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Review
Adapted from a Review-A-Thon 25 Review
Style: choice-select
Played : 7/21/25
Playtime: 30m demo, 2 playthroughs
Some erotica embraces a kind of “alternate universe” vibe. A world very much adjacent to our own where physical pleasure is never more than two moves away from any, and I mean ANY social interaction. When done poorly, its seams and artificiality can feel squicky or worse. When done well it has a kind of charm to it, where full character and inner lives are replaced by an irrepressible joi de vive and horny transgressions are embraced with a twinkle.
It is cartoony in the less-used sense of the word - people reduced to iconic shorthand, emphasizing (in this case) bawdy aspects for humorous and exaggerated effect. Like say Peanuts. We recognize the heart of the exaggeration and accept the abstraction and falsity as representative, not simpy ‘off’. I mean, imagine for a moment interacting with a child whose physiognomy and droll melancholy matched Charlie Brown. So unsettling! No, our brains are quite prepared to shrug that off given the emotional core that rings through the distortions around it. Once that leap is made, we play in this universe, knowing it is unrepresentative but able to carry the core of its resonance into new places.
LM-N seems to want to play in this space, but it takes its time trying to get there. You open doing photograph analysis work (remotely it seems? by VPN I hope!), notionally scanning images for evidence of entirely unsubtle espionage. Y’know amongst the nudity. The task is kind of shadowy and hand-wavy in a way that at first synchs with the singular drives of Earth-XXX. It quickly gets sharper as your two female superiors engage your work and deeper cross-purposes are exposed, where you will have to choose between ‘sides’ of a barely-sketched conflict. Both of these superiors are very happy to reward your allegiance with (Spoiler - click to show)lewd selfies, y’know, like bosses do?
The dramatic conflict is very much aligned with its ‘Noir’ title and contrasted to the visual presentation of the piece, creates some unexpected… and this word may not be the best choice here… tension. Both dramatically and in the impulse of the game itself. Stories categorized as Noir are hallmarked by a deep cynicism towards humanity, starkly rendered. Where good intentions are mocked and punished by betrayals and cupidity. (Hey, how weird is it that CUPID is the root of that word? In the context of this review??) This tone is somewhat jarring against the otherwise gleeful Earth-XXX excesses. The mood it evokes It is not entirely unsuccessful, just unexpected and certainly unresolved. The lack of resolution is presumably due to this being a demo, an introduction to deeper plot twists and nudity to come in the full version.
It would be a disservice to the work, given how visually focused both the analyst mini-game and the erotica itself is, to ignore the art. The art is very distinctive. In Noir mode (where I feared I would lose color clues crucial to the proceedings! but didn’t, whew), it was 3-4 colors, large blocks of shadow and light, super iconic. All art is subjective of course, but I found this to be reliably well composed and pleasant to look at. It is a real strength of the game. Which it would kind of have to be, against its aims. The text is not (by and large) carrying erotic content, that all falls to its representational artwork. The art is every bit as abstract and representational as its narrative, and manages to bridge the gap between its fleshy and dramatic impulses, leverages its icon-oriented construction to unify the piece as much as it can.
After my second playthrough (exploring different sides of the conflict), that unresolved thematic tension was far and away the overriding impression - outweighing its female-body gaze-centered sexuality and the moody wheels-within-wheels plot mechanations. As a demo, designed to entice further engagement, I am hard pressed to imagine a better end state. It will all come down to how compelling you find that unique ‘noirotica’ flavor combination, and how confident you are that the resolution of that tension does not dissolve into dissonance. I honestly could see it going either way on that last score.
Also, sorry about your algorithm. Now that I have put Peanuts and ‘erotica’ this close together, you might get some interesting search results for the next few days.
