mfw struggling through this frustrating ass game ^
This game suffers from wild swings of tone and expectations and story telling.
You are Expected to explore and talk to people. There's an entire story that is
behind the story. A mystery that involves Saki and other women being transformed into succubus. That you have to dig this up yourself is interesting! You're given a deadline, and if you haven't found all the clues you fail. But the mystery feels like it was tacked on at the end. It's a fetch quest with no dialogue. You repeatedly talk with the same people again and again throughout the Mystery side of the story, but none of them even get a name.
So you spend a year where really the only story is that Saki likes sex. About 2 weeks into getting turned into a demon you're having group sex! And, ya know, good for her - but it would be nice if some of that dialogue went somewhere else.
There's one scene where you overhear Nameless Coworkers #1 and #2 talking about your senpai behind her back. It's interesting! Office politics, different characters, wow! Nothing ever comes from this. Meary senpai just either always supports you, or lies to you so you're doing work for her.
And this is really too bad. Because the writing for this game is genuinely good, despite many translation issues. If you want a lot of lighthearted self aware humor, then there's a lot here. I was literally cackling from some scenes, it's very good.
Everything to do with Saki is bright and happy. And maybe this is a case of unreliable narrator, where she's regularly described as an idiot who'll go along with anything, while also being a genius at work. But when you talk to
any of your co-workers They. Are. STRUGGLING.
You get to hear about how they've lost all their friends, they have zero time outside of work, questioning if this is all that's left of their life, and on and on and on. It's tonal whiplash every time! Saki does several interviews where she's essentially selling out every succubus, and they're like "ever since that I can't even look people in the eye". One of the side-quests is literally tricking another human-turned-succubus into being a test animal.
I guess not!!
This is another theme that I think maybe the developer wanted to explore, but must have run out of time. At least that's what I feel like the True Ending implies. Throughout the story characters will talk like they do above.
The game lays this idea out. Every demon can evolve to a greater form. Like goblin to hobgoblin. But not succubi, so the above line is correct about succubi. They're the weakest. And if you struggle your way to the True Ending you're gifted with 1 or 2 lines about why this happens.
This analogy is rushed out, when it's threaded through the whole story. The resolution is just poorly paced, and if the game was more focused on telling the Mystery side of the story, it feels like this is something you'd find out maybe halfway through the game, instead of the very end where everything suddenly gets magically fixed by 'Heroes'.
Pictured, True Ending:
All my story-based quibbles aside, the sex scenes are all pretty cute. There's a little bit of hypno here, and I think it's probably some of the best use of hypno I've seen from these games. Usually hypno is just "Haha, now you're going to have sex >:3" (oh nooo). But here, the first instance you give out your home address. That is so dangerous, and exciting. And nothing comes from it. But the other hypno scenes, and scenes from other companies, are also exciting.
And of course it really goes without saying, but the art is fricken cute I love it.
*The illustration is a photo
Anyway, that's all from my
This game gets 3 stars, not that it really matters.