I just got a Steam account because I am always under a rock, so I thought why not start reviewing games.
The first game that caught my eye was Fox Hime. A visual novel done in anime style, it came out November 3rd of last year. It was labeled as having nudity and sexual content and the page had a NSFW warning before entering. Great game to review for you perverts, I thought.
Maybe because I'm new to Steam but I thought first off, that this would be some dating sim style game. Steam has games on it, so this must be one right? I'm a huge dork so I am all about dating sim games. This is not what Fox Hime is. It's just a story/visual novel. There are no choices you can make in this game at all, you can't pick between romantic partners, all you can do is just click the text box to advance the story. Secondly there are no true NSFW elements to this game other than two panty shots and a scene of the two main girls of the game wrapped in towels enjoying a hot spring together. Once again I am very new to Steam, so I don't know if any of those tags were for any DLC's the creators had made, or for the follow up 'game' Zero Fox Hime. Some of the tags were user picked tags but they were also on the game's actual page. I have no clue. Maybe some people are sensitive to panty shots. Medium spoilers ahead for the first game.
With all those caveats in place, this visual novel is beautiful. The pictures are bright and clear. I especially like the background artwork with dapples of natural light that plays on the walls or through the trees like it would in real life. There are some slight animations so the characters are never standing static and the transitions between poses and facial expressions are very smooth. The background music is a very nice piano tune that changes depending on the part of the story but never gets annoying to the listener. I played this in two parts and never felt the need to turn the sound off, so that's a music win in my book.
The plot and story are very light and it only takes 2 hours to complete. It is the story about a young man named Yan, who cried so much as a child his parents had to make a wish to a fox God to get him to shut up. The fox spirit who has watched over him his whole life is Mori.
Yan has been warned throughout his life that one day Mori will leave him when he is old enough to be without her. Right now, Mori and Yan are in college together. She has never left his side and they even share a room above the bookshop where they work. While never stated, it is heavily implied that the reason Mori has never left is because she worries that Yan won't have anyone to look after him. Yan doesn't really have friends except for Mori. Mori is so beautiful and her and Yan are so close that people automatically assume she and him are dating and thus, never approach him. Aware of the fact that she is an unintentional cock block, Mori slyly states one day that the girl who is able to stand next to him and not be intimidated by her will be the girl he should date.
Enter Liya, a classmate of Yan's who has never spoken to him until now. Cute and spunky and kind of abrupt, Liya tells him he should start saving a seat for her and she'll do the same for him so they'll both have a seat in case they're late for class. Later Yan and Mori both run into Liya, quite literally, at the grocery store. Liya and Mori become instant friends, sometimes at the expense of Yan who they playfully tease.
You can probably guess how the story progresses from there. One of the things that I really liked about this story is how the two ladies become friends and got along even when Liya was jealous of Yan's feelings for Mori. When I thought this was a dating sim I assumed Liya was the rival of Mori and wondered how the relationship would pan out as we got closer to one or the other. The story really does not pit them against each other, which I think is very sweet and wholesome. It got to the point where I actually just started to ship Liya and Mori together and hoped they would get together instead.
Just try and tell me they wouldn't make the most adorable lesbian couple ever.
Despite no nudity or actual game play, I don't have buyer's remorse. This is a very cute and wholesome visual novel and worth the money based on the art alone.
My second game is XXX Puzzle. I'll confess I haven't finished the whole game, but the poses and art is more risque than rated X in my opinion.
Release date June 16th of this year. It was labeled as a horror game along with NSFW, but so far the only 'horror' part of it that I can find is a creepy, deep laugh that sounds when you have finished a puzzle. The puzzles are sliding block style puzzles with increasing difficulties. One of the more difficult ones I have found are the puzzles that split it between two screens and make you switch pieces to be able to complete it.
Another weird aspect of the game I noticed is the achievements it gives you. After you complete a puzzle it gives you an achievement for every block you managed to solve, so at least twelve achievements for each puzzle. The picture for each achievement is a piece of classical art of some sort. A little strange but that's it. I wondered if it would somehow tie in to the supposed 'horror' aspect it claimed, but nothing.
Me and my twenty thousand achievements.
The game is free on Steam and it's legitimately fun and challenging too. Or maybe I'm just bad at these puzzle games. Some of the art looks like Bratz dolls all grown up, which I'm not overly fond of, but to each their own.