Succubus Stories v0.12 Update Preview (Patreon)

Succubus Stories v0.12, Love and War, will be coming to the patron edition of the game on April 4th, and will come to the free edition of the game a week later, on April 11th.

There's now no choice but to fight. As Rachel's machinations bring the kingdom ever closer to collapse, the player character will be forced to take up arms alongside Priscilla in order to stop her. This update features the conclusion to chapter 4, with a large amount of brand-new story content alongside new combat and dungeon-crawling game modes. Explore and fight through the story like never before.

But that's not all! Romance is in the air! Rais's romance path has been added to the game, featuring tons of steamy new content to experience. Fun and sexy expansions have also been made to Priscilla's romance path. Also included in this update are new activities, new requests, new and expanded side content, new character progression options, tons of new artwork, and much more!

Combat and Dangerous Areas

As part of the new story content, the player character will pair up with Priscilla to explore dangerous areas. These are sort of like dungeon crawls; they feature light puzzle-solving and exploration elements and dangerous enemies who will attack the two succubi.

There are a total of three of these zones in the update, though players will only be able to explore one based on the decisions made in the story. You can only spend a certain amount of time in dangerous areas before being forced to leave, and being defeated in combat will also force you to retreat. You may also choose to leave of your own accord. You can freely re-enter the dangerous zone whenever you want, though, and progression toward your goals carries over, so it shouldn't be possible to get stuck even if you find these areas hard.

These dangerous areas are dangerous because they feature combat, a brand new gameplay system where you support Priscilla while she fights enemies. Priscilla will act of her own accord, but the player will need to manage her HP, MP, and lust by using potions and various actions to keep her in the fight. You can also use potions and perform actions on enemies.

Combat isn't intended to be a major mechanic of the game, but rather an interesting gameplay system for players to interact with. If players feel it's fun, I may expand the system to add more options and content. If it's not well-loved, I'll try to make it as fun as I can, but won't expand it beyond the few story appearances it's intended to have here.

New Story Content

With this update, chapter 4 will be completed! It's been a long time coming. Chapter four is divided into paths based on a decision made toward the end of chapter 3. There are six paths in total, but some of the paths cross over, or share some content. A single path will see about a quarter to a third of the total content in this update.

Chapter 5 will be the game's final chapter, so we're getting close to the end of the game, but like chapter 4, several paths through the remaining content will exist, so we're maybe not quite as close as it seems.

This update actually features the largest amount of story content ever added to the game in a single update, but I'm not sure whether it will feel like that to play due to the branching nature of the plot. I'll be interested to hear what you guys think.

Side Content and Requests

Most of the new content here is related to Rais in one way or another, as this update adds his romance path to the game. Unfortunately, if you've already romanced Priscilla, you won't be able to start a romance with Rais. I think Rais's romance turned out okay. I spent a lot of time rewriting certain scenes. I want Rais to feel a little hesitant and reluctant to be honest about his feelings, but I feel like he was coming across as too much of a dweeb. Likewise, I wanted the player character to have to sort of encourage him without making him too needy or without making her have to come on too strong. Suffice to say, I continue to spend a comical amount of time planning, writing, rewriting, and fretting over every line of dialogue in this silly porn game.

That said, I think Rais's path is very good content-wise and mechanically. In addition to being able to have sex with him, there's some smaller and more unique events and scenes in here that you can stumble upon that I think add a lot to the experience.

You can also unlock an activity where you suck Rais off under his desk while he's working, and you can do this whether you're in the romance or not! This activity is probably the biggest one in this update, and is on par in terms of complexity and content with something like flashing or masturbating, so it's pretty interesting and interactive, I think.

Since Rais's romance has so much going on, I wanted to spruce up Prisiclla's romance as well. She's gained a new feeding activity you can do whether you're in a romance with her or not. Further, sex with Priscilla is now handled via the encounter system, making it more varied. There is something to be said for bespoke scenes, but I think this is still an improvement overall. You can also move in with Priscilla. This feature will not be unique to Prisicilla's romance forever, but for now only she has it. Finally, like with Rais, I added some random scenes and events to her romance to spice things up.

Two new requests, both related to Rais, have been added, each with their own special trait rewards. Some other more minor content additions have been added to expand existing activities and encounter content.

Progression, Alchemy, and Balance

Some changes are coming to traits in the update. For one, the trait menu is getting a much-needed overhaul. Clicking a trait a second time now confirms its purchase rather than a separate dialog, so the trait list isn't closed after each purchase anymore, and buying traits in bulk should now be much less painful. Also, the experience required for trait points has been reduced (about a 20% reduction), so players should get more trait points by default.

Finally, a new feature has been added: tiaras. Tiaras are unlocked by fulfilling certain conditions, and will be delivered to the player character's home after being earned. You can equip one tiara at a time, and swap them, or remove them, at the wardrobe. These items provide powerful bonuses and effects. Five are in the game as of this update, with two more on the way in a future update.

Mod Support and Tools

Basic modding documentation and tools have been completed, and are available now to patrons! Free edition players will be getting mod support in this update, so hopefully we'll see some player-made content for the game in the coming weeks.

In addition to mod support, free edition players will also be receiving the sniffing and convent mods, since they'll need something to see how the system works. I actually kinda wanted to keep the convent mod exclusive to patrons, but I do plan to make more official mods in the future, so maybe I'll keep those exclusive for patrons instead. We'll see.

New Artwork

A ton of new artwork will be coming in this update!

First, we have portraits for Rais. Both the 3D rendered art set and the hand drawn art set will now feature Rais's mug at the bottom of the screen when he's around for your viewing pleasure. This is the first new portrait set in quite a while!

Next, Rais has unique rendered CGs for sex with him, similar to Priscilla. These only exist for vaginal and anal sex, unfortunately. If you have oral or foot sex with Rais, the generic CGs for those encounter types will be displayed. Also, like with Prisicilla, the hand-drawn art set does not feature unique character CGs at this time, so the generic CGs will always be used with that art set.

Fans of the hand-drawn art shouldn't despair, however, as a whopping 24 new CGs have been added for that art set. This means that for most scenes and encounters with CGs, there are now the same number of rendered CGs and hand-drawn CGs! Other than character-specific CGs, there is basically complete parity between the art sets now. I do plan to commission character-specific CGs in the future, but I have no ETA on that, so that will remain unique to the rendered art set for now.