This game lacks the variety of characters and artwork that we’ve seen in Circle Tekua’s best games, and yet it still holds a fine place in my heart. This game deviates from the RPG based model that Circle Tekua used for their past few games, and instead seeks to be a relatively short escape-room/environmental puzzle game. It does have a leveling system and combat mechanics, but those elements are blended nicely into the game’s core task of searching rooms for items and then proceeding to new (previously locked) rooms.
The main thing that I didn’t understand about this game on my first playthrough was that getting captured and drained by the succubi is fine actually. This game threatens you with a sanity meter that depletes with each capture, but having played through the game once before, I now know that selling the items that infinitely spawn everywhere will easily earn you enough money to buy the treats which will increase your sanity and allow you to be drained again. Knowing that the designers had fun in mind and wanted you to be captured in your canon playthrough (as opposed to drained on defeat) is a huge boon to this game in my mind.
The leveling system and the puzzle system are well balanced, and in both my playthroughs I never felt as if this game was ‘grindy’ at all. The turn-based battles were challenging, and may require you to level up if you get to them early, but progression happened naturally for me. A few of the puzzles were admittedly difficult to figure out on my first playthrough, but had me going “Of course! Why didn’t I try that?” once they were explained. This game is simple enough not to be frustrating, yet complex enough that I could forget its specifics and find satisfaction in rediscovering its secrets on my second playthrough.
Speaking of secrets, I really love this game’s story, and feel as though Circle Tekua’s character development has always been their strongest suit. Every character is endearing and likable right from the beginning, and there are also hidden scenes which only add to each characters' depth as the game goes on. I didn't love every animation in the game, but I liked the art overall and wished that I could see more from every character. Getting to the end of the game will probably require you to see the same animations many times over, so it would be nice if we could have even more variety (especially since I liked Lime’s personality but found most of her animations unappealing).
Gonna throw in a quick note that I don’t love the quicktime events, but they sort of work for this game specifically. Every enemy is just toying with you, so it’s sort of your fault if you lose focus, fail the quicktime event, and then take extra damage or get drained. I wish that this studio wasn't continuing to use quicktime in their RPG battles, but during the puzzle solving sections of this game I thought those mechanics were fun.
Overall, not a perfect game, but still very very good. Try this game if you like succubus / femdom games, and also try the other four Circle Tekua games on this site. And again, GET CAPTURED, SELL ITEMS, BUY TREATS.
