Previously: Gettin’ On Pigeon Style, Gettin’ It On Detective Style
If you’re a sweet, innocent young(ish) thing like me, finding out that there is a male counterpart to succubi—the incubi—will make your friggin’ week. And then when you find out there’s a free game wherein you can romance one of said hot, sex-demon dudes—now that made my freakin’ MONTH.
I like to give everybody fun nicknames.
Seduce Me Otome Game is a visual novel/dating sim available as a free download for all three operating systems. It’s probably a 15 or so hour game, depending on how fast you read and how many routes you want to finish. It was funded through Kickstarter and has some great things going for it: decent art, good voice acting, and nine romantic options. It’s open-minded about same-sex relationships, and was created with the belief that consent is key to healthy romantic encounters.
That founding belief is probably one of the best aspects of Seduce Me: it means the protagonist isn’t required to choose the implied sex scenes in order to get the “best” endings. The characters are super understanding, do not pressure the protagonist at all about her choice, and the player is not penalized. Either way you still get a lovely, tender ending. This is an amazing design choice which I support wholeheartedly and hope to see more of in dating sim games. I have tried SO MANY localized games in which I can’t even get past the introduction because of how often the protagonist is threatened with sexual violence, and then everyone reacts as if it’s no big deal. News flash, creators: that is not ever okay.
When you start your playthrough, you’re greeted with some disclaimers which are, again, particularly well done and helpful.
Awesomeness
You get to pick the protagonist’s name, and I went with the default, Mika, as I rarely use my own name in these games even when given the chance. As much as I love to squeal over the mushy dialog and romantic scenes, giving the PC my first name makes it too…real, I guess. I’m just not quite comfortable with that level of wish fulfillment.
Now, the game starts off enticingly enough. You get one encounter with each guy so you can get to know them a wee bit before you have to decide which path to pursue, which is nice. But I have to be honest, aside from the kudos listed so far, this game has very little else going for it. The plot is stereotypical and trope-filled, and the writing leaves quite a bit to be desired. It’s redundant, awkward, and even feels poorly localized, which is weird because I think it was written by a native English speaker.
I started out so excited to play this game, became frustrated in the middle, and ended up simply disappointed by the end. I could practically write a book on this game’s missed potential, and the longer I played it the more aggravating that got. Very little time is spent exploring what being an incubus in our world is like, for example, or how hard it is (or is not) for them to deal with humans or their own natures.
The most interesting spot of missed potential is set up during a fight when your man turns into his real self but you’re prevented from seeing it. Afterwards he avoids your gaze and seems ashamed—of either his natural demon form or his actions in the heat of the moment—we’re never quite sure which, as it’s never again addressed. He actually tries to talk to you about his inner turmoil, but you just brush him off like an asshole and never let him get it off his chest. (And then a day later it’s supposed to be believeable that you love a supernatural being straight out of a fantasy novel who you evidently don’t want to understand or have any tough conversations with. WTF?!)
At the beginning, this fight was set up as the main conflict of the game, but as soon as it’s dealt with about halfway through, there’s a little musical interlude and the game does a sharp about-face. Enter Diana, the succubus and game-hijacker extraordinaire, who shows up and wants to take whichever guy you’re pursuing home with her. She makes sense in one incubus’s storyline, but not really in anyone of the other character’s, and she feels rather shoehorned in. Unfortunately, it took me until the end of the game to figure out that she was probably intended as the main route. It’s the only one that shows how much thought the creator actually put into designing this world, and it’s a crying shame this information is only in 1/9th of the game.
DO NOT do this. If any part of your game “can almost be passed over,” CUT IT.
I guess I can give the creators credit for really, really, REALLY incentivizing playing through all of the paths. (This is what they call a left-handed compliment. This actually irritated the crap out of me through more than half the game, and if you decide to make a visual novel someday, DON’T DO IT.) I usually find it fascinating how different storylines can play out in dating sims. How the PC can be an entirely different person, how events can go differently, or how side characters come and go depending on which person you’re chasing.
Well, I didn’t in this game. Oh no. Loose ends abound through almost all of the storylines. You really need to play the stories in a certain order to get all the backstory you need, otherwise there are gaping holes left from hints and flashbacks from before you branch off to pursue the guy or gal of your choice. Of course, I learned all of this the hard way. I didn’t know any better and I played the routes in order of who I liked best to least. If you decide you want to explore this game (after all, free doesn’t come with too many repercussions if you decide to never touch it again after two minutes!), my recommended playthrough order would be: Diana, Damien, Michael, and then whoever else you want. Those first few will get you pretty much all the backstory you need to make the most sense of the other paths.
Who’s seducing who here?
By the time I got to the end of my playthrough, I had completed all but two of the nine routes. At that point, by piecing together the information gleaned by playing the majority of the paths, albeit out of order, I had answered some plot questions that seemed inexplicable in earlier storylines. But still, I was left with so many questions: If the demon/devil world is as harsh, evil, and Darwinian as described, then why are these guys so close, gentle, and atypical? Why are they all virgins if they’re incubi, who thrive on sexual energy? And finally, and perhaps most perplexingly, why does Mika’s image disappear halfway through the game??
I appreciate visual novels in which individual storylines can stand alone. People should want to play multiple routes because they like the characters or the plot, not because they can’t figure out what the hell’s going on.
Between the sup-par writing, the many missed opportunities, and the repetitive story aspects, I cannot wholeheartedly recommend you play Seduce Me. This game had some outstanding features and some great potential, but in the end it just misses the mark.
Jen R. feels like she might be in a dating sim rut but is anxiously scouring the internet for news of the next big release.
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