The Last Male is a game made in RPG Maker MV for the Nintendo Switch. The engine itself is a paid software on the eShop, but the RPG Maker MV Player is free for anyone to download. Anyone can use the MV Player to search for and play the games that others have chosen to publish and upload in the MV engine. I searched and downloaded anything that looked interesting. Then I discovered this game.
My expectations for the game were that it would essentially be an inverse of LISA: The Painful. I expected an intriguing, cutting-edge narrative about a male doing his best to survive in an unforgiving, apocalyptic, female world. And you know what? Those expectations held up!1
The game kicks off with Lucas, our soon-to-be titular male, as he explores the woods with his friends Cindy, AJ, and Mandy. The girls have heard rumours that the federal government has been hiding a time portal in the woods. These friends already sound annoying to me. I don’t like people who feel the need to “get to the bottom” of anything, alright?
They actually find this “time portal”, and it’s a huge-ass, facility sitting right out in the open of a clearing in the woods. Very convenient.
Suddenly, Cindy points a 10MM handgun at Lucas.
It was a setup.
They inject him with something before forcing him through the portal.
“We’ve got a load of men to kill before we rule the world”
Welp, not much to ponder with that one.
Silliness aside, I find it to be a very intriguing intro! It was strong and to-the-point. There are many questions lingering in the air. This curiosity fuels the audience with the desire to continue playing.
Why do his friends want to create a world of only women? Why does Lucas need to be in the future for their plan to work? Why not just kill him?
I guess we’ll have to keep playing to… get to the… bottom of this?
Finding our way to civilization
Lucas comes out of the time portal to find himself in the middle of a maze-like forest. He eventually finds his way to the nearest town, Bunnytown. He is immediately thrown off by the lack of men in the city. A police officer notices his distress and asks “Is there anything I can help you with, ma’am?” When he informs the officer that he is not a “ma’am”, the woman is befuddled. “You’re not? Then what are you?“
A child asks for his assistance in crossing the street. Lucas obliges, and the child shows her appreciation with a “Thank you, kind lady!“
It’s really adorable to me. Lucas is now in a future where men haven’t existed for hundreds of years. Of course everyone is going to assume that he’s just some strange-lookin gal. I love it.
It’s not long after exploring this city that I come upon an annoyance. It’s a small gripe. I noticed that a lot of events won’t work properly unless you’re directly in front of it. There’s a lot of people you can’t talk to, signs you can’t read, or items you can’t interact with unless your facing it head-on. I’m a little rusty when it comes to RPG Maker, so I don’t exactly know what the reason for this could be, besides a conditional existing in the event which prevents the event from initiating unless the character is facing a certain direction or standing on a certain tile.
For example, there’s a scene later in the game in which you must speak to a doctor–except I couldn’t get the doctor to acknowledge me no matter what. I eventually tried speaking to her from a different angle (from the south), and that allowed her to finally address me. She immediately instructed me to take a seat.
…
So that means… I wasn’t allowed to initiate the conversation from the side, because then I’d already be sitting in the chair beside her. And she’s scripted to ask Lucas to take a seat. And it would be downright silly of her to say such a thing if he were already standing on the chair. Oh, that’s a good one.
Eventually, two women call out to Lucas, asking to have a word with him.
Woman 1: Impossible… Are you, a man stranger…?
Woman 2: A man? Alive!? No way!
Lucas: Hey, you’re freaking me out you guys… What’s going on here!?
[A cop walks onto the scene]
Cop: Alright, what’s with all this yelling about!?
Cop: (Wait, that women.)
Cop: Ma’am, you’ll be coming with me for questioning. Put your hands behind yo–
Woman 2: RUN!!!
[The two women run off with Lucas]
Woman 2: STOP!!!!
The women bring Lucas into their home and promise to interduce (sic) their selves and explain everything once they have a word with one of their friends. In the meantime, Lucas is free to snoop around the house, but just don’t go downstairs!
New objective: Find out what happened to the men
Lucas decides to take it upon himself to find out what happened to all the men in the world. He turns on a TV, flips through a few channels, and realizes there isn’t a single man depicted on any of the shows. Damn, not even cartoon men exist.
It finally clicks in our titular man’s head that his friends were being serious when they announced to him that they were creating a women’s-only society before forcing him through a portal at gunpoint.
Lucas returns to the women and asks them some questions, including “What’s the today’s date?” They inform him that they are currently in “September 25, 520WD.” What the hell is that? WD? Women Days?? No idea.
Lucas tells the women about the backstabbing he experienced earlier, which resulted in him being catapulted 900 years in the future. The 30th century–where all interiors are designed with the average 15-foot-tall individual in mind. That is the only reasoning I can fathom for these vast interiors with ungodly amounts of legroom.
Suddenly, a voice rings out from downstairs. A woman is shouting for the the young ladies (Angie and Sophie) to come downstairs. “Oh goddess, it’s Salina!” Angie cries out. “Lucas, stay here.” All three women (Angie, Sophia, and their friend) immediately rush downstairs. “I better defuse the situation” Lucas thinks to himself.
Eccue me?2 Why would he think this? What makes him certain that his appearance would only help “the situation”?? He doesn’t even know what’s happening! For all we know, there could be a cop downstairs, guns drawn, demanding that these women hand over the forbidden man-thing. Could it really be that only a man’s intervention can save the day?
Salina is downstairs chastising the women for running away from that cop. No idea how she learned of this. The two women insist they have nothing to hide, but Salina doesn’t believe them.
Lucas emerges and yells for the women to stop fighting! The women (and the BGM) immediately calms down, proving that, indeed, the presence of a man was required to diffuse the situation.
Salina: Wait hold on, are you saying this stranger you brought in is…
Ninja (idk this is a woman who was already downstairs with salina and they don’t name her): A real live man?
Ninja: That’s not possible… All of the human males has been extinct for centuries. How could yo–
Lucas: E-Extinct!? What happened to the men in this world!?
Woah there, Lucas. I thought you already grasped this, why are you acting so shocked again!??
Sophie delivers some exposition on what happened to the men. I’m not typing it all out.
Men have been extinct since the “end of the 3rd century BD“, as far as we know. I have no clue what the hell a BD is and how it differs from a WD.
“What we’re trying to say is you’re the last male alive in this world.“
So the family agrees to harbour lucas, as he has nowhere else to go, and no one else to turn to. But they use the word ‘keep’. As if he is a pet.
They welcome him with open arms. This is your home too! First order of business is to take a bath–take a nice hot bath.
(A continuation of the scene, because I can only post videos in 60 second snippets.)
During the lovely chicken saled dinner, Lucas tells the women more about himself. He’s the son of the Top American scientist, and has 2 brothers and 3 sisters.
The rapist (the “ninja” from earlier. Her name is “Marie”) suggests that Lucas joins in on a fieldtrip to the abandoned cryogenic lab that was just discovered last week. Well, technically, she says:
There are tons of examples like this where asterisks appear in the text of this game. At first I thought the developer was simply an upstanding, model christian, trying to censor all the bad words in his game, like dick, hell, and fuck. But I suspect that the engine itself has some sort of built-in word filter, exclusive to the Nintendo Switch? And it’s pretty aggressive filter at that. In the above example, the rapist asks if we want to come with her on “this expedition”. See what it did?
Anyways, back on topic. The gang will set out on an expedition to the cryo lab the morning! Apparently, this lab belongs to Lucas’ family, and it’s still standing! Our male is very lucky.
To the lab!
The girlies join the party and they head out for the trip. The expedition will be led by a professional Maleogist, Dr. Jill Anderson.
They reach the facility in the woods–the very same location where Lucas was betrayed all those 900 years ago. Lucas is distraught to see that the portal has been destroyed. He has no hope of ever returning. The Maleogist could not care less.
Also, is it not strange that this facility–his family’s cryo lab–is the exact same location as the time portal from the beginning of the game? Because Lucas seemed genuinely clueless and bewildered about the existence of the portal at the start, but all of a sudden he’s very familiar with this area and concerned about its state of disrepair. You’d think Lucas would have recognized the surroundings as his friends led him to the facility that his family owned in the woods. I think the developer must’ve only decided midway through that this facility belonged to Lucas, and simply forgot to update the introduction cutscene of the game.
The television in the control room activates by itself and plays a video recording from those bitches that betrayed him. They welcome him to the world of women’s only society. They tell him that once they finish up things on their end, they plan to join him in the future and destroy the portal. So… Girlbosses get shit done. Nice.
“So give it up and enjoy your harem. It’s for your own good.”
Excuse me? Red flag? Hello? Why would they even include that in the video? Why say that to him? This makes it sound like their plan was centered entirely on Lucas embarking on a journey of pleasure, rather than having to simply use Lucas for some other dastardly goal. Gettin’ kinda stinky in here…
Mandy also reveals that the drug she stabbed him with before forcing him through the portal was an anti-serum. It gives him immortality, but “kills his male genes”.
What the hell does that mean?
They thought of everything. But why? They forced a man to go off into their female paradise–their women’s only society–but they also made sure to obliterate any chances of him producing any male offspring. WHY?? It sounds like so much effort for what kind of payoff? I could almost understand if their purpose was simply to torture him… but… so far it just sounds like a flimsy setup for the perfect anime harem dream. I just don’t get it.
Yet again, these unanswered questions continue to fuel my desire to reach the end of the game… Demo. This is technically a demo!
Lucas heads into the cryo lab and I was very excited to start our first puzzle of the game! It’s dark and scawy inside the lab. We need to find a way to obtain the password to activate power! … But then Lucas unceremoniously announces that he already knows the password since it’s his family’s lab, after all. So we, the player, just have to be his obedient little toy and input the code as told. Alright. Innovative.
Lucas discovers a disc his father left behind before he perished. The disc contains a video message in which he reveals that…
“I knew that b**** Mandy will set you up by throwing you in the time portal…”
Which is insane, because if you knew she’d do this, why didn’t you stop it? Maybe destroy the portal or just fuckin’ kill the bitch. She’s only 18 years old or something, right?
His father knew that Mandy spent all her life gathering minerals to kill off every man on earth, that she was developing an anti-serum to destroy the male gene. So he decided to counterattack by spending his life creating antidotes/pro-serums to restore those male genes.
And then he hid them around the globe.
Instead of hiding them somewhere in the facility, or at least storing them all in one place somewhere else. He had to make this as difficult as possible for his boy!
So now, Lucas must find all 30 serums and inject them to fully restore his male potency.
By the way, Lucas’ family weren’t the only ones stored in the cryo lab. There’s a ton of randos, too. They must be friends and other acquaintances he knew back in his original life. One of these individuals is a Japanese high school student named Yumi who constantly refers to him as “Lucas-san” and she probably has a crush on him.
The search for Ashley
Ashley had a a panic attack and ran out of the lab, so he sets off to find her. I initially thought Ashley to be Lucas’ sister. You see, the storyline immediately advances once you learn that the 3 other males in Lucas’ family died. I never finished speaking to the rest of his family before this happened, so I could only assume that Ashley was his sister. Turns out she’s just a good friend. So… that’s good! She can still be a candidate for the harem!
Lucas’ chase culminates in a confrontation in an alleyway of Chinatown. She lashes out at him–accusing Lucas of killing shaun. Whoever the hell he is.
The altercation gets messy. Lucas has a knife on him for protection, but Ashley tries to pry it out of his hands. This mere attempt scares him shitless, so he cries for help.
The 3 cloaked, suspicious figures that were standing nearby come to his rescue! Hurray!
But then they kidnap him 😦
~Meanwhile, in the Pink House~
The president learns of the existence of Lucas: The Last Male, and aims to get a hold of him before the Forbidden Forces do any experiments on it. And yes, they actually refer to him as an “it“. I really like that. It makes sense. At this point in time, the existence of a man is such a foreign, antiquated concept. It’s an it! I love it!
~Back to Lucas~
Lucas wakes to find himself locked in a prison cell. A nearby phone rings, and he answers it. It’s his friend, AJ (the purple-haired one). She taunts him with lines like “I thought you would enjoy your harem by now.” and “I have to wonder my dear Lucas, how many women did you make love with?“👁️👄👁️ ?
Anyways, we are now tasked with escaping from the prison. Hell yeah. Time for a real puzzle! GAMEPLAY.
Or we repeatedly bulk up on a few serums in front of the bathroom sink until we’ve built up enough MAN PERCEPTION to notice that a guard left the key… to our cell… right on the bedside table… inside of our cell…
There’s a section where you must maneuver throughout the facility without being caught by the guards. You can also grab some goodies and bonuses along the way if you’re daring enough. But it isn’t all that hard at all to worm your way through the various guards and staff in the facility because you can walk pretty much right in front of them with zero consequence.
We make our way through a forest in order to reach Bunnytown again, but encounter a trap! A group of lamia’s have kidnapped Lucas and brought him to their remote village. They’ll only let him go if he agrees “to mate to mate with every lamia in the village.” (sic) How long will this take? Three days.
And so, this is when I lost it. This, here, is when I lost all expectations and esteem for the game. This was when it hit me–that this was not going to be some powerful inverse to LISA. No… this game was always going to focus on the titular Last Male’s plight and duty to repopulate the earth. this was nothing more… than an ecchi, isekai, harem anime all packaged up into a succinct RPG Maker project, and I was tricked into playing it. (… I hope I used isekai correctly. i don’t watch that shit)
There’s actually another kidnapping-forced-breeding scene that occurs earlier in the game, just after Lucas leaves the cryo lab in search of Ashley. I happened to miss it on my first playthrough, but felt it was worth mentioning now since we’re on the topic. That scene plays out similarly. Lucas is kidnapped by harpies and must meet their demands of fertilizing all of their eggs in a large group-mating session that takes place over the course of six hours before they allow him to return to civilization.
Feminists…
After escaping from prison, Lucas returns to the city to meet with the president and attend a funeral for those who perished so far in this journey. I’m assuming it’s for those we discovered dead in the cryo lab? and also Ashley? Because yeah, AJ claimed that Ashley was dead when she was taunting Lucas over the phone in the prison cell.
I actually really like the way the developer depicted the funeral scene. They use battle animations to showcase a “three-volley salute”, and it was a nice touch to convey that the caskets had been lowered by depicting empty holes next to the tombstones.
Lucas ponders over the motives of his ex-friends when speaking with some of the funeral guests. AJ and Mandy clearly wanted to create a world without men, but they kept him alive. Why? Lucas thinks they might have needed him so that humanity wouldn’t go extinct. But then, how have these women been reproducing for nine centuries before he came along? Yet again, this intriguing question is posed for us.
A hot nun (regular nun) tells Lucas that his daddy left something for him in the church. It’s a time capsule containing a serum, a gun with five bullets, a smartphone, and a gold bar. Thanks dad. You did everything you could to prepare for this disaster besides actually stopping Mandy. My king.
~3 weeks later~
Lucas, along with his mother, sister, and some other surviving friends from the cryo lab have settled into their new life living under Salina’s roof.
A visitor arrives to inform Lucas that he has been offered a job at the hospital. We are now approaching the best and worst part of the game. demo. thing.
Dr. Miller: Yup, you’re indeed healthy enough to begin the breading.
Lucas: B-Breading!
Dr. Miller: Didn’t Agent Lucy tell you?
Dr. Miller: Your job is to make love with our candidates and get them pregnant.
Lucas laments that he is only capable of producing female offspring. Agent Lucy assures him that the CIA is hard at work locating serums from all over the globe for him (yay, yet another exciting, potential gameplay experience ripped away from us! Let the CIA have all the fun!)
They beg him–please help our country survive. Please, Lucas. bread our women. And he agrees to do it. Brave. Breathtaking. I’m speechless, honestly. He’s a hero. Agent Lucy reassures him that Aunt Samantha would have been so proud of him.
The doctor introduces Lucas to all of the female candidates. Lucas remarks that he doesn’t think he’ll be able to handle all of them in one day. Agent Lucy explains that he doesn’t have to breed them all at once. He’s free to choose eight women per day. He’ll be paid $500 for each pregnancy, $1,000 once he’s able to produce a son. And once that son turns 14, he’ll be able to take on the job alongside him. Like father like son, eh?🙃
The doctor takes Lucas on a tour of the facilities, which was kind of annoying to do because you’re forced to guess at which rooms/areas are next in the tour in order to advance the scenes. It’s one of the few times where it would’ve made sense for the game to take the reigns and handle things for you.
And finally, we’re allowed to choose our first candidate to kick things off in the bedroom. Before we choose a girl, the game warns us that our choice will “have effects throughout the game.“
For some reason, rejecting the japanese girl, causes a speech bubble to appear over the chinese girl’s head, then the screen cuts out. The game becomes locked, and there’s no way to fix this besides reloading the save and avoid speaking to the japanese girl (or at least avoid declining her). I don’t know why this happens. Must be one of those “effects” we were warned about.
There are, indeed, many women to choose from, and you can speak to familiarize yourself with each of them. Just pick the hottest one and you’re good to go!
Cue the credits.
The dev mentions in the credits that they’re working on a manga series, and that we should expect a continuation on Steam. i have not been curious enough to verify whether or not a continuation is currently available on Steam.
How is The Last Male?
As a role-playing experience, I do not find it satisfying or all that enjoyable to play. Well, it was very amusing, but not in the ways the developer intended, I’m sure. There are a few times when the game throws fanfare over the fact that other characters have joined your party–but it is meaningless. Superficial. There are no battles to experience and there are no unique challenges to overcome with these new friends in tow.
And of course, there are many moments in which the game dangles the promise of gameplay in your face, only to snatch it away in favour of having the game solve it for you (turning on the power to the cryo lab, the prison escape, etc).
Even if i look at it from the perspective of a character/narrative-driven experience, it’s not that enjoyable because the characters and story are way too… bland. and one-note. Lucas is a simple boy who got caught up in a scheme. The scheme? To create paradise of women just for him. Everyone other character in the story is a sexy woman that is begging to be breed by this boy. This is the kind of plot you expect from literally any hentai. It isn’t very thrilling. There is not much to expand on in this regard.
What’s wrong with The Last Male is the format. If the developer is only interested in telling the story a young man who has been whisked away to live his best life in a female-only world, then so be it. It can work! but the presentation would be better suited to a different story-telling format. Something like a visual novel–or better yet–that manga format the developer mentioned in the credits. I think any non-interactive, linear format would represent this story best. It’s clear that the developer isn’t very interested in providing an interactive experience for the audience–and there’s nothing wrong with that. There are plenty of horny games in which the focus lies entirely upon the porn, as well as the various sex acts the player can commit. That’s the key difference. There are tangible actions the player can perform to really immerse their selves and experience a world of sexiness. Some of my favourites include:
- Crush Crush
- May’s summer vacation
- Milking Mira
- Huniepop
- Nun & Light’s Uunreachable Forest
- Peeping dorm manager
- At Your Feet3
The gameplay these games exhibit vary greatly, but at least the gameplay exists.
I also want to make it clear that, despite all the criticism, i find it highly commendable that the game exists at all! It’s an incredible feat to develop and publish a game. it doesn’t matter the engine or format. it can take countless hours, days, months, even years of dedication to produce something tangible. Even with a “simple” engine like RPG Maker, i myself was unable to harness the dedication required to produce anything for years. So I understand. I know the developer worked hard to create this game, and it really shows in so many ways.
My final thoughts?
Make the mom available as a love interest-then I’ll be sold.
Lovely little creature 
send me your thots and prayers