Based on the (as yet) unfinished ch.11
My usual disclaimers when writing reviews on here are that A. I am here for the "plot" not the plot and B. I am very picky with visual novels and think broadly they can be very subpar. So, take both of those into consideration for my review when thinking about this game.
Pros
- Hot as fuck my guy – Let’s get the big thing out of the way first, god yeah it’s fucking hot as hell. The girls are gorgeous, it’s Honey Select of course so there’s limitations there, but in spite of that many of them look stunning with a nice variety of body shapes/sizes. Plus there’s fucking loads of them. Then the actual sex-scenes are also absolutely scalding and designed to dehydrate me. Caters to amazing kinks as well with a lot of D/s vibes, impregnation, harem stuff (of course), BDSM, NTR (where you are the one doing the cheating, not the other way around). It’s just… Just so fucking hot…
- Decent quality of visuals – Animations and graphical fidelity are all pretty standard Honey Select. But there’s a lot of effort on display in the later chapters which does raise the bar.
- Quantity of sex – On top of this it feels like there is the perfect amount of sexy stuff. Which is to say A LOT. Turns out that if you make an h-game and then just fill it with porn-logic and various sexy scenes, I don’t need much more.
- Casual encounters – I think I’ve seen a few h-games which will introduce Big Tiddy Bitch #3 as a side character you meet just in passing, and sometimes these models are hot as hell, but nothing happens. In Stray Incubus if you meet a new named girl in a chapter, there’s a good chance you’ll get to stick your dick in her.
- Mind control (kinda/sorta) – I am a fan of mind-control games, and while there isn’t REALLY an element of it in Stray Incubus, there’s a heavily implied element of addictive cum/addictive cock (which is fairly close). This is an element I really rarely see in h-games (because it’s super porn-y, I guess) but it’s just a massive favourite.
- Light-hearted and simply funny – The game relies heavily on porn-logic and so with that in mind it is also mostly just an easy-going romp of a story with silly encounters, characters and events. It is also one of the ELITE games on this site to actually make me LEGIT laugh and not just “snrk”.
- Pretty great writing – I’ll touch on this again in the main review, but for now let me also say that the writing BECOMES pretty great and the characters likewise grow into being class (a distinction to be made that neither of them are always good). A lot of the girls feel distinct and interesting, and again simply nice and FUN to interact with and the dialogue 90% of the time feels pretty natural and flows pretty well. Plus… The sexy dialogue is just fucking hot…
Mehs
- Rapid-fire sex scenes – Perhaps due to the quantity of the h-scenes there is occasionally an issue with them feeling a bit rushed. You’ll push your dick inside a girl with the animation going in the background, you read a few lines and then BOOM you cum. This is definitely not always true, but some of the girls seem to get a bit hard done-by with just super-quick shags (justice for Gabriella, she deserves to be absolutely fucked silly!)
- Animation needs pauses between text – This is maybe a “me” issue. But I am a fast reader, so I often rapidly click through text as I read it. So, I will click-click-click and then suddenly realise that the whole scene has changed. This will inevitably be because a small, animated cut-scene (of some kind) occurs between two lines of text and I totally skip over it, meaning I have to go back to watch it. I’d prefer if these things weren’t such long segments so that it was clearer what was going on and when the animations were happening so I don’t have to KEEP scrolling back to actually watch the shit.
- Setting quibbles – The game is set in a (seeming) medieval fantasy world of the swords and magic variety. This doesn’t stop some of the settings seeming to be modern kitchens and with characters wearing contemporary-style clothes. Again, it’s a silly porn game so I don't really want to overthink this, but it was something I noted a few times.
- Mini-games – I’m gonna put it out there, I often actually LIKE mini-games. And I liked them here too. But I’m also aware that many others hate them. The reason I stick this firmly in “meh” is that literally every mini-game has an “auto-win” button. So, if you hate them you have absolutely no reason to complain. The other side of it is that I feel like some of them aren’t super clear. The most reason “torture” mini-game in particular had really very little in the ways of visual/written clues about how you were actually meant to win. If you can’t win without consulting a guide, the game needs better clues.
- Lack of cum inflation and dick bulging – So this is a kink-specific thing, and as such I’m aware that they really are super variable between people. However, a big part of the game’s sexual side is that your character has an absolutely ludicrously massive schlong. This is unrealistic, sure, but it’s hot as fuck. Having girls go “oh you’re gonna break me” is absolutely primo fap material. With that in mind, it strikes me as a missed opportunity to not lean further into this and go for stomach bulges and at least minor cum inflation.
- Ear penetration – On the OPPOSITE side of the spectrum, in the later updates there was a very, very minor case of ear penetration, and that was definitely the most outlandish kink so far and also just weirded me the fuck out…
- Decent level of choice and interaction – Only a few cases of real branches as far as I have seen so far, and relatively few story influencing choices, but enough is there to keep me occupied.
- Minor grammar and spelling issues throughout - Nothing outrageous here and nothing to write home about, but it could do with a second read-through basically.
Cons
- The first few chapters – As before, I’ll come back to this in the main review, as this is one of the most utterly damning aspects of the game.
- Segues between scenes – I’m scraping the barrel a bit for this criticism, but I feel like it still ought to be addressed. In the early chapters the dev was VERY guilty of using scene cards between basically every change in background, which was just ridiculous and I’m VERY glad he stopped. Now however there’s just nothing… There were several instances of, for example, characters going to sleep saying “good night” and the VERY next button click is “right we need to investigate the market” while it’s already midday the next day. Like with the sex-scenes, this makes it feel a tad rushed, and is really asking for small fade-to-blacks and some “the next day” or “two weeks later” kind of stuff. Unlike with the sex-scenes, this sort of rushing is definitely much more jarring and actually an outright negative.
Right, let’s address the elephant in the room with the writing and the early chapters.
I don’t know the dev and have never interacted with them, but this game seems to be very much their first project. This means that the creation of it has been a learning process. The writing gets smoother, characters become more developed, visuals become clearer, there’s a very clear progression and learning curve on display here, which seems to still only be increasing.
On the other side of this equation though is the fact that the first few chapters of the game are absolutely fucking dire. The writing is atrocious of the sort of H-game which introduces a bunch of girls with big tiddies and expects a few renders to be enough to keep your attention while the dialogue goes like.
Protagonist: Oh. There is Gabbie. She is the village alchemist. She has the big boobies. She grew up next to me my whole life.
Gabbie: Hello protagonist. I am Gabbie. Do you need my strongest potions? I am nice girl with dreams of leaving the house. But I am kept here by my mother forever. I am having a nice day though.
It is robotic, characters are introduced and shuffled away and the setting is absolutely ridiculous. You are an incubus being raised by a big-tiddy girl in a… Cave? Why a cave? What? Why does it look like the cave is actually outside? Why does he wear that absolutely ridiculous fucking bobble hat to hide his ears despite nearly everyone else being used to seeing pointy ears?
There’s been a war in the past and all the incubi were slaughtered and you are the last one (oooo, maybe?) left. So, you go to the nearby ninja village (lol, yes… a “NINJA” village?! In a game where so far every other character has been Greek-mythology based???) to visit them for the first time, despite having lived next door your whole life? You then, after visiting once, decide to become a ninja for no apparent reason. There’s no driving motivation there, not even “hey I want to stay here so I can dick all the hotties”. You get accepted in, of course, but even then it continues to be just kinda daft. The ninjas get points for winning fights like it’s a game and that gives them the ability to level their belts up (basically).
I hope you get what I’m saying that the setting is initially ALSO just absolutely fucking silly. There's a very clear element of things just being made up on the fly, the dev is inventing the story and lore as he writes it.
So, with this in mind, it is no exaggeration that I very nearly gave up on the game when I was barely through chapter 1. It is only because I saw a few reviews saying it improves that I stuck with it…
Thankfully though, for me and everyone else, I want to make it abundantly clear that this is
ABSOLUTELY the case. Things DO improve and the increase in quality of just about EVERYTHING is rapid and drastic. While chapters 1 and 2 in particular are just horrific is it is already by chapter 3 that things start to actually start to improve, coincidentally around the time the sex scenes start to become more frequent.
The first major mission through the Temple of the Faceless God and then subsequent escort quest is the sort of “transition” period. It very rapidly improves, the writing, dialogue, characters, everything just starts picking up and starts to sparkle. But it still suffers from being a bit silly and the backgrounds being very clearly the 1980s instead of medieval… It’s not until around Chapter 5/6 with the plagued village arc that I think things really just fucking KICK OFF and then they never look back. And from this point on it's just smooth sailing, exciting interactions and absolutely smoking sex. You also have been through the awkward introductions phase now and as such by this point you are able to become invested in the characters and the story meanwhile the sex is just getting steamier and steamier, and so it all gets a big old thumbs-up from me.
It just really needs to be reiterated that you DO have to suffer through 1-3 chapters of just nonsense before things start to get good.
The setting is obviously still potentially a bit silly (ninja village caught between a war of Greek Gods and Demons) but honestly, the silliness is now “fun” rather than “ludicrous”. It is also becoming increasingly interesting and with more intrigue and drama. The “monster of the week” mission format is also highly enjoyable as it allows our characters to go around getting stronger, growing as people, their relationships growing all the while the overarching plot just slowly trundles along in the background. It really just all works quite well and I have to admit to being pretty invested by this point.
I also think that while I generally look for hot porn in my h-games, one of the hardest (hurr hurr) things to do for one one of the writers is make me laugh. Well, as the plot goes on and the dev feels like he relaxes into the story he absolutely succeeded in making me laugh. More than once. And let me make it clear, that’s no small compliment on his ability as a writer and the ability to set-up amusing scenes and situations.
It's somewhat worth noting that the protagonist is very much a Gary Stu, with alongside the monster addictive cock he also is just the most ultra-powerful and strong person (or rather he is growing into that very rapidly) but there is progression there which at least doesn’t make it feel absolutely dumb. Plus, in a harem game it just kind of works to have the main guy be kick-ass, frankly.
This is then all a very scrumptious helping of plot and story which surrounds what we are here for: and that is dicking down a bunch of hot elf girls and getting them pregnant. I’m so fucking glad that this game leans into the “risk of pregnancy” kink because that’s just an absolute favourite of mine and oh man… I’m gonna tell you the game is fap-worthy as fuck.
All-in-all I think the game is very rapidly earning a place alongside other extremely high-quality Honey Select games by the likes of Caribdis and Jestur. The ONLY reason I don't rate it a 5/5 is because of that barrier for entry provided by the early chapters and honestly I think it probably deserves a rating on the higher end of the 4/5 scale.