Complicated and mechanically dense, Portals of Phereon is an in-depth Erotic Tactical Creature-Collector RPG with a strategic resource management layer. The game is also a true roguelike, being turn-based with procedurally generated "dungeons" and optional permadeath while also incorporating modern roguelite-style save-file unlockable game options for subsequent runs.

At the time of writing there are 163 generic monster girls to recruit, with an additional 63 unique characters who in addition to being recruitable (with a few exceptions) can ALL be used as the protagonist of a run. This is in addition to the default 3 main characters, each with unique progression trees and special mechanics. There's also 77 beasts to collect, two of which are unique characters.

Phereon is rather unique among creature collectors in that all combat takes place on a hexgrid. These hexmaps not only feature varied terrain, but mutable terrain. Many units and abilities have effects pertaining to terraforming the combat arenas, which I've never seen before in this style of game. Ouside of combat you'll be navigating one of many larger procedurally generated overworlds, each with different climates and terrain which different units may be better suited to. And this is where Phereon gets even more interesting, there's a time limit to finish a run. While the entire game is turn-based, each turn takes up a variable amount of time. So bringing an optimized party for each climate is essential for freeing up additional time to explore as many portals and accrue as much loot and permanent powerups as you can before tackling the Final Mission.

The other very cool feature of Phereon is how it includes both Breeding and SMT-style Fusion mechanics. There's even a subtype of creature, the Spirits, that can "evolve" upon hitting their level-cap. And these are important for the fusion system, because spirit fusion doesn't result in an altered hybrid. The min-maxing eugenics program bullshit you can get up to in this game makes up a major part of the experience, and thankfully is so much less hair-pulling than anything from Pokemon will ever be. Meaning this is the first time I found gamified breeding to be fun.

This game is great. Big fan of the arcane requirements for unlocking the True-TRUE-double-secret-ultimate-final-superboss. Oh, it's also super horny too.

My only complaints are actually that the two erotic minigames tacked on are rather monotonous and in no way more scintillating than Syvaron's regular pinups.
That is to say, they don't suffice as either fap material or engaging gameplay. Which is a shame since the tactical layer is so much fun to engage with. Both the sex-simulator and dating-sim-deckbuilder-thing are click-heavy with little decision making to do, and both are semi-mandatory to engage with for unit optimization. Characters unlock buffs at high affection/lewdity.
It's also incredibly unbalanced, but that just adds to the fun imo. Besides, you'll want some busted combos if you plan on tackling the higher ascension levels.

Absolutely slaughters the entire series with the sheer amount of options you have gameplay wise; and the fact that the game expects you to use them.

A return to GBA supports so now I don't need every support to be a tonal wreck between either being way too serious and being took for a joke or a joke and took serious.

Decent story for fire emblem standards.

Ivy is peak.
They made maps fun again. They haven't figured it out for so long. Thanks engage. I love you.