This game. This game... Where to even begin?
Well, an obvious starting point would be, its obviously NTR. Some like it, some don't, and both sides like to yell very loudly about it. As tiresome as that is, lets get this out of the way.
NTR IS UNAVOIDABLE, SO JUST STAY THE FUCK AWAY IF YOU AREN'T INTO THAT
Seriously though, who plays games with ntr as a theme just to avoid it? But I digress.
Lets get the usual stuff out of the way first;
SOUND: 8/10
I usually play all my lewd VNs muted, as I can't stand the endless wet slapping and high-pitched unintelligible moaning. But for the sake of the full breadth of this review, I went through and gave it a listen. And between the endless wet slapping and high-pitched unintelligible moaning, there is actually a surprisingly decent soundtrack. Dunno if its original or a carefully cherry-picked selection of royalty-free stuff, but its good. Lots of piano and acoustics, which really helps reinforce the melancholy and eventually, grim feeling that pervades the game.
STORY: 9/10
I'm not gonna call it masterful, necessarily, but it is the perfect example of its genre, which we'll get into in a moment.
ART AND LEWDS: 9/10
Excellent stuff. The art is top notch, with just the right amount of detail. Just still images, and none of that horrid pseudo-animation. The lewds are pretty basic, mostly vanilla stuff. The sex plays almost exclusively on the NTR themes, and bar one scene of bondage and one of anal, the game is pretty exclusively the usual vanilla trinity or oral, vaginal, and a few titfucks, with plenty of fresh variety in poses. Sex scenes can be pretty long, but never overstay themselves.
ALSO: ~/~
I see this game compared a lot to this developers later game,
Slut Girlfriend~ The Reason Behind her Sluttification. And I just gotta say, that one is quite massively inferior to this one, in every way save for perhaps its art. Its much shorter, much less impactful, much more optimistic, and honestly does very little with its presented themes. Its not bad, but its unfair to compare such disparate games.
In Review;
Now, the first thing I'd like to say about this game, is its long. Surprisingly so. I'd categorize this game as Nukige, which is to say, its a game centered specifically on porn rather then any attempt at plot. Most games of its ilk will run for maybe and hour, or two tops, and can be skipped through in 15 minutes. But this game is different. It would take an hour at least of just skipping to make it to the end, and this game's skip speed is
fast. There isn't really a plot to speak of beyond "guy fucks your girls", but it actually has a real focus on character development.
And that development is to make you feel as awful as possible.
To really understand the depths this game has sunk into to deliver peak NTR pain, we need to discuss the nature of NTR and its flavors, in order of which I feel they hurt you.
Because that is what NTR is supposed to do. Its supposed to hurt, and hurt deeply. It is emotional masochism, a fetish. Some people get off to be whipped, spanked, pulled at, stepped on, and the like. And some people get off to emotional pain. You don't need to be a real cuck to enjoy seeing it. And nothing,
nothing hurts emotionally like real NTR. Except probably getting actually cucked irl.
1. The first and weakest of the NTR genres is "fake cheating". Much like how step-sibling sex isn't real incest in the slightest (and true aficionados of the fetish are insulted by it), so it is the same of "fake cheating" NTR. On the surface level, its designed to appeal to the taboo of unfaithful sex, but in a rather pathetic, lukewarm way, as the male partner is almost or complete absent. It is merely implied that she is cheating through dialogue, the woman is almost always a milf-sized older married woman, and other then potentially acting as a gateway further down the rabbit hole, its very weak. A lot of NTR is stuck here, particularly doujins and VNs. Thankfully less common in interactive games.
2. A refinement of the previous tier, as such embodied by something like
NTR Homestay or
Swing & Miss, is the Real Cheating genre. Its truly a refinement on every level. The woman involved, while still usually older women, aren't unrealistic sexpots (as its a degree of realism or believability from which NTR derives its painful eroticisms, however small), and are usually happy with their relationships. But through coercion and manipulation, have their world shattered by a much more well-endowed, sex-hungry guy. The husband is also an actual character, with some agency, and in both example games, can even put an end to things before it goes irreparably far. Which means when things go horribly awry, its
your fault, and that hurts, as it should.
3. Of similar tier of hurt, but moving away from married couples, we have games like
Kedamono, which involved younger couples who are dating or at the very least, obviously interested in each other. Much of the same themes, such as coercion, manipulation, and being way better at sex, apply here, but the dynamic of your relationship hurts differently, adding a degree of powerlessness and "if only I had done something differently" into the equation, as the men stealing your girls are usually older, stronger, wealthier, and generally better then you.
4. Speaking of powerlessness, lets talk about games with specifically unavoidable NTR.
Thug Hero Party comes most forefront to my mind, playing up the themes of powerlessness. You will lose your girls. You will lose them hard. And in the end, they will seem happier without you. This isn't just a result of bad choices, but a testament to your true inferiority. You can't get the girl. You will never get the girl. The virgin masochist dream.
And then there is Iro Yoridori. Somewhere on the scale, I'd say it falls between 3 and 4 in terms of themes, since you
CAN stop the NTR from continuing, but not it from starting. And as stated, this game is long. It goes to great lengths to portray the powerless, emotional weakness of our protagonist as everything happening wears him down into a husk. First its cute girls he knows. Then its his crush, and lastly, his lifelong childhood friend, who gets by far the most screentime. The fellow doing the cucking is an acquaintance of yours, who actually has a face and appears in his entirety in sex scenes (something that is missing in a lot of nukiges, where even major male characters will have that shadowed-over face). This adds to the personal feeling of his actions. MC don't like the guy, never did, but he knows him, and his reputation for fucking around. And like a fool, the MC don't think it'll effect him until its far too late. And during this time that he is preying on other girls, you get plenty of interactions between the MC and his Childhood Friend, giving them much needed interpersonal development that is needed for NTR to have real weight. So when the inevitable happens, it hurts all the more.
But that's part of the core of the NTR theme. "What if I had done this?", "Could I have stopped this from happening?" "Would she still be with me if I had said something?" are why this stings like it does. MC was aware of this problem, and in his weakness, did nothing to curb it, and lost those who were important to him.
Perhaps it'll get old, as that's basically the whole of the game. It repeats this simple cycle again and again, your girls falling further and further into depravity while you fall deeper and deeper into powerless depression. I think the writing is supurb, and it keeps it fresh and interesting from start to finish, mostly, but if you're not an
AVID fan of the themes, I imagine it will wear out its welcome long before the game reaches its end.
As stated earlier, the sex scenes can get kinda long, but since the main theme is tied to sex, it is required to linger to push itself along properly, rather then jumping from scene to scene just to stay fresh like most nukige.
My singular complaint was that no one ended up pregnant by the end. Missed opportunity.
10/10, would spend another 8 hours in an emotionally devastated masturbation session again.
