"Within the labyrinth, one may find the truth."
The city-state of Carnas prospers, founded on a rich, thriving culture of magic. Unbeknownst to its inhabitants, relics of a bygone era lie hidden beneath their feet.
In Carnas, machinery is seen as an affront to the sacred art of magic. But when individuals capable of manipulating mechanical wonders begin to emerge, they upset the city's magical balance, causing disquiet and unrest, particularly among the ruling class.
Two ideologies, tangible and esoteric, coexist in a city where magic once held unrivaled supremacy. As tension simmers beneath the surface, the gears of destiny begin to turn.
A daring young adventurer, driven by insatiable curiosity, braves the ruins beneath Carnas. And if the legends hold true, the secrets of this enigmatic underworld await his discovery...
Evoking classic JRPGs with intense combat and immersive top-down exploration, Gears of Dragoon: Fragments of a New Era is Ninetail's magnum opus, celebrating their 10th anniversary.
Spoiler:
Gameplay Trailer & Story
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STORY
Welcome to the enchanting city-state of Carnas, a realm steeped in arcane wonders, governed by skilled magic users. Yet, beneath its cobblestone streets and towering spires lies an unexpected contrast—the Dragonschaft, a labyrinth filled with forgotten technology and mechanical mysteries. This underworld, teeming with monstrous creatures and remnants of an extinct machine-driven civilization, waits silently beneath the bustling life of Carnas.
Meet Rustar, a young adventurer imbued with curiosity. Bearing his father’s final words and a unique talent—the mastery of both magic and machinery—Rustar dares to venture into the depths of the Dragonschaft. His journey takes an unexpected turn when Persy, a fiery young woman wielding an ancient artifact, crosses his path.
With their destinies intertwined, Rustar and Persy delve deeper into the Dragonschaft. The resurgence of a mechanical civilization within its depths disrupts the magical balance Carnas has maintained for centuries. As echoes of a forgotten era stir, so too do the ancient gears of fate, thrusting our heroes into a quest that will forever alter their lives and the course of Carnas.
Prepare for an epic journey in 'Gears of Dragoon: Fragments of a New Era'. Challenge the labyrinth, unlock the secrets of the past, and shape the future of Carnas.
[v1.05] Pretty mid. I mean, the production value is there, and it's certainly better than a lot of indie works by virtue of being a professional production from an established studio. That said, the gameplay is just not as interesting as it could have been. Too bad, since gameplay eroges are exceedingly rare. It's just too repetitive and potentially grindy (the unfun kind of grindy which tends to be mindless). It's quite unfriendly to the user too. The stages are a maze where you have to run around all over the place with random encounters (the rate is too high). Good luck if your Thieves Guild lvl isn't up to par and you have to actually run blindly until you stumble upon the map of the floor. The character skill/equipment building does have some potential, but it's rather bland in practice. I didn't really feel like there was novel builds you could do or great synergies to discover. Take this with a grain of salt though. I did not complete the game. It failed to grip me enough to make me continue, especially since I was in it only for the gameplay (can't fap to vanilla). That said, the story up to the point where I quit was well written, and the characters were endearing. It's a bit cliche as anime typically are, but it should be interesting enough for people who like that sort of thing.
Eggyfish2023-11-01★★★★★
Interesting story and very nice h scenes. Translation is great. Gameplay is fun, but as with most ninetail games the UI is pretty bad. But it's important to remember that this game may only have just been translated it is still quite old. And it is also an ero RPG, where design priorities lie elsewhere then polish.
PeanutbutterJoe2023-10-25★★★★★
Damn, this game sucks. Here's why : Everything about this game screams mediocrity, the combat system is okay'ish. It's not terrible but not exactly fun either, the UI fucking sucks. It's clunky and badly implemented, for example to upgrade your gear or socket stones you have to unequip the stuff to be able to put it in the upgrade window. Which is annoying as hell, I completely stopped bothering with that crap after a little bit and simply use the gear that I find without upgrading it manually. The story is actually the only good thing about this game, it has me curious enough to make me want to know more, that is actually the only reason I'm even bothering to keep on playing. I'm playing a couple of hours every day and I think I'm somewhere around 2/3 through the game by now. The characters are.....well...it's weird. They're not bad actually, the problem is I just can't give a fuck about any of them because there is no buildup with any of them, not enough screen time. It feels like they just drop the charaters on you, give you a rough outline of their character trope and motivations and then you only get to see a scene or two or generally interact with them every 2-3 hours after slogging through a boring dungeon with mediocre combat. I can't fap to this, I literally didn't pop a boner yet throughout the entire game so far, and despite being an NTR hater I didn't even give a shit when the girls got raped by tentacles / dogs / monsters / enemies because I simply can't care about any of them. The sex scenes themselves are pretty boring too, for starters the "normal" routes with the girls are vanilla as fuck, it's basically shove your dick in there and they go like "Ohhh, ahhhh, I love you so much, yes fuck me harder etc. blah blah." Yeah, sure girl, we get it. All the fun stuff like BDSM / corruption / tentacles etc only happens if you intentionally loose certain battles. And then what you get is pretty much 1 static image with a handful of sentences and a little variation of said 1 image at the end where they edit in a few cumstains and a different expression. That's it. All in all, the game isn't complete crap but it's not really fun either. It kinda just exists for me, which kinda sucks since I absolutely love this devs Venusblood series for it's darker themes and strong characters. Here, all of that is missing, it's shallow. If this is their 10th anniversary game, they sure as hell didn't give enough fucks to actually bother making it work.
★★★★★(3)
