Hentai Game Review - Succubus Duel (サキュバスデュエル前編)

This was a pleasant surprise.

The developer is Irojikake Matome.  They were also responsible for Succubus Senki, a hentai monster girl version of Advance Wars.  Succubus Duel (or Succubus Card Battle, I'm not sure of exact translation of サキュバスデュエル前編) is a card game, similar to Yugioh (I think), and is a rare hentai game where the game mechanics are also as good as the H-content.

The player takes on the role of a rookie Card master, who's training up to find a sister that was abducted by succubi some years previously.  As part of his training he heads off to the nearest city to improve his rank by battling other Card Masters.

The city where everyone has big boobs

So far, so typical fantasy RPG.  The main difference is the battles are done through card games where the players summon heroes and monsters to fight on their behalf.  The players can also get stuck in themselves (and both the player's attack power and LP (life points?) will level up over the course of the adventure).

Male Card Masters have the generic wolves, goblins and knights, and those fights take place without any H-content (there are two during the course of the game).  Female Card Masters have monster girls and succubi, and they fight... dirty.

With succubi influencing the world, the current 'meta' is all about pleasure attacks and the women have a distinct advantage.

I think the lamia wins this round...

Most of the H-content comes from the card battles.  Summoned monsters and even the opposing player will attempt to win through induced ejaculation.  Pleasure attacks can impart hidden weaknesses on the player (and his units) such as weakness to boobs, and subsequent attacks of that type do more damage as well as opening up the target to sexy grapple moves.  The dirty tricks don't end there.  If a sexy unit is 'defeated', her last action will be to tempt the opposing unit/player, often with a time limit.

The card game itself is surprisingly good.  I think it has some similarities to Yugioh, but I'm not familiar enough with that game to know if this is its own game with some similar mechanics/cards, or a straight rip.  The player can summon a single creature a turn, which can attack the moment it comes out.  Advanced summons require the sacrifice of one or two creatures in play depending on the advanced summon's power.  There are trap cards (red) that trigger under certain circumstances and magic spells (green) which can be set or cast right away.  Players cannot be attacked as long as they have summoned units to defend them.  The individual games are fast-paced, which is fortunate, as you'll need to grind quite a few battles in the city to unlock content.

The deck editor

There are also a surprising number of cards and archetypes to build.  New cards are unlocked by using in-game gold to buy packs.  I haven't played around with different builds too much.  The default starting deck is pretty good as it is.  The player has a Black Knight card, which is very powerful and likely has some plot significance.  All I needed to do was replace some of the weaker units and that was enough to get through the game, so don't fret if you're not too hot at card games.  The only real difficulty spike is the bunny girl, and she can be overcome by adding cards to blow up the opposing player's permanent magic cards.  The cannoneers are useful for this.

I don't think I'm going to be able to put up resistance against that...

The campaign sees the player battling through a series of checkpoint opponents, either as part of quests or to rank up within the guild.  In between the checkpoints you'll be grinding up ranking points by battling a selection of opponents in open challenges within the city.  It's not too grindy.  You won't need to fight anyone more than a couple of times, and will often want to anyway in order to experience all the various... ahem... delights their decks have to offer.

Praise needs to be given to Irojikake Matome for the variety of opponents.  There are about 20-25 opponents in total.  Each has a deck themed around a mechanic and a type of monster girl, and there are 2-4 monster girls in each deck, each with their own scenes and Bad Ends.  Overall I think there are around 90 characters with H-scenes, which is an impressive amount.  Some are also quite inventive.  I liked the MILF tavern owner with her fleet of cocktail fairies.

Who wouldn't want a drunken party with these lovely fairies... 

Most of the H-content is animated, but it's fairly simple – if effective – distortions to give the impression of movement.  As with their previous game, Succubus Senki, there is a heavy emphasis on boobs.  About 80% of the scenes feature big bouncing boobs, either in the face or on the cock.  I like big bouncing boobs, so this wasn't a problem for me, but I think the game could have maybe done with a bit more variety.  To only have two regular vaginal intercourse scenes out of 90 (Jellyfish Girl and Aegis Angel) is a little strange, but it's what the circle is known for, so manage your expectations accordingly.

It's not all boobs...

While the game doesn't have a gallery as such, it gives you plenty of tools to experience all the available content.  The Reminisce option allows you to refight anybody and gives you the option to look at the opponent's deck and force them to summon any sexy succubus from it.  The player also has the standard surrender options if they want to let the sexy succubus have her way with him.

The other thing to be aware of is this is Part 1.  The first part is the ranking up arc, and then it ends with a cliffhanger as the naughty succubi show up to take over the city.

(There's actually some nice foreshadowing of what their plan is and how it's put into operation before it happens.  Why does that Card Master with the mermaid deck randomly have a completely unrelated succubus in it?  A nice touch.)

I don't think this is much of a negative.  The game already has plenty of content and there are a lot of cards to experiment building new decks with.

Energy drain paizuri - the ultimate finisher

I really hope the game gets a proper English translation and maybe even a Steam release for more people to play it.  It's a really good game.  I look forward to seeing what Part 2 has to offer!