“It’s for research, it’s not sexual!”

Somehow, back in the day, I sincerely doubt that our parents would have accepted this as fair reasoning; nonetheless, it wins my award for best line in the script!

Overview

After The Inferno is a very spicy visual novel with a series of integral animated intercourse scenes doubtless attracting a certain market sector who would not be interested in the story alone.  A story which, it has to be said, provides a good deal of depth and longevity.

Please note if you are a typical hetero male considering this game for the sex visuals and nothing else, then this is not the review for you.  Thanks for dropping in.  Goodbye.

Story

Devran (changeable name) is the good-hearted leader of a successful mercenary group, and has accepted a contract from the Kingdom of Saterra to help defend them against overwhelming odds from the expansionist Isenian Empire.  Shortly into the game, he is visited upon by a messenger from the Empire with a much higher offer to fight with them instead, and with a much greater probability of success.   However, Devran believes that an old friend of whom he is very fond may be trapped in the city facing invasion.  With some of his band deciding to take the riches on offer and abandon him, he is faced with tough decisions and a nigh unwinnable challenge if he and his loyal remaining mercenaries are to survive.

During the course of the story as we head towards the inevitable invasion and defence of the city of Calseth, Devran meets and forms friendships with a series of female characters, all of whom have solid roles within the whole – not being there solely to act as romance options or sexual conquests.

Taking the right choices as each girl’s individual story plays out sequentially within the main tale will reap its own rewards when their presence and skills are most needed; however, choosing to go down routes contrary to Devran’s intrinsic nature may lead to a less satisfying conclusion..

Features

For a debut game from the developer Classy Lemon, there is a lot to be impressed about in this release.  The graphic quality is excellent in its own right, and way above the average standard of the visual novel genre.

The story is a slow-burn affair, it will require some patience and willingness to let it develop in order to become fully immersed.  If you’re the type to give up after half an hour because you want all the action on page 1, then this is not the game for you.  Personally, I like a story that takes the time to build properly and flesh out characters we can believe in and have sympathy toward.  The writing achieves this, though I did find the sheer volume of very short captions somewhat laborious to tap through, with a high number of one or two word captions, or merely an ellipsis.  Those sequences felt like more work than reward, but they are not the dominant feature.

I had the speaker on my laptop turned up to about ¾ of maximum, and even with the in-game volume settings fully up, I found whatever supporting music present to be incredibly quiet, so much so that it was hard to form an opinion as it never succeeded in catching my attention.  There is also some voice acting present during the many cutscenes, curiously this was louder and seemed fine.

As the game is built in Ren’py, all of the usual expected standard in-play features are present, although the basic word command list at the bottom of the screen is clearly something that didn’t get any attention.  Not only is it tiny, but the words are also in black, and for most of the time, you cannot see them at all unless you have the mouse pointer directly on top of them.  That was a pretty careless oversight, and the actual text doesn’t fare much better.  While the screenshot below doesn’t demonstrate the point due to the coloured backdrop, in many cases, the background behind the text is very light or white itself, and it renders reading the narrative challenging at best.  There is no visible text box to make the words stand out.  Anybody with sight difficulties will be effectively excluded from reading this story without assistance.

The game features plenty of save slots, of which you will probably want several; and also a full codex featuring additional information on locations you have visited, religions of the area, characters you have interacted with, and other lore; in addition to galleries of the cutscenes you found, and of course…

The intimate scenes

Honestly, believe me or don’t, it doesn’t matter; but when I first came across this game, it was the number of reviews which highlighted the strength of the story above all else which encouraged me to add it to my library to look at later.  I quite like historically based tales, and this does tell an interesting one.  So if you are curious about where the story goes and can deal with playing as a male character with the narrative being told from his viewpoint, but are unwilling to deal with the collection of sex scenes, note that [b]every single one of them[/b] is optional.  You do not have to play any of them through in order to progress the story.  There is always an option.

Credit to the developer for considering this in a game where the story itself is good enough to garner interest.

If you do want to experience the intimate moments in their full glory too however, you will not be punished for choosing one potential mate over another, nor for guiding Devran into relations with every one of them.  Perhaps predictably, the visuals do have a bias towards showing off the female form, giving a pretty clear indication that it was the developer’s intention/expectation that his audience would be predominantly male; but at the same time, they do not go so far as to serve to simply objectify the women as convenient lust objects.  While it is usually a case of the MC being pleasured, there are occasions where the role is reversed.  I did not come through any of the scenes feeling that I had just endured several moments of simple male-gaze porn.

That said, I had been under the illusion that medical enhancement of the male member wouldn’t have been available back in the time of this story – apparently I have been misinformed! There are plenty of moments to “enjoy” his arousal, and while not too excessive, he is unusually well blessed in the downstairs department.  However, for an active mercenary soldier, Devran has a striking lack of muscular definition elsewhere, which is somewhat disappointing from a female perspective.  Perhaps this is why the camera doesn’t focus on him much during intimate moments.  At least he has a very handsome face.

Experience & Verdict

At the time of writing, this game has been around for a while, but what should it matter?  If you haven’t played it before, then it’s still new to you.  I had expected, for a free game, the experience to be very brief.  There is a battle quite early on, which I was anticipating bringing the story to an end.  How wrong I was, and without giving too much away, the clue is in the game’s title.

My expected hour-or-so play through became closer to 16 hours, a huge surprise – and this is without playing over, or reviewing the animated scenes etc (which to be fair is more likely to be the preserve of the male players); and that amount of game time has to be attributed to the depth of the story.

There are a couple of other points that didn’t really appeal outside of the text size and colour issues:  some of the gameplay involves an overhead isometric view of the city and you have to click on a building to visit.  Cressa’s house isn’t easy to spot initially.  Devran keeps a journal which you can check which usually states where to go, but none of this feels necessary, and basically serves as a needless delay to story continuation.

The other thing is a very minor graphical detail, and that involves the eyes on the female characters, most especially Cressa, whose are red.  Considering the real life appearance of the rest of the character sprites, the eyes look oversized and cartoon-like, which detracts quite heavily from their overall effect.  If you can cope with them on Cressa though, the rest won’t feel too bad.

Outside of these points, and especially considering that this game is free, it’s a very, very easy one to recommend.  I have seen the dev’s follow-up release store page, Projekt Passion, which appears to be more firmly aimed at the male player, so you may not see a review of that from this writer, but I would certainly be open to a more female-centric game from Classy Lemon.  This is an impressive start.

Review also posted on Steam ➞

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