#174 (Patreon)

The Nekoronomicon By Digital Onahooole

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[Summary]

A cat-eared girl in a Magical Land, struggles to get the Nekoronomicon that was stolen by a thief using magic spells, in this Exploration-Based Action Game.

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Review:

There are three factors that can make a video game a top seller:

💡 Innovation: Entirely new concept or a fresh take with a significant twist on an existing one.
🗣 Word of mouth.
🏍️ Riding on coattails of previous success.

These are no exceptions within the H scene.
Among the top games I've covered before, they did not fail to bring us that "freshness" in a very saturated genre.

99 posts ago, when I covered "Holy Knight Ricca" I was shocked to how much effort a studio was willing to go through for a super refined H experience.
It may not have been the best action game out there, but it certainly deserves the very top spot as an H ACT on DLsite.

However, the one exception when it comes to 18+ games, was, is, and will always be the artwork quality.
A game can be nearly unplayable, but with a good enough reward, the player develops a will, and with enough willingness, all is forgiven.

Today I'm reviewing the Nekoronomicon.
A top seller that stood the passage of time as the #4 most sold H ACT game on DLsite.

As my little introduction suggests, Neko doesn't have stellar gameplay.
As matter of fact, it is just OK compared to the average H game, and far more shallow compared to Ricca or Night of Revenge.

You play as Lulier the catgirl. Her magic yellow ball (The Nekoronomicon) was stolen by a mysterious being while she was taking nap.
Now she's on a mission to return it at all costs, starting with her virginity 💀

🕹️ Gameplay consists of basic movement, jump, charged shot, attack type change, spell burst, and heal (hold C).

Lulier's model is BIG (1/3rd of the screen), it was a common motif to many games at the time, similar to Emulis of the Valley that I also covered, which got released around the same time.
A big model, without a dodging mechanic no less, leads to an awkward movement where you constantly play chicken with your enemies while trying to sneak shots in.

Each stage (dungeon) is split into many small rooms, where you must beat the remaining enemies in order to unlock the room's doors.
The main gameloop is to find the keys that will lead to doors that have the levers you must pull to open the gates that block you from advancing further.

All while avoiding the lustful enemies that won't let your hitbox catch a break 💔

So what made the Nekoronomicon so successful?
Back in 2018 there weren't as many H games with such refined animated artwork.
If you pair in the big variety of different enemies interactions with the heroine - a feature that wasn't and still isn't very common to this day, you get an adult game that filled many people's craving to a full fledged engaging porn experience.

Given the standards of the time, all it really took was for someone to take up the glove and draw something that looked better than the rest, without catering to vanilla H.

It is by no coincidence that all the best sellers don't share the same year, as many devs try to cash in with a bunch of CGs and animations, missing the whole point of why people even bother playing a video game than just visiting another image hosting site.

💕 Does Neko's artwork justifies its popularity throughout the years?

I mean, if the game came out today, it would be nowhere near its blockbuster status, but that would be an unfair comparison wouldn't it?

I found the H content to be in high quality, especially for being hand-drawn (!!).
The biggest plus was having multiple models mix-and-match with high variety, rather than just a single type of interaction per enemy.

Each animation is smooth as hell. Luiler's model is beautiful, and we always get her at her best whenever she acts or getting assaulted mercilessly by the monsters. The animation's high quality doesn't fall off at any point.

Admittedly, it has some of the best game over CG animations I've ever seen, and when I say best I mean hilarious, such as getting wrecked in the big swine's weeb room while his mom peeks in to make sure everything's ok.
Playing H games, at least for me, was always about experiencing messed up scenes with enough context to increase their lewd stock value.

Normally I don't mention it, but the VA has truly done an amazing job voicing Luiler.
The reactions to every situation felt a lot more impactful than the typical stock_moan.sfx we often get in games.

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Overall, The Nekoronomicon is a game I'd recommend mainly for people looking for some gaming with their lewds.

There is good voice acting, and plenty of both quantity and quality H content to make it a worthwhile experience to add to your collection.

Perhaps it's the low standards we've been conditioned to, but given how nowadays for every 20 H games you get a 1 decent release, I do find Neko as a title that stands way above the average cash grab projects.

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The Nekoronomicon is available on DLsite.

❤️ For relevant H content of this title you may contact me in DM for referrals.