HTML Transylvania [v0.5.10] [XFiction]
- May 4, 2020
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Clarified in patch notes, this is not the Patreon version.
I wonder if you could add a cookie exemption in Settings for the file. So long as you don't move the file (and update the exemption for each new update), it theoretically should retain the cookies for it?
UPDATE: This seems to have worked for me in Firefox.
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- Jan 6, 2018
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So let me get this straight, I need the patreon version to access more than one save slot, but if i use patreon version i will miss out on content due to their content policy ?
- May 4, 2020
- 180
- 455
Currently, this is correct. We were contacted by Patreon in late November and had to take quick action to make sure that the project is not completely suspended from the platform. We are in the process of figuring out a better long-term solution to enable the features without the restrictions. There are technical solutions, but we need to make sure they don't get the project suspended.
In the meantime, it's possible to pass a save back and forth to avoid the restrictions, but it's definitely not an ideal solution.
This game is a bit out of my wheelhouse in regards to themes, but I had an interesting time playing the first chapter and it's very well presented and designed from a UI and mechanical standpoint. Huge commendations for the work put into it, and I hope that the extent of my nitpicky ramblings doesn't give off false impressions of the opposite. I liked a lot about this game.
I generally like female protagonists and open world sandbox designs, with a focus on sluttification/smart bimbos/body enhancement, things of that nature, incredibly rare "genre" to be honest, especially combined with my disinterest in men and focus on sapphic/futa content, so I am incredibly biased going in. I've tried a handful of male to female transformation games because oftentimes past the prologue the content and writing gets more interesting and it's easy to ignore.
The games death loop mechanic is interesting and not as off-putting as I (personally) was concerned it would be. I was worried it was going to be snuff fetish oriented or trauma porn, but the way it is handled with semi-immortality, combined with the protagonists curiosity and thrill at walking on the razor's edge makes it more interesting.
I don't really care for kinks such as sadomasochism or asphyxiation, but the game does a good job of downplaying the more uncomfortable aspects and keeping the nonsexual scenes from being unpleasant.
One thing that was bothersome/confusing to me is how laissez-faire Alexandra is about her relationships with people who have demonstrated themselves to be unsympathetic murderers. Ionut and Elise murder you for incredibly superfluous reasons, Lavius is a psychotic asshole (which the game seems to make you sleep with in order to survive and progress), and Sabrina uncaringly lets you die from the ritual if you try to save her, then murders you again if you refuse to accept her interrogation, and all of a sudden, with all of these characters, the writing does a complete one-eighty, and Alex is suddenly intensely attracted to these characters, considers them dear friends, is fully buddy-buddy with Sabrina, and on-board with tutorship and her condescending attitude.
I understand the game is supposed to have an emphasis on dark and lovecraftian themes (although the light hearted erotic contrast makes it a bit of a difficult tight-rope), and having characters who consider themselves and their existence above the reality of human life and their perceptions makes sense (if a theme I find personally irritating, I like standing up for myself and don't enjoy nihilism), but I was repeatedly baffled by how casual Alexandra was about being treated horrifically by psychotic murderers, and even sometimes with her discussions with Felicia, considering it HER fault that she was brutally killed.
Felicia herself, whilst saving your life and half-heartedly "helping" you to an extent, also goes out of her way to mock and ridicule Alexandra at every turn, obfuscate her assistance and advice, call her dumb and stupid, threatens to kill or torture her, bait her into dying in order to "teach her lessons", and generally make herself seem rather unlikable or in-human with her uncaring, lovecraftian thought process.
Alex never really defends herself, gets frustrated at her treatment, or really even acknowledges it, and then suddenly pronounces that Felicia is her only friend, that she implicitly trusts her, and that she has a close personal connection to her.
I might be ignorant, or missing an undercurrent thematic element, or understating how the altered reality is manipulating Alexandra's mind, but the impression I got was more so frustrating than interesting. Lavius's scene in particular was comical to me, and he came across as an egotistical dumbass who thinks highly of himself and that he is "intelligent" for taking advantage of a woman with no options.
On an even more opinionated and subjective note, I wasn't a personal fan of the emphasis in the writing on how frail and weak and "feminine" Alex is. Heck the major plot point of chapter 1 is how a heavy barrel is too much for a woman (or at least just Alex, I hope). I'm undoubtedly a huge hypocrite because of my interest in fantastical objectifying erotica, but I've never been a fan of those themes and writing elements.
The sheer amount of times Alexandra is physically over-powered and has internal monologues on how she is a feminine woman so of course she's weak, were personally unpleasant.
As far as the actual erotica, I feel like I'm not aware enough to give actual feedback, but a lot of it wasn't super engaging to me. The actual transformation and "corruption" felt a bit underwritten and wasn't sexy to me due to a lack of writing and content for it, and the actual scenes, even ones that I find more interesting due to their fantastical nature, felt a bit... dry? Brief? Maybe I'm just a huge snob, or have unrealistic standards, as it seems lots of people enjoyed that element of the game a lot.
Some of my absolute favourite erotic writing I've seen is by Wsan in Fenoxo games, so it might just be exclusively about my personal preferences and subjectivity, since I'm dabbling in content that is out of my comfort zone.
That should be it in regards to incredibly opinionated and useless rambling, apologies again, like I said, I overall quite liked what I experienced, and most of my complaints are nitpicks that are from me overthinking things.
Mechanically, I really liked the sandbox nature of chapter 1 and the focus on experimentation and the ability to replay scenes, it was a really nice touch that you get a clearly indicated point of no return before chapter 2, and how you can buy items you missed from the cat before-hand as well (although I don't really know why the butler outfit vanished from the shop for me).
I do wish it was more clearly communicated which dialogue option continues a conversion/scene, as I was hoping to replay the first encounter with Sabrina to try the other options, but it bottlenecked me into a linear pathway and skipped all of the options. It's a little strange how the first time you encounter her, she can (temporarily) die from her ritual, but the second time she effortlessly escapes.
The hint raven, daily recap and the journal were mostly useless, but that is partly because I found out the way to solve chapter 1 relatively early, and was actively trying to avoid progressing due to fear of points of no return. The journal was completely useless to me, the Raven seemed to only give hints to the main story path on things I already figured out, and the daily recap didn't tell me that I reached the end of the content with the characters such as Ionut and Elise, making it sound like there was more to do.
I think I explored all the side content? But there was no way to tell because none of the dialogue gave any indicators of such. After getting pierced by Sabrina, Elise still wouldn't give me any piercings, and there was no dialogue with Felicia when Sabrina killed Alex, just a blank page.
Best of luck with on-going development, I hope you get continued support and that everything goes well.
I generally like female protagonists and open world sandbox designs, with a focus on sluttification/smart bimbos/body enhancement, things of that nature, incredibly rare "genre" to be honest, especially combined with my disinterest in men and focus on sapphic/futa content, so I am incredibly biased going in. I've tried a handful of male to female transformation games because oftentimes past the prologue the content and writing gets more interesting and it's easy to ignore.
The games death loop mechanic is interesting and not as off-putting as I (personally) was concerned it would be. I was worried it was going to be snuff fetish oriented or trauma porn, but the way it is handled with semi-immortality, combined with the protagonists curiosity and thrill at walking on the razor's edge makes it more interesting.
I don't really care for kinks such as sadomasochism or asphyxiation, but the game does a good job of downplaying the more uncomfortable aspects and keeping the nonsexual scenes from being unpleasant.
One thing that was bothersome/confusing to me is how laissez-faire Alexandra is about her relationships with people who have demonstrated themselves to be unsympathetic murderers. Ionut and Elise murder you for incredibly superfluous reasons, Lavius is a psychotic asshole (which the game seems to make you sleep with in order to survive and progress), and Sabrina uncaringly lets you die from the ritual if you try to save her, then murders you again if you refuse to accept her interrogation, and all of a sudden, with all of these characters, the writing does a complete one-eighty, and Alex is suddenly intensely attracted to these characters, considers them dear friends, is fully buddy-buddy with Sabrina, and on-board with tutorship and her condescending attitude.
I understand the game is supposed to have an emphasis on dark and lovecraftian themes (although the light hearted erotic contrast makes it a bit of a difficult tight-rope), and having characters who consider themselves and their existence above the reality of human life and their perceptions makes sense (if a theme I find personally irritating, I like standing up for myself and don't enjoy nihilism), but I was repeatedly baffled by how casual Alexandra was about being treated horrifically by psychotic murderers, and even sometimes with her discussions with Felicia, considering it HER fault that she was brutally killed.
Felicia herself, whilst saving your life and half-heartedly "helping" you to an extent, also goes out of her way to mock and ridicule Alexandra at every turn, obfuscate her assistance and advice, call her dumb and stupid, threatens to kill or torture her, bait her into dying in order to "teach her lessons", and generally make herself seem rather unlikable or in-human with her uncaring, lovecraftian thought process.
Alex never really defends herself, gets frustrated at her treatment, or really even acknowledges it, and then suddenly pronounces that Felicia is her only friend, that she implicitly trusts her, and that she has a close personal connection to her.
I might be ignorant, or missing an undercurrent thematic element, or understating how the altered reality is manipulating Alexandra's mind, but the impression I got was more so frustrating than interesting. Lavius's scene in particular was comical to me, and he came across as an egotistical dumbass who thinks highly of himself and that he is "intelligent" for taking advantage of a woman with no options.
On an even more opinionated and subjective note, I wasn't a personal fan of the emphasis in the writing on how frail and weak and "feminine" Alex is. Heck the major plot point of chapter 1 is how a heavy barrel is too much for a woman (or at least just Alex, I hope). I'm undoubtedly a huge hypocrite because of my interest in fantastical objectifying erotica, but I've never been a fan of those themes and writing elements.
The sheer amount of times Alexandra is physically over-powered and has internal monologues on how she is a feminine woman so of course she's weak, were personally unpleasant.
As far as the actual erotica, I feel like I'm not aware enough to give actual feedback, but a lot of it wasn't super engaging to me. The actual transformation and "corruption" felt a bit underwritten and wasn't sexy to me due to a lack of writing and content for it, and the actual scenes, even ones that I find more interesting due to their fantastical nature, felt a bit... dry? Brief? Maybe I'm just a huge snob, or have unrealistic standards, as it seems lots of people enjoyed that element of the game a lot.
Some of my absolute favourite erotic writing I've seen is by Wsan in Fenoxo games, so it might just be exclusively about my personal preferences and subjectivity, since I'm dabbling in content that is out of my comfort zone.
That should be it in regards to incredibly opinionated and useless rambling, apologies again, like I said, I overall quite liked what I experienced, and most of my complaints are nitpicks that are from me overthinking things.
Mechanically, I really liked the sandbox nature of chapter 1 and the focus on experimentation and the ability to replay scenes, it was a really nice touch that you get a clearly indicated point of no return before chapter 2, and how you can buy items you missed from the cat before-hand as well (although I don't really know why the butler outfit vanished from the shop for me).
I do wish it was more clearly communicated which dialogue option continues a conversion/scene, as I was hoping to replay the first encounter with Sabrina to try the other options, but it bottlenecked me into a linear pathway and skipped all of the options. It's a little strange how the first time you encounter her, she can (temporarily) die from her ritual, but the second time she effortlessly escapes.
The hint raven, daily recap and the journal were mostly useless, but that is partly because I found out the way to solve chapter 1 relatively early, and was actively trying to avoid progressing due to fear of points of no return. The journal was completely useless to me, the Raven seemed to only give hints to the main story path on things I already figured out, and the daily recap didn't tell me that I reached the end of the content with the characters such as Ionut and Elise, making it sound like there was more to do.
I think I explored all the side content? But there was no way to tell because none of the dialogue gave any indicators of such. After getting pierced by Sabrina, Elise still wouldn't give me any piercings, and there was no dialogue with Felicia when Sabrina killed Alex, just a blank page.
Best of luck with on-going development, I hope you get continued support and that everything goes well.
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It's nice to see an actual well-written critique instead of the normal bland responses. Just some two-cents on some of your points, the Sabrina thing of her escaping is probably just there so people don't get frustrated if they can't figure it out or lack the Occultism to insta-win it, and I believe Elise only pierces you on a specific route. I did notice the lack of unique Felicia dialogue on the Sabrina-related death, but that's probably just an oversight.
As for the erotica itself, I think this game is trying a bit less to be a CoC/TiTS-type of experience (with heavy emphasis placed on the transformation element) and lean more into the grotesque/body horror-ish elements instead. In that purpose, I think they do the job well, but you are right that it's definitely not as precisely detailed as Fenoxo's work when it comes to the transformation stuff.
That is a completely fair point on the games focus and theming, far be it from me to say that a piece of fiction has to tailor to me.
Fenoxo's games, from what I've seen, get a lot of what I would consider unfair flak on this forum due to its more relatively niche themes and focus (which is curious to me, futanari for example seems to be a very popular erotic genre, but not in many games), there is absolutely nothing wrong with an ethical fictional product that doesn't cater to me.
Weirdly I find it easier to enjoy fantasy monster/beast content than normal straight/vanilla scenes, mostly because there is a larger focus placed on the women and their pleasure, and the sheer taboo anti-realism of it. My subjective gripe is more so in regards to the level of descriptive detail in the erotic scenes themselves, it sometimes lacks weight, or... an apropos titillating factor?
I'm not sure how to describe the technicality of it since I'm a laymen when it comes to writing, all I know what to say, is that when I look at some work written by Wsan or a few other authors, there is something, whether it be some technical feature I don't know the terminology for, some added scene-building, or erotic word-play, that makes it more engaging and sexy.
I have a lot of trouble finding good authors in this genre, a lot of the games (and fans of such) showcased on this website seem to focus on 3D modelling, of which only a few I have found genuinely appealing.
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That's fair. I would agree more emphasis is placed on lore and atmosphere than the outright sexual acts, and that can make them come across as a little rushed or underdeveloped. And I fully agree way too many games on here rely on the strength of their animations and renders in lieu of a compelling premise, story, and/or well-written dialogue. The dev does frequent this thread every so often, and they seem very receptive to constructive criticisms, so they very well might make adjustments to enhance the immersion into the erotic elements. Either way though, this game still definitely stands a cut above a lot of others. I hope their snafu with Patreon doesn't derail development too much.
- May 4, 2020
- 180
- 455
Hey, thanks a bunch for taking the time to write a detailed and descriptive critique, I really enjoyed reading it. I will drop just a few brief notes on a couple of the points made:
First for a bit of context, just like the story itself, the development of the game is quite non-linear. There are many things that are not "done", but it exist in a state of "good enough for now" while other priorities are being handled. The raven and the daily recap are two such examples, which would ideally have a lot more potential content and sophisticated checks at some point, but are currently deliberately meant to only help push the player down the main path if they had issues.
That being said, I don't want to say that all the things like this will eventually have their flaws fixed. Maybe the will, maybe they won't. Managing scope is tricky, and I'm trying to make sure that the project gets completed, more so than every system being implemented is perfect. After the eventual version 1.0, I'll spend some time polishing and improving for as long as I still have motivation XD
I quite liked your criticism of the characters being psychotic assholes and murderers. You are correct. Most of them are not good people. I think that Alex doesn't understand this, but I'm happy that you as a player do. The game is supposed to be a canvas to explore making bad choices, and this wouldn't work (for me) unless you understood that the choices were bad and did them anyways.
Whether the above idea is properly implemented or not is an entirely different debate. I'm sure there are other writers that would do a better job at handling the interweaving of these themes.
The erotic scenes themselves and how the descriptions are handled - I myself agree that there are scenes that would benefit from a touch-up and some extra editing to truly be where I'd like them to be. This is something I'm planning to do once the main story is complete.
I'm happy to hear that you enjoyed exploring the world and thanks again for sharing your feedback =)
Thank you for responding! It's interesting to hear that the fickle, irrational, murderous attitude of the characters and Alex's inability to comprehend this (whether due to mind and memory manipulation, a taboo obsession with her treatment, or something else), is a conscious design decision.
As to whether the theming is interwoven correctly, it seems like a tricky prospect to make the reader aware that the protagonist is oblivious and consciously making decisions to punish herself, whether due to an allure at the prospect or a lack of awareness, without sounding incredibly on the nose and breaking the fourth wall. As far as my experience, I didn't get the obvious impression that as a reader I was supposed to know this fact, but I imagine it's a hard idea to express.
It mostly felt like there was a gap in the writing in-between the first time Alex gets "killed" by the characters (often-times for trivial unfair reasons), and the transition to her attraction and obsession with them. Ionut's dialogue gets alterations taking about Alex's fear of him but the next (and last?) scene in the progression is immediately sleeping with him in the kitchen, and similar things happen with Elise, where Felicia immediately goes "you should make the women who killed you for the fickle reason that you were scared your ally" and Alex says "Great idea!". If there was perhaps more introspection or writing to showcase Alex's changing obsession with her poor treatment, and willingness to engage with in relationships with people who murder for no logical reason as she transforms every reset, it would make more sense to me.
Maybe some similarity to some writing I've seen from the perspective of someone being mind controlled or influenced with hypnosis. Or if she is supposed to be cognizant, just some self reflection on the new kinks she is developing as she transforms into a succubus conflicting with her rational mind at the baffling behaviour of characters like Lavius and Felicia's "justification" towards them. You could even take a more twisted "empowering" route, similar to Sabrina's speech, where Alex finds satisfication in manipulating people into sleeping with and erotically killing her, a sort of skewed power bottom situation.
Sabrina's dialogue seems to have a weird gap in that Alex says "you killed me when I tried to rescue you", and Sabrina just sort of skips past this and doesn't explain herself, immediately moving on to a non-sequitur.
I stopped once I reached Chapter 2 because the game glitched and seemed to think I had already died to the "massacre" since I went out of my way to meet the elder vampire (hilariously he seems the most moral towards Alex, since he seems to know that Succubi can't die), so the fact it is unfinished became pronounced.
I am curious how you actually get the piercings from Elise, since she told Alex to get pierced, I went ahead and did so, but when I came back I got a vague transitional blurb. I was also wondering about what the "secret" Felicia wants you to get from Lavius is, because I'm pretty sure I exhausted every option in the laboratory, and never got a choice that let me search for that. The blurred conversation with Elise and Ionut seems to reveal a few more words after a while, but never lets you actually hear it properly, which also made me wonder if I was missing something.
As to whether the theming is interwoven correctly, it seems like a tricky prospect to make the reader aware that the protagonist is oblivious and consciously making decisions to punish herself, whether due to an allure at the prospect or a lack of awareness, without sounding incredibly on the nose and breaking the fourth wall. As far as my experience, I didn't get the obvious impression that as a reader I was supposed to know this fact, but I imagine it's a hard idea to express.
It mostly felt like there was a gap in the writing in-between the first time Alex gets "killed" by the characters (often-times for trivial unfair reasons), and the transition to her attraction and obsession with them. Ionut's dialogue gets alterations taking about Alex's fear of him but the next (and last?) scene in the progression is immediately sleeping with him in the kitchen, and similar things happen with Elise, where Felicia immediately goes "you should make the women who killed you for the fickle reason that you were scared your ally" and Alex says "Great idea!". If there was perhaps more introspection or writing to showcase Alex's changing obsession with her poor treatment, and willingness to engage with in relationships with people who murder for no logical reason as she transforms every reset, it would make more sense to me.
Maybe some similarity to some writing I've seen from the perspective of someone being mind controlled or influenced with hypnosis. Or if she is supposed to be cognizant, just some self reflection on the new kinks she is developing as she transforms into a succubus conflicting with her rational mind at the baffling behaviour of characters like Lavius and Felicia's "justification" towards them. You could even take a more twisted "empowering" route, similar to Sabrina's speech, where Alex finds satisfication in manipulating people into sleeping with and erotically killing her, a sort of skewed power bottom situation.
Sabrina's dialogue seems to have a weird gap in that Alex says "you killed me when I tried to rescue you", and Sabrina just sort of skips past this and doesn't explain herself, immediately moving on to a non-sequitur.
I stopped once I reached Chapter 2 because the game glitched and seemed to think I had already died to the "massacre" since I went out of my way to meet the elder vampire (hilariously he seems the most moral towards Alex, since he seems to know that Succubi can't die), so the fact it is unfinished became pronounced.
I am curious how you actually get the piercings from Elise, since she told Alex to get pierced, I went ahead and did so, but when I came back I got a vague transitional blurb. I was also wondering about what the "secret" Felicia wants you to get from Lavius is, because I'm pretty sure I exhausted every option in the laboratory, and never got a choice that let me search for that. The blurred conversation with Elise and Ionut seems to reveal a few more words after a while, but never lets you actually hear it properly, which also made me wonder if I was missing something.
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- May 4, 2020
- 180
- 455
That is definitely the "golden standard" in my head - to have fluid and seamless progression from one state to the next. However, remember that you're not experiencing THE Story. You are experiencing A Story.
There is A Story where Alex gets killed by Ionut when she meddles in the tower, but then she warms up to him and eventually gets to know him and even sleep with him.
There is A Story where Alex sleeps with Ionut and gets close to him, only to get killed by him when her curiosity gets the best of her, causing conflicting feelings. (For herself as well as for poor Ionut when burying her).
There is A Story where Alex never gets close to Ionut and only gets punished for her curiosity in the tower, as well as A story where she never goes to the tower and has an overall pretty positive experience with Ionut XD
Some day, hopefully all of these stories will have such seamless transitions with everything else, that you never notice that things could have been much different.
- Feb 16, 2019
- 2,743
- 1,100
- Aug 20, 2020
- 28
- 16
Hey! Would you mind looking at that repo? If it's possible to implement in the game!
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- Sep 30, 2017
- 10
- 9
Amazing game, got me hooked.
Are there other suggestions similar to this one.
Are there other suggestions similar to this one.
- Aug 20, 2020
- 28
- 16
Sadly it's one of it's kind! No other html text based game similar to this one exist from my knowledge
- Aug 18, 2019
- 13
- 18
So, I think I've reached a softlock.
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