Honest question - what's your standard of comparison when you say "almost decent"? I'm new here, I haven't played a lot of these games, but the sense I get from most comments is that the whole approach of this game is a step above most of what's out there.
Do you know of other games which take this same kind of approach but are, in your opinion, *actually* decent? If so I'd be glad to hear of them.
Hey. Sure thing. Let's see...
Firstly, we're all here, giving all these sort of games a try, for the purpose of immersion. It's all about immersion.
See, most, whether they're conscious of it or not, wish for a more direct involvement in the porn itself. Now, watching porn, regardless of the reason for that, is fine and dandy, but at the same time, limiting. Think of it like the comparison between movies and videogames. With movies, you're sitting back on your couch, easing yourself into the role of the passive witness all of these cinematographic stories demand of you. With videogames, you leave that behind, as what's required of you is more involved, and you become an active participant of the action, rather than a bystander. You're no longer merely witnessing the story, but directly influencing it, however artificial that feeling may be, as, in the end, you still follow a set path.
Closely following what I said, it's the same with porn. All about the immersion in, not the story itself, really, but the context of the sex. You give context to something, it becomes something else. Something more, something colorful. It's why written erotica is so popular with women.
Now, returning to the task at hand, yeah, it's almost a decent game, barring the qualities I mentioned it lacks.
In the grand scheme of things, however, I can't really say that says much, as a bulky 90% of these so called "games" are absolute filth. Hence why I commended the developer for their effort.
Tapping back into the context thing from earlier, that's what makes a decent game. Plausibility. Believability.
When you're into a situation, if the slightest thought of "this shit's ridiculous" enters your mind, it breaks immersion, taking you out of the experience. And that fucking sucks. Think about those times you fuck a woman and she just lays there, like an abandoned starfish, her reasons for it being irrelevant. It just kills your mood. You look at her, and you start thinking. You put effort into wooing the woman, and she wasn't even decent enough to either stop you before starting to fuck her, or at least put some heart into faking it. You think to yourself, that if you wanted to fuck a corpse, it sure as hell would've been a whole lot cheaper, just running down the local cemetery and tipping the digger and extra ten.
See what I mean? Thinking. Cock killer. Once you start thinking, attraction fades away, and your carnal instincts log off.
If your porn, whatever it may be; movie, video, scene, comic, visual novel, game, book; gives you a window to actually think about it, even for a small window, it failed. At least, it failed for me. That may sound a tad hypocritical, but the only time your porn ought to make you think should be either before, or after it. Never during. Ugh.
As for some recommendations, I'm uncertain as to the existence of any decent branching path porn games out there (and not just porn games, but games in general; choices are a headache to write competently), so if you're seeking that, you'll probably be disappointed. If you merely requested tips in vein of quality, what you thought I might consider that, then sure, there's a few decent ones I've gone through.
- Summertime Saga. You need to play this. Right now. It's glorious.
- A Humbling Experience. It's the misadventures of a woman just a hair past her prime, confronted with rediscovering herself. Sexually, 'course. Might just be my favorite out the bunch. Top notch writing, believable situations, and beautiful artwork. The main character is smokin'. Plenty of laughs.
- Dreaming Of Dana. I'd say it contains one of the most well presented incest stories I've gone through. Brother - sister.
The core of the game is the relationship between the two, and it's handled well. Surrounding it, there's plenty of good fucking and relationship developing with other women, as well, which further embelishes the main conflict of the game.
Awesome renders, snappy dialogue, and a plus for the visual novel style. Yay for not being required to pointlessly walk around for twenty minutes to see a goddamn tit.
- Lily Of The Valley. Plenty of similarities to be found with "A Humbling Experience". Not as colorful and lively, narratively speaking, but I can say I've enjoyed it for pretty much the same reasons. I'd say, even though the porn happens more quickly, with not as much build up, it feels kind of stretched out. Like it's not pieced together as well as it should be. Regardless, a good time. Hot art, passable writing, and another smokin' main character.
- Redemption For Jessika & Finding Miranda. They're HTML (not a big fan) romance (good porn though) visual novels sprinked with a few choices here and there. They're part of a trilogy, with the first being "Dreaming With Elsa", which while fine, I didn't enjoy as much as its pseudo sequels (they're loosely connected). The writing is good, the stories are cool, and the renders are sexy enough. Third one, FM, has really good ones.
- Noble Privileges. Corruption of different chicks through debauchery for the purposes of enslaving them for your personal kinks, set within a medieval backdrop. Kind of a visual novel. Not much of a game. The artwork is well done, and the writing is almost fine. If corruption's your thing, this'll get you off.
- Officer Chloe. I think it's my favorite corruption game I've played, even though at times, it gets somewhat ridiculous. It's a combination of the smokin' main character, with the delicious renders, and an actually working system for "corruption points". It gives you just enough freedom to make a couple choices, and it deserves bonus points for the fact that you can give into the corruption, or, well, not. So, there's actually two different paths you can take. Though I can't say anything about the white picket fence pathline, as I didn't take it.
- Princess Trainer & Witch Trainer. Hella grindy, but hilarious. Loved the writing and the artwork.
