I don’t even remember when I played this game, must have been years ago now, but it just popped back into my head today and compelled me to try and google it to find it again.
At the time, I downloaded it cuz it fit my criteria of “has tiddies” and “has good art style” but now, however long later, I remember zero of the horny stuff; what I remember instead are the horror elements. I don’t recall how *much* horror there was—could’ve just been a handful of scenes or sequences—but I feel like they were done well for a game of this scope and nature. I don’t remember if there was any sort of warning about horror elements, but I certainly wasn’t expecting it, and that’s what made it so effective and memorable. Again, it’s been years, so I’m working off my own poor memory here. (Recalling the game got my brain working overtime thinking about horror, so long-ass ramble incoming).
The inclusion of horror in what is otherwise a porn VN feels oddly earnest? There’s no real reason for the dev to have bothered adding that stuff in it aside from just that they really wanted to. In a way, that makes me appreciate the dev as an actual person creating something out of passion, as opposed to just a nameless, faceless dev putting together some kind of uninspired brainless gooner slop.
Horror like this, where it starts out as one genre before blindsiding, is a horror concept that’s fascinated me for aaaaaages, but it’s nearly impossible to execute. It requires the player to even bother playing a game without having seen it or knowing the real premise. Plus, I imagine that most digital game storefronts spoil the horror-ness by requiring you to have accurate content warnings—which *is* good; the viewer could be a child or otherwise susceptible to certain triggering things. DDLC had a vague warning like “not suitable for children or those easily disturbed”, which is about as un-spoilery as you can get away with, but still suggests the possibility of horror elements. But it’s when the player hasn’t even *considered* horror as a possibility that it has the highest potential to achieving true terror. I vaguely remember the horror being optional in this game? Like, if you don’t interact with the horrifying character, the rest of the game is normal? Either way, the inclusion got me thinking about horror that isn’t forewarned or telegraphed.
Now, I don’t know if it was intentional, but having this game otherwise be an 18+ nsfw game for adults might’ve been a stroke of absolute genius—it actually solves those problems I mentioned with “unexpected” horror. A content warning screen at the beginning is commonplace in these games, and there’s no need to worry about traumatizing kids if they can’t even play the game in the first place, so you automatically have an audience that’s fair game to surprise with horror. (There is the possible issue of people triggered by horror content, but are otherwise fine seeing adult content. Admittedly, I don’t know how big that group is, or if there’s potential for horror games to cause harm in that way) It’s not a perfect solution, but it might be the best possible one.
Like I said, I don’t remember how much or even how good the horror actually was. I don’t want to replay because there’s every possibility that it isn’t any good at all, thereby ruining my vague memory of it.
Anyway, there’s my absurdly long ramble in the comments section of a defunct porn game. Remembering this game got me thinking about effective horror, and my adhd brain decided I had to spew it all outt.
Also, (according to comments) it appears that the game is on permanent hiatus, due to the ongoing problems in Ukraine, and for that the dev has my sympathies and best wishes.