Overview – developed by Felistella, Idea Factory and Compile Heart with publishing handled by Eastasiasoft, Seven Pirates H is the latest entry in the Genkai Tokki series that has made the jump to HD. Take on an adventure on the waters of the Monsupi Sea, encountering cute monster girls, H monsters and much more while on the hunt for great treasures, with fanservice and lewd humor throughout. This title is available exclusively for the Nintendo Switch, with a link to the game at the bottom of this review.
Disclaimer: before I get into the review, I would like to thank Eastasiasoft for providing the copy of Seven Pirates H that was used for this piece. The provision of this software has not influenced the contents of this review, all thoughts and opinions contained within are my own.
Mature Content Warning: this title is intended for mature audiences, with suggestive and sexualized content, including interactive “intimacy” modes where the player can touch the characters in sexualized ways. If you are under the recommended age for this release, or if you are uncomfortable with the content that is listed above, please proceed at your own discretion.
Now with the introductions out of the way, let’s get into the review, starting with the story (taken from the Eastasiasoft website). Please note that I will only be covering the core mechanics of the gameplay, this is to prevent spoiling any of the surprises that occur during the course of the game.
Story – Join young pirate Parute Kairi and pervy boy monster Otton in an adventure to locate the lost treasures of the Monsupi Sea! Determined to make a legendary name for herself, Parute sets sail with a magic compass and the aid of newfound monster girl companions, but what starts as a raucous romp across uncharted islands gradually reveals something more sinister. Through their colorful encounters with rival pirates and locals in need, Parute and company learn some unsettling truths about the king who governs these waters, all leading to a confrontation that could tear their adorable crew apart!
Gameplay – Seven Pirates H is a dungeon crawling JRPG, where the player is a human pirate captain who recruits monster girls to their crew, on the hunt for treasure across areas of the Monsupi Sea. The player will sail across the waters of this mysterious sea, encountering dungeons that must be explored, events that push the narrative forward and characters that may just become friends with the crew. I will be breaking down the information here into sub sections, starting with the exploration.
Exploration: this is what makes up most of the gameplay for this release, with the player exploring both the high seas and the locations that populate it. This is split into two distinct styles, the overworld map where the crew sails their ship in a top down perspective, with clouds obscuring parts of the map. New areas will be opened up by obtaining parts of a map, which can be found in dungeons or by completing certain tasks.
When the party disembarks at an explorable location, the perspective shifts to third person with the party leader roaming the dungeon area of each zone starting at the exit. While in these areas, enemies will spawn that the player can choose to battle or avoid while moving through each area. There are also treasure chests that can be found while exploring, with varying rewards inside that will aid the player in their task, either by providing consumables or key/resource items.
As well as the treasure chests there are harvest points, where resource items can be collected and used for various purposes (detailed further down). A dungeon area will also have different paths that can lead to new areas, some with secrets to be found and others may be dead ends, so exploring everywhere is important. The dungeons can even be broken up into different zones, each containing more treasures and resources to harvest that the player can move between.
Last to discuss are the compass and events, two mechanics that are used to push the narrative forward. The compass will lead the player to the treasures that need to be collected to push the narrative forward, leading to event markers in that area. These events are mandatory and will initiate a dialogue scene between characters, resulting in more plot details and sometimes a battle. There are also markers that appear in the overworld map, with some being optional side events.
Combat Encounters: as mentioned above, enemy H monsters will spawn in the dungeon zones that the player can battle. There are three ways that battle can be initiated, if head on contact is made the battle occurs as normal, if the player makes contact from behind they get an advantage, but if the enemy does it they get an advantage. When combat begins, the order that each combatant makes their turn will be influenced by their agility score, with higher values for better priority.
The combat uses a three color element system called pheromones, with a paper, scissors, and rock style weakness/resistance mechanic. There are red, blue and green pheromones, with a single color type applied to each character and monster in the game. The system is similar to other RPG games, with a good comparison being the basic starters from Pokémon, with red as fire, blue as water and green as grass, since they are very similar in function.
Effective use of the pheromone system can be the key to success in battle, as the enemies can also use the system against the player. When the crew members each make their turn in battle they all have access to the same actions in combat, here is a breakdown of the basics of battle;
- Attack – the basic attack where characters will attack foes with their weapon, dealing physical damage to their enemies, with the potential for an extra attack to occur if there is more than one enemy in the battle.
- Skills – each character can use skills to defeat enemies, using MP (Mura-Mura points) to activate these special abilities. There are also support skills that can aid the party in combat, with restorative skills, buffs to strengthen other characters and even negative effects that can be applied to enemies. MP is increased by dealing/receiving damage and through the use of items.
- Excitement – when the MP meter goes past 100 for a character, they will become excited, increasing their attack, defense and agility scores, continuing as long as the meter stays above that level.
- Arousal – When the MP meter is maxed out, the character enters an arousal state, giving much higher stat boosts and nullifying any negative effects, while providing access to an ultimate attack. However, if the player does not clear the battle within a set amount of turns, the state will end with that character becoming sedated and unable to fight again for a while.
- Item – use an item in battle, with support items that can restore health, give MP points and even revive fallen party members. Items can also be used outside of battle to prepare for bosses and more difficult combat encounters.
- Defend – the character skips their turn and guards, reducing damage taken during the next enemy turn. This is useful when trying to increase the MP meter for a specific character in the party.
- Run – the easiest action to understand, the character will attempt to flee battle, with higher agility scores providing a better chance of escaping danger.
During story events, there will be bosses that can’t be defeated by traditional attacks and will only be stunned when their health hits zero, which means the player has to use the Otton Cannon to finish them off. This special move is activated in combat by interacting with the chests of the girls, with touching and action increasing the meter with this only lasting a few seconds. Once the meter is full the attack will activate, dealing massive damage to the target.
When the enemies are defeated, they will often drop treasure as rewards for clearing the battle, as well as gold and H Extract which acts as experience points. When players gain specific amounts of H extract, they will earn Training Extract, a special material that is used to level up the party members (detailed further below). When a character is leveled up, they will get boosts to all stats and can unlock new skills that will be useful in later battles.
Character Development: the player is able to increase the strength and skills of their party through the use of training Extracts earned in battle. The mode that this is used in is called Booby training, an interactive intimacy mini game where the player is able to manipulate their characters breasts to enhance different qualities. This can include making them bigger to increase attack, reducing their size to make them faster and making them softer to increase total defense.
When one of the party member’s stats reaches a specific milestone, they will unlock a new ability that they can use in battle, further strengthening the crew on their adventure. Even though booby training is the only way to level up the party, it is not the only way to augment the stats/abilities of the characters. Underwear can be obtained during the course of the game, separated into bras and panties with some being specific to a single character, whereas the majority for everyone.
The underwear serves two functions, with the bras providing special passive skills for the equipped character, alongside the panties that provide increases to attack, defense and agility. This equipment can be obtained while in dungeons from chests, or by trading resources to craft them from the merchants in the game. These merchants are called Booby Kin, cute little monkey like monsters that join the crew over time and live on the ship.
The Ship: on that subject, the ship is the home of the Booby Kin who offer a few different services as part of the pirate crew. Starting out there are only a few that fit the different roles of the ship, with more joining the crew as they are “rescued” as treasure drops and from the overworld map while exploring the sea. They can provide info on treasures, enemies and secrets, as well as giving quests to gain rewards and progress the story, while also being the merchants for the crafting and store.
The ship also has the gallery as part of it, with the ability to view event art, backgrounds and listen to music that has been unlocked during the game. There is also a dungeon guide, that shows where specific monsters are located, a bestiary that gives details of their rewards, pheromones and a model to display them. These details are also viewable while in the dungeon, but the ship is the best place to use them as they can allow better planning for requests.
Now that is the core of the gameplay that I will be covering, due to there being many surprises that I don’t want to spoil for those who want to check this title out for themselves. So with that said, let’s move onto the other aspects of the game, starting with the controls.
Controls – the control system for this title works well, with the thumbsticks controlling character movement and camera, the d-pad/shoulders controlling menu navigation and the face buttons used for functions. The touch screen is implemented here for the intimacy modes, where the player can touch the girls for Booby Training or the Otton Canon, with a good amount of sensitivity. However, there are standard controller inputs that work relatively well when connected to the switch dock, allowing it to be enjoyed comfortably in all modes.
Difficulty – this title is one of the easier dungeon crawlers to start playing, as enemies are plenty and provide H Extract in abundance at the start, but as each Extract is earned their yield lessens. This makes the challenge a grind if players choose to stay in the early areas, but if players want to try and ease the experience. The pheromone system does make the game a little more challenging, as players must decide which crew members to deploy in each dungeons and against bosses.
Presentation – the visual style for this game has a fanservice heavy element to it, with most girls having a risqué look to them and the majority of H Monsters having a comedic yet suggestive design. The environments are creative, with the beach, cave and ghost ship zones featured early in the game fitting the pirate theme well. The battle animations and event scenes are animated well, with creative set pieces for special arousal skills, as well as the art used for special events.
The music for this release is well designed, with a soundtrack that reinforces the pirate motif, like the breezy melody of the forest of purity and the pirate parade style overworld theme. The battle themes have a heavier feel to them, with the use of rock style guitar, pounding drums and a choir to add impact. The game only has a Japanese voice track, with excellent performances from the games cast, with the heavy use of suggestive sounds that further add to the fanservice on show in this title.
Final Thoughts – I enjoyed my time playing Seven Pirates H, with the unique mechanics and charming characters that each brought unique character traits to the narrative. The fanservice elements were fun, with the unique mechanics being used for both suggestive and comedic purposes, which made the experience more engaging and entertaining. The characters each have their own charm and there is a lot of content on offer, with the request missions and side story events adding to the value.
I am more than happy to recommend this title to fans of JRPGs and fanservice centric games, there is a good balance between the combat, exploration and booby centric mechanics. The teams at Idea Factory, Compile Heart and Felistella have created another excellent JRPG, with hours of content to get sunk into and it is balanced very well. If you have played games like Moero Crystal/Chronicle, Dragon Star Varnir or the Neptunia series then this will be perfect for you.
In the end, I give Seven Pirates H a final score of 5/5. This title is a fanservice filled romp that has a charming cast of characters, a fun story that is both engaging and entertaining, exploration/combat that flows at a steady pace and unique gameplay mechanics that make the title unique. If you want to check this title out for yourself, a link to the game will be below, with an affiliate link for the physical to help support the site.
Link to Nintendo Switch version (HERE)
Link to Affiliate Physical version (HERE)
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