Others - Vesper - Lust & Hunger [v0.1.15.2] [Starhound Studios]

Review for version 0.1.15.2

this game for me, is a breath of fresh air in a sea of VNs and Japanese RPGs. while the prologue is still following a VN format, the main part of the game seems to be management-focused. the system has its ups and downs, but overall it's pretty solid and can potentially lead to a fine gameplay loop.

Art is the best feature of this game and the competition is not even close. some scenes are just sketches and half-drawn, but the completed ones are quite fine and erotic.

the writing is a bit hit-and-miss. it's definitely above average, but it's not on the level of art for sure. it's not problematic and I think that's acceptable.

the problem starts with the gameplay loop. you have a bunch of resources that should be balanced with activities that make money for you. each day consists of 3 activities and based on what you choose, your stats grow, you get cash or you lower your exhaustion, which if you ignore, will limit your actions per day to 2.

the problem surfaces when the game tries to make you choose a "route". for example your "hunger" stat can be satiated in different ways and two of those are stealing blood from a hospital or selling your body and feeding on your client in the middle of it. but if you even try hospital once, you get locked out of prostitution which is like half of the scenes in the game. if it had some kind of story logic I could accept it, but not like this.

also, in trying to limit the players even more and increase playability, grinding is dialed up so much that you need to at least spend half of your time just making money while having a time limit! for now, stats like speed and study doesn't have that much of an effect, so they're worthless. on the other hand, to make more money you need to level up your job, which is a slow and tedious process. Not to mention that I don't think being a vampire brought anything to the table other than a hindrance in the form of "hunger".

the game has some neat ideas and great art, but the coding and the gameplay balance need a lot of work. definitely something to keep an eye on for now, but I won't recommend playing it in the current state.

Vesper - Lust & Hunger [v0.1.15.2] review

I'm incredibly unsure about how to rate this "game". The flashes of brilliance this dev shows are tremendous, but the coding is absolute ass.

Let's start with the positives: The art and writing. Both are superb. If that was all this "game" was, I'd score it a 5. But this dev really likes to get in his own way, it seems.

It's super over-the-top grindy for absolutely no reason and it's built for multiple playthroughs(!). Just no mate. Why would I subject myself to multipe hours of grind of the same 3 scenes for multiple playthroughs? In a version of the game that's pretty much only a proof of concept demo? Yeah no. Hard pass.

It's not clear what content is in this build. Most stat points do nothing and going to the hospital to beg for blood locks you out of the prostiture path. The sex toy you can buy seems to not do anything. Oh and there's a time limit. Dude, just no.

So yeah. Coding + game design: 0/5. Art + story 5/5. Rounding up to 3/5 stars.

This is my first review of a game on this site ever. I've been on this forum for about 6 years now, I've seen a plethora of games and their developers. But this is my first time seeing someone so passionate about a game.
The Dev litterally updates the game everyday on their patreon. the dude is online everytime on discord and hears out what he can improve upon. And thats saying something coming from me a watcher who seen a lot of devs.

The gameis not done yet, you can see that, I dont even think that its 3 months old.
I would highly recommend veteran users to support him on patreon, if not then check out his discord and give him advice on how to progress with the gameplay and story. He/ she is extremely passionate.

Thank you!

As for 1.15.2 The game is great. But it was a bit overwhelming for me. The Hunger stat despite going up real quick does not in fact kills you as soon as it reaches 100% but it affect heroine mind first. I did not know that. There is a chance the game told me that and I forgot, but I doubt it. Because of that I have this uncomfortable feeling of missing some events since I was too focused on hunger, leaving my stats behind. The art is great, but there are still a lot of placeholders. The story is creative, but for now I have a feeling that there is still not much to say about it, since there's just an intro and I have not encountered any significant events after that. I'll come back here later when the game will be much further in development, but for now I have high hopes for this title.

Absolutely amazing game so far. There are functionally no "vampire" games available, especially ones of this quality of design, animation, story, etc, wonderful game I cant wait for more. It's still pretty early in the storyline so hopefully that continues to develop a bit however I also am not a fan of long story focused porn games so having a mix of the story with the emphasis on actual gameplay... man this game is perfect.

Pretty great, probably one of the best games with concrete art, sex scenes and story all in one.
Only thing I'm knowingly nitpicking is how it releases updates with half-baked arts, although I do like the possibility of the game dev releasing this updates ass early as possible to give us content, but still releasing colorless scenes destroys the immersion in the game... I'm tempted to give it 4 starss but the potential of the game is undoubtedly good and with that It's a 5 stats for me!

I like the art style of the game, but the prologue and the after part don't fit well together. The gameplay of the second part is very monotonous and boring.
I think continuing the game as a visual novel (like the prologue) would have been much better.

(translated via google, sorry for the mistakes)

The best feature of this game is its art (which is why it gets a 2), if you're playing it for the writing you'll be disappointed. Honestly, the story writing is just weak; the prologue/beta is nonsensical in direction and the character writing isn't much better. It feels like the game takes itself too seriously without the needed depth of plot to justify it.

All in all, I'd only recommend playing it for the CG gallery.

Reviewed as of v0.1.06

Shaping up to be one of my most anticipated VNs of the year. Amazing graphics, a compelling story and all-round solid mechanics for a VN.

Seriously considering supporting the dev seeing such high quality on initial release.

Amazing art, compelling premise, and a really good overall direction indicated by the developer. Available for purchase from the Itch.io page, so you can support the developer and the project without having to use patreon.

It's still early, so if you're strapped for cash then by all means grab the free version. But if you have money then this is one of those projects that deserve the support.

Strikingly crisp art and an interesting premise. I will have to watch this game with great interest. Also the dev promised us dogs, total chad. If the hot heroine gets knotted that's good enough for me.

Release the hounds!

great artwork, love the classic open ended game play.
story seems decent so far. I really like that you already show off the plans for CG gallery and a way to see all possible endings.
looking forward to how the game comes along.

Evaluating this as a Demo. Its very unique and well though out so far.
Love the art and the idea. The developer is active and is taking feedback and improving on what is being said.
Also has a pretty awesome 'sandbox' mechanic to progress skills and story.

A promising erotica in the old-school style of the early Lesson of Passion games, a mix of life simulator and visual novel with well-drawn and intriguing comic graphics. It is not very progressed as of now (v0.1), but contains a dilligently written prologue and the first few days of a 90 day (blood) sucking survival challenge. You should definitely keep an eye on this one!

Art is great, and I like Vampires. The bonding and whatnot is rushed at the start, when you talk with the missing woman. From Vesper's point of view she seemed to just be empathising with the woman and growing to understand her, calling it an obsession and Helena seeming near in love is very sudden and kinda creepy.

Regardless, it hardly matters when it's purely the prologue.

As of now, the gameplay loop itself is massively, overly punishing.

You need to work at least twice a day to gain money reasonably, and after a day or two, one slot is mandatorily a rest slot which you can't unassign to take some fatigue in exchange for money - for some reason - meaning that you have to really just spam journalism twice a day every day.

You only get three slots a day.

There's no time to train up to get good at anything else, and there seems to be literally no point to the bartending, as its just a far worse way of making money. Journalism almost always gives $30, whereas Bartending gives an average of $10-15.

The very first random encounter on day 5 or so, the hobo in the alleyway, only unlocks an additional option at 150+speed.

You gain 5 per training. Even if you did nothing but train until you got this encounter, it's completely impossible to get close enough in the time you have.

Not because you can't reach 150 - although you can't - but rather because you'll get an unceremonious "You went insane" ending long before that, because it only takes a couple days of work for your blood bar to hit full, and a few days after that too until your mind fucking breaks apparently. When your blood gets full you then use most of if not all of the money you have buying $150 worth of blood, then the blood bar does not even fully reset, and you gotta do it over. If you get the hobo encounter, it takes so much money that you're basically doomed.

Way too much micromanaging and grind to get any semblance of balance, especially for a game with no save and load. Maybe give the character more time than "under a week" before she goes completely insane and the game ends if you make a mistake. She's set up as being basically the lowest tier of vampire, literally described as her body fighting to stay human, so it makes little sense that she can go full blood frenzy in a few days flat.

I hope to see this rectified highly in the future updates of the game, along with perhaps some helpful actual description and tutorial for exactly what improving your stats will even bother to do.

As I said, I like vampires.

+ Simple but engaging premise
+ Great artstyle
+ Good setting

- Timed dialogue choices, I personally despise this but the window to respond in wasn't too fast. You will generally have enough time to read the options and make a rushed but somewhat informed choice.

I would love if there was an option to disable the timed dialogue choices as it just disrupts the general immersion/flow/fun of the game for me.

Overall the game shows alot of promise, so I'm looking forward to see where this goes. Hoping that the bestiality tag was intended to be part of this game.

v0.1.0

Version : 0.1

For a first release it's absolutely fantastic. I can't wait to see more content. The game feels very polished already, and I have to say, I kinda missed this whole "set character schedule and watch stuff happen" kind of games. Remember Legend of Krystal vG, anyone?

This game is fantastic so far. Its darker theme, with the main character investigating the disappearances of people and later discovering the existence of vampires, turning into one of them, and having to live as a bloodthirsty monster while trying to satisfy the insatiable blood hunger, makes the game really cool. The game mechanics are simple and focused on the story and events, making it easy to play and engaging. The artwork and the main character are also beautifully drawn. This game has shown great potential so far. Keep up the excellent work, man!