It's indeed a travesty how bad Rose is, despite the great art. Feel the gameplay wouldn't be near as insufferable to deal with either if it weren't for the fact it has the same issue as other side scrollers, where you're just fighting the same enemies over and over to vainly mask a game's shallow content while simultaneously padding out its playtime. Usually ruins a good thing.
Alas, most games I mentioned earlier do have that problem, though some have it without wearing out their welcome.
... also probably why I like Alps more than most of them because that's one thing it never had to worry about.
What do you regard as the best for this genre anyway? Any guilty pleasures?
the BEST in the genre? oof now you hit me with a strong one
hmmm...
you know
i've always said that holy knight ricca is probably objectively the best, BUT it's not my favorite
i say it's the best because it has the highest production value of them all, it's the closest thing to a AAA hgame, and that like, you can't question the quality
now i personally do prefer pixel art to 3D, but even then, the fact that the game is 3D allows for more camera angles including enemies POV which is great ngl
gameplay is very polished too
but ya like it's no my favorite, my favorite one is to date nightmare sphere, a free hgame with gameplay that is more fun than even that of SFW metroidvanias like bloodstained or the like
sadly the H is kinda... it's kinda eh XD base animations that repeat for a lot of enemies, enemies GET in the way so you can't see the heroine in most of them, and so on
and my favorite h-scenes wise is princess defender
it has tower defense elements, and the gameplay doesn't quite suck, but the H, oh the H MAN IT MAKES ME DIAMONDS
it has some in-game animations, but i'm talking about the game overs, fuck, they're the BEST
each game over has 3 stages where the girl hates it, then resigns herself, then enjoys it
and the voice actress... man, the voice actress is what really sells the game to me, she makes such a sexy sweet cute voice unlike the over the top screams you usually hear in h games
animations are great, too, since l2d animations look good in big CGs, just like in gacha h-games
and to make some recommendations i have to start with the classics, from the nightmare sphere era as well
kurovadis
GREAT gameplay, H is kinda eh as well
inui games the hounds series
3D and not perfect but they have a charm to them
i really love unholy sanctuary, and i like it more than all of the dev's following games including disaster, jail, aikagura, and even the upcoming remake, which honestly looks worse because it's l2d
i recommend vivid dead too, a game being developed by kosmic91, it's great, although i love his other abandoned game, moon rhapsody, way more, but it's a zelda-like so it doesn't quite fit this list but i bet a lot of people who like action games will love it
some other recommendations
the umai neko games
they all follow the same formula, beat em ups, the best one was MEI because of the dialogue before h scenes with portrait changes
and gameplay was better too in the 2D games, later on enemies became damage sponges and the stages drag on a lot
guilty hell
3D, braindead gameplay, not jank, just braindead, 2 is looking better in that regard
but the animations are pretty great, the way you escape is the lazy mash buttons to escape, sinisistar2 improved on that by making escape harder each time
you know, speaking of which, what would you say is a game that has good grab and escape mechanics? like let's be honest, NO ONE has ever died from a grab in guilty hell 2 unless doing it on purpose lol
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free hgame
one of my favorites all around, megaman-clone where you get a different h-scene depending on a number of conditions like the attack that kills you and other stuff that i'm not gonna spoil
this kind of thing is just fucking awesome
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one of those games that devs took off dlsite for some reason, this one has great challenging gameplay that feels fair because you have a plethora of moves you can cancel into another, and it's a great game from 2013 no less
the h-scenes are serviceable enough
a lot of old as dirt games hold their own against new games, it's funny
arms bless 1 and 2
this guys makes great pixel art animations but a lot of the h-scenes are just ryona instead of sex, and they lack dialogue which is a shame because the heroine has a great personality and you'd love to see her thoughts and hear her speak while being fucked
2 especially is the greatest action game made in action editor 4, which is surprising because the engine is very limited, the game is very very fun as a game and the boss fights are adrenaline-pumping
sus ritual
i loved it, it was just great, it's simple as fuck yes but idk... XD probably a guilty pleasure
it has a mechanic where you're first stripped of your clothes, then when you're naked enemies can go for a grab, and once grabbed you can stab the enemies with your sword but you CANNOT escape, so the only way would be to kill them, but that would only happen if they had little hp left to begin with
so the situation really makes it feel like the girl is helpless, though she COULD break free it's almost impossible she would, that is just great
and some grabs are almost impossible to avoid
these details just heighten the experience and hgame devs don't utilize mechanics like this enough
the dev's 2 next games are... XD they're pretty bad
the witch one is a big metroidvania where you don't fucking know where the fuck to go or even where you are, LOTS of walking, and you'd expect lots of enemies in such a big world, right? well no, and to make matters worse, a lot of enemies share the SAME h scene!!! it's a big fuck you to the face after coming from the previous game
and the next one i haven't played it, looks consensual, like you control a girl who's helped by some spirit and the spirit fucks her
and speaking of guilty pleasures it's probably every action h game shovelware that comes out every now and then XD
we're starving of these compared to RPGM games so gotta take what we get lol
like a few examples of games i've played recently include
炎術師フレムちゃん!~魔窟脱出作戦~
more fun as an actual game, mediocre H, and it's sad because it has potential with the face icon changing, people underestimate how details like that and UI elements boost the experience, like in sinisistar2's case with all the UI elements and the ball with status effects and cum
Minmin da Gui (RJ01247176)
an action game made in rpgm mv... so yes, it's as you'd expect lol
but the artstyle is charming, it's definitely worth checking out
i want to check the dev's other games too
退魔巫女-異種淫獄
this one was quite enjoyable, even if it's unpolished, i see potential in the dev
聖女は淫魔の時を
this one COULD have been good... but fuck so much walking, backtracking, and it has some interesting concepts unseen in other h-games but as a full experience... yeah it's not great XD
RJ01401606 zeta break and the other game with the yellow girl
these are... XD they COULD've been great but they turned out just okay
[RJ01334100] ミハシラ戦渦物語
this one, on paper, has EVERYTHING to be a great game, but i don't know why, i just can't explain why... it felt underwhelming
i haven't finished it for that same reason, i don't want to say i've dropped it yet, but it's been a long time since i have it on hold
Libra Heart games
these are classicvanias, and they're faithful to a fault, and that can either a bad thing or the best thing ever depending on if you like that kind of thing or not
i would've finished them if their h-mechanics were more around classic game over rape and such, but it's more like unlocking scenes as you progress through the game, with only 1 game over scene for the entire game iirc, so not exactly my kind of thing
the games made by nonki
their artstyle varies between great retro-style but the girls have massive boobs which i'm not exactly a fan of
and the gameplay is FUN, but the way the h is integrated is ass, kinda like getting fucked without consequences or even hp damage
and in one of his games h-scenes were limited to a gallery, i hate that
i can go on but hmmm... i'll try to remember more notable mentions but i think among all h games this one, sinisistar2, is peak
in the top 5 for sure, though i may be saying that because it's the new thing but i doubt it, it's really really good