Genre: Action Adventure Platformer Hentai
Developer: Kyrieru
Publisher: MangaGamer
Release Date: Feb 17, 2017
The world of hentai has never been bound to just erotic novels, but there are some realms that can be avoided – the action hack and slash platformer being one of them. So when someone made a platformer where death means seduction by monster girl creatures, does it work? Eroico definitely tries to do this. Eroico is an action role playing doujin game developed by Kyrieru, later released by MangaGamer, that plays like a traditional action platformer with a hit of lust at every turn, though it has some lackluster ideas behind it.
Jumping in blindly and swinging a sword around, Eroico becomes a mess of a story with only a small narrative. We, the player, focus on the role of an unnamed prince who has but a single mission on his mind: ending the life of the demon lord, but he has a long way to go as the demon king’s monster girls want a piece of the prince, in more than one way. I will end the synopsis here as that is honestly where it ends, no spoilers to be found. While I will admit the story has some novelty, it left quite a few glaring holes in the plot.
Eroico, for its novelty, has a fair amount of flaws to its story, the main one being is almost has none to start with. The idea of creating a novelty platformer out of an 18+ action game is pretty interesting, especially since, depending on what creature kills you is what scene you are treated to as the game over screen, where it does show the hentai side of it beyond the nearly naked monster girls in the game. However, it has near to no story to support this setup, leaving the gameplay to be good to cover its lack of a story instead of working alongside of it to make the character grow. The other issue is the lack of 18+ content, meaning something other then the game over screens. For a 18+ platformer, I expected these rich and detailed scenes where a monster tries to kill you by sucking out your essence – but instead, we get something more like a still image of a monster just riding you, using you for your seed. It kills a lot of the want to get all the pictures as well, because there just is not much interesting about them.
Striking the monster girl down, Eroico aims to make a solid platformer, which it does to the most part through its gameplay. Eroico’s combat is a fairly standard run-of-the-mill action platformer set up, utilizing an attack key that can be used for both melee swings and a ranged magic attack. The game also uses a jump and backdash feature, allowing for abilities to escape or back out of combat which you will find yourself using frequently as many of the 15 monster girls in the game have a basic attack and special attack. The one feature that is unique to Eroico’s combat is the knockdown feature, a feature where the monster girl will latch onto our prince friend and make him relax a little, in a sexual way, and each monster girl has their own pattern to watch for, so it can make for some interesting fights.
Sporting a 8-bit to 16-bit pixelated world with music to match it, the presentation of Eroico feels like that of an old school RPG, and rightly so, but it also has its own issues. Visually, Eroico has some really smooth graphics and animations for an action platformer, but it lacks the same depth in the still images used for the continue screen. The backgrounds fit the game well, being bright and allowing for it to stand out amongst the darker shaded characters. The characters are nicely done for the pixel style the game uses, having really smooth animations, and allowing for good movement. The monster girls on the other hand, while having good animations, do come off as harder to read because their attacks can be random and there is not too many distinguishable visual cues. The still images used for the game over screen, while they use a more animated style, lack some of the depth the pixel graphics have as the characters seem more stiff.
Chiptunes become the name of the game with Eroico’s soundtrack, but with a nice twist of some classical elements with them. Eroico’s choice to use some classical piano tones mixed into the chiptunes was a solid decision as it added a new element of memorability to the music. The sound effects, while simple, were a great tool here as they also took the chiptune effect, and it becomes satisfying to hear your sword cleave a monster girl down.
Overall, Eroico is an interesting twist on a hentai game where the role is reversed, it does well with the gameplay, visuals, and music but lacks in a story and good hentai content. The novelty of the story, fun but easy to learn mechanics, unique knockdown feature, the pixel 8-bit to 16-bit visuals, smooth animations, and memorable soundtrack make for a unique experience that, while not on a hentai level, is worth a look.
Pros:
- The story has some good novelty to it
- Easy to learn mechanics
- A knockdown feature that allows the monster girls pleasure
- The eight bit to sixteen bit visuals
- Smooth animations
- Soundtrack was memorable with its mix of chiptune and classical
Cons:
- The game has no true story except a small event
- Lacking amount of hentai content in the novel
- Characters feel stiff in the still scenes
DarkLunarDude gives Eroico a Drastik Measure 6.0 out of 10.0 (60)
For the price of $9.95 on MangaGamer, I can only recommend this platformer to those seeking a little hentai with their combat, even if it is not the best there is, as the combat and knockback ability make for some funny scenes.
