Winston asks. . .
A lot of the adult games I played in the past and from your reviews, it seems like that a lot of adult games have very shallow gameplay; whether it be tile swipping, visual novels, dress up or those press button to make sex scene happen here. Do you think adult games will actually be able to find ways to have interesting gameplay beyond these or would they get in the way of the porn? And if you have examples of adult games that have good gameplay and have good lewd bits, what would they be?
DatWombat says. . .
This is part of the reason why I choose to review “adult games” over non-adult games. It’s fascinating to see the ways developers try to marry sexual content (which by definition, is intended to arouse) with gameplay. I found that adult games can generally be divided into two categories; there’s “adult games”, with gameplay and storytelling that could only exist in pornographic offerings; and then there’s “games with adult content”, which fall inline with the “shallow gameplay” you describe. I suspect most developers are interested in a quick buck, and “games with adult content” are the easiest to make!
Don’t have the talent to program a genuinely interesting or entertaining game? Just add some boobs for instant sales!
The problem with porn and games is that they don’t always mix. It’s a challenge few developers are interested in taking, but I’m here to support them! I enjoy the RPGs Kagura Games put out, but they are a little hit-or-miss. Sometimes, they publish some wonderfully lewd games with meaningful lewd content. The first two that come to mind are Ambrosia and Tear and the Library of Labyrinths. These RPGs have interesting storytelling, and they have a good mix of lewd content which ties into core gameplay. Escape Dungeon (by Hide Games) is a fun dungeon crawler with beautiful animations — if you’re into hardcore, non-consensual content, you may enjoy this title. CriticalBliss is a great publisher to follow; their publications are stellar. They value gameplay over sexual mechanics, offering genuinely challenging games with strong pornographic rewards. Midnight Castle Succubus DX and Tower and Sword of Succubus are challenging titles with great pixel artwork. Recently, I beat a game called “Robolife-Days with Aino“. The replay value leaves something to be desired, but it’s a great VN for an afternoon. Touching on Kagura Games again, Explorer of Yggdrasil and Succubus Farm are great games with steamy content. If you don’t mind censorship, I thoroughly enjoyed a game called “~Azur Ring~virgin and slave’s phylacteries“. The English is a travesty, but it’s a fun action-side-scroller with unlockable lewds. There’s lots of great porn-games out there, but sometimes it’s hard to sort them from the sea of bad adult games.
I wish you luck on your search. If you find any good games, don’t hesitate to send them my way!
