once all were passed and end rewards obtained, they were not simply able to enter Vilkes though, they had to ask for assistance from Mephi. Sacrifa was glad to be of assistance and crafted a method with the items to enter into the temple. Once in the temple it is explained about how and what the place is and how it is even in existence. Questions about what Vinea was even doing are partially answered with more info in true ending. This ending focusing more on Queen Shiba, her meeting with Solomon and how that even was a thing due to how far apart they were geologically. With the history lesson out of the way for Avaro they must then face off against the final boss Geary… nah it aint Geary, this is a JRPG, Shiba is the final boss of Route A.
With Route B, the divergence happens when we are supposed to follow in Geary’s plan to weaken Vinea enough for her to swoop in to have a last laugh. Instead Kuu speaks up and is like nah, this aint right, lets save her. So of course we do. This leads to Geary having her plans foiled. Liru who she was manipulating and using up to this point is now tossed aside… again, but this time to us instead of a vessel. Some events happen such as Zinamea and Geary going back to Belgarad Kingdom to do some prep work and craft a teleportation point to be used to funnel Belgarad Kingdom soldiers at the command of Zinameas blindly following General Gasch. Oh that’s a mouthful of `small events changed from one route to another` lol. As Geary’s fall back plan to infiltrate fails, Zinamea shows why she is a demon and even surprises the Solomon Devil Vinea. Zinamea is simply beyond insane in the membrane. She cant be saved and is not being saved. Zinamea says to Geary `I love you which is why I shall kill you to preserve the memory of what is rather than have a memory of what was`. It is pretty good twist that doesn’t stop there. The General Gasch not caring what happens and blindgly following Zinamea put to a halt in the background as Avaro deals with Zinamea’s situation… the true twist occurs. Zinamea reverts to her true form of a demon and insists on consuming Avaro and others. She of course fails but a special someone that everybody loves and knows shows up, incinerates her and goes, `how about we make this an official war rather than a false declaration brought upon by the insubordination and false war that is occurring now, see yall in a bit`. This person then leaves, sends a official declaration of war, reprimands and offers a amends to Gasch for his disloyalty, with Gasch saying, `now that Zinamea is dead, my second most truest ideals are to follow the Kingdom. I am sorry that Waifu before all else but she is gone and im still me, give me a chance`. Gasch then is sent and stationed on hold on the border of Mephi awaiting the order to strike. Avaro and the entire Duchy of Mephi knows the perils of war so wants to avoid at all costs. Avaro mentions an idea that might work for stopping it, them going straight to the source, using the teleportation setup by Geary to reach the Belgarad Kingdom and speak with them directly. Ya, it sounds out there but realistically is the only and best ways to hopefully end the war with risks explained and understood before partaking these actions. Avaro goes through and is now faced with more Belgarad soldiers of course but has the person they were putting all bets on readily available there. There was no need to do a search for them, faith was on their side. With this person there, she simply states that they will not win and the war will not be ended so easily. The war cannot end in her mind due to politics that would showcase Belgarad as weak if they were to simply stop the war before any harm or casualties to them were made. Everybody gets split up and scattered and as these smaller groups are required to find there way back to eachother. In the time of finding each other, destroying the barriers that cloud their minds which unleashes the force of reckoning. Prep time is finished and the final boss appears, ready to have a battle of ideals and conviction. Ending in well done politics for why her views are the way they are in regards to ending the war. Avaro’s group wins this battle of attrition with a more complete ending conclusion. There are hints that there could be a 3rd game after but would say its speculative and might be hard to pull off with how this game has been. There is still lots of world to explore and expand the power of bonds into and would be more than welcome since Fia :bluzh:.
With the routes overviewed, comes the other NG+ content, including Appends. 1 append can be accessed first playthough which is Micri Loki. One of Ambers sisters. She is available to play and has a short story accompanying her, no lewds though, she instead lets Fia take that on even though Micri is the Mare Queen. Her story being that she traveled to East Gotia to lift her curse and became the Mare Queen due to her curse origin. Fun short story they included and Micri is known to be crit queen and helps greatly in fights with a passive 40 crit boost when attacking… she is a glass cannon however. Then there is append 2 that is a fair amount of content. Adding Amber, Ior, Mikeyu and Ranrinyuiki scenes with accompanying side stories surrounding it. As for NG+, Anastesia comes in and is a god character… game gets very easy with her in the field, can simply delete enemies. She is the mascot of sister company to Eushully dubbed her name and is a maid. Well in her instance maid in training/apprentice maid. She has some magic book shenanigans going on and allows access to the labyrinth map to easily obtain end game crafting mats and drops. ~~her true form being… oddly kyuu ngl~~.
Gameplay & Quests –
Might be a bit all over the place here to better cover gameplay elements. Lot of similarities with other Meister games with differences here and there. Easier to simply shotgun out overviews though. Wont include everything as this is a sequel game.
In typical JRPG fashion there are stat debuffs and buffs alongside traditional leveling system with stat growth alongside it. Stat caps are a thing until a certain level… when double action is unlocked for a character is where stat caps are released. Stat caps are for a characters personal strength limit, say the character is lvl 10 and personal strength can only go to 30, no matter how much levels granted wont be able to have stat boosts appear there until that cap raises. Title unlock grants higher stat caps and more abilities. Items can be used to boost a characters stats but only to their current cap limit. Weapons and such can boost above cap limit.
Skills are varied character to character with what ones they unlock and can be equipped. There are skills that can be passively granted from equipment sets or combos as well as simply being from an item equipped. Mix and matching equip and skills to find the best set is optimal. Resistances play a role and are debatably more important than raw stats as these elemental stats can negate or work stronger than raw stats. They go hand and hand and when forming a strat of def or attack swapping armor and weapons around will do the trick to find most optimal based on strat of that turn.
Genma is abilities that are crafted and equipped. It is new to this game. Their crafts tier are directly tied to Kuna’s level. Higher level the better genma that can be crafted. No level requirements for gear to be equipped. Once unlocked its accessible for whoever is eligible to have it equipped. Certain gear is locked to only be for specific traits, gender or specific character.
Styles are far and far between. Not a lot of them and all are unlocked through normal play without the ability to craft new ones. Choosing a style is locked to second playthough where any are freely chosen. No selection will grant a special bonus, its more fun and wont do much other than personal preference. ~~mikushuana as young form is too kyuu not to select and have instead of adult form and her adult form itself is hard to beat~~.
Unions are another new feature that allows 2 characters to join together and in doing so boosts stats based on their union level. Special skills or abilities are available when they are joined. There are downsides such as less available movement but this map movement control is sacrificed for more power, it’s a give and take and not a lot of taken more given. Unions are powerful and greatly help expand a strategies versatility when used appropriately to accommodate weaknesses. Some characters are not meant to be unionized with others but still can at the sacrifice of no bonuses. Unions have a max of 5 levels for each compatible pairing. Union levels unlocking stronger union bonuses that are listed on the select screen for unions.
Outside of the main stats page is something new to meister games but not new to Eushully games, Divinations. Divinations help grant passive boosts to various aspects of the game such as xp boosts, enemy drop boosts, union xp boosts ect. There are tiers and they increase in cost accordingly. With append content there is an exploit for money that will allow for infinite money by crafting mercy bangles, selling, buying mats for them again rinse repeat. It takes a while but time investment is worth it to be able to afford divinations. Especially on second playthrough where spirit soil enters chat. Spirit soil being the sole mat needed to upgrade each of the characters strongest craftable weapons.
As for crafting there is no furniture or other craftable passive stat boosting items like that. Instead we are given a thing called Genma Guidance. Genma guidance is something that when on a map, there are cubes that must be activated. Each cube activated grants one Genma Guidance point. With a max of 120 points, these 120 not able to be maxed until every map has been played, so only late second playthrough onwards can a player have max 120. With Genma Guidance, there are a plenitude of boosts that are able to be made by using said points. From passive strength boosts, def boosts, mining/harvest levels ect. Tons of options and all of it is free respec so use accordingly and can be used to plan out a upcoming map advantage by respecing to help counter and protect against that places enemies elements. Lots of options for how to use it most efficiently.
Outside of Genma is Mephi Knack, a place that is the shop for purchasing stuff this time around. Purchase mats, items or whatever the heart wants lol. It is right next to Rotts Workshop… Rott being the one Avaro has taken under his wing for training, or using to allow for crafting. Rotts workshop is where the player crafts everything, upgrades and creates Genma via Blast Furnace.
Oddly enough there are no quests as it is replaced with other game features. Quests feature would make less sense from a story aspect since Avaro is here to investigate so the swapping out melds well and is not a concern. Only real quests are simple, `do this map to find item for lewd scene`. Straightforward and simple, they are quests but in a way not at the same time.
Sound and Visuals –
Sounds and visuals will be short as they are good enough. Nothing too special about them. All the sounds and OST’s do there job. Lot of traditional Eushully SFX which is great, if it aint broke don’t it type of thing. OST’s meld well with the rest and do not feel out of place. They are composed in a way that allows for countless hours of listening and still not tired of them. If anything that goes to show how well done they are. Not surprisingly though it wont be uncommon to mute games sounds altogether when farming in favor for own music. Definitely not necessary and highly encourage the games stock music for any moments outside of farming.
Visuals… what can I say, they are very well done and detailed. From the map backdrops to CG that is shown. Even down to the live 2d battle animations. Only thing that would make the visuals even better and go beyond great is making all scenes live 2d. similar to nekopara being the most notable and popular of such to go about full on animation of scenes for characters ect. Different styles and neither is wrong. Each with their own pros and cons.
Overall and Final Thoughts –
Very highly recommend Eushully games in general to others looking for something new that isn’t a generic AAA game being released in this modern day. Sure the stories might not be anything groundbreaking but they are quite enjoyable. The characters are fun and it’s a grand experience playing through any of them.
Was quite a lot of complaints about Kuna being `shoehorned in` but really that is not the case. She is a child, yes, she is prominent and a main character, yes. But she is not annoying and this is easily the best showcase of how to make a solid `we have a child that we are raising` game out there. Simple fact as to why is that, while that is a subliminal message that is shown, and is a focus, its not the only thing going on. Its not a simple, here is the child being raised, there is a lot more to it and more natural flow to how everything was crafted together. In ACM it was Fia being trashed on and in here its Kuu. Vocal minority though with invalid points being made by them.
Dir Lifyna, the world this game takes place in is extremely grand in scale. Each game adds more to the worlds info. The concepts and ideas put forth from one game to the next and expanded upon. The entire world crafted easily has this verse as probably my favorite to look into. From the original human world creating mechanical gods leading to a war between old, present and mechanical gods. King Solomon with all of the 72 Pillars of Solomon. The history of these 2 worlds and the humans of the old gods world being a crux and reason for later events to occur. So much lore and history that is quite a rabbit hole to delve into.
Spirit soil… 1% drop from any enemy. It’s a pain but with append map can average about 7-11 per run by killing all enemies. Just keep in mind 16*9 spirit soil each to max them pieces of equip out lol.
ALM is listed as higher than ACM but honestly that comes down to more subjective enjoyment. Either game has their pros and is a tossup between what one is `better`. Both are about on par and are highly enjoyable.
Fia is still best grill :mrclean:
Characters (main) – 4/5
Characters (sub) – 4/5
Enjoyment - 5/5
Gameplay – 5/5
Visuals – 5/5
Music – 3/5
Story – 4/5
Overall Ratings - Rec: 4/5 Raw: 85%
