Era Game Series: EraAL-K

 The game eraAL-K is a parody doujin eroge of the game Azur Lane, putting you as the commander of a nation at war amongst others and competing for conquest of the world in a basic strategy game.

Now some people would ask why I chose EraAL-K instead of the more recommended EraToho-K, I chose the AL version as I found the sleepy setting and casual violence of Gensokyo to seem less good as a fit for an empire building game than the pseudo-WWII "Azure Lane" setting, which actually begs for that sort of gameplay. I give all respect to those that like eratoho-k, and I suspect that may be more thoroughly translated and have more features, but I made my choice and will live with it.

The game has many, many parts and gets very intimidating from all the possible options in it.

As with most era games there’s many untranslated parts, and sometimes, like the battle screen, it just seems like a wall of unreadable text flying by. What is translated is actually more than enough to get through, and you start to get a feel for the game.

The default game state seems to be that where you’re the military head working under the ruler, making fleet composition decisions and deciding their movement; there’s a map of fixed routes connecting the various locations which are shown as nodes.

You can perform diplomacy where you talk to other rulers, with a menu of options from out of a Civilization game(though more likely derived from old Koei strategy games) with the strange quirk in the “discuss” option to improve relations with the other nation you have two choices, give money or pleasure(sex).

You have the choice of who gives the “pleasure”(requiring a skill of 3 or above in sex) though for me that meant my character the commander. Funnily enough, you can go straight for vaginal sex with this option, even with a virgin ruler, even on a dangerous day, and you still get a boost to your reputation and a drop to the hostility score.

You could very well knock up an enemy ruler with your child.

 Oddly enough, AL-K’s girls seem positively blase about becoming pregnant, with little resistance at sex even on a dangerous day (I imagine the girls going “Finishing inside on a dangerous day? Hmm...maybe I won’t get pregnant. Go ahead, shoot it into me”) though the previously reviewed Toho-TW being ridiculously fastidious about avoiding pregnancy (unless you stumble upon them masturbating and they like you enough, where they’ll gladly accept your help in acheiving sexual release in a horny haze, regardless of whether it’s a safe or dangerous day).

I don’t want to dwell too much on the strategy screen, as there are a lot of untranslated parts and parts that I just didn’t understand.

Events and special factions that pop up can have huge effects on characters, a ship-girl abducted by the sirens will invariably become sexually molested and drugged, and I’m not sure if there is a way to bring a character back from this state or not.

Most events give you several options, such as going to a banquet or fancy party, and depending on if you go yourself or if you send someone else, and what choices you make there determines what happens. It seems that sending one of your girls leaves a large chance that she’ll be molested, and going yourself tends to have positive reactions with various girls, with the occasional opportunity to force yourself upon someone.

Your fleet isn’t totally safe, as various events can come around where a girl can be abducted and molested; this comes in various flavors as there are several factions that can do this(with those untranslated seemingly not working), the main minor faction being the Sirens from Azur Lane. 

There’s the interact command, where you go to a screen and talk with the girls to raise their affection until they become willing to have sex with you, via the era sex menu.

You can even interact with imprisoned characters that you captured or chose to throw into prison, and there you can force yourself upon them, though since you can persuade prisoners to join your side I chose that option. 

You can have characters perform labor to raise their stats and earn money, appoint an entertainer to refresh your stamina after each action, sneak into other factions’ girl’s beds with help with your own, visit other nations and interact with have a chat with one of the characters over there (they rarely may offer you a place in their nation and for you to leave yours), and just heaps and heaps to do.

At this point I feel I should just stop describing the sheer number of things you can do in the game; as there’s a lot, and a lot that I don’t understand. 

The thing is even overwhelmed by the mass of options and confusion about what effect is what from the sheer number of moving parts and partial translation, I still liked the game and can recommend it. 

There’s a lot here, and if you can wrap your head around how to play and get some momentum in the game, you’ll have a good time playing it. The game does start to drag when you get further in, and I kept finding myself subjected to revolt after revolt (I’m probably missing something about how to avoid that), and I’ve yet to conquer the globe, but I still enjoy this game with its baffling complexity and obtuse design.

Game info

eraAL-K

Circle: ???

Release date: ???

Useful links

Era games wiki