Happy Heart Panic is a mix between a platformer and a beat 'em up, focusing on contained groups of enemies or even one-on-one battles that features a variety of imaginative levels, high quality animations, decent sound design, niche fetishes, two playable protagonists that can be hot swapped on the fly and usable items that act as powers or weapons.
The game is a step above most other h-games, especially for a Patreon project, and is well worth a couple of hours of playtime, especially if you are into ABDL and musk/scent/light filth play.
4/5 stars.
For those of you who like this game, pay the creators or want to defend this project, the review is over. There's nothing left for you here.
What you read above are my thoughts in isolation, if I had found this game for the first time today. What you can read below are the vitriolic reflections of someone who is tired of people trying to nickle-and-dime you and finding every which way to excuse laziness.
This game is by now several years in the making. I played the very first version back when the overworld didn't even exist and all you had were two enemies. Most of us assumed that, with the bulk of the project done (that being movement, the animations system, combat mechanics, saving features, etc.) that the rest would come along nicely.
But then the Patreon money began rolling in (or subscribestar or whatever, you get the gist.) Updates slowed down to a crawl, suddenly adding a boss fight and changing the layout of a level was an arduous process that would take half a year. Funny how every indie dev is incredibly competent the less monthly donations they receive. Granted, I don't expect anyone to maintain a breakneck pace for years, but the pace difference is blatant and widespread.
HHP now feels like a game lacking direction, following the helm swings of a caffeinated chimp getting distracted with every new island spotted. A new level is announced, introduced months later, and left incomplete or paired down and wrapped up to make way for the next spur-of-the-moment level the developer wants to work in. That goes for all levels except the ABDL one.
"It's tHeIr gAmE, tHeY CaN Do wHaT-" Shut up, we're all adults here. If the devs want such a heavy focus on ABDL, we'd all rather they get their rocks off first, finish that whole section, and then buckle down to work on the rest. The truth lies in the quiet part. They would lose supporters if they did that.
They reworked the combat system at one point. There are now status effects from what I gather, and a heavier emphasis on Stamina. I swear the invul period after getting hit is shorter too. I find it frustrating. Pick Whispy and take ages fighting from the safe distance of his crowbar, or pick Sam, charge up in a second flat, rush in and demolish everything. No in-between. Was this also a bigger idea that got paired down?
Making games is hard. Ungodly hard. I couldn't make something like this as I barely know some coding and I can't draw for shit. But as it goes, "I don't need to be a pilot; if I see a helicopter stuck in a tree, I can go: Dude fucked up."
