Hentai Survival Horror Game Review: Succubus Prison

Succubus Prison House of Lewd Demons, a horror porn game developed by tokinokogiri. Released January 30, 2017. Download on Pornova.org. For PC Windows. Full Japanese voice acting. Censored genitals. Available in English and Japanese.

You’ve been trapped in a house with three evil succubus women! You have until midnight tonight to escape them. If you don’t, they’ll fuck you to death and eat your soul!



As the DLSite page explains, this game comes with a bonus game called “Saseboshi”. This was the prototype for what would eventually become “Succubus Prison”. Support is not offered for this game, and the developer has no plans to translate it in the future.

You’ll notice on DLSite there are three store pages for this game. The first is the game in its original Japanese release. The second is a paid DLC adding voices to all the characters. The third is a paid DLC that adds voices and an English patch.

STORY

You and two hoodlums break into a house hoping to have sex with the three girls inside. Too bad they’re super powerful succubi! The only one in danger here is you! Be thankful for their mercy, that you get one final day to live your life.

If you’ve seen the anime Re:Zero, you’re already familiar with the mechanics of this game. You have the power to “Return by Death”. If you die, you’ll be sent back in time with only the knowledge you gained during the previous loop. This repeats until you eventually get things right.

The game starts at 9:25am, and ends at midnight when you’re killed. Your goal is to escape before then. The fastest speedrun of the game took 12 minutes, but the average playthrough is significantly longer with tons of deaths.

The protagonist is far from likable. Due to his lack of willpower, he worked with two criminals hoping to force himself on girls in the house. He only exercises willpower when he wants to live, but beyond that, he’s a massive pushover.

The ending is absolute shit. “I moved away three months later”. The protagonist continued living his life forgetting about the succubi. In fact, he didn’t even tell anyone what he went through. He just moved on! All that buildup to the final escape, all the knowledge you’ve gathered, all the trials you’ve overcome, and all you get is a handful of stupid musings. I would have preferred no ending over this crap! At least then I could fantasize that the protagonist did at least something!

GAMEPLAY

Succubus Prison was created in Wolf RPG Editor. Press C for auto-text. Press S for the backlog. Press A to skip text. Press V to quicksave and F to quickload. The game clock advances by 1 minute for every 15 seconds of real time.

Your experience of the game is heavily dependent on your difficulty mode. I highly recommend easy mode, because otherwise your energy and vigor deplete rapidly. These are the green and blue bars at the top of the screen. Simply talking to the succubi or opening a drawer will drain these bars. Without easy mode, you’ll be constantly running back to your room to recover.

The store page claims this is a “survival horror game”. In particular it is stated “This is a sneaking game with an adventure focus”. However, I found this description to be misleading. In reality, this is a game focused on trial and error. Without a walkthrough, this game can easily last 6 hours.

This is the type of game where you could get caught and insta-die at any moment. You’re given no clues to start, and are expected to walk around interacting with every item and individual to succeed. It’s extremely easy to get stuck for absurdly stupid reasons. Like the old saying goes! If an RPG Maker game has quicksaves, it’s probably poorly designed.

For example, even though the game tells you not to, you need to speak to a hostile succubus to progress. You’ll also need to interact with a very specific wall to acquire a weapon. And, place your phone on a secret recording location around 4pm to learn the combination of a floor safe. And of course, order pizza at exactly 11am sharp, so it arrives at noon.

You learn what to do and how to succeed by memorizing the schedules of each succubus. The game is designed so that you’ll die hundreds of times and be forced to load hundreds of times. You must learn when they leave and enter rooms, as well as which items have uses and where. This game requires a pencil and a notepad.

Much of this game is pure bullshit. Check the trash can three times to find the secret intel. Die at least five times to unlock a scene and change player behavior. Here’s a poorly explained summoning system that requires save scumming in order to use properly! You have to have the patience of a saint to enjoy this experience.

The game tries to mimic the drama of Re:Zero with the gameplay stylings of Metal Gear Solid Phantom Pain. The problem is, Phantom Pain rewarded you for repeating levels. Succubus Prison makes you play it repeatedly without any incentive! And with an extremely unlikable protagonist to boot, the game truly lacks anything meaningful to offer its players.

This is a game about doing very specific things in a very specific order to get a very specific outcome, while pretending to be an open adventuring experience. This is not freedom, it is “do the correct action or die”.

GRAPHICS

There are 25 base CGs used across 38 scenes. Naturally, CGs repeat over time. The game uses color changes and a shaky camera to convey movement similar to animation. Scenes can only be viewed by dying, so don’t expect consensual lovemaking!

The entire game takes place in a single building. Players cannot openly explore unless they learn the schedules of the succubus girls first. The only unique spots are the basement with the summoning circle and the library where Vinum hangs out. Beyond that, the world feels constrained and repetitive.

While the chibi pixel art is cute, it also lacks the sense of detail one would expect from a horror game. The succubi look nonthreatening, and there’s never a clear indication of which furniture is important to look at. Often times dialogue will say something like “this is a tissue box”, but in-game it looks nothing like that. Super simplistic art is not a good match for a survival game focused on attention to detail.

Perhaps this is intentional, but every succubus girl has her own unique art style. Vinum’s scenes use bold and clear colors, with thick outlines and little shading. Myusca’s scenes are heavy on earth tones like tans and whites, with practically no outlining, almost like watercolors. Nemea’s scenes are practically over-designed, showing a heavy use of shading and lighting, with heavily pink hues and wider facial structures. If not for playing it myself, I’d have assumed these were three separate games!

VOICE ACTING AND SOUND EFFECTS (SFX)

There are 8 voices in total. Outside of the three primary succubus it is possible to use the summoning circle to meet five more girls.

The voices match the archetypes well. Nemea is an “ara ara” milf, Myusca is a “chu chu” busty schoolgirl, and Vinum is a haughty yet youthful cutie pie – which is ironic because she’s the oldest of the three! While the voices are enjoyable, not all players will experience them. Safe to say, the game is fully playable without the voice acting, so it’s not a huge loss.

A good variety of sound effects are used throughout the game, but sparingly due to the stealth focus. For example, you find a pistol but there’s barely any reason to use it. As a stealth game, the sound design is limited to footsteps and door creaks, with the occasional variety like turning on the hall lights or experiencing a pulse of magical power.

MUSIC

Due to the horror focus, the soundtrack has tons of atmospheric buzzing and burring, digitally synthesized to create suspenseful moments. There are over 70 tracks in total, changing based on location, conversation, sex act, and actions. For example, you hear a track change when a succubus discovers you’re wandering the house without permission.

While all of these tracks are good, many of them feel identical to the last. There’s only so much you can do with general atmospheric buzzing. And although piano and string instruments are used, they feel a bit mechanical having been made digitally. Personally, I found most of these tracks overrated.

HENTAI

Succubus Prison features 25 base CGs spread across 38 scenes. The trio of main succubi have 9 scenes each, and there are 11 side-scenes from the summoning circle.

The repeat of CGs in multiple scenes is super noticeable. Especially because this is a horror game with so much buildup to the fucking! If this was a random sex game, it would make sense for positions to repeat. But this game creates suspense and tension, only to ruin it with artworks you’ve seen before! What a drag! I blame the 11 side-scenes, which aren’t as exciting because they’re hookups with total strangers lacking buildup.

The majority of scenes in this game use missionary and cowgirl positions. Erotic dialogue always loops back to the same concept. They’re sucking out your life force and you’re going to die. Safe to say, the game lacks anything substantially unique to offer. Outside of customizable sex scenes and player death count changing the dialogue, the game is pretty basic.

CONCLUDING WORDS

Succubus Prison is a highly rated and famous game on DLSite, but I’m not sure why. The visuals are good and the voice acting is enjoyable, but the story and gameplay are unremarkable. I guess people are just suckers for succubi.