VN - Unity - Completed - HuniePop 2 Double Date [v1.1.0 Deluxe Edition] [Huniepot]

While I probably prefer Huniepop 1, I still think this is a fantastic game deserving of higher than 2.5 stars. The art has improved greatly, there's more going on in the date boards, and the music is more jamming than ever. However, I do feel like it downgraded in a couple of other ways, resulting in a more lateral move overall.
(If it isn't clear, this review assumes you're already familiar with Huniepop 1.)

Point one against: in introducing the whole "double date" mechanic, the game has strayed from the dating-sim/match-3 hybrid, focusing on the latter. You could remove the player character from almost every interaction without losing anything. Asking the girls questions has you trying to figure out which questions would have shared answers, rather than getting to know them. With all the sex CGs, you no longer get texted selfies of them engaging in their hobbies. Talking to them enough to "level them up" results in learning more negative traits about them instead of their positive ones, which add extra challenges to the dates. And everyone is just so goddamn horny that their few mandatory interactions are watered down by how much they want to fuck each other. I know it's a hentai game, but it really just takes me out of it.

Second: the gameplay loop feels just a touch more awkward than the first game. Both dates and talking give you Passion Fruits; there are four different types, and each girl is associated with one type. The store is split into four sections — one for each currency — with 8 random items in each. This could be a random assortment of food, date gifts, unique gifts, shoes, and smoothies. Every gift type but food (smoothies aren't food) drains one Stamina from the girl before the date starts, as does talking to her; you can only use two food items per time block to increase the Stamina again. You boost your stats by giving the girls their respective unique gifts, shoes, and smoothies. This means that, on top of a smaller and less consistent shop selection, it's far more difficult to upgrade your character when and how you want. There are more date gifts than last time, too, so it's also more difficult to find what you want, which in turn makes it harder to get the good synergies.

I know this is all coming across as very negative, especially for a 5-star review, but I really do like this game; that may be what makes these sticking points that much more noticeable to me. Assume that if I didn't mention any given aspect, it was improved from its predecessor. Call this an 8.5/10 rounded up to account for the average quality of most other h-games — far from perfect, but way, way farther from the genre's set standard.

Played on Steam Deck (Zero Issues)

Gameplay remained the same with match-three mini-games.
The way you upgrade the match-three mini game proficiency is changed to giving the right gift to the right girls.
(I did not like this change)

The storytelling got updated, and it is a little bit more engaging, IMO.
There are more characters and they are more diverse, which makes the game more interesting.
(I did wish most of the characters from the first game came back for this one. I was let down not seeing some of them.)

Drawings have improved.
(Cum Stain layers still need more work tho)

All the dialogues are voiced
All scenes are still images.

Overall, still a fun game.
(You have to like the match-three games tho, there really isn't much to do other than that.)

The much awaited sequel to the smash hit: hunie pop. This game also features the superb Voice Acting, great graphics and fun gameplay, but it feels like more of the same. Yes, you can go on double dates, but it feels very samey. On the other hand: this is still a rock solid game, developed with a passioin for h-games. Still worth playing.

This game is superior to the first one in almost every way.

People just got mad bcs it somewhat took away the focus from the one on one intimacy simulation.

The mechanics are more in depth, the choices are greater and better, the pairings of girls is unique, the way you focus on both gives more options, the outfits and styles are great, the overall variety is good, the setting is top...

The only thing that is stopping me from giving 5stars is that there are no animated scenes, which is kind of a big deal.

Brooke best girl.
and i hope the next game has a hot office girl as well.

I didn't know there was a second game, and I'll continue to act as there isn't. It's just worse than the first game in every direction. I'd suggest anyone to ignore the game. Also, who's idea was that to add that certain girl which may trigger the wrong people if they learn about it (don't ask me about them, IYKYK)?

For years, I've thought the low scores for this game meant the dev had made some kind of mistake with the sequel, and had messed up the gameplay somehow.

After finally getting around to playing it, I think the game is in fact, superior to Hunie Pop in almost every way, but the success of the first game puts the game under the kind of HD-view, where you can see every wrinkle.

This is a really great match-3 game, where the dev has iterated on every aspect of the original. Tighter mechanics, more complex choices, and less things to exploit. The visuals and music are both very lovely and appropriate, and a step up form the previous game.

I think this game genuinely got a bad rap, mostly because it was played by people who like memes more than match-3's.

Outside of the gameplay, however, things are more mixed, because one place where the dev hasn't grown is his writing. The opening section features more of the protagonist's lines, setting of the theme and pacing of the "story", such as it is, and it is one of the worst parts of the game. One part of it is just the game being very slow, and the other is... well... the themes...

I'm going to be the guy who complains about the calories in their McDonald's food, and say that this porn-game has a too much misogyny in it. Like, there is an unhealthy amount of women in this game who are there to be hated and looked down on. And there are great male-authors who have still made good comedy and fiction with that handicap, but this just isn't one of those times. This was there in the previous game, but it feels like now it's just been amplified, and the larger scope just gives the game more time to expose, that the extent of the joke is just that the girls that you whack off to are dumb, vain, annoying, stupid etc. The amount of effort put into the production-values actually makes it worse. The quantity of hatred for various things spread though a lot of the writing kind of takes a toll on the enjoyment.

There's a lot of other, more minor details about the character-writing as well, some of which are pretty positive, but I don't think they outweigh the fact that the motor that runs the porn-industry was running a little bit too hot in the author's head while writing . Whether it's because of genuine feelings, or just faking it because of wanting to project to a certain kind of player, the result is kinda the same.

TL;DR: This feels high budget, but poorly executed. The art is great with some very fun mechanics and gameplay, but you're more like an observer and there's only one CG per relationship.

Gameplay: It's good, but there is a bit of a grind. For the good, the gameplay is solid. It's your standard match three without any special combo tokens. That's not to say there aren't powerups, because those are date gifts that you can buy. The date gifts are quite fun and require you to think of combos. It incentivizes you to find what each girl's preference is and plan your loadout according to their baggage. The grind gets to me a little though. There are foods and unique gifts that increase the amount of points per match. These are essential when the required points to win become astronomical, however those cost seeds. Those are earned through winning games, there are six different categories that you need to level up, 24 pairs (each requires two wins) and you can see why there starts to be a lot of just work.
Oh and the exhaustion mechanic penalizes you for making larger combos. Just felt like that was an odd choice.

Baggage: This is the main new gimmick of the game (or so I've read. I haven't played the first game yet). It's a special rule that each girl has for one game and they are required to learn in order to get their unique gifts and shoes to level up your skills. There are some very awful baggages and a few very fun ones. The best one was easily Zoey's baggage of "Kinda Crazy." After each move, one row on the board was cleared with no reward. It kept the board changing and opened up many combos as well as ruined a lot of my plans. Additionally Abia's "Sex Addict" baggage was fun because I could have both girls use their date gifts to increase the number of lust tokens that fall and now only focus on one girl instead of two. Both were fun because I could use them to my advantage while they still provided a minor nuisance. A slight change in the game to keep things fresh, but not punishing. The opposite of this was Nora's "Abandonment Issues" which decreases your total points by 5% if you switch to the other girl. All that does is punish you for using the normal mechanics of the game. It's just an annoyance to make the game difficult instead of changing it. Not to mention the numerous other baggages which restrict you from using certain date gifts.

Art: It’s very nice, except they are very infrequent. Sure there are 31 different CGs (96 if you count the three different versions and Polly's junk as different) but you also have to win twice for each of them. There's not multiple CGs for one scene (except for the nymphojinn) and the girls are doing each other in 14 of them. I wish there could've been more, but there really isn't.

Girls: Most of them are a stereotype of some kind. Milf, bimbo, nympho, weeb, it's all very generic. It's another mixed bag of liking some of them but despising others. I enjoy Zoey because she's different and trying to help the player out. Same with Lailani because she's really innocent and charming. I loath Sarah because she's unbelievably annoying and while that is what the devs wanted from her, she's still terrible.

Story: It's trivial to the point where I could barely remember why we were stopping the nymphojinn by the end of the game. The only girl that brings them up is Zoey and the plot is otherwise unimportant to the main portion of the game. It's only mentioned in the beginning and the end. You as the player aren't even mentioned too much in the middle. Most of the girls are talking to each other and you're just left to watch from the sidelines. The only time you talk to the girls is before the dates because otherwise none of the other girls will talk to you and you're silent.

Im fairly...nay scratch that 100% sure it got badly rated due to its candy crush part of the game. Boys trust me...When you start chaining mad combos and loose a level by one point the pain the frustration is real. As a ripple effect the joy you get after passing a level is pure bliss the reward...one single nsfw image...

Newer games out there, I agree have a lot of cg and what not but there are fery few games with a good story line and a reward mechanism.
My final take...Boys and Girls...Work hard for your stuff...dont cheap out.
Thats all Folks

Really wanted this game to be fun but honestly it just isn't. Everything that made the first game good and fun has all but been stripped from this game in favor for a quirky new system that just isn't that fun to deal with. Right out the gate it seems cool and creative to put in a double date system where now you're lookin for threesomes but honestly I expected there to still be some 1 on 1 action like the 3somes were a bonus you could go for with an added difficulty. Obviously you're shown immediately out the gate that this isn't the case.

What makes this game worse than the first? Just the entire double date system and characters being given baggage. Now with double dates that means you have two factors that are required to line up instead of one. This means if you have only one girl left in the original huniepop you just had to look for her. Now you have to look for very specific combinations that might not even show up for weeks purely because of the dice deciding you dont get them. You can be put in a sort of limbo where you're stuck with one singular combination left to max out and the two just literally never get together.

The baggage is an interesting concept but also ultimately the biggest pain in the ass this game has to offer. Each girl has 3 different emotional baggages that are either completely pointless or dramatically change the way you play the game. Sometimes its good like broken hearts and passion hearts swapping utilities which gives you a free out to do broken heart matches to get them off the board so both characters prosper. Sometimes its just straight up lose 10% of your progress every time you swap off the selected girl. Sometimes you do one specific thing and even if that girl is at maximum stamina she's immediately burned out and pissed at you leaving you with the other girl who has like 1 stamina and you're fucked because of a combo that created itself that you didn't want.

Speaking of stamina each girl having 6 stamina so you have 12 in total to work with seems interesting at first. But then you realize you're splitting your efforts because now you have to build up twice the passion, twice the item builds, and pay attention to twice the tokens, it's fucking awful When you have girls that both have the same preferred token you're kinda forced to focus on one and the other is just filler to regenerate stamina. When you've got polar opposites it becomes a real juggle trying to maximize your passion and token matches.

All the systems on their own are creative ideas but they all come together into a game that functionally works but in terms of content all create a pretty annoying game to put up with.

(Reviewed after finishing the game v1.0.5)

♥ TLDR
I have almost no complaints. This game adopts the same match-three gameplay as the first game but adds some measured complexity into the mix.
If you liked the first game, stick with this one. You'll like it more as it progresses.

Also, reading other reviews made me both confused and surprised. More on that down below.

♥ A bit more context
As a developer, how do you follow your successful game?
You have 2 options. You either repeat the exact same game with minor changes, or you innovate.
First option is a safe bet, works for a short while and will keep most fans relatively satisfied.
Second options is the way of the brave. It is risky. You will be criticized for changing the formula. But in the end, you are happy because you let yourself try something new.

I'm glad that the devs chose the second option.
A match-three game walks a delicate line. You need to balance skill with RNG. The more variables you introduce the more RNG-dependent the game becomes; and HP2 has a lot more variables than the first game. But surprisingly the package works.
I have seen many match-three games that fail at this, but HP2 does a good job at balancing things.

I have almost no complaints with the exception of the final boss. I felt like a sudden unseemly grind was introduced. If I had known I would have prepared but nope. It felt like a gotcha moment, unless I'm missing something obvious.

♥ Conclusion
HuniePop 2 is probably the best of what it is. It's one step beyond the first game and its bravery should be rewarded.

Like a lot of video game companies, this one falls victim to a lack of awareness of who their target demographic is and what made the first game fun. If you like insufferable gameplay and unlikeable characters this is the game for you.

This game seems to be getting raked over the coals because it was made by a professional developer and is getting graded on that higher curve. I'm rating it five stars as compared to the other games you'll find on F95.

No bugs...no Engrish...very well drawn models...often funny dialog...interesting game play. That's a five star game in my book.

First of all this is not meant to be a fap game. Why punish it for that?

Part of the F95 reviewers' frustration seems to be coming from this developer not putting out a sequel clone of their first game and actually having the balls to try something different.

As a Bejeweled fan I'm liking the new gameplay mechanic that actually requires that you engage in strategical thinking as you plan and play out the dates. No more just searching for all the four and five icon matches you can find, this new gameplay is engaging and fun.

So if you liked the first HuniePop and are willing to be open-minded enough to try something different, I highly recommend this game.

On f95 I'm giving this 2 stars, but on steam I gave it a "would recommend"
I'm one of those weirdos who loved the first Huniepop for the match-3 gameplay with RPG mechanics, so I had fun playing this one, but it's not a very good porn game at all. The only illicit imagery you get is post-coitus scenes, which are always kind of lame IMO. The baggage system is hilarious and shakes up the gameplay and how you approach it, but the actual rpg progression is pretty weak.
A weird consequence of the baggage system is that the girls are now extremely neurotic individuals, and most of them are really annoying. Jessie's too much of a downer to be fun anymore, Lolas now an uptight career woman and coffee addict, Candy is so fucking stupid that it's honestly just depressing, and Suki? The human brain has 500,000 kilometers of neurons. If you wrote the word "hate" on every single fucking inch, you would not feel an iota of the hatred I feel towards Suki. I wouldn't call any of this bad writing, a lot of the lines associated with those traits are pretty funny, but they make me not actually want to fuck any of these girls. And if a hentai game makes me NOT want to fuck the girls, then I'm gonna knock a bunch of stars off the f95 review.

I think this game is a great stepping stone that may pave the way for other, raunchier sexual content on Steam, but as a game, it sucks. I don't want to play Bejeweled to get a girl off. Ick. There's exactly 0 seconds of sex gameplay in this sex game. It's all CGs. Even weirder, there's no benefit from talking to the girls, and sex scenes are a reward, which just feels... incel-y.

This game is a long, crappy Newgrounds hentai game with none of the lessons learned from all the other sex games that have come before it.

2/5

This second game is worse than the 1st HP in almost every way, most of all gameplay and writing. The exhaust mechanic often forbid you from making the match5 and you have to settle or a boring match3, it is anti-fun

Are you a racist lesbian incel? Then I have the game for you!

HuniePop 2 takes everything tolerable about the first game and drags it out the the Nth degree. The puzzle sections go on for longer, the strategic elements are less interesting, the jokes are cringier, the art is more off-model than ever and the voice acting is embarassing.

On top of this, every character is written to be a reprehensible mare. I've seldom played a game that hates its characters or its audience more. If you actually play porn games to get off then you'll have a real fucking challenge with this one.

Play any other game.

As a succesor to the original Huniepop its both strong and weak.

The character interaction is a lot weaker since you really don't need to talk to the girls as much. There also seems to be less good/funny dialogue

The Bejeweled portion which is the main gameplay is very strong though. It's a very nice innovative take on bejeweled as both planning resouce management during the round and setting up good date gifts before that that math the pair you're with. It was kinda funny when it hit me that thinking in terms of Tank/DPS/Support is a very legit strategy. Playing on Hardmode was a great time.

fuck this out! the worst game from 2021 and one of the worst videogames ever made!

totally inferior to the original,the new characters are terrible and annoying,that "stamina" and energy "features" are the worst bullcrap of this fucking bullshit of "video game" ,pathetic story,all in this fucking mount of excrement is all wrong!!!

stop supporting this bullshit and play real games!!!

It's a continuation of Huniepop, and the puzzle portions of the game were more challenging and fun with the double-date mechanic. However, it did feel more grindy with how the system was set-up versus the first game. The "baggage" the girls carry make the game more interesting, but it always feels like you're a 3rd wheel and that you're not really a part of the interactions between characters.

Horrible gameplay, you can't do anything and there isn't any animations, just erotic photos. It is a completely dissapointing game i recommend to not even download unless you just want hentai photos. And don't ask me about the plot...