Moe Chronicle is a fanservice filled Dungeon Crawler never released for Western audiences but has a complete English translation for those that decide to import it. Why has it never made its way over when the Vita is already chock full of perverted anime games you may wonder. Well, this game really takes the cake as to how far you can technically not call something hentai. As such this review is not intended for younger readers, caution advised. With that being said it is much more than what you may expect from a game whose main selling point on the back of the box is “Rub, Poke and Squeeze!”.
We play as Io, a uncharismatic young man with an intense fear of talking to girls. One faithful day of doing nothing of interest he is suddenly kicked out of town and told to go save the world. It seems a species of humanoid creatures known as Monster Girls have grown a sudden disdain for humans and are causing havoc all around the world. Understandably, this unfit, rather cowardly protagonist protests to the request and is sent on his way regardless. Confused he walks with in no particular direction then meets his childhood friend Lilia who joins him on his quest.
Lilia is one of the Monster Girls of the local town, that for some reason has had none of their kind affected with the sudden outbreak of hatred. It may sound like a serious tone but it is far from it, Moe Chronicle is very tongue and cheek. Upon finally reaching the outskirts of the town’s territory they meet a pink seal named Otton who is on a grand quest to collect panties. After talking to him for some time he tags along and reveals that the way to return the world to normal is to find the ultimate pantie! And so we have our noble task.
Soon after we have our first taste of combat which to sum it up briefly is Pokémon for Perverts. You can attack, defend or cast spells. Casting spells is a very important part of fighting as each enemy is weak to one of the four elements, them being fire, water, earth and air. On the flip side each party member has one weakness as well so diversifying your party is vital. Aside from your elements you have many other spells such as poison, paralysis, healing and many more options to take down your foes. Who are your foes? Well some disturbing creatures named H Monsters who are… I really can’t explain what they are. From sheep with breast ears, phallic shaped creatures playing hula hoop to sexy bananas, it’s just best not to question it.
These H Monsters have a chance of randomly joining you after a fight which can then be assigned to one of your Monster Girls for small benefits such as more defense for her or a chance for it to randomly attack. Notice how I said Monster Girls, as it turns out our protagonist Io is pretty useless in violent scenarios and works as purely a support character to use items, tell the party to flee or sit back masturbating while the girls fight. You do so by choosing the “Store” action to fill up your Desire percentage. At any time, you can shoot out your “desire” at one of the girls to greatly boost their attack for a turn.
Scattered around the environments are panties, other treasures and most importantly Monster Girls who are suffering from a spell that causes them to hate humans. These serve as the boss fights with the awesome bonus that you can recruit them once you defeat them. Contrary to most other games you do not actually want to hurt her, instead you aim for her clothes with your attacks until she is down to her bra and panties from having her clothes destroyed. This is where it gets extreme. You then tie her down and unlike the type of Snow White type spells where you only need a kiss to break it, it is quite another story here.
This is where you must flip your screen vertically in order to use the touchscreen to rub, poke and squeeze the parts of her body where she is most sensitive until she orgasms. You have 60 seconds to perform the deed before she breaks free from her binds and each girl has different body parts they like being touched like the neck, the tail or the umbrella she is holding. If you succeed she will be freed of the spell and either respond with embarrassment, anger and any other wide variety of emotions depending on the girl in question. Regardless of their immediate response they will always join you and that is how you gain new party members in this game.
There is an enormous amount of girls to “collect” but unlike Pokémon these are people with their own attitudes, background and relationships to build after gaining them as an ally. That huge amount of Monster Girls does present a flaw to their rubbing gimmick however. It quickly grows annoying or even frustrating having to suffer friction burn from frantically rubbing on your screen after each boss fight. With the girls moaning and how it looks to someone passing by while you are frantically stroking your Vita, it is needless to say not something most will want to play in public.
The 60 seconds you are given are really not much at all compared to how much the game asks from you. It is simply far too demanding and requires too much precision as to where you are touching. It is not uncommon to run out of time while searching for their sensitive spots but having to fight that same boss multiple times due to how tiny the touch zone on their necks is will test even the most patient of gamer. There is nothing more frustrating than barely defeating a difficult boss only to be screwed over by the touching gimmick time and time again. It got to the point where I simply looked up where to touch, this feature really harms the overall package.
Moving on from that once you have got them to join your side they can be found in the inn from the town you were exiled from until you save the world. In there you can talk with any of the Monster Girls, give them random gifts to get them to like you that much more or change their costumes. You must first get them to like you a bit before they are fine with changing clothes in front of you. Changing their outfit is not merely cosmetic but affects what skills, stats and spells they have. I really like this feature, it brings many ways to use a character such as turning them from a tank into someone that can heal the party. Having multiple ways to use a character in this already huge roster is just awesome.
When changing costumes, the skills to use the new move set will not be unlocked. You’ll first need to fight a number of battles until they start unlocking so you’ll typically start off with nothing but a simple attack. Monster Girls not in your party will level up very slowly until you upgrade their room through the egg system. This is one of the more bizarre features, you must find a pantie and a H Monster so she will lay an egg that has equipment, items or the building material inside. What comes out depends on the quality of the H Monster and the type of pantie you use. Strawberry Pattern Panties are the type you want to upgrade your room. Just nod your head and pretend either of us know what on earth I just explained.
Each girl has their own traits such as Tsundere, Cute Butt and Big Boobs to name a few. They all have various effects that activate under certain conditions like Big Boobs effect being to increase Lolitas attack by 40% when her health is under 65. Looking up their traits and building your party accordingly can help a lot but is by no means necessary and can be ignored if you want. This game is far more complex than you may assume from its overly sexual theme. One thing that should be noted is there is a lot of talking in this title. It is rarely anything important, just the girls interacting with each other or with you that can be safely skipped a large portion of the time. I never found myself wanting to do so since it is quite a funny game.
Impressively every line of dialogue is voice acted and there are a ton of voice actors to further give each girl her own unique flare. While the voice acting is all in Japanese the English subtitles are well done with only a few errors from time to time. The overall story is nothing to write home about but the character interactions more than make up for it. Artwork is really well done with everyone having a ton of detail yet the environments are nothing special. You’ll be traveling to multiple locations on the world map like a forest of giant phallic looking mushrooms and a giant spa house. Everything inside these areas like the enemies and bosses are so random that they don’t really have a theme to them.
It is a long game made significantly lengthier by all the dialogue. There is a ton of content and even more to do after you beat the game. Once you’ve beaten it you will unlock the Extras menu where you can access all the music, art and cut-scenes. In case you are wondering, no this isn’t playable on the PS TV, there is simply too much use of the touchscreen. Overall Moe Chronicle is a very competent dungeon crawler. The only real problem I had with it was being forced into the rubbing gimmick after each encounter with a Monster Girl and often fighting them again multiple times for failing it. If you are fine with that and the sexual theme as well, this is one game you should import to start your quest for the ultimate pantie!
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