Ren'Py - Parasite Black [v0.170] [Damned Studios]

There is a lot of content that will keep your attention for a long time. What also is nice is the addition of the auto-battles that make it feel not very grindy that is also able to be toggled. Interesting characters, renders, and story line. Strongly recommend

A very good game, sandbox with already a good amount of content, good writing, interresting story, full pregnancy, good characters, a very unique visual style, a real dark-fantasy lore, good gameplay, there is even farming if you want to get the best equipment

One of the greatest openings in AVN history, then it becomes generic.

I have been following this game since its inception, and I wanted to give it ample time to form a more honest review. Here it is.

The game starts with an AMAZING opening. We are launched into a medieval world amidst a war, and the early events are truly captivating. We become engrossed in the world and the characters, leading us to believe that this is the beginning of a great experience.

However, everything falls apart after the prologue. The game quickly devolves into a generic AVN. The story progression following the prologue is disjointed and lacks coherence; it feels choppy and unrefined. Character development is also rushed, with no real adaptation or learning curve. Players can undergo full transformations and dominate from the very beginning, which undermines the sense of growth and challenge.

Many characters lack depth and exhibit inconsistent behavior. Initially, I thought these issues were simply due to the game being in its early stages, with the developers still needing to fill in gaps. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. The writing does not maintain the same quality as the beginning, and it seems the developers were overly ambitious. They could have created a fantastic visual novel by sticking to a traditional format with some free-roaming moments. Instead, they opted for a sandbox "open world" experience, despite lacking the ability to provide sufficient content and seamlessly connect all the elements.

Additionally, the game suffers from the curse of constant revisions. It’s never a good sign when the same content is repeatedly redone, especially with such slow development.

In conclusion, while the game is worth trying, it unfortunately does not live up to the expectations we had.

Awesome AVN. I usually loathe sandbox, but this one is great. It's not too grindy, and you can focus on the story if you want, which I really appreciate.

I love power fantasies, and this one nails it. It feels like the high-fantasy sibling of "Superhuman", but with polished art right from the get-go.

I'm going to follow this game closely and so should you. It's just awesome.

Excellent! Im completely hooked on the story. I couldn't care less its an adult game its that good. Everything else is just an added bonus. Its well written, it flows consistently. There isnt a single part where I've been thrown off for either being excessively outlandish or just not making sense. Ive been following this one for awhile, and I just recently played it again after a hiatus and it didnt disappoint. Cant wait to see Chapter 2 expanded upon.

Wow really good game!

I never thought I would play them game for such a long time, but when ever I thought "Ok that's it" I found a new side quest. Really interesting story and cool girls. I love this dark setting.

If I would critize anything then that would like more domination and corruption of the girls. After all that is a dark world, but the MC is very heroic (mostly).

The best quest is with the Tanners where you could let the husband die so you can grab his wife.

The new sex secene in the desert city with the cat girl is amazing.
For a RenPy game the combat is amazing.

Great work!

VERSION: 0.163
SUMMARY: Pretty decent GAME with VN elements.
RATINGS: (out of 5):

NOTE: The following categories and scoring method are my own criteria and may require more context. Additionally, scoring is based on the state, and what is in the current version and not what may or may not be.

1. Model Visuals..................... : ⭐⭐⭐⭐
2. General Visuals................... : ⭐⭐⭐⭐
3. Animation Quality................. : ⭐⭐⭐
4. Character (Persona)............... : ⭐⭐⭐⭐
5. Story Quality & Pacing............ : ⭐⭐⭐⭐
6. Writing Quality & Dialogue........ : ⭐⭐⭐⭐
7. UI & Game-play Mechanics...........: ⭐⭐⭐
8. Playtime & General Quality.........: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
9. Sounds & Music.....................: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
10. H-Content & Fetishes.............. : ⭐⭐⭐

Average: X of 50 possible points giving a X% rating i.e. X stars.

PROS:

1. Models look pretty good
2. Story is interesting and told well even if its strongly tied to the idea from Marvels Venom.
3. Dialogue is good, planned and thoughtful.
4. The writing is good also, reads well and is structured well.
5. World is nicely designed and its good for its style, though not a style I really like, its great for what it is.
6. Sounds are all pretty good on all levels and the lewds sounds are especially more noticeable than the average games.
7. Combat is typical turned based but fun enough, still... SEE CONS

CONS:

1. Not much variation on traditional kinks, but has some other weird and interesting ones, that actually are good. This is not really a con.
2. Some sounds during lewd scenes are bit much, one sound that should be a more squelching sounds more like a cauldron of thick soup boiling. This is a nitpick and just something I noticed doesnt fit.
3. Navigation is probably the biggest gripe for me, getting to places take actually a good while like 2 days or more in one direction and a lot of bouncing around.
4. To add to the above point, you can't explore or stay out of town or areas where the MC can get his dick wet less he dies from the parasite infection, this makes that you are very limited by the slow traveling vs the fast rate of infection.
5. Much of the game is still under development and not featured or available in the game.
6. So far pregnancy is a great kink, but not one that really feels like a kink, simply a matter of fact. See Comments
7. While the combat and character combat mechanics, stats and all are very nice, the game requires a lot of grinding to actually get enough money all the while, while keeping the parasite sexual urges in check less you die...
8. Much content is not available and the game does not feel like it is progressing in any meaningful way with its primary story. (at least so far)
9. Other system issues are e.g. no obvious way to reset skills if at all, character stats are missing for LIs, it would be nice to see stats like pregnancy and such.
10. Added to above, QoL things like selling bronze to the smith, could be done faster with a slider or such instead of having to go back and forth in the dialogue. Also even traveling, one click, travel the route through or optional stop at each point. Honestly though the traveling is a not great IMO.

FINAL REMARKS, OPINIONS & SUGGESTIONS:

NOTE: The following remarks are my personal opinions and thoughts, which may provide more context and could be useful to the developer.

• While I think its a good game and vn, I do not really like the style, aesthetically speaking, the look is more cartoon'ish where I prefer more 3D or traditional VN look.
• Impregnation scenes happens but simply consist of the MC creampies LI then notice of "something happened" occurs which indicates she is knocked up. Later you get notice for LI she is pregnant, little later you see a bump and a little later a kid is born you don't see again. Its all just lip service and not a kink. No kink talk, no milk/lactation content, none of the really kinky stuff, bit disappointing and untapped potential, especially for a game that relies more on imagination and kink through text than any visual render, because lets face it, the VN looks like a cartoon and not high quality 3D rendered VNs
• Visually the game looks good, but its style leaves it a bit shallow for me and this VN relies more on the dialogue and erotic writing than actually any visual stimulation. This to me is a bit disappointing, simply because I am creature who enjoys the best of both and fidelity, good renders and animations during sexual scenes provides that.
• My other concern is that the game is going on a few years and there is not a hell of a lot of content, at least in terms of the main story. It does not feel like we can expect an ending soon, and if there is one soon, I doubt it will be profound or very good. Point is that I would like to see more, but this is a common gripe and comment. I do not take away from the development process and that this would take time to make especially if doing it solo or as a small group. This is my opinion of course.

TLDR:

Impressive little game, I think its worth supporting this developer as the quality is very good. Some elements stand out to me that I feel may need more attention as the game can become grindy to progress. It still very good, done well and has decent combat mechanics and VN elements.

this game is so good. i hope this game dosen,t abandon. the stroy is so great. i just love this game. hope future update add more brothel content. thank you so much for shareing this game. if posible plz add hero in the brothel owner. i mean i have my own brothel . and i can hire girl for my brothel. so plz if can add like this content.

I have complicated feelings about "Parasite Black".

I believe that there was a decision early in development that changed the way this game is played. The prologue is completely different from what follows—it starts dark, cruel, and sometimes even suspenseful. It’s also not a sandbox. While not everything is perfect, overall, it feels... original, yet pleasantly familiar. There are stakes here, an actual story, a direction to the scenes, and the game doesn’t hold back in its grotesque imagery. Think, I dunno, The Black Company by Glen Cook.

After the prologue, the game becomes generic. According to F95's rules, I can’t name other titles here, but if you’ve played sandbox fantasy AVNs, you know what to expect. If not, I’ll briefly characterize it.

When you look at a sandbox AVN on Ren’Py, you’ll notice certain flaws shared among many games:

• Weird pacing (story bits interrupting meaningless wandering)
• A catch-'em-all harem mentality with no tension
• "Meet the girl at Location X in the morning" mechanics
• Some form of tedious grind (not as bad as JRPGs, but still unengaging)

It can’t be helped, I guess, but execution varies. Here, it’s… alright. Some things are atrocious (navigating the wilderness is clunky, time-consuming, and boring), but mostly, it’s competent.

What about the writing? It’s alright, but there’s too much of it. After a while, I grew tired of reading. There’s no tension, no conflict—nothing gripping.

Now, the horny stuff—we have to discuss it since it’s an AVN, but I, for some reason, want to end the review with it. Why? Well, because it’s… okay.

Yes, just okay. The game hints at somewhat unusual kinks: breeding, dominance, sex while transformed into a monstrous creature, etc. Sometimes it explores them, but overall, it feels surprisingly mellow.

• You may fuck a girl as a tainted creature, but you won’t be rough.
• You may impregnate a girl (with an occasional voice in your head urging you to), but it’s rare.
• You may feel a power rush from being a badass-cooler-than-the-heavens, but it fades quickly, it is watered-down.

I honestly don't know what to make out of it.

Are the lewd scenes pretty? It depends. For the visual part you can simply look at the screenshots. As for the writing, as you may've already guessed, it is competent, but sometimes it is simply not enough.

Overall, I think this could be a four-star game after a lot of tinkering. Three stars feels too low—but I’ll go with it.

Play it nevertheless. It is much better than most stuff we have here.

[Ver 0.160.]
Good start, bad all others.

Epilogue was great. Dark fantasy in all of its glory but after Act 1 it became default jolly vn with unremarkable quests, awful battle mode and poor graphics.
In epilogue you can forgive graphomania cause it has interesting story with smooth narration, but after that even in love scenes you get tired of skipping a lot of text with scary graphic.
Scary cause girl you were just talking became another girl with different face, hair, color of skin and other features in love scenes.
Despite this animations look good.
In this game devs collected a bunch of different kinks but this looks absurdly all together and it was done at the cost of essential things.
Many times the text doesn't match to what is happening on the screen.

It says from the start that exp you'll get mainly from unlocked sex scenes and completed first time quests, it looks interesting at first but when you realise that you should fight a lot to get good equipment it became painful routine with bad payment for you efforts.
You should clear the same few locations with random chance of appearance on the map with few types of enemies who could beat you with just 2 consecutive critical hits and it happens quite often. Random reward that almost always lower than the cost of spent potions. Even if you have 10 level it's the same story with the same low level enemies.
After few fights you should return to town to drop your infection level with the same girls in same scenes. Repeat x100.

Some attributes like charm and barter are almost useless and only available to your character. You get the same amount of attribute points with another char in your party so your main protagonist will be the weakest. Also all stats hard locked so you can't raise one stat much higher than others.

In short it has awful balance with a lot of random.

Dropped it in 21/37 history progress after few deaths on Bazark. I thought it was one of the starting quests to unlock sex partner in desert but devs think differently and made it one of the main boss in the end of game. Therefore you should farm resources in desert and always return to town.

Music and sound leave a pleasant impression.

There is a lot of work needs to be done to satisfy the tastes of the players devs are trying to attract even with poor graphic.

this game has some flaws, the art can be a bit inconsistent, the tone sometimes strays a bit too far from the "dark fantasy" the game seems to want to be and the maps are not great. But it's a solid narrative and a good male dom power fantasy.
The sex scenes can be a bit short but the are almost all well done and there is a wide variety of LIs to pursue, including incest content with the patch.
The RPG aspect is intertwined with the game and unavoidable so if you are looking for a straight VN this is not it
The RPG portion is fine and good enough that it does not detract from the overall experience. It wasn't a feature that really pulled me in but others may get a bit more milage.
Overall highly recommended for people who like fantasy settings, male dom and harems. People super sensitive to LIs being with people besides the MC may have some issues as there are FF scenes and prostitution

What an absolutely fantastic game. Time flew by without me even realizing it. There is so much content already in the game, I'm talking probably 10 hours if you read everything and try to unlock all the stuff available. You cannot unlock everything on a single run as far as I am aware due to choosing a perk path causing you to be completely locked down one way. I am so excited to see this game reach completion, even though its still very early in its story, I would put this game on the same level as Eternum and Pale carnations in terms of quality. The story uses the setting very well and I think that this is the best dark fantasy game I've played in a long time. The only detraction I can really have is that the combat eventually gets repetitive and the autobattle will get you killed more times than not so you have to manually play through. Regardless of that though, please give this game a try and support the developer because this is one of the few works on here that I really hope will be finished

The combat is fun overall, sometimes they are a bit of a grind for attacking one round, healing the other.
Story is great, really enjoy it so far.
Character development is solid; I enjoy all of the characters, even the "bad guys".
Art isn't "quadruple A", but is still pleasant and well done.

Really looking forward to the continued development.

After the fiasco that DAV was, I was left with hunger for proper Dark Fantasy games, so I ended here again, and with that banner art and overview, Parasite Black captured my inmediate attention...But as the butcher said, "Let's go piece by piece"

Story: 3 Almost-Hard Bananas out of 5
Parasite Black begins stomping hard, with a world setting really well built (writter even created his own calendar) and a conflict against an enemy so strong that makes us realize our MC is uttermost screwed, and survival is a prize only for the most fittest.
At the moment just before receiving our "gift" I was completely ecstatic with the absolute brutality of the plot.
Sadly, all that dark fantasy fades away the moment we get to freeroam the city and we get the Disney's Dark Fantasy™ instead.
Weird thing is, the pacing is there, the setting is there, the powerful foe is there...But the inherent darkness of the dark fantasy genre is completely absent from now on (It makes a brief comeback when dealing with a certain enemy, but thats it)
Maybe the prologue sets the bar too high, but the moment a furry is included here, my jaw dropped from the shock: Fluffy and cute furry beings don't mix well with dark fantasy, they are cute, and cuteness wont last long against hellish creatures.
The plot moves slowyly after we receive our "gift" and chit-chat is not really engaging either most of the time, much to my regret

Characters: 4 Solid Bananas out of 5
Heroines look good most of the time...And by this I mean before the artstyle switches when on a scene, then quality drops and some may look way different or they are inconsistent with the character, main proof of this is the MC itself, Caspian, sometimes he looks like Lorenzo Lamas and other times he looks like Branscombe Richmond (Yeah search it m8, I had to do it too)
They are generally well written, except the MC again, He is an inconsistent character: on the outside he looks like a Viking but on the inside he is tender and shy as a teddy bear.
I got the reference with Myu, Elfen Lied was such a good and inspiring piece of media that many of us, children in that distant 2002, remember this anime even today.
Vizura best girl, but Nijah and Regina are close too.

Mechanics: 3 Almost-Hard Bananas out of 5
I knew from the start that I was getting into a sandbox RPG, so I was expecting grinding and a lot of battles, but the battle system needs more polish, as the RNG is really screwed and makes the combat not as enjoyable as it should be.
And the Scenes Gallery...This one must be the best integrated into the game I have seen so far, including the music selection that plays in the background while you are there with Babazhul, that particular track reminds me a lot of the games that marked my childhood.
Originally, I completely forgot talking about the stress mechanic...Its good and makes sense for the lore of "the gift"and the way to manage it works to integrate the adult aspect of the game.

Content: 4 Solid Bananas out of 5
There's plenty of scenes with plenty characters, mostly vanilla stuff.
Art on these scenes have big room for improvement.

Ending: *404*
Current version doesn't have an ending yet, so this department is pending of rating.

Parasite Black promises a mature dark fantasy RPG but somewhere in development the Mature Dark Fantasy got lost, but like I said before, the game has potential, with some serious compromise (and some sacrifices) it could get back in the original setting, will this happen?, plotwise is their reach exceeding their grasp? nobody but Babazhul knows for sure...

The game is great, it feels complete. It has hot animated sex scenes and it is kinky, combat with perks and skill tree. The infection bar is a new mechanic that introduces a new element of danger. I like to keep old saves from previous session to prevent being stuck in a perma death loop. I hope there's more morality choices in the future updates and mutation being explored more. For example shedding humanity and going full mutant like perks or passive skills that make mutant form more viable in combat. I don't know how, but sometimes auto battle help me win battles that otherwise I would've lost. The monsters are hard, even if you're at the recommended level.

However, there are a few things that don't make sense or don't mesh well for me:

• You die if the infection bar is almost full, even though you're having sex.
• You can't pick previously unchosen perks, only new ones. I like to unlock new sex scenes in a playthrough.
• You don't get exp from every combat. I'm guessing I'm over leveled and I need to go a new area.

Delivers an interesting story with adult themes. Good artwork, very good world building and lore, and the melding of sandbox, story, and turn based combat works well enough. While there is a lot of dialogue, it is interesting dialogue that builds on the story and provides background. If you are not into dialogue or story based games, you may not like it. If you are in it just for the fap material, this may not be for you.

As you enter the world, you will see some nods to Starship Troopers, Attack on Titan, and Kaiju-8. The similarities end quite quickly and the game has its own stand alone story and feel. Think Fantasy RPG mixed with Sci-Fi body horror with adult elements mixed in.

Too annoying to play, barely any content considering how long it's out and too much pointless text. I really hate it when games make you click an option, when in reality there is only 1. Also not only do you have to grind for material, it is random if you can even do that.
This game is way too overrated, especially compared to others which have lower ratings and deliver a way better experience.
The content which does exist is also quite boring and mostly vanilla.
At least the prostitution and pregnancy tag aren't a lie, which is a rarity.

Challenging Erotic Sandbox.

Imagine being able to become Elon Musk in a Hentai Game of Thrones low fantasy milieu. Plow hot babes, Sire a plethora of kids & become fantastically wealthy.

Also, you can become a brutal Carnage like creature with a raging libido who'll die of blue balls if he doesn't get freaky. Kinda like the Stress mechanic in Darkest Dungeon. Lucky for him, there are hookers, war refugees, a childhood friend & a Futa priestess ready to aid our mutant protagonist.

The ladies/others are well drawn & animated. Furries, Monster Girls & hot human women are all available once proper questing is done. The game rewards hard work. I love the combat system & crafting.

A lot of work went into the world building & story. I'm looking forward to where it all goes.

This is a really good game, the kind of good where you could have fun even if it wasnt a porn game. The art style is very nice, the animations look pretty good and the story is really interesting. Also have a lot of different kind of fetishes, even though some of them are only hinted at coming soon.

The combat is the kind where you actually have to try a little bit, but not overwhelming and annoying and if you just want the sex scenes you can just easy mode and chill. Do wish you had some sort of warning or a roll-back option if you let the infection get too high though cus I did at times forget about it and got a game over while in the middle of nowhere, but I guess thats more on me

Oh ye, forgot to mention the gore. The gore is strictly non-sexual, no vore here. The gore actually made me feel unease, very visceral art in the gory death scenes which added to the vibe of the story and world, usually I dont get too affected by gory death scenes, but these ones got me

Good potential, but frustrating realization. Sex scenes are good, but compared to other game events - very rare, so it don't do much. Gore-stuff - looks fine. Yet it looks hella strange that even being a PiMp, your character make a girl fall in love with him. Every relationship here is nice'z friendly, and i wouldn't even metioned it if not a DaRk FaNtAsY setting with blood, ripped guts and other fine looking stuff. What else? Combat system - a full garbage. Delete it, abandon it, throw it away - RNG is ALWAYS suck cause it's always made by a lazy dev's who don't wanna waste their brain cells on something complex, so instead of t hat they just hit da playa with a boring JPG-file casino, where your 85% chances to hit turning into Miss-miss-miss. Bruh.
Almost forgot about a braindead time-wasting map management. Okay, in da city it is fine, BUT when you comes out to travel between locations - it turns into a huge boring chore, cause it is empty scenes you already saw or a boring/annoying fight with a 4 lizards or whatever. And it doin real emotional damage when you walk through it just to see one text-event with a damn orc that will send you traveling another circle. I mean. Seriously? ZERO respect for not just a players who tried it but for da whole time conception.