I second with the “reliable escape method.” I love the text adventure style of this game, I love the spicy premise of this game and the suggested kinks.
But the encounters are imbalanced, or at least I feel very lost in the dark as a new player. I failed to find food venturing into the forest one level several times in different directions, and every single time I would be depleted of all the stats because of so many encounters with mouse girls, bunny boys and batboys. I always had to go back home after an encounter with 2 creatures.
I wish there were hints that there were monsters in the next room over, and the choice to hide where you are, and/or progress quietly, and/or turn back to the previous room to avoid an encounter. It did this with bunnygirls and bunnyboys but not anything else.
For evading monsters, I would be okay with an “abandon excursion”/“evade encounter” if it dropped everything I found and sent the player back to the cabin, if the character is at low energy/hunger.
I would also like a “play nice” option somewhere or something that will reliably calm down a monster. I was having lots of fun having my character deal with all the pleasant encounters with the bunny girls and mouse girls. (Maybe for the people who enjoy it, to counter my suggestion, perhaps a “dare them to go harder”/“Tease them” option or something to rile up the monster.)
But combat didn’t work at all for me. The anger mechanic and pain mechanic made it discouraging to try combat at all, I don’t feel the game offered enough hints to help me understand how to fend off monsters. Once a monster was angered past 5%, it felt impossible to calm them down. I tried stopping struggling, I tried patting their head, I tried doing as they wished, but it didn’t work.
The game said that batboys/batgirls are four times more affected by screaming. I had the player character scream for two or three turns, but the anger mechanic overrided everything (even when I realized I f-cked up and I adjusted my playstyle,) and it trapped my game in a softlock where my character was getting beaten at 20% anger, with my character at 100% pain for several turns and no way to negotiate or leave the encounter. The batboys exhausted themselves while I did nothing on my turns, for several minutes. (Batboys don’t respond to pleading, screaming and moving was taken away, and they kept beating the player character.) All I did was scream and struggle, I didn’t have my player hurt them back. There was nothing to warn me that the game was going to escalate in such a manner.
I enjoyed the idea the MC will be held against it’s will. I enjoyed the idea that there would be forceful monsters. The game also reassured that my character wouldn’t get killed. I understood all of that.
However, after enjoying previous encounters, I wish there was a warning that the monsters would hurt the player character. It was jarring and I felt wholly unprepared.
Returned home, spammed washing up and relaxing under the tree to get the stats back in order. Went back out the next day, found two other batboys. Handled them properly (while starving), they left peacefully. I ventured one room over into the forest. Two more batboys! Still no food or wood or game progression! I quit the game. :(