I've always had a weird relationship with 62studio games. I pick them up, bounce off them early, then come back and realise they weren't all that bad after all. Lust Grimm was the first. Sadly, I played that through at a time when I was concerned I was devoting too much time to writing blog posts over things that pay the bills, so I never wrote a review of it. It's pretty good.
The game starts out with everyone being abducted from the starting village by succubi. The hero sets out to rescue his 'sister' while being given 'help' from a pair of talking chickens. It's not as it seems, as is revealed through the quest. The quest itself is fairly straightforward. Go to different areas, beat the deadly-sin-themed succubus boss of the area and then have a showdown in the final castle. There are also a few optional quest items to pick up, and these will determine the ending. Thankfully, they're not too guide-dang-it, mainly because I was playing an English translation and also because the NPCs aren't too overly cryptic in their instructions.
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| Towns hold many dangers for country bumpkins... |
The English translation can be picked up off the ULMF forums here. It's mostly managed machine translation. It's good enough to follow the main plot, but some of the Bad End texts are a bit scuffed as you would expect from straight machine translations. It's good enough to get the gist of what's going on.
One warning. I found my version to be a little crash-happy. I don't know if this is a problem with the original game or the modded translation. Either way, save regularly and often (you don't need to do it at the designated save chickens).
The combat is reciprocal battle-fuck, i.e. both combatants are trying their best to get the other off rather than games like MGQ where the protagonist is trying to fend off the lascivious succubi's advances with regular weapons. Unlike MGQ, it isn't game over if the succubus makes you pop. The game generously gives you 3 pops before you become unresisting succubus fodder. Although, as the succubus gets stronger each time she makes you pop, having two more 'lives' doesn't always help.
Attacks are split into two categories – mouth and hand – and target four different erogenous zones – mouth, tits, pussy, ass. Each succubus has a weakness to be targeted for bonus damage. Remove half of the succubus's HP and she'll take her clothes off. Remove a little more and she'll try to tempt the player. Accept the temptations and she'll do a special sexy move on you that will force an ejaculation and drain a level out of the player. This works pretty well with the 3 'lives' system as it overcomes the central problem of most battlefucks in that the player has to lose to see the good stuff.
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| Hot enough that she can walk around in snow in her underwear |
Personally, I'm iffy on 'press X to surrender' mechanics. One thing I liked about Lust Grimm was some of the succubi had special level-drain moves they'd drop on the player during regular combat. Gameplay-wise, constantly getting your levels drained might be frustrating, so I can see why they made it something the player has to choose to happen to them, but I think Lust Grimm balanced it fairly well with levelling up being cheap enough that replacing lost levels wasn't much of a grind.
The special holds are also very exploitable. The player can learn various protective skills that reduce damage from specific areas (eg breasts or pussy) to about a tenth. Normally, they're not too helpful, as you don't know what the succubus is going to 'attack' with, but once a succubus has you in a special hold, all subsequent attacks will be of the same type. This means that rather than trying to break out, it's better to stay in the hold and alternate between 'Resist: X' and 'Attack: Weak Point' until the succubus comes. There is one succubus that counters this – Boobs Yokai/Busty Phantom (one of my favs for the series). If the player doesn't break out of her hold after a certain number of rounds, they pass out and lose no matter how many 'lives' they have left. I would have liked to see more enemies do things like this to give more variety to the sex battles. Once the player has figured out the holds are exploitable with the mid-level succubi, that would be a good time to spring the involuntary level-drain attacks on them from the high-level succubi if the player doesn't break out of their holds fast enough. I think the game missed an opportunity there.
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| "So you can protect against breast attacks. I'll make you pass out instead." |
Overall, the battlefuck combat is fine without being amazing.
The art is pretty good in my opinion, although there is no animation. You get the standard battle-sprite, naked battle-sprite and Bad End pic array of CGs. I like the style of the main artist and it gives 62studios's games a consistent look. The other artists are a little more variable, but overall it's pretty good.
The one caveat is that the devs unashamedly love big boobs. While the Bad Ends cover a range of sex acts, boobs get the biggest share with titwanks, puff-puffs, breast-feeding and nursing handjobs galore. There's one token flatty and everyone else has cup-sizes ranging from silicone-enhanced centrefold model to utterly gargantuan. YMMV on which point it passes beyond attractive to grotesque.
If you like boobs and believe there's no such thing as 'too big', these are the succubi for you.
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| Okay, that might be 'too big' |
Overall, I liked it. Compared to similar games, it falls somewhere in the middle of the pack. The art is fine and the gameplay is fine. There were enough succubi designs that hit the right spot for me (smother me, busty phantom). Story, art and gameplay are all competently executed, but maybe needs an extra spark in something to truly excel.
