Game Review: Hentai Project

By Al

Players: 1
Platforms: Nintendo Switch

Have you ever found yourself browsing the Switch's eShop and come across one of those games that seem to defy what one would think would be available on a Nintendo console? I'm of course talking about the plethora of games with titillating titles and artwork, often including the word "hentai". I know I've definitely been that person, and today I'm going to attempt to answer the many questions I've had about those kind of games. Enter Hentai Project, the latest in series of games that includes titles like Hentai World, Hentai Uni, and Hentai Girls. There's no turning back now, so join me on this journey!

Hentai Project tosses you into the shoes of a nameless photographer who is arranging shoots with his model friend Keiko who eventually introduces him to three of her other friends: Ema, Hitomi, and Airi. In the course of the shoot you learn more about Keiko herself. She's quite talkative and tells you about her likes, dislikes, and fashion choices. That's all well and good, but we're in a hentai game after all! This means that her wardrobe slowly becomes less and less as the shoot goes on, and you're tasked to complete a slide puzzle in order to see it all. That's right, the only "gameplay" this game has is a series of slide puzzles that are unlocked as you progress through each photo session. This gameplay loop is the same for each of the girls so I pretty much described the entire game in a few sentences. It is a pretty simple affair after all, but is there more to it?

Sure, a "board game"...

How was your week?

The short answer is: sort of. There is some variance to the four girls' personalities, Airi loves to travel, Hitomi is an e-girl who is probably the most forward of them all, and Ema and Keiko seem to often fall into conflict fighting for your attention. I'm sure no one is really here for the plot, but these girls don't really have storylines that are worth discussing in depth, they're simply a means to get them into various situations where their clothes just seem to come off over time. While you get to learn more about them, you'll never get beyond a surface level interaction and it all comes to you in dialogue that feels as if it was run through Google Translate. You do get progressively "closer" with each girl as the sessions go on, but this isn't a dating sim so don't expect much from that front. Will you have a favorite girl? Maybe, but not all the art is created equal and it's fair to say that each girl has one illustration that just feels "off". That said, Hitomi was my favorite by the end.

A first level puzzle.

The mid level puzzle.

Simple or not there are a few things to note. Each girl has three puzzles that get progressively more difficult as they go on, but the shuffling of each puzzle often is very light and done right in front of you. I quickly learned that if you pay attention to the initial shuffle you can just do the moves in reverse and complete it in seconds. There's also a level of RNG to these shuffles it seems as sometimes the slide puzzles would only have five or six tiles moved out of a total fifteen. Slide puzzles are hard to explain in writing, but I don't think anyone will have any real level of trouble here. The only annoying quirk with them being that you can only move one tile at a time. Your reward for doing all this? Some anime art that is sometimes hit or miss, and has that AI generated look to it. I'm not claiming that it is AI generated, but that is definitely the vibe you get here. Also, there is nothing to do outside of these scenes and puzzles. There is no gallery, no extra options, or anything else to do once you're done with the game.

This is the most "difficult", but with a bad shuffle.

Oh noes!

You have four girls and four shoots/sessions for each. You unlock them with the hearts you get from completing the previous ones, though this means you'll be doing going through them in a pre-determined order until the last round where you'll have enough hearts to jump around a bit. There is literally only one image per session no matter what the dialogue says is going on. If there's another character involved, you won't ever seem them. If your current girl is describing something happening, prepare to just imagine it. There's also no voice acting, but the girls do kind of "ooh" and "ahh" sometimes, but I can't say for sure that these aren't the exact same two or three sound effects for all the girls. Speaking of sound, there is only one track that I'm fairly positive is 30 seconds or less that is constantly looped and consists of a few random key presses and a static beat. There's a lot of presentation issues this game has, but I guess I shouldn't have come into it expecting all that much.

Pro Tip: Don't do this in Shibuya!

Something about this angle looks weird.

This wasn't a horrible experience, but it didn't really offer much to keep one's attention beyond wondering where it would be going next. Also, to answer the question I'm sure everyone has, this game does not have any nudity at all. Things get a little risqué, but don't go beyond what you'd see in a typical mainstream anime during a ubiquitous ecchi moment. I don't want to knock it for going this route, but I know for a fact that some of these types of games (though not this series apparently) do include some nudity. So don't think I'm holding anything back with the images I'm sharing for this review.

So there's no nudity, there's not a lot of fulfilling gameplay, and the presentation is barely there. How would I rate my overall experience with the game? Well, I didn't hate it. I don't want to say it was "fun", but I didn't regret my time with it. I've had far less fulfilling experiences with games that cost way more. And that's one of my biggest points, this game retails for $3.99 and the games in the series often go on sale for half of that. There's an hour or two of gameplay here at most, but you know what you're going to get and it comes at a very low price tag. If you've never experienced a game like this maybe you can just toss a couple dollars at it and get that urge out of your system. On the flip side you can just look up some ecchi anime images online and get most of what this game has to offer for free. In short, set your expectations accordingly and don't think that you're getting anything resembling a true gaming experience here if you do decide to pick this one up.

A normal day in New York.

Girl, we are in PUBLIC!

I don't know who Hentai Project is for, but I assume if you're someone whose ears perk up when hearing the term "hentai", then this is probably going to be something you'll want to pick up. There isn't much game here, and even if you are a fan of ecchi titles you'll probably be left wanting more. Then again it's a cheap game that offers an equally cheap experience. What more could you ask for? It just might be worth it for the lols, or if you're really into slide puzzles I guess, if you can get on sale. If you have an hour to burn, and a few dollars to waste, then perhaps pick this up. Everyone else though? This review might've been just as much content as you'd find in the game, so you're probably good too.

Check Out Hentai Project on Nintendo Switch:
https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/hentai-project-switch/

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Story: C-
Gameplay: D
Graphics: B
Music/Sound: C-
Value: C-

Overall: C-

Pros:
+ Gives you pretty much exactly what you expect from a game like this.
+ Pretty good art throughout.
+ Dialogue scenes are so ridiculous that they have a few laugh out loud moments.
+ A pretty chill experience overall.

Cons:
- I'm not claiming that the developers used AI art, but it has that "look" to it.
- The "music" consists of one very short repetitive track.
- Spoken dialogue could've really added to this otherwise mostly silent game.
- Entire game can be completed in an hour or so.
- Art never goes beyond risqué, which feels a bit off considering the title.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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Of course Hitomi is an e-girl.

#HentaiProject