Syt happens to play ...

[Syt]

... is going to be an irregular series of game reviews/first impressions.



HuniePop.



When this came up in my Steam queue I immediately clicked "Not interested." Anime dating sim? Ugh.

Then I read and watched comments about it that made it out to be a bit weird and bizarre, so I got intrigued.


The story.

You're a nameless, faceless protagonist (you can choose to be straight male or homosexual female), who is socially awkward, feels uncomfortable around girls and watches porn a lot. One night, while hanging out in a bar, you meet a girl who turns out to be a love fairy. She takes you under her wing to teach you how to get any girl. You then proceed to try and get into the panties of all attractive females in town (of which there's a total of eight).

The gameplay.

The game consists of two main parts: the dating bit and the match-three puzzle bit.

The dating bit is very simple, even by dating sim standards. You have two currencies: Munie (=money) and Hunie (=honey). Hunie is needed to upgrade your base multipliers for the puzzle part. It's earned by talking to girls - asking them about themselves (height, weight, cup size, birth date, hobby, occupation), and answering their questions about whether you remember their data. Additionally, you can ply them with gifts that you buy with Munie. Each girl has her preferred range of gifts. The "unique" gift type for each character will increase the Hunie multiplier for conversations permanently. Normal gifts net you bonus Hunie, unlock hairstyles for the girls, and can spawn you "date gifts" that have special effects in the puzzle section.

Additionally, you can buy the girls food (to be able to talk longer during a meeting) and, if you're in the right spot at the right time, drinks that increase the conversation multiplier for Hunie.

The puzzle game.

When you invite a girl on a date, it's resolved as a puzzle game. To have a successful date you must reach a certain score with a limited number of moves. It's a basic "match three" kind of game. There are certain special tokens:
- Passion increases your score multiplier
- Sensitivity gives you points to use your date gifts
- Joy tokens give you extra moves
Each girl has its preferred date token (romance, flirt, sex, talent) which increases that type's multiplier, and a least preferred one, which has a score penalty. Additionally, broken hearts, if matched, hurt your score.

Date gifts will replace broken heart tokens with others, increase the chance of certain tokens spawning, or score an entire line. Depending on who you date, different gifts may make sense.

At he end of each date you get Munie (more, if successful). For each successful date, the girl will send you an increasingly revealing photo. If you succeed with the fourth date, and it was night time, the girl will come over to have sex. It's another puzzle round, but this time, you have unlimited moves, no negative tokens, and you have to increase the score till the moaning girl reaches her climax (the score will decay quickly if you're slow). On success you will receive a few revealing pictures from her (with cum splatter, if you play the uncensored version).

The required score for successful dates increases at each try. So even if you fail, the next date will be harder. It's therefore important to increase your Hunie between dates to increase your base multipliers and buy gifts to gain date gifts.

The verdict.

The puzzle section is competent, and its constantly increasing difficulty level will provide a decent challenge for some time. The writing can be a bit witty at times.

The dating part is pretty basic and not much of a challenge. Earn money Munie, buy gifts, talk very basic stuff. It's eventually about unlocking the last hairstyles and costumes for each girl.

However, this is one creepy ass game. It starts with your "HunnieBee," a smart phone that lets you track where your romantic interests are at any time, so you can meet them immediately. Yay, stalking! And you get paid for your dates, even if they suck! Yay, whoring!

The girls are from porn clichés 101: the lusty teacher, the bratty raver girl, the romantic student, the single mom, the porn actress ... their personalities are about as three dimensional as their images.

You use gifts to earn points with them, and in conversations you say what they want to hear to gain more points - the single mom is looking for someone stable who is down to earth and responsible, the porn actress wants someone naughty, the yoga teacher someone spiritual and positive ... though there are some hidden bonus characters to increase playing time.

As said, the protagonist has neither face, nor personality. All we know is that (s)he wants to get laid and will go to great lengths to achieve that goal. The player fills in the blanks.

At the same time, it feels there's an underhanded commentary here. Yes, you can get the girls in bed, but each time will be harder than the previous one, even with ones you've had before. It's as if they're saying that if you build a relationship on sex it's getting ever harder to maintain it once you run out of things to say. And once you've unlocked all hairstyles and outfits for a girl there's no reason to see them again except to get paid for dates.

Not to mention that it will become ever harder to make a girl reach orgasmic bliss, because every time you bed a girl, the required score for finishing goes up. A sign of the character getting jaded and bored with sex?

Or me reading too much into things?

Anyways, the puzzle component is decent and will be a good challenge for a while. Though unless you're looking for scantily clad anime chicks to go along with it, Bejeweled 3 might be a better purchase.

[Duque de Bragança]

Interesting review for a seldom reviewed genre. 

[Lettow77]

 Object to this being called an anime dating sim; its a western game, with the obscenity, laviciousness and revolting dialogue to match. It seeks to mimic what is basest about a visual novel, without coming close to the same quality of writing or art assets. (As neither the art nor writing of japanese visual novels is typically that high, this is a very damning statement indeed.)

[Martinus]

*backs away slowly*

[CountDeMoney]

Jesus Tittyfucking Christ.

[Syt]

Addendum: the difficulty of the puzzle section caps off after all. The end game therefore becomes boring - with the right bonus items it becomes an exercise of unlocking all questions/outfits for the girls. Also, it appears I missed a chance to unlock one of the "hidden" opponents.

However, as the game hinges on the puzzle mechanic, and at max level it provides only a small challenge, I would recommend to buy this only at 75% discount, unless you're REALLY interested in the subject matter.

[Eddie Teach]

Jesus Tittyfucking Christ.

Looking forward to your review. 

[Syt]

For a live gameplay demonstration I recommend Jesse Cox' video on this.

[Kleves]

It's earned by talking to girls - asking them about themselves (height, weight, cup size, birth date, hobby, occupation), and answering their questions about whether you remember their data.

FYI, I have found that this doesn't work as well in real life as video games make it seem.

[Razgovory]

Well, I learned something today.  God knows who I'll unlearn it.

[Valmy]

Why can't these things just be dialog?  Seems cheesy as hell even if I was in the market for porn games right now.

Make the game where you are some badass ladykiller with good dialog and hot sex.  How hard could it be?  Ah well.

Or maybe that is not the need here, it is about being able to wank while playing bejeweled.

[Jacob]

Why can't these things just be dialog?  Seems cheesy as hell even if I was in the market for porn games right now.

Make the game where you are some badass ladykiller with good dialog and hot sex.  How hard could it be?  Ah well.

Or maybe that is not the need here, it is about being able to wank while playing bejeweled.

You already have a working title, it seems.

[Valmy]

You already have a working title, it seems.

Eh the guys at Bioware are better at that sort of thing.  Maybe I should forward this title suggestion over the Neil's friends.

[Legbiter]

So a competent puzzler with appealing visuals for almost everyone in CdM's sig?   

[Razgovory]

I have no idea why he put in the Axis of Anime.  Probably because he's mean.