Recent reviews by Narmaya

Debut Project: Cooking Café is an overly simple and comfy game that gets repetitive and boring quickly for teens, but would likely appeal more to children. The gameplay loop is about serving dishes, earning likes and followers on social media, while learning more dishes along the way. The baking element is really mostly point-and-click with some quick-time elements, and doesn't have much room for creativity except for adding toppings.

Progression-wise, there are quite a number of recipe items to unlock. I've read some negative reviews saying that the menu items are just different variations of the same treat. It's true, and I really don't think it's a bad thing. For example, being a dessert café there are different ice creams, pancakes you can make, but each recipe gives it a completely new look. Remember how we get really excited whenever our Pokémon learns a new move? But when we look at it isn't Squirtle's Water Pulse just a variation of Water Gun too?

I can't really remember the name of the game, but the gameplay here feels really similar to something I played on the DS when I was 7. I did enjoy said game a lot back then, and had made some fond memories with my younger sister from it. Although Debut Project: Cooking Café is not something I'll recommend today especially considering it's price point, I don't think it's fair I review it negatively knowing it's for kids. Just know who you're getting this game for before making the purchase.

It's a cozy and family-friendly platformer Care Bears game, best for children really. The visuals are clean and cute, and the story follows the Care Bears on their adventure to cleanse the land of the bad seed. It has up to 4-player local co-op and you can play with the Care Bear of your choice, each with a unique trait. The gameplay is mostly platforming to collect stars, stickers, with some light shoot 'em ups and mini-games thrown in the mix. It is extremely forgiving with unlimited revives, and was very easy to finish.

Considering the genre and target audience, there's not much else to nitpick or comment on. The only slightly frustrating factor would be having to restart from certain checkpoints upon falling off the map. Having used Grumpy for my entire playthrough to make finding hidden stickers easier, it took less than 4 hours for me to complete the game with 100% achievements, though there wasn't any other incentives for replay after. The experience overall was warm and charming, and I personally think I would've really enjoyed it as a kid.

A casual clicker hentai game where you progressively engage in various sexual activities with a Wolf Girl. There’s virtually no story, context, or character development, and the main gameplay loop revolves around accumulating Lust points with each click. While not fully animated, each click alternates between two CGs thus creating the illusion of movement. Random quick-time events occasionally appear where clicking fast enough to climax grants bonus points.

The game can be cleared within 30 minutes using an auto-clicker, with various upgrades to speed up progression. There are currently 10 scenes to unlock with more presumably coming soon, although several reuse the same backgrounds and camera angles, differing only in positions. The game is cheap with easy achievements. The CGs are erotic and fully hand-drawn but with a niche appeal thanks to the busty, muscular wolf-girl protagonist. That said, it’s a bit odd seeing her with two sets of ears. Note that there’s no graphics settings option to adjust the resolution.

Succubus Heaven is a 3D adult roguelite that isn’t nearly as shallow as it initially lets on. The game starts off with a Goddess entrusting three female exorcists with a mission to defeat monsters before they engulf the world in miasma. These monsters, known as succubi come in various forms (insects, slimes, ghouls, etc). The game doesn’t have the typical HP bar, but instead an impurity / arousal gauge system. Attacks from succubi raise the girls’ arousal, damaging their clothes, and the more exposed they are to the Miasma, the faster their arousal increases. The girls orgasm once their arousal bar is filled up, accumulating impurity, and when impurity also reaches the limit the girl can no longer resist.

Combat is standard with regular, charged attacks and dodging. There are 3 playable characters. Nellie (Sword), Sera (Dagger), and Dorothy (Mage). Nellie is strong early on with her default weapon and wide aoe charged attack, but attacking will reduce its durability and eventually cause it to break, so it’s important to look out for alternative weapons too. Unfortunately, the other two characters are too unbalanced in comparison. Sera is fast, but her hitboxes are all over the place making chaining combos annoying. Dorothy as a mage functions better as a ranged character. She has a unique mechanic to convert weapons into spells, giving her a wider arsenal of skills. However, her dodge is pathetic and even with the lock-on mechanic, her overall controls were fairly janky and frustrating. Each character can only hold 4 items including weapons, so it’s important to distribute and manage your loot. There’s limited loot variation, with crystallized stones (which repair your clothes) and weapons being the most noteworthy.

The gameplay loop centers on exploring dungeons, defeating succubi, collecting buffs from altars, gathering loot, and repeating the process. Graphics are generally unremarkable. The rooms are mostly indistinguishable from one another. I usually have no idea where I’m going and mainly follow the on-screen markers. There are some basic Japanese voice lines. Localization is decent and I have no issues playing the game in English. Has controller support and runs smoothly at 60 fps on the Steam Deck.

Despite its flaws, the game stands out with a good variety of erotic animations and a free sex mode you can revisit in the gallery. You can adjust the camera, create scenes with different monsters, adjust the girls’ sensitivity and have other features like futanari, parasite slime, and virginity. For those not into roguelite gameplay, there’s an option to unlock all adult scenes and endings early to dive straight into the gallery. The game has mosaic censorship, which cannot be removed.

While the asset-pack models, like the high school uniforms do make the game seem like an asset flip, Succubus Heaven makes up for it with its adult content. The roguelite elements are barebones, but I still enjoyed it and think it's a great effort on the developer's part to be able to deliver such a polished adult experience working with what they did, even if the final product may not be what they had fully envisioned.

I am new to the detective genre, so compared to the other reviews I’ve read, RAIN CODE Plus was actually a surreal and refreshing experience. The storytelling is very well-executed, giving plenty of hints without spoiling the full mystery. I found myself constantly second-guessing theories, trying to find the missing piece to tie everything together. Each chapter covers a unique trait of mystery (Eg. copycat killings, locked-room murders, etc), allowing the narrative to stay engaging throughout, though I won't mention further to prevent any spoilers.

The character designs are striking, with intriguing personalities. Each character felt meticulously crafted, from their visual details to hints at their backstories, making it even more surprising and disappointing when certain characters were eliminated prematurely. The Death God, Shinigami acts as a kind of mascot character yet she's so much more than that. I absolutely love her for what she brings to the table, and find that hanging around her is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the game. She’s humorous, silly, shameless, full of dirty jokes, and totally someone I wouldn’t mind being haunted by.

The gameplay loop revolves around collecting clues, clearing side quests, exploring the Mystery Labyrinth, and deducing the culprit for every major ongoing case. Instead of the usual button-mashing or grinding, the combat is more of a “battle of the mind” than a typical JRPG, with a stronger emphasis on quick-time deductions. Normally I prefer more "grounded" storytelling, but the developers have implemented the Mystery Labyrinth so well that I stayed fully engaged exploring them, much more than I did for Persona 5.

The localization quality is great, and I enjoyed the English dub. As someone who frequently plays JRPGs, RAIN CODE Plus may not have the action and combat gameplay I’m used to, but its compelling narrative, charming cast (inc. Shinigami) and refreshing experience makes it easy to overlook any minor flaws. I was heavily invested in the story and did not sidetrack much, so completing the main story took about ~30 hours. I can see why some may feel the anime troupe to be cringe or cliché, but personally speaking RAIN CODE Plus is probably one of the best anime games I've ever played, and likely my 2024 GOTY.

A hentai VN spin-off of The Ring. You bought the latest TV set and found an obscure movie to test out its 3D functions. A ghost girl came out of the TV threatening to kill you, and being the dim-witted fool you are, you assumed it was one of the TV’s features, yet still somehow ended up marrying her!? Sayako, the ghost girl, discovers she can enter other movies through the TV, and unfortunately stumbles upon your porn DVDs.

The “Sweetest” Ring is a short 30-minute VN with seven events featuring clean CGs and uncensored animated H-scenes. English is good with no voiceovers. Most events are NTR-themed and happen when you’re not home, plus there’s a vague reference to a pair of girls and a cup. I’m not a fan of NTR so my experience overall was more sour than sweet. But hey, maybe it’s different for you.

Maiden Cops is a playful, ecchi beat-'em-up with a good mix of humor and classic Streets of Rage vibes. There are three playable characters, each with their own style—one is more agile with weaker attacks, another is balanced in both speed and damage, and the last is a powerhouse who, though slower, hits harder and can use environmental objects like iron bars and concrete as weapons. Only the first two characters can wield standard weapons like knives, pipes, baseball bats, and swords.

The screen is usually filled with enemies, and combat is satisfying, with a good variety of moves and specials. The story is fairly basic, with humorous dialogue between levels. The game has seven stages set in diverse locations like cities, beaches, and subways, and classic mechanics like breakable objects and hidden items scattered throughout, providing points, energy, or extra lives.

The block mechanic was a bit tough for me to get used to, and I found myself losing more lives than expected in the first playthrough. Difficulty-wise, it's well-balanced, though I personally feel Nina is rather underwhelming compared to the others. Nonetheless, Maiden Cops is a solid beat-'em-up with great value, and it’s rare to find another game with such fluid gameplay and replayability for its price.

Kinky Cosplay Heroes is a casual clicker game where you manage a camgirl club with cosplayers. The gameplay loop primarily revolves around hiring, upgrading cosplayers to earn income, completing tasks, playing mini-games to increase affection with each character, and unlocking animated adult scenes through a mix of clicker mechanics and light resource management.

Progression can be rewarding, but generating income takes a while and is rather slow-paced. There are multiple cosplayers, a variety of fetishes, and a fair amount of customization with skills and character upgrades, such as charisma or income boosts which adds a light form of strategy to the game. The interactions between the girls are fairly engaging as you deepen your relationship with them, though the overall character development felt somewhat shallow. The soundtrack is basic and doesn't particularly stand out.

I did however encounter some bugs. In the tutorial, I was prompted to click things that weren't there and had to restart the playthrough. Later, the game froze when I tried to sell the club. It halted my progress entirely, which was frustrating. Nonetheless, I did enjoy what it had to offer especially considering it is still in Early Access. Hopefully, more content and fixes will be introduced with future updates.

无休仙途 is currently in Early Access and only available in Chinese. I jumped in without really knowing what to expect and ended up pleasantly surprised by how much it grew on me. It's a turn-based auto-battle RPG with cozy visuals, gratifying progression, and fairly relaxing challenges. The polished character and background designs helped maintain visual interest and kept the experience engaging even when the gameplay occasionally felt repetitive.

The difficulty is fairly balanced and presents an adequate level of challenge. Bosses appear every five levels and don't need excessive grinding to progress. Combat-wise, there isn't any option to target specific enemy targets during battle. I understand that as an auto-battler it may be an intentional design choice, but it restricts strategic options and makes combat feel shallow overall.

There's a fast-forward option, allowing you to skip through repetitive encounters and keep gameplay fast-paced. The soundtrack is great and complements the setting well. There is however too little variety in the OST leading the looping tracks to quickly become repetitive and stale. Nonetheless, 无休仙途 shows great potential and is already a fun and visually engaging experience with casual, manageable difficulty.

BeatRider is a 2D roguelite with lots of potential but is far from reaching it in its current state. The soundtrack is pretty chill, the comic-inspired visuals set a cool, gritty tone, and the character designs pull you in with a lot of personality, but that's pretty much where the praise starts to taper off.

Gameplay is pretty standard for a roguelite but isn't very engaging. Progression requires collecting coins to level up your character. However, this process feels largely tedious and the grind quickly becomes repetitive, lacking the necessary content and variables to keep me invested. For a game with "Beat" in the name, there are barely any rhythm elements and even then it feels moderately unresponsive and janky. With the story being forgettable and dull, there just aren't enough incentives for me to finish the game.

As it stands now, it's difficult to recommend BeatRider because it simply doesn't offer enough to stay enjoyable for long. At the same time, although it didn't deliver quite to the standard of a fully released and polished title, I felt reluctant to fully admonish it as it has very charming visuals and ventures into a unique field of rhythm combat roguelite, reflecting the developers' long hours of passion, dedication, and effort. Hopefully, more updates will come to address these issues.