So. Yesterday I had a nice long review written up about how much of a giant trash fire this game was. I said everyone was right about how HentaiWriter sucks and that for a game in development since 2016 it played more like an early alpha. Then I found something out. Turns out I was playing an alpha. One from 2016. Whoops, egg on my face.
Future Fragments is a platforming game made by Hentai Writer and is actually currently still in development. Some might question whether you should criticize a game that isn’t technically finished but I think that looking at where a game is after a couple years in development can help foreshadow how it’s going to turn out when it’s fully done. Yes, a lot of my complaints will probably be fixed by the time the game is fully finished so instead of letting you know how the game is going to look in a year or two this is more just a look to see if Future Fragments is worth playing now.
The story is…well I distinctly remember something about people from ye olden magic land sending 2 magic chicks into the FUTURE to retrieve FRAGMENTS of a mcguffin that will solve problems in the past. Your rival chick wants to use them to do the big evil and you want to destroy them to keep big evil from occurring. Other than that I can’t tell you much. The intro cutscene does a decent job of conveying the basic setting but past that it kind of peters off. Sure. There are text logs scattered throughout the game but there are so many of them and the vast majority of them don’t have anything to do with eachother. Something about rebels and a disease and a cure.
How do you get these FRAGMENTS from the FUTURE? By destroying milk tanks with your mega man lasers. The game is basically a hub with branching paths that lead to 6 milk tanks you need to shut down. You get into the room, kill the enemies inside, and then call in EVA from your codec to shut down the milk tank. You get teleported back to the hub and then repeat the process 5 more times. Then you fight a boss. Demo end.
The game is basically you going through a Castlevania map minus any sense of progression or increase in power. I hesitate to call the game a Metroidvania because you’re never required to get a new item or ability to progress or unlock areas previously inaccessible. There’s no “Oh I got the pastrami launcher item so now I’ll head back and get the treasure guarded by that deli tiger“. You never gain any new abilities throughout the
game. You’ll find items but those only add stat bonuses like -20% damage from projectiles or -25% shot speed and +25% shot damage. You do have 2 abilities that have the potential to be implemented in creative ways but you get them right at the start of the game and they’re barely required. The ice beam can freeze enemies or certain projectiles which can be used as platforms. I only encountered an opportunity where I needed to use this to get around once and that was to collect one of the 2 available mcguffin fragments inside of a secret challenge room. Your other ability is a dash that I maybe used 4 times in the 2 hours I played. I’m sure these will be used more in the future but as of right now they’re kind of just there.
The moment to moment gameplay is mostly puzzles involving switching the gravity of a stage to get around hazards or crush an otherwise invincible enemy. Unfortunately the game never really does anything very complex with it. Sure, the game’s incomplete, but I’d still like to see what this can do when taken a bit further. Like what about having a part where you have to use your freeze ray to freeze projectiles, then flip the gravity and use the bottom of the frozen projectile as a platform to get to some upside down goodies? Or what about using your dash to change direction mid air to get to a platform under you? The game has conveyor belts, why not use those to speed the player through a large course of hazards they have to dodge or shoot away?
One of the big sins FF commits is that most of it’s porn either comes in the from of animations that you see when enemies touch you after stunning you or game over CGs. Either way at least on normal mode you’re going to be losing progress if you want to see porn. The game isn’t going “Congrats, you did a good job! Here’s some porn to reward you!” It’s going “Booo. You suck. Here’s some porn to….punish you?”. Sure, losing progress in a game like this where nothing is too far away from the spawn isn’t that much of a tragedy but it’s still annoying to do it multiple times in an attempt to see all the scenes. Speaking of scenes, the absolute biggest problem with the game is the lack of a gallery for the CGs. The animations have one, but the CG’s, arguably the most arousing part, don’t. Yes, this is an unfinished game but should have been a higher priority.
How’s the porn? Pretty great! You saw some of the animations earlier and here’s an example of the art. I’ve learned my lesson about calling things “good” though, so let’s just say “I enjoyed them”. There are around 4 CGs and 2 longer animated sex scenes. Usually involving the human (?) guards or robots fucking Talia. All of the CGs have a second variation of the dialogue if you see them a second time so that adds a bit of extra enjoyment to be had when going through the first time. In fact, here are all the animations and CGs that are in the game along with some that aren’t. Decide for yourself if you like them.
Overall I enjoyed the game. The moment to moment gameplay was pretty lukewarm but it feels more like something that just needs polish as opposed to a project that should be abandoned. The art is pretty good (in my opinion don’t panic) and the voice acting is well preformed (mostly). Hentai Writer may be a bit eager to talk about his games but I think that comes more from excitement rather than wanting to scam you. The game’s been making good progress and I think it’s going to continue doing so until a really enjoyable game is made.
The latest public version of Future Fragments can be downloaded for free here and if you like it you can support Hentai Writer on their Patreon here.
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