Saturday, June 16, 2018

Some Western Erotic Horror Games - "Agony" and "Lust for Darkness"

I'm still beavering away on the next "Escape the Cushionblob" (or Pink Slime girl or Pink Jelly girl) CYOA piece.  Likely because I'm getting carried away and writing too much for each segment, but never mind...

I normally talk about the Japanese sex games, but here are a couple of Western erotic horror games that caught my eye.

Agony is probably the more famous one as it also had a console release.




It's a first person survival horror set in hell.  The aesthetic looks pretty cool.  There are also succubi, other demons with big boobs, various bits of suggestive imagery, and lotz and lotz of claret 'n' gore, if the various trailers are anything to go by.

This one I haven't played.  I was impressed by the look of the game (and tits and succubi).  Unfortunately the reception after release has not been so positive.  From what I've heard the game play and technical stuff don't live up to the promise of the aesthetic.  I'll wait until a patch and sale before giving it a go.




The one I did play was Lust for Darkness.




This has been on my radar since seeing some let's play footage of the demo at the start of the year.  It takes the classic Lovecraftian tropes of cults and eldritch abominations and throws in some kinky sex stuff on top.  You play a husband trying to rescue his wife from a creepy sex cult that kidnapped her a year ago.  The creepy sex cult is attempting to bring a dimension of pure lust into our world with a midnight ritual.  It's first principles Lovecraftian horror, in that the game creates its own eldritch abominations and alien dimensions rather than name-checking Cthulhu and chums.

It also manages the odd feat of being both over-the-top and understated.  You can't walk five paces without seeing a salacious statue, finding a kinky sex toy hidden in a drawer or have a bare-breasted cultist (or demon) jiggle her tits in your face.  But it also seems natural.  You'd expect to see these things in the mansion of the psychopathic leader of a weirdo sex cult, so their presence seems organic rather than crowbarred in for shock value or titillation.

The look of the sex dimension Lusst'ghaa is a little mixed.  They clearly aren't fucking around as you can see right after entering the dimension for the first time:




For me it felt a little too "generic videogame alien world".  The devs chose to base it on the works of Giger and Zdzisław Beksiński, which are weird, but also the sort of weird that's been seen many times over in games with weird alien universes.  It's also your typical alien plane of death.  The booby alien demons seem more interested in slicing you in half and most of the cultists learn fairly quickly that Lusst'ghaa is more interested in tearing them apart than granting them all of their carnal desires.  I would have liked to have seen a sexier (but still dangerous) world.  There is a room near the end with plenty of debauchery on full display, which is fairly imaginative, but I think the game would have benefited from blurring more sexy into the horrific.  Maybe given the main character a few more detailed death scenes rather than a splash of red and fade to black.

Of course, go too far and you run into the problems the Agony people had, so devs have to tread a fine line if they want to be able to actually release and sell their game.

Overall I thought Lust for Darkness was okay if a little short for the price.  It's good to see games experiment with more adult themes/visuals in a way that fits the story.  I hope we see more game devs taking risks on this type of content, and maybe try to push boundaries further.

22 comments:

  1. I like these erotic-horror games more than some of the asian (mainly Japanese) ones only on the matter of what the main character looks like. I ain't playing a game with where monster girls are trying to rape a child-looking protag.

    But yeah, I agree that Lust for Darkness could've gone a longer for another one or two hours.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You mentioned trying out Lust Grimm before, so I thought it might interest you to know that this game is getting a translation by Together (the people behind the translations of Succubus Prison and Parade Buster).
    https://www.patreon.com/translatingtogether/posts
    It also has a sequel, called Lust Friend, which has a demo out.
    http://625plus.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-105.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And now they've released their first translation patch, covering the introduction up to the first boss (including 9 H-scenes across 3 enemies). You can find it here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/public-preview-9-19776066

      Delete
  3. It's been so long since we have had a story.. Please tell us a story :D

    ReplyDelete
  4. After 2017 E3, you gave us a long blog post about your opinions on SJWs.

    Now that E3 2018 has passed, care to revive that tradition?

    In light of recent political events and given the rise of status quo warriors, do you still hold the same opinions about SJWs?






    ...yes. the point of this comment is indeed to stir up shit. Glad you noticed :3

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hmm, I've been trying to avoid the political stuff as it's needlessly divisive, but I might post something.

      I still hold the same opinion of SJWs (nasty censorious little bullies).

      I'm not sure what a Status Quo Warrior is. I have seen people on the other side of the political spectrum adopt similar tactics to the SJWs and to be honest I'm not a big fan of that either.

      Generally, people should be free to enjoy whatever entertainment they like (provided it's not doing any actual harm to someone else, and I mean real harm, not hurt fee fees "harm"). Don't like it, don't watch it, play it, read it. There is plenty of other entertainment out there. It's the same whether people are getting icked out by sexist anime tiddies or "SJW" gay kisses. Watch something else.

      Easy rule to follow - don't mess with other people's entertainment.

      Delete
    2. Oh you actually responded. Neat.


      I think I understand your position a bit better now.

      I think your definition of 'SJW' is MUCH more reasonable than how most people use the term. Maybe this is all a definition issue?

      For example, I don't think you would have an issue with people who push for more diversity in games/movies/media, so long as they don't censor others.

      I had 3 reasons for posting the above comment:

      1) I think SJWs (defined as people who push for more diversity and minority representation in all forms of media) are generally force for good, even if their methods need work.

      2) On the opposite end of the spectrum, you have people like Sargon of Akkad, Milo Yiannopoulos,Ben Shapiro, Dave Rubin. These people are pretty much the most dishonest, racist, misogynistic people you will ever meet. I get that two wrongs don't make a right, but still, it seems weird to spend so much time criticising SJWs while ignoring the other group.

      3) as far as I know, SJWs as a whole have been pretty quiet recently. Nowadays, it seems like mot of the censorship/death threats/actual harm comes from the right.

      Given you've expressed a lot of anti-SJW sentiments in the past, I was just curious to see if the rise of status-quo warriors, people who dedicate their entire lives to hating SJWs, has made you more sympathetic.



      TLDR: What do you think of SJWs now that worse has emerged on the other side of the spectrum?



      I'm aware all this makes me seem like an SJW (honestly, I do lean that way). However, I'm not interested in pushing a narrative. I'm just genuinely curious.

      Delete
    3. Diversity has got messy as a topic because a lot of it nowadays comes across as forced and clumsy. Good writing should naturally feature diversity anyway because diverse casts are more interesting than homogenous casts. Problems arrive when people start using a checklist approach. At that point they're not adding interesting characters, but tokens to tick a box. It becomes worse when the character is not seen as a character but as a representation or exemplar of their particular group. Characters need negative as well as positive traits to be interesting, fully-rounded characters. If a creator can't add negative traits to a character because people see that character as the group they're representing rather than an individual, then the creator is hamstrung into creating only bland, uninteresting characters. Yes, there are going to be some twerps that don't like the blacks, or the gays, whatever, but the majority tend to be complaining about poor writing. This majority also gets very angry when their criticisms are misrepresented as sexist/racist/etc, because they see sexism/racism/etc as a bad thing. As a simple rule of thumb, actual sexists and racists don't mind being called such. They see it as a badge of honour.

      Another massive issue older nerds have with the newer upstart SJWs invading their cultural spaces is how staggeringly ignorant the newer SJWs tend to be of the past. Captain Kirk kissed Uhura on the bridge of the Enterprise in the 60s. Before Black Panther there was Blade. Before DCEU's Wonder Woman there was Ripley in Alien and Sarah Connor in Terminator. The X-men were led by a Kenyan woman with a mohican. Lara Croft was part of the iconic three videogame trio with Mario and Sonic. Anyone trying to claim regular nerds have issues with female or PoC characters is just displaying massive ignorance. (And also riling up regular nerds that understandably take exception to being described as racist or sexist.)

      Onto your points.

      1) SJ *advocates* maybe. SJWs are the ones hiding in their ranks and using it as cover for bullying and self-aggrandizing behaviour. If you see an otherwise reasonable person griping about the evil SJWs, they've likely had a few too many run ins with the latter type.

      Delete
    4. and cont because I wrote too much :)

      2) Hmm, highlighting that bunch makes me wonder if you need to diversify your information sources. Rubin is a fairly middle-of-the-road liberal (who is also gay, I believe) as far as I'm aware. Of them I would put Milo as the only "threat" and he was comprehensively put on ice after the left tagged in the old Christian Right to get rid of him.

      The main reason I don't criticise them is I don't see them as a cultural threat. I write weird erotica and enjoy extreme horror. People that are for freedom of speech aren't going to try and shut down my livelihood or ban the films and games I'm interested in. That's the crucial difference between them and SJWs. It's also why SJW influence is in decline. Given a choice between someone mocking an opposing point of view and someone outright trying to shut it down, most regular people will side with the former.

      This is the challenge for the people on the SJ advocacy side of things. SJWs have totally screwed the pooch for you with their aggressive bullying nonsense. Now you need to win back the hearts and minds of the regular folks before the Milos of this world lead them off into darker territories.

      3) There have been two conservative authors disinvited from conventions already this year. Game devs still have to face endless shitty articles from polytaku and the rest either insinuating or outright accusing them of being horrible human beings for their creative choices. Yes, there are tons of youtube videos doing the same on the other side, but they are not part of the mainstream media and do not have the same cultural clout.

      This might shift (and is already shifting as more and more people disentangle SJWs from the good causes they use as cover). If the old Christian Right starts worming out of the woodwork and gets back to their old tricks of trying to ban games and "devil" music, you can bet I'll be just as critical of them. Until then I'm quite happy to see the SJW side squashed flat and mocked and ridiculed to the point where they can no longer bully, threaten and censor creators.

      I guess that answers the question of whether I've become more sympathetic. :)

      But as you might have guessed from reading this, I see SJWs as nasty little censorious bullies, so I'm never going to be kindly disposed to them.

      And as for wondering whether you're an SJW. Ask whether you want to add to culture rather than over-write or take away from existing culture.

      Delete
    5. Let me first say that we are not using the same definition of 'SJW' I think you are defining SJW as 'the assholes among the liberals', while I'm using it to mean 'the liberals as a whole'.


      'The majority tend to be complaining about poor writing'

      I don't necessarily disagree that MOST people (>50%) are not bothered by diversity so much as bad writing. However I would point out there are a LOT of people who complain simply because something 'panders to SJWs', which isn't really a valid criticism.

      For example, how many people got triggered by the new ghostbusters/the battlefield 5 trailer/Fifa 17's black character, without even seeing watching the movies/playing the game? How did those people react to stuff like Tracer's lesbian reveal, which had no effect on the plot of Overwatch?

      I agree that trying to force diversity in media can ruin writing, but it seems like a lot of people are simply using that an excuse to push back against greater representation of minorities/women, when in reality they just want to preserve the status quo of a straight white male.


      'As a simple rule of thumb, actual sexists and racists don't mind being called such.'

      This is patently untrue. Due the stigma around racism, there are plenty of people with extremely racist beliefs that don't like being called racist. Jontron is an excellent example. Also, a massive percentage of the population have unconscious bias. There is an excellent study on this: "Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal?"


      'Anyone trying to claim regular nerds have issues with female or PoC characters is just displaying massive ignorance.'

      I’m not sure what you mean by ‘regular nerd’, but when I talk about intolerance among gamers, I'm primarily talking about gamer bros, you know, the kind of people created by Gamergate, as a reaction to SJWs (your definition of SJWs). It's hard to deny that they are much more misogynistic than the older crowd.
      Also, while nerds don't have a problem with games that have always had female leads (Tomb raider, Alien, Metroid), it seems like a lot of nerds, both new and old, get very upset when women enter traditionally male roles.

      For example, battlefield 5, Ghostbusters, and the all-female Lord of the flies remake, female Dr Who. Isn't this a bit weird for people who believe the quality of the writing, not what characters look like, is most important?

      Delete
    6. Continued.

      1) This is a difference in our definitions of SJW


      2) I probably do need to diversify my sources, but the same could be said for 99% of the population. I do make an effort to challenge my beliefs-I'm talking you right?

      'Rubin is a fairly middle-of-the-road liberal (who is also gay, I believe)'

      Dave Rubin will make a bunch of anti-SJW videos, then platform people like Milo Yiannopoulos, Lauren Southern and Dinesh D'Souza and not challenge any of their opinions, all while claiming to be centrist. I hate those kinds of people. Also, the stuff he says about government regulation/economics is incredibly stupid. His homosexuality is completely irrelevant.

      Ben Shapiro is Islamophobic and argues in bad faith. He pretty much encourages his fans to do this as well in his guide of how to argue with liberals.

      Sargon of Akkad is just plain stupid and misogynistic.

      I can explain provide additional evidence for all this if you are interested.


      'The main reason I don't criticise them is I don't see them as a cultural threat. I write weird erotica and enjoy extreme horror. People that are for freedom of speech aren't going to try and shut it down'

      This is the crux of the issue. In the games and erotica space I agree that SJWs (my definition) are more inclined to shut down media. However, on a broader, societal level, conservatives (around the world, but especially in America) are much more anti-free speech. Do you disagree with this?

      Also, do you think your past experiences with SJWs (your definition) might be skewing your beliefs a bit?

      Out of curiosity, do you think it is ever appropriate to deplatform people/destroy media? Because I believe there are several instances where it is appropriate.

      3) 'There have been two conservative authors disinvited from conventions already this year'.

      How many SJWs (my definition) do you think have been deplatformed, dox'd, swatted or received death threats in the past year?


      'There are tons of youtube videos doing the same on the other side, but they are not part of the mainstream media and do not have the same cultural clout'.

      There are plenty of very right-wing news sites. Besides, in terms of viewership and audience size i think YouTube surpasses places like Polytaku. I don’t know how you measure cultural clout. I’m not sure what makes those Youtube videos less impactful or heinous than Polytaku articles.

      Delete
    7. I think you're misunderstanding where a lot of this conflict is coming from. I think I will post something on it later as it is a subject that fascinates me and I've followed the various controversies quite closely over the past 4 years.

      Complaints of "pandering to SJWs" are usually linked to problems of bad writing - nonsensical plotting, weak characters, immersion breaking, and heavy-handed moralising on issues not related to the story - which tend to be endemic to works that try too hard to be "woke".

      This is a quality control problem not a "we don't like the wimminz in our games" problem.

      The media likes to report it as a "we don't like the wimminz in our games" problem because they're a bunch of dishonest hacks with a business model predicated on stirring up shit whenever they can.

      "This is the crux of the issue. In the games and erotica space I agree that SJWs (my definition) are more inclined to shut down media. However, on a broader, societal level, conservatives (around the world, but especially in America) are much more anti-free speech. Do you disagree with this?"

      Yes. One of the oddities of modern politics is that support for free speech has switched from a left wing to a right wing issue. I also think that ceding this ground is one of the principal reasons why the left has been hemorrhaging support, particularly amongst the young, over the past few years. This may change in the future if more unsavoury characters rise to prominence amongst the right, but at the current point in time the progressive side is behaving very similarly to the morality crusaders of the 80s (who were mostly the Christian right). Behaving like the Christian right in the 80s is not where you want to be.

      Out of curiosity, do you think it is ever appropriate to deplatform people/destroy media? Because I believe there are several instances where it is appropriate.

      Nope. Shine a light on them and debate them. Deplatforming/censorship is a tacit admission you can't and maybe your arguments are wrong in the first place.

      Don't be on the book burning side. Those are definitely the baddies.

      Delete
    8. 'This is a quality control problem not a "we don't like the wimminz in our games" problem.'

      Can you explain why there was soooo much backlash against the new ghostbusters/the female doctor who/battlefield 5/Fifa 17/Black Panther before anyone had even seen the movie or played the game?

      Or how about stuff like gay romance options in Bioware games and Tracer's lesbian reveal, stuff that doesn't really affect the plot/gameplay/writing in any appreciable way?

      It seems like there is this automatic assumption among a large number of gamers (but not all) that the quality of media automatically decreases if the creators try to increase diversity/pander to SJWs.

      'The media likes to report it as a "we don't like the wimminz in our games" problem because they're a bunch of dishonest hacks with a business model predicated on stirring up shit whenever they can.'

      Please don't tell me you've bought Trump's 'lying media, fake news' narrative. Yes, mainstream media has a lot of business model issues and are prone to dramatizing issues. Yes, they have been unfairly hostile towards new media. However, there is a MASSIVE difference between heavily biased news and fake news.

      Delete
    9. Continued

      'Support for free speech has switched from a left wing to a right wing issue'

      When I look at free speech issues on the left, I see a bunch of annoying, overly sensitive screaming college students, people getting disinvited from events, and maybe some people getting fired from their jobs.

      There are only 2 major issues I can remember off the top of my head: that Nazi pug Count Dankula thing (a lot of the left opposed that ruling) and Richard Spencer getting punched in the face (which I MASSIVELY disagree with).

      When I look at free speech issues on the right, I see the goddamn PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES attacking and threatening to sue pretty much all mainstream media outlets that criticise him, pushing to get kneeling NBA and NFL players fired, suggesting flag burning should be punished with jail time or revoking citizenship, all while his supporters cheer him on. Because fuck libruls.

      I know he didn't enact any of these policies, but there is still a massive chilling effect'

      I also see lots of death threats (to be fair the left also do this) and attempts to get people fired (again, the left does this too). I can only wonder how many attempts there have been to get Shep Smith, the token progressive on FOX News, fired.

      Out of curiosity, do you think ABC was morally justified in firing Roseanne Barr?



      'Nope. Shine a light on them and debate them. Deplatforming/censorship is a tacit admission you can't and maybe your arguments are wrong in the first place.'

      This statement actually made me sad, because before 2016, I would have agreed 100%. I used to believe in the marketplace of ideas: debating opponents and letting the best argument win.

      However, now I've realised one very important truth:

      People have really shit critical thinking skills.

      It's sooooo easy to make people believe stuff that is FACTUALLY untrue, stuff that has been widely debunked. Just look at how many people believe in Pizzagate / Birtherism / that global warming is a jewish conspiracy / that Obama was Muslim / Hillary murdered Seth Rich / 3 million illegals voted in the US 2016 elections / trans people want to rape children in bathrooms.

      Arguments and public discourse don't work if one side is willing to endlessly spread lies and misrepresent facts. There is simply not enough time in the day to debunk one hundred faulty premises before attacking the core argument. Especially if those faulty premises have been repeated by so many people that they have become ingrained into the audience.

      As a result, I think it is morally acceptable to deplatform people who knowingly spread false information/misrepresent facts.

      As far as I know, the right does this far more than the left. Do you disagree?

      I'm perfectly willing to debate racists / nazis / fascists / anti semites / islamophobes
      / misogynists, but I draw the line at people who argue in bad faith, people who obfuscate arguments with layers and layers of bullsit. Do you disagree with this?




      What if you are burning copies of Mein Kampf?

      Delete
    10. The automatic assumption of bad quality comes from experience. When creators push too hard to be seen as "woke", there is a fear that they've lost sight of the primary objective - make a quality product. This isn't always the case. The doubts on Horizon Zero Dawn and Black Panther went away once the game/film came out.

      When creators get better at incorporating more diverse characters more organically rather than trumpeting "We have a (bland, flat, completely uninteresting) gay/PoC/trans character, look how progressive we are!" I imagine this stigma will start to go away.

      Some things are also overblown. I don't know who had issues with Tracer's lesbian reveal. I suspect the games press found a few troglodyte social media accounts and tried to spin it as being representative of the larger gaming community (this happens a lot).

      The other issue is companies breaking rule 1: Never insult the people you're trying to sell stuff to. Ghostbusters ran an aggressive and controversial marketing campaign to try and raise interest in the film by shaming anyone with criticisms of it as a vile misogynist. Unsurprisingly, a lot of the people that might have otherwise gone to see the film gave it the middle finger and it fell flat on its face.

      Rule 1: Never insult the people you're trying to sell stuff to (even Star Wars is in the process of learning this lesson).

      Bouncing onto this (because it answers the other stuff):

      What if you are burning copies of Mein Kampf?

      Think of it this way. Instead of burning Mein Kampf, wouldn't it be better to read it and gain insight on how Hitler managed to abuse populism to get himself in control of a powerful nation, with the aim of learning how to spot and formulate counter-measures against anyone trying similar strategies in future.

      That's why it's always import to debate the bullshitters. Debate isn't about trying to convince the other side, it's about trying to convince the people watching. If you don't show, or remove the other side by force, or just brush them off with empty snark, anyone watching who doesn't know any better will be more inclined to lean towards the other side. Always put your views across honestly, even - or rather especially - if the other side is spraying shit.

      Milo ran amok across the colleges because students had grown intellectually flabby and didn't know how to handle someone challegning their beliefs. They flopped back on weak emotive arguments and looked like idiots when the videos went up on youtube.

      Delete
    11. So I noticed you didn't address all of my points-that's fine. It was pretty long and autistic.

      Just to be clear, my argument was never that ALL gamers hate women, or that even that MOST gamers hate women. I was just trying to point out that there is an ‘uncomfortable amount’ that have anti-diversity tendencies, and that this group needs to be called out.

      ‘The automatic assumption of bad quality comes from experience.’
      What bothers me is the double standard. It makes me think there an unconscious bias.

      As I’m sure you know, not all sexism/racism is explicit. A lot of it occurs as assumptions/tendencies that you may not even be fully aware of.

      For Example:
      If a company panders to teenage male power fantasies and makes a game with a boring generic ‘GARY STU’ main character.

      Reaction of gamers: this game is boring because of bad writing and the Gary Stu main character

      If a company panders to SJWs and makes a game with a boring generic ‘MARY SUE’ main character.

      Reaction of gamers: This game is shit because the company panders to SJWs, and THAT’S WHY the writing is bad and the main character is a Mary Sue. Women and SJWs ruined this game.

      Do you see my problem here Hydra? I 100% agree that trying to be ‘woke’ can ruin writing, but it seems like there is no consistency among those who make that criticism – it feels like pandering to men and teenage power fantasies is the status quo.

      ‘The games press found a few troglodyte social media accounts and tried to spin it as being representative of the larger gaming community’

      Please take a look at the comments on the battlefield 5 reveal trailer, and the like/dislike ratio on that video. Also, please check out the reaction of 4chan and the KotakuInACtion Subreddit to Tracer’s reveal. It’s more than a few.

      ‘What if you are burning copies of Mein Kampf?’
      That was just a meme response to your book burning comment. I wasn’t being serious there. Sorry.


      ‘Debate isn't about trying to convince the other side, it's about trying to convince the people watching.’

      10000% agreed. However, you haven’t deal with my main concern. How do you deal with people who debate in bad faith or spread misinformation? The unfortunate reality is that (this is going to make me sound REALLY arrogant) there are waaaaaaay too many stupid people in the world, people you can bamboozle with lies and bullshit, and people who can’t critically evaluate the factual validity of information.
      How many Trump voters do you think still believe in Pizzagate or the thousands of other Hillary/Democratic Party conspiracy theories? There is NO WAY some of these people will even change their mind. Some of them view Alex Jones as more credible source on global warming than leading climate scientists.

      I can’t debate people on the right if I have to wade through thousands of conspiracy theories, scientific untruths and lies before getting to the real argument. I’m simply not equipped. There aren't enough hours in the day. It seems that recently, not caring about honesty and accuracy is a massive advantage the right (both mainstream and non-mainstream) has over the left. The left ( as a whole) seem to care more than the right about ‘being correct’. The right seems to only care about winning.

      This is why I think people who lie or persistently spread misinformation should be deplatformed. If you don’t agree, I would REALLY like to hear why.

      Delete
    12. Also just to be clear, I think the left does have problems. They seem a bit too smug, assuming everyone agreed with them and that theirs was the only valid opinion. That blew up in their faces in 2016.

      The problem they had is that they did not grow up in the civil rights era. They were never tested or challenged on their beliefs. As a result they never had to justify their views and crumbled at the first sign of opposition.

      Delete
    13. As with most politics, I think the winning move here is not to play. Hydra has to make money. If his political views make you happy, they will make someone else unhappy. At that point he has to play the odds and figure out, regardlessof morally right or wrong, if he should take a stance.


      This is why you don't do politics, religion, or sports at family gatherings. Ain't worth it.

      Delete
  5. I'm here to read erotica, not discuss politics man.


    I got my dick in my hand

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Discussing politics IS my erotica.


      Nothing gets my dick harder

      Delete
  6. Is this really the right place for such long winded (and for most of us) borring political debate? This is meant to be a web site for erotic horror after all.

    ReplyDelete