Sexy Demon Transformation! Review

Title: Kozukuri Youkai H Henka ~Otome o Okasu Hyoui Gattai~
Original title: 子作り妖怪H変化～乙女を犯す憑依合体～
Alias: Sexy Demon Transformation!
Release date: 2011-02-25
English release date: 2012-09-14
Developer: Softhouse-Seal
English publisher: MangaGamer

My, oh, my... MangaGamer seems to be on the roll in releasing "Softhouse-Seal" titles. Apparently they managed to snag basically the whole S-S catalogue for cheap and are releasing one nukige after another. While I always love a good nukige, I was a bit apprehensive about the possible quality of the titles from this specific circle. Let's see how one of them, called "Sexy Demon Transformation!" in its translated form, will do in my opinion.
First of all let me point out that SDT (not to be confused with STD) is a very short title. Depending on your reading and fapping speed you can finish it in 4-6 hours and that is a good thing as it doesn't manage to overstay its welcome and doesn't become boring.

The story is as silly as it can be. Our protagonist is a certain Ashiya Yamato - an onmiyouji (translated as exorcist) tasked with exterminating demons (actually youkai) in Japan. Recently a contest was held which was supposed to determine the next head of all onmyouji, named the Big Boss (yes, we do love "Metal Gear" - no need to be so blatant, game). The contest didn't go as expected for Yamato as his childhood friend Abe Asuka managed to snag the last youkai and knocked Yamato out in the process. Since then he was seething with need for revenge and decided to employ youkai to achieve his ends. Yamato surmises that if Asuka became pregnant, she wouldn't qualify for the position of the Big Boss anymore, as majority of mother's magical powers pass on to a child.

Things go bump in the night.

So, yeah, this game falls mostly into comedic semi-consensual rape category. For a game of this ilk, all of the sex scenes are really tame though some of them introduce interesting themes. Losing your virginity to an umbrella? Umm... OK, but that still doesn't beat losing virginity to a joystick while playing a video game (I'm looking at you "Meisou Toshi"). However selfcest is quite rare and I don't remember anyone literally losing their head during sex in any other game. o_O OK, I concede, some of the H-scenes here are... unexpected. Bonus points, because they are not exceedingly long and their duration is just right. On the other hand, I found genital reconstruction pretty badly done. I don't know if those are original or redrawn CGs, but penis is usually ridiculously looking (pussy is a little better). At least in one scene (the toilet paper one), the artificial paper penis is described as being white, but CGs portray it as flesh-coloured. I conjecture, that this is a fault of a CG artist, rather than of a translator.

The structure of the game is a bit different from usual. There are no choices (well, there is one in Yukihi's route) with you rather choosing which place your protagonist visits every night and which youkai he brings along. It sounds more complicated than it really is. You have three hours to accomplish what you want every night (in game time) and that is more than enough to check which demons you need, take them and go to your designated place. Character portraits also mark places where they currently are or places of significance to them. Walkthrough is actually not needed for Asuka and Yukihi routes at all. Shiori's route, though... Well, about that later. There are three routes in total and five endings. Also, while there are four girls and you can have sex with Airi, she is not winnable (*sad panda*).

The attack of killer toilet paper!

The first girl is obviously your osananajimi Asuka, a fellow onmyouji and a current candidate for the Big Boss. She wears miko outfit during nights, but actually isn't one. The whole plot kickstarts, when Yamato decides to bring her down by impregnating her; but actually it's not as bad as it sounds. Asuka has long been in love with you and will forgive you anything. Moreover, sex that is supposed to be rape quickly becomes semi-consensual. There is only one ending and the very last scene is absolutely hilarious and heartwarming.

Everything's better with catgirls.

Yukihi is a cold and aloof girl at Yamato's school and always has male lackeys she despises trailing her. Only Yamato finds out her secret - Yukihi is a half-youkai born of a human and a yuki-onna (A literal Ice Queen? Who could have thought...). She also hides other youkai from onmyouji in her house and agrees to lend them to Yamato, however she has an ulterior motive for doing that. Play your cards wrong and you will get a bad end. The sex with Yukihi is mostly consensual with a slight exception of the second scene. The theme of this path is Defrosting Ice Queen and you can achieve three endings with her. One is aforementioned bad end, one is a good end and one is... find that for yourselves. :-)

A H-game about demons without any tentacles? Say it isn't so.

The third and last route concerns a Airi / Shiori duo. They belong to a school Newspaper Club and at least Airi is always looking for a scoop. One night you save them from a snake monster and Airi immediately decides to crown her work with an interview with youkai. As for Shiori, she also had a crush on you for a long time. I found this path bloody hilarious. Airi's antics to get Shiori and Yamato together usually end completely wrong and at the same time Yamato tries to stop her search for an interviewable youkai. This path has some of the most outrageous sex scenes and the single remaining ending. Natheless, I have to complain, that this is the hardest ending to achieve and you might need a walkthrough. Basically you have to acquire a semi hidden youkai using a counterintuitive method or you will end stuck.

We have talked about heroines, so now it's time to talk about our protagonist. For all intents and purposes, he is only one step away from being a "blank slate", common in many eroges. After all, characterization is definitely not the strong point of this game and even the heroines never actually behave naturally. Though I must say, that nukiges are not frequently played for good plots or strong character presentations. The game tries to play that anti-villain card, but kind of loses, because Yamato is fundamentally a good guy. He firmly believes that humans and youkai can coexist and despises fellow onmyouji that indisciminatelly kill them. At the same time Yamato is a funny guy and even being a complete donkan doesn't ruin that.

The main reason I was apprehensive to play S-S games before, was that I didn't like the graphics all that much and they are a second most important aspect of a nukige after sex... at least in my opinion. Up close the graphics weren't really that bad, but it's obvious that the game was made for cheap. While the CGs and paper dolls are nice looking (though not exceptional in any way), there are very few backgrounds and they are simplistic with no details (I wouldn't be surprised if they were taken from public domain for all I know, just like in "Guilty: The Sin"). No sprites exist for side characters (and there are very few of them too). Moreover, youkai themselves are portrayed as icon sized creatures and do not even get voices. Admittedly, it is said ingame that they all are plush toy sized, but their representation is just cheap.

Breaking the Fourth wall.

Only four main girls are voiced at all, but at least I have nothing bad to say about their voice acting. However, BGM is the single worst thing this game throws at you. There are only about four or so tracks and they are all obnoxiously ear killing. For all intents and purposes it would be better to play the game with BGM turned on. The SFX are almost nonexistent and even when Airi plays a photographer, you can only read "click click click" but not actually hear it. It's obvious to see how the licence to get "Softhouse-Seal" games cost so little to MangaGamer.

Probably all the money went to the animation of sex scenes. Oh, wait, did I forget to mention animations? No, I didn't, because I was so disappointed. Only three sex scenes are animated in the whole game (one for each heroine), so that they come across as only a gimmick. Probably S-S strained their budget to give some difference to their game and separate it from hundreds of others. They didn't succeed, but B+ for effort. During those animated scenes you can zoom in and out and even move camera to focus it on different parts of the action. Pretty neat. Now, only if all the rest of scenes were animated too...

Young Mary Poppins.

In the end I have to present my gripe, which I have already mentioned in my "Hakuouki" review. Why the hell do they use the word "demon" to describe youkai? It grates on me and can be easily replaced by a more fitting "youkai" (*gasp*) or "spirit" if you are going for total localization, however I must point out that yuki-onna was transliterated as it is, instead of being translated as something nonsensical like "snow woman" (ditto for other youkai names). As for translation itself, it is, I believe, adequate, though I noticed some misspellings and grammar mistakes (and once even an error message that appeared in a text box, but didn't break the game).

"Sexy Demon Transformation!" will not win any awards and it will not even hold your interest for a long time, but if you are looking for a quick nukige to pass a few hours, you could do worse than that.

Links of Interest

Visual Novel Database
Official Japanese site
Buy a download version of the game at MangaGamer
Walkthrough

Final Verdict: 59%