Church of Nightmare Review

Title: Church of Nightmare
Release date: 2017-09-01
English release date: 2018-05-05
Developer: akuoti
Publisher: Rand

I hope everyone remembers the "Village of Nightmare" games? I have previously reviewed both the two main entries in the series and the western homage. I have always had a soft spot for those games, as their theme of sexual corruption, coupled with a dash of gender-bending really appealed to me. I was quite surprised to find out that there exists a short side game by the same creators, named "Church of Nightmare" and that it has also been stealthily translated into English by the translator of the second game with very few people noticing it.

Anyway, if the title doesn't clue you in, the setting this time is a church, rather than a village, and because you cannot go on a vast corruption spree in a church, the game is understandably very short, and this review is probably gonna reflect that.

All of the characters in the game.

The game starts shortly after the events of "Village of Nightmare 2" and follows a succubus Risa (she was probably a character in VON2, but some time has passed since I played that game and so I don't remember her specifically), who arrives at the church, currently housing three sisters of faith: Katja, Erza and Helly. Of course it's your job to corrupt them and bring them to the side of lust.

One playthrough of the game takes about fifteen minutes, as it ends after all the three sisters become succubi. The short playtime obviously doesn't give much leeway for proper characterization, thus the sisters are basically defined by few basic aspects. Katja is shy, Erza is motherly and diligent, and Helly is outgoing and cheerful. That's okay, though, as I didn't even expect anything more intricate and focused my attention on the sex scenes. And those are just as good as in the previous games. The developers worked really well within the limited setting and dished out some quality smut with exciting aspects of lezdom and, obviously, gender-bending.

Just like every teenage boy. :-)

Moreover, while the game has only one ending, there are actually many paths to reach it, which expands the game time from the aforementioned 15 minutes for a single playthrough to one hour and ten minutes it took me to find every different sex scene and variation. For you see, you as Risa are the only corrupter only at the start of the game. The sisters you corrupt can themselves become playable characters and corrupt others, and the sex encounters change completely, based on who is doing the corruption and who is their target.

There are four main paths through the game with completely different H-scenes, with an addition that Helly's sex scene also changes based on which sisters have already been corrupted before her. So, if you want to see not only all the sex scenes, but also all the variations, you must play through the game six times. Of course, all the playthroughs do not take 15 minutes each anymore, as you can skip through the encounters you have already witnessed, in order to see what you have still missed. While the system seems convoluted at first glance, it's actually pretty intuitive and works really well within the closeted setting of the church. All the possible ways to play through the game are listed below:

» Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «

Unique sex scenes:

Katja (as Risa)
Erza (as Katja)
Helly (as Katja)

Erza (as Risa)
Katja (as Erza)
Helly (as Erza)

Helly (as Risa)
Katja (as Helly)
Erza (as Helly)

Katja (as Risa)
Erza (as Risa)
Helly (as Risa)

Two more variations for Helly's scene:

Katja (as Risa)
Helly (as Risa)
Erza (as Risa)

Erza (as Risa)
Helly (as Risa)
Katja (as Risa)

Pfft... Who needs that pesky soul when you can have awesome demonic orgasms?..

All the corruption events happen during the night, and during the day Risa (or other corrupted playable characters) can interact with others at dinner. It is interesting how conversations among the characters change, based on who has already been corrupted. I have also encountered the only bug I noticed during a daytime event, when Katja talking to Helly was visually represented by Helly talking to... a clone of herself. This bug doesn't affect the overall game and was actually funny in a way.

"Church of Nightmare" doesn't really try to tell any kind of an overarching plot and is basically a one-shot only concerned to show some lewds for VON fans. Hence I cannot complain about the lack of plot or some such nonsense. Of course, I could bemoan that the corruption events were very quick and it took only a single night to corrupt any of the sisters, but again, this is simply a stop-gag measure to placate the fans while the developers are working on a proper "Village of Nightmare 3" game. Thus in my opinion, the game succeeded at what it tried to do and it was a pleasant, albeit short trip down the memory lane.

Katja's facial expression seems to say she is ready for that.

If you guys have played VON games and have enjoyed them, I doubt you feel disappointed by this mini-game either.

Links of Interest

Official Japanese site
Game download on Rand's blog
Alternatively download the game on F95Zone

Final Verdict: 67%