Review: Cute Demon Crashers
Feb. 24th, 2016 12:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soc_puppetFen! Readers! Countryfolk! Lend my your attention spans. Allow me to tell you of a most wonderful video game called Cute Demon Crashers.
Here are the things you need to know about this game:
1) It is free. There is no expense at all involved. You pay nothing to play this game.
2) It is adorable. I mean, cute is literally the name of the game, and for good reason!
3) It is Not Safe For Work. While it is entirely possible to play the game without any sexy times happening (there are at least two endings for this), sex is still discussed a fair amount, and four of the five main characters are literal sex demons.
4) It is all about consent. If you go through all the character routes (which I recommend), you'll get a better understanding of the why and how, but enthusiastic consent is probably the biggest theme of this game.
I first learned of this game in the comments section of a feminist blog I frequent. One of the contributors there mentioned a dating sim she'd played that had a heavy focus on consent. Intrigued, I clicked through her link to her review, and then to the game itself.
At the time, the game was only a demo; the team had worked their butts off for a month-long game-making challenge (like NaNoWriMo, but for the specific platform Ren'py) and had managed to finish two of the routes all the way through - which is to say, including the sexy bits. All the optional character interactions before the sexy bits were already in there, so there was still the possibility of getting to know all of the characters in the game.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Cute Demon Crashers begins with the main character, Claire* (asterisk because you can name her whatever you want), indulging in a little *ahem* "me time". She's interrupted by some text alerts on her phone and completely loses the mood. Forlorn, she wishes aloud that she could have a sexy fling or something over these last few days of spring break, maybe lose her virginity.
"I can help with that!" someone answers, and out of thin air appear four sex demons ready to show our main character a good time!
The thing is, Claire isn't exactly ready to jump into bed with any of them at the drop of a hat. She wants to get to know them a little bit first, and then make a decision. From there, the player can decide which of the demons to spend time with over the next few days.
In extra fun news to me, as a bisexual person, there is at least one same-gender option among the demons, and at least two same-gender sexytimes options for the endings! I'll tell you more about those in a little bit, but first let me introduce the demons:
* Mirari is the succubus who opened the portal into the human world - and Claire's hallway. She's very enthusiastic, but her enthusiasm can get a little out of hand sometimes.
* Akki is a very young incubus, with no sexual experience yet. He's shy and boisterous by turns, and generally pretty cute.
* Kael is the eldest of the group, and something of a house husband ;) He enjoys cooking and sleeping, but has trouble staying asleep when there's a mess about.
* Orias is a bit stiff, but very interested in books and tea. For all he flavors his tea with vanilla, though, that's definitely not the only option for him in the bedroom!
Gameplay is simple and straightforward. I had a bit of trouble telling who was speaking in the original demo I played, but that was fixed up in two ways in the full release: One, the developers color-coded the characters' names when they were speaking, which helped immensely during the scene(s) where we only know Claire's name; and two, in the final release the developers used donations from fans to hire four fantastic voice actors to add their talents to the game.
There are several different options you can use in setup, including an option to turn on censorship hearts for during the sexytimes, sound adjustment, and an additional font option to switch to something more friendly to dyslexic players. Saving is quick and simple, as is loading, and definitely recommended for ease of playback later - though once you've played through a scene at least once, you can also skip ahead to the end.
All of the art is gorgeous, from the characters to the backgrounds to the chibis and eyecatches that pop up from time to time. The music compliments things very well, with each character getting their own theme. And may I just say that the writing is fantastic? Start to finish, you get a real sense of who all the characters are.
If you play this game, I definitely recommend going through all the main routes at least once. Once you've reached the end of the getting-to-know-you portion, if you're not interested in "having sex" with one or more of the characters, you can instead pick "no sex plz" or a completely different character to have sex with (yes, this is an option!). Going through all the character routes gives you a chance to get to know all the characters better and to understand the worldbuilding that went into this game, including some vital facts about incubi and succubi. Honestly, if sex isn't something you're into, virtual or otherwise, you never have to pick a sexy ending at all; it's still a lovely game to play through, with fantastic characters and delightful funny moments.
I do have one small quibble with the game: All the demons are aromantic - and, as far as I can tell, they are the only characters who are. (Akki is headcanoned by the developers as gray-aro, but that's still arospec.) While I am entirely in favor of aromantic characters, allosexual and asexual alike, it bothers me a bit that the only representation they have here is as succubi and incubi who literally feed off of sexual energy. A non-demon aro character might have helped out a bit there.
That said, given the time constraints of the original challenge, and the constructional constraints of the story, I do understand why only five characters were explicitly included. And all four of the demons are fantastically well developed and very sympathetic; they all clearly care very much for Claire and all of their (other) lovers. If there was more aro representation in the world with characters even half as well developed as these, I wouldn't even be complaining. Definitely a minor quibble, all told.
Finally, you may remember a little earlier in this review I was saying "at least one same-gender option among the demons, and at least two same-gender sexytimes options for the endings"? Well, here's what I meant by "at least":
Akki's voice actor is a trans woman, and headcanons Akki as trans - a headcanon that is supported by the artist and numerous fans, including yours truly. So if you're into that headcanon, there are definitely two same-gender routes in this game, because a trans person is trans whether or not they've transitioned.
(Note: It's my understanding that opinion in the trans community is rather divided on magical body transformations, and that not everyone is a fan, for various reasons. No such thing happens in the game, but there are several short comics that feature this, based on specific lore that incubi and succubi are actually the same creature and capable of shape-shifting.)
In short, a very cute game that's definitely worth checking out. And may I just say that it's rife with crossover potential? So much crossover potential. Someone write me a crossover please, I have prompts.
Edit: After sleeping on it, I thought the original wording in my quibble was a bit unclear, and probably seemed aro-negative to anyone who didn’t read past the first few sentences. And if it looked like I was spouting off aro-negative stuff, I wouldn’t blame anyone who decided not to read any farther. My sincerest apologies to anyone I hurt with my poor phrasing; I can only pledge to try to do better going forward.
Here are the things you need to know about this game:
1) It is free. There is no expense at all involved. You pay nothing to play this game.
2) It is adorable. I mean, cute is literally the name of the game, and for good reason!
3) It is Not Safe For Work. While it is entirely possible to play the game without any sexy times happening (there are at least two endings for this), sex is still discussed a fair amount, and four of the five main characters are literal sex demons.
4) It is all about consent. If you go through all the character routes (which I recommend), you'll get a better understanding of the why and how, but enthusiastic consent is probably the biggest theme of this game.
I first learned of this game in the comments section of a feminist blog I frequent. One of the contributors there mentioned a dating sim she'd played that had a heavy focus on consent. Intrigued, I clicked through her link to her review, and then to the game itself.
At the time, the game was only a demo; the team had worked their butts off for a month-long game-making challenge (like NaNoWriMo, but for the specific platform Ren'py) and had managed to finish two of the routes all the way through - which is to say, including the sexy bits. All the optional character interactions before the sexy bits were already in there, so there was still the possibility of getting to know all of the characters in the game.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Cute Demon Crashers begins with the main character, Claire* (asterisk because you can name her whatever you want), indulging in a little *ahem* "me time". She's interrupted by some text alerts on her phone and completely loses the mood. Forlorn, she wishes aloud that she could have a sexy fling or something over these last few days of spring break, maybe lose her virginity.
"I can help with that!" someone answers, and out of thin air appear four sex demons ready to show our main character a good time!
The thing is, Claire isn't exactly ready to jump into bed with any of them at the drop of a hat. She wants to get to know them a little bit first, and then make a decision. From there, the player can decide which of the demons to spend time with over the next few days.
In extra fun news to me, as a bisexual person, there is at least one same-gender option among the demons, and at least two same-gender sexytimes options for the endings! I'll tell you more about those in a little bit, but first let me introduce the demons:
* Mirari is the succubus who opened the portal into the human world - and Claire's hallway. She's very enthusiastic, but her enthusiasm can get a little out of hand sometimes.
* Akki is a very young incubus, with no sexual experience yet. He's shy and boisterous by turns, and generally pretty cute.
* Kael is the eldest of the group, and something of a house husband ;) He enjoys cooking and sleeping, but has trouble staying asleep when there's a mess about.
* Orias is a bit stiff, but very interested in books and tea. For all he flavors his tea with vanilla, though, that's definitely not the only option for him in the bedroom!
Gameplay is simple and straightforward. I had a bit of trouble telling who was speaking in the original demo I played, but that was fixed up in two ways in the full release: One, the developers color-coded the characters' names when they were speaking, which helped immensely during the scene(s) where we only know Claire's name; and two, in the final release the developers used donations from fans to hire four fantastic voice actors to add their talents to the game.
There are several different options you can use in setup, including an option to turn on censorship hearts for during the sexytimes, sound adjustment, and an additional font option to switch to something more friendly to dyslexic players. Saving is quick and simple, as is loading, and definitely recommended for ease of playback later - though once you've played through a scene at least once, you can also skip ahead to the end.
All of the art is gorgeous, from the characters to the backgrounds to the chibis and eyecatches that pop up from time to time. The music compliments things very well, with each character getting their own theme. And may I just say that the writing is fantastic? Start to finish, you get a real sense of who all the characters are.
If you play this game, I definitely recommend going through all the main routes at least once. Once you've reached the end of the getting-to-know-you portion, if you're not interested in "having sex" with one or more of the characters, you can instead pick "no sex plz" or a completely different character to have sex with (yes, this is an option!). Going through all the character routes gives you a chance to get to know all the characters better and to understand the worldbuilding that went into this game, including some vital facts about incubi and succubi. Honestly, if sex isn't something you're into, virtual or otherwise, you never have to pick a sexy ending at all; it's still a lovely game to play through, with fantastic characters and delightful funny moments.
I do have one small quibble with the game: All the demons are aromantic - and, as far as I can tell, they are the only characters who are. (Akki is headcanoned by the developers as gray-aro, but that's still arospec.) While I am entirely in favor of aromantic characters, allosexual and asexual alike, it bothers me a bit that the only representation they have here is as succubi and incubi who literally feed off of sexual energy. A non-demon aro character might have helped out a bit there.
That said, given the time constraints of the original challenge, and the constructional constraints of the story, I do understand why only five characters were explicitly included. And all four of the demons are fantastically well developed and very sympathetic; they all clearly care very much for Claire and all of their (other) lovers. If there was more aro representation in the world with characters even half as well developed as these, I wouldn't even be complaining. Definitely a minor quibble, all told.
Finally, you may remember a little earlier in this review I was saying "at least one same-gender option among the demons, and at least two same-gender sexytimes options for the endings"? Well, here's what I meant by "at least":
Akki's voice actor is a trans woman, and headcanons Akki as trans - a headcanon that is supported by the artist and numerous fans, including yours truly. So if you're into that headcanon, there are definitely two same-gender routes in this game, because a trans person is trans whether or not they've transitioned.
(Note: It's my understanding that opinion in the trans community is rather divided on magical body transformations, and that not everyone is a fan, for various reasons. No such thing happens in the game, but there are several short comics that feature this, based on specific lore that incubi and succubi are actually the same creature and capable of shape-shifting.)
In short, a very cute game that's definitely worth checking out. And may I just say that it's rife with crossover potential? So much crossover potential. Someone write me a crossover please, I have prompts.
Edit: After sleeping on it, I thought the original wording in my quibble was a bit unclear, and probably seemed aro-negative to anyone who didn’t read past the first few sentences. And if it looked like I was spouting off aro-negative stuff, I wouldn’t blame anyone who decided not to read any farther. My sincerest apologies to anyone I hurt with my poor phrasing; I can only pledge to try to do better going forward.
