Magebuster: Amorous Augury (PC)

It certainly seems like developer Belgerum has a type. With Magebuster: Amorous Augury, they have produced their second game where the adult content primarily focuses on demonic domination, although their previous title Demon King Domination was much more blatant in stating its interest. However, whereas their previous game was pretty focused on that one type of fantasy, Magebuster: Amorous Augury manages to improve its content in many ways, broadening its appeal while still managing to put even more effort into its art and gameplay.

The setup for this erotic visual novel/RPG blend involves the young mage Sophia summoning the powerful demon Xarric with the aims of enslaving him to be her familiar. Before she can truly command him though, she must first best him in battle, but the mage, despite her immense magical potential, is inexperienced while the demon has previously defeated any mage who has summoned him, Sophia clearly in over her head. However, the outcome of the battle is entirely in the player’s hands, with there being endings where Xarric wins and endings where Sophia wins. With six paths total, the exact ending you get will be determined not just by how the battle ends, but by the dialogue choices the player makes along the way. The player assumes the role of Xarric in this exchange, and during brief discussions between different phases of the battle, the demon can choose to taunt Sophia, praise the young mage, or berate her efforts. These choices aren’t always so clear cut that they can be slotted into one of those three categories, but it is usually easy to tell which speech option will lead to which endings. Some choices aren’t as clear as others, but once you figure out that the three options usually align with other dialogue choices along the way, it’s not hard to begin figuring out which ones to pick for new outcomes.

While the dialogue choices are the most important part for determining your ending, you still have to fight the battles appropriately to earn them. Magebuster: Amorous Augury’s battle system actually involves some strategy to overcome, and while it won’t restrict you too much from reaching the endings where you win the fight, it can’t be treated lightly. In battle, Sophia and Xarric will both usually pull from the same set of attacks, these magic skills all having a set amount of time before they are cast. This is referred to as the Wait, and succeeding in battle is all about planning your spells around their Wait cost and trying to counter Sophia’s attacks by timing things well. You will always be able to see what Sophia’s next spell is and how long her current Wait is, with time freezing when it comes time for you to pick your next move. While both fighters have health bars that take some time to wear down, you can’t just brute force it with your best skills if you want to win. Sophia’s tactics change between phases of battle as well, some of her tactics involving a rotation of the same spells, countering your last move, or capitalizing on your Wait periods as much as possible. Figuring out her round strategy is vital to constructing your own, but the small amount of spells available keeps things from ever getting so difficult that a player could be frustrated by how hard it is to reach a certain ending.

You have five spells to work with in battle, with three of them serving as your means of attack. Fireball is the quickest magic of all to cast but is also your weakest spell, but its short cast time mean its perfect for slipping in some free damage when Sophia’s Wait time is long. Ice Shards is a stronger attack with more damage payoff, but your lightning magic is the real heavy hitter, the longest cast timer also coming with the most damage you can deal in one attack. While choosing your spells to outpace Sophia’s damage is pivotal, there are two more spells you both pack that add a bit more complexity to the damage race. A healing spell restores 12 HP when pulled off, which is double the amount of damage a Fireball can deal and, due to lightning’s long Wait time, if two healing spells can be pulled off in that span, then the healing basically invalidates the incoming electrical attack. However, there is one more spell that breaks the rules a little, the Shield spell casting first but then needing to burn out its Wait time before you can cast another spell. You are essentially invincible while the shield is up and even retain some defense after it is down, but the thunderbolt magic can break through the shield, meaning that a well timed strike with it is unblockable. While Sophia will get more powerful versions of her attacking spells on some ending routes, the battles are always focused on counterplay and using your limited skills intelligently. It could have been a great puzzle-like combat system if it was the game’s whole focus, but Magebuster: Amorous Augury keeps it as an entertaining means to an end, because those ends are the titillating content it is truly interested in.

The six different endings to Magebuster: Amorous Augury all bring something different from each other, with no two being too much alike. Equal amounts of effort and attention went into the different outcomes, ensuring that no matter what your particular tastes might be, if they do line up with an outcome, it should provide a satisfying and lengthy conclusion to the game. There are two endings focused on Sophia getting the upper-hand, the focus here being an inverse on the old focus of demonic domination as now the demon is the one being dominated. There are of course a few that cater towards Belgerum’s favored content, but even these come in different stripes, such as one where the Xarric drops his humanoid form for a more monstrous shape, one involving mental domination, and surprisingly one where a third previously unseen character ends up involved in the affairs. While these five all cater to very specific niches, there is a more traditional romantic route available for those looking for something not so focused on power dynamics, and it’s not too hard to reach this ending if it is the player’s desired route. What’s more, despite almost every ending having some malicious intent or aggression as part of the fantasy, Magebuster: Amorous Augury manages to make this romantic route believable within the context of the story.

Sophia and Xarric both have fairly malleable personalities based on the route you pick to pursue, but none of them really feel like they betray that route’s initial setup. Sophia begins as a headstrong mage who knows she’s biting off more than she can chew but is determined to make it work, and Xarric is equally haughty but aims to assert his power over this plucky upstart as part of an inherently evil nature. Still, he’s not so one-dimensional that he only cares about pain and suffering, with the opening establishing his more playful side as well as his curiosity in this unusually young summoner. If Sophia manages to get the upper-hand, the young mage’s ego balloons, leading to some sadistic or outright insane behavior for those endings. When Xarric wins though, it’s less about a change in his character and more about a lack of development. While they are hardly complex characters, the romantic route will lead to more being learned about the both of them as Xarric learns to be a bit more empathetic while still being mischievous and carnal to avoid an unbelievable character change. If you go for the domination endings instead though, his evil side ends up being emphasized instead. They’re characters with wiggle room personality-wise, so whatever sensual fantasy ends up your favorite, you can be sure it’s reached well enough.

When it does come time for the visual novel portions where you just click through to see the results of your battle, the art and audio are definitely on the right level of quality. Sophia does have a few strange images, but for the most part, the detail in the art is improved for these reward scenes. Animation is usually limited to screen-shaking, but there are enough images that characters can easily change poses and facial expressions to match the progression of events. While the demon was nothing more than his important bits in the previous title, Xarric’s body is full and present for this game, although Magebuster: Amorous Augury often chooses a camera angle for the action that either puts you in a first-person role so he’s only seen beside his text boxes when talking or it will put the camera in the best position to emphasize the game’s clear focus on Sophia. The art definitely works hardest to make Sophia look good, so if you do find her attractive, you won’t be let down. Perhaps just as important as the visuals though is the audio. Sophia’s voice actress Silkymilk puts in an excellent performance that sells any of the varied situations she might find herself in, and while Demon King Domination had some awkward audio logs that involved constant narration of action, the lengthy endings here instead give the voice actress natural ways to interact with the content. Whether she needs to be crazy, angry, or loving, Silkymilk adapts her voice to every scene well, and her work is partly why the romantic ending can even be downright cute at times. Belgerum as Xarric is an improvement on his old demonic voice, the demon having a bit more range but still playing into the more stereotypical deep demon voices media has come to make us expect, but he does fill his role well enough that it doesn’t distract from or weaken scenes. All dialogue in the game is fully voiced, with only bits of narration and some internal thoughts going unspoken, and with the music added on top to sell the different endings, Magebuster: Amorous Augury makes sure that its presentation is where it needs to be so players can enjoy the fantasies.

THE VERDICT:  Magebuster: Amorous Augury is a marked improvement over Belgerum’s previous game, the title aiming to cater to a wider variety of tastes with its titillating content.  Not only was the scope of the fantasies improved, but the art and audio are a step above Demon King Domination, with Silkymilk selling any situation Sophia finds herself in and the art featuring the right level of detail to allow players to enjoy the ending scenes they worked to get. The combat system offers an interesting path to the six finales, focused on counterplay and proper time management to succeed, but the endings are tied to dialogue choices to remove some ambiguity. True animation would definitely be the next step to improvement, but as a visual novel with adult content it delivers on what potential players would be looking for and provides an interesting interactive element that stimulates the brain just enough without preventing the player from reaching what they came for.

And so, I give Magebuster: Amorous Augury for PC…

A GOOD rating. Magebuster: Amorous Augury benefits from broadening its appeal while still keeping its focuses clear. The battle system definitely has the potential to be more complex and interesting if it was in a game whose focus was on the fighting, but for the time it lasts in this title, it makes getting to the endings fun and strategic enough that it’s not just a foregone conclusion while also not being a true barrier to the main attraction. Magebuster: Amorous Augury is about providing quality erotic content, so it makes sure the more detailed art during the endings is high quality and variable enough that it plays its part, and the voice talent plays their roles well no matter which scenario you end up with. The dialogue choices make it fairly easy to at least have some clue about the tone of the ending you’re heading towards, and options like multiple save slots and being able to skip previously seen content makes it easy to replay to pursue different outcomes.

Magebuster: Amorous Augury uses its structure and content about as well as it could, with any improvements likely requiring a significant upgrade to the game’s style. The visual novel/RPG mix works, but to include the next step in regards to things like animation would require retooling the game’s approach. More endings or art would be easy enough to suggest and they would inevitably make the game better, but those are more additions than improvements. If you are interested in one of the scenarios that Magebuster: Amorous Augury is serving up though, the game aims to please, and when it comes to an erotic video game, so long as it does please, it’s still doing its job right.