Game Review: The Alchemist & His Battle-Scarred Homunculus

By Manuel

Players: 1
Platforms: PC (Steam)

It's been a while since we've reviewed a game published by MangaGamer, and I for one am glad to see that streak be broken. The Alchemist & His Battle-Scarred Homunculus is an 18+ visual novel developed by Waffle (The team behind the Funbag Fantasy series.) that's out now on Steam. It originally released in Japan back in 2022, and it's now available in English, and fully uncensored, by way of the aforementioned MangaGamer. We're going to be taking a look at it today of course, though I will be careful in keeping this review as all-ages as possible. That said, this is a review for an adults-only game, so discretion is advised. With that out of the way, let's dive in!

The Alchemist & His Battle-Scarred Homunculus places you into the role of Rakels, an alchemist with a troubled past. When we first meet him, he's sickly and doesn't like being around people. He's not just anti-social, he gets physically ill whenever he's around most anyone. He lives alone on the outskirts of his home village, and has essentially cast himself out of their circle due to guilt over his past actions. Several years before he was a Royal Alchemist who lived in The Capital. He worked for The King himself, and even had another close alchemist friend. His alchemical work eventually allowed him to create life, as he developed a way to produce homunculi that could live outside of a flask. These homunculi were very human-like, but were bound to their masters through the very magic that created them. These homunculi were meant to enrich the lives of the people, but Rakels' friend had other ideas. This "friend" schemed with The King to use homunculi in war, a war that would expand their Kingdom’s territory. Rakels spoke out against this, and only received banishment for all of his troubles. The next few years saw homunculi sent off to fight a viscous war, and they lived their lives as no more than slaves. Hardship spread throughout The Kingdom, as the common folk were taxed heavily to maintain this ongoing war. The war eventually ended, but none of the goals of either side were truly met. Homunculi were now hated throughout The Kingdom for causing all of the trouble in the first, and Rakels now felt like he had only made the world worse by creating the homunculi in the first place.

Rakels would then return home, and bury his secret deep within him. Though no one knew that he had a hand in creating the current troubles, his inner conscience made him think that everyone was constantly judging him. In reality, the only one judging him was himself. He lived quietly, and made ends meet by selling medicine to the village's sole General Store. This General Store was owned by the only person he considers a friend, Arlen. One day while foraging for supplies, he happens across a garbage pit in the forest. Within the heaps of garbage he finds a discarded homunculus that was scarred and dressed on in rags. This homunculus was female, and bore a resemblance to the very first one he created. She was also barely clinging to life, so he decides to nurse her back to health. Thus begins Rakels' long road to redemption.

That may have been a long winded intro just to get into the main story, but it goes to show how deep the story of The Alchemist & His Battle-Scarred Homunculus truly is. At its heart, it's a tale of two characters: Rakels, and the homunculus named Mel. His desire to help her may have been driven by guilt at first, but he begins to care for her far more deeply than that over time. She eventually reveals that she was used as a tool of war, and was discarded after her usefulness had run its course. Though her past was as dark as they come, her true hope has always been to make people smile. She works hard to please Rakels, though he simply wants for her to be independent. While their relationship grows, Mel also befriends some of the village children. These children live tough lives too, and they mostly circle around Arlen's son, Miles. Miles and the other children come to look at Mel as a beam of hope in the otherwise dark times, and Rakels finds that his status among the village has risen now that Mel has made herself a staple in their lives. Though this does slowly reverse the guilt and anxiety that ravage Rakels, a specter constantly looms over their happiness. Homunculi are not loved in this world, and he fears that Mel's true nature will one day be revealed. All homunculi are marked by the elixir that gives them life, and though he does his best to hide Mel's mark, it's only a matter of time before her secret becomes known. What seemed so simple at first only gets more complicated as Rakels and Mel begin to fall in love. Their happiness is constantly at risk, though he resolves to do anything for her. That's pretty much where I'll leave the plot description, as I think it's best experienced directly. Suffice it to say that I've barely scratched the surface here. This is a tale that deals with redemption, love, trust, and a desire to pursue one's dreams. Quite heavy topics for an eroge, don't you think?

Simply put, this was not the type of story I was expecting when I learned that this was developed by the same team that created the Funbag Fantasy series. Instead of a silly, sex-driven romp, we get a somber tale that doesn't exactly seem like it would lead to a lot of 18+ scenes. Usually games with stories as dark as this one has stay dark. As in they cover harsh subject matter, and can be quite off-putting due to the depths the story goes. On the other hand, The Alchemist & His Battle-Scarred Homunculus is a slice-of-life journey through Mel and Rakels' relationship. It's a heavy story, but it also is one of hope. We watch our two heroes grow, and you even have a hand in guiding them on their journey. I won't go too far into the specifics, but there are several choices to be made within the game that shift the narrative a bit. Some of these choices only change a bit of dialogue here and there, but others steer the plot towards one of the game's endings. You can choose to help Rakels in recovering from his debilitating anxiety, or you can lean even more into it. This doesn't completely alter the course of the smaller events that happen throughout the game, but it does have an effect on pretty much the second half of the story. Admittedly, none of this is particularly noteworthy in these types of games, but I felt the need to emphasize that this isn't a kinetic novel. There are no hidden love meters or anything like that, but your choices in-game do carry some weight.

Though this obviously isn't going to be a game for everyone, its plot really drew me in. I went through my first playthrough in a handful of sessions, and the only reason I didn't marathon it was because I needed time in-between to absorb the story as it unfolded. There were just so many emotions at play that I needed time to relax between some scenes. Not just because of the subject matter being addressed, but also because of the occasional tonal whiplash that was brought about whenever an 18+ scene would occur. Thankfully the plot really overshadowed those scenes for me, but I'm also the kind of person who plays these sorts of games for their plot, and we get a really good one here. I don't want to make it sound like this is Shakespeare level writing, but it does feel like it goes above and beyond what you get in most eroge titles. Then again, a lot of you probably came here specifically for the 18+ content, so let's move on to discussing those next.

This is obviously an eroge first and foremost, so it makes sense that it would have plenty of 18+ scenes. Even though I'm the type of person to skip through a bunch of them (Yeah, I know!), I'd be remiss to leave them out of the review entirely. One thing The Alchemist & His Battle-Scarred Homunculus has going for it is that it is available completely uncensored on Steam. There is no need to dig around the internet for a patch, you get all the 18+ content right away as soon as you purchase it. Also, like most modern eroge titles, the 18+ scenes are sort of blocked off in a way that the game can be enjoyed without ever seeing them. I'm not sure if the scenes are written this way so they can potentially be edited out for all-ages versions, or if it just makes them easier to file in the gallery, but they mostly act as plot extras. Some games integrate their 18+ scenes fully, but this goes the route of "Oh yeah, and then we had sex!" type of scenes instead. Part of me wishes there was a way to self-censor the game, but I'm sure that would only annoy potential buyers. Let's circle back to the topic. The 18+ scenes are all fully voiced, have cinematic camera pans, but only really have a single CG each. This isn't necessarily a deal-breaker of course, but it may put off some who are used to the multi-CG, or even animated, 18+ scenes a lot of modern games have. Though this does give the game a retro or budget feel (depending on how you view it), they're still well-done for what they are. They're also spaced out pretty well, so you can expect to get one every 20-30 minutes. Though I still feel like the plot and characters are the focus here, you can definitely just go into this for those 18+ scenes alone.

Saying I like the art in The Alchemist & His Battle-Scarred Homunculus is a bit too simple, even though it's a true statement. The character designs are great, and the locations are detailed too. Each character portrait and CG also has an "arranged version" that's turned on by default. Turning this off just changes the coloring, with the arranged version having deeper shadows. It's an odd inclusion, but I guess you can go for a more standard anime style if that's what you prefer. My only real complaint about the visuals would have to be the overall lack of variety. Only a few characters ever get portraits, and Mel is the only girl you're ever going to see. There are also only a handful of locations to game takes you to, but I guess that makes sense giving the premise of the game taking place in a small village. That said, my biggest issue with the lack of variety has to do with the CGs. While I think they're all amazing, they're pretty much all reserved for the 18+ scenes. I get that this is an eroge, but it's odd that only a handful didn't have some sort of sex act going on in them. There are several important scenes that I felt could've, and should've, had a CG image attached to it, but they didn't. I was able to get over this pretty quickly, but that was mainly due to me simply accepting that the CGs were going to be for sex-related purposes only. Then again, that sort of issue might be one that only I even care about. It's not even that I dislike the 18+ content, I just think it would've been nice seeing Mel drawn in other activities more often than she is.

I really don't have a lot to say about The Alchemist & His Battle-Scarred Homunculus' sound, so this section of the review will most likely be brief. I've talked about "visual novel music" in other reviews, and I liken it to background music you put on that won't interrupt your reading. Sort of like the video game version of "lo-fi beats to study to" or whatever. The music here definitely follows that trend, but leans more towards the melancholic side of things. That of course has more to do with the subject matter than anything else, but that is to say that I have nothing good or bad to say about the soundtrack in general. It exists, it's not bad, and that's fine by me. Voice acting on the other hand is very strong, and the game is fully voiced throughout. This is pretty much par the course for this type of release, but I've played several visual novels recently that had no voice acting at all, so this was a nice break from those. Everyone but Rakels is voiced, and that includes all the smaller side characters. I've definitely encountered other visual novels where side characters were left unvoiced, so that's a positive in this game's favor. Seeing as the game primarily focuses on Mel, you're only really going to hear her most of the time. It makes sense that her performance would be important considering she's the sole heroine, and her voice actress does not disappoint.

Judging a visual novel's length is always a bit difficult, since it really depends on reading speed. Some people like to hear the voice clips play out, and others click through dialogue in a way that only skims over what's being said. I go for an approach somewhere in the middle of those two extremes, but you're still looking at a decently long game here. I was able to get through it in under ten hours, and I think that's a fair assessment of how long it will take most people. There are also at least two endings you can get, though I haven't really gone for 100% completion yet, so I'm not sure if there are more. The two endings I did see offer really different takes on the story, and are both worth seeing. Those looking to get all the CGs, and read through all the dialogue options, will be pleased to know that there's the standard "skip" option available, and you can also go back to different saves if you're the type of person who saves before every choice. Suffice it to say that there's a lot of content here, and it currently comes at a very reasonable price. One of the reasons I wasn't too hard on this game for its slightly budget approach is that it is indeed priced low. Whereas most fully-featured eroge can cast upwards of $49.99, The Alchemist & His Battle-Scarred Homunculus is currently priced at just $24.99. Not only is that half of what you'd get in a much bigger title, but it's more than worth it for what you get.

While I can't give The Alchemist & His Battle-Scarred Homunculus a blanket recommendation for the obvious reasons of it being an 18+ title, I still feel that it's worth checking out. It's been a while since I played an eroge, and I'm glad that my return to the genre came by way of a game that has a story that's well-written and impactful on its own. It is a somewhat darker, maybe even depressing, story, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. There's also plenty of 18+ scenes for those who only truly care about that part of the equation. There really is something for everyone here. If you're someone who likes deeper, non-sarcastic plots in the hentai games, then you'll probably enjoy this one as much as I did. Give it a try, and you're sure to fall in love with Mel too. See you in the next one.

Check Out The Alchemist & His Battle-Scarred Homunculus on Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3350110/The_Alchemist__His_BattleScarred_Homunculus/

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Story: A
Gameplay: N/A
Graphics: A-
Music/Sound: A
Value: A

Overall: A

Pros:
+ Has a plot that deals with love through adversity and redemption. It's surprisingly deep for an eroge title.
+ Mel is a great character, and both her design and voice acting are top notch.
+ The choices you make in-game sometimes affect the storyline, and allow you to have a hand in the main character's redemption arc.
+ Contains several 18+ scenes that are acted out with rather impressive CGs
+ You get a lot of content, at least ten hours or so for one ending, in a game that only costs $24.99.

Cons:
- Even though I think the art is well-done, there isn't a whole lot of variety. This is a single heroine story, and the CGs mostly exist only for the 18+ scenes.
- There can be a bit of disconnect between the greater plot and the sex scenes. Most of them just pop in out of nowhere almost as if to meet a quota.
- Can be a bit too heavy for those simply looking for straight up hentai.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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Her chest is indeed an important plot point...

#Alchom