Ren'Py - Demon Charmer [v0.09] [Darknerious]

Review for v0.09

I think this is one of those rough gem games for me. I enjoy the core parts of it, but especially for a dev's second game I think there's a lot of edges that need some polishing.

I find parody games pretty hit or miss, but maybe me having actual knowledge of Demon Slayer (what this is parodying) has allowed me to get into this easier. The premise of this game goes: we die defending a demon, she uses her demon powers to send us back in time, and we end up inhabiting the body of Tanjiro who's the MC of Demon Slayer. Truth be told I'd rather just play as a fully unique MC as I never liked the idea of playing an established MC from an anime/manga? Just feels kinda strange to me, but that's more personal opinion.

I don't know if low effort is the right word, but this isn't really trying hard with the plot. It's essentially following demon slayer with minor revisions to make it a porn game. Most of the relevant male characters are girls in the game, our demon power is copying others powers through the bonds we form with them, our demon blood is an aphrodisiac, extremely simple harem setup, etc etc. It's more fun focused than being captivating I'd say. While I do think it's fun overall, some parts of the "plot" also feel lazy.

The entire game kinda has a jank feel, but lovingly jank if that makes sense. It doesn't feel like the dev is rushing or putting no passion into it, but rather it just isn't polished like I mentioned. The navigation sucks and is missing QOL elements, but things like the character models and environments look great. The combat is kind of simple but also very flashy, which makes it enjoyable. The sex scene animations are actually pretty good for Koikatsu, but also have things like clipping issues. There's actaully a hint system for the main events, but also none for side stuff. It just goes back and forth.

Something that's a bit unique is the good/love and evil/corruption paths actually seem pretty different. I always go the good route since that's just what I personally like, but I tested the evil route a bit and it follows a completely different path. Which is neat, even if I'm not going to play the evil side.

If the game really fixed up the QOL stuff and filled out more with content, I think I would give it four stars. You aren't really gonna play this for the plot but it's fun enough to enjoy when in the mood for it.

It is an entertaining game and fun the characters of Kimetsu no Yaiba end up improving the game from 0 to 100 I hope a lot about this game since I really like this anime and have a game with content H so much better I am making it It's all for now that they have a nice morning evenings or nights.

So far I really do love this game mainy because now these days there is really a lack of choice in being good or evil in H games. Hoepfully this is a sign that may change in the future. I like all of the main gameplay aspects they are going with and so far I think this game has a pretty good future as long as it stays consistent with it's updates very excited to see its end state.

A fairly good Demon Slayer parody game. As always, parody games struggle to have a real narrative rather than a reimagining of the original, despite that I like what has been done here. The two paths seem fun as well. The animations are suprisingly smooth and lively which is always welcome.

I liked the game even though it doesn't have much content for now, I really liked it, it has what some games don't have: animations, voices and a combat mechanic that is not boring and the freedom to choose different paths I loved it.

Demon slayer parody game. Good renders and combat is easy. It's a nice initiative since there not that much demon slayer parody here. There is two main branches and content is short.
That being said I liked Dev's AOT parody more than this. If you like anime AVN's try this

Good Points
+ The plot was interesting, MC living in the current modern world, finds a heavily injured demon girl, trying to help and both of them get found by a hunter MC gets shot, then with the last power in his body kills the guy from back and saying demon girl to run, then the demon girl saving him with using her powers, the powers let her send one person soul to the past at the cost of her life, and MC arguing about it, saying she shouldn't give her life for him, and she saying she already made her mind and would give her life to him instead of being slave of those people, and saying MC to if he feels bad about this he should find him in that time period and avoid this ending along with saying her name is Lily, then we got transported to past to body of Tanjiro, and out story starts. So things kind of started well, it's a likable plot and if it's got back with a good story and story-telling later on story might be one of the strong parts of this game, but I wonder how DEV going to connect Demon Slayer anime is being existed, MC knowing the anime, and same time it's being real, something happened in past, is DEV going to explain like some historian write about real events or something? Honestly, that would be cool, but we will see I guess.
+ MC's blood art is creating bonds with people who drink his blood and gain powers from it, like learning breathing techniques that person knew, etc, and things he can learn being connected with how strong the bond he shares with that person was kind of interesting, but seems restricting as well.
+ Sun doesn't affect the MC because of his demon powers and his powers come from a demon named Lily, it's interesting considering ''Blue Spider Lily'' connection with Demon Slayer, and it's more interesting when MC changes Muzan's control over a Demon that demon gaining sun immunity like him, he did for Nezuko and Susamaru in ''Good Route'' and told he might do same for other demons as well, and that's interesting premise.
+ It seems DEV going to use the victim card well with Demons, like in the case of Susamaru after she wakes up she tells Muzan was the one who forced her to kill her own family, and she was angry and thinking how she can be this stupid to be this royal to Muzan.
+ We have two different routes, AKA ''Good Route'' and ''Bad Route'', so at least we have some variety I guess.
+ Sex scenes have animations, but sadly they are not well-made.
+ Some basic functions work fine, like ESC/Right Mouse Button sending us to the save screen, there are a lot of games messing up basic things like this, so that's kind of good I guess.

Bad Points & Suggestions
- The game needs big improvements on visual parts, renders/pictures (their quality), sex scene animations (their quality and physics) and combat animations (again their quality and physics) need big improvements, because currently all of them look low quality, this is the second game of the DEV, so I really don't understand why they are bad like this, improving them should be #1 priority. For example what was that scene where MC cut his arm? His arm was looking like 2D paper, or in the combat scene how he looks weird AF, are these for real? And weirdly enough even scenes from anime (or they are taken from the game maybe) look low quality... Seriously?
- Combat feels kind of boring, and repetitive, it could use some improvements.
- HUD/UI looks a bit cheap, especially combat and blood art HUD/UI can use some changes for sure.
- Nezuko becoming a demon again doesn't make too much sense, I mean we did leave the house before Muzan came and saved everyone, so she should have stayed as a human, probably done for staying true to demon slayer routes at least with her, but still it doesn't make enough sense, well at least MC did clean Muzan's blood from her body and replaced with his own, I guess that's something as well.
- MC telling everything to some people is kind of weird. First, he told Tomioka, then he told Makomo, who is next? I feel like he should have been more cautious about this.
- Yes, I told you we have two different routes and while their existence is good, I'm not fully sure if they will be good, first of all, names feel too white & dark, and even pictures of the routes feel kind of too obvious, like in ''Good Route'' MC looks like beta and shy, so choosing ''Good Route'' will lock us being beta? Can't we be a more dominant and cool MC with that route? Or is MC going to act like a shy beta and the only way to have sex with other girls will be letting them kind of rape the MC? That would be terrible, at least this is how it is in the current version. Secondly, choosing ''Bad Route'' is going to make us a really bad guy? Can't we have a ''Corruption Route'' without needing to be going fully bad? It seems routes are too white & black, which is not that good. And ''Bad Route'' having some unavoidable content is kind of nonsense as well, specific content like that should be fully avoidable. ''Bad Route'' and ''Good Route'' don't seem that balanced by content either, ''Bad Route'' had two sex (if you count the one Hisae had with a random girl, then three) scenes, while ''Good Route'' had only one with Nezuko, DEV at least could add sex with Susamaru after she wakes up, etc. And lastly ''Good Route'' lacks someone with MILF energy, big tits, curvy body, etc.
- We don't have music for the main menu, would be cool if we could have some music for the main menu as well.

For The End
Honestly, I can see some potential, especially in the story parts of the game, but the current state of the game feels poor, if this was the first game of the DEV it would be more understandable, but a lot of bad points make no sense considering this is DEV's second game, still, since it's the first version I will give 3 stars, but with fixed bad points this game can be 4-5 stars rate game for sure, story have good potential, hope DEV can fix the problems, improve the game and keep the quality of story well-written as well.

The protagonist encounters a demon in modern times. Conflict occurs, which results in him saving her at the cost of his own life. The demon, in turn, saves him by turning him into a demon, and uses her power to send him back in time to the body of the shōnen protagonist, Tanjiro Kamado. From there, his goal is to defeat Muzan. How he accomplishes this is through a similar feat as Four Elements Trainer's Slave/Love route.

The game has good potential. It's using Koikatsu models, but the models are decent looking (Evaan's probably). The game also has animations and I give them props for doing a good job with them. There is also turn-based gameplay, but it's barebones atm.

I really don't have anything bad to say about the game. If it takes off, maybe we'll finally see some good Demon Slayer content.