Kemo Coliseum

Kemo Coliseum is a free-to-play casual game in which you take on the role of Volga, a military veteran who enters the Kingdom Tournament to present a wish to the King. You will face a diverse array of opponents, with the outcome of each battle—and the strength of your attacks—determined by engaging match-three puzzles. Carefully observe the colored tiles on the board and swap their positions to create matches, allowing you to strike your foes and advance to the next round. Beyond the arena, the game offers a wealth of other activities: interact with townspeople to take on quests, or explore dungeons to uncover rare items that will bolster your combat prowess.

Characters of Kemo Coliseum:

Volga: Volga considers Winterlight village as his hometown. Two years before the tournament he was stationed there as a shrine guard, and the townspeople were very fond of him (especially Ralph). Back then, he thought the town was too small for him, and he wanted to travel the world. However, one day disaster struck, and the once so peaceful Winterlight was overrun with hordes of monsters. Volga was charged by his superior Bolis to get the children to safety, and to this day, they are the only known survivors of the Winterlight disaster.The event instilled a deep feeling of survivor's guilt in Volga. That is why he took upon himself to look after the surviving Winterlight children. Not many villages had the resources to give refuge to a such a big group of orphans, and it was difficult for Volga to find enough honest work to provide for them. To his shame, he had to resort to banditry at times to survive.Volga saw a chance in the tournament to win enough money so the children would never have to worry about shelter and food ever again. Putting his faith in Lef to look after the children, he set out to the capital. Little did he know the secrets he would uncover there behind the Winterlight tragedy...

Aoba: Aoba hails from a long lineage of shamans. He wants to become stronger on his own, which was his reason to leave his grandfather and to join the tournament. Barely being an adult, Aoba can seem immature, insecure, and overemotional at times. Volga saved Aoba from bandits on their first encounter, but the latter was quick to judge him after learning about his past. However, by the time of their tournament match, the gladiators have both made up. However, underneath Aoba's meek exterior hides a mysterious hidden power that he hasn't fully mastered yet. If only there was someone who could help him become more confident and help him unleash his potential.

Cyrus: Cyrus is carefree and a big tease. He's looking for fun to pass his time, or at least that's his cited reason to join the tournament when asked. Money is definitely of no concern to him, and he's pretty well informed of what's happening around him. One has to wonder as to why he seems royally invested in Volga.It is revealed in chapter 5 that Cyrus is the Fourth Prince of Karantac. Before he came to Kornelia, Cyrus's father, the king of Karantac, was retiring and ordered his brothers to compete with each other for the throne. Not wanting to fight his brothers in a political battle, he ran away to the nearest kingdom, which turned out to be Kornelia. However, he was then found by his personal servant, Aria, who used their life link spell to track him.Despite his impulsive behavior, Cyrus is shown to be cunning when necessary, as he orchestrated the raid on Slave Auction Island. By tipping Maximus and the Kornelian Peacekeepers about its location with the help of Aria, stealing Vamu's contract, and finding the location of the cells before the auction started.

Darius: Darius is a soft-spoken priest of Virah, who runs a shelter for orphans at the church. His main reason to join the tournament is to bolster visibility of the plight of these children and to spread the word of his deity. Due to (story-related) reasons, Darius had to leave the orphans for a period, which is why he hired Volga to keep watch over the church. As thanks, he helped out Volga by providing shelter to the Winterlight children when thFey came to visit Volga at the capital.Darius is a compassionate person, caring about the well-beings of people who are hurt or abandoned. He has a complex about his sexual urges, as he deems them unvirtuous thoughts. However, he cannot help that his beefcake physique is being sexualized by many. To make matters worse, his body is oversensitive to touch for being neglected for so long.

Story of Kemo Coliseum:

Kemo Coliseum is a free game. The game will be available for free once it's finished.

Take on the role of Volga, an ex-soldier from the North, and participate in a tournament in the Kingdom of Kornelia. The winner of the tournament will be rewarded with the title of Champion and a chance to ask one wish of the king.

The game is a mix of a match-3 puzzle game with RPG elements. Matching three or more gems of the same type to erase them from the board. Each gem type will result in different action, ranging from a physical attack to charging your skills. Fans of PuzzleQuest will get the hang of the game very quickly, but even if you have never played PuzzleQuest before, the game is very easy to learn.

While the goal of the game is to win the tournament, there are many things for you to do before you continue to the next round: help people in the town by completing quests, find rare items and improve your skill by exploring dungeons, and build relationships with other contestants.

Player Comments of Kemo Coliseum:

As the game inches closer towards competition (albeit at a snail's pace), my future reviews will be more strict going forward.

Gameplay & Mechanics (4/5): I'm happy to say that there are a bunch of cool additions that were added to the game. The single most practical item they've added is the inclusion of 'Thief Ring' Accessory that can be crafted in Chapter 1. Together with 'Bandit Ring', it's much easier to farm materials from each fight as you can obtain mats from the enemy matching the Loot Gem on their turn (saving time and effort). I welcome the additional save slots (with improved readability) as I don't have to overwrite my old saves. Volga has been given many new skills upon leveling up, and I've experimented with each one. Ice-Water combo remains a beginner-friendly kit that will help you grind and push through most of the game (w/ a different build needed for the Volcano section). Water element is the best at keeping your character alive, and Bubble has excellent synergy with Ice to deal tons of burst damage.However, the reason I've dropped my score from 5/5 -> 4/5 is mainly due to three reasons. Firstly, the GIANT SWAMP OCTOPUS boss from Jade Swamp is currently IMPOSSIBLE TO BEAT EVEN AT NORMAL DIFFICULTY. I did a lot of attempts and had an AMAZING run where I brought the optional boss down to 300 HP while maintaining 3 BARS only to be defeated at the very next turn despite having 100% DEF, TEC+3 advantage, and +5 VIT buff from the bathhouse!! Second, Cyrus's boss fight felt a tad too strong for normal difficulty, considering that he has double the armor hit points of the MC (due to limited armor fragments given by the story). Lastly, Fiend's Eye, the material needed for Bandit Ring (Chapter 3), for some odd reason refused to be dropped by the enemy, and it badly impacted my gameplay experience since I was only able to craft the much-needed Accessory in Chapter 5 (farming Hellhounds).

NSFW Content & Aesthetics (5/5): NGL, it made me hyped when I saw the recent fully-animated trailer drop of this game! There is much to enjoy in this new version for first-timers, as the old NSFW scenes have finally been reincorporated into the 2nd Remake of this game (plus newer eye-candy CGs). Both the Main Menu and Stage Select Screen got a glow-up that makes the game more aesthetically pleasing to the eye. New battle soundtracks have been added that are worth listening to on repeat. I do love and adore that new look of Strombo and Grubert, and I'm secretly hoping for future naughty content of the latter.

Story & Dating Simulator (4/5): The one major positive thing that came from the 2nd rework is the story itself. It's much more fleshed out and better paced compared to the previous version. Tharsix is a fan-favorite of many and has been introduced much earlier in the game (compared to the 1st Remake) so that both the player and MC would have ample time to bond and form a genuine connection with this character, making Volga's interactions in Chapter 5 a lot more natural. I'd say that most of the romanceable characters (ie. Aoba, Darius, Cyrus, Tharsix) are well developed with different quirks and unique character arcs that make them likable. Hell, even Lambert (whom I dislike as a person but like as a character), has been fixed so that his relationship with Volga is now heavily impacted by the main story.Furthermore, I'm fully on board that the other side characters were given love as well (referring to Gruebert, Isandro, Gimdin, and Murvin), as working with them not only gives Volga different stat buffs but also allows the player and MC to get to know them better individually. If I'm being honest, I'm a huge Grubert simp, and I'm secretly hoping that he gets a juicy naughty scene with Volga.

PRO TIP: Prioritize getting Gruebert's Job Rank to 3-stars first before you start dating characters. You'll be able to raise the relationship-meter of multiple characters in a single playthrough.

However, do take note that the Dating Simulator is still WIP as the Job system is only implemented up to 6/10 stars, while the relationship system only reaches 4/5 hearts (as of the current version). Aside from this, I would have given this version a 5/5 if not for the following three characters: Bolis, Lef, and Volga. Bolis ATM feels less of a character and more of a plot device as Volga is not able to even interact with him during intermissions. Lef as a character feels lacking and underdeveloped. Don't get me wrong, I cherish and empathize with him. However, he acts too passively for someone who had undergone a tragedy, lacking the hunger and motivation that Volga has. I'm hoping the devs give him more agency and character growth, and something as simple as Lef taking initiative and following his father’s footsteps by learning to cook would make him better than a 1D character.

Overall Quality Assurance (3/5): I'm happy to announce that my game did not crash a single time, and I was able to finish the game without any interruptions. However, my rating only went up from 1/5 -> 3/5 due to the following bugs below.There's a visual bug occurring when you talk to the Middle-aged man outside the Coliseum, where Volga's 2D sprite does not disappear, but will go away by returning to the town map. It also reoccurs during the ‘Save Tharsix’ questline in Chapter 5.

Final words:

Kemo Coliseum provides hours of entertainment and interaction. Whether you are a fan of puzzle games or RPGs, Kemo Coliseum is sure to capture your interest and keep you coming back for more. Support the developers and embark on an epic adventure in the Kingdom of Kornelia today!