Axugaem2: Official Post (Ver: 0.8.3) - Catacombs and Catgirls Update

Use the training sim item at any point after completing the segment with Kira in Grunk Forest, then select debug options.

I just found a bug. When I enter the tent, I’m entirely softlocked after the dialog with evelyn(after purchasing clothes).

Can’t enter the menu, or move within the tent. Claire is facing up and I can’t do anything at all.

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I’ve been a lurker here for years, thought I would join and make a few reviews on the wonderful games on this site.

Let me begin by saying WOW! What an amazing game you have created here. And I do mean game. As I believe this is the only game I have encountered on this site where I would still be genuinely interested in playing, with or without the fetish content. The characters are great, the story and world are interesting, the rpg elements solid. The WG content is just flavor at this point, although very good flavor when it shows up. Overall, I have good things to say, end of review.

If you want some specifics, let me run down a list of various game elements and my thoughts.

Story: A mission to discover your lost memories is always a solid rpg story premise. This is because there’s little player to character disconnect. The player knows just as much as our game character knows, and it encourages exploring the game world and completing character side quests. Writing overall is excellent, and can be genuinely heartfelt. The humor isn’t always the laugh out loud like Some Bullshit, it’s meant to be more charming and relatable without sacrificing it’s integrity. I’ve never cringed from the writing, only based.

World: Detailed and fantastic! I’m actually genuinely interested in the lore and backstory of this world, which is all in sync. You’ll hear people from one side of the map reference people and locations from another. Different groups of people interact differently with others. Some are at war, some are allies, some are business partners. There’s no isolated groups who never interact with one another. Overall, the world is very cohesive and I never felt as if certain areas were out of place.

Levels: I cannot praise the level design enough! Folks, this is how you create RPG Maker maps. Towns aren’t empty acres of flat green grass with 3 buildings, hallways aren’t 20 feet wide, inns aren’t warehouses with a twin bed in the corner. All the maps are correctly sized, beautifully detailed, purposeful, populated, and multi-storied. But most importantly; unique. There’s an obvious difference in design, mood, and tone from location to location, aided by the use of filters and sound design. Del Nyan feels touristy and tropical, Blightwood feels war scared, Capital City feels crowded and industrial. In most RPG Maker games I feel lost because everything looks the same. In this game I feel lost because that particular map was designed to make you feel lost.

Quests: Good and usually straightforward. While of course you have the typical fetch quests, they encourage you to explore the locations they are relative too. As the game progresses, the quests become less quantity and more quality. Blightwood was the longest area for me to complete and its decisions and quests were the most entertaining for me. I do see more potential in the types of quests that can be created with as much detail as the rest of the world.

Enemies: The enemy types for you to combat are great. You have a good mix of humanoid and non-humanoid enemy types to combat. I enjoy how enemy types are dependent on the location and have different death and attack effects that make sense to who and what they are. I never questioned why a certain enemy was in a certain area or why they attacked a certain way. Much like the rest of this game, they are well thought out and cohesive. That being said, holy shit I HATE RANDOM ENCOUNTERS sometimes. The most frustrating section was the ice/water temple because I had to backtrack often, but was constantly getting interrupted by random encounters. I understand their importance, though I would like a quest or item to reduce their frequency.

Art: One of the few RPG Maker games on this site that comes equipped with a full high quality art set for characters and scenes. I will admit that I haven’t given Axlwisp the fullest credit in the past for their art. Not because I dislike it, but because their hand drawn rustic style gets buried in the pile of brightly colored digital art many others mass produce. But their art is beautiful and fits perfectly in the style of the rest of this game.

Characters: I’ll make a list.

Claire: Claire is the dorky, hippie, caring, but little bit confused protagonist. While I think Claire is a lovable character, “player-character syndrome” holds her back. Basically, I feel like Axlwisp naturally makes her more neutral so she could fit into the player’s decisions. It wouldn’t make sense to write a super pacifist character then have the player always choose the most violent options.

Abby: One of my favorites. I love her give no shits attitude but in a way that is energetic and productive. She’s ready for anything, and will accomplish a task in the most direct way possible. Yet she’s absolutely adorable, especially her cat-like antics and distaste for boredom.

Carrie: I don’t have enough exposure to form a solid opinion. Based on what I’ve seen and other characters’ comments, she appears to be a genuinely good friend who dove head first into what she thought was right, misguided or not.

Lani: I didn’t choose Lani in my playthrough, but based on what I’ve seen she shares characteristics with Carrie. I do love her obsession with pie, go-getter attitude and unfiltered speech.

Linda: She seems fucking crazy, and I like it. Her transitions from pure and sweet to demonic beast are just as entertaining as they are threatening. The perfect friend.

Cross: I’m fucking in love with this guy and his speech. He’s chivalry in its purest form, but it’s constantly at odds with the vile of those around him. His struggles between his rank, morals, responsibilities, and those around him are as funny as they are genuine.

Clark: You can’t have a proper story about big chicks without a skinny white guy. Well, skeleton, close enough. While I don’t find Clark to be the most interesting character, his relationships and loyalty to his friends is admirable.

Nell: One of my favorites. She was my choice during the Grok quest. I picked her because I like the idea of siding with bad guys who aren’t as bad as the BADDER guys. While I could see why some won’t like her, I always liked Nell’s cruel displays of strength. But she’s definitely an acquired taste. As the game progresses, you slowly warm up to Nell as she reveals more things to you. Which culminates into the bombshell backstory she drops if choose to date her after Capital Bridge which made me love her.

Evelyn: My choice in the Blightwood quest. Choosing between big booba and a literal air fryer was very difficult. I love her erratic mind and quirkiness. She seems to know exactly what she’s doing and has absolutely no idea what she’s doing at the same time. I didn’t even realize she had a tail because I was looking somewhere else…

Vespa: I actually hated Vespa at first, I mean, she literally tried to ENSLAVE us but then we just welcomed her aboard? She’s not intimidating or particularly useful. While I’ve warmed up to her through her interactions with Leslie, I rarely see a reason to use her over Nell.

SPEEDRUN

Kortis: The GOAT, TOP 5.

Arciella: Are those leeches?

Ashely: Goth gf, goth gf, goth gf…

Caldryn: A fucking tea kettle.

Thaddeus: Bro got me DEAD.

Kira: Dumbass, but she’s MY dumbass.

Pandara: Hi, can I get an iced coffee with breast mil-

Avarice: The quiet kid in school.

Charon: Drives a lifted Dodge Ram.

Maddie: She’s 18 right?

Vexus: Will, It’s not your fault…

Vico: Wait, you’re a guy?

Siraly: Who’s the father?

Jimi: My Master.

Karen: Devour me…

Look, fetish shit aside, this is an awesome game. And I look forward to more of it!

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Fast question, I haven’t played for about a year or two and was wandering if Claire ever got to permanently put on weight?

Thanks for reporting this. The tent softlock bug has happened to quite a few people and is something I’m going to attempt to fix as soon as possible by putting out a bugfix patch, so stay tuned for that!

It’s currently not possible, but it may be in a future update. At the moment though, implementing a weight gain system for Claire would just involve way too much work, but I’ll be adding as much stuffing (and temporary weight gain) content for her as possible in the meantime!

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Checking in and being greeted with a massive, thoughtful comment like this always makes my day. Thank you so much for playing, enjoying, and sharing your thoughts about the game! I’ll try to take some of the suggestions you’ve made here to heart (particularly regarding an item to reduce the enemy encounter rate, since I think a LOT of people would appreciate that.)

I’ve reread your review a few times to make sure I got it all, and I just want to say that I’m really, really happy that you like it as a game and for its characters and lore! I obsess a lot over balancing the game and making it an enjoyable/memorable experience, so getting this kind of feedback means a lot!
I won’t get too in-depth since for the most part I’m just humbled by how nice your review is, but I will say this: if you haven’t played Axugaem1 yet, give it a try! It’s very different from Axu2 in a bunch of areas (it’s less serious, less well-balanced, less original and less cohesive, plus the random encounters are more common, which can be a pain), but it does function as a pseudo-prequel to Axu2 in that it gives you a little more background on certain characters like Claire, Carrie, Kira and Lilith (and Kira’s sister.) So if playing Axu2 got you interested in these characters, I’d say Axu1 is worth a playthrough.

In conclusion, thank you again for the robust review, yes Maddie’s 18, and no they aren’t leeches #justiceforarciella :fist:

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I might have misdiagnosed. It’s happening more after you start investigating with abby

Do you know how to get the full screen version of the game? Its coming out as like a tiny window to me.

There is a key to put the game on fullscreen, but I don’t like it as my screen is too wide and it gives me two big black bars on the sides of the game.

Instead I use this app, that lets you maximize a screen and change it’s size:

http://www.airesoft.co.uk/windowwatcher

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just wondering before I go and play this, does it also contain male wg? because it’s tagged male but i don’t see anything in any of the screenshots

There isn’t as much male content, but it’s there. Here’s a quick primer for those who are specifically looking for it.

  1. You’ll want to choose Lani at the start of the game and not Nell. The only male party member with fetish content is Cedric, who you can only recruit if you chose Lani earlier.

  2. You’ll have to progress a fair ways through the story to be able to get to the Cedric WG content. You’ll need Cross in the party (permanently). You’ll also need a high approval rating with Cedric, which you can achieve by making decisions he’d agree with and chatting him up/doing jobs for him in the tent.

  3. Once you have Cross and 75+ approval with Cedric go to Costa Del Nyan and find the whirlwind spot at the bottom right of the Residential Area map (there’ll be a house halfway on-screen in the bottom right corner that you won’t be able to reach until you can use the whirlwind). You’ll end up in Renee’s Cafe, where you can set the proprietor up with Cedric and feed him tea biscuits until he gains weight (there’ll be more content for this pairing coming in a future update!)

  4. Aside from Cedric, there’s also an innkeeper in Old Nyaren named Leo who you can feed a bunch of Oppho fruit to if you encourage him not to lose weight when he brings it up.

  5. This isn’t weight gain content, but if you choose Lani at the start of the game, you’ll have the opportunity during a long cutscene much later in the story to be smuggled out of a dinner party in a male character’s stomach!

  6. Finally, if you manage to recruit Elmira (an optional character who you can work toward recruiting by talking to the blonde in the Crabshoot Bay Inn while Abby is in the party), her Adipomancy skill can be used to trigger visible weight gain in certain male enemies such as the Incubus trackers, gremlins, and male melkai.

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How do i ally with the fire insteae of the angels?

I move upwards in the tent now, but after that I remain stuck. I decided to go in the debugging room and reduce Abby’s approval rating by 10 (94 to 84) and that seemed to fix the problem for me.

Go as far left through Blightwood as you can, until you reach the far side of the scab. There, a fire elemental (large animated fire) will be guarding some train tracks out of the map. Talk to them and they’ll move aside. Proceed along the tracks and into the next map, where the rest should be easy to figure out!

Thank you for reporting this, as well as what fixed it! I’ll look into this issue with an eye for what you mentioned here and hopefully and have it fixed as soon as possible.

There’s a box with a password in the first cave of thundercrag. I can’t manage to find the password of said box, and while I have a feeling that it has something to do with the diaries left behind by the explorers that explored thundercrag, I can’t find the first book, and I’m not sure if it would even solve the puzzle.

Are we supposed to be able to solve it right now?

I found another thing. I noticed that almost all of the characters are capped at level 30, but Elmira seems continue past that. Idk by how much though, last I got her to was level 42.

That’s honestly a coincidence, and more of one than intended! The code for the box is elsewhere in the Thundercrag, but it doesn’t have anything to do with the books, which were added to the game much more recently! (I’d check the walls around the outside portion of the mountain for a clue as to the lockbox password.)

That’s something I can fix in future updates! The level cap is merely a consequence of me never ever leveling up my party that much when testing, so it’s something I just haven’t thought about a ton. I don’t see a reason why I wouldn’t be able to raise it eventually though!

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