Unity - Cyan Brain [Demo 8.1] [NEKOUJI STUDIO]

Style, atmosphere, and voice acting in the game are excellent. I really like the character design; it’s fantastic! The sci-fi world also looks intriguing. Hot animations are enjoyable, I wish there were more variety in defeat animations with bosses and interactions with NPCs.

Gameplay is standard for a side-scroller, need more dynamism. For example, variations in melee combat for a slasher and, for ranged weapons, enemies and situations involving vertical combat.

I hope the developer does well and finishes this interesting game!

So far there are only two chapters released and overall, it's a decent game with simple controls and the two bosses I fought haven't been that troublesome despite them dealing a lot of damage.

I fancy the art style (it looks nice), the body proportions are voluptuous but not over the top and the creature/enemy design has been bizarre but, IMO, not off-putting (unlike other gore games which definitely lean more on the grotesque and disturbing genres).

Besides, I've always got a thing for 2D scrollers plus a bit of platforming like Koonsoft's games or even much harder ones like the Flower series from Misinkojou: last but not least, this game features futa, IK it doesn't pick everyone's fancy, although it's my guilty pleasure, so it appeals to me.

I'm looking forward to the next updates (and to more futa content).

Cyan Brain is a lesson on how not to make a first level. Sparse checkpoints? Check. Annoyingly long series of insta-kill traps that require near pinpoint precision parkour? Check. Enemies that force you into those traps? Check. Oh, some of them also two-hit you, so trying to stand your ground is so risky that you may as well just walk into the trap.

A game can have the greatest art, the greatest story, the greatest music and voice acting. But if the gameplay sucks, few are going to play it.

And it's such a shame, because its guro. A niche that's frowned upon by many but I like. I really wanted to enjoy this game... but who designed that first level? It's travesty for an opening.

I just don't get it.
It is not fun to play and actually quite frustrating. You just shoot enemies until they die, but enemies have a load of health so it is taking a lot of time(and ammo) and any mistake would kill you(making healing useless), sending you back to the checkpoint. I've cheated for the last 2/3 of the game.
Weapons themselves, and I only got to use the pistol and the machinegun, are... well, just shooting and feel bland. And I'm not just being prickly, there are some NSFW games in this genre where shooting IS better.
Well, from what I can guess, the game also wants me to explore, but 1) if you make a mistake, you die and reset at the checkpoint. 2) it takes a long time, specifically on some unnecessary long elevators. 3) I just don't get it, I've tried to explore every place on the map(for the first half of the game) but I couldn't find any keycards or switches that would allow me to get to the remaining weapons.
So... animations? There are only three of the sexual kind and they are not great. They feel like cheapest live-2d. And it's the first time since forever that I'm actually disappointed by the looks of the main character. In one of the crannies on the map there is an actually better model just lying on the bed and... that feels just weird.
So... yeah, it's just a sadistic-type of game, but I really don't understand the point of literally everything else.

REVIEW IS BASED ON TECH DEMO 8.1 RELEASED ON 01.08.2024

Great both gameplay and artwork piece, i honestly liked this side-scroller way much than tons of others i played.

Gameplay - not the revolutionary, but still deserves some praise, basically a side-scroller with mouse-control shooter capabilities and dodge feature, for some the difficulty may be quite annoying, but some time spent on dodging classes will do a trick or two. Also dev decided to implement some traps across the rooms, which, for some people, can ruin the atmospheric feeling of horror side-scroller.

H-Scenes - as a lot of side-scrollers - played at defeat and mostly for Guro fans, there's not that much of a ryona, Main Character is, i believe for atmospheric or difficulty reasons, quite weak in terms of HP, that some enemies can kill-on-hit, so be wary and use your dodge key wisely.

Graphics - quite a pleasure for my eyes to say the least, animations are smooth, overall graphics are good as well, not much can be said more.

Plot - not much to say, there is plot, but since its a tech demo, there's not that much of a info available. But i still interested in which way it will progress.

Overall - 5/5, for a tech demo, all features were executed smoothly, i never encountered a single bug and was left satisfied.

Would love to vote this a 5 but there are some small things holding it back.

Atmosphere, art and sound are very well done, clean and detailed.

Actions, movement, and animations are very responsive and fluid.

some censorship (mostly penile and vaginal) holds back the depth of detail due to pixelation.

re-spawns are quick, and doing over an area is decently fast, I personally would have liked 1 or 2 more save points... but I believe that is my personal bias.

Would love to see more creatures and animations. Love the mechanical drider animation!

A few lines of translation could be made more clearly written.

Englisch translation:
The game had a lot of potential, but in my opinion it had too much of a desire to be gore-like. The sex scenes and animations are more off-putting than captivating

Deutsch:
Das spiel hatte viel potenzial hat meiner meinung nach aber ein zu hohen drang danach gore mäßig zu erscheinen. Die sex szenen bzw animationen sind eher abtournend als bedörend

nice concept, not bad not good either, for a demo the shooting mechanics works flawlessly, but i worry about 1 thing, it's seem the dev intend to put "survival" (food etc) mechanics in it too but...i rather not that gonna ruin the fast pace nature of this game tbh
the "guro" is sooo mild tbh nhentai collections are way way degenerate even if you hate guro it's on safe side
the h scene...please don't make it like "only death scenes" it's boring just like everybody else, come on it's already 2024 not 2004
have we not learned from kooonsoft look at their flash masterpieces
look at parasitic evil too, that one is also good, only the shooting mechanics kinda meh

If you're into guro, this may be a little treat for you, but even for guro fans it leaves much to be desired.

The game commits, what I consider an h-game sin, of forcing you to allow yourself to die to get to any lewd scenes instead of at least giving the enemies some kind of grab in conjunction with their normal attacks—A little ryona goes a long way.

Art and environments are done very well and sell the vibe of ... Well, whatever is going in in this game so far. The mere fact when you Save, the machine brain jacks the protagonist which is a nice touch.

Right now, the lewd is very light and gameplay is limited.

it's well done, but it nevertheless has flaws, the level design to begin with, it's very very VERY confusing , and also it's needlessly annoying to have to backtrack to just get one weapon and it's upgrade, just to kill...like...4-6 enemis with it before the boss.
But otherwise it's playable.

I'm not sure what the full game will entail, but for a Demo it's okay - for a full game I would expect a lot more out of it.

The game itself is relatively buggy and the gameplay is trivialized by how broken the dodge roll is. I struggled quite a bit until I realized that the dodge roll lets you simply dodge right through opponents, taking any urgency to move or otherwise reposition out of the equation.

The game knows what it wants to be, and that's full-blown gore focus - and I can respect that. There are too many devs that think adding zombies and monsters and then doing nothing grotesque with them is a good idea, and it's led to H-games with 1/5 star ratings all across the board, so I'm glad this dev isn't shying away from committing to the bit.

That being said, I'd still have to rate this a 3/5. The art is good, the gameplay is average and the map itself is rather unexciting and dull; sometimes you'll come across rooms that you think have something new for you to discover only to find out there are only 2 sorts of interactables in the game: Buttons and Keycards.

The final boss is downright irrelevant as you can walk past them to be met with a "Thanks for playing ❤". There is no door holding you back from simply walking past the final boss as you have to press a button to activate them, which you can simply choose not to. You could also just press the button, walk to the left of the arena and close the door... it doesn't really do much to help you beat the boss, but it's a tad ridiculous that the final boss area is open for you to simply leave and re-enter as you see fit.

The final boss itself can't attack you quick enough for you to knife it to death, resulting in a Tom & Jerry sequence of you hitting the boss over the head and cancelling every attack it tries to pull off. Your knife is guaranteed to stagger the boss and by the time they recover to start a new attack they're already staggering again from another knife attack.

What would make me rate this a 4/5?
- Greater polishing of the full game, including an actual ramp-up in difficulty by nerfing dodge rolls and most importantly bug fixing. I couldn't finish the Demo legitimately because I restarted the game after beating the last boss, which brought me to a black screen with the HUD on. I was softlocked pretty much.

What would make me rate this even a 5/5?
- More enemies / more scenes with existing enemies in addition with the aforementioned points.

I hope this game gets compeleted even though I spent half a hour trying to beat the spider boss without knowing the machine gun on the above, game is 9/10, -1 because there is isn't much to ammo refiller near the area of the crushing thingy area.

5 stars partly before I loved what I've seen, partly bc the reviewer below is blatantly unfair.

+

I loved the mix of guro with eroticism, both are important and appropriate. It creates a great horror where you can't know for sure if the heroine is going to be raped or murdered (both of which are terrible but happen IRL)

The graphics themselves are few but well-made.

-

Lack of gallery, I feel like it's an important part of the game even if it's still a demo.

Instant-death traps are mildly annoying.

More frequent save-points would be nice.

Cyan Brain Demo 6.14 Review
I want to give this 2.5 stars but that’s not possible. I can’t justify bringing it up to 3 because of a couple issues, some of which needs to be addressed

Edit: This will be a long one. Forgot TLDR: Art good, Difficulty too punishing, Too much emphasis on gore, lack of hentai and it's mostly futa, guns suck. Still a good game, has potential, just don't expect to fap

The Good
Visuals/Art Style - It’s incredibly good. The player character looks cute and the enemies look just as amazing as well.

UI - It also looks very good with the vital sensors but i feel like it needs to be more detailed. It certainly has room for improvement

The Bad
Difficulty - This game is punishing and i'd argue that it’s unreasonably so. Enemies can easily 1-2 shot you minus the facehugger (it takes 4). Meanwhile you can easily use 12-20+ bullets to kill someone depending on if you headshot (i actually counted). There is also no way to replenish your bullets other than the 1-2 ammo refill centers.

Hitboxes - The hitboxes can be…weird and frustrating to say the least. You’ll encounter a couple of death traps and there will be moments where you can clearly see you are going to make it only to be killed. It also applies in reverse, you see that you are clearly touching these things yet nothing happens. Same goes for some of the enemies as well, there are moments where your attacks or their attacks should’ve connected but they don’t or attacks should not have hit yet they do.

Saves - You can only save at certain locations but that isn’t the issue. The issue is the LACK of savepoints. You will encounter moments where if you want to save to prevent loss of progress, you have to backtrack a ton. Fortunately, there are checkpoints that you can respawn at if you do die, Unfortunately, enemies will respawn whenever you respawn or load a save, the same enemies that takes a ton of bullets to kill, bullets that are very hard to come by and are in extremely limited supplies

Map - There is no map, i’m sure the devs will add one eventually but currently, without a map, it can be extremely confusing as you traverse these dark and constantly twisting lab halls.

Lack of hentai - Yes i know this is a demo but there are only 3 scenes and they are all game overs. Furthermore the MC’s clothing can get ripped but that does nothing at all. There is no enemies pushing you down and a struggle ensues, they just keep stabbing and tearing.

Lack of Gun Variety - Once again i know, it’s a demo but when i say lack of gun variety, i don’t mean types of guns, i mean their stats. All 3 guns do the same amount of damage per bullet just at different firing rates and with differing mag sizes. When i first upgraded from the handgun to the rifle, i was expecting more damage only to be met with disappointment that it did the same damage as the pistol, only it was automatic and shoots faster. The machine gun is no different: same damage, faster rate of fire (so fast it burned more ammo than the previous 2 guns)

Gore - Yup there’s gore and unfortunately it appears to be the main focus of the game. Most of the time you just get cut in half or crushed to a pulp with blood, intestines, and bone on full display. The game does offer you an option to “skip” the scene when it plays but it’s less skipping and more “slow fade to black as the scene and audio continues to play” then you still see the end result of the scene you “skipped”. Personally i prefer the devs add a no-gore feature since most of us probably want to see the cute MC get fucked rather than ripped apart and a spike going through her throat.

Futa - Yea just like gore, there is an emphasis on futa. Of the 3 hentai scenes we get, 2 are futa. I don’t need to say that just like gore, futa isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and some would definitely want an option to turn it off for good old fashion yuri.

Unfortunately, i don't think the devs are even looking at this forum so i doubt any of this review will make it to them. I am looking forward to future updates.

Respawns are unforgiving, most enemies will kill you in one or two hits. Unfairly large instant death traps with wonky hit registration. Rather rough game to get anywhere at first no doubt but the models and such are nice.

good game for a first demo, the only thing i hate is the enemy respawns again after you kill them and if you die, and the enemy will one shot you after you die, regardless of health, and the ammo doesn't reset after you die and i don't see any ammo packs or something like that so it is a bit of a letdown.
overall nice game, just needs some improvement and bug fixes

I want to give the current initial version (Ch.01 Test Demo) 3.5 stars, but since that isn't possible, I am rounding it up to 4.

Imo it is quite well done for a demo as it is more polished than I expected for the typical test version of H-games. There is plenty to like here, especially the art style and character design, and I see plenty of potential although the UI could do with a few more lines of text.

Now onto the drawbacks. There are some issues that I couldn't ignore.
1. Deaths/Gore
The game is punishing, which is understandable, but for most of the deaths you will get gore scenes which while skip-able, will still subject you to the audio of a grisly death, i.e. it will fade out slowly while still playing the audio until you respawn.
I do not mind the occasional gore, but this is a game where you will die A Lot, and those scenes got on my nerves rather quick.
2. Ammo
I do not know if this is merely a bug or by design, but the ammo does not replenish when you die, while enemies will respawn, meaning you are losing ammo on each unsuccessful run.
3. Save points
So far I have found only one save point, which means a lot of backtracking and fighting the same enemies over and over again, with any mistakes or unfamiliarity with the map sending you all the way back to retry again, and there are plenty of environmental hazards to trip you up.

Overall, I would recommend trying it if you don't mind difficult games and like the stylistic design, but in the current state the mechanics can make it rather frustrating after a while.

Absolute banger of a game. If you liked SiniStar, EVE, Guilty Hell, this game is right up in that alley.
A MUST is to keep in mind that this is the first build of the game, and oh boy, for what the standard 0.1 release of H games usually is this is packing in both content and quality. About 1 hour of playing around if you take your time, and already 6 monsters and 2 traps to die to. Being a demo it has some bugs, but nothing game breaking, such as the ammo not reseting upon loading from a save file or the game freezing if you die at the same time as the npc that killed you (you have to exit and re-launch the game to fix these bugs). I'm not taking stars away for that as it's sure to be fixed with new releases

The combat is just dodging and shooting around, which is pretty standard for a H game, ofc nothing mind-blowing. The story seems extremely promising judging by the environment though and what the developer is saying on Ci-en

There are violent deaths in this so it might not be your cup of tea if you are distraught by that. There is plain sex too.

The "Graphic Violence" tag is poorly used here, it's an understatement. There should be a separate tag for extreme gore, such as this game. For a demo, it does better than most, so it's not a one-star rating.
Firstly, the shooting part is okay, props to the dev for adding headshot multipliers, but ammo is very scarce and given that the protagonist has only like 3 hits until she dies makes the game kind of redundant. It forces you to go back to the save point, where you have to do everything the exact same way as before, only even more boring. One-hit traps are everywhere.. Sure, they're easy to dodge but it gets annoying and repetitive.
Secondly, the H part of the game is very lacking. You only get a scene if you die, and you die very easily to anything. That would be somewhat ok if the girl doesn't get decapitated or ripped apart in every fucking scene. I wouldn't mind the enemies getting gutted and stuff, or rather an option be made to limit/turn off gore globally.

This demo doesn't put up a good impression. Demo is supposed to impress the player, make them eager to see more, motivate to support you, and want to see the whole game; like they say, first impression can be made only once.

Instead, we get:

• Buggy ammo reserves that don't replenish when you die; while the enemies do. Only way to get more is to reload from save.
• Repetitive one-hit-kill environment traps, with no save point after them, so you have to redo them after every death. They rarely work well outside of arcade games, and it's meant to be survival horror.
• Saves are buggy; you may lose the access cards with no way to reclaim them, and may respawn outside the map with no way to get back. Both would require full restart.

On the bright side:

• Good ambient music.
• Impressive visual design.