My high play count was because this game was boring me so much, I frequently left my computer and kept it running in the background until I remembered I was playing it. In total, this 'game' takes about 2-ish hours to read.

I want to post a neutral review so much. But if I had to choose I would say, no, don't get it.

This is a kinetic novel. It means there are no choices. You watch a story unfold. You are a reader. There is only one outcome of this game. At least if the story was good, I wouldn't have mind this. But it's... not.

You are thrown straight into the first sex scene because the main character has a new slave to toy with. Then some more sex scenes. Then some more. There's pee involved. At one point, the hilarious translation talks about mucus membranes and fart butts (I am not making this up). I believe the game tried to somehow weave a storyline in there with warring kingdoms or whatever, but it felt wholly out of place in lieu of the straight up porn. Since the porn is so in your face without any buildup, it makes you shrug and go; "Alright, this game is just porn without plot." but then it bridges the sex scenes with a lot more nonsense and world building that you go "...But where's the porn?" Not to mention the sex scenes are very jarring and have no buildup. You will have the main character talking to one of the guys, and then BAM, they're in position. They waste no time in writing a paragraph of how they came to be in that situation, so these sex scenes could all swap with each other and it wouldn't have mattered at all.

It doesn't help the translation is horrific. Tenses change mid sentence, point of view changes all the time, and the guy's gender switches to a woman frequently as well. The guys 'moaning' consists out of a lot of "Ooee ooee" and other non-sexy exclamations. I mostly wanted it to skip, it overstayed its welcome a lot.

When it comes to art, it does the bare basic. There are three sprites in the entire game (the ones you see on the storefront, the two sex slaves and the main character), despite the fact other various minor characters make an appearance. The backgrounds are blurred out so you never get to enjoy them either. There is no animation such as blinking eyes or moving mouths. There are CGs of each sex scene, and that's the only positive thing to say about it.

The budget was blown entirely on the voice acting, and everything else got scraps. Especially the writing and its translation.

For a kinetic porn game, I think the price is way too high for the amount of flaws and bad translation it's got. I usually want to support 18+ creators, but this is hard to support. At least let the player choose between the two 'love interests'. Instead, you're just reading a badly written porn kinetic about owning two sex slaves and somehow making it look like it's romantic.

I also believe many of the positive reviews here are bots/bought. No way have they played this game and could call it good. I am the target audience of this game; I like femdom and submissive men. And let me tell you, this game completely missed the mark of its own audience.

I was convinced by the many reviewers who gave this their thumbs up, some even calling it the best otome they've played, praising its writing, that I went ahead and bought this game.

The way I judge games is pretty simple; did I enjoy playing it or not? No, no I did not enjoy myself.

I feel legitimately cheated out of my time and money. Taisho x Alice episode 1 is just two routes, and if you check my playtime, it took me a little over two hours to complete a single route. I wish there had at least been one negative review left behind in English that could have warned me.

The intro or common route is the most boring piece of writing I've stumbled upon in otome writing. Alice and Arisu are two people who've lost their memories and talk about... stuff. Against a black background. Nothing meaningful. Unless you call Alice berating Arisu at every opportunity 'meaningful'. It dragged on and on. I was so dumbfounded that people were praising its writing when this is what the game starts out with. I guess perhaps the routes themselves are much better.

Finally I was able to choose a route! I picked Red.

The writing did not get better. It got worse.

Taisho x Alice doesn't know whether it want to be a serious game, or a game filled with gags and comedy. Based on spoilers I've read for later episodes, it seems the game grows more serious and weird, but as of now, I'm reviewing episode 1, and it was awful to sludge through.

Let me tell you, I love otome games that are more character focused versus focus on plot. You'd think this game would be right up my alley. But it's not. Characters were having those long and boring conversations that didn't develop the bond between them, nor further the plot. It was trivial and pointless. I expect this writing from a cheap mobile game, maybe ala Mystic Messenger (which had much better dialogue!). Not for a game that asks $25 for two routes. Characters were legit asking the MC "Do you want the D or not?" I just can't. You can press skip for all the conversations between MC and the side characters and still be able to follow the plot without missing anything. That's how useless those conversations were.

When flashbacks are more interesting than the actual current conversations, then something is wrong.

Then there was the twist at the end of Red's route, which could have been done nicely, but doesn't quite work for me because; the MC herself was in on it and you, the reader, was not. That and everything was exposition. The entire last act is just characters telling "Yeah I did this - I bet you didn't think of that!" and patting themselves on the back.

Red himself was cute until he turned into a woman hating sexist and called the MC an "indecent slut". I don't know why they didn't localize this to change it to something else that didn't involve Red calling the MC a slut. You're still releasing for a Western audience here, it's okay to sometimes change it up a bit so that we don't experience blatant slurs being thrown at our faces. That really soured his route for me even more. The worst part of it is that it's played for laughs. Haha, Red freaks out at MC getting close and getting nosebleeds (that we never see on screen!), and calling her a slut because he's such a ~tsundere~. Haha. Loads of fun!!!! (this is sarcasm)

Any number of otome games have infinitely better developed characters, interactions and plot - Taisho x Alice isn't one of them. Even Voltage's games are much better in terms of writing, and those are $4 per main route.

I was also really disappointed there's no mouth flapping /animation to accompany the voice acting. Not even blinking eyes. The limited sprite expressions took the boring conversations to another level. All of the budget must have been spent on the VA and art.

The only positive thing I have to say about this game is that the art looks pretty, and the MC was fun to play as. But even good art and a good MC can't save the dreadful conversations I was forced to sit through, hoping something would happen.

I doubt the writing would improve in other routes, so I am just letting this game gather dust and won't touch any future installments.

I'm pretty simple when it comes to grading games; did I enjoy it? The simple answer is; yes. I enjoyed playing Akash: Path of Five.

Small summary: Akash is a short game focused mostly on small romantic moments with your chosen guy. If you played one route, you've played through all of them, so decide whether it's worth your money to pay only for dialogue changes and a few unique scenes here and there.

• - Fully voiced lines! Aurora's VA is absolutely lovely. Even faceless characters get a voice.
  
• - Aurora the MC is cute, and definitely written with a Western audience in mind. She's hilarious and can be boldly flirty which I definitely appreciated. I want more MCs like Aurora. She definitely makes playing the game more enjoyable.
  
• - That's just a plus point in general; you can be flirty which is usually the good choice to raise affection with your guy. You can even select to go topless at one point and in no way is this considered to be a bad thing in the game. I love it!
  
• - The characters are all pretty cute. With six guys to romance, I'm sure there's someone you'll like. Almost every otome trope is present. You've got your childhood friend, the sleazy flirt, the tsundere, the cold and mean guy etc. It's nice that none of them are central or pushed onto you as if they're the 'true' route.
  
• - 3D animated backgrounds. The first time you see them, it does leave quite the impression on you with sweeping camera entrances. I especially liked it when the camera 'fell down' the roof in Rowan's route. The custom shader to make them appear more like a painting with brush strokes looks nice. I just wish more colour was used, especially since the premise is having literal elementals as love interests.
  
• - Flicking dynamic lighting on the character sprites as they're surrounded by fire for example, nice touch!
  
• - The art in general was nice to look at. Character models were mostly on-point in CGs. You definitely can't miss what element they represent.
  
• - Ignatius is such a cute little tsundere and I need more of his shrill voice. Let me tease him more!
  
• - It was romantic! Strangely enough, I can't say this for a lot of otome, but here, Akash is definitely all about spending time with your favourite guy.
  
• - Blinking eyes is always a treat.
  
• - Thank you for the many fanservice CGs. They are food for the soul.
  
• - Characters blushing a ton makes me weak. WEAK.
  
• - I need more flirty main characters. God, I really do.

• - WHY CAN'T I ADVANCE WITH THE MOUSE!?!? Ahhhhhh this one annoyed me so damn much! Clearly not optimized for PC. Can't even press spacebar to advance, you HAVE to use your enter key.
  
• - Copy & paste story. Played through one route? Congratulations, with the exception of Daniel's route, you now have seen the entire game. Only the dialogue changes a bit because the guy in the scene is different. But even Aurora's lines gets re-used. There's literally only a name swap change at some points like that scene in the lake. Your 2nd playthrough will never be as good as the 1st because you're just skipping over text here and the immersion is lost. I do not agree with the design choice to have the same story told from different point of views because it's still being told through the MC, Aurora.
  
• - Because there's only one way the story can go in, characters don't have the time to get developed. It's superficial through and through. They stay their trope and don't grow beyond it.
  
• - Character sprites don't reflect the text. At one point, Ignatius has a nosebleed - there's no nosebleed on his sprite. When the LI goes to take a bath in the lake, they're supposed to be naked, but their clothed sprite shows up instead. Rowan is supposed to be wearing a guard uniform, but his sprite shows his old outfit. Lux at one point is said to be smiling in the text, but his sprite is grimacing instead. Countless examples of sprites not matching the written text. Really takes you out of it. I would have honestly much rather settled for less poses and more outfits/expressions.
  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1898617365
  
• - As much as I liked flipping off the humans, the art style complementing it is so wildly out of place, I was wondering if I was playing some old 90's flash game. I'm all for the humour, but that art style really doesn't work with the realistic art style the game currently has.
  
• - Because you basically have to start skipping text once you've finished one route, suddenly the sweeping grand entrances of each 3D moving background becomes a pain in the butt. Just let me get through this please! An option to turn off the dynamic entrances to each background while skipping is enabled would have been greatly appreciated.
  
• - Lux's VA was so dull it almost made me hate the character. Zero emotion in his voice. I'd even take Rocco's sleazy VA over this dud.
  
• - I would have preferred mouth flapping to accompany the voiced dialogue. Kind of strange there wasn't.
  
• - That mini-game was the worst thing ever. Oh my god was it frustrating to jump over barrels and have it respond too late, and when you finally DO jump over a barrel, the next one would always roll right underneath your landing and you'd move back. THANK GOD you can skip this.
  
• - I found the sprite art to be far too dark. When the edges are shaded with black, they just kind of lose detail and don't pop out at you anymore. Especially if it's Rowan in front of the VERY bright market background... yikes.
  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1898616961
  
• - The history log starting at the top of your history instead of appearing at your most recent line of text is honestly a really weird design choice. History logs are mostly used because you missed a line of text, so having it start at the bottom would definitely make more sense.
  
• - Nitpicking here but I hated the GUI. Graphic design wise, everything falls flat or just bugs me. It just wasn't working with all those intricate swirly designs. It makes the game look really dated.

If you're the kind that loves world building and an intricate plot, you won't find that here with Akash. Go in with the expectation that you're playing something light on plot and more on the romantic side and you'll have a good time. It'll take you about 2 to 3 hours to finish a single run.

I enjoyed the game, but I definitely don't think the price was worth it since you're essentially paying for a single story with some dialogue changes based on the guy, ala Seduce Me The Otome. Had the stories branched off then I wouldn't have minded the price at all.

I've always liked RPG Maker. When I wanted to make my own game, with 2D sprites, with no knowledge of programming, RPG Maker is where I turned to. It required some learning of the engine, of course, but it was easy for me.

RPG Maker MV is the best version of the Makers so far, way more versatile than say VX or Ace. It's much easier to use than its predecessors.

Here's my secret; I don't even use RPG Maker to create an RPG. I find it's a fine engine for any kind of game that is based on 2D overworld sprites but isn't an action-battle system type game. Think Pokemon. I went a step further; I'm creating a visual novel with RPG Maker, which is totally possible. It's not the best engine for that (I recommend Visual Novel Maker), but honestly, with javascript available, I managed to beat the engine into doing what I wanted to achieve. I've got almost 3000 hours logged in (not even counting the hours from previous Makers). It's fun to work in RPG Maker, even as a hobby.

Honestly, if you're looking to create turned-based RPGs, RPG Maker MV is your engine. If you want to create a farming game like Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley - RPG Maker MV is STILL your engine. It's cheap, and the community builds upon the engine, which is awesome.

I don't regret ever getting involved with RPG Maker, even though I'm not even using it to create RPGs. It's a nice little engine that can do surprisingly complex things, if you put the effort into it.

I had zero expectations going into this game - but I was pleasantly surprised! The translation is fantastic (although if I see the word 'prostrate' one more time, I'm going to gag), and it really helped deliver the humour. The comedic timing of the voice actors is splendid, I especially enjoyed Saito's spluttering whenever something crazy happened.

There were many laugh out loud moments for me!

There's a free adult patch on the publisher's website. It's my first time playing an R-18 otome game. If you're expecting something traditionally otome elements, you're out of luck. This game does not strive for that 'doki-doki' feeling of being romanced by hot guys. Instead, it tries to make you laugh, and sometimes you get thrown into a random sex scene. The sex scenes are alright, although the CGs throw me for a loop because they can't keep a consistent face for the characters so they look different each time. The balloon breasts are also a pretty big turn off.

The voice acting is pretty good, for the guys. The MC screeches so much during the sex scenes though, it was like hearing nails on chalkboard for me. Thankfully you can mute individual voices.

Speaking of the MC, she's a pessimistic foreveralone gal, and easily misunderstands (with hilarious results) what people are saying. She keeps thinking Saito is part of the yakuza (gang members), so she keeps muttering stuff like "of course you'd know that, you have connections ..." and Saito is like "... Wait, what?" Easily some of the best moments!

The plot is ridiculous, but the entire thing is ridiculous, and Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome runs with it and tries to get you to laugh. I think there are multiple endings for each guy (plus a threesome ending), but I guess I got a pretty lackluster ending that made me go "Wtf, did I skip a couple of scenes? What's going on?" but the epilogue tied it up, thankfully.

10/10, would step on Miki again.