HTML - Completed - Mercanoid [v1.0.8] [Pyksies]

This is a wonderful game with the classic case of a talented writer lacking an editor to explain that more can be said with less. Much of the game's dialogue (the deciding factor in how long it will take you to beat the game and it's sparse dozen fights) is entirely too wordy, even within the realm of smut. It's very easy to understand what is happening by reading the colored text (character dialogue) and skimming the white text (action descriptions.) Much of what is described is overly detailed and unnecessary to anyone possessing an average imagination.

On the gameplay side, it falls into the category of "defeat simulator" if you are lewd scene inclined, and fairly average turn-based RPG if you are gameplay inclined.

On the lewd side, the loss scenes suite the over-written text, are generally creative and well thought out.

The main character is relatively endearing. The developer goes for a narratively deep cut of emerging intelligence of a machine that is "property", though the short run times results in this narrative developing too quickly. For the developer experience and the nature of the game, I think they handle it as well as they could have. Some narratives require a longer experience than an author is able to give them, but telling a story at all is more important than being able to do that story justice.

There's a lot of optional lore in the game. It's fairly interesting and I hope the developer continues expanding upon it with their future games. They definitely have a lot of potential as a storyteller, but just need to be reigned in to prevent the lexical Miura-effect of overly detailing tree roots.

Overall, this one of the better games on this site. I am someone who is much more interested in the blending of lewd scenes into gameplay elements. Even if this game has every lewd scene tied into defeat except one (excluding ending scenes), considering you unlock these scenes upon defeating your enemy and have the ability to view them in order to restore your "focus" stat, it achieves a greater level of ludonarrative synchronicity than its peers.

Crank the difficulty, skim general text sections, enjoy the well-written loss scenes and decent turn-based combat, and you shouldn't be disappointed.

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For a more in-depth look at gameplay, well it's incredibly easy. Initially, I set the difficulty to Hard, level cap to Strict, halved the encounter rate and doubled the exp/money multipliers. This offered an experience that initially required caution, requiring short stints from your saferoom and occasional use of consumables, without being overwhelmed by monsters. I had to set the exp/money multipliers to 0 after finally encountering that "strict" level cap (which was at 6 out of 8 total, though there was probably one at 4 I missed) and blew passed it to gain enough experience for more than 3 levels. Personally, I would recommend setting both exp and money to 50%, if not 25%, if you are the type to try and accomplish all side objectives. At 50% encounter rate, this will keep encounters pretty regular while giving you enough XP to put up a fighting chance against the things you come across. And even then, grinding even just a little bit (especially if you craft the crafted weapon) you'll be more powerful than you need to be to take on anything in the game. Any build should work, even more "dialogue" focused builds (though there's not enough interactions/length to the game to warrant such a thing.)

I'm not a big fan of dubcon or noncon content, but this was a really really good story, 9/10.

The content filters were really nice, I'm thankful it had them!

The story was longer than I thought it'd be tbh, took me an entire day to finish the entire game.

I bounced off of this one. It's very well-written, and has interesting kinks that prevent the world and environment from getting stale (or they would, if the game wasn't a bad end collector.) Unfortunately, all of the spicy content is locked behind game overs.

An overwhelming majority of the content I came across in the first 1-2 hours required that I lose a fight, or make poor choices in an encounter, read lengthy defeat scenes, and then load a save. I'm someone that needs context to enjoy H-game content, so the lack of a proper scaling escalation of tension, interactions, and behavior for the character to engage with is an immediate dealbreaker for me.

I'm not someone that enjoys severe consequences bordering on themes of identity death, absorption, or implied death, so bad end content is often really sobering to me, rather than arousing. I know how to separate reality and fiction, but that doesn't change my ability to empathize with a character, which is why I tend to hate bad ends. It doesn't matter how erotically they're written if the implication is that the character's life is now effectively over. Plus, it means that all of the lewd content is packaged separate from the narrative, which does very little to excite me. It's essentially a constant, "but it was all just a dream" cop-out, except it's almost every single time the character gets in a meaningfully lewd situation.

I can tell that this game was a passion project, but the way the eroticism has been executed leaves me with very little desire to actually engage with it. I would rate this lower if it wasn't for the clear effort put into the writing. To be clear, I'm not rating this at 3/5, because I didn't care for some of the kinks. I'm rating this at a 3/5, because it's an erotic game that hides its eroticism behind "what-if" scenarios and lacks QOL features that have become standard in HTML games.

This is a genuine 3/5, in the sense that the game is average. For people who enjoy the idea of bad ends and don't mind needing to constantly save and prep to load back from a lewd game over, you'll probably love it.

Writing is good and the gameplay is alright but for a game like this it desperately needs QoL improvements, WASD support, shortcut keybinds for combat moves, just really basic shit that every other HTML game has. Its kinda crazy that it doesn't. Because of this the gameplay just gets a bit annoying and the combat itself is rather simple and unrewarding. Worst though is that the sex stuff only really comes in when you lose fights. That just seems like an outdated design decision, having to literally get a bad end to see the content is annoying or "fantasizing" about it after winning, its just a let down given the quality of writing.

I enjoyed it. The smut is good, the sci-fi aspect of exploring an android grappling with sentience while dealiing with their forced labor circumstances is good, and the systems are fairly well thought out. The game also doesn't overstay it's welcome. Five Stars.

A lot of text, but the game is solid. On the shorter side, but that's good because there's very little filler. The gameplay is ok, pretty simple and hard to lose. But you can still access the gameover scenes even if you defeat all enemies. There's no real need though, since everything is easy to beat if you just fully explore and complete all the quests, which doesn't take too long.

Just like many of the other reviews are saying, this game is short and sweet. It only takes 4-8 hours to play through, but the writing in this text-based game is superb enough to more than make up for it. It seems that this is more of a proof of concept for the system the game is built on, and the next project they're working on will be something full-length to make full use of the fairly solid base mechanics inside. I hope whatever they put out next is just as good.

Now this game is pretty good overall. The writing is solid, it has good characters, a very strong premise.

It does have a lot of text to get through. Seems obvious in a text based game there will be a lot of text, but sometimes more is less you know.

There is also a lot of repetitive combat. It's not really difficult at all, but there are constant random encounters.

My main issue is that a lot of the content is gained by losing fights. Winning fights does unlock the scene in your gallery but I'm not really a fan of that. So logically I go to lose a fight, expecting to maybe lose some xp or items, but I just get a game over. No way to continue except to restart from a save. Except I hadn't been saving so I lost a ton of progress. This game design is so baffling to me. See contend by losing but at the same time punish players heavily for losing???

I would have loved to see where the story and the characters went, but I can't be bothered to replay like 2 hours.

Overall worth a shot if you like text based games, but you better be saving regularly!

- Fleshed-out characters that are diverse not for the sake of being diverse
- Keen attention to details in the descriptions
- Various fetishes, with warnings and tags included

Amazing game overall, the only problem I found is that I wish the game is longer so that all of the available features and mechanics are used (more than once)

Yeah, it's a pretty good text game.

It's descriptive, doesn't have a bunch of mistakes, and is pretty interesting. The only thing I have to say is that it's very short and due to that I feel like a lot of the skills are fairly pointless because of it. At no point do you ever need more than like 5 points in something and some skills are used for 1 or 2 skill checks and then never used again. It feels like this was planned to be a much more extensive game with all the skills and systems in place but was cut short. Better short and sweet rather than forever hanging in development hell in my opinion though.

If you don't mind the scifi scenario, no art for sex scenes and are interested in the fetishes or just a well written game, i highly recommend you give it a try.

The pros
Mercanoid is well written with a interesting story, enjoyable characters and quite a bit of lore about the world it plays in, for those that are interested.
It has a nice variety in it scenes, which are unlocked in the galerie after you overcoming fights/challenges witout the needing to lose to see them and filters for content you may not are interested in.
The combat has a some interesting systems and is customizable in terms of money/exp rewards, difficulty and encounter rate.
Well polished, clean ui, pretty much bug free.

The cons
Mercanoid is a bit of a test run for features and you feel that some mechanics are under utilized, like context moves.
While a lot of the game is playable with just the keyboard on some actions these shortcuts are missing, like for example continuing at the end of combat.

Review for v1.0.7

Mercanoid is easily one of the best text-based games I've played in recent memory. A bit short but also very sweet. It's been awhile since I got into a lewd game like this.

I'm finding it hard to put into words, but you can just feel the care and effort that went into the writing. Labor of love is a very apt description. Pick any aspect of the game and I'd have something good to say about it. From the protagonist herself, the story, the truly diverse cast of characters, the lengthy and descriptive sex scenes, to even the minute details of things like room descriptions and other little cute details thrown in. To put it simply: the game is just fun to play.

Also love the amount of quality of life elements, which honestly deserves praise on its own. Being able to tweak encounters rates is super nice, but you can edit many facets of the game to your liking. I myself heavily appreciated that you unlocked scenes in a fantasize gallery after defeating enemies, so I didn't have to force myself to lose to them.

My one real criticism is that I was a bit disappointed to see none of the NPCs you rescue had sex scenes with the MC. It felt like a missed opportunity honestly, and was a bit surprising to me given how much detail they have. I thought I was missing something before I realized they just didn't exist.

Still, I really did enjoy the game. I feel like I've been given a small window into a surprisingly deep and complex world, and its left me wanting more of it. If this matched some of the other big text-based lewd RPGs in terms of scope/content and kept this level of quality, I have no doubt it would be one of my favorites. Excited for the dev's future projects.

Better than most games. The engine is smooth, and the writing is extremely well done. The sex scenes are also extremely detailed and cater to a lot of different fetishes.

The game is fully text based (aside from the maps and icons), but has enough details to easily imagine what's happening.

Mercanoid is an extremely enjoyable text-based game involving tentacles and lovable characters. I greatly enjoyed reading the content offered and characters, despite some issues.

Content wise, the game has enough. Like others have said, the game doesn't overstay its welcome. From numerous enemies, side-quests, endings, and mechanics, you'll be reading for quite a while if you're in it for the long haul. While I personally wish there was just a little bit more involving some enemies, it is not needed. What's here is already good enough.

The world is sufficiently built up for the scale of the game. As you progress, you will meet more characters, and these new interactions will build up the setting just a little bit more. By the end, you will know of what happened around you and of the outside world to some degree. The characters themselves are enjoyable to interact with and some are pretty adorable.

This game is the testbed for future games by the game developer. There are some issues lying around that we, the community, have already raised about. Most that I know about can be categorized as preference or minor. But there are two issues that should be noted before playing. One is the clothing system. This system is purely cosmetic despite the stats that are a part of the system. The stats are a part of the framework the developer created, but was left out for this game's development. Lastly, the map UI is good, unique, and enjoyable to look at. But, some key elements, like doors inside of a room, can be hard to notice. Again, these issues have been noted, but it is good to know of them before playing.

If you enjoy any of the kinks that the game presents, then I highly recommend playing it. You will have a good time with the world Pyksies has created.

This is an amazing text RPG with its simple controls and FANTASTIC writing, at no point did I feel the need to just spam through dialogue other characters in the game. The resource mechanics could be a bit more on the important side, but that isn't really the main point of this game. Combat was not the hardest thing, but then again I was playing normal, so I am in the dark about the difficulty in the hard mode. The writing for lewd scenes were amazing and addicting to see and review plus there was no wild hunt to acquire the scenes for viewing which was nice.

Overall the game is fun and engaging to play in general and the lewd scenes are VERY enjoyable to see, it is a must play if you're amicable towards the kinks present within it.

Outstanding as far as text-based games go, definitely the most fun I've had playing one. The UI is tidy, the map and movement are very satisfying, and the writing is quite decent.

I only have two negative things I could say about MERCANOID, the first being that the game isn't longer. The crafting and RPG mechanics are very fleshed-out and fun but I found that I'd finished the game before I got to really put them to use. There weren't a ton of uses for a few of the stats and I only ever crafted one or two items. That isn't a mark against the game itself however, not every game needs to be long and I applaud a game that leaves me wanting to play more instead of being glad it's finally finished. I also get the impression that this game was made with as a first step towards bigger projects and I look forward to them if that's true.

The second is just a minor issue with menu navigation; namely that there isn't a default "okay" or "next" button outside of combat. In combat you can just hit space to confirm and hit a hotkey for actions, but everywhere else you have to manually click your options from what I understood.

All in all the game has good writing, a fun little story, good UI and great RPG mechanics, looking forward to future works from Pyksies.

Adult games this polished are very rare. The dev is a perfectionist and it shows. Loved the map navigation in the sidebar (much more engaging than just text links). Note the game has no art, but the author partially makes up for it with detailed descriptions. Anyone into monsters, tentacles, and Scifi should give it a go.

Very well done game. The writing is charming, intersting and appropriately sexy at times. In addition to the main quest, there are multiple side quests that are also interesting to do.
The gameplay itself is not particularly complex, but sufficient for the task. The game does not overstay its welcome either, if anything, I'd like to explore the world more. Even though personally I'm not into the main tentacle theme, it was still a very enjoyable experience.

finished it aroudn 2 hour, the description of the scenes could use a lil bit of work but overall a pretty solid HTML game and better yet a finished one

if i have to put out some complain it would be a few minor things:
1. some dialogue in battle cannot be skipped with space, there are 1 gialogue box that you need to click isntead of pressing space with in battle, it's annoying but again pretty minor

2. no full focus recovery, you have full recovery for health and flow (mana) however you can only get focus up to 70% without items
Addendum : there is a full focus recovery once you finished ervina quest

otherwise pretty solid 10/10

I don’t usually play text games but the reviews did not lead me astray, and I don’t think they’ll lead you astray either.

Unlike many text based games out there, this one is finished and trust me, you’ll finish yourself more than once along the way.

Much ado has been made about the lore in this game, which I really appreciate for immersions sake, but I think the real strength of this game is the character writing.

It deals with some heavy subject matter in a shockingly lighthearted way that really endears you to the main character, Mio. I love her. wifey. She’s very terse at first brush, but that’s a result of her being forced to suppress her good nature due to some complex circumstances. Seeing her bounce off the other members of the cast and be annoyed by her ridiculous lewd circumstances is a lot of fun.

Oh, and she’s super hot getting fucked completely silly by all manner of slimy creatures.

In terms of H content, this game really nails the delivery method. You’re exploring and meeting characters while engaging in the occasional (surprisingly enjoyable) battle. However, while most lewds are defeat scenarios, each and every one is unlocked for viewing at your leisure in your “home base” the first time you defeat a monster. That means no rebattling a monster after losing just to get the scene.

And if you feel like losing, the accompanying “bad ends” to each encounter are avoidable so long as your careful. You can continue on no problem after a loss in random encounters.

Content options are also available, which is always a super nice touch. I also love that the kinks for each scene are listed in the scene viewing menu.

To set your expectations for what you can get out of the experience, I’ll list below:

-occasional lesbian action, alongside mio often being flustered by how hot all the big titty ladies around her are
-shortstacks
-lots of big tiddy and wide hipped ladies. the mc has a more modest bust
-Long detailed h-scenes, those of which that feature Mio usually include an optional bad end.
-Pregnancy and birth content of both the egg and non-egg variety (as non-egg as an android can birth anyway)
-Fucked silly / ahegao content. Mio as an android isn’t accustomed to any sex, and all of the creatures are purposed organisms designed to fuck your brains out. Expect eye-crossing and loads of “nhooohhhhh”
-Lighthearted rape. People deal with being turned into broodmothers pretty well all things considered…
-It’s free!!! Thank you to the dev, you’re the real homie
-All scenes (even missed or bypassed ones) are unlocked for viewing. Contextualized as masturbating to “what ifs” to quell the mc’s libido and keep her fighting fit.
-A little bit of minigirl/pixie/fairy content
-no visuals, no character art

The negatives (in my eyes):
-So much purple lol. I love the color too, but I wish more of the tentacles had white cum rather than spraying goo. Some do, mind, but in my eyes they should all
-Pregnancy is afaik limited to bad ends. Makes sense and isn’t uncommon, but still would have appreciated more to it.
-During h-scenes it can at times get difficult to tell what position the character is in. Not a huge problem, but more and most importantly repeated detail about what the character’s bodies are doing would be nice.
-room descriptions while exploring are too verbose. it can get exhausting to read all the details, but if you don’t you might feel like you’re missing what’s happening.

All in all I recommend you play the game. You’ll have a good time. Even if you’re not the biggest text adventure fan, this one is well worth the look.