I am a bit of an anomaly when it comes to communities like this - I don’t play H-games to jerk off, but rather I simply enjoy mature/adult themes in games. Don’t know why - I guess intimacy just innately appeals to me.
Anyway, that kinda makes me the “watch porn for the plot” guy but for h-games, in that I play them for the story and/or gameplay. Because of this I tend to avoid Ren’py visual novels like the plague.
So it may come as a surprise that my very first recommendation would be for a Ren’py visual novel. But if anything I hope that lends to its exceptionalism.
Projekt: Passion does start off with a pretty typical VN basis; You play as a mysterious-looking man in a futuristic, somewhat cyberpunkish world (or, at least, city) that is plagued with problems, some of which are also your problems. This all sounds pretty run-of-the-mill for a VN but this game is just getting started.
Your MC is an innately badass handsome cowboy gunslinger who seems to have pissed off some dangerous people in your likely equally badass and handsome escapades prior to the story. So you are starting off with plenty of action.
The “gameplay” of course only consists of speech choices between periods of dialogue and scenes and some choices lead to a game over. However, something I love about this game is, reaching a bad end not only grants you rewards for exploring various paths, but also very conveniently rewinds you back to the point where you made your damning choice so you can continue down another path. This means there’s zero frustration in reaching a bad ending.
But perhaps most importantly for a visual novel is the writing and thankfully the writing in Projekt: Passion is fantastic. There’s no lenthy boring exposition and when characters are talking about important plot points there’s plenty of humor sprinkled in to keep you interested. The humor is amazingly executed and does not get stale for a moment. There are plenty of serious moments but the highlights of this game are certainly the hilarious interactions and witty dialogue.
The characters, both male and female, are diverse, unique and also amazingly written.
Your MC has the choice of responding to most situations in three different flavours; by being a friendly pal, by being a sarcastic prick (my preferred option), or by being a big grump. All of these choices affect how others respond to you and may also influence how certain scenes play out (but don’t quote me on that one). They are also very fitting to what you would expect and thus you aren’t blindsided by your chosen option not actually conveying how you wanted to act.
The scenes are also visually appealing, characters don’t have that exaggerated toy doll look that haunts most Ren’py VNs and whilst the environments aren’t always super unique they’re not bland enough to be off-putting.
As I mentioned at the start of this post, I don’t play these games primarily for the sex but it’s still of course an adult game. There’s plenty of aggressive cuddling and other displays of behaviour not suitable for the workplace environment or a school playground. There isn’t gratuitous amounts of clunge plunging but you’ll definitely be getting funky often enough with the female cast.
Overall, my recommendation is: Play this game either to warm up for/cool off after a session of polishing your bannister.
Pros:
- Hilarious writing
- Lovable, memorable characters
- cool hat
- Rewards for certain actions, encouraging exploration
- Appealing characters
Cons:
- Not yet complete, meaning the cold cruel reality where this game is abandoned at some point still exists
.