Recommending Story-first games

[Impious Monk]

... To me, corruption involves doing or continuing to do something you believe to be wrong because moral concerns no longer have the power to sway you from your course. ... The corner of his mind that worries about that sort of thing gets overruled by his emotions. ....

...I think it's always easier to make the same mistake a second time. The unknown and that first compromise of our morality are scary -- to do it again once you know the score is a return to familiar territory. ...

Love this.

Also, saved for later.

 

[Dragon59]

I mean, I love Ariane, and I found her comic to be funny, but my response was to write Life with Keeley (A female protagonist game).

You could do a male corruption game, but it is unlikely that you'd do one where you convince a single man to have sex. It would need to be something like convincing a guy in a stable relationship to cheat, or something like that. I wouldn't enjoy that, but, maybe someone would.

Tlaero

One sticking point is that when we're talking sexual corruption, it's rooted in conservative society's attitude toward women and their own sexual autonomy. A female character can be "corrupted" because being a nymphomaniac (a woman with a higher sex drive than the man doing the assessment thinks she should have) is a "bad thing," for a woman but a sexually hyperactive male is considered a good thing.

The whole concept of sexual corruption relies upon this double standard.

One area that I might grant as a type of male sexual corruption is cruelty and not recognizing the boundaries of others, especially women. This might also bleed into not just misogyny, but also other groups the authoritarian mindset often views "others."

A character's descent into such cruelty and narcissism might be interesting, but I'd have a very difficult time writing it.

 

[Tlaero]

I'd actually be very curious to hear your take on Nothing Is Forever if you ever get a chance to play it. I think there's a good chance you might appreciate the depth of MrSilverLust's characters and the grounded realism of the narrative among other things. This isn't something that just occurred to me, either...I've randomly had the thought, "I bet Tlaero would really like this!" at different moments while playing the game.

Thanks! I don't get a lot of time to play, but I'll add it to my queue.

Tlaero

 

[camube]

Has anybody here play Fog of War? I'm currently playing the beginning of it and it covers things not commonly covered in the AVN-genre. It's about a guy that was previously in the military and now going to med school. At least that's the part I'm currently in.
It's pretty good I like it so far!

I feel like we, or at least I am going to have a great 2024 in the AVN genre because between Leaving DNA, Fog of War, and Alpha and Omega, I'd have new games updates coming out that has good enough story in it.

Anything else you all can recommend that is relatively new (first chapter out in 2022)?
There is this Racing thing I forgot the name of. Race of Life was it?
Is that story-first?

 

[Impenitent]

There is this Racing thing I forgot the name of. Race of Life was it?
Is that story-first?

Race of Life is a well-made game, but in my opinion scenes like the parking lot sex take it out of the story-first category. Great scene for a porn game, but not for one that wants its story to be taken seriously.

 

[Canto Forte]

That is how infidelity happends ... one time, more times ... that is the canon for MC,
so you better believe we get one reminder after another about it,
as it is directly related to the grief he gets from certain people,
along with the constant disgusting jokes from the pal with bad ideas.

its story to be taken seriously

 

[Hildegardt]

One sticking point is that when we're talking sexual corruption, it's rooted in conservative society's attitude toward women and their own sexual autonomy. A female character can be "corrupted" because being a nymphomaniac (a woman with a higher sex drive than the man doing the assessment thinks she should have) is a "bad thing," for a woman but a sexually hyperactive male is considered a good thing.

There's this weird christian game that constantly looks for opportunities to slutshame female characters, even just for masturbating and using toys, but the main plot is the most unapologetic setup for an incestuous harem I've ever seen.
There's a sexually transmitted infertility virus or something like that and naturally only the PC is immune. So, non-virgins get punished by being excluded from the repopulation process, which is of course very hard on them, because the PC is a totally desirable all american special forces veteran family man with broad shoulders (and literally the only dick on the planet...). And as a family man, his first choice for the breeding process is of course his family.
No sex before marriage, though! Because this is not your typical porn game!

The moral grandstanding in this game is just so weird. Literally robbing every single character but the PC of their agency and still shaming them for trying to "act out". This has to be a fetish thing even if the dev claims otherwise, right?

 

[EndlessNights]

There's this weird christian game that constantly looks for opportunities to slutshame female characters, even just for masturbating and using toys, but the main plot is the most unapologetic setup for an incestuous harem I've ever seen.

I think you have to be referring to The Mason Gambit. Hopefully saying the name won't win any new converts for the "philosophy." I've never actually played it (because I read the reviews first) but it sounds incredibly bizarre. The review section is well worth visiting. Some highlights:

Deleted member (gone but not forgotten): "All I can say is the viewpoint that unfolds would not be out of place on r/niceguys. Women who have sex before marriage are sluts....same if they use dildos to masturbate....but hey it's okay to have an incestuous themed harem

MC's best friend has been seeing a guy for 3 years but when MC asks why they have only kissed, she shouts "I'm not the kind of slut that spreads her legs.."

Botc76: "...any sexual freedom a woman could have is a sin, immoral and totally horrible.
Having multiple sexual partners, you're a whore, using a dildo is an insult to the man in your life etc..
Abso-fucking-lutely ridiculous. And here, as well, I thought this was either a joke or someone would give the characters spouting that bs an enlightenment.
But no, this is absolutely serious. It goes so far that the MC infects his own biological mother with a virus and condemns the young stud she screws around with to sterility due to that. And that for the horrible crime of having a healthy sex life. Obviously, that can only be allowed for the MC and his harem, and I'm pretty sure no woman in this game will EVER touch another woman in a sensual way, not if she wants to get to bang the MC. "

Avaron1974: "His "best friend" then goes on a rant about sex before marriage or finding your "true love" and how having sex before meeting them is somehow cheating....

All this in a fucking adult game being read by people that have had sex. It could be an advertisement for a Christian playgroup it's that in your face."

Jnx: "Oh and I guess the summaries for ch7 and ch8 are: The disease makes bimbo amazonian women that can only have sex with MC, and MC's friend died and he goes on a killing spree to make himself feel better and Allison kissed MC but hasn't talked to Nicole yet so she feels guilty. Respectively."

One thing that confuses me is that some reviewers, including botc and Ava, call the game feminist at least in parts when it sounds like the complete opposite to me.

 

[realjitter]

This guy does it right. Although, in my AVN i'd let all the women run around in winter clothes at all times. Only when the MC enters the scene they'd switch into something "sexier". Not too sexy of course, don't want to ruffle any feathers... Something nice and proper. Maybe some tight fitted turtleneck sweater?. A white turtleneck sweater of course....

 

[Tlaero]

I think you have to be referring to The Mason Gambit. Hopefully saying the name won't win any new converts for the "philosophy." I've never actually played it (because I read the reviews first) but it sounds incredibly bizarre. The review section is well worth visiting. Some highlights:

...

Jnx: "Oh and I guess the summaries for ch7 and ch8 are: The disease makes bimbo amazonian women that can only have sex with MC, and MC's friend died and he goes on a killing spree to make himself feel better and Allison kissed MC but hasn't talked to Nicole yet so she feels guilty. Respectively."

That's ... bizarre.

Although it's been a very long time since I've practiced, I was raised Catholic. And it's my memory that "murder" was higher on the "sin scale" than pre-marital sex...

Is there any chance that the author was going for parody?

Tlaero

 

[bacienvu88]

That's ... bizarre.

Although it's been a very long time since I've practiced, I was raised Catholic. And it's my memory that "murder" was higher on the "sin scale" than pre-marital sex...

Is there any chance that the author was going for parody?

Tlaero

Normal people of faith earnestly try to follow the teachings of their god(s) and apply it to their own lives.
Fundamentalists try to shackle their god(s) to their own twisted ideas and force those ideas onto every one else.

Note: I am atheist, but I respect people how have an earnest faith.

 

[camube]

Just finished playing Fog of War. It's good so far. You all should give it a try if you have time.
It has far more contents in 2 updates than Alpha and Omega too.

 

[boobsrcool]

Just finished playing Fog of War. It's good so far. You all should give it a try if you have time.
It has far more contents in 2 updates than Alpha and Omega too.

Is that the softcore one?

 

[realjitter]

Note: I am atheist, but I respect people how have an earnest faith.

I got kicked out of class only once in my life and that was, as a young teenager, during religious education class because appearently i've asked too many questions and wouldn't stop. So my teacher got fed up with me and kicked me out... My second and last encounter with religion was when I became a nurse and started applying for jobs. I had to actually join the church and... and this is where I stop talking about religion and go back to AVN's... =)


I've read (thanks to bacienvu88's sig) Erisa's Summer. A game about gay love .

This game was pretty interesting because it has a secret route. Admittingly that "secret route" is only interesting for like 0,01% of it's audience, but that's still good enough for me to write about it. So what's that game about?. It's about Erisa (the MC) who broke up with her former girlfriend because she cheated on her. Basically it's about new beginnings, meeting new people, havng fun... The vibe, in general, is pretty positive and easy going for like 99,99% of it. Erisa's a pretty cheerful person so there isn't much room for interpretation when it comes to her, or is there?. Well, the game wants you to experience a pretty light hearted, simple, straight fowward lesbian story. Later on in the game you end up on a yacht with like 10 or so women and there you get your typical AVN experience. Either having lots of sex or maybe looking for a new girlfriend for Erisa. That's basically the game...

So.. what's the secret route you might ask?. Ok, it's not a secret route per se, but it's definitely a path the developer didn't really account for and because of that it's not properly supported by it's writing, imo. A roleplay opportunity in which you can, to some capacity, play against the game because of how it's written . I'm calling it the "pathetic" or "sad face" Erisa route... Of course that route involves the ex girlfriend (Amanda). At the beginning I followed that path just because my fetish radar went on "high aleart". Afterall, i'm a simple minded, weak person when it comes to things like that. So pretty early on you get an opportunity to be pathetic and crawl back to your "evil" ex. But that's nothing special or unusual in order to call it a "secret route". Just simply following an existing path doesn't exactly qualify for something like that.

Anyways, so you go down the Amanda path and she's, well, a bitch... She's portrayed as being selfish, a bit cold, slightly dominating and her overall feelings towards Erisa are wide open for interpretation. When there's a lewd scene between them it usually goes down like this. Erisa gets her off, sometimes even multiple times, and Amanda doesn't return the favour, stating she's tired or something and then she leaves her behind all frustrated and a little sad. (my favourite part of the game...). That's also kinda the point where you can start to play against the game and roleplay Erisa in a different way. The developer really wants to bring the point across that her realtionship is unhealthy and that Amanda is the wrong person to go be with. All the the other characters in the game also speak mostly negatively about her

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. The game almost pressures you to get finally get rid of her, lol. People constantly try to make Erisa forget about her realtionship and all the "pain" she apparently had to endure and whatnot... I'm not trying to say that they're wrong, they're not. It even makes sense since the game's, as I already mentioned, about new beginnings, embracing the good things in life and stuff like that.

So Amanda basically flip flops between being a little mysterious, being dominant & controlling and coming across as being a cold hearthed bitch at times . Which can be, in my mind, a good combination for a "lezdom route". Is it though?. Again, that's up for interpretation. Well, you can definitely play Erisa as somebody who has submissive tendencies. Someone who's not very strong willed and also pretty naive. Someone who deep down inside likes to be treated "badly", who gets turned on by being used and humiliated. Honestly, on that route there're lots of different ways to interprete Erisa, which is interesting in my mind. I'm just gonna fast forward here to the end beause there's a scene that sums up the whole route perfectly. And it also shows that the developer loses touch with the subject matter a tiny, little bit along the way.

Later on there's a scene where you meet another woman (Merrit) who also takes the place of a more dominant woman for the more kinkier parts of the game. I'm mentioning her because she also particiaptes in that scene. Near the end the player gets to decide if Erisa should still go along with Amanda. If the player decides "yes" then she goes to Amanda's room and when she enters it the player's confronted with a kind of a swerve scenario

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. Amanda's lying handcuffed on the bed and the game makes yet another effort to let the player finally do the "right" thing. It's basically a test. Here you get these

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3 options. I haven't picked the first and third option, but I assume the first one lets you simply turn the tables/getting some naughty revenge while the third option just ends all of the "insanity". I picked the second option which continues the "sad/pathetic/submissive Erisa" route. What happens though is that Erisa ends up being the one being handcuffed and she then has to bring Amanada to a couple of ogasms with her tongue

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. Afterwards, as it's tradition at that point, she leaves Erisa behind without returning the favour, yet again

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. It's typical mistress/dominant behaviour. Nothing too special in my mind, but I can easily see the average player getting super annoyed by Amanda at this point. "How could she", "What a bitch", "What a meanie" "This isn't right!". Keep in mind that all of this doesn't conform with the rest of the game, like at all.

Anyhow, so afterwards "sad face" Erisa leaves the room again and goes to her room. In the hallway she gets stopped by Merrit and you can have a lewd scene with her. If you do so Merri says things like

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. So Merri, despite being dominant herself, also joins the anti Amanda club. She goes even further, she basically says that if Erisa decides to break up with Amanda she'll be there for her to fullfill her submissive urges or whatever. That scene doesn't make any sense at all in my mind. Why?. Well, because out of all the people on that boat she should be the most knowledgeable person to understand what happened back in that room. Again, this is why I stated that you can play against the game because you can interpret both Erisa and Amanda in ways the developer doesn't account for. In hindsight, Amanda's place in the game is cleary, i my mind at least, there to get rid of her, to have an antagonist that you're supposed to feel good about getting rid of. But in reality it's not all that simple. People are together for all kinds of reasons, for all kinds of motivations. Some people play the relationship game for reasons not many others can comprehend. You can't just go ahead and tell your audience what's up and how things are... At least not when you give your audience so much wiggle room for interpretation.

Do I think Amanda's a bit of a bitch?. Maybe... Honestly, you'd need to have alot more information about how their relationship looked like prior to the beginning of the game. It's always very easy to manifest an opinion about all sorts of things with just a fraction of information...

Well, the game ends with a bit of a weird dream sequence in which some other character declares her love for the MC. That scene caters more towards the other 99,9% of the game which is, again, new beginngs, positive affirmations and all that good stuff. It's also a tiny bit preachy because the game/developer wants to tell you, yet again, what's up in life...

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So yeah, a very weird, but interesting experience playing this one. On the Amanda route the game becomes surprisingly complex even though I think a good chunk of it is unintentionally/not 100% thought out.. But again, all of this isn't really representative for the vast majority of the game...

 

[jufot]

Corporate Culture 0.5 has arrived at F95. Looking forward to your thoughts folks

 

[EndlessNights]

Corporate Culture 0.5 has arrived at F95. Looking forward to your thoughts folks

It pains me to say this, but I found the update to be quite disappointing and it has left me wondering if it will even be possible to play the game I was hoping Corporate Culture would become. The game went down several tiers in my estimation and has lost its place among my favorites. I'll keep my negativity out of the game thread and vent here instead.

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[jufot]

It pains me to say this, but I found the update to be quite disappointing and it has left me wondering if it will even be possible to play the game I was hoping Corporate Culture would become.

Interesting. While I mostly agree with the facts of your statements, I disagree with your interpretation of them.

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[bacienvu88]

It pains me to say this, but I found the update to be quite disappointing and it has left me wondering if it will even be possible to play the game I was hoping Corporate Culture would become. The game went down several tiers in my estimation and has lost its place among my favorites. I'll keep my negativity out of the game thread and vent here instead.

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Probably a bit rambling. I haven't really digested the update yet.

I agree with you about Emma and find the ending part disappointing. There seem to be an Emma route (which you'll get on if you didn't lend Tommy the scooter), but I don't see how that can happen considering what Ed has done now. The game really want us to dislike Emma and label her as a "bitch" so that any treatment of her is justified. Which I think is a missed opportunity for showing how much of a corporate psychopath Elsa is training him to be if the person he brings down is actually nice. And have some more internal conflict for Ed on where his bottom line actually is.

I am starting to think Elsa has become too brilliant. There is no longer any room for any other character to shine (except perhaps Edward). It almost feels like a comedy skit between Ed and Elsa with other characters popping in occasionally to support their comedy. Furthermore I think it would be good for both Elsa and the story if Elsa has some real competition for being Ed's mentor. Now Elsa can seemingly do whatever she wants without consequences. She is more and more looking like a Mary Sue character even though she isn't the MC.

That said, the comedy skit between Elsa and Ed is still brilliant and I still think the game is worth playing just for that.

 

[Raife]

Corporate Culture 0.5 has arrived at F95. Looking forward to your thoughts folks

Only just had a chance to try it out... I've been on the road again.

I enjoyed it tremendously, although I share your concern about Edward's professional 'quantum leap' and the whole blackmail storyline. It's probably a good idea to reserve judgment, though, as it strikes me that the plan is a multi-stage process and we are projecting forward to an endpoint... ignoring the interim stages.

Unsurprisingly, I also share your view that Edward is an...

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Quibbles aside, this remains by far the most interesting game on the site for me. Each episode is like a perfectly wrapped gift, and what's inside is always thought-provoking and surprising. Its subtleties also reward replays like no other game.

 

[bacienvu88]

Probably a bit rambling. I haven't really digested the update yet.

I agree with you about Emma and find the ending part disappointing. There seem to be an Emma route (which you'll get on if you didn't lend Tommy the scooter), but I don't see how that can happen considering what Ed has done now. The game really want us to dislike Emma and label her as a "bitch" so that any treatment of her is justified. Which I think is a missed opportunity for showing how much of a corporate psychopath Elsa is training him to be if the person he brings down is actually nice. And have some more internal conflict for Ed on where his bottom line actually is.

I am starting to think Elsa has become too brilliant. There is no longer any room for any other character to shine (except perhaps Edward). It almost feels like a comedy skit between Ed and Elsa with other characters popping in occasionally to support their comedy. Furthermore I think it would be good for both Elsa and the story if Elsa has some real competition for being Ed's mentor. Now Elsa can seemingly do whatever she wants without consequences. She is more and more looking like a Mary Sue character even though she isn't the MC.

That said, the comedy skit between Elsa and Ed is still brilliant and I still think the game is worth playing just for that.

Even though I am a bit negative on this chapter there is still a lot of room for it to be a great game when finished. But I think the next chapter is going to be a bit of a pivot point for the game.

With the promotions of Edward and Emma (which I assume will happen now) his relationships and responsibilities are also going to change. How well the game handles this new situation is greatly going to determine how good the game will be in the end.

As for Edward, is he going to be up for the task or will he still need to rely heavily on Elsa going forward? How is he going to handle his superiors and the other executives? How is he going to handle his new subordinates? I have a hard time imagining Edward being a good boss. Will he start to pursue Alice in earnest now? What will Emma do now that Edward doesn't have any hold over her anymore? Revenge or reconciliation? Having all executives being her enemy is going to be difficult for her so reconciliation is not out of the question. And what will Elsa do now that the initial scheme has profited? Does she still have use for Ed? There are a lot of questions that will need to start being answered in the next chapter.